THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407280036
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY FLACHSENHAAR, SPECIAL TO SUNDAY FLAVOR
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
ORANGE JUICE is not just for breakfast anymore.
Apple juice is not just for the school lunchbox.
And lemon juice is not just for sprinkling on a piece of fish.
Long relegated to bit parts at meals, fruit juices have gained new status in this era of healthful eating.
As roles for former headliners salt and oil get smaller, fruit juices are being awarded bigger parts in home and restaurant kitchens. In addition to their traditional use in salads dressings and marinades, fruit juices now appear on many ingredients lists for main dishes, vegetables, soups and baked goods.
It's not so much what juice has; it's what it doesn't have that accounts for its new-found celebrity:
Fruit juice has no fat. And it has few calories.
While a half cup of oil contains 112 grams of fat and 960 calories, a half cup of orange, apple or pineapple juice contains 0 grams of fat and about 55 calories.
``Juice provides another liquid medium to cook in, an alternative to a high-fat liquid like oil,'' explained Katherine Tate, a dietitian with Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
These fat-gram-conscious days, that is its main appeal. Although its glowing resume goes on.
``Because fruit juice is acidic, it tenderizes foods very well,'' Tate said. ``Juice provides lots of nutrients and also lots of flavor, which makes it especially useful to people watching their sodium intake.''
When the sodium in a dish is reduced or removed, the flavor often goes with it. But fruit juices, especially lime and lemon, can inject life back into a bland dish. Many contemporary recipes even use juices in concentrated form for a powerful punch of flavor.
In his book ``Fork in the Road'' (William Morrow and Co. Inc., 1993), Paul Prudhomme intensifies the flavors of fruit juices even further by reducing juice concentrates to syrups (see Sweet and Creamy Cole Slaw, inside). The syrups impart the richness Prudhomme used to achieve with butter and oil and the sweetness he got with sugar.
These days, as cookbooks and restaurants popularize exotic, ethnic dishes, home cooks are getting more daring about using recipes that blend fruits with meats, Tate said. ``People used to be kind of skittish about that,'' she said.
Tate encourages cooks to be just as bold in experimenting with fruit juices in old favorite recipes. A marinade is a good place to start.
``Try replacing some of the oil with fruit juice in a marinade,'' she said. That's the sort of thing you can just throw together. You don't have to be perfect.''
But the results might be. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff photos
ABOVE: Citrus Grilled Chicken, Calico Bean Salad, and Carrot and
Orange Soup. TOP LEFT: Grapefruit-Pineapple Slush.
by CNB