Al Dente

Cooking Green: A New Book to Help You Reduce Your Carbon Footprint--in the Kitchen!

Living green is the new normal. I spent two years researching Cooking Green and came up with green strategies that are effective, painless, and go beyond organics and recycling. And if a time-crunched omnivore like me can cook green every day, so can anyone. This book empowers you to shrink your “cookprint.” You’ll discover ways to prepare favorite meals using less fuel and water, and make greener choices along the entire food chain, from field to market to home (it’s like a personal eco-consultant whenever you cook, shop, or eat).

Here’s a chapter-by-chapter look at Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen--the New Green Basics Way.

Did You Know...12% of greenhouse gas emissions (or 14,160 pounds of CO2 per household) result from just growing, shipping, and preparing our food.

Intro: How we cook is as important as what we cook. Fortunately, the kitchen is the place where you can make real green choices, and take direct control of your impact--through passive and active cooking strategies, water conservation tips, and low-carbon choices for cookware, appliances, foods, water heaters, dining, and more. Save money and time, too, just by rethinking how you cook and eat.

Chapter 1: Take the eco-quiz. How much do you already know about fuel, water, and energy consumption? This chapter explains how cooking works, and the new green basics of cooking.

Fact: Ovens are the Humvees of the kitchen: They waste as much as 94% of the fuel they consume. Solutions: Opt for stovetop cooking over oven cooking, use toaster ovens, convection mode, or bake multiple items simultaneously to stretch fuel use.

Chapter 2: Green up your kitchen zones. Refrigerators, appliances (big and small), barbecues, and the kitchen itself take the spotlight.

Example: Garbage disposals are so last century. Chewed up gunk gets trucked from water treatment plant to landfill, wasting water, electricity, and gasoline. Solutions: Compost, or scrape the dishes into the trash.

Chapters 3 through 5: Hands-on tactics for cooking green, from blue-oven cooking to green flame strategies on top of the stove.

Example: Rapidly boiling water is the same temperature as gently boiling water. Solution: Turn down the heat once boiling occurs. (Also, passive boiling techniques, like blanching veggies and cooking pasta in sub-boiling water, can cut energy in half.)

Chapter 6: Does cookware make a difference? You bet it does, and this chapter delivers the lowdown on fuel-efficient cookware.

Example: Thin, flimsy and Teflon-style pans wear out in one to five years; they use fuel inefficiently, and trashing them grows your cookprint. Solution: Invest in cookware that lasts; this chapter recommends affordable, energy-efficient pieces, and new nonstick pans that are also nontoxic.

Chapters 7 and 8: Practical ways to shop smart, eat green, and consume less. These chapters dive into better foods for the planet, food labels, sustainable seafood, greening your plate with meat or without, and fuel-efficient ingredients that need little or no cooking, like Vietnamese rice-paper wrappers.

Example: To create a serving of steak requires 2,607 gallons of water; an almond serving requires 12 gallons, a chicken portion uses 408 gallons, and a serving of rice uses 36 gallons. Solutions: Eat less meat, and more plant-based foods. Nuts are especially nutritious, protein-packed, and highly sustainable.

Chapter 9: With food comes waste. Control the excess food and packaging you create. (Not all waste comes from your kitchen: the restaurants you pick make a difference, too.)

Fact: Liquid beverages weigh more, creating more greenhouse gases in their transport and packaging. Solutions: Use tap water instead of bottled water, and opt for powdered Gatorade or leaf tea over bottled versions.

Recipes: The New Green Basics: Here’s where green theory goes practical. A Green Meter for each recipe indicates what makes that recipe greener, and how to integrate the strategy into your own recipes.

I hope you’ll join me in this transition to everyday green living. Once I started practicing these methods, I started seeing new opportunities to go green everywhere, and I think you will, too. But don’t take my word for it: To test-drive Cooking Green, check out sample recipes at NewGreenBasics.com, click on Amazon’s Look Inside the Book to discover more tips for cooking, living and being green.

--Kate Heyhoe

Looking for more ways to go green? Check out Amazon's Earth Day Savings Store.

Give It, Serve It, Send It

Don’t let the holidays stress you out: Host a holiday bar food party. You can also earn Santa points by giving the gift of “bar food” to others, even without cooking.

Great Bar Food at Home offers the ultimate holiday solution in one snazzy package: It’s a gorgeous, compact book you can tuck into your carry-on bag, bring to a party as a gift for the hosts, mail in a padded envelope, and serve in more than fifty different ways. Food & Wine magazine picked it as one of the best cookbooks of the year, and it was honored as a James Beard Award finalist. But I wrote it because bar food is my favorite way to eat, with or without guests.

Tribes of all ages love bar food. You know what I mean by bar food: 21 Club’s Crab Cakes, Eggplant Pizzettes, Smoked Paprika Chicken Wings, Cognac Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon...Have I got your attention? By planning your party around a bar food menu, complete with classic bar tales, you’ll have the splashiest, most memorable event of the season.

But when you’re the cook, bartender and patron all in one, you need tasty nibbles that are as easy to make as they are to eat, and ones you can prep mostly in advance. These dishes may look complicated, but they’re surprisingly simple. Some, like the Santa Fe-Caesar Crema (think guacamole with a Caesar salad punch), also serve as great pre-meal nibbles to fend off the crowd until the turkey hits the table, or the quarterback kicks the ball.

Top Tips for a Bar Food Party

Focus on just two to four bar food recipes, then fill out the spread with nibbles and small bowls of no-prep goodies, like olives and caperberries from the olive bar, antipasto meats and cheeses, and crunchy snacks like nuts or Japanese rice crackers.

Divide the prepared plates between ones made completely in advance, and ones that need only a quick reheat or last minute cooking. For instance, make the Santa-Fe Caesar Crema earlier in the day, and assemble the Eggplant Pizzettes (topped with pecans, balsamic, barbecue sauce, and provolone) on a tray, refrigerate, then when the party’s on, just broil and serve.

Dress up your holiday plates with simple garnishing. A little lime zest or splash of smoked paprika work wonders. Discover more of these easy tips at Glamorous Garnishes for Great Bar Food at Home.

Don’t buy new plates and glasses just to make a matching set, and don’t use disposables. Pick up vintage and unique pieces at thrift shops for cheap, then mix them up. As the evening wears on, your guests will always be able to identify which special plate or glass was theirs, and by repurposing old pieces instead of buying disposables, you’ll be a greener host.

Forget stemmed glasses, which so easily tip over and spill. Use stemless wine glasses or small glasses (like short juice glasses), cafe-style.

Focus on limited spirits instead of a full bar. Whip up a single special cocktail, like a punch or a pitcher of Appletini, and supplement with a red and a white wine, and some craft beers. Or, skip the spirits and serve only unique craft beers or organic wines. Include some non-alcoholic cocktails too, so non-drinkers don’t feel left out of the festivities.

Finally, set the atmosphere by using barware for food as well as drink. Stick a handful of grissini in a highball glass, or long pretzels in a beer mug. Serve olives in a tall martini glass, with cocktail picks, or in skinny shot glasses. Rim an old-fashioned with a ring of shrimp. Pour nuts, wine buttons, or bite-size cheese biscuits into a wide mouth tumbler.

Shrink Your Cookprint: Green Gifts for Cooks

Make your New Year’s goal to cook with less fuel. And give snazzy gifts that help others shrink their cookprints, too. (What’s a cookprint? Find out here.)

How you cook is as important as what you cook. Ovens, for instance, waste 94% of their fuel, earning them the title “Humvees of the kitchen.” In fact, appliances account for thirty percent of our household energy consumption, and the biggest guzzlers are in the kitchen.

The good news: You can bake, roast, broil, grill, and fry in vastly greener ways, saving fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gases, and conserving water and other resources. Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen—the New Green Basics Way shows you how, with hundreds of tips and over 50 energy- and time-saving recipes to shrink your “cookprint” (it’s available March, 2009 by Da Capo Press).

