Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Classic and easy to make, this version of Alfredo doesn't use flour to thicken the sauce. Instead, it relies on a slight simmer and a heavy dose of cheese ● Total: 25 min ● Active: 25 min ● Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 12 ounces fettuccine Olive oil, for tossing 12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 2) 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter 2 cups heavy cream 2 pinches freshly grated nutmeg 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Directions: 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and salt generously. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions until al dente, tender but still slightly firm. Strain, and toss with a splash of oil. 2. Meanwhile, slice the chicken into 1/4-inch-thick strips, and lay them on a plate or a sheet of waxed paper. Season with salt and pepper. 3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and add 2 tablespoons of the butter. When the butter melts, raise the heat to medium-high and add the chicken in 1 layer. Cook, without moving the pieces, until the underside has browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip the pieces, and cook until browned and fully cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes more. Transfer the chicken to a medium bowl.
4. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the remaining 6 tablespoons butter. Scrape the bottom of the skillet with a wooden spoon to release any browned bits. When the butter has mostly melted, whisk in the cream and nutmeg and bring to a simmer, then cook for 2 minutes. Lower the heat to keep the sauce just warm. 5. Whisk the Parmigiano-Reggiano into the sauce. Add the chicken and cooked pasta, and toss well. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot in heated bowls. Cook’s Note Don't worry if it seems like there is too much sauce. As soon as everything is tossed together, the sauce will start to cling to the pasta and thicken before your eyes!
Natalie Portman’s Food Philosophies Mostly Involve Vegan Ice Cream… and tempeh bacon, home-grown avocados, homemade hummus, and “throw-it-all-in” one-pot meals. ALYSE WHITNEYJUNE 22, 2018 Natalie Portman has been vegan for almost a decade, and most of that time has been spent trying to find her platonic ideal of vegan ice cream. If she could only eat two flavors for the rest of her life, they’d be Magpies’ soft serve “fried pie”—which she says tastes like “the most satisfying, amazing Carvel ice cream cake from my childhood”—and Van Leeuwen’s mint chip and matcha scoops. “Every flavor, I will just go to town on,” she jokes when we talk on the phone. Portman’s overall food philosophy is all about balance. “I really love food, and I want to take joy in it, and part of enjoying my food is also knowing that it’s positive for other creatures and not harming anyone,” she explains. Portman had been a vegetarian since she was nine years old, but she cut out dairy and eggs in 2009 after reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals. Now, nine years later, she helped turn that the best-selling nonfiction book into a documentary of the same name, both producing and narrating the eye-opening film about the realities of industrial meat production and the ethics of factory farming. In addition to vegan ice creams, Natalie Portman has sussed out the best vegan alternatives for her other favorite foods. The least-cardboard-like bacon is Lightlife, though she’s “not sure it tastes like actual bacon because I haven’t had it in a very long time.” Impossible Burgers and other products from Impossible Meat are her go-tos for cooking protein at home. To top a burger or to spread on crackers, she reaches for Kite Hill’s garlic-herb spreadable nut cheese. Put them all together and you have a dream vegan bacon cheeseburger. When Portman moved from Paris back to Los Angeles a few years ago, she learned more about seasonality and now always tries to buy what’s freshest. (Right now, she’s glad it’s finally peach season.) Trips to the farmers’ market led to her and her husband Benjamin Millepied starting their own robust garden: herbs, chard, artichokes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, lemons, avocados, figs, peaches, and even olives (which she’s going to learn to brine next). The literal fruits and vegetables of their labor go into “very, very basic” meals. Millepied does most of the cooking for their family of four, but Portman will make a lot of couscous, Tagines, veggie stir-fries, chilis, and other “one-pot, throw-it-all-in” dishes, plus the occasional hummus or tahini to “satisfy the Israeli in me.” The household isn’t entirely vegan, though: Her husband eats meat, and they are letting their kids make their own decisions about how and what they want to eat. “My son has actually become quite an animal rights activist and is very vegetarian. He’s very passionate about it, so he’s on my team” she says of her seven-year-old son, Aleph. But the ritual of sitting down to a family meal is the most important thing to Portman—and, of course, everyone gets vegan ice cream for dessert.
Easy butter chicken
Ingredients 500g skinless boneless chicken thighs
For the marinade
1 lemon, juiced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp paprike
1-2 tsp hot chilly powder
200g natural yogurt
For the curry
2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 large onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, crushed 1 green chili, deseeded and finely chopped(optional) Thumb-sized piece ginger, grated 1 tsp garam masala 2 tsp ground fenugreek 3 tbsp tomato puree 300 ml chicken stock 50g flaked almonds, toasted
To serve (optional) Cooked basmati rice
Naan bread Mango chutney or lime pickle Fresh coriander Lime wedges
Method •
In a medium bowl, mix all the marinade ingredients with some seasoning. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and toss with the marinade. Cover and chill in the fridge for 1 hr or overnight.
