Does your cook know how to cook healthy?

Here are some common cooking methods adopted by cooks to make food that extra bit tastier, but unfortunately unhealthier.

Our hectic lifestyles don't give most of us a chance to dabble in the kitchen. We tend to rely on our cooks, maids and other household help to prepare our meals and even buy the groceries. This gives them the liberty to cook as per their understanding which unfortunately usually means tasty above all, but (unknowingly) very unhealthy.

Cooks usually want to show off their skills and present food that will earn them praise and compliments. They pride themselves on the 'secret' ingredients they use and most of the time these are not calorie friendly.

Here are some common cooking methods adopted by cooks to make food that extra bit tastier, but unfortunately unhealthier:

Thickening Agents: When you say 'soup' it is meant to mean something nutritious and relatively low calorie. What they hear is something thick, creamy and corn-flour infused, perhaps with extra potato and butter; the opposite of low calorie and healthy.

Curries and Gravies: Ever wondered how your cook makes the best curry? The answer is simple (and lethal): cashew nuts, dry fruit and coconut. This means you get something delicious, but rich and laden with an obscene amount of excessive fat and calories. (Read: A bachelor's guide to eating healthy)

Binding Agents: Though tikkas, kebabs and grilled cutlets are low calorie preparations, cooks usually add binding agents like bread crumbs, corn flour or potatoes. One can still make it without the binder but it's just very tedious. So if you are on a low carb diet you need to rethink how your cook is serving up yummy kebabs in double quick time.

Secret Ingredients: I always thought no one can make upma (semolina porridge) like my cook. Eaten elsewhere, it invariably tasted bland and flavourless. I soon realised that he had a secret, evil ingredient: sugar. He would caramelise sugar and add it while dry roasting the upma.
Unaccounted calories and quite frankly calories I can do without.

Baking Soda: This is a handy ingredient. When you need to cook quick dishes like idli or dhokla, it takes just a few minutes with only a dash of bi-carb. Personally I think it's the unhealthiest ingredient, causing water retention and affecting blood pressure. Plan ahead and do without as far as possible.

Fat: A cook can use 3-4 litres of oil in a month for an average nuclear family. Ideally it should be less than 500ml per person per month. When there is no supervision, oil gets consumed for finishing touches in a tadka, greasing pans including non-stick vessels (which just totally defeats the purpose), while kneading the dough, etc. These calories add up faster than you would believe. (Read: Is your cooking oil making you unhealthy?)

The point of concern is, if we got extremely finicky about our food, the cook may just leave. Or, if yours has been around as long as mine, turn into a diva, throw a tantrum and tell you to do it yourself! So, as with everything else when it comes to health, we need to strike a balance between train the cook appropriately and making sure they don't run away.

For the first few times just stand and watch. That will make them conscious while using certain ingredients. Point out immediately if you see them reach for any forbidden ingredient.

Reassure them that you enjoy the food without all the extras and you genuinely want the food to be cooked in that manner.

Occasionally, just to make a point take a stand, reject the food if you feel they have added something you had instructed them not to.

Give the menu a day in advance. They can plan the meals and avoid using baking soda or oil for speedy cooking.

Teach them other styles of cooking like baking (the oven is the most underappreciated kitchen appliance in our country), steaming, boiling and using water instead of oil for vegetables.

Insist on measuring cups rather than using oil directly from the jar.

Don't allow use of dry fruits, MSG and colouring agents. No one really needs them for anything, so it's best not to buy them at all. If you do need to keep nuts or dry fruits in the house, store them out of the reach of the staff.

Ration salt and oil for the month. Calculate your average requirement based on the number of family members. Accordingly, give the kitchen a fixed quantity and don't allow any more than that to be used.

Foods you think are healthy, if cooked the wrong way can so easily turn out to be unhealthy. Just because its home cooked, does not mean it's free from hidden calories.

Stay Healthy! (Read: Cooking secrets of the fit and the healthy)

Source: DNA/Kinita Kadakia Patel

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