Choosing Healthy Foods

by Campus Executive Chef Tom Barton Last night was week seven of our Cooking 101 class in the Xhibition Kitchen and after learning about knife skills, cold preparations, and entrées over the past few weeks we had finally reached most everyone's favorite area of the kitchen: dessert! We brought in a heavy hitter, Ritz-Carlton Boston Common pastry chef Bouchaib Errafiy , to work with us and show us the finer points of several desserts. Chef Errafiy spoke about the various differences between all of the flours and sugars that we see these days at our favorite market. The discussion was very lively but I could tell everyone was ready to start making (and tasting!) some great desserts. First off -- cheesecake . We learned one of the secrets to a great cheesecake is in the creaming of the cream cheese and sugar. We spoke about the technique of creaming and its importance in many dessert recipes. We then moved onto the classic recipe of profiteroles au chocolate . The nice thing about ...

With assistance from Northeastern graduate student Melissa Pryputniewicz One of the biggest challenges that people who are trying to lose weight face is dining away from home. It is very easy to control what you are eating when you are buying and preparing what goes on your dish each night. It is much harder to make good decisions when you are faced with a restaurant menu. Not only are there a large variety of options (temptation enough), but also you are often in different circumstances than when you are eating at home. You may be out with co-workers who don’t know you are on a diet or you may be over hungry after waiting for your reservation. Several studies have found that away-from-home consumption of food, especially fast food consumption, is linked to a higher intake of calories. Keep the following tips in mind to avoid diet pitfalls while you are dining out. Cut Back on Calories We all know that restaurant foods are high calorie items, so what are some ways that you can watch yo...

by Chris Jennings, Northeastern Dining Quality Assurance Manager Braising – Sauteing – Pan Frying – Steaming. These were just some of the cooking techniques demonstrated this week in the latest segment of Cooking 101. The main topic of focus were dry and moist heat cooking methods. Follow NUDining on Instagram! Dry heat refers to cooking foods where the heat transfers to the food without any moisture and typically involves temperatures of 300ºF or higher. Examples would be sautéing, roasting, baking, grilling and deep frying to name a few. And yes, despite initial hesitations, deep frying and pan frying are in fact dry heat cooking methods since you are submerging the food in hot liquid fat and not relying on a water-based moisture. Moist heat refers to cooking foods with a water-based moisture, be it water, steam, stock, wine, etc. Cooking temperatures typically range from 140ºF-212ºF and examples include braising, stewing, poaching, simmering, boiling and steaming. Our student chef...

A college student's lifestyle can be extremely hectic, leaving little time to think about planning food options during the day. As a student it is important to have some healthy, low-cost food items on hand for snacking throughout the day especially when you have a busy schedule with very few real breaks. Choosing a snack that contains whole grains and some protein together can provide you with a feeling of fullness, which is helpful if you have long stretches between meals. Here are some examples of great snacks to have on hand: Apple or banana with peanut butter Pita chips and/or carrots and hummus Fruit and yogurt Almonds (or other nuts) and low-fat cheese or a piece of fruit Whole grain cereal with milk Tortilla chips and guacamole/salsa Whole grain crackers and cheddar cheese Granola/breakfast bar with milk or a yogurt Some of these snacks can also be great on-the-go breakfast items to fuel your body and brain as well as to ensure that you start your day off in the right direc...

by Campus Executive Chef Tom Barton Hi everyone! Last night we had the fifth week of our Cooking 101 class and we had a great time talking with all of our student chefs about the oh so popular subject of side dishes. While it can be a bland topic, we instead focused on some of the more nontraditional, but increasingly popular, starches and vegetables available at your local market. Follow us on Instagram! It's easy to pick a great vegetable side dish in the summer when produce is at its peak...but how about in the dead of winter? Our class participants made and tasted things like lemon scented multigrain pilaf, wild mushroom risotto , smoky cider braised greens, and roasted spiced winter squash. We also spoke about various potatoes and what their best uses are. People are very particular about their mashed potatoes so we tried to settle some important mashed potato debates, such as lumps or no lumps and skins on or off? To spice things up a little we used the knife skills learned i...

by Northeastern Dining Quality Assurance Manager Chris Jennings We dove right into stocks and sauces this week. Chef Tom had a beautiful chicken stock already simmering before class started. The aroma filtered thru the XK and set the tone for a stimulating experience on how to create your own stocks and sauces. Once we covered the different types of stocks and how to create them thru many variations, we figured we would transform some of them into sauces. Most sauces require a thickening agent and the type of thickening agent used depends on the desired texture, flavor and appearance of the sauce you want. Many were discussed but the class tried their hand at it with a roux, corn starch, beurre manié and a liaison. Quite a bit of whisking, tempering, and straining was involved but the end results were very nice. The goal was achieved. We transformed chicken stock into chicken velouté; a Béchamel sauce became a Mornay sauce; but the highlight was the hollandaise. Chef Andy and Chef Jenn...