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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, March 12, 2003

High-protein cuisine doesn't have to be low in appeal

Photo illustration by Jon Orque • The Honolulu Advertiser

• Sauces key to adding variety

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Chad Robinson tops sautéed roughy with a garlicky crumb-like crust, finished with Goya sauce.

Garlic-crusted Fish Fillets

2 pounds white-fleshed fish fillets

1/4 teaspoon lemon pepper

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 cup chopped garlic, about

10 large cloves

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1 1/2 cups Goya sauce (see recipe)

Parsley sprigs, for garnish

Place the fish in a glass dish and sprinkle with the lemon pepper and onion powder. Cover and refrigerate, about 2 hours.

Cook the garlic in the oil in a skillet over low heat just until softened and very fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain the garlic, reserving the oil. Pat the garlic onto one side of the fish filets, then pat the parsley over the garlic.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the reserved oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the fish, garlic side down. Cook until browned, about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Gently turn the fish, reduce the heat to medium and cook until opaque in the center, about 3 more minutes. Repeat with the remaining fish.

To serve, place a filet on each of 6 plates, garnish with parsley sprigs and serve with 1/4 cup sauce.

Los Angeles Times

If he weren't a serious chef, one might assume that Chad Robinson was a practical joker. With a straight face, he's demonstrating how to make pizza and ravioli — without using any pasta or dough. Instead, thin slices of blanched and layered celery root do the job.

Robinson is one of a growing corps of chefs around the country catering to diners following high-protein diets.

Programs such as the Zone, Atkins and Sugar Busters have grown so popular that they have moved beyond the diet fringe and into the mainstream. Suddenly the world thinks carbohydrates, not calories or fat, are the enemy in the war on weight.

The only problem is, those evil carbs tend to be the very foods we crave most.

Cooking diet-friendly foods that still satisfy those cravings is a culinary challenge that requires real creativity. Two Los Angeles chefs who are doing it well are Robinson, executive chef of Sunfare, a company that delivers meals based on the Zone plan; and Raj Brandston, of Zone Gourmet in West Los Angeles.

With innovative substitutions for proscribed ingredients, the chefs are attracting hundreds of customers willing to pay about $250 to $300 a week for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks.

On Kaua'i, a company called Pure Kauai adheres to Zone principles for its fully catered health and wellness vacations. Self-taught cook Jay Skylar is in charge of preparing meals for guests of Pure Kauai, who stay at Hanalei Bay Resort or one of the many vacation rentals along the shore and participate in a range of healthful activities arranged by the travel firm.

Skylar substitutes thin-sliced zucchini for pasta in lasagna, wraps sandwiches with leafy greens instead of bread, buys corn pasta and uses flourless sprouted wheat tortillas. Skylar keeps it pretty simple, though, because he wants to employ techniques Pure Kauai's clients can readily adapt at home.

Skylar said that, in contrast to the popular impression of adherents to the Zone plan, he doesn't advocate a low-carbohydrate diet; he advocates a diet low in starchy carbohydrates and high in water-rich carbohydrates (mostly fresh fruits and vegetables). But the starchy carbs — wheat, corn, rice and other common grains — are the ones people are most used to, so there is some adjustment involved.

Because Pure Kauai sees its vacations as transitional times for clients, who may be exploring options for a more healthy lifestyle or seeking respite from an overindulgent life, Skylar is careful to keep some familiar foods in the plan — a bit of whole wheat naan bread alongside a lentil curry, for example, but the bread becomes almost a garnish, not a major portion of the plate.

"I'm not just putting people on such a strict new thing that they are looking at all this unrecognizable food," he said.

Like many sensible weight-control plans, the Zone advocates the use of lean protein, low-carbohydrate grains, vegetables and fruits, and mono-unsaturated fat such as extra-virgin olive oil. The focus, Skylar said, is on balance — a proportion of 30 percent protein, 30 percent fat and 40 percent water-rich carbohydrates.

Perhaps without meaning to, however, diets such as these have demonized carbohydrates in the minds of Americans, and the marketplace has responded with everything from low-carbohydrate energy bars to a new low-carbohydrate beer, Michelob Ultra.

Skylar makes use of a number of products from the health-food store that offer a taste or texture similar to familiar breads and pastas, but are better for you: mana bread (sprouted wheat bread with no yeast, no flour, usually found in the frozen section at regular grocery stores or health foods stores); rice, quinoa or vegetable pastas.

But some of the substitutions are easy: brown rice instead of white; steel-cut oats instead of instant; soy flour and protein powder in place of white flour; and turkey, chicken or fish instead of bacon and bologna.

Replacing unhealthful food with leaner ingredients isn't the biggest challenge to most dieters, however. It's the tedium of buying, measuring and cooking the same kinds of basic diet food.

The Zone's restrictions might discourage many home chefs, and some low-carbohydrate cookbooks, including "Zone Perfect Meals in Minutes" (Regan Books, 1997), by Barry Sears, founder of the Zone diet, don't offer much for discriminating palates. The recipes tend to rely on dried spices, prepackaged seasoning and sauce mixes, or artificial products such as egg substitute.

But the restrictions have become a creative challenge to some chefs.

"If I'm handed a recipe, I say, 'How can I clean it up and extract things that we aren't supposed to use?' " Robinson said.

He has incorporated new cooking techniques, as well as ingredients. Unlike most commercial kitchens, Sunfare stocks nonstick cookware, trades longer cooking times for smaller amounts of oil, and often builds an entrée beginning with the sauce.

"Most restaurants worry about getting food out quickly," Robinson said. "They use higher heat and more oil." His "low and slow" technique — reducing the oil as necessary to cook — allows him to create low-carbohydrate, lower-fat, crumb-like crusts for sautéed fish and chicken parmesan, for example.

After much experimentation, Robinson created his low-carbohydrate ravioli and pizza. To make "ravioli," disks of thinly sliced and blanched celery root are layered with mozzarella, smoked Gouda and seasoned ground chicken, and topped with a final, cheese-sprinkled layer of celery root.

The result is surprisingly accurate: The celery root flavor fades and you're left with just a pasta-like texture.

He has created a nut-free pesto sauce — basically, a standard recipe that omits the nuts and uses lime juice for a spike of extra flavor — and a soft taco that wraps shredded chicken and salsa inside a shell of butter lettuce.

Brandston finds himself scouring L.A.'s vast ethnic groceries and restaurants for inspiration. He has discovered sweet-potato noodles in Koreatown that combine with spinach and eggs for a lighter egg foo young; created lasagna with slices of sweet potato standing in for the pasta sheets; and crafted a crépe batter by substituting soy flour and protein powder for the white flour.

Skylar makes use of just a scattering of nuts or grains (such as toasted pine nuts and oats on a breakfast fruit platter) to give the diner the feeling that they've had their morning "toast."

He offers two vegetables alongside each entrée, instead of the usual rice or potato. And he throws out custom, surprising clients with dishes they wouldn't normally think of, such as a Mediterranean salad of cucumbers and tomatoes with a vegetable egg white omelet for breakfast.

A typical Pure Kauai menu might include: papaya with maple yogurt, almonds and granola for breakfast; a snack of carrots with ginger and soy dipping sauce; lunch of hummus wrap with tempeh and wild greens; snack of summer rolls with coconut curry sauce; and dinner of corn pasta with marinara and ground-turkey meatballs.

The Los Angeles Times and Advertiser food editor Wanda Adams contributed to this report.

• • •

Sauces key to adding variety

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — The first two recipes are from Chad Robinson at Sunfare in Los Angeles.

Goya Sauce

  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1 yellow bell pepper
  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 clove garlic
  • Salt

Roast the bell peppers over a gas flame, turning, until the skin chars, 5 to 10 minutes. (You also can place the peppers 6 inches beneath the broiler.) Place the peppers in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let stand 5 minutes. Peel, seed and chop.

Combine the peppers, oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt to taste in a blender until emulsified. Makes 2 1/4 cups (save the remainder for another use).

Each serving of fish with sauce: 323 calories; 164 mg. sodium; 36 mg. cholesterol; 22 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 27 grams protein; 0.85 gram fiber.

Total time: 20 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating; servings: 6.

Nutless Pesto Sauce

  • 1 cup basil leaves, loosely packed
  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 3/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
  • Dash seasoning salt

Combine the basil, oil, garlic, cheese, lime juice and salt in blender, and purée to desired consistency.

Total time: 15 minutes; servings: 6 (á cup).

The next recipe is from Raj Brandston at Zone Gourmet in Los Angeles. Sweet potato noodles can be found at Asian markets.

Sweet-potato Noodle and Turkey Stack

  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 cup chopped green onions
  • 1/4 jalapeno, minced
  • 1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms
  • 1 1/2 ounces ground turkey
  • 2 cups loosely packed spinach, cooked and chopped
  • 2 tablespoons light soy sauce, divided
  • 2 egg whites
  • 2 ounces sweet potato noodles

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, green onions and jalapeno and cook until softened, 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until tender, 2 minutes. Crumble the turkey into the skillet and cook, stirring, until the turkey is no longer pink, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the spinach and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Drizzle the egg whites over everything and cook until set, stirring lightly to combine; set aside.

Bring 2 cups of water, the remaining soy sauce and sesame oil to boil in a small saucepan. Add the noodles and cook until tender, about 4 1/2 minutes. Drain the noodles and stir into the turkey mixture. Serve hot.

Each of 2 servings: 350 calories; 779 mg. sodium; 15 mg. cholesterol; 15 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 38 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 6.25 grams fiber.

Total time: 40 minutes; servings: 1 to 2.