Fifty-Plus News - Pastiche with Virginia Hill

Fit food
with Virginia Hill

Some years ago I spent an evening with the young players of the Collingwood Footy Club, teaching some cooking basics for their survival skills off the field and it left me wondering why, after 30 years of women’s liberation, mothers had failed to teach their offspring how to be involved with food in any way, except to eat it and often too much!
This lack of first-hand learning has led to two generations of Australians who cannot cook, simply because they don’t know simple cooking techniques and rarely buy raw ingredients, despite the diversity of produce in supermarkets. Paradoxically, men have always dominated cooking in the public domain but, beyond the barbecue, men and many women do not know how cooking works and are often intimidated by the recipe writers and the magazine glamour of food styling.
As one of my older colleagues remarked, "I’ve gone from Hell’s kitchen to a dream kitchen and I still can’t cook anything much because recipes are so rigid and don’t use words like toss, shake and stir. Let’s face it, what does ‘cook until done’ actually mean?"
After Christmas in Canberra watching the parade of obese Australians young and old, I have come to the conclusion that to keep fit, eating at home is the safest place. In your own kitchen you can actually supervise the ingredients you choose to use in your daily menus from recipes that fit your dietary requirements.
Recipes are a starting point; they are not prescriptions. Check out what food you have on hand, what you can make from it, plus the seasonality of fresh food so it is available and cheap. Taste the food while you are cooking and then adjust it to your personal taste – a liberating experience that should encourage you to move on the ‘short order ideas’ such as tossing strips of ready to barbecue chicken through a can of chopped tomatoes, adding olives to generate a speedy sauce for cooked pasta.
Dining in is to be respected in an era when more than a quarter of a household’s weekly food budget is spent on eating outside home, emulating Americans’ fast food choices and the inevitable obesity that follows.
Eating together informally or formally is important for social wellbeing, enjoyment, conversation and socialising with your family and friends or business associates. Here are some suggestions to help you cut back on the fat in your diet and keep your weight in check without engaging in an unworkable health regime.
• Use non-stick cookware. There are some excellent quality frypans and saucepans available in supermarkets. They hold the heat well and clean easily and need little or not fat.
• Read food labels carefully. Light may not mean low fat. Limit any commercially prepared food where fat is included as one of the first three in the list of ingredients on the label.
• Use an oil spray where possible and heat a small amount of oil in a pan before adding ingredients as hot oil is thinner and will go further.
• Marinades do not have to contain oil, and will increase the flavours of skinless chicken, fish and meat.
• Make oil free dressing by combining vinegar and your favourite mustards. Turn yoghurt into a light mayonnaise by adding some mayonnaise and a pinch of curry powder.
• Keep some low fat dairy products on hand for day to day healthier choices; for instance Nestle now have reduced fat cream, in 250ml cans, which can be lightly flavoured for summer fruits and berries.
• Keep popping corn on hand for healthy snacking as it can be speedily cooked in the microwave oven fat free: place a quarter of a cup of corn in an oven bag with a sprinkling of water, secure the bag with a rubber band and cook on HIGH (100%) for 3–4 minutes.
Whether through necessity or desire you need to cook, view it as an opportunity to be flamboyant and fit, while de-stressing the daily disciplined grind, and remember George Meredith’s observation of 1859 – "kissing don’t last; cookery do".

Garlic Chilli Prawn Entrée Serves 4
quarter cup oil,
4 garlic cloves
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
500g medium sized green prawns, peeled & de-veined
1 tbs chopped coriander
Place the oil in a 20 cm round Pyrex pie plate and cook, uncovered on High (100%) for 1 minute. Add the garlic and chilli and cook uncovered on High (100%) for 1 minute, stirring halfway through cooking time.
Arrange prawns on top, with tails facing the centre and cook uncovered, on MED HIGH (70-80%) for 3 and a half minutes, turning them over halfway through cooking time. Stir in coriander.
Serve with lime wedges over Chang's cooked long life noodles, laced with coriander.
Tip: Cooking shellfish in the microwave keeps the kitchen odour free.

Chicken Balls with Gnocchi & Tomato Serves 2
200g lean chicken mince
2 tsp bread crumbs
1 tbs plum sauce
1 tbs fresh basil chopped
1 x 55g egg
half cup flour
350 ml of your favourite tomato pasta sauce, extra tablespoon fresh basil for seasoning
1 (625g) pack of gnocchi cooked conventionally
Shaved parmesan
Combine the first five ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Place a sheet of foil on the bench and sprinkle with flour, Roll the poultry mixture in the flour and shape into 10 walnut sized balls.
Place the chicken balls in a microwave safe container and cook uncovered on HIGH for 2 minutes.
Add the pasta sauce and basil. Cover and cook on HIGH (100 percent) 4 - 5 minutes to Heat through. Serve over cooked gnocchi and top with parmesan.
Tip: Chicken cooked in the microwave is cooked successfully without fat, so is excellent for waist watching.

Summer Fruit Compote Serves 4
3 Pink Lady Apples, peeled, cored & chopped into 2.5 cm cubes
Juice of a fresh lemon to sprinkle over apples to prevent discolouration
2 nectarines & 2 plums halved, pitted and quartered
225g fresh cherries , pitted
quarter cup caster sugar
half cup water
1 tsp of rosewater
Arrange apples around the outside edge of 28 cm round Pyrex pie plate. Place nectarines and plums inside apples and place cherries in the centre of the dish. Mix together remaining ingredients and pour over fruit. Cover with plastic wrap and cook on HIGH (100 percent) for 5 minutes. Uncover and serve warm or chilled with Yoghurt.
Tip: Use pears in place of apples for a change

• Contact Virginia Hill at her Cooking Centre, 10c Cromwell Rd, South Yarra, Victoria, 3141 for copies of ‘Zap to the Max’, $19.95 plus $5 delivery charge. All enquiries phone 03 9804 7235, fax 03 9804 7489. Email, virginiahill@i.net.au or visit her website www.virginiahill.com.au