Food

On the low-fat menu: Eat whole grains, stay full

Shedding a few pounds often boils down to doing battle with hunger. If you want to win, whole grains make great allies. Besides having more complex flavors than their processed counterparts, whole grains also are rich in healthy nutrients and dietary fiber.

U.S. author highlights Irish food and culture

Colman Andrews is such a gifted writer he can make Irish cooking not only sound delicious but also seem exciting, even newsworthy. That hasn’t happened since the first potato landed on those green shores all those centuries ago. His book, “The Country Cooking of Ireland” (Chronicle, $50), is more than a collection of recipes. Andrews captures the Irish spirit by writing about everything from ancient fables to of-the-minute consumer trends. You really sense the people behind the recipes. Andrews, co-founder of the esteemed Saveur magazine, expertly weaves broad observations of Irish culture with illuminating quotes and amusingly quirky details. (Che Guevara descended from one of the “tribes” of Galway.) Of Irish stock himself, Andrews can trace his father’s side back to counties Tyrone and Donegal. Andrews presents 225 clearly written recipes ranging from brotchan foltchep, an ancient recipe for leek and oatmeal soup, to corned beef (it’s really Irish, he insists) and colcannon, to a smoked eel tempura and wok-smoked salmon. His recipe sources range from 18th century manuscripts to the menus of hotels and restaurants across today’s Ireland. Reading this book, you can see why salmon merits its own chapter as the “magical fish” while potatoes get their due as the “definitive food.”

Desserts with an Irish twist — easy to make

Icebox cakes nowadays are versions of old favorites. They’ve been devoured for decades and really are easy to make. The simple Chocolate Icebox Cake featured today got rave reviews from tasters and readers of the Detroit Free Press. In fact, a reader e-mailed to say that an icebox cake “was the only thing my mother would let me make in the kitchen. Thanks for the memories.”

Which vegetables have lots of protein?

Q: I’m cutting back on red meat and pork. Which vegetables are high in protein? A: Getting enough protein in your diet from non-meat sources isn’t difficult as long as you eat a varied diet. Almost all vegetables, beans, grains, nuts and seeds have some protein, although the amount varies widely. Generally, most Americans get about 15 percent of their calories from protein. For someone who eats 2,000 calories a day, that would be about 75 grams.

Vegetarian’s plunge into meat locker

Vegans, fruitarians, flexitarians — we’re all familiar with the labels. But what happens when a lifelong vegetarian is forced to go over to the dark side? Health issues prompted Tara Austen Weaver’s holistic doctor to suggest that her hummus-loving patient eat some, shhh, chicken — or maybe a steak. The resulting plunge into the world of butchers, bacon and chicken stock brought Weaver, a San Francisco food writer, back to balance and health.

Author of gluten-free cookbook introduces mixes

WENATCHEE — Quincy food writer Susan Gauen, author of “Celebrating Food: 121 Gluten-Free Recipes for a Healthier You,” introduces a line of GF baking mixes in a March 17 appearance at Wenatchee Natural Foods, 222 N. Wenatchee Ave. Gauen will be at the store from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

On the low-fat menu: Try savory squash stew

You can’t judge a book by its cover. But vegetables are another story: The more vibrant the flesh, the more nutrients it contains. For instance, orange-hued winter squash are naturally chock-full of beta-carotene, fiber, magnesium and potassium.

Want some crunch to your salad?

Choose romaine, the growing trend in modern times

Alot of times when food writers praise an old-fashioned ingredient such as romaine lettuce, they do it with a nod and a wink and more than a hint of condescension, like fashion critics chortling when a Parisian couture house sends its models out dressed in gingham and lace — “Oh, how very droll!” Not me. If food is good, it’s good and fashion be damned. And romaine is good.

Frigid winter is bad news for tomato lovers

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A frigid Florida winter is taking its toll on your sandwich. The Sunshine State is the main U.S. source for fresh winter tomatoes, and its growers lost some 70 percent of their crop during January’s prolonged cold snap. An unusually cold January in Florida destroyed entire fields of tomatoes — along with some green beans, sweet corn and squash.

Pad Thai: a traditional dish you can make at home

Pad Thai is a classic that hits on all taste levels. It’s sweet, sour, salty and bitter all in one. Making it at home takes a little effort, but once you do, it will become part of your repertoire. You can experiment, as I did, with different ingredient combinations and learn to adjust the sauce to your own taste. A traditional pad Thai dish — pad is Thai for stir-fry — consists of rice noodles, tofu, shrimp, crushed peanuts, fish sauce, bean sprouts, eggs, garlic and chiles. But you can substitute chicken or pork for the tofu and shrimp or use a variety. The sauce in today’s recipe is adapted from a pad Thai recipe at www.food network.com.

On the low-fat menu: Add spice, use a marinade

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts can almost always benefit from a marinade, which imparts both moisture and flavor. Most marinades are made from a combination of oil and an acidic ingredient, such as citrus juice, vinegar or wine. The marinade for this broiled spicy saffron chicken has nonfat plain yogurt (which is acidic) as its base and only a tablespoon of olive oil.

Hash happiness

A tribute to Mary Kitchen's canned corned beef

Like many divine personalities, Mary Kitchen has a past shrouded in mystery. No one really knows if the goddess of corned beef hash is based on a real person or not, and why the name was chosen. Though Hormel Foods is marking the 61st anniversary of the brand in 2010, it’s likely we’ll never know for sure. Still, I have unabashedly adored Mary Kitchen with a passion many reserve for real flesh-and-blood cooks. That’s because her hash makes me happy.

Local food in schools; healthier kids and healthier farms

WENATCHEE — The goal of Thursday’s Farm to Food Forum was simple: Bring farmers together with school cafeteria managers to chew on a tasty idea. The idea: Use locally grown food in school lunchrooms to improve local health and economies. Kids need healthier diets to control increasing rates of obesity. Farmers need community support to sustain their small farms. Two big problems. One simple solution. What can be wrong with that?

On the low-fat menu: Orange juice adds flavor, not calories to these cupcakes

Though cupcakes are by definition a portion-controlled dessert, don’t let their diminutive size fool you. It’s not at all unusual for a cupcake recipe to include a cup or more of butter. And that’s before you even start making the frosting. However, with a couple of tweaks you can make a cupcake that’s a bit lighter and healthier.

‘The Flavors of Asia’ cookbook: Traveling Asia via its cuisine

What it is: Seven Asian countries — China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — star in this large, handsome cookbook assembled by California restaurateur Mai Pham on behalf of the Culinary Institute of America. Praise and quibbles: This work is the second cookbook spawned by a “World of Flavors” conference sponsored by the institute in 2007. You’ll find 125 recipes from 40 top chefs and food figures from around the world. Essays offer the essentials about each cuisine and important food staples. Recipes are clear and well-written, but you have to know the basics of Asian cooking — how to toast spices, for example — to use this book most effectively.