THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Thursday, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510110053 SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: By DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
TWENTY tablespoons of butter.
Twenty tablespoons of butter?
Used to be a regular ingredient in many of Chef Paul Prudhomme's recipes. The big man of Cajun cooking never thought twice about it. The butter, the pork lard, the chicken fat. Can you feel your arteries clogging?
But Prudhomme, who will appear Sunday as part of the 16th annual Farm Fresh Extravaganza, has, in the past few years, received the message.
The cook who reveled in the use of heavy cream has heard the siren call of low-fat, low-sugar cooking. Of nonfat sour cream and skim milk.
He's even using fruit juice to replace some of the sweetness of butter. Praise the American Heart Association.
Why, he's even taken the message unto himself - and dropped 169 pounds in recent years. Now, Prudhomme, 55, is close to his ``ideal weight'' of 350 pounds. Only six more pounds to go.
Wait a minute. 350 pounds? He's 5 feet, 9 inches tall.
``I think everyone in the world is different,'' Prudhomme said in a telephone interview from his test kitchen in his native Louisiana. ``To say everyone has the same weight needs is like saying everyone should eat the same foods.
``I've been overweight since I was 8 years old. Because of that, my body adapted to the weight.''
At 300 pounds, he said, he feels like a 20-year-old hotrod ready to speed anywhere. Anything below 350 and he feels wonderful and different. ``I have more energy. I can go more hours. And I just feel more alert for longer periods of time.''
At that weight, he said, he can work 18 hours a day instead of 14.
Those hours are spent on a variety of projects, everything from readying new cookbooks, to trying new recipes, to adapting foods from European and American conglomerates to using less preservatives and more natural flavorings.
A new cookbook is due out next month. ``Fiery Foods That I Love'' is the result of Prudhomme's travels around the world, where he collects recipes, ingredients and tastes like a wine-lover collects labels.
The recipes cannot be generalized under any particular native cuisine, he said. ``I may have ingredients from Jamaica, India and Europe all in the same dish. It's just good food.''
Next on the bookshelves will be an update to his legendary ``Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen,'' published in 1984. He's timing the release of the new version for exactly 13 years after the first. ``I have a lot of 13s in my life,'' he said. There are 13 letters in his name; he was born on July 13; and he is youngest of 13 children.
The new book will, like the original, draw upon recipes used in his signature New Orleans restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen. With one very important difference - they'll be healthier.
``We still use the best ingredients, but a lot of times it depends on when you put the ingredients in a dish,'' he said, explaining his new approach to cooking. ``For instance, if you want great butter flavor in a dish, we use a minimum amount of butter and oil, then right at the end, before shutting the fire off, add a tablespoon of butter. And the first thing that comes out is great butter taste.''
Hence, the demise of the 20 tablespoons of butter.
As the fat is reduced, however, he warns home cooks to also reduce the spices. Fat absorbs flavor, so more seasoning is required. Proteins, carbohydrates and starches don't stop the taste of herbs and spices, he said, just lets them straight through.
He's also learned to cook meats and vegetables without oil. The secret, he says, is to heat a skillet very hot - up to 350 degrees - before adding the meat.
It's also important to have a pan in pretty good shape, he said, because ridges and spurs in the bottom will cause the meat to stick. If the pan is hot enough, though, the steam pushes the meat up from the bottom so it doesn't stick.
He'll be using that technique Sunday when he demonstrates Hot and Sweet Chicken. It's a nonfat-added dish, like those in his 1993 cookbook, ``Fork in the Road.''
He'll also show how to make Green Chili, a recipe he developed 30 years ago when he was cooking in a hotel in El Paso, Texas. It was a favorite with the mostly Mexican staff there, he said.
``One of the things I learned back then is that when you went into a kitchen you cook something that the staff likes and then they have more respect for you.'' One day after feeding his staff their native foods, he was introducing them to his native Louisiana Cajun food.
With the 20 tablespoons of butter. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo Chef Paul Prudhomme will appear Sunday as part of
the 16th annual Farm Fresh Extravaganza. His new cookbook is Fiery
Food I Love."
by CNB