Newsletter 1/6/10 —YouTube, Tahini vs. Bacon, and Tasty Greens
In this issue, check out the first Cook for Good video on YouTube! And ring out the Year of Bacon and ring in the Year of Tahini, starting with my New Year's Day invention: Tasty Tahini Greens.
|
|
Cook for Good on YouTube.  Learn how to sort beans, check out my apron in action, and find out how much you can save by cooking dried beans instead of canned ones, all here on my first YouTube video. For a limited time, the link featured on the video goes to a special ebook offer: save $1.50 on Cook for Good Basics, just $5.45 for YouTube watchers. Thanks so much to Chistine Ramsey, Bill Ramsey, and RKM Productions for producing the video.
Bacon vs. Tahini. How did bacon become both the top punchline and the top hot ingredient last year? Chocolate-covered bacon was the thrill food at the state fairs this year and the butt of jokes on ESPN. Conan O'Brian called it "perfect for Wisconsin residents who are in the mood for something light." Chef Fred Thompson came up with Bacon Peanut-Butter Chocolate Truffles for those who want something more substantial. (No, I'm not giving you the link to his recipe!)
This year, let's leave bacon behind and bring on tahini, the creamy sesame-seed spread that adds a toasty, hearty flavor to dishes ... with half the saturated fat of bacon without hog lagoons or grease splatters. Tahini is a great source of copper, manganese, calcium, and iron. It's the clear nutritional winner, according to the USDA's National Nutrient Database:
| |
bacon (3 slices pan-fried) |
tahini (1 tablespoon) |
| calories |
126
|
89
|
| saturated fat |
3.2 grams |
1.1 grams |
| unsaturated fat |
5.4 grams |
6.5 grams |
% fat saturated
|
37%
|
14%
|
| cholesterol |
27 mg |
0 |
| sodium |
575 mg |
27 mg |
fiber
|
0
|
1.4 grams |
So mix up some hummus, top your salads with lemon-tahini dressing, and stir tahini into your collards for healthy old-time flavor. Instead of BLT sandwiches this summer, make TLTs.
 Tasty Tahini Collards. I was chagrined to see that I let you get to New Year's Day without a recipe for collards on the site. These robust greens are cheap, hearty, and super-good for you. For years, I'd used a traditional recipe from Bill Neal's Southern Cooking. But he calls for pork sidemeat and more than an hour of boiling. He also throws away the collard stems, which just need a little extra cooking to make them tender. The stems add bulk, too, which helps keep your big bag of collards from cooking down to nothing. Serve collards all winter. They are sweeter when they've been touched by frost.
|
|
Shopping and Cooking Tune-Up Workshop. Hope to see you on January 23rd from 1:00 - 4:00 pm at the Whole Foods Market in Raleigh. See workshop description and registration info >>
Thank you for every action you take to make the world a better place, no matter how small. It adds up!
Have a delicious day!
|
Linda Watson
Cook for Good |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
