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Cutting calories without cutting taste

Blog: Winemaker's Journal

February 4, 2010

I enjoyed a couple of terrific low-cal, high protein meals in the past week that didn't strain the waistline or the budget.

One dish featured Atlantic salmon on sale at Albertson's for $5.99 a pound. I used a pounded chicken breast out of my freezer for the other. I buy a couple pounds when they're on sale for $2 a pound. Both dishes were easy to fix and fantastic with a very nice bottle of a viognier and roussanne blend I found at Grocery Outlet for $2.99. Really.

I've found that it's easy to omit the carbs when cooking dishes like this with fresh vegetables as a side. So, no potato or pasta. A side of steamed rice or piece of crusty French bread will do if you must have more.

Here's how I cooked the salmon. We'll save the chicken recipe for tomorrow.

The salmon was sauteed with strips of yellow bell pepper in a tablespoon of olive oil. Six ounces of fish per serving is plenty. Cook about two minutes on each side on medium heat. I took the fillet out of the pan at that point and put it aside on a plate. The sliced bell pepper can stay in the sauté pan, to which I added a chopped scallion and a minced clove of garlic.

After a couple minutes, I added a couple ounces of white wine (fish or chicken stock is also good here) and two tablespoons from a jar of Thai Kitchen green curry paste, something I keep handy in my refrigerator. I let this reduce for a minute or two and then put the fish back in. A little more of the curry paste from the bottle was slathered on top, along with a healthy squeeze of lime and some chopped fresh cilantro. I placed a lid on the pan and cooked it for another coupe minutes, until the fish began to flake, but was still slightly transparent in the middle. Don't overcook salmon or you'll ruin it.

Lay the fish back on the plate and spoon on the sauce and yellow bell peppers and a little more cilantro. My dinner partner made a great green salad to go with this. Bon appetit!!

I've cooked a similar dish using mustard in place of the curry sauce. Not French's. A good Dijon or something exotic like honey mustard or cranberry mustard. Cod, bass or another rich, sturdy fish is also good for this recipe.

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joanne 2 years ago

Cutting calories without cutting taste

Wow. Sounds good, but with that Thai green curry paste I would have had a Riesling--probably Chat. Ste. Michelle's Dry Riesling, for price. All that heat needs a little sweetness for balance. As for the Serience at G.O....it is a great buy at $2.99 and was a big award-winning wine at the 2005 San Diego Wine Competition. We use that curry paste and found the last jar to be a lot less hot than previous ones. Have you noticed any difference?

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