Burmese Food? In Dutchess County?
In the 10 years I’ve lived in Dutchess County I’ve seen a small explosion of Asian restaurants and Asian grocery stores that have really expanded my interest in Thai, Japanese, Chinese and Indian cuisines. As chefs this is fantastic because we are able to buy ingredients at these stores that just aren’t found at Stop and Shop, Hannaford or Price Chopper, which allows us to prepare truly authentic dishes for our clients (and ourselves) without traveling to Westchester, New York City or Northern New Jersey.
But who would have guessed we would be lucky enough to have a Burmese restaurant open up…in Hyde Park!
Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is sandwiched between China, Thailand, Laos, India, Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. And you’re correct if you guessed that Burmese food is influenced by these surrounding countries, yet it has a flair all of its own.
KT Sushi is located in the small shopping center across from Twist and the former Amish Market in Hyde Park on Route 9. Amish Market was one of our favorite grocery stores because you could find some interesting specialty foods there. But we also loved to grab a Hawaii Roll or Spicy Tuna Roll as well.
If you miss Amish Market’s sushi bar, you can find the sushi chefs over at KT Sushi. They liked the area so much they decided to stay and open a restaurant. However, while sushi is 60% of the menu you can explore authentic dishes from Burma just a few miles from home.
Now, while they do have a couple of tables in the back for eating there, they are built more for the takeout crowd – perfect for that quick lunch or dinner.
Our favorites include Spicy Beef, Green Chicken Curry and Burmese Noodle Soup which is a delightful blend of chicken, egg, scallions, lemon juice, and noodles in a coconut milk broth.
We find inspiration for menu items that we offer you from our own experiences. We’re currently perfecting some Burmese dishes and we’ll be adding Burmese recipes to our list later this year.
Behind the Scenes of a Personal Chef: Recipe Testing
Recipe testing is one of the most important – and really fun – things we do as Personal Chefs. You could say we’re food explorers. We scan through many different food magazines (Gourmet, Fine Cooking, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country), cookbooks, and Web sites (The Food Network, Recipezaar, Epicurious) always looking out for recipes that will expand our palate and what we can offer you.
When we find a recipe to offer you, or you make a specific request, we make absolutely certain that it meets our standards and your expectations. In addition to testing the dish to see how it tastes the same day we cook it, we also test recipes for the 2-4 days they may sit in your fridge and whether they freeze well for the week or so they may stay in your freezer.
Of course you don’t have to eat your meals the same week we prepare them. Most dishes will survive quite well for 4-6 weeks in your freezer. Any longer and they may acquire freezer burn which will affect the flavors. They can still be eaten, however. This is why we date everything we make with its "born on date," to borrow the term from Budweiser, so you know exactly when the dish was prepared.
Hummus vs. Mayonnaise – Which is Healthier?
We were asked the question whether hummus was healthier than mayonnaise. Hummus wins hands down. Here are the facts:
Sabras Hummus, which is by far our favorite store bought hummus, has 6g fat, 1g saturated fat, and 130mg sodium for a 2 tablespoon serving.
Regular Mayonnaise has 11g fat, 1.5g saturated fat, 10mg cholesterol and 85mg sodium for just a 1 tablespoon serving!
Low Fat Mayonnaise has 5g fat, .8g saturated fat, 5mg cholesterol and 101mg sodium for a 1 tablespoon serving.
We went to Calorieking.com for our mayonnaise information.
And if you make the hummus yourself you can control the fat and sodium even more. And you can make as many flavors of hummus as you can think of. Just use your imagination!
Create A Personal Diet System – Be Your Own Personal Chef
So why do millions of folks throughout the world turn to commercial diet systems to prepare and package their food? There is very little science to what NutriSystem, Jenny Craig, The Zone Diet and Weight Watchers do. They measure quantities and package it up. Yes, some measure the glycemic index, calorie levels, etc., etc. If you sit there and measure all these variables you may as well be an accountant as a profession. My grandmother, who was a very wise woman, said "everything in moderation." Now, of course, she said this to encompass everything, not just eating. But she had the right idea. If you eat too much of anything it will cause problems. Yep, you could probably eat too much salad too. (When you’re running to the restroom late at night you’ll know why 
)
And besides, commercial diet food has proven to be OK, to barely edible, to ugh, I wouldn’t feed that to me neighbors dog much less my own! So why do we torture ourselves with nasty to blah food when we can make it ourselves?
Oh, weight (pun intended), it’s the convenience factor.
Well, believe it or not, with a little bit of planning and a few hours time you can be your own Personal Chef and prepare your own meals and snacks so you can succeed on your own diet plan (no, lifestyle change!). Seriously, you could do this yourself. You have plastic containers like Rubbermaid and Tupperware. You probably also have Pyrex containers too. Ziplock and Glad have disposable containers and plastic bags. You have all the tools needed. This is in effect meal planning. A topic most people shy away from because they feel it is too time consuming. And meal planning is what we do as Personal Chefs.
One Sunday every other week (or whichever day off you have) put aside 4-6 hours to prepare meals and snacks for yourself. It takes just as much discipline to do this as it does to endure the food you’d buy from the diet systems and you’ll know they taste that much better- and what’s in them! Besides, I’m only talking about making meals, not necessarily snacks. There are plenty of options out there for snacking. They even have specific 100 calorie packages too. Not to mention nature’s prepackaged items like fruit and nuts which are healthy and tasty.
Now we say 4-6 hours when you’re cooking for one. We put aside 6-8 and sometimes up to 10 hours for a cookdate for a family of 4. In the long run it is time well spent for you. Because during the busy week all you have to do is re-heat and eat. Then pop the dishes into the dishwasher.
When you have your meals planned, mapped out for you throughout the week, you’re more likely to stick with it, especially if you enjoy what you’ll be eating instead of dreading it.
Ultimately, if you’re looking to lose weight you’re better off adjusting your activity levels and watching what and how much you eat instead of counting calories. Because counting calories is an inexact science anyway. And do what my Grandmother used to say – eat everything in moderation.
New Year’s Resolution: Jenny Craig – The Diet
This post we look at what Jenny Craig has to offer the folks who want to lose weight using a commercial diet system.
Compared to NutriSystem, the biggest difference between programs is that Jenny Craig comes with different levels of counseling and support which you get to choose depending on how much money you want to spend to lose weight. From what folks have said in reviews the food is much more expensive as well. You also have to become a "member" which allows you to order the food and includes a fee, of course.
One reviewer described the counselors as not having any connection to their clients because they had "been thin all their lives" and couldn’t possibly understand what it is to fight with weight issues. Other reviews described the counselors as being "so large they couldn’t possibly have used Jenny Crag themselves. So how do you know it works?"
Other reviewers describe high-pressured selling tactics to drag them into the highest level program as fast as possible. Is this a diet program or a used car lot?
As for the food, it was also a mixed bag. Many reviews describe the food as being terrible. Others loved it. Everyone has their own tastes. On a positive note, some dieters have responded that they lost weight more gradually and had an easier time adjusting their eating habits to what was expected of them for the diet to succeed.
But you’re still spending $150-175 or more on food for one person. And from what we’ve heard this doesn’t include the shipping costs. So, if you have a family of 4 on this program it would be close to $800 per week!
Sticking with a diet or lifestyle change needs to be a positive move otherwise it will more than likely fail. If you dread the food you won’t stick with the program and you’ll hit the cookie aisle for a bag of Oreos! (By the way, there is nothing wrong with a little indulgence!)
Do a search on Yahoo! or Google for Jenny Craig reviews and you’ll find dozens of Web sites that offer a huge variety of reviews from customers and, believe it or not, former employees with opinions on the program from the inside and out. You need to decide how important the Jenny Craig system will be to you reaching your goals. Because it seems there is much to sacrifice here to succeed.
New Year’s Resolution: NutriSystem – The Diet
The reality is commercial diet systems like NutriSystem, Jenny Craig and The Zone Diet want you to become dependent upon their food. This is how they make money. So, you decide to make the leap thinking that 12-18 dollars per day for food isn’t that bad. This sounds inexpensive until you add in the fact this doesn’t include your spouse or the rest of your family if you have children. So you still have more work to do to prepare meals for everyone. And you thought your food worries were eliminated?
