Low-Fat Cooking

Patricia A. Myers is a historian at the Historic Sites and Archives
Service, Alberta Community Development, and the author of Sky Riders: An
Illustrated History of Aviation in Alberta, 1906–1945.

These latest cookbooks by Jean Paré focus on healthier living and
low-fat eating. Both books provide cooks with good information on the
caloric content of fat, different kinds of fat, the types of products
that are high in fat, and how to reduce the fat content of dishes. A
quick guide to the general meanings of terms used in labeling packaged
food, such as “lite” and “reduced in fat,” is very helpful. The
nutritional content of one serving of each of the recipes is given,
based on the Canadian Nutrient File. The books remind us that flavor and
style don’t have to be sacrificed when fat content is reduced. The
recipes stress simple preparations and, for the most part, use readily
available ingredients.

Low-Fat Cooking covers everything from appetizers, salads, and cakes to
vegetables, casseroles and soups. Turkey Apple Burgers, New Age
Meatloaf, and Tomato Sherry Chicken are just three examples of the range
of nutritious fare. One of the hardest areas in which to reduce fat
content and still produce yummy results is baking and desserts.
Paré’s suggestions should make this easier and can be adapted to
recipes you already have. Putting part-skim ricotta cheese in coffee
cake, for example, or skim evaporated milk in desserts instead of cream
reduces the fat without reducing taste or texture.

The same helpful hints (the various kinds of pasta are explained, for
example) and a wide range of dishes make Low-Fat Pasta just as
appealing. Vegetable Lasagna and Spinach-Stuffed Cannelloni are here,
but so are Hunan Chicken Sauce, Warm Pepper and Lentil Medley,
Garlic-Crusted Pasta Pie, and Chocolate Cheese Manicotti. There are
salads, stuffed pastas, fish and seafood dishes, and soups.

Both books are nicely illustrated and feature the helpful lay-flat
binding. Company’s Coming has two more winners here.