These techniques and tips are smart ways to help you use less fat, eat fewer calories, and add great flavor.
Heat the skillet first.
When sautéing, pan searing, or stir-frying, get the skillet hot
before you add the oil. When oil is added to a hot pan, the pan heats the oil, making it thinner. Then when you tilt the pan to coat it with
the oil, the oil, skims the surface, coating the pan using less oil than you would use if the pan were cold. Food will not stick to a lightly oiled hot pan, even if the pan isn’t nonstick, so cleanup is easier. Food added to a hot pan browns, caramelizing the natural sugars in foods, giving it better flavor.
Stir vegetables; let meat and fish set.
When you sauté vegetables or make a stir-fry, begin stirring the food immediately to coat it with the small amount of oil you are using. For pan-searing steaks, chops, chicken breasts, or fish fillets, let the food cook on one side until it is well browned before turning it, usually 2 to 4 minutes. If you try to turn the food, and it seems stuck, let it cook for another minute and it will release from the pan.
Salt and taste as you cook.
Reducing sodium intake is a goal that almost everyone should have, but cooking without any added salt makes bland, boring meals that satisfy no one. Keep a small dish of Diamond Crystal kosher salt with a 1⁄8 teaspoon measure near the stove. Add salt to anything you cook 1⁄8 teaspoon at a time—and have a small taste
after each addition. Adding salt little by little and tasting as you go will help you season food just right.
Crumble cheeses when they’re cold.
To distribute the fantastic flavor of feta, ricotta salata, blue cheese, and goat cheese while using as little as possible, crumble them when they are cold.
Serve meat in thin slices.
Cut cooked steaks, boneless pork chops, pork tenderloin, and chicken breast into thin slices. It makes less look like more, and thin slices mean you take smaller bites and savor the meat more.
