Healthy Fast Food?

We rarely eat fast food in this house. Put that down to meanness, not liking the smell of the places that serve it, and preferring healthier options. That's not to say that I despise the foods that fall under the fast food umbrella (a brolly made of burgers then?). 

When the Dear Leader was in the Great Wen recently I took the opportunity of making myself some relatively healthy hot dogs with all the fixin's, as we say in deepest Fulwood. Of late I've been baking a lot of bread, so in that day's run I included two torpedo rolls that were still warm from the oven when the meal hit the table. They were adorned by a pile of fried red onions, made with a minimum of oil; a massive bowl of fresh-made coleslaw; and some very spicy chili beans. All told at least four of my 387 a day. Even the hot dogs were relatively healthy, some proper German frankfurters with 70% pork, bought from Waitrose (I am a great label reader - the best ones I could find in Sainsbury's last time there were less than half that meat content). 

It should have been a nicer meal than it was. That sort of food - for filling up and pigging out - needs to be eaten with friends or family, partly to slow down the gorging process with conversation. Cooking for yourself can be pleasure, but not that sort of cooking, if that makes sense. It ended up feeling rather sad, and I ended up feeling very bloated. Contrast that to a meal served up some time back (that I may have mentioned previously), made for the Dear Leader (may her foes writhe in torment) and Sternest Critic. 

The focal point of that meal was chicken not a million miles away from the KFC style, though mine was baked or roasted, depending on how you look at it. The breadcrumb coating mimicked the Colonel's formula (you can't go far wrong with lots of ground fennel seed, clearly the dominant flavour in the big-o-bucket). If memory serves it was also accompanied by lots of coleslaw, not one of those micro-containers you get with KFC. I will recall that meal with great pleasure; maybe it is the approval thing; maybe just sociability. The hot dogs, however accomplished in their way, were missing the ingredient of company; perhaps I felt guilty getting outside such a hefty feast. The next time the DL is absent I'll keep it a bit more sophisticated.

Walnuts are the New London Buses

A skim through my calorie counter book yielded a few surprises. Take for example walnuts, at 50 kcals for one large nut. Which means that a smallish grilled rump steak is just about equivalent to four of them. My wife is now cursing me, as walnuts have been a regular feature in her packed-lunch salads for years.

Four teaspoons of oil have the same calorific value as that steak/those nuts too. Weird.

The nice surprises (and the steak thing counts as one of those, let's look at and possibly through half full glasses) include water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, where a small can of each runs to a total of roughly 50 kcals (one walnut - now to calories what the London bus is to height, or the area of Wales to disappearing rainforests). And a generous portion of coleslaw made with light mayo is round about - yes, you guessed, a walnut of calories. I love coleslaw.

Mushrooms, another favourite, are deceptive. Just 13 kcals for 100g raw or boiled (I guess I've done that in stews, but never on their own), they shoot up to 157 when fried in oil.

Happily eggs are pretty austere on the calorie front, at about 80 when poached or boiled. Happily, as our four hens produce enough for cooking and for our breakfast every other day.

We refuse to use the dreaded D word and to go on one, so tonight's meal will be our usual Friday fare of steak for males and fish for the supreme leader. They will, however, be carefully cooked and served with super healthy stuff again: steamed French beans and mushrooms (done in a way yet to be decided, but microwave-steamed may work), steamed new spuds. With a salad to start our virtue will be assured. Then sod it, and glory be, a Magnum - it's the weekend, and the dear leader in particular deserves a treat - Magnum Classic being five walnuts of calories.

Ribs and More Ribs

Not sure if this really fits the austerity thing, but it is about a bargain - and a delicious one too.

Watching that compulsive-repulsive programme Man vs Food (I find it excellent, my wife takes a different viewpoint) I saw a way of cooking BBQ ribs that just had to be tried - steamed before baking. So I put a rack of ribs each in a roasting tray, rubbed them with a mix of ground spices - pepper, cumin, fennel and smoked paprika, plus some salt - added a glass of water, and put them in a low oven - 120C - for 2.5 hours. Then they were drained, had a tomato ketchup and spice sauce added, and baked at 200C for 25 minutes.

The flesh falls off the ribs, almost like jelly, with no loss of flavour. Best thing I've cooked, or eaten, in months. For three of us a pig-out ran to about £7, and with homemade coleslaw and a green salad we didn't feel too guilty. Indeed, I guess a lot of the fat comes out of the ribs in the steaming time. Will definitely try this with the finishing cooking done on the barbie when we get (if we get) some decent summer weather. Meanwhile, it is what I have planned for this Thursday's evening meal.

Now all I have to do is find out how the US BBQ joints do that brisket that falls apart.