The French Don't Diet Plan

by Dr. William Clower

  Macaroni and Cheese

  If your kids are like most, they turn up their noses for the weirdest reasons—like the color of the cheese sauce. If this is the case, try white Cheddars, or yellow, or a combination. You could even let your children decide which is their “favorite.”

  Time to the Table: 15 minutes Serves 4

  YOU’LL NEED

  Pinch of salt

  Splash of extra-virgin olive oil

  2 cups elbow macaroni

  2 tablespoons unsalted butter

  2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  ½ cup half-and-half

  1 bay leaf

  Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

  1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese, or more to taste

  Tricks of the Trade

  The only real trick to this is to remove the pasta from the water a bit underdone. It finishes cooking when you add it back to the sauce.

  TO A MEDIUM SAUCEPAN

  Add 4 cups of water and the salt and olive oil. Bring it to a boil, and then add the pasta and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. The pasta should be almost, but not quite, tender when you strain it.

  WHILE THE PASTA’S BOILING

  In a second saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour, mix it thoroughly with the butter to form a roux, and allow it to brown only slightly. Pour in the half-and-half, bring to a simmer, and add the bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Let these flavors bubble into each other for a few minutes. Remove the bay leaf and whisk until smooth. Stir in the grated cheese to complete the sauce, and let it simmer until the pasta is done. Correct the seasonings.

  Drain the pasta and then throw it into the sauce. Stir over medium heat for about 2 minutes.

  Play with Your Food

  Try ½ cup Parmesan instead of the Cheddar.

  FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, the Cheesiest

  Ingredients: Macaroni (durum wheat flour, wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), cheese sauce mix (whey, whey protein concentrate, salt, sodium tripoly phosphate, citric acid, sodium phosphate, lactic acid, calcium phosphate, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, enzymes, cheese culture).

  Comfort Food au Gratin

  On chilly evenings, these au gratin potatoes are the perfect comfort food. Between the potatoes, creamy sauce, and cheese, you just can’t beat it.

  Time to the Table: 1 ½ hours Serves 8

  YOU’LL NEED

  2 cups thinly sliced potatoes (any kind)

  ½ large onion, minced

  5 tablespoons unsalted butter

  3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  2 cups milk

  Pinch of salt

  Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

  1/3 cup shredded Swiss cheese

  TO BEGIN

  Blanch the sliced potatoes in boiling water for about 5 minutes. While the potatoes are cooking, sauté the onions in 2 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet over medium heat, until they begin to pale but have not yet browned. Drain the potatoes and take the onions off the heat.

  Preheat the oven to 350°F.

  PREPARE THE SAUCE

  Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Sprinkle in the flour, incorporating it completely while stirring, and allow it to bubble until lightly browned. Add the milk and salt and whisk the roux into the milk. Heat until it comes to a boil for just a minute and then remove from the heat.

  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  FINISH THE DISH

  Place the potatoes and onions in a lightly buttered 2-quart casserole dish. Pour the sauce over the potatoes and shift around the dish to make sure the sauce seeps throughout the potatoes. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top.

  Bake for 50 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbly.

  Play with Your Food

  Add spicy sausage or ham. If you use Polish sausage, slice the links thinly and set them in the pan to bake with the potatoes. If you use spicy ground Italian sausage, sauté it with the onions before adding it to the potatoes. You don’t need to make the sauce if you don’t want to. Alternatively, just add an equal volume (a cup and a half) of cream.

  FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes

  Ingredients: Potatoes, corn starch, whey, salt, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, Cheddar cheese, flour, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, dried onion, disodium phosphate, nonfat milk, dried garlic, mono-and diglycerides, sodium citrate, blue cheese, lactic acid, natural flavor, Yellow Lake No. 5, Yellow Lake No. 6, soy flour, sodium bisulfite.

  Pine Nut Parmesan Risotto

  If you told someone you made rice, they’d yawn. If you told them you made Parmesan risotto with pine nuts, they’d be très impressed with your cooking skills. But risotto is just rice dressed up for dinner. Don’t be intimidated by dishes like risotto—they’re easy to make.

  Time to the Table: 25 minutes Serves 4

  YOU’LL NEED

  3 tablespoons unsalted butter

  ½ onion, minced

  1 cup arborio rice

  ¼ cup dry white wine

  2 cups chicken stock, heated

  ¼ cup pine nuts

  ½ cup Parmesan cheese

  ¼ cup chopped parsley

  Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

  Tricks of the Trade

  The key to this recipe is in the adding of the stock to the rice. Be sure that each liquid addition just covers the grains and then cooks down almost completely before you add the next one. However, wait too long and the rice will burn on the bottom of the pan.

