Recipes from Rocco
DiSpirito
Red Velvet
Chocolate Squares
The recipe for
red velvet cake has been around since the 1920s, when the cake was the signature dessert at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. The cake captured my heart — and it plays hard to get. It took me
forever to come up with a magical adaptation that would capture the richness of its namesake. These bars get
their health benefits, velvety texture, and deep red color from a paste made of beets, red beans, cocoa
powder, and red food coloring. I took a slight departure from the traditional red velvet cake flavor by
adding a touch of almond extract, and that, my friends, is where the magic
happened.
Cold Is
Best
I’ve experimented
with these squares many times in my kitchen. What I discovered is that, unlike most baked items, these
squares and the Fudgy Fruit and Nut Bars (page 265) taste best after being refrigerated for at least three
hours. Chilling the bars coalesces the flavor and stabilizes the texture. So please: Enjoy them cold, and
you’ll enjoy them more.
Recipe (Makes 12
bars)
Ingredients:
Butter-flavoured nonstick
cooking spray
1/2 cup chopped canned
beets, drained
7 ounces (about 1 cup)
canned red beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
powder
3/4 cup liquid egg
substitute
3 tablespoons whole wheat
pastry flour
3/4 cup agave
nectar
1 tablespoon unsalted
butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
extract
1/2 teaspoon almond
extract
2 teaspoons natural red
food colouring
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Spray an 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Combine the beets, beans,
cocoa powder, egg substitute, and flour in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture is smooth,
about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl halfway through.
Add the agave, butter,
vanilla, almond extract, and food colouring. Process until all of the ingredients are combined, about 1
minute.
Pour the batter into the
prepared baking dish, and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 20 minutes, turning the dish halfway
through the baking time. Turn down the temperature of the oven to 300 degrees and bake for another 5 to 8
minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out with a little bit of soft batter clinging to it.
It should not come out clean, if it does it’s overcooked.
Let the brownies cool
completely in the baking dish on a wire rack. Then put them in the fridge for at least 3 hours. When they’re
cold, cut them into 12 squares and serve. Refrigerate any leftovers.
Before: 39 Fat Grams, 636
Calories
After: 1.5 Fat Grams, 106
Calories
PER SERVING: 106 calories
1.5g fat (1g sat/0g mono/0g poly)2.5mg cholesterol 62mg sodium 22g carbohydrate 2g fiber 3g
protein
Flash-Fried
Chicken “Carnitas”
CARNITAS
ARE
CHUNKS OF PORK that are first simmered in a flavorful broth and then fried in their own rendered fat
until crispy. Needless to say, they are loaded with fat and calories. To keep the flavor level high and the
calorie and fat count low, I used chicken simmered in broth, a well-seasoned cornmeal coating, and a method
for flash frying that I developed. The buttermilk stands in for Mexican crema and has about 10 percent of the
fat and calories of its Mexican counterpart.
Simmering is a slow
cooking method that works best at 160 F — use a thermometer.
Recipe (Serves
4)
Ingredients:
(For the
carnitas)
3 cups low-fat, low-sodium
chicken broth
4 pieces of chicken
(skinless, boneless chicken breasts with wings attached, thighs, and drumsticks; about 1 pound
total)
2 quarts grapeseed oil or
corn oil
3⁄4 cup fine-ground yellow
cornmeal
3⁄4 cup whole wheat
flour
3 tablespoons adobo
powder, Goya or similar
Salt
Freshly ground black
pepper
2 cups low-fat
buttermilk
For the
salad:
1⁄2 medium Hass avocado,
peeled and sliced paper thin
4 cups shredded iceberg
lettuce
2 ripe roma tomatoes,
halved and thinly sliced
1 small red onion, halved
lengthwise and thinly sliced
Salt
Freshly ground black
pepper
2 tablespoons lime
juice
1 bunch
cilantro
8 lime
wedges
Oil is
flammable.
Follow these tips to be
safe when deep-fat frying:
Have a fire extinguisher
handy.
Never cover the pot while
heating oil.
Always use a thermometer,
400 F is the max temp needed.
Water + hot oil = IED
(improvised explosive device); keep water away from hot oil.
