What Is Healthy Food?

WHAT IS HEALTHY FOOD

When I spoke, about the Primal and Paleo diets in my last article, I promised to dedicate my next article on the same subject. I concluded that it all comes down to having a healthy and balanced diet, with moderate portioning and home cooked, not readily bought food off the shelf.

In ancient times, people had to do with what they found or bagged in their surrounding areas. I am a very practical person, if I may say so and when I try to imagine how life would have been those days, I see somebody wake up in the morning with a hungry feeling in his stomach, so what to do now.

He or she is going to look for something to do away with that feeling and without a refrigerator filled with what not, I imagine that instead of killing and eating one of the ‘cave mates’, a less emotional measure would be to look for some animal to catch instead.

If there were only a few people, one bird, rabbit or something small would do. Later when more people were existent, more prey was needed, or more food for that matter. Humans taught themselves and each other better ways to stay alive. I do understand that wheat and grains were not available but plants were in abundance and our cave man friends must have eaten some of them. Development has therefore always been a part of life.

                                   

Development that has led to bad, better and good products as we know them today. 

Our way of eating healthy food should also be like that of the cave man, go to your local market and find produce that suits you. 

Cook it yourself and avoid processed foods that contain loads of sugar, preservatives and other artificial coloring and flavoring. You do not need them.

My definition of healthy food: home cooked, fresh ingredients, moderate portioning.

The introduction of processed foods and convenience products has led to us buying those foods for the obvious reason of convenience. 

Fast food arrived and was popularized as being quick and convenient. This was a disastrous development. Millions of people are addicted to fast food. Even the fact that fast food is being described as the heroin of the modern generation still does not stop people from consuming fast food.

I saw this guy who weighed 543 pounds. He went through a gruesome weight loss program lasting one full year.  With all his dedication he lost half of his weight, awesome right, BUT, he takes the bus home from work to avoid the temptation of passing by a fast food joint and not being able to resist and stop if he drives his own car. Wow. Is that fast food addiction, or is it me?

Many of us have products of the processed food category on our kitchen counters or in the pantry. Ketchup (sugar), bottled pasta sauce (sugar), chips (sugar, salt), cookies (sugar), soy sauce (salt) and the list goes on. Store bought bread has at least 12 added chemicals to keep it “fresh” longer. All preserved meats and seafood, smoked or not, contain salt and sugar. To make these products, bacon and smoked fish and so on, they are brined or dry salted, both methods contain salt and sugar. Sugar is used for color after smoking and salt to preserve the meat or fish. 

I do not think that you have to omit some of those products completely but rethink if they are your daily diet.  

You may think, but it is easy, convenient, grab a packet, stuff it in the microwave and I am done.

Well if you wish to place yourself in that category, good luck. 

If you wish to eat healthier, read on.

A vacuum sealer is a great tool to help you, keep your foods fresh, semi or half cooked, raw and fully cooked, saving money and giving you peace of mind by knowing what you eat, because you cooked it yourself. 

Portioning of food and the balance of ingredients are another great money saver.

I mean, four slices of bacon, with three fried eggs, a scoop of baked beans and a few slices of toast. Do you really need that every morning?   

Portioning of food is perception!!

This is not my wisdom but scientifically proven. Your brain tells you via vision, (you looking at your plate) when your stomach is full or satisfied. By using a smaller plate and with that obviously a smaller portion, you will have the same ‘I am full’ feeling than you have by using a bigger plate and a bigger portion.  

Observe a well balanced mix on a plate. I fully agree that 40% protein, 40% vegetables and 20% carbohydrates is a good mix but ensure that your cooking method points at the vegetables and protein. The carbohydrates are then eaten last and less, this is better for you as the carbohydrates take longer to digest and the nutrients of the protein and vegetables are the first to be absorbed in the blood stream. 

Some tips as promised to help you reduce cost. 

Healthy food does not have to be expensive by default.

Tip 1:

Do not throw any of your purchased food away. When pre-preparing the vegetables you just bought for vacuum sealing and storage, you will have some end pieces or root pieces. Carrots, celery, leeks, coriander and so on, these roots are more flavorsome than the parts you cook to eat. 

