A culinary challenge!

[spyderella]

You folks are some of the most talented foodies I know, so I am inviting your contribution to a creative challenge...

A woman in my Weight Watchers meeting lamented that she hears people commiserate with sweet-tooth sufferers, but what about those of us who crave fat? (That she feels alone in this craving is a funny twist of perception, but we're

Comments

[spyderella]

To kick things off, here's what I've got so far...

misternihil, your chicken-fried portabella mushrooms are a good candidate. Would you mind sharing the recipe?

Buffalo is a much leaner meat than beef; potential here.

Many tiny biscuits, using a mini-muffin pan, instead of one or two big ones?

For the cream gravy, what are some other ways to create that texture? Fat-free buttermilk is thick and creamy, but how's the taste, and what else would it need? I'm not much of a cream-gravy connosoire, so I'm a little out of my depth here.

Instead of fried okra, how about sautéd? (Or maybe asparagus, for those of us who didn't grow up with that weird-ass vegetable.) You still want some bready-crunchy experience, so maybe a spare dusting of coarse-chopped almonds, instead of a full dredge of breading.

Mashed sweet potatoes curl my toes. I could eat plate after plate of these, and they don't need anything but a dash of salt.

I need to learn more about what's in the genre of food (without putting on the 15 pounds it would take me to really find out).

[don_negro]

Stewed okra and tomatoes, with onions, ladled over cornbread or a corn hoecake.
6 oz chicken fried steak.
Green beans boiled to desired texture in a bacon, sugar, garlic broth.
I could probably bring that in under 300 calories.

I can't eat cream gravy, either, so I make brown bacon gravy for my biscuits. Basically just a dark brown roux made in bacon grease, with the bacon crumbled back in after you add the water. It's caloric as hell, basically just hog lard emulsified in water, but a little goes a long way.

[spyderella]

Thanks! The cornbread is a great inclusion, because you can get a lot of comfort for not very much fat.

I'm not so sure about your, uh, creative gravy solution.

[nfnitperplexity]

Olestra.

[nfnitperplexity]

Actually I have no idea how olestra behaves under various circumstances so I don't know if you can make gravy out of it.

[spyderella]

I will gently remind you of one of the rules:

> without resorting to fake foods

No, actually, I think you have a lot of great ideas about food. You were high in my mind when I posted this challenge. I know you can do better than Olestra.

[nfnitperplexity]

I'm pretty sure the cream gravy thing can't be done without resorting to fake foods, is why I said that. That's sort of a holy grail.

[the_macnab]

The trick with a lot of southern food is that it's fried, full stop. If you're trying to replicate the taste of fried food without using a lot of fat or resorting to fake food (great idea), then things get hard quickly

Part II

[the_macnab]

Which brings us to cream gravy. Part of the question here is, what type of cream gravy do you like? I can't stomach the thinnish, whitish, relatively flavorless stuff haphazardly flecked with pepper that you find in many southern restaurants. I want the stuff that's mid- to dark-gray from all the pan-drippings in it and dusty with pepper. The advantage of this type is that, like a strong brown gravy, a little of it goes a long way.

The trick to stretching gravy is flavor. This should be obvious, but people often overlook it. You eat a lot more gravy if it's relatively flavorless, but a teaspoon of demi-glace can cap an entire entree. In between is the ideal gravy for me.

To begin with, only make gravy when you have the right stuff. I'm talking about a skillet or roasting pan with lots of good, brown drippings in it. Next, get rid of as much of the grease as possible! It's maddening how many people leave too much fat in their gravy and, partly as a result, think of gravy as the worst of the worst when it comes to fat. You don't need

[misternihil]

OK