Taking Stock

The best advice I can give you about making soup is to try making your own stock.

I know you don't have time; I know that there are "good" broths and stocks available at "Whole Paycheck", I know people like Ina and Rachel tell you that store-bought stock is okay.

But I'm telling you from my experience of making soups for many, many years:  the soup always tastes better if I start with HOMEMADE STOCK!

And besides that, here are some other things I've discovered:

It's not difficult.
It doesn't take that much time and effort.
It's inexpensive, since all of my stocks are made from parts of meat, veggies, and fish otherwise thrown away.

Really!

Let's start with a simple veggie stock.

Any time I cut up veggies for a mirepoix (onion, celery, carrot) any discarded parts, including the bottoms, tops, and skin of the onions and bottoms and tops of celery and carrots, get stuffed into a ziploc bag and thrown in the freezer. Also, anytime I clean out the veggie drawer in my frig, old dried up baby carrots that I wouldn't serve and limp celery get thrown into the freezer. I also will save a stray potato gone soft but not rotten or other root vegetable (except maybe sweet potato since that has such a distinct flavor). Old tomatoes and tops and bottoms get thrown into a separate bag. They're good for starting a vegetable broth that will be made into a tomato based soup, but you don't usually want that taste in a straight up vegetable stock.

Then when I have 2 or 3 bags of remnants and I'm in the kitchen doing other things, whether making dinner or baking, I'll throw the contents of those bags into a pot of water and boil the shit out of 'em. Like I mean really boil the shit out of them. That doesn't mean a rolling boil, it just means simmering for a really long time. Until they are mush. It could take 2 hours, but that's not time you need to tend it. I've put pots of stock on a low simmer and gone shopping. I usually partially cover the pot, letting steam escape so I don't have a boil over situation. Sometimes foam will form. Don't worry about this. It will be fine. This ain't rocket science.

When the veggies are almost unrecognizable cuz they're so mushy, you'll pour the stock through a screened colander. You really need a screened colander for this because there will be small bits of veggies you want to strain out. What you will be left with is an amber-colored stock imbued with the flavors of whatever veggies you put in it.

OPTIONS: I'll throw some fresh herbs in with the stock, such as fresh thyme sprigs, oregano, or even sage, whatever I might have lying around. Whole leaves are good because they'll be big enough to get stuck in the colander when you strain it. I do not salt my stock. I leave that task for whenever I use the stock. So when you taste this stock without salt, you might not think much of it, but believe me, the flavor is there! You have wrenched the flavor from those veggies by boiling them within an inch of their lives.

From there it can go straight into the freezer in sealed containers or you can make this fabulous albeit very simple butternut squash soup.

For this soup, I had a container of veggie stock in the freezer I needed to use up.

Roasted Squash Soup

2 small - medium butternut squashes
1 large onion, diced
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, diced finely
1 roasted red pepper, diced
6 cups homemade veggie stock
juice of 1 orange
1/2 to 1 cup half-n-half
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon hot curry powder
a few leaves of fresh sage
salt and pepper
olive oil
GARNISH: fresh jalapenos and cilantro

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Split squashes and de-seed. Baste generously with olive oil and salt and pepper liberally. Roast them
cut side up for approximately 40-50 minutes. They do not have to be mushy done. If they are fork tender but the flesh is still a little resistant, that will be fine. You just want to roast them until they get that yummy roasty flavor and they are easy to scoop out of the skin. When they're done, let them cool a few minutes so they're easy to handle.

Saute onion in olive oil in a large heavy-bottom soup pot for 3 minutes. Throw in chipotle pepper and seasonings and saute another 2 minutes.

Pour in stock and bring to a simmer. Scoop out each squash half and add to the pot. Add orange juice.
Let simmer another 10 minutes, turn it down to lot heat and use a hand blender to smooth out the soup. Once the soup is smooth, slowly add the half-n-half stirring to blend.

Throw in the roasted red peppers at the end, so you can see the pretty red bits.

Cilantro makes a nice garnish. If your folks like heat, garnish with fresh jalapenos.

So simple, but so unbelievably delish. Just one little chipotle pepper gives this soup a smokey heat. And the juice of the orange compliments the sweetness of the squash so well. I served this with a couple of wings and some tortilla chips. The perfect Autumn meal!

More stock advice to come!

