Eating a serving of it recently, we reflected on what we loved about it. The answer wasn’t the breading or the deep-fat frying or the even the whipped cream. Even the superior “banana tempura” found at some Japanese restaurants, covered in crunchy panko, wasn’t the answer.

It was the fruit itself: soft, warm banana.

The next day we started to experiment with a bunch of ripe bananas in our kitchen, and were satisfied with the results. Instead of fried bananas with caramel or chocolate sauce, we made sautéed bananas—“fried bananas lite.”

We loved the butter flavor so much that we ended up using half oil, half butter, for an extra hit of flavor.

Sautéed bananas as a garnish for a chocolate tart. Photo courtesy Arch Rock Fish | Santa Barbara.

Ingredients For 2 Portions

 
Preparation

1. HEAT oil in a small nonstick pan over medium heat.

2. ADD banana slices and cook on one side for a 2-3 minutes. Flip, sprinkle with brown sugar and heat for another 1-2 minutes until evenly coated. The bananas should be softened yet hold their shape.

3. REMOVE from heat, plate and top with optional syrup, ice cream and nuts.

We just discussed transforming favorite, calorie-packed recipes with lighter cooking techniques. This recipe for a lower calorie seafood “chowder,” from Swanson’s, substitutes vegetable broth and tomato soup for the cream used in many chowders.

FOOD 101: Call it what you want, but even with cream, this is not a chowder. Chowders are enriched with salt pork fatback and thickened with flour or crushed soup crackers—two ingredients that define a chowder, but are missing from this recipe. In addition, potatoes as well as other vegetables are typically added to a chowder; this recipe omits the potatoes.

You can call it “chowder” for marketing purposes (i.e., making the dish sound more exciting to your family). But know in your heart that it’s simply “seafood soup.”

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. HEAT the oil in a 6-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the fennel, onion and thyme and cook until they’re tender. Stir the water, broth, soup and carrots in the saucepan and heat to a boil.

2. ADD the fish. Cover and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes. Discard any open or cracked mussels. Add the shrimp and mussels.

3. COVER and simmer for 3 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork, the shrimp are pink and the mussels open. Discard any mussels that do not open. Sprinkle with black pepper and serve.
 

KNOW YOUR SOUP

A brief history of soup and the different types of soup.

Nutritionists tell you that you can have your favorite rich foods, just in small portions. One piece of pizza instead of two. One heaping tablespoon of ice cream instead of half a pint.

But overall, eating healthier means better nutrition and fewer calories. The good news is that even historic “bad eaters” can appreciate the delicious flavors of these other foods. It’s a mind thing.

So start looking at your favorites an see where you can make revisions. You might want to start with a copy of Cooking Light: The New Way To Cook Light, Fresh Food & Bold Flavors for Today’s Home Cook.

While there are numerous books in the Cooking Light series, this books starts with the principles of eating lighter:

Continue to enjoy pasta, but make it whole wheat pasta and 50% “primavera” (half pasta, half vegetables). Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

 
The recipes use “real” ingredients instead of fat-free sour cream, artificial sweeteners, etc.

They provide more than enough flavor, texture, color and mouthfeel to satisfy everyone at the table.

The adjustments are easy, the taste results negligible, the overall transition painless. And if you want to lose weight without working at it, this is how!

It must be “egg day” at THE NIBBLE: We just finished an article on the new pullet eggs (“farmer’s eggs”) from Fresh Direct. And now, some suggestions for leftover egg whites.

More than a few recipes require just the yolk of the egg: custard (including crème brûlée), egg nog, hollandaise sauce, Key lime pie, mayonnaise and pudding, to name a few.

So what do you do with the leftover whites?

It’s easy enough to combine them with whole eggs in a scramble or an omelet. You can also toss them into soup that you’re heating, to create the ribbon effect in Chinese egg drop soup. The extra egg white adds more protein, for just 17 calories (per large egg white). You can add one or two extra whites to cake batter.

But here’s a list we got from About.com years ago, and continue to build on.
 
Uses For 1 Egg White

Add extra egg whites to a regular frittata or omelet. Photo courtesy DeLallo.com.

 
Uses For 3 Egg Whites

More Egg Whites

 
But what if your goal is to make meringues or angel food cake, and you have leftover yolks?

That’s another article. Stay tuned.

In the New York area, online grocer FreshDirect.com is so ubiquitous that it’s often hard to think of it as a Northeast regional business.

It overs only five states: Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. While there are numerous online grocers covering the country, Fresh Direct is known for delivering top quality produce, meats and seafood and prepared foods, as well as non-perishables.

And such convenience: The customer picks the delivery time, 7 days a week. Your order can arrive from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. weekdays or 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays—just the flexibility that those of us who work long hours need.

The company is committed to sourcing the best and newest products for its customers and to helping small farmers optimize their revenue.

That’s what happened on a trip to Alderfer Farm, a fourth generation family farm in Pennsylvania that produces organic eggs. David McInerny, a co-founder of Fresh Direct, inquired about eggs he saw that were set aside from the rest.

The brown farmer’s egg compared to a large organic egg. Photo courtesy Fresh Direct.

“We don’t sell them,” was the response. “Retailers don’t want them. So we send them to breaking companies,” where they are cracked and packaged for foodservice or other applications.

PULLET EGGS, NOW SOLD AS “FARMER’S EGGS”

But these smaller eggs are actually tastier, and are a “secret” product enjoyed by the farmers themselves, unknown by the outside world. (Similarly, hanger steak was kept by the butchers for their own families, until it was discovered by chefs.)

A young hen, called a pullet, will begin to lay eggs at 19-20 weeks. Pullet eggs are much smaller, but produce fluffier cooked eggs with creamier yolks. The tight albumen sets up better for poached eggs. The shells are harder, which means low likelihood of bits of shell falling into the cracked egg.

Part of the flavor and the deeper color of the yolk is because pullets are pickier eaters: They pick out the corn from the feed mix.

The eggs are sold by Fresh Direct as “farmer’s eggs” under FreshDirect’s private label brand, Just FreshDirect, three times a year.

Farmer’s eggs are available through the end of the month, or while supplies last; will be available again in late May or early June, and in September, as the latest crop of pullets starts to produce; and only are produced for four weeks, when the pullet grows larger and produces larger eggs.

If you want a better-tasting egg, give them a try. We’d like to add our observation that organic eggs in general taste better than conventional eggs (due in part to superior feed).

You’ll also enjoy these “farmer’s eggs” knowing that the hens are:

 
The calories are lower, too: 50 calories, compared to 70 calories in a large egg. One dozen organic eggs are $3.69.
 
HOW MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF EGGS HAVE YOU TRIED?

Check out the different types of eggs in our Egg Glossary.

Also new in the refrigerator case is Just Fresh Direct pasteurized organic milk.

Isn’t all milk pasteurized? Yes, but for years it has been ultrapasteurized, to afford retailers a 60-90 day shelf life.

Ultrapasteurization (also called UHT, for ultra-high temperature) is the process of super-heating milk or cream to 275°F for 4 to 15 seconds or 280°F for at least two seconds. Regular pasteurization heats the milk to 161°F for 15 seconds.

The ultra-high temperature kills off all bacteria—not just the harmful ones, but the benign ones that can potentially sour milk but also provide flavor to fresh milk. Now, you can enjoy Just Fresh Direct’s fresher-flavor organic milk with your better-tasting organic eggs.

FOOD HISTORY: Routine pasteurization in the U.S. began around 1920, as a way to prevent illnesses caused by contaminated milk, including tuberculosis. Here’s the scoop.