For a healthy diet, opt for lighter meat dishes - The Best from Greece

Posted on: 23/Jun/2011 Choose white over red, and remove the fat

Proper nutrition has nothing to do with crash diets but should be a way of life, and while every person is different it has been shown that a diet low in fats, particularly in animal and saturated fats, is healthier for all. Thankfully, this is easy to achieve without sacrificing flavor.

White meat (chicken, turkey, rabbit) contains fewer animal fats and calories than red (beef, pork, lamb, goat). Although the average healthy person needs some red meat for iron, good protein and amino acids, this should not be more than 130 grams once a week.

Beef fat is concealed within the fibers. The leanest cut is the fillet. Pork fat is visible and therefore easier to remove, but the lightest cut is tenderloin, known in Greece as “psaronefri.” Lamb and goat are also laden with hidden fat. If you can’t resist it, go for goat, which has less fat than lamb.

Chicken and turkey are among the leanest meats; be sure to remove the skin, however.

Rabbit has even less fat than chicken. The rabbit sold in most stores is from farms and has tender meat that needs no more cooking than chicken.

Ostrich meat is very low in fat and can be cooked in the same way as beef. Marinating helps.

RECIPE

Rabbit with mustard sauce
Ingredients (serves 4-6)
1 rabbit 1.5-2 kg (or 2 smaller ones) cut into pieces
1 kg baby potatoes, preferably organic, well scrubbed (or large potatoes cut into smaller chunks)
2 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped, or 1 tbsp dried and crushed
10 whole garlic cloves
40 ml red wine vinegar
80 ml olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
For the sauce:
1 liter chicken stock
100 gr Dijon mustard
25 ml olive oil
Season the rabbit and rub it with a little of the olive oil.
Heat a large, preferably nonstick, pan and add the rabbit, sauteing over a high heat until browned on all sides (3-4 minutes on each side). You may need to do this in more than one go if all the pieces don’t fit in the pan at once. Preheat the oven to 200C. Put the meat in a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the potatoes, rosemary, garlic and the rest of the olive oil and season. Add this mixture to the baking dish 10 minutes after starting the rabbit.
As soon as the dish is removed from the oven at the end of the half hour, pour the vinegar over it while it is still hot.
Sauce: Boil the stock until reduced to a quarter of its volume (about 250 ml). Remove from the hob and add the mustard and oil. Beat vigorously with a whisk until well blended.

Christoforos Peskias

www.ekathimerini.com

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