Prepare a mix of those root pieces and vacuum seal them. They are great to use in stocks and as a base when you cook a roast. They stay healthy for at least a week in your refrigerator and you can freeze them also if you like.

Tip 2:

Watch for cheaper cuts of meat and fish, instead of lamb leg or lamb chops, use lamb shoulder, de-boned rolled up lamb shoulder makes a great roast. Same thing goes for pork shoulder. Slice thinly when it is cold, portion, vacuum seal and you have a great cold cut for sandwiches, salads, or a cold platter dish for a weekend lunch.

Pork trotter is such a much undervalued cut of pork meat. But a piece of meat that is really lovely to eat.

Try this simple recipe,

4 Nos Pork trotters

1 Nos Roughly chopped medium onion

1 Nos Red chilly

3 Cloves Garlic

1 Bunch Garlic (cut in half)

4 Stalks Coriander root, keep the leaves for later

½ Cup  Vegetable oil

1 Bag Of your own earlier prepared vegetable roots

1 Stalk Rosemary

2 Tbsp Butter

2 Tbsp Vegetable oil

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 325 F.

Prepare a marinade of the onion, cloves of garlic, chilly and coriander stalks by placing them in a blender and blending them fine, while blending, add the oil.

Season the pork trotters with the marinade and salt and pepper.

Place your own vegetable roots on the bottom of a baking tray with the garlic bunch, add the rosemary and the butter and vegetable oil. If there are no onion pieces in your vegetable root mix, add some.

Place the trotters on top, roast in your oven for 2 ½ hours or so, depending a bit on the trotter size.

After the roasting time the meat will come off the bone and is lovely, flavorful and great tasting.

Remove the trotters from the tray, add 2 Tbsp of flour to the tray with all the vegetables and mix well, add 1 Cup of stock and simmer for 5 minutes.

Press all this through a sieve, rest for a minute or so, you can now scoop of excess fat easily as it will float on the top.

Serve the trotters as they are or remove the meat and serve with the gravy and garnish of your choice. 

Vacuum seal and chill or freeze.

Enjoy !!

http://vacupack.com/vacuum-sealers-home-style/vacupack-vacuum-sealer/vacupack-elite-vacuum-sealer-home-unit.html

Here is another tip,

If you find that one whole bunch of garlic is a bit too much for your gravy, remove it before you add the flour.

Cool the garlic until you can handle it and press the flesh out.

Mix the garlic with some butter, finely chopped onion, some finely sliced coriander root, salt, pepper and a bit of oil. 

This makes great roasted garlic butter, roll it into a sausage shape, vacuum seal, and freeze.

Flavored butter like this works great on all sorts of meat and also seafood.

Any questions? Please ask and I will be happy to help wherever needed.   

Written for PMG by:

Professional Chef Marinus Hoogendoorn 

Culinary expert in recipe development.  

www.vacupack.com
1-800-227-3769

CHEF TALK, Part 2

CHEF TALK

FROM ME TO YOU

My aim in CHEF TALK is to share some of my cooking experiences with you and to provide insight and ideas as to how and what to do when choosing products you may not be too familiar with and also how to work recipes.

With that in mind I will also explain how to make best use of a vacuum sealer.

Many home cooks often see a recipe that looks fantastic, appetizing, delicious, and has a pretty picture and decide to cook that to surprise the family.

I also try to surprise the family when I cook. Then the most exciting part of cooking is to see happy faces around the dinner table. Besides getting the results you desire of course.

Finding a recipe is easy, finding a good recipe is another story. The same goes for reading recipes which require a decent knowledge of cooking.

Some people only need the idea, which a nice picture often provides, but most of us will still need the ‘how much of this and how much of that’ part.

It can be quite tough however to see or read from a recipe (if you are on the right track, replacing parts of the recipe or omitting ingredients). Stacks of recipes from the internet are not workable, many are good, no denial, but which is which.

