Tasty Recipes from Recipe Wizards

Author Eric Schlosser says he first became interested in where we get our food in the early 1990s, when he was doing research for a magazine article on strawberry harvesting.

He learned that strawberry farms, once small-scale operations, had become vast corporate enterprises. And that the people who picked the strawberries were poor, underpaid, exploited immigrants.

Schlosser, now an outspoken critic of the processed food industry, is best known for his 2001 book “Fast Food Nation.” He also co-produced and narrated the 2008 documentary “Food, Inc.,” which examines corporate farming in the United States. The film was nominated for an Academy Award.

His goal in speaking out is to make people think, he said.

“Choices have consequences,” he said. Processed foods may be inexpensive and tasty, but they take many tolls: They lead to animal cruelty, low, stagnant wages, and widespread health problems, including heart disease and obesity.

Buying organic or locally produced food is more expensive. But Schlosser said it’s worth it, especially for meat and dairy products.

Consumers looking to buy sustainable foods should look for products that are free of steroids or antibiotics, Schlosser said. They should look for products from grass-fed animals. And they should seek out farmers markets, where locally grown products are often sold.

Q. Can you freeze heavy cream?

A. Yes, you can freeze cream. Make sure you leave at least 1/2 inch at the top of the container to leave room for it to expand.

Refrigerate it overnight to thaw. Like most dairy products, it may separate after freezing, so shake it well to recombine it.

There is another freezer trick that is handy for heavy cream. If you whip the cream until it forms peaks, you can spoon or pipe dollops onto a metal baking sheet and freeze. Line the baking sheet with plastic first. When the dollops are frozen, peel them off the plastic, place in a freezer container or bag and return to the freezer. They’ll keep for a couple of weeks.

When it’s time to serve a dessert that you want to decorate with a cream topping, place dollops on top and let stand about 10 minutes at room temperature. The cream will thaw but will still hold its shape.

(E-mail questions about cooking to Kathleen Purvis at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com.)

Q: Two related questions: “If you make soup or chili too spicy, what can you add to tone it down enough to eat it?” And, “if you add too much pepper to a vegetable soup, is there a way to reduce that taste?”

A: In both cases, my first move would to dilute the soup or chili by adding more of the original base liquid, such as more stock or tomatoes. Some sources suggest adding a little sugar, particularly brown sugar, to something that is too spicy, but that would depend on the soup. Sweetness might not be a good match with the original flavor.

For too-hot chili, it also helps if you serve it with a dollop of sour cream. Dairy products are the most efficient way to cool the burn of chile peppers.

Now, on the peppery soup, pepper isn’t a flavor that is easy to neutralize. But I have found that a little acidity, such as a tablespoon or so of balsamic or sherry vinegar added at the last minute, helps to bring soup flavors into balance. So it makes sense that some sources suggest toning down pepper by adding the juice of half a lemon and a pinch of sugar. If diluting the soup by adding more broth doesn’t work, lemon juice would be worth a try.

(E-mail food questions to Kathleen Purvis at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com.)

One of the great pleasures of the dining table is anything prepared au gratin.

As a kid, I longed for the evenings when my mother would make potatoes au gratin. For that matter, broccoli au gratin and cauliflower au gratin also thrilled me.

I think it was the tradition of picking at the golden brown crust on top, fighting with my brothers over the caramelized cheese and each of us trying to gradually move the casserole dish to his side of the table to get more.

Au gratin dishes are foods cooked in ovenproof casseroles topped with a crust made from breadcrumbs, cheese, cracker crumbs, grains or a mixture of these ingredients.

When I was at Culinary Institute of America, we usually made potatoes au gratin. The French make them by pouring heavy cream over thin-sliced potatoes that are sometimes mixed with onions, cheese and spices. When baked, the heavy cream reduces to a thick sauce as it combines with the natural starch from the potatoes to form a silky cream sauce.

There are, however, several ways to prepare au gratin dishes, but none of them are particularly healthful.

The best way I know to make the cream sauce is to use 2 percent milk thickened with cornstarch instead of a flour-and-butter-based roux. Or, you can substitute stock for the cream, but then your dish becomes more like Lyonnaise potatoes, which are wonderful, but different.

I give you a recipe for My Potatoes Au Gratin to which you can add blue cheese, chopped broccoli or cauliflower or just about anything you want. I like to use half stock and half cream to cut a bit of the fat. If you are feeling lazy, you can use bottled Alfredo sauce instead of making the Au Gratin Sauce, if you read the label and find its ingredients acceptable.

MY POTATOES AU GRATIN

Of course, this recipe is for people who eat dairy products.

Au Gratin Sauce:

2 1/2 cups heavy cream, vegetable stock or a mixture of both

3 sprigs fresh thyme, chopped (about 1 tablespoon)

3 cloves garlic, minced

Cheese Topping:

1/2 cup low-fat shredded Swiss cheese

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1/4 cup plain dry breadcrumbs, cracker crumbs or panko

2 teaspoons paprika

Potato Casserole:

3 pounds red skin or Yukon gold, unpeeled and thinly sliced

1 large onion, thinly sliced

Salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste

To make sauce: Combine all ingredients.

To make topping: Combine all ingredients.

To make casserole: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with no-stick cooking spray.

Combine the potatoes and onions and layer a third of them in the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat layering twice more. Pour the sauce over the potatoes. Shake the casserole gently back and forth to evenly distribute the mixture. Sprinkle topping over all.

Cover with foil and bake in the center of the oven 45 minutes. Remove cover and bake 20 to 25 minutes until the topping is well browned and crispy, and the potatoes are tender. Makes 6 servings.

Per serving: 555 calories, 64 percent calories from fat, 39 grams total fat, 24 grams saturated fat, 144 milligrams cholesterol, 42 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams total fiber, 4 grams total sugars, 38 grams net carbs, 12 grams protein, 198 milligrams sodium.

(Steve Petusevsky is a freelance writer in Coral Springs, Fla. If you have questions for him, write Vegetarian Today, Sun Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL. 33301-2293. Or send an e-mail with your full name, address and telephone number to dhartz@SunSentinel.com with “Vegetarian Today” in the subject line. Personal replies are not possible.)

Q. I accidentally left my refrigerator door slightly ajar when I went to bed and discovered it the next morning. Do I need to throw everything away? The milk that was in the refrigerator door tastes fine for now, but it feels room temperature.

A. When this reader contacted us that morning after discovering her refrigerator door open, I checked with Sally McNeill, a family and consumer educator from the North Carolina Extension Service.

Her answer was what I expected: Potentially hazardous food, such as raw meat and dairy products, needs time and temperature control to keep it safe. This type of food needs to be kept at refrigerator temperatures of 40 degrees or less. If the temperature of the food rises into the temperature danger zone (40-140 degrees) for longer than two to four hours, it should be discarded.

However, the problem in determining what was safe to keep was that the reader had already closed her refrigerator door. For most of us, that would be our first impulse.

But if you do that, you don’t have any way of knowing what was no longer cold to the touch.

Some things deeper in the refrigerator, such as meat in a meat-chilling drawer, may have stayed cold longer than things that are in the door or on the outer edge of a shelf.

If you get into a situation like this, go through the contents of the refrigerator quickly to assess the damage before you close the door.

“Unless this woman took the temperature of the foods when she discovered that the door was open and found them to be 40 (or 41) degrees or less (or still felt they were ‘refrigerator cold’ to the touch), she should discard the potentially hazardous items,” McNeill said.

In a typical refrigerator, that would mean raw meat, soft cheeses, yogurt and milk. Jarred condiments, such as mayonnaise, mustard, jams and jellies, should be fine.

Also, the best place to keep milk isn’t in the refrigerator door, where the temperature fluctuates every time you open the door.

Milk is particularly sensitive to temperature changes, and can lose quality if the temperature changes just a few degrees.

Send questions about cooking and food to Kathleen Purvis, kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com.

Go into any health-food store or pharmacy, and you’re liable to see large plastic tubs in the supplement aisle promoting amino acids. Wait, don’t we get enough amino acids from the food we eat?

Australian sports nutritionist Clare Wood investigated amino acid supplements. Take our quiz based on her results, published on the Web site www.topendsports.com.

1. What is the range of daily amino-acid intake recommended for a person weighing 132 pounds?

a) 24 to 66 grams

b) 72 to 102 grams

c) 134 to 218 grams

2. How many grams of protein are contained in an average (152-gram) chicken breast?

a) 22 grams

b) 32 grams

c) 42 grams

3. True or false: All but the most dedicated athletes engaging in resistance training or tissue repair should consume more than enough amino acids without resorting to supplements.

4. Besides being found in beef, chicken and fish, amino acids are found in large quantities in which of the following foods?

a) legumes (such as beans)

b) dairy products

c) cereal products

5. True or false: Doctors sometimes inject the amino acid arginine to stimulate growth hormone release in children with a deficiency. Regular use of an oral form of arginine has shown significant muscle mass increase in strength athletes.

ANSWERS: 1: b; 2: c; 3: true; 4: a (amino acids are present in dairy and cereal but in lesser amounts); 5: false.