Jill and I have searched through various review Web sites and spoken to a number of folks who have been on these diet systems and we get very mixed responses. From the quality of the food to poor customer service to menu availability.
We found these responses for NutriSystem:
- "A few of my friends swear by it, but it seems expensive, especially if you still have to cook separately for your family."
- "After losing 15 pounds on NutriSystem, I have gained all plus five back. The diet was OK, food ranged from decent to inedible. The pictures on the website and TV are inaccurate."
- "They are very small portions and require salad and other side dishes to complement to get full enough."
- "I dealt with almost constant problems just with getting the food I ordered. They were constantly out of things and would just send substitutions."
- "Even though I took their survey on what I can or can’t eat they still got it wrong. I said I don’t eat beef and they sent beef as a substitute and I’m allergic to nuts and they completely ignored that."
- "The food is flat out disgusting, and thats IF you get any of the entrées that actually HAVE taste."
- "I have to say I don’t think the food is so bad but I am starving from mid-afternoon to the time I finally fall asleep. I’m totally following the diet which is supposed to keep you "full and satisfied" Really the sodium is so high it should keep you so bloated you won’t want to eat anything but, no, I’m HUNGRY."
Of course there are plenty of positive responses as well. Consider, if you are satisfied with store bought frozen dinners then you will most likely find NutriSystem’s meals fine. But if the quality of your food extends from beyond weight loss to nutrition and taste, you will most likely not feel satisfied. And if have to prepare regular style meals for the rest of your family you’ll be torturing yourself because you won’t be able to eat what they’re having for dinner.
A Personal Chef offers you and your family a more livable option for changing the way you eat as part of a new lifestyle. We sit down with your entire family and learn about likes and dislikes, allergies, and special diets. We work one-on-one with you to create a weekly menu (usually for dinners only, but we can add lunch and breakfast too) based on what you wish to eat. You will always have the correct menu prepared unless extreme circumstances make a particular ingredient unavailable in our region. In which case we find an acceptable substitution that fits your expectations. From experience we’ve found that on rare occasions some species of fish, fruits and vegetables may not be available due to season.
Would you prefer to conform to what a diet system offers you to eat or would rather have custom made meals that fit your dietary (lifestyle!) needs? With a Personal Chef preparing healthy, delicious meals for you, even if you do decide to have store bought, "healthy" frozen dinners for lunch, you’ll have a fantastic dinner to look forward to 5 nights each week.
Please explore NutriSystem and other diet programs for yourself and find other folks who have enrolled in these programs so you can make an informed decision for yourself.
New Year’s Resolution: The Diet
Terrible words, The Diet. Yet, its the most popular New Year’s Eve Resolution – and the one most likely not to succeed. We try and we fail. Why, most likely because we need to plan better. Meal planning is one of the more challenging things to do when you’re living a hectic life. When you don’t have the time to put together a healthy meal, you grab fast food, hit the diner or hope the TV dinner you just bought will be worth eating.
Then there is the concept of The Diet. It has such a negative feeling tied to it now that the thought is an immediate turn off. Unpleasant to say the least. And we all know how well we react to doing unpleasant things – we avoid it at all costs! Plain salad for lunch – yum. Where’s that Snickers bar!
If you’re looking to lose a few pounds so you’ll look good in your wedding dress, tuxedo or swimsuit then a diet will possibly work for you. You’ll most likely gain most, if not all, of the weight back anyway. But for long term success it has been proven that diets don’t work for the masses.
What if we were to ditch the diet concept and look at it as part of an overall lifestyle change?
Lifestyle changes are the most important aspects to maintaining a healthy weight or keeping diabetes and heart disease in check. And lifestyle changes means long term changes, not short term spurts of action. These changes have to be positive. They have to leave a positive mark on your psyche, how you feel about yourself, and need to be easily repeated. And of course, this means positive choices for food and activities that will allow you to retain the lifestyle you envision for yourself.
