After you’ve been cooking for a while, you can take some liberties and get creative with your dishes. The following recipe, which I came up with while thinking about how to lower saturated fats in my diet, is the result of a creative hunch. I’d never heard of anything like it, but it seemed to make sense from what I knew of the ingredients. I’m sure something similar exists, but I’ve never run across it in my neck of the woods.
I decided to combine anti-inflammatory foods with lean protein low in saturated fat. Fish, of course, is a great source of heart-healthy protein and oils. Vegetables, for their part, have anti-inflammatory phytochemicals and antioxidants that protect against atherosclerosis and even cancer. For American men, who are put under an enormous amount of stress and pressure to accommodate women’s comforts and desires in our society, it is very important to include these beneficial and reparative chemicals in one’s diet. They can go a long way toward mitigating the damage stress does to the body, and significantly boost quality of life over time.
However, if the food one eats is healthy but unappealing, you aren’t going to eat much of it. The key is to make it tasty and hearty; the kind of food a man likes to eat. Given how awful American health food tends to be, you might think this is a contradiction in terms, and that it would be very difficult to prepare tasty, healthy and hearty food. Fortunately, you would be wrong.
By creating the right balance of protein, fats and carbs you can make just about any food hearty. The problem is that so-called health food rarely does that. You’ll typically be offered some insubstantial product that tastes like sawdust, has a terrible texture, and does nothing to promote satiety — the feeling of having eaten well.
With the following recipe, I’ll demonstrate that it is both easy and cheap to make a hearty meal replete with healthy oils, proteins and beneficial chemicals that will promote both health and manly vigor. It is also a simple recipe that can be modified as one sees fit, so long as the basic principles are adhered to.
The recipe as set out serves four for dinner
Equipment:
Two quart pot (at least), ladle, cutting board, well-honed steel knife with a very keen edge.
Ingredients:
One pound (about .5 kilograms) cod fillets (other lean white fish may be substituted)
One 14.5 oz (411g) can diced tomatoes
4-6 fresh tomatillos
Two fresh jalapeno peppers (entirely optional — substitute mild chilis if desired, or no chilis at all)
Four cloves garlic
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
1 tsp (6g) salt
Two cups (450ml) chicken stock (one 14.5 oz can is fine)
One broccoli crown
One tsp (5ml) lemon juice (totally optional, and you can add up to a tablespoon if you want a strong, tart citrus flavor)
1.5 cups (0.35 liters) white rice
Preparation:
Quarter tomatillos, then cut the stalk off the broccoli and separate into florets. Slice the cod crosswise by the inch. Peel and chop garlic cloves.
Set cod and broccoli aside, keeping each separate.
Put the pot on the stove, then empty the can of diced tomatoes inside. Next, toss in the quartered tomatillos and garlic. Turn to medium, then add chicken stock. When it all begins to simmer, turn down to low (make sure it keeps bubbling a bit).
Put a pan on a burner and turn to medium high. When it’s good and hot, throw the jalapenos on as is. Sear them until they are soft, then remove and let them cool for a minute. When cool enough to handle, core the jalapenos by slicing lengthwise then removing seeds and pulp. Next, slice them crosswise at about quarter inch intervals (or a little less), then add to pot.
Begin cooking rice in separate pot or rice cooker.
Add olive oil to simmering vegetables in pot.
As rice is cooking and vegetables simmering, stir the vegetables occasionally, and wait until the tomatillos are nice and soft and beginning to break apart.
When the tomatillos and tomatoes have merged into a sauce, add the cod. Put in the cod slices and make sure they are covered with liquid. Then, immediately take the broccoli florets and place on tope of the stew and cover the pot. The broccoli will steam as the fish cooks.
In fifteen minutes or less the rice and stew should both be well cooked.
Put rice in bowls and ladle stew onto rice. Serve piping hot.
Give it a try. If you’re married, you can cook it and teach your wife to do so as well — it’s quite simple so she should be able to learn it without too much instruction, even if she is American. She’ll probably like it herself, too. If single, adjust recipe size if so desired, but it keeps pretty well in the fridge for at least a day, so you can have a couple meals out of it.
This recipe is very good for men who have issues with, or want to prevent, high cholesterol, diabetes (if one goes easy on the rice), or a number of other health problems related to metabolic syndrome. It tastes great, and will leave you feeling full and satisfied.