Another Low GI Meal and a Diabetes Blog Interview

I got an email a few weeks back from a gal over at discussdiabetes.com, a blog with ideas from and info for people living with type 2 diabetes. They saw some of my recent posts about cooking and baking low GI foods and asked if they could interview me for their blog. So hop on over to discussdiabetes.com to check out my conversation with Laura Kolodjeski.

Not that it was a big stretch for me to talk about food, cooking, or diabetes, as you may know, but after being contacted by Laura I did some reading on their blog and some searching online for other type 2 info, meal ideas, recipes, blogs, etc. It seems like there just isn't that much out there in the foodie blogs for folks like us, so I'm going keep posting some of the meals I've developed over the last year and a half since the diagnosis.


ZUCCHINI FRITTERS AND ASIAN SLAW

Anytime I suggest to my man that I might cook some zucchini fritters, whether it's as a side dish with some spicy wings that he's making, or like in this case, as a main dish with a hefty helping of Asian slaw, he always says, "Honey, you had me at 'fritters.'" This is the perfect recipe for using up that bumper crop of zucchini from your garden this summer. And along with the slaw, the zucchini fritters make a very filling vegetarian meal and a good respite from all the meat-heavy grilling we might do over the summer months.

Fritters

4 small zucchinis (I've used 3 medium, or in this case, 1 lg zucchini and one medium yellow summer squash)

1 egg

1/2 cup oat flour (again, oat flour will be far less taxing on your blood glucose level than white flour or even whole wheat flour)

2-4 Tablespoons of dried Thai curry seasoning mix (make it yourself or store bought)

1 lg zucchini and 1 med. yellow squash made this plate full of fritters!

Dipping Sauce

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon chopped green onions or shallots

Red pepper flake (to taste)

If you're using a large zucchini or summer squash, quarter it lengthwise and remove the seeds first. Shred all the squash using the largest size grater you have, whether by hand or in a food processor. Put it in a colander, salt it generously then let it sit for a few minutes in the sink. After 10 or 15 minutes, start pressing the squash with the palm of your hand to squeeze out as much excess water as you can (I realize some people like to wring out their squash in a hand towel, but that's just not my style).

Transfer the squash to a bowl and mix in the egg, the flour and the seasoning with a wooden spoon.

Put 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom of a large nonstick skillet and heat. Drop large spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot oil and then press gently on the top of the dollop to flatten slightly. They will be irregularly shaped with little bits of squash sticking out the sides that will turn golden and crunchy as the fritter cooks. Make sure to maintain a good amount of heat on the pan without too much smoking. Turn them once when they are toasty brown and cook til the other side is also toasty brown. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

Combine the ingredients for the dipping sauce in a small bowl and stir. If you want a sweeter dipping sauce, add one squeeze of liquid Stevia or a small teaspoon of Splenda brown sugar blend. 

I'll post the Asian Slaw recipe in the next post. It complemented the fritters beautifully!

Feelin' Kinda Crabby

I was in the mood for fish.

Soooooo, here's my little diatribe about eating fish this far inland. Better to purchase the fish flash frozen in your grocer's freezer than to buy whatever has been THAWED and stuck in a window for who knows how long. Most fish sold in these parts has been frozen to be shipped here anyway. If you're buying it from the fish case at your grocery, you're only buying thawed frozen fish. I won't argue with those of you who live on the coast. I've been there, and it's true there's nothing like eating fresh fish caught that morning. But unless it's Walleye during Great Lakes Walleye season, we're not likely to see anything in Ohio that was caught same day.

Usually when I'm in the mood for fish I end up with some salmon or some shrimp or even some whiting fillets out of my freezer section. But while I was looking for my usual suspects, I noticed some small plastic jars of lump crab meat.

Light Bulb!  CRAB CAKES--the delicate, rich, crabby morsels of scrumptiousness, topped with a little Cajun or Asian heat and served with some dressed greens or sweet slaw or something similar.

Everybody has their own crab cake recipe. Mine is adapted from my buddies on Block Island who have owned countless restaurants over the years and who served a delicious crab cake eggs bennie at their most recent venture.

Going low-carb doesn't meant giving up our favorite foods. It just means modifying recipes so they are carb-friendly. This recipe doesn't use any bread crumbs in the cake. But the crab cakes at the restaurant were rolled in Panko. Panko being white bread is not exactly what I would call a low-carb, high-fiber option. 