•
In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion, garlic, green chilli, ginger and some seasoning. Fry on a medium heat for 10 mins or until soft.
•
Add the spices with the tomato purée, cook for a further 2 mins until fragrant, then add the stock and marinated chicken. Cook for 15 mins, then add any remaining marinade left in the bowl. Simmer for 5 mins, then sprinkle with the toasted almonds. Serve with rice, naan bread, chutney, coriander and lime wedges, if you like.
Surely by now you've heard of the Cronut, a Manhattan bakery's sold-out-in-five-minutes, national-craze, croissant/doughnut hybrid that all your friends in NY are currently using as an example of why the East Coast is better as you listen to their argument from the beach while watching bikini-clad, up-and-coming actresses do handstands. Well, now they can't even hold that over you: DK's Doughnuts, a tiny, long-standing fried-doughery in Santa Monica, has claimed to have recreated the desserty treat, now for sale daily starting at 630a. So we went out and tried them. First thing's first: this thing doesn't look like the original circular, one-solid-frosted-piece Cronut. But the owner claims her son went to NY and recreated the dough, and -- though these seem more like crispy, fried-croissant, flaky-and-sugary-outside, doughnut-and-cream sandwiches -- they're delicious, so who cares? DK's DKronuts (yep) come in three flavors: whipped cream, strawberry, and Nutella. Of the five testers, three preferred this strawberry one, which adds a bit of amazing fruity zang to the whipped cream… SOURCE: https://www.thrillist.com/eat/los-angeles/santa-monica/attention-everyone-cronuts -are-now-in-santa-monica
Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas Ingredients: 1 tablespoon chili powder Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 pound baby bell peppers (12 to 15 peppers), halved, stemmed and seeded 1 large yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast Juice of 1 lime, plus lime wedges, for serving 8 fajita-size flour tortillas, warmed Shredded Monterey Jack cheese, guacamole, hot sauce, salsa and sour cream, for serving
Directions: 1 Preheat the broiler to high. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. 2 Combine the chili powder, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper in a small bowl. Put the peppers and onions on the prepared baking sheet, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil and season with half the chili powder mixture. Broil until softened and starting to char, about 10 minutes. 3 Meanwhile, cut the chicken into 1/4-inch-thick slices and toss in a large bowl with the remaining chile powder mixture and 1 tablespoon oil. 4 After the peppers are softened and starting to char, about 10 minutes, scatter the chicken on top of the peppers and onions and return the baking sheet to the broiler until the chicken is cooked through and starting to brown, about 5 minutes more. Drizzle with the lime juice. 5 Serve with the warmed tortillas, Monterey Jack cheese, guacamole, hot sauce, salsa, sour cream and lime wedges.
The Debate Over the Health Effects of Food Processing While debates about the relative healthfulness of carbohydrates/type of fat/salt/sweeteners/etc. never cease, there is one nutritional message that can unite (almost) anyone: eat less processed foods. On the surface, this seems obvious; after all, the top sources of calories for adults in the US include grain-based desserts, burgers, sugar-sweetened beverages and chips (1,2), which are certainly not what dietary recommendations are going for. But when we pose “What are the effects of food processing on health?” as a scientific question, things suddenly become very complex. Is there a consensus on what food processing is? Is all food processing unhealthy? What research has been done on processed food? What is Processed Food? First, we should start on the tricky subject of definitions. Jones and Clemens published a nice summary of how various organizations differ in their definitions of “processed food” (3). The United States Department of Agriculture and other government organizations, for example, tend to use a broad definition that includes any changes from a natural state – such as washing, heating, and cooking, to adding preservatives, flavors, additives, etc. The American Institute for Cancer Research uses the term “minimally processed” to denote vegetables, grains, and beans prepared without much added to them, or minimal refining. Then there is the “NOVA” system, an attempt by Dr. Carlos Monteiro and colleagues to categorize food processing into: “unprocessed or minimally processed foods”, which are essentially unmodified from nature or include light processing such as drying, boiling, freezing, etc., “processed culinary ingredients”, “processed foods”, and “ultra-processed foods” as the extreme, which includes foods made with ingredients with limited “unprocessed foods”, such as concentrated energy sources like sugars, oils, fat, salt, extracts like casein, lactose, and whey, or additives like dyes, flavors, sweeteners, etc. (4). There doesn’t appear to be good published data on what the public considers processed food, although the International Food Information Council (IFIC) has developed definitions with input from consumer focus groups, discussed below. What the Critics Say Some critiques of definitions push against a broad classification of food processing because it could put washing an apple and baking a cookie in the same basket. To this end, while the NOVA system is an attempt to standardize food processing classification for study, not everyone agrees with it. For instance, Dr. Mike Gibney and colleagues
