Page 52 - January Phonebox Magazine 2012

Phonebox Foodie
Diet Friendly Restaurant Food
Eating out and dieting. Hmmm, not a good starting point for a Foodie article. How does a lovely buttery sauce fit into that? Or big fat, crispy chips? The reason we eat out, I hope, is to enjoy ourselves and our food – to savour the flavour and to hell with the consequences. If food is just fuel, then let’s stay at home. Consider the humble chicken. Skinless and grilled it’s probably as healthy as you can get. But does it taste good? Here is what Nigel Slater has to say on the subject:
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“Only a fool would cook a chicken devoid of its golden skin, basted with oil or butter or both. Roasted, grilled or cooked in shallow butter, the skin crisps, bulging and glistening in the heat. Seasoned with a little too much salt and a squeeze of lemon or a spoonful of the cooking juices, the skin of the chicken is almost as good to eat as its flesh. Sod the skinless chicken breast imprisoned on its blue polystyrene tray. Chicken for those who don’t really like chicken.”
Never the less, if my editor wants a Healthy Eating Foodie article, then that is what he shall get! So I put a call out to our local establishments to see what they are doing this January to save your waistline.
The Red Lion in Bozeat: “Each Tuesday in January our Chef's Recommendations Board will include low calorie dishes and will include meals suitable for those following Weightwatchers or Slimming World. We plan to include a low calorie starter, three mains (one suitable for Weightwatchers and two for Slimming World (one Red and one Green))
The Bell and Bear, Emberton. Jon, the chef and owner, arranged a
special low fat, low calorie menu option last January. His customers thought it was a great idea and were very complimentary of the menu selection. But never-the-less everyone ordered from his standard menu. Clearly it sounded too good! So this year it is the full fat option only at the Bell and Bear! However, everything is cooked to order at this pub, so the chef will happily amend any dish to make it as healthy
as possible. Or ring up the day before to get something specially created.
Tapas y Pintxos, Olney – perfect choice for dieters. You can eat as much or as little as you like, and you can completely avoid carbohydrate. Although it’ll take some willpower to resist their bread and garlic mayonnaise!
The Golden Rule
I’m lucky enough to be able to enjoy eating out often. I love my food, and I like to accompany it with a bottle or two of wine. My golden rule is simply to stop
eating when you feel full. Even the most delicious plate you have
ever tasted. For more ideas about how to enjoy your
restaurant food without piling
on the pounds, turn to page 55 for Clare Gott’s tips.
ask for changes
to what you
order. Decent
restaurants will
do what they can
to please you.
For instance, if your dish comes with a sauce or dressing, ask for it to be served on the side so you can use it sparingly. Ask any visible fat to be removed from a beef/gammon steak before it’s cooked. If you can’t resist chicken skin, also ask for that to be removed. If you are hungry and can’t find anything suitable in the mains, ask for a low fat starter to be made bigger, or a main to be made into a smaller portion.” More from Sam on page 15.
new year new you
and a low calorie dessert. Our Main menu will continue to offer plenty to those who don't need to diet or who have ditched their New
Year’s Resolution already!”
Phonebox Foodie’s Top Tip: The Red Lion serves small portions of all their dishes – good for the muffin top and
the pocket.
like your comment: Do not worry about the fat content, fat is healthy – because that means we can all enjoy Nigel Slater’s chicken skin!
This article was inspired by Clare Gott’s ‘Rules to Healthy Restaurant Eating’ on page 55.
The Swan Inn & Bistro. Bar
lady Sam, specialises in helping
her clients lose weight and keep it off. So she is ideally placed to advise on the Swan’s menu. She suggests Pan seared sea bass served with roasted cherry tomatoes, basil pesto and fresh veg – to make it even leaner, ask without the pesto. Sam also says “Don’t be afraid to
Thanks Clare, your article inspired this one. I particularly
52 Phonebox Magazine
Because we can’t be good ALL the time:
Chocolate &
Banana
Cake
(and anyway the banana counts as one of your five a day!)
Ingredients
100ml sunflower oil, plus extra to grease 175g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
half tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tbsp cocoa powder
100g chocolate chips or chunks 175g very ripe bananas
3 medium eggs, 2 separated 50ml milk
For the topping
100g milk chocolate
100ml soured cream
handful dried banana chips, roughly chopped
Method
Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment (allow it to come 2cm above top of tin). Mix the sugar, flour, bicarb, cocoa and chocolate in a large bowl.
Mash the bananas in a bowl and stir in the whole egg plus 2 yolks, followed by the oil and milk. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Quickly stir the wet banana mixture into the dry ingredients, stir in a quarter of the egg whites to loosen the mixture, then gently fold in the rest. Gently scrape into the tin and bake for 1 hr 10-15 mins, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Cool in the tin on a wire rack. To make the icing, melt the chocolate and soured cream together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Chill in the fridge until spreadable. Remove cake from tin, roughly swirl icing over and scatter with the banana chips.
Nutritional info
Per serving: 502 kcalories, protein 7g, carbohydrate 63g, fat 27g, saturated fat 9g, fibre 2g, sugar 43g, salt 0.51g
Recipe from bbcgoodfood.com