So I had to make my own Panko using the high-fiber bread I buy at the grocery store. It was simple really. I just toasted one of the end pieces, let it cool for a bit, then pulsed it in the food processor until it was coarse like Panko bread crumbs. It doesn't matter that they aren't completely toasted and are still soft. They're only going on the outside of the crab cake and then getting fried in oil, so they will create a deliciously delicate crunchy coating nonetheless. Promise.

CRAB CAKES

8 oz jar lump crab meat, drained

1 stalk celery, diced small

2 Tablespoons diced onion or shallots

1 egg

1 Tablespoon mayonnaise

High-fiber Panko breadcrumbs (as instructed above) tossed into a shallow dish

1/4 cup canola oil

Spice Blend:

1 Tablespoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon smoked chipotle pepper powder (or more if you like the heat)

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon thyme leaves ground up in  your hand

1 teaspoon cumin 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

MIX all the spices into a small bowl. Set aside one to two teaspoonfuls of the spice blend for your dressing.

MIX the crab meat with the celery and onion. Toss with the remaining spice blend. Then add the egg and mayonnaise. The egg and mayonnaise will hold this all together without adding additional breadcrumbs. 

SCOOP out a small amount that can be squeezed between the palms of your hands. Because there are no breadcrumbs, these crab cakes are a bit delicate, so as you squeeze gently, form the ball into a hockey puck shape then roll the hockey puck in the Panko, gently pressing the breadcrumbs into all sides of the crab cake.

To make a simple dressing, MIX 2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise with the remaining spice blend and add the hot sauce of your choosing.

Fry these in properly heated oil in a non-stick pan. It won't take long, roughly 2-3 minutes per side. You can transfer them to a paper towel to absorb the excess oil when they're golden brown on each side.

Since there are no fillers in these, the 8 oz jar made 5 small crab cakes. My boyfriend and I ate them all. It was a main course so that's 1/4 lb. serving per person. I served mine with a simple salad of greens dressed with a lemon vinaigrette. They were delish!!!

I'm sharing some low-carb love with following:
Flour Me With Love Mix it Up Monday

Comforting My Blood Sugar

Food is not a replacement. It's not a replacement for love; it's not a replacement for exercise; it's not a replacement for self-esteem; it's not a replacement for anything. Food cannot fill the hole in my soul. 

Nonetheless, 

Food is sustenance.

Food gives us life

Food should be ENJOYED!

For more than 50 years, I have eaten whatever the heck I wanted. I have had more than my share of cakes, candy, corn chips, popcorn, pretzels, Reese's cups, Heath Bars, mashed potatoes, crusty french baguettes, and a host of other things I can no longer eat now that I've been diagnosed as Type 2 Diabetic.

And the conclusion I have come to in the year since I was diagnosed is this:

If I can't have another Krispy Kreme donut ever in my life, 

it is not the end of the world.

While my friends and family tried every diet imaginable over the years, everything from 70s grapefruit diets and Mayo Clinic diet to Weight Watchers and South Beach, I paid little or no attention to them. I would always say I eat what I want, that our culture is much too weight conscious and I refused to buy into it. I used to tell people I don't know how much I weigh and I don't own a scale because I think it's unhealthy for women to have that number rattling around in their brains all the time. I have fluctuated between a size 14 and 18 most of my adult life. And to tell you the truth, I just didn't worry about it.

As you might imagine, being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes was like a big slap in the face. When my doctor's office called me, I literally was standing in the buffet line at a casino looking at all the desserts and thinking to myself, which of those delectable items will end up in my tummy today, while somewhere in the back of my mind I was planning to go home and bake something because, after all, I didn't have any baked goods in the house. 

Well it's been almost a year since that fateful day. There was a steep learning curve for me and my boyfriend because we both love to cook and I, particularly, love to bake. But we cook and eat fabulous food with fresh ingredients that do not screw with my blood sugar. 

For instance, with high fiber options at my local grocery store, I am still eating pasta and bread, I just don't eat them as often and I watch my portion size when I do.

So what do I cook on a cold winter's night when there's hardly anything in the pantry but some good cheese, bacon and eggs? The ultimate comfort food, of course, a low-glycemic mac-n-cheese you are going to absolutely love!

Bacon & Eggs Mac-n-Cheese!

adapted from a recipe from The Mac & Cheese Cookbook, by Allison Arevalo and Erin Wade

• 1/2 lb of uncooked high fiber pasta (I use Barilla whole grain rotini)
• