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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Paula Deen and my fatness rant

January 18, 2012 by Mary Frances 9 Comments

Ok, I have to get on my soapbox now. Paula Deen has Type 2 diabetes!!! Duh!!! Are you kidding me? I mean, really, you are what you eat and if she’s surprised after eating all the butter, cream cheese, fried food and sugar she eats, she’s nuts. And believe me, I’ve spent a lot of time in the South. Southern cooking is not all that, or just that.

First of all, the fact that she hid it from her audience and fans  for three years is despicable. She had to get all her ducks in a row with whatever diabetes drug she decided to take, make the deal to negotiate to endorse it, and get the money from them. This is incredible! I think she is scum. (I won’t hold back.)

I have always told my children, look at the chef whose recipes you’re making. James Beard’s recipes were always loaded with butter, cream, mayo and everything fattening. He was huge. His recipes were incredibly tasty and frankly, not all of them were fattening. In fact, I still use his Canadian method for cooking fish as a standard.

Never to put her name in the same category as James Beard, as she is not a chef, I was watching Rachel Ray two weeks ago while making dinner with one of my sons. She was promoting four weeknight dinners with pork, each dinner for four people had a full stick of butter!!! That’s ridiculous. That’s two tablespoons of butter per person, per day, not counting the fats from the sausages and other cuts of meat, because she doesn’t drain the fat. Look at Nigella Lawson – I love her personality and I like a lot of her recipes – but you can’t eat like that all the time. Maybe just a few times a year. I splurged with Bobby Flay’s Nacho Burgers I made two weeks ago.

Now Melissa Clark and Mark Bittmann, they are both average-sized, slim people and their recipes speak to it. The article in The Times today talked about all the butter used in Michelin star restaurants like Bouley. But you don’t eat at Bouley but maybe once a year for a special occasion – at least for me – and these people – Paula and Rachel are encouraging folks to eat like this every night of the week. It’s absurd! And by the way, Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Per Se is mighty thin, as the portions at his restaurants are small too. All of his dishes are just one or two bites. Chef Anthony Bourdain said that Paula Deen’s fatty food made her “the worst, most dangerous person” on the Food Network. It’s true, because she’s got all of America listening to her.

I even try to use less oil whenever possible. And I do love my olive oil. But if a meat recipe that calls for browning, calls for three tablespoons of olive oil, I try to do it with two. I even have a recipe for four chicken breasts that calls for one teaspoon of olive oil to brown the skin side, and believe me, it works!

Take a look at the line up of people waiting to get in to Paula Deen’s restaurant. You’re not surprised, are you?

Deen

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: (Anthony Bourdain, Bobby Flay, Bouley, Canadian method, Chinese herbs, James Beard, Mark Bittmann, Melissa Clack, Michelin stars, Nigella Lawson, Paula Deen, Per Se, Rachel Ray, Southern cooking, The French Laundry, Thomas Keller, Type 2 diabetes

Dinner in 30 minutes – REALLY!

October 12, 2011 by Mary Frances 3 Comments

This is no Rachel Ray joke!

We arrive home very late on Columbus Day, having had business meetings upstate in Hudson.

I know I have broccoli rabe at home in Manhattan. I grab a pack of frozen sausage from the country house and do not put in it in a cool pack for the ride home so it will thaw. I will make pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage. However it is a mild Italian chicken sausage, BUT I have just picked a very hot serrano pepper from my garden!

Everyone is starved as we walk in the door at 8:30. I put all the other groceries away and get to work a little before nine.  How can I get dinner on the table quick? I ask for help from Zach’s girlfriend, Agata, and she does a beautiful job peeling and slicing the 6 large garlic cloves. And I continue with the neatest thing being using the broccoli rabe near boiling water to bring to a rolling boil to cook the pasta. It also flavored the pasta as well. Dinner was on the table at 9:23, served with a lovely bottle of red wine for the four of us and it was a feast! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. My husband said this was the very best version of this dish I have ever made! And, it has the magical pancetta in it to give it the big full flavor. Here goes.

Pasta with broccoli rabe and chicken sausage in a bowl.

PASTA WITH BROCCOLI RABE AND CHICKEN SAUSAGE
1/4 cup olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, pealed and sliced
1 serrano chili pepper minced, with seeds (remove seeds if you do not like things hot)
1 3/8” thick slice pf pancetta, cut into small dice
1 bunch broccoli rabe, washed and cut into 2” pieces
1 -11/4 lb. mild Italian chicken sausage, removed from casing and broken up into small chunks
1 lb linguini – No. 6
3 tbs. pasta water
2 oz. grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Peel and slice the garlic cloves. Mince the pepper. Warm the olive oil with the garlic, hot pepper and pancetta on low heat for 10 – 12 minutes in a large skillet while you’re cleaning the broccoli rabe. Trim the ends of the broccoli rabe and cut into  2” pieces, Wash thoroughly, twice. Put in a large pot, cover with at least 2” of cold water. Salt with coarse sea salt. Put on very high heat. When bubbles start to form on the edges of the pot, lift the broccoli rabe out with a hand mesh strainer or slotted spoon and drain in a colander. This partially cooks the rabe and removes the bitterness. You are saving the water to cook your pasta in. Raise heat on garlic mixture to medium, add your sausage and sauté until all pink is gone. Taste for salt and pepper but remember, the Pecorino is salty and that gets put in at the end. Meanwhile, bring the broccolli rabe water to a rolling boil and cook your pasta. Add drained broccolli rabe to sausage mixture and toss the combination. Save some pasta water and drain the pasta when done. I find it best to combine all in layers. Put 1/3 pasta in a bowl with 1/3 sausage rabe mixture and  1/3 cheese and 1 TBS. pasta water, toss to combine and continue with thirds and toss. Serve with more cheese if you like at the table, but it really isn’t necessary.

This dish is so creamy and delicious – even for people who say they don’t like broccoli rabe! It almost tastes like it has butter in it but it doesn’t. You will love it!

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat, Poultry Tagged With: broccoli rabe, chicken sausage, comfort food, garlic, Italian, pancetta, pasta, pasta water, pecorino Romano, Rachel Ray

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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