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November 8, 2006
More Photogenic Food
On Monday we did a photo shoot for a UK magazine, Grazia. As always, they wanted to photograph one of our dinners, so I cooked up a variation on my favorite shrimp dish. Here's what I made:
shrimp cooked in white wine with garlic, cilantro, broccoli, grape tomatoes, and mango chunks, topped with avocado slics. pinot noir. 500 calories for total meal for me, 639 for MR.
It was a very beautiful, colorful plate. The trick with these photo shoots, I find, is to put all the food on the same dish. Otherwise, you run the risk of the media editing out a large portion of the meal to make us look a lot weirder than we are. The CNN piece edited out a huge dessert, choosing instead to focus on a small salad. I learned my lesson.
We really enjoyed working with the New York photographer they sent, Christopher McClallen. They even sent a make up artist, Maco (didn't catch her last name) who turned out to be a huge fan both of live cats (and now one of Kieffer's best friends) and of Hello Kitty. Needless to say, we got along quite well.
Here's how you make the shrimp dish:
Take 1.5 oz of a dry white wine and bring it to a low boil in a shallow pot. Add broccoli, stir. Add shrimp and tomatoes. When shrimp are pink and cooked, throw in the mango chunks (frozen is fine) and cilantro. Serve on its own or over a bed of greens, like arugula. I think it's fun to drink red wine with dishes that are cooked in white, so feel free to mix and match, but since you shouldn't be cooking with a wine unless you would drink it, you might just have a glass of the white with the meal.
I didn't put in amounts of the ingredients because that depends on your specific calorie and nutritional needs. I had 150 g shrimp, 107 g broccoli, 133 g tomatoes and 44 g mango. Cilantro should be to taste, as some people want more than others.
For those who have a cilantro problem, this dish can be done without the cilantro, or you could add a fruit or other salsa, like we do when we make Mango Shrimp 625.
If you don't like shrimp, you could do this dish with scallops, chicken, tofu, or even eggwhites!
Posted by april at November 8, 2006 5:44 AM
Comments
I'm glad to see you posting your food again, even if it is largely the same lots of the time. It always motivates me to read your blog -even after all this time :-). I'm bound and determined to do some of your dinners. The one you talked about in this post also seems like a winner. Maybe this Saturday . . .
Posted by: Amy Wright at November 8, 2006 6:47 AM
That sounds delicious! I don't eat shrimp but it sounds like it would be great with scallops. I've been reading your blog for nearly a month and have made a list of some of your recipes for when I have a kitchen (I live in a college dorm but will be graduating someday soon.) I plan to try some of them out while visiting family during the holidays.
Posted by: jennifer at November 8, 2006 7:38 AM
Hi April:
Nice blog. I experimented with what I call a "small meals, calorie counting" diet last year and really loved it. However, I fell off it after a few weeks. I was inspired to go back after the NY Times calorie restriction article last week. I was led to your website by the New York magazine article. Look forward to reading your comments. Keep it up!
I am a very small framed 50 year old 6 foot tall, 180 pounder. However, I am carrying an embarrassing 10 pounds or so of belly fat around with me, thus my initial interest in dieting. I averaged 1900 calories a day last week and slow walked 3 miles a day on a treadmill. My weight has dropped from 182 to 177. I have been able to eat as little as 1600 a day twice last week, but after reading some of your comments and the New York Magazine article, I think that is way too extreme for me starting out. It seems I should stick with at least 2000 per day until I get accustomed to what I am doing.
Posted by: Doug at November 8, 2006 10:01 AM
Would this shrimp recipe work with persimmon instead of mango ?
You never mention persimmons, although they are very orange - maybe they aren't widely available in New Jersey ?
artifex
Posted by: artifex at November 8, 2006 11:21 AM
I've recently read an article on Calorie Restriction and I'd be interested on doing a story in the Tampa Bay area in Florida. I'm an executive producer with WFTS-Tampa, the ABC station, and I'm hoping that you or someone else might respond and know of someone in my area that practices calorie restriction.
Sincerely
Doug Iten
WFTS-Tampa
diten@wfts.com
Posted by: Doug Iten at November 8, 2006 11:54 AM
I never tire of reading what you eat everyday. I don't know why, I am just a foodie. You can be a foodie without being a glutton. I think the less you eat, the more you appreciate and savor each bite!
Posted by: sheila at November 8, 2006 8:47 PM
I love your food reports too! Question for you -- how many calories in a cup of white wine used for cooking? I assume since most of the alcohol gets burned off during the cooking process that it's fairly low in calories -- but haven't been able to find any online information about how many cals one is left with after (e.g.) heating it to a boil for a few minutes. (I'm also assuming that any other nutrients that might happen to be hiding in a cup of white wine used for cooking are low enough that one would probably just ignore them.)
Thanks, April!
Posted by: Christine at November 9, 2006 5:19 AM
To answer the wine question:
The formula is, if you cook it for half an hour, subtract a third of the calories.
I wish it were lower cal, but cooking in wine makes food so yummy, I think it's worth it!
a
Posted by: April at November 10, 2006 2:08 PM