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Mise En Place For Weight Loss
Copyright 2004 by Jim Bolding Mise En Place [Pronounced MEEZ ahn plahs] is a French term referring to having all the ingredients necessary for a dish prepared and ready to combine up to the point of cooking. Roughly translated, "everything in place". Now I know you're wondering, "what in the world does that have to do with weight loss"? Let me explain a little further. Professional kitchens couldn't function as efficiently as they do without mis en place. Prior to service prep cooks spend hours chopping, mincing, cleaning and pre-cooking. When service starts, because of mise en place, dishes are prepared with amazing speed. Some of the fast food joints take it a step further and have the food already cooked and under heat lamps. When you place your order all they have to do is throw it in a sack. You can see mise en place in action by watching the chefs on television. Everything they need for a recipe is in little dishes already measured out. There's no fumbling around looking for an onion and then peeling and dicing. When it's needed it's already there. Done in advance because when the show gets going, there is no time to go back and dice up more carrots. Experienced home cooks practice mise en place, to a certain extent, probably without realizing it. After preparing a recipe hundreds of times they just automatically know what needs to be done and do it in an orderly fashion. However the advantage of speed is not there because nothing was done in advance. Inexperienced cooks have a tendency to jump right into a recipe with little or no prep. A few steps into the recipe they discover they need diced onions. "Do I have onions"? "I hate to cook"! "Honey, will you call Pizza Hut?" (Get the idea?) Fast food joints love inexperienced cooks. Mise En Place and Weight Loss So how does mise en place fit into a weight loss program? Simply put it will keep us "poundage challenged" out of those fast food joints! It also forces meal planning which is necessary for us. Cooking at home allows us to take control of what we consume. By using the mise en place technique and doing the prep work in advance when we have the time for it, we can be in and out of the kitchen with healthy, low calorie food in a matter of minutes. Our lack of time is why the fast food joints do such a brisk business. Mise en place in advance allows us to borrow time from one day and utilize it on another. Mise En Place From the Grocery Have you ever bought a loaf of bread at your grocery? Of course you have. How about boneless, skinless chicken breasts or fish filets? All these items could be looked at as mise en place from the grocery for the home cook. Professionals are doing the baking, skinning, boning and filleting and making it available to us. For a price! Mise en place at the grocery seems to be growing. Today you can find prepped items that weren't available not so long ago. Baby carrots, all kinds of greens washed and ready for the salad bowl, mushrooms cleaned and sliced, etc... Combining home and grocery mise en place means even less time in the kitchen. Utilizing the Mise En Place Technique Planning ahead is critical to this technique. You can't wait until the end of the day and then try and decide, "what's for dinner"? With menu in hand you're ready to prepare yourself. Peel and wash vegetables, slice or chop onions, mince garlic, measure butter, seasonings, garnishes and liquids. Put everything in zip lock bags are lidded plastic containers. Most everything will keep refrigerated very well for several days so you can do your mise en place on Saturday for Wednesday dinner. By analyzing your recipes you can combine some items that are added to the dish simultaneously. When it's dinnertime Wednesday take out your prepared in advance items and set them in your food prep area. Instant mise en place. With everything measured and cut, the meal is ready in only the time it takes to cook. Chicken Parmesan in seven minutes, veal scallopine in twelve, and beef stroganoff in tenliterally. That's how long those items are on the final heat. Things in their place. What a wonderful technique! A leisurely hour on Saturday afternoon means a swift and enjoyable few minutes in the kitchen at dinnertime on Wednesday night. Extend the concept further and your mise en place for the entire week can be done on a Saturday afternoon. Jim Bolding is the publisher of Diet and Fitness News e-zine and the Webmaster of http://www.dietandfitnessonline.com
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