Tips for low fat cooking - Help!

Zimara

Yummy mummy to be!
I'm a bit of a newb when it comes to low fat cooking and i just had a bit of a disater making a creamy pasta sauce:cry:

I would normally use philly as the base and add a little stock, this alone would make a creamy sauce. Just before serving i would add some creme friache then add to the pasta.

Today i frylited onions, garlic and chicken breast, then i added my Quark which started melting nicely, i then added stock and it all went horribly wrong. The stock seemed to make the Quark "curdle", for want of a better word. The spoon i stirred with got in a horrible sticky, cheesey messy! What was left in the pan just looked like chicken stock.
I thought once i added the LF creme friache all would be ok but that just seemed to dilute in the stock.

It's edible but not what i was expecting. Are my expectations too high or are there some tips you can give me doing it the low fat way?
 
Hi Zimara,

I have never made a creamy pasta before, so can't really help with this, hopefully someone else who can help will come along soon.

However, if I add yoghurt/f frais to a curry I always add it right at the end, after the curry has been taken off the heat - this will stop it curdling. If you get the yoghurt/f frais too hot it will curdle.
 
Thanks for the replies ladies, will try fromage frias next time but i just think of it as yoghurt. Anyone know what is the difference?

It was the cheese that curdled:eek: not the creme, never had that happen to me b4. even so the creme fraiche looked more like yoghurt when i open the carton, not stiff and creamy.

Guess I've been increadably spoilt on a high fat/low carb diet that i was previously on!!
 
All the fat free products like quark, fromage frais and yoghurt are prone to curdling at high temperatures so as said it's usually best to add them at the very end of cooking, off the heat, and not straight from the fridge. I've heard that adding cornflour helps to stabilise them but that of course would add syns. Or you could use phillie light as an alternative and just syn it - it's not very high.

Oh and by the way, you do know that creme fraiche, even RF is not syn free?
 
I've just had pasta with some philly light (2 syns per 28g) mixed with quark - stir it in off the heat and Bob's your uncle!
 
I didn't, but I wanted the pasta coated, rather than it be a sauce. I suppose you could try adding it little by little, but would keep the heat very very low.
 
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