Techniques
A few methods do most of the work in this book: sieving, peeling, cooking things down until no bite or strand is left. Here's why each one matters, and how to do it properly.
- Clear, strained stock
Stock is the backbone of most of this book, and the only version that belongs on this diet is one you can see the bottom of the pan through.
- Cooking to melting
The difference between an onion that is soft and an onion that has melted, and why the second one is the only one this book uses.
- Florets only, no stalk
What to keep and what to throw away when a brassica is allowed at all, and why the two parts of the same vegetable behave so differently.
- Fortifying
Getting more energy and protein into the same small bowl, which matters more on this diet than anything you leave out.
- Infusing and lifting out
How to get the flavour of ginger, bay, thyme and saffron into a dish without leaving a single piece of them in it.
- Peeled, deseeded and cooked soft
The one instruction that turns a restricted vegetable or fruit into one you can eat, and how to tell when it has worked.
- Poaching and steaming
Gentle wet heat gives tender protein without a browned crust, which is what a sore mouth and a cautious gut both want.
- Sieving
A blender cuts fibre into smaller pieces. A sieve takes it out of the bowl altogether, and that is the difference this diet turns on.
- Thickening stoma output
Which starches firm up loose output, how to use them, and why fluid and salt matter as much as the food does.