  IN A HEAVY-BOTTOMED SAUCEPAN

  Heat the butter over medium heat and sauté the onion until it softens (about 4 minutes). Increase the heat to medium-high and add the rice. Be sure to turn over the rice so that all the grains are coated in the butter. Stir in the wine and let it cook into the rice for another 2 minutes or so.

  FOR THE LIQUID

  Add the heated chicken stock to the pan a little at a time. Pour in enough to just cover the rice (about ½ cup), and stir only long enough to be certain that the liquid has come in contact with all the rice. Wait until the stock has cooked down into the rice before adding another batch of the stock. Continue in this manner until all the stock has been absorbed by the rice. This should take about 25 minutes, and the rice should be just barely done.

  TO FINISH

  Toss with the pine nuts, Parmesan, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  Play with Your Food

  For mushroom risotto, soak dried porcinis in the warmed stock for about 20 minutes to soften and then add them with the onions. Reserve the mushroom-infused stock to pour on the rice as you build the risotto.

  FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Knorr Risotto Milanese

  Ingredients: Rice, modified food starch, whey, salt, autolyzed yeast extract, rice flour, dehydrated onions, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, cheese powder (cow’s milk, salt, cheese cultures, enzymes, maltodextrin, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup solids, disodium phosphate), natural flavors, dextrose, spices and coloring (including turmeric, saffron, and annatto).

  Cheesecake with a Cinnamon Port Wine Glaze

  Time to the Table: 2 ½ hours Makes 1 cheesecake

  Tricks of the Trade

  You can make this cake lighter by separating out the whites from the yolks, beating them into a stiff meringue, and folding them in separately.

  FOR THE CRUST YOU’LL NEED

  2 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs

  3 teaspoons brown sugar

  1 teaspoon almond extract

  ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

  FOR THE FILLING YOU’LL NEED

  3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature

  4 large eggs

  1 cup sugar

  1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

  ¼ cup heavy cream

  ¼ cup sour cream

  FOR THE GLAZE YOU’LL NEED

  1 cup port wine

/>   1 cup sugar

  1 cinnamon stick

  2 whole cloves

  1 tablespoon orange juice

  1 cup fresh cranberries

  MAKE THE CRUST

  Preheat the oven to 350°F.

  Mix the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, almond extract, and butter until it gathers a meal-like texture. Press into the bottom of a standard pie plate. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 300° F. Let cool.

  MAKE THE FILLING

  In a large mixing bowl, with electric beaters, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the eggs and then the sugar and mix until it is a bit fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vanilla, cream, and sour cream, stirring with a wooden spoon.

  BAKE THE CAKE

  Pour the mixture into the crust and set in the oven on the top rack. Bake for 50 minutes or until the cake is just set (the middle should jiggle just a bit). Cool at least 1 hour.

  MAKE THE GLAZE

  In a medium saucepan, bring the port wine, sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves, and orange juice to a boil, and then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the cranberries and simmer for 10 more minutes. Ladle lightly over the cheesecake to serve.

  Play with Your Food

  For lemon cheesecake, add the juice of one lemon to the filling (lemon zest is nice here, too). For chocolate cheesecake, add a handful of bittersweet morsels to the batter. This will provide a chocolate crunch to the cake, but you could also melt the chocolate (2 to 3 ounces bittersweet) so that it is completely infused.

  FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Jell-O No Bake Real Cheesecake Dessert Filling

  Ingredients: Sugar, dextrose, skim milk, milk protein concentrate, lactose, lactic acid, cultures, hydrogenated coconut oil, modified food starch, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil, calcium sulfate, disodium phosphate, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, lactic acid, calcium lactate, dipotassium phosphate, salt, mono-and diglycerides, propylene glycol monosterate, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, sodium caseinate, acetylated monoglycerides, cellulose gel, hydroxylated soy lecithin, artificial and natural flavors, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, citric acid, and BHA.

  Crust mix: Enriched wheat flour, sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, graham flour, honey, high-fructose corn syrup, salt, baking soda, calcium phosphate, artificial flavor, malted barley flour.

  Chewy Chocolate Brownies

  These fudgy chewy, gooey brownies, served with a mound of melting ice cream, are a more than adequate replacement for the boxed mix. And do you know how long it takes to put this together? About 15 minutes. Make these brownies tonight, and reserve the scrapings from the mixing bowl for the kids who volunteer to do dishes.