You could be like all those celebrities out there and choose a "diet plan" like Jenny Craig, NutriSystem or The Zone Diet. Then again, if you were being paid to lose weight it would be a great incentive to do so. Got to love those endorsements! In the next few posts I will be examining what these 3 diet plans are while looking at objective reviews and comparing them to how a personal chef can help make the difference for you in making positive changes to your lifestyle.
Improv in the Kitchen
It’s days like this that remind me of my teenage years. Snowed in and nowhere to go. Granted today the car is in the shop and I have a doosy of a cold (thanks Jill!).
Well, back when I was 15-16 years old, school was out due to snow and we didn’t have a car to cruise around in (it’s amazing how well a 10-speed bike worked for transportation back then), so I’d hang out with a friend at his house (Hey Pete Ruzzo, where are you!) watching movies and scrounging through the cupboards for something to eat.
Pete’s Mom had lots of Campbell’s Soup. And a full spice cabinet. So we experimented. We started off doctoring up one can of soup. Made it WAAAAYYY too spicy. I think it was split pea and ham. We would then stretch the soup with a can of something else. Was it Pepper Pot? Can’t remember. We went so far as to finally mix in one last soup and not overdo the spices. By the time we finished we weren’t eating dinner that night. This scenario repeated itself probably half a dozen times over a few years. It was a blast.
And we got to catch up on a few movies too!
My moral for this story is don’t be afraid to experiment with herbs and spices in your kitchen. If you are following a new recipe and you’re not happy with the outcome, explore your spice cabinet. Put a little in at a time, stir, wait a few minutes for the flavors to meld and take a taste. You just may have made that recipe even better! Most of all, please your own tastes.
How Much Salt is Too Much?
Salt. You can’t escape it. It’s in almost everything we eat. And it’s also a necessary part of our body’s chemical processes, particularly hydration. You could say we have a love/hate relationship with the mighty salt crystal. On the whole, we need a minimum of 500 mg per day to be healthy. 2300 mg per day is the recommended maximum intake which is the equivalent of 1 teaspoon of table salt.
But the average American consumes 2-3 times more salt than needed on a daily basis.
So how can you reasonably keep track of how much salt you’re consuming? If you eat at restaurants regularly there is no way to accurately estimate the salt content in your diet aside from keeping the rest of your meals low to salt free.
Restaurants over salt your food for a number of reasons. First, they know we crave salt. It’s part of our physiological make-up. Second, because it makes food "taste" better, we are more likely to eat out at restaurants that hit our taste buds in the right spots. Third, restaurants that serve alcohol know that you are more likely to order more drinks if you feel thirsty. And alcoholic drinks are a very big money maker for restaurants.
The inspiration for this post was the new Food Network program called, "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" with Anne Burrell. In the episode in particular, Burrell was making Spaghetti Bolognese, a very popular Italian dish. We sat there in utter amazement as she grabbed handful after handful of salt and flamboyantly splashed it into the dish during the cooking process in Emeril Lagasse fashion. The only thing missing was the "Bam!"
She then went on to explain that it may seem like a lot of salt, but in "restaurants we properly season our food." Whatever that’s supposed to mean.
Too much salt, is too much salt. And salt intake can be addicting just as with sugar. Our bodies and taste buds become used to a certain level of salt. And just as some foods require salt to bring out their flavors, too much salt can also mask flavors so you can’t taste them.
Personally, we use a modest amount of salt in our food at home. I grew up with parents who needed to reduce their salt intake due to blood pressure and other reasons. Because we use salt moderately, we’re better able to judge the taste of dishes. Preparing foods with a minimum amount of salt, enough to make dishes taste great without being overwhelming, is very important to our clients who require a lower salt diet – and to us.
So, back to accurately estimating the salt in your diet, the best way to do this is to cook your own meals and watch the amount of salt you use. If you must buy prepared foods, watch the sodium content. This, along with eating correct portions, will allow you to reduce your salt intake. The other option is to hire a personal chef who will work with you to build the right meal plan for you and who will adjust the seasonings in your food to help you build a healthier lifestyle. Actually, we’ve learned that herbs and spices offer a variety of flavors that, along with a modest amount of salt, create a flavor panorama that is more satisfying than just salt alone.
