Oil and Vinegar Coleslaw

I got a request for a mayonaise-free coleslaw the other day. (BTW, Maria, I told you it had poppy seeds, but I misremembered. It was celery seeds. Although I can't see why you couldn't use poppy seeds if you want. . . .)

Celery Seed Dressing

1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1 to 2 tsp celery seed
1 tbsp grated onion (or 1 tsp dried onion flakes)
1 cup oil
1/2 cup cider vinegar

Put the sugar, salt, mustard, celery seed, onion, and half the oil and vinegar in a blender. Blend until the seeds are uniformly distributed. Slowly add the rest of the oil, and then the vinegar, blending thoroughly.

Notes:
Pour as much as you like over shredded cabbage and carrots. Use the kind in the bag; I do.

This makes a lot of dressing. Save the rest in the refrigerator.

You can make this with an egg beater or hand mixer, but the blender is better. Just shaking it up in a jar doesn't distribute the sugar as well, and it separates faster.

SOY-FREE CONSIDERATIONS:
Do not use generic "vegetable oil"; use canola or another identified one-ingredient oil like safflower or "light" olive oil.

Chicken Divan

Chicken Divan has come full circle. Originally made with mornay sauce (bechamel or white sauce with cheese in it), over the years it turned into something you dumped canned chicken, frozen broccoli and a can of cream-of-something-soup into.

Well. We don't eat cream-of-something soup anymore because it usually has soy. I don't like frozen broccoli because the stems are tough and the crowns are mushy. So, let's go with a standard recipe and cut down on some of the butter and cheese to reduce the fat. The classic cheeses to use are half gruyere and half parmesan, but you can use anything you have on hand. We like sharp cheddar.

Chicken Divan
Serves 4

4 cups broccoli
4 tsp butter
1/4 cup minced onion or shallot (optional)
3 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup chicken broth (or water)
1 tsp chicken bouillon powder or 1 cube
1 cup milk
2 oz shredded cheese (1/2 cup)
10 oz sliced, cooked chicken
Cooked noodles, rice, or toast

1. Steam the broccoli--let the water in the steamer come to a rolling boil, then steam the broccoli for 8 or 9 minutes, covered.

2. While the broccoli is cooking, melt the butter in a large saucepan. Saute the optional onions until they are soft but not browning at the edges. (If you don't want to do this, add 1 tsp minced dried onion later with the chicken bouillon.)

3. Sprinkle the flour over the melted butter and stir. Add the chicken broth or water all at once and stir until smooth. Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly, until it is all incorporated and smooth. Heat until just bubbly.

4. Add the chicken bouillon and shredded cheese, and stir until the cheese is melted. Add the chicken and stir to coat with sauce.

5. Dish out the rice, noodles, or toast on 4 plates or shallow soup dishes. Divide up the broccoli over this. Ladle the chicken and sauce over all.

Note: If you are really energetic you can poach your own chicken for this. I simmer chicken breasts with some celery leaves, a couple of baby carrots, several grinds of pepper, and a bay leaf. When it is done, I simmer the broth down to concentrate it and use in the recipe.

No-soy considerations:
Check the chicken bouillon for soy.
If serving over toast, check the bread for soy or soy oil.

Obesity and Processed Foods

Today in the Washington Post, on page 2 of the Outlook section in a column called Outspoken, David Kessler, the former head of the Food and Drug Adminstration, talks about the connection between processed food and obesity. Also today, in the New York Times Magazine, is an article called Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. It is about: the movie Julie and Julia, the disconnect between TV food shows and cooking. . . and the connection between processed food and obesity.

The NYT article quotes Harry Belzer, "a veteran food-marketing researcher". In answer to a question on how to "undo the damage that the modern diet of industrially prepared food has done to our health", he says,

"Easy. You want Americans to eat less? I have the diet for you. It's short, and it's simple. Here's my diet plan: Cook it yourself. That's it. Eat anything you want -- just as long as you're willing to cook it yourself."

Looking at the soy allergy in a glass-half-full kind of way, I say we're way ahead of the rest of America on this one. We have to cook a lot of our foods from scratch and we don't eat out much. I won't say I couldn't lose (ahem) a few pounds, but I still eat processed foods. Granted I had to hunt them down in Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and among the gazillions of foods on the regular grocery store aisles, but I eat crackers, breakfast cereal, cheesy-poofs and the like.

Maybe I'll stop.

England and Scotland Don't Let You Know What Vegetable Oil They Use.

Just got back from Scotland and northern England. They don't seem to use much soy oil, but it's hard to tell. They list ingredients on groceries, but don't tell you which "vegetable oil" is used.

Sometimes a product will tell you--mostly when it's trying to convince you it's organic or a health food. They they will list safflower oil or the like.

The pubs and restaurants are very helpful, though. Britain has a lot of vegetarians and other heath-food aficionados, and they will go out of their way to make sure you get what you want to eat. One pub cooked me a ham and egg supper with no oil, and a waiter at Heathrow airport went back himself to check out the oil in his restaurant's kitchen (it was soy, darn it.)

We had two suppers at the pub pictured, with the kitchen staff making my chicken one night and trout the next was made with with butter or olive oil. Another day we had a wonderful lunch at a little cafe next to a train station where the proprietor was Spanish. She made us a Spanish tortilla with salad and potatoes, all with olive oil. She said she had had a customer in the day before with a soy allergy, so she was already familiar with what she could serve and what she could not.