  Time to the Table: 50 minutes Makes 12 to 15 brownies

  Tricks of the Trade

  What you do with your butter will matter to the final brownie product. For a denser, fudgelike brownie, melt the butter beforehand. But for a lighter texture, cream it together with the sugar and eggs.

  YOU’LL NEED

  6 1-ounce squares of semisweet chocolate

  ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

  2 tablespoons cocoa-powder

  1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

  1 cup brown sugar

  3 large eggs

  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  ½ teaspoon salt

  1 cup all-purpose flour

  1 cup chopped walnuts

  Preheat the oven to 350°F.

  IN A MEDIUM SAUCEPAN

  Warm the chocolate, butter, cocoa, and coffee over medium heat until melted and smooth.

  IN A LARGE MIXING BOWL

  Using an electric mixer, beat together the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt. While still beating, pour the warm chocolate mixture over the spinning beaters until all (except that which you snitched) is incorporated. Add the flour and walnuts and beat until smooth. Pour into a 9-inch baking pan, prepared by smearing a bit of butter and then sprinkling on some flour. Just tamp off the excess.

  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the brownies are dry at the edges and just moist in the center and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

  Play with Your Food

  For cakelike brownies, use only four squares chocolate, 2 eggs, and 1¼ cups flour.

  FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Pillsbury Thick ‘n Fudgy Deluxe Brownie Mix

  Ingredients: Sugar, flour, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (soybean and cottonseed oils), chocolate flavor syrup (sugar, water, highfructose corn syrup, cocoa processed with alkali, salt, citric acid, potassium sorbate, xanthan gum, artificial and natural flavors), cocoa processed with alkali, salt, modified corn starch, natural and artificial flavor, baking soda, nonfat milk, soy lecithin.

  Practically Flourless Chocolate Cake

  Time to the Table: 50 minutes Yield: One 9-inch cake

  YOU’LL NEED

  4 1-ounce blocks of semisweet baking chocolate

  3 tablespoons brewed coffee

  2/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar

  ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

  3 large eggs, separated

  ¼ teaspoon almond extract

  Sprinkle of salt

  ½ cup cake flour

  Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan. Set aside and preheat the oven to 375°F.

  IN A SMALL SAUCEPAN

  Melt the chocolate with the coffee over the lowest heat. They will slowly get cozy with each other as you blend together the cake parts.

  IN A LARGE MIXING BOWL

  Using an electric mixer, beat 2/3 cup of the sugar into the melted butter. You may need to cordon off a “splash zone” at first for the flying sugar/butter mixture, but they’ll settle down after a while when the two have become one. Now add the egg yolks and continue beating.

  Once your chocolate and coffee have melted together, fold into the egg/butter/sugar mixture and add the almond extract. For purist chocolate aficionados (and for those without almond extract lying around in the cupboard), you could forego this—although it really goes well with the chocolate.

  IN A MEDIUM MIXING BOWL

  Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and salt on high speed until stiff peaks form. Stir in a few dollops of this meringue into the cake batter with a spoon or spatula. Then add a quarter of the cake flour. Mix together until smooth. Keep doing this until all of the meringue and flour are incorporated.

  BAKE THE CAKE

  Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25 minutes. The cake is ready when when the edges are done (a toothpick or fork comes out clean), and the center is almost there, but barely undercooked.

  Let cool for about 15 minutes before running a knife around the edges and flipping the cake onto a wire rack.

  Play with Your Food

  To ice, try Silky English Cream.

  For chocolate icing, melt 2 squares of semisweet chocolate with 2 tablespoons strong coffee and stir until smooth. Then add 3 tablespoons butter, stirring all the while, until incorporated. Cool until it spreads easily.

  FAUX-FOOD EQUIVALENT: Sugar-Free Chocolate Crème Cake

  Ingredients: Hydrogenated starch hydrolysate, whole eggs, flour, modified corn starch, soybean oil, leavening (sodium aluminum phosphate, sodium aluminum sulfate, sodium bicarbonate), wheat gluten, propylene glycol monoesters, mono-and diglycerides, sodium steroyl lactylate, salt, aspartame, corn oil, acesulfame K, natural and artificial flavor, sodium proprionate, wheat gluten, cocoa powder processed with alkali, black raven cocoa, chocolate flavor (corn starch, alcohol, water, glycerine, tricalcium phosphate).

  Molasses Gingerbread Cake

  We don’t normally lump molasses in the healthy category with broccoli, carrots, and spinach, but just one tablespoon of molasses contains 20 percent of your recommended daily allowance of potassium, calcium, and iron. It’s a health food!