The enlightened gourmet

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This article was published 21/09/2011 (5149 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Galloping Gourmet‘s Graham Kerr cultivates a healthier approach to food.

I don’t often start an interview by telling the guy he’s silly. With Graham Kerr, I thought it would only bring out the best in him.

“You know, I believe with all my heart, what Treena (his wife of many decades) once said. She said, ‘You are the most inutterably boring man. You have got to understand you have to entertain to teach.’ So I’ve been silly on purpose,” he said in defence of silliness.

Kerr, known to many of a certain age as the The Galloping Gourmet, is the John Cleese of cooking, with some of Julia Child’s learn-with-me attitude. (See our online YouTube video of him fighting to remove a cake from the pan while tending to some flaming cherries.) He’s most definitely delightful and entertaining.

Kerr (who, after a second or two of thinking, recalls that he is 77) is still doing some TV spots as well editing Cooking Light (circulation 5.7 million).

His most recent TV appearance was with the perky Rachael Ray. He appeared on the celebrity stage at Vancouver’s EAT! recently. Prior to his appearance, I asked him what he’d be doing. His answer had me wondering if he were pulling my very pullable leg.

“I’m actually revealing, for the very first time, a new way of making an omelette. To my knowledge it’s never been done before,” he said.

This omelette is emblematic of the health-driven Graham Kerr. He changed his diet, which featured frightening amounts of cream and butter and more fat, in 1971 (about 10 years after he began The Galloping Gourmet) when, as he says, he was hit by a truck carrying vegetables. “Who says there’s no God?” he says.

The accident, which partly paralyzed him, spelled the end of The Galloping Gourmet and he went sailing the world, covering 38,600 kilometres in 24 months.

“I got seasick eating the foods I was eating. My change happened because I was seasick.”

But his transformation as a healthy eater became much more serious in 1987 when his wife suffered a stroke and heart attack and was diagnosed with diabetes and hypertension.

“It was because of all that exposure to fine cuisine,” he says.

Today, he is “gardening vigorously” and his book Growing at the Speed of Life: A Year in The Life of My First Kitchen Garden was published earlier this year. (He’s written 29 books with a mechanical pencil.) His message, he says, is to eat more plants in more creative ways.

“Dig your own garden. There’s nothing more rewarding. Do it in the company of your neighbours. Green the neighbourhood.”

And that first-time-ever omelette he made in Vancouver?

“I call it the Velvet Omelette. You take a favourite root vegetable and in my case, it’s a sweet potato. You steam a pound of it, and blend it with a 12-ounce can of evaporated skim milk. You whiz it for four minutes and something strange takes place between the milk protein and vegetable cellulose. The best description is ‘velvet.’ It’s like an alfredo sauce in texture but it’s got no fat, no dairy whatsoever. You add seasonings of hot pepper, star anise, dill.”

He takes the sauce and serves it over the omelette, which, in turn, he makes with a combination of whole eggs and egg substitute, halving the calories.

“What food should do is delight people and then, if possible, do less harm,” he said.

Graham Kerr’s roasted vegetable lasagna

“This recipe looks complicated. It’s not. The versatile sauce is perfect for spaghetti, pizza, or with a little water, can be made into soup. Double or triple the sauce part of the recipe and freeze the rest for another day. The vegetables roast while the sauce simmers, and there’s not much else to do at all.” — Graham Kerr

Makes 12 servings.

Sauce:

1 tsp olive oil

1 cup (250 ml) chopped onion

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 750-gram can crushed tomatoes

1 tbsp Splenda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

Roasted vegetables:

1 medium (5 kilo) eggplant, cut into 11/4 cm slices

1/2 kilo zucchini, sliced lengthwise

2 onions, sliced 1.5 cm thick

Olive oil pan spray

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Filling:

250 ml low-fat ricotta cheese

1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed with liquid squeezed out

4 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, divided

The rest:

4 whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooked

1 cup (250 ml) roasted red bell peppers, drained

375 ml grated low-fat mozzarella cheese, divided

 

Heat oil on medium high in a high-sided skillet. Cook the onions, stirring often, until soft but not brown, 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 more minute. Stir in the tomatoes, Splenda, salt, oregano and basil. Simmer, covered, 20 minutes.

Heat the oven to 450 F (232 C). Lay the eggplant, zucchini and onion slices on 2 greased baking sheets. Spray lightly with olive oil pan spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast 20 minutes in preheated oven, rotating the pans and changing them top to bottom and bottom to top after 10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 375 F (190 C).

Combine the ricotta, spinach and 3 tablespoons of the Parmesan in a bowl. Cover the bottom of a 9×13-inch (23×30-cm) baking dish with enough sauce to just cover. Lay 2 uncooked noodles in the bottom of the pan and cover with another thin layer of sauce. Make a layer of eggplant slices topped with the roasted peppers and cover with half of the ricotta/spinach mixture. Scatter 1/2 cup (125 ml) of the grated mozzarella on top.

Add a layer of the sauce then the zucchini and onion slices. Spread the rest of the ricotta/spinach mixture on top and finish with another 1/2 cup (125 ml) mozzarella. Cover with a thin layer of sauce. Lay the remaining 2 noodles over the filling and spread with the remaining sauce. Top with the rest of the mozzarella and the remaining Parmesan cheese.

Lay a sheet of aluminum foil on top and bake 45 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling up the sides of the pan.

Let set for 10 minutes before cutting.

— Postmedia News