published a commentary last month in AJCN arguing that the system is not superior to using associations of nutrient intakes with disease (5). In essence, they argue that the NOVA definition of “ultra-processed” foods and beverages is too subjective and simplistic; that classifying solely by processing would not be of use to study disease links to specific micronutrients (i.e., goiter, allergies and intolerances, anemia, etc.); that it does not improve upon using already established dietary pattern analysis in research; that analysis of the NOVA system indicates that it does not predict nutrients that are suggested to be increased by processed foods such as fat and salt; that certain nutritional requirements such as folic acid could not be met with solely unprocessed foods; and that there is little evidence to date that processing relates to measures of satiety or “hyper-palatability”/”food addiction”. Further, changes to modern eating that relate to consuming more energy including increased portion sizes and energy density, may not necessarily be related to food processing. (As such, processing can be used to formulate smaller portion sizes and reduce energy density.) The statement addressed how processed foods contribute to the health and nutrition of populations, stakeholders in improving diet, and research still needed. Analysis of foods that provide nutrient enrichment and fortification (added by processing) indicates that much of the population would fall below adequate intakes for several nutrients. On the other hand, on average they contribute to nutrients that are recommended to be limited such as added sugar, sodium, saturated fat, and calories. They critique the term “ultra-processed” because the degree of processing does not necessarily reflect nutrient content of a food. The paper also summarizes what the future of processed food should look like to better address nutritional and food security around the world, including more cross-discipline collaboration to improve upon processed products and better communication between consumers and relevant stakeholders (6). It also remains to be seen whether the NOVA classification system would lead consumers to choose better diets compared to healthy diet patterns developed by nutrient epidemiology such as MyPlate, DASH, or Mediterranean-style diets, which can include foods with various levels of processing (7). Thus, depending on how you define it, food processing can contribute necessary nutrients but also nutrients that should be reduced, and how different forms of processing may affect health is understudied. Research on Processed Foods Most research on “processed foods” as a whole-diet approach has come from epidemiological studies or animal experiments. Many challenges exist that may prohibit effective research from being done, including defining and classifying processed foods,
accurate recalling of foods in dietary surveys, utilizing suitable comparisons, getting study subjects to stay on an assigned diet for the necessary period of time, etc. Instead of looking at processing, per se, as predictive of health effects, much research currently looks at individual aspects of food processing that may contribute to increased (or decreased) health risks. For example, my dissertation research focuses on dietary phosphorus, which is widely utilized as a food additive (8). Growing evidence suggests that excess phosphorus in the diet, particularly in the form that is added for processing purposes, may increase risks for cardiovascular and bone disease, particularly in those who have kidney disease. For example, a human trial directly compared foods with elevated levels of phosphorus additives vs. those that do not have additives and measured surrogate outcomes for bone and mineral metabolism, and observed changes that would predict long-term bone loss (9). For more, see recent reviews from our group (10,11). It is, however, difficult to definitively tease out the effect of individual components like phosphorus additives to long-term health from the whole food packages that they accompany. An upcoming trial by Dr. Kevin Hall and others will test the effect of “ultra-processed foods” (based on the NOVA definition) in a highly controlled setting to see what effect on insulin sensitivity and other outcomes such foods have that should prove very interesting and continue the discussion on the utility of such classification schemes (12). Conclusion Like any nutrition guidance, we must rely on imperfect evidence to communicate dietary recommendations. Which is why telling the public to choose alternatives to “processed foods” when possible is likely an appropriate message despite scientific disagreement on classifications and health implications. Indeed, the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans contain 25 instances and the scientific report 67 instances of the word “processed” (13,14), in context implying that we should limit processed food, mostly focusing on processed meats where more research has been done. This is because processed foods tend to contribute nutrients that Americans already consume high amounts of, such as sodium and saturated fat. At the same time, it will be interesting to see the results of natural experiments such as Brazil’s Dietary Guidelines, which put the focus on food processing instead of nutrient levels (15). It is an area ripe for research and cross-disciplinary collaborations.