What do you do with leftovers if the quantities given are too large?  

Best is to start with an example and work through that recipe.

I love crackling pork. Millions of people love crackling pork, the sound alone makes your mouth water.

Crackling pork is a must have meat dish to have on a regular basis especially for Australian and British meat lovers. 

FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT, CHOOSE THE RIGHT CUT OF MEAT:

There are basically two types of crackling pork, one made from bone-in cuts, like pork loins with ribs and whole pork shoulders, the other one made from bone-less cuts of meat, like pork belly or pork loins without ribs.

Choose the cut of meat that suits your family best but make sure that your cut of meat has the skin intact.

In order to get that lovely ‘crackling’ effect, you need to score the skin of the meat, preferably vertically in one direction and about the size of a finger apart from each other.

This type of scoring makes it easy to slice the meat after cooking, because you can follow the score lines and is essential to get the crackling right.

Pork skin is pretty tough and you will need a really sharp knife to achieve good scoring, make sure that only the skin is cut, the scoring should not go all the way through and reach the lean meat.

A Stanley knife works well. Another good tool is your butcher, he will be pleased to help you out. It is a good idea also to tell your butcher how you want your cut of meat.  

Now you have the right cut of meat and you are almost there.

You only need to cook it. Sounds simple and it is, because you started on the right foot.

The recipe for crackling pork is maybe the simplest you have ever seen.

It is comprised of the scored cut of meat and crushed rock salt. That’s all.

Next pressure points to look at are your oven temperature and the cooking time.

Rub crushed rock salt on the skin side of the meat. Make sure the salt penetrates the score lines. 

When you do this, the salt extracts moisture from the fat under the skin and the fat will start bubbling around the whole piece of meat.

You can rub the salt a day before cooking, but that is an option not a necessity.

TIMING:

Your cooking time should be: 35 minutes per pound of bone-in meat.

25 minutes per pound of bone-less meat.

NOW THE CRUCIAL PART:

Pre-heat your oven to 400 F or 240-250 Celsius. You need this heat to get the crackling going.

Place the meat on an oven tray and position the tray in the center of your oven, allow roasting for about 30 to 35 minutes.

You should now see that the skin is getting blisters. When that is the case, lower the heat to 325 to 350 F or 180 to 200 Celsius and continue roasting as per the given time.

Likely your piece of meat will be about 1 ½ to 2 kilos, if your meat is boneless you need 1 hour to an hour and a half of total cooking time.

Check with a meat thermometer to be sure that the roast is cooked. The thermometer should point at 170 F or 74 Celsius. 

Remove from the oven and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes.

Slice and serve.

To accompany the roast, choose roast potatoes, garden vegetables and apple sauce.

What you have achieved is a great dish, because you had: 

The right recipe

The right preparation

The right cooking method

NOW THE VACUUM PACKING PART:

http://vacupack.com/vacuum-sealers-home-style/vacupack-vacuum-sealer/vacupack-elite-vacuum-sealer-home-unit.html






From a good butcher you will get the best cut of meat you are looking for but you may not use the meat the same day you purchase it.

If so, vacuum seal the meat and it will stay in perfect condition, up to 4–5 days chilled.  If you need to keep it longer, vacuum seal and freeze  it and it will stay in perfect condition for at least 3-4 months.

I mentioned earlier that your piece of meat will likely be 1 ½ to 2 kilos so it may well be that you have some balance.

If so, let the roasted meat cool through completely, best overnight, slice it (without the skin) as thin as you possibly can.

Portion the slices and vacuum seal in smaller vacuum bags, the roasted meat becomes an extraordinary sandwich filling. You can store the sliced roasted meat chilled and keep up to two weeks.

Use your vacuum sealer for raw/fresh produce but also for cooked produce. 

Ensure that you work clean. Good hygiene lengthens storage time and product freshness significantly.

Enjoy the ‘Crackling Pork’ !! 

Written for PMG

By (Professional Chef) Marinus Hoogendoorn 

Culinary expert in recipe development.  

www.vacupack.com

1-800-227-3769