And stay away from frozen TV dinners! Many frozen dinners can pack 2-3 days worth of salt and fat into one meal. Now you would need to eat plain fruit and veggies for the next 2 days to make up for it (if it were that easy!). Check out the 20 Saltiest Foods in America.
Tip: Taste your food throughout the cooking process. With raw meat, wait until the meat has cooked through. Remember, you can always add salt to a dish, but you can’t take it out!
Need a Rack for Your Roast? Grab Some Veggies!
Metal racks come in all shapes and sizes; oval, concave, square, rectangular – you name it, they have it to fit any roasting pan. But they are a pain in the tush to clean. Why not add some flavor and skip washing the "dish?"
I’m all for skipping the need to wash another dish, believe me – I’m the chief bottle washer.
Grab some carrots, onions, celery, and bell peppers. You can be adventurous and add some parsnips, turnips, or radishes. Take it another step and you can add some of the same herbs and spices that are flavoring the meat right to the veggie rack too. Your liquid can be water, stock or your favorite wine. Quantity varies, but I usually add 1/2 to 1 cup, enough to get everything wet. If you’re roasting a dryer meat, add more so the vegetables don’t dry out. Then follow your usual roasting method or follow the recipe.
Adding vegetables not only adds flavor to the meat, they add flavor and body to the drippings so you can make some really delicious gravy. You can either strain the vegetables out or emulsify them with a hand or counter top blender.
This is also a great way to use up those vegetables that have been sitting in the fridge one day too long to use in a recipe, yet still have a little life to give (Don’t use any rotten ones please!). They may have some wrinkles or a few bad spots to cut away, but they can still provide you with flavor.
Keep this in mind when it comes time to roast that turkey this Thanksgiving Day!
Pesto Presto! Liven Up Your Frozen Vegetables
We all eat frozen veggies. Sometimes it’s because the vegetable we want is out of season and sometimes it’s to save time. (Hey, we Personal Chefs eat frozen veggies too!)
Steamed, baked, stir-fried, microwaved- no matter how we reheat them – we’re always looking for ways to make them seem not quite so, well, frozen. Especially when the vegetable is most often the last thought of "Oh, Yeah!" Some of us grab for the butter or liquid cheese-food stuff to liven up the dish.
Here’s a quick easy tip to perk up your side dish.
If you have the time to make your own pesto, by all means go for it. A handful of fresh basil, a couple of cloves of garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, a handful of nuts (pine, hazel, pistachio all work well) and a sprinkling of hard cheese like Romano or Parmesan (optional). Place the basil, garlic and nuts in the blender or food processor and give it a whirl to start the chopping process. Now, with the pouring lid open, drizzle in olive oil until it forms a paste. Keep adding oil until you are happy with the consistency. Now add in a pinch of salt, a few grinds of pepper and some cheese. Taste it. Add more salt, pepper or cheese to fit your taste buds.
You can use your pesto right away, or you can grab an ice cube tray and freeze individual portions to use when you need it. Just pop them out when they are frozen and store in a freezer bag in the freezer.
Back to the veggies! Stir in some fresh or frozen pesto toward the end of the cooking cycle and you have a cool twist that is much healthier than using butter or margarine. Mangia!
No Bait and Switch with Dinner’s On The Table
ABC News reported recently that higher food prices are causing some restaurants to become "creative" when it comes to the food they’re serving on your plate by swapping out one food item for a less expensive one, or reducing portion size without editing the menu to reflect the change . When you order a main course of Grouper you have every right to expect to be served Grouper, not Catfish or some cheaper fish in its place.
This isn’t cutting costs, it’s robbery on the high seas. If a certain food is too expensive, don’t offer it or do raise the price, but don’t steal from customers. You might say it’s the equivalent of buying a knock-off piece of clothing. The brand name is there, but it was manufactured by someone else, with reduced quality of craftsmanship and materials.