For instance, you’ll be greener if you cook on stovetops and with Crock-Pots rather than in ovens. To cut out even more fuel, speed-cook with pressure cookers and boil water in an electric kettle instead of over a burner. Lots of other tools can help shrink cookprints. Here’s a few of my favorites, personally tested for NewGreenBasics.com, and ones I use all the time:

Viking Portable Induction Burner
Induction cooking works by sending a magnetic field through ferrous metal (as in cookware containing cast iron, steel, or other combination that is magnetically reactive). The reaction creates heat (by agitating the molecules), and it’s this heat that cooks the food. The result: a near instant transfer of energy, with efficient absorption of over 90 percent of this energy (compared to around 50 percent efficiency with gas). Plus, the cooker’s surface stays cool, very little heat is released into the kitchen, and the food can actually cook quicker. The burner surface stays cool, so you avoid burned-on mess, and with this nifty portable unit, you can cook anywhere there’s a plug.

Fissler’s Blue Point Pressure Cooker
Pressure cookers save up to 50 percent of the energy used by conventional cooking, cook up to 70 percent quicker, and the foods retain more nutrients. Fissler’s design takes the concept a step further: It’s totally silent during operation, because the cooker seals completely and won’t release steam unless over-pressurized. The less steam released, the cooler the kitchen; and less water is needed because of the lower degree of water loss. Nutrients are also less diluted. As a bonus, the unit does double-duty: switch from pressure cooker to conventional mode just by sliding a button, so it’s like having two pots for the price of one.

Kuhn Rikon Hotpan
Here’s the hip, modern version of ye olde “hay box” cooker (hay-lined boxes where hot pots passively “cooked”): Heat food on the stove in a high-end, stainless steel pan with insulated, convex lid (the lid’s shape helps baste the food). Then, before the food is done, remove the pan from the stove, place it in a brightly colored shell to create a double wall of insulation, and let it passively cook, without added fuel, until done. You’ll cut fuel-consumption by half or more. Plus, the removable shell can be used separately, as a salad bowl or to keep hot breads warm, for instance.

Capresso Electric Kettle
An electric tea kettle always makes my list of functional green appliances: It boils water with less fuel than a cooktop, shuts off automatically, and you can use the hot water for more than just tea. This model boils water faster than on a stove, keeps the kitchen cooler, and it’s handy when you want to rehydrate dried mushrooms, dried tomatoes, and powdered soups; or to jumpstart a pot of water for pasta, steamed vegetables, or potatoes.

Jura-Capresso ENA 5 Coffee Center
The most complete machine I’ve seen: In 5-10 seconds it grinds the beans, tamps them, and brews them (with a perfect layer of crema) using one button and no mess; and froths milk too. Whip up espresso, latte, cappuccino, regular coffee, or tea. Adjust settings for stronger or weaker brews, coarser or finer grinds, and larger or smaller cups. The ENA 5 ranked No. 1 for energy savings in independent Swiss and German consumer tests, earning the 2008 award for most energy efficient automatic coffee machine. (It saved 40 percent more energy than other brands.) A Zero Energy Switch means no stand-by energy whatsoever, while the Energy Saving Mode reduces energy significantly when the machine is on. It’s pricey, but can pay for itself in a year compared to a daily fix of Starbucks (with superior quality and speedier results). Just the thing for specialty organic, fair trade beans, coffee lovers, and small buzzing offices.

Tulsi Hybrid-Solar Oven
The Tulsi oven is a unique breed of solar oven and a favorite of tech-minded cooks. It works without solar panels, just the heat of the sun, reflecting mirrors, and a black interior. But this particular hybrid contraption also comes with an electric booster to kick-start the heat or keep things cooking on cloudy days. When closed, the Tulsi Oven looks like a big red, hard-shelled suitcase (making it easily portable), and includes a set of cooking pans.

Remember: The kitchen is ripe with opportunities for going greener. It’s the place where people can make real choices, and take direct control of their impact – without letting the family feel deprived, hungry, or stressed. In fact, everyone will feel better just knowing they’re helping the planet – and they can do it one bite (or one cookprint) at a time. For more products and tips to green your life, visit NewGreenBasics.com, and go to Amazon.com to pre-order my book, Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen--the New Green Basics Way, available in March 2009. This book includes blue oven and green flame methods to reduce fuel usage, and cookprint-shrinking strategies that go from farm to fridge to fork.

Happy Green Holidays!

--Kate Heyhoe

Check out Kate’s favorite kitchen products in the Kitchen & Home Gift Guide.

Global Gourmet’s DIY Stuffing: Free-Form and Fabulous

Thanksgiving dinner is all about the dressing (or stuffing, if you prefer).

Of course, there’s much more to the all-American menu, but aside from the turkey, dressing is arguably the dish that really screams Thanksgiving. In fact, I’ve been to many a turkey-free vegetarian Thanksgiving, but I’ve never been to a dinner that didn’t serve dressing.

The best thing about making dressing is that you don’t need a recipe. Ditch the measuring cups and go free-form. All dressings deconstruct into the same basic components, so follow these guidelines and get creative.

And if you’re wondering what to serve with the stuffing, GlobalGourmet.com's been serving holiday dinners since 1994, with every tip and recipe you could ever need at our Thanksgiving Headquarters, including a No-Brainer Thanksgiving and The Perfect Turkey Handbook.

Free-Form, Deconstructed Dressing or Stuffing

Dressing is usually a 4 to 1 ratio: 4 parts foundation to 1 part other ingredients. But vary the ratio as you like. I usually make 2 or 3 parts vegetables because I like them. To save time on Thanksgiving Day, cook the stuffing ingredients the night before and refrigerate; bring to room temperature before baking. Allow 3/4 cup stuffing per person, minimum.

Fix the Foundation: Usually dried bread cubes, but cooked pasta, rice and other grains can also form the base. For bread stuffings, cut the bread into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes and leave out to dry overnight. Crumble cornbread before leaving to dry.

Add the Embellishments: Goodies that add texture, color, and contrast, such as nuts, diced vegetables, sausage or other meats, dried or fresh fruit. This includes the classic triad of aromatics: sauteed onion, celery, and carrot. Cook raw meats and vegetables before adding.

Season to Taste: Salt and pepper, fresh and dried herbs, spices, citrus zest, hot sauce, soy sauce and other potent flavorings.

Stir in Liquid: Broth, wine, beaten egg, milk or cream, juice, liqueur, and/or water. Use just enough liquid to moisten to mix. The dressing should not be wet or soggy.

Bake to 160: Casserole Method: When baked outside the bird, in a greased casserole or baking dish, dressing can cook at any moderate temperature (around 350 degrees F), as long as it reaches at least 160 degrees F. (use an instant-read thermometer to test). Cover the casserole for the bulk of the cooking, about 45 minutes, then uncover to let the top layer brown and crisp, about 15 minutes. Stuffed Method: Don't stuff the bird in advance. Stuff just before roasting to avoid bacterial growth. Pack loosely in the cavity; the stuffing will expand during cooking. If the bird is done before the stuffing, remove the stuffing to a baking dish and cook until it reaches 160 degrees F. To help the stuffing reach temperature, warm it slightly before packing it in the bird.

Now that the dressing’s done, find more stress-free inspiration for cooking, cooks, and gift-giving at these links:

•    Global Gourmet’s Holiday Gift Guide: Tasty and tasteful gifts, from $10 to $100
•    Global Gourmet’s Holiday Recipes: Bookmark this page, for year-round celebrations
•    Kate’s Global Kitchen: Kate Heyhoe’s monthly tips, news, and recipes
•    Great Bar Food at Home: A Food & Wine Best Book of the Year and James Beard Finalist

Happy Holidays!

--Kate Heyhoe

Check out Kate’s favorite kitchen products in the Kitchen & Home Gift Guide.