Use longs tongs or a fry
basket; do not put fingers inside the pot for any reason.
METHOD
Heat the chicken broth to
simmering (160 F) in a large saucepan over high heat, seasoning it generously with salt. Add the chicken to
the pan, and return the broth to a simmer (160 F). Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the
chicken is tender when you poke it with a fork and no longer pink, about 30 minutes. Remove the chicken from
the broth, pat it dry, and set it aside on a platter. Cover the platter with foil to keep the chicken warm.
Reserve the stock for another use. Pour the grapeseed oil into a large pot with high sides. (There should be
at least 2 inches of oil in the pot.) Clip a deep-frying thermometer to the side of the pot and be sure the
point of the thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pot. Heat the oil to 400 F over medium
heat.
Set a wire rack in a
rimmed baking sheet or over several layers of paper towels (for draining the chicken). In a shallow dish,
whisk together the cornmeal, flour, adobo, 2 teaspoons salt, and black pepper until thoroughly
combined.
Prepare the salad: In a
medium bowl, toss the avocado, lettuce, tomato, and red onion and season with salt and pepper and lime juice.
Divide the salad among 4 serving plates.
Pour the buttermilk into a
bowl. Cut the chicken into 11⁄2-inch pieces and add them to the buttermilk. Turn the chicken pieces gently in
the buttermilk, coating them completely. Lift the chicken pieces from the buttermilk one at a time with a
fork, and let any excess buttermilk drip back into the bowl. Add a few pieces of coated chicken to the
cornmeal mix and coat them completely in the mix. Bounce the coated chicken gently in your palm to shake off
any excess flour. Put the coated chicken on the baking sheet, and repeat this step with the remaining
chicken. Sift any remaining coating mix to remove bits of chicken or buttermilk and store it covered in a
cool place for up to a few weeks.
Fry the chicken, 6 to 8
pieces at a time, in the hot oil until deep golden brown, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Drain on the wire rack, and
serve immediately on top of or alongside the salad. Serve with cilantro and lime wedges. (Let the oil cool
completely, and then strain it through a very fine sieve. It will keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks
and can be used 2 to 3 more times before discarding.)
Before: 30 fat grams, 549
calories
After: 13 fat grams, 280
calories
PER SERVING: 280 calories
13g fat (2g sat/4g mono/6g poly) 75mg cholesterol 747mg sodium 13g carbohydrate 3g fiber 27g
protein
Lifestyler™ Rocco DiSpirito Book Giveaway
Contest
Lifestyler
magazine is giving away a signed copy of Rocco DiSpirito’s new book entitled
Now Eat
This! 100 Quick Calorie Cuts at Home / On-the-Go. No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary
to enter or win. To enter, simply “Like” the Lifestyler magazine Facebook page or “reply” to the contest details that are posted
on the Lifestyler magazine Facebook wall. The deadline to enter is January 31, 2012. A winner will
be selected randomly from amongst the entrants.
CONTEST
RULES
SPONSOR
1. The Sponsor of
the Rocco DiSpirito Book Giveaway Contest [“the Contest”] that is governed by these Contest Rules [“these
rules”] is Evolusent Inc. [“Sponsor”]
TERM
2. The term of
the Contest shall commence at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on December
13th, 2011 and end at 12:00 p.m. EST on January 31st, 2012.
CONTEST OF
SKILL
3. The Contest is
a contest of skill.
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ENTER
4. The Contest is
open only to Canadian citizens who have reached the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence at the
time of entry and who do NOT reside in the Province of Quebec. Employees of Sponsor and its subsidiaries and
affiliates, and their immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses,
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related are not eligible. THE CONTEST IS VOID IN THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC AND WHERE OTHERWISE
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ENTER
5. No purchase or
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6. The odds of
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WINNING
7. A potential
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REQUIREMENTS FOR
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PRIZES
9. The winner of
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his/her name and city of residence will be published in the March 2012 issue of
Lifestyler magazine.
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Recipes Courtesy of
Now Eat This! 100 Quick Calorie Cuts by Rocco DiSpirito