Dinner’s On The Table Personal Chef Service will never use bait and switch tactics. We’re food lovers as much as we are providers. We respect ourselves and our food as much as we respect the clients we cook for. We hand-pick every ingredient we buy for your cookdate or dinner party and strive to acquire exactly what you order. If for some reason we can’t find a specific ingredient due to seasonal or supply issues, we’ll inform you and ask what you would like in its place.
Leftovers: The Story of Prepared Foods
I was talking with a friend the other day and the topic of leftovers came up. They flat out said they hate leftovers and reheated food. That statement had me scratching my head in wonderment. Modern prepared foods are entirely based on the concept of leftovers and reheated food. Only if my friend bought only raw ingredients and prepared everything from scratch would they avoid eating leftovers and reheated food.
For Example:
Canned foods are cooked right inside the can after it has been filled and sealed. The ready to eat soups are leftovers which are reheated. Usually with chemicals added to help "preserve" them for a long shelf life. Campbell’s Condensed Soups are cooked, then continually cooked to make it condensed, and then placed in the can and brought back up to temperature to kill off bacteria before it is sealed. Canned veggies are also cooked right in the can. Jarred foods are precooked too. Again, this is to kill off bacteria.
Frozen vegetables? They’ve been blanched. Par-cooked so their cellular structure can adapt to the freezing process.
If your family eats cold cuts or hot dogs they are also pre-cooked. Formed meats like boiled ham, chicken loaf, bologna, and hot dogs are made of meat from "various parts" and cuts of the animal that are not able to be sold in the butcher department. This meat is then sent through a grinder, placed into a form and cooked. They are in essence leftovers. Even your turkey breast or roast beef from Boar’s Head was pre-cooked.
Frozen dinners, the wonderful plastic things that you have in your freezer. Healthy Choice, Stouffer’s, Swanson; all leftovers that require reheating. When you buy frozen raviolis the dough may be uncooked, but the cheese or meat inside has been precooked for health safety reasons.
Pasta that you buy in a box. Ronzoni, Mueller’s, Bertolli, etc. The pasta has been cooked and then dehydrated. When you reboil pasta it is essentially reconstituted, reheated leftovers. And the tomato sauce you purchased in a jar is the same. Also precooked waiting to be reheated. Sorry, but Annie’s all natural or Kraft Mac & Cheese is leftovers. I’m not sure whether it comes with a powdered cheese or a liquid cheese package, but that’s precooked too. Powdered cheese is ground, dehydrated cheese with other stuff added in to help "stabilize" it. Or is that dried then ground? Hmmm. And liquid cheese isn’t much better.
Most if not all of these foods are prepared weeks or months before they reach your dinner table…
Yes, we use store bought pasta, peanut butter, sesame tahini, canned beans and occasionally, canned tomatoes plus other prepared foods in our cooking. This is because there’s nothing wrong with them and the texture and flavor can make a difference. Especially, in the winter when fresh vine-ripened tomatoes are not readily available. We will also use frozen vegetables if fresh aren’t available, but we notify you first. We do however make our own pasta sauce – never from a jar. Of course, if our client’s wish for us to make pasta and beans from scratch, we can do so.
90% or more of the food we prepare is from scratch using choice meats, fresh vegetables and fruit. And we buy organic upon request.
This is the beauty and simplicity of Dinner’s On The Table Personal Chef service. When Dinner’s On The Table cooks your meals you can count on the food being only 0-6 days old by the time it’s eaten (if eaten during the weekly timeframe between cookdates). We don’t add any preservatives or chemicals. 2-3 dinners are kept in the fridge and the rest placed in your freezer to be thawed 24-36 hours prior to eating. Meals frozen for 3-7 days never get freezer burn and have very minimal if any textural differences than if they had been left in the fridge. We’ve actually tested this in our home before we started the company. Any dishes we feel would be affected by the freezing process we recommend to be left in the fridge and eaten within 3 days.
And we hope you agree that they taste much better than the mass-produced TV Dinners you buy in the grocery store. Our satisfied clients say it all, http://hudsonvalley.ratingsmart.com/businesses/23289/listing.
So, in essence, the concept of disliking leftovers, or if you wish, prepared foods, is a state of mind. Because we eat them everyday of our lives. Civilization couldn’t have grown to this level of sophistication and size without them.