New game plans for cooking light - excerpt from Sunset Light Cuisine; includes recipes

Sunset, June, 1986

New game plans for cooking light

What's the difference between Light Cuisine, a new Sunset cook book, and a diet cook book?

Plenty. In its 112 pages, Light Cuisine (Lane Publishing Co., Menlo Park, Calif., 1986; $6.95) speaks to a life style. The book merges a healthy outlook toward eating with foods you'll be proud to serve. The book, by the editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazine, features fresh, familiar ingredients in 150 attractive, appealing recipes, 24 shown in full-page color photographs. These recipes are designed to use every day of the week, both for the family and when you entertain.

You'll find many of your favorites from Sunset Magazine, some as they originally appeared, others streamlined with reduced fat and sodium content to meet today's dietary recommendations.

Chapters are devoted to soups, salads and vegetables, eggs and cheese, fish and shellfish, chicken and turkey, lean and trim meats, and light desserts. Dishes range from the anticipated poached, steamed, or stir-fried combinations to lean versions of quiche, pastas, Dutch babies, tostadas, and sauteed meats. Also featured are many popular international foods and showstopper desserts that you wouldn't expect as part of a light cuisine. Each recipe has a calorie count per serving and a content analysis for protein, carbohydrates, total fat, unsaturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. This information is especially helpful if you are on a therapeutically directed diet.

Also included with each recipe are estimated preparation and cooking times; most dishes are quick and easy, going from kitchen to table in less than an hour.

Special features address party menus, crisp thin breads, vegetarian main dishes, and multipurpose salad dressings and slimming sauces. Fresh ways with fish in the microwave oven (a most effective cooker for fish) and steeping turkey and chicken the Chinese way also highlight this useful book.

The following recipes from Light Cuisine are typical of its attention to good-tasting, attractively presented dishes.

Garlic Chicken and Grapes

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Baking time: about 45 minutes

Calories per serving: 267

Per serving: 30 grams protein, 17 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams total fat, 1 gram unsaturated fat, 156 milligrams cholesterol, 760 milligrams sodium.

Vegetable oil cooking spray

6 whole chicken legs, thighs sttached (about 3 lb. total)

3 tablespoons each Dijon mustard and soy sauce

2 tablespoons each honey and white wine vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

1 tablespoon sesame seed

2 cups red or green seedless grapes (about 3/4 lb.)

Watercress sprigs

Spray a 9- by 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Place chicken legs in pan, skin side down. Cover with foil and bake in a 400| over for 25 minutes.

While chicken is baking, combine the mustard, soy sauce, honey, white wine vinegar, and garlic in a small bowl; stir to mix well. Uncover chicken and turn skin side up. Pour mustard mixture over chicken and sprinkle with sesame seed.

Return to oven and bake, uncovered, until meat near thigh bone is no longer pink when slashed, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle grapes around chicken and bake just until grapes are heated through, 3 to 5 more minutes.

Arrange chicken and grapes on a serving platter and spoon sauce over them. Garnish with watercress. Makes 6 servings.

Salzburger Nockerln

Preparation time: 15 to 20 minutes

Baking time: 10 to 12 minutes

Calories per serving: 134

Per serving: 5 grams protein, 11 grams carbohydrates, 8 grams total fat, 4 grams unsaturated fat, 175 milligrams cholesterol, 64 milligrams sodium.

1 ounce semisweet chocolate

4 eggs, separated

1/4 cup sugar

4 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Using a vegetable peeler, shave chocolate or make chocolate curls; set aside.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, beating until very stiff. Set aside.

With same beater, beat egg yolks at high speed in a small bowl until very light in color and slightly thickened. Gradually add flour, beating until mixture is thick and well blended. Fold yolks into whites, blending lightly but thoroughly.

Quickly melt butter in a shallow oval or rectangular pan, about 7 by 11 inches, over direct medium heat. Making 6 equal mounds, heap egg mixture into warm pan. Bake in a 350| over until top is pale brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Sprinkle with chocolate; serve immediately. Serves 6.

Photo: Salzburger nockerln, an ethereal baked dessert from Austria and Bavaria, has only 134 calories per serving

Photo: The light, healthy foods that fill this new cook book are designed to look good, taste good, and be part of daily meals, not saved for sporadic dieting

Photo: Garlic and sesame baked chicken goes with hot juicy grapes, steamed broccoli, potatoes