New year signals return to healthful fare

IN THE KITCHEN by Ann Harwood: With the holidays behind us, many people will turn their thoughts toward eating healthy in the new year. Fish, vegetables and fruit can combine for a tasty winter dinner.

   I’ve had enough of nogs and glöggs and all things creamy or smelling of nutmeg.
   As much as I look forward every year to all the smells and tastes of the holidays, by Dec. 26, I am longing for other flavors. In fact, I have even laced my Christmas menu with shrimp and tomatoes, and lemon and broccoli, having almost collapsed from cinnamon overdose by the week before Christmas.
   Sailing into the New Year, I need to return to healthful eating, as do most of us. Back I go to many vegetables and as much fresh fruit as can be economically found in the markets in January. Back to steamed and broiled fish, vegetable sauces on pasta, skinless chicken with a simple pan sauce, whole grain breads and legumes. Bring on the steamed greens with hot peppers and a little olive oil! No punishment here. I love these foods.
   As I started planning my new menus for January, I wanted to use some foods I had enjoyed at a luncheon in December. I had driven up to Morris Plains, pot luck dish in the front seat, to meet with colleagues who were all bringing a dish to share. I thought two of the most successful were a broiled salmon fillet with Chinese-style sauce and a great fluffy mound of wasabi mashed potatoes. I thought those two ideas would make a fine kick-off for my January menus, and I soon began developing the potato recipe. It was so tasty I kept eating soup spoons full of mashed potatoes for lunch. Luckily for me, the recipe is relatively low in fat for mashed potatoes.
   In developing menus, I am partial to plates of food offering contrasts in texture and color as well as flavor. I wanted the fatty, broiled salmon with its salty-sweet marinade next to creamy mashed potatoes with a little zing in the flavor, then bright green, still crunchy, beans and snow peas. I have added a dessert to the menu. If you are planning this for a weeknight supper, however, you may simply want to have some fresh fruit. Now, if I can just keep my New Year’s resolution to exercise at least four days a week, I’ll be able to fit into something decent for my youngest daughter’s wedding in April.
Winter Dinner for Four: Broiled Salmon Fillet with Soy-flavored Sauce, Wasabi Mashed Potatoes, Blanched Green Beans and Snow Peas, Broiled Pineapple Slices with Coconut Sorbet
BROILED SALMON FILLET WITH SOY-FLAVORED SAUCE
   1 cup good soy sauce
   2 tablespoons dry sherry
   1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
   1 piece peeled fresh ginger, the size of a quarter
   ½ teaspoon sugar
   4, 4-to-6-ounce pieces salmon fillet, cut crosswise
   salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
   2 teaspoons thinly sliced scallions, some green included
   Place soy, sherry, garlic, ginger and sugar in small saucepan and bring to simmer, covered, over low heat. When sugar is melted, remove pan from heat and set aside. (You can do this earlier, before starting the potatoes). Preheat broiler, placing oven rack 4-5 inches below heat. Line broiler pan rack with foil, slash foil here and there to allow fat to drain through to pan below slotted rack. Lightly brush foil with oil.
   Place a very sharp paring, chef’s or boning knife at the edge of the fish skin, angled toward the skin. Saw/cut skin away from salmon and discard skin. (Your dog or cat will love the skin all cut up). Repeat for each piece.
   Sprinkle salmon on nicest side very lightly with salt and a few grindings of pepper. Place fillets, nice-side-up, on foil-lined broiler rack and cook 4-6 minutes or so, depending on thickness, until a light golden crust appears. While salmon is cooking, strain sauce into glass measuring cup. When salmon is cooked, place a piece on each of four warm serving plates and spoon 2 tablespoons sauce over each fillet. Garnish with just a little green onion.
   Serves 4
   I particularly like the Eden brand, Selected Shoyu soy sauce that I purchase at the Whole Earth Center in Princeton.
WASABI MASHED POTATOES
   1½ pounds boiling potatoes, cut into large chunks
   1 ½ teaspoons Wasabi powder*
   1 tablespoon cold water
   1 cup skimmed milk, warmed in microwave
   salt and freshly ground black pepper
   1 tablespoon of sour cream, or yogurt and sour cream mixed
   2 tablespoons melted butter
   Bring 2 quarts water and 2 teaspoons salt to boil in large saucepan. Add potatoes and boil until done (when pierced with paring knife, 15 minutes or so). Drain into colander and let dry a minute.
   While potatoes are cooking, mix wasabi and 1 tablespoon water together in small dish and set aside. When potatoes are drained, dump into large bowl and whip with flat blade mixer attachment or mash with potato masher while adding warm milk, salt and a little freshly ground pepper.
   Keep mashing while you add the wasabi mixture, then the sour cream, and last the butter. Serve immediately alongside salmon.
   Serves 4-6
BROILED PINEAPPLE SLICES
   1 tablespoon butter
   juice from pineapple (from supermarket container)
   ¼ cup fresh orange juice
   ¼ cup sugar
   ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
   4 rings fresh pineapple (bought fresh at supermarket)
   Earlier in day: heat butter, pineapple juice, orange juice and sugar together in small saucepan. Cook until sugar is melted and sauce begins to thicken slightly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Set aside.
   Before starting dinner: Place broiler pan 4 inches from heat. Place pineapple on pan and spoon some of syrup over fruit. Broil, basting a little more with syrup, until tinged with brown and even slightly burnt in one or two spots. Remove pineapple to shallow dish. Coat with remaining syrup and set aside until dessert.
Ann Harwood is a columnist for The Princeton Packet.
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