Posted on: Wednesday, December 29, 2004
RECIPE DOCTOR
Keep potato recipe's bacon flavor while cutting calories
By Elaine Magee
Q. I love this recipe my in-laws make with potatoes but it is quite greasy. Here's a sketchy version of the recipe (which no one seems to have written down) that I hope you can make sense of and of course, lighten.
A. This particular dish's greasiness is all about the bacon and bacon drippings, which are used for cooking the onion and basting the potatoes. To lighten this dish up but preserve the savory, bacon-y flavors, we are keeping the bacon (but using a little less) and losing the drippings altogether. I used a lower-fat bacon such as Louis Rich Turkey Bacon.
Instead of sauteing the onion in the drippings, I used a nonstick frying pan and a minimum of canola oil (1 tablespoon). To keep this dish moist and full of flavor though, I used double strength chicken broth. Toward the end of cooking, potatoes are topped with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and some fresh parsley if desired.
Original recipe contains around 450 calories, 24 grams fat, 11 grams saturated fat and 38 mg cholesterol per potato.
LIGHTER POTATOES
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook bacon until golden and crisp. Remove to paper towels to cool then crumble into pieces. Set aside.
In large, nonstick frying pan, saute the onion with the canola oil over medium-high heat until they are soft and beginning to brown. Set aside.
Lay the potatoes on a flat surface and make 1/4-inch slices along the length of each potato but stop about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the potato skin (to keep the potato intact). Place the potatoes in a 9 by 9-inch baking pan (use a 9 by 13-inch if doubling the recipe) and pour the chicken broth over the potatoes going inside the slices as much as possible. Cover the dish with foil and bake 30 minutes.
Remove the foil and drizzle the chicken broth in the bottom of the pan over the potatoes again and top the potatoes evenly with the reserved onions and bacon pieces. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes more or until potatoes are soft. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and parsley if desired over the tops of the potatoes and bake 10 minutes more. Serve!
Makes 5 servings.
• Per serving: 267 calories, 8.5 g protein, 44 g carbohydrate, 6.2 g fat (1.5 g saturated fat, 2.8 g monounsaturated fat, 1.6 g polyunsaturated fat), 14 mg cholesterol, 5 g fiber, 400 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 21 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids .5 g. Omega-6 fatty acids 1 g. Weight Watchers 5 POINTS Elaine Magee's new book, "The Change of Life Diet and Cookbook," is in bookstores. Reach her through www.recipedoctor.com. Column distributed by Knight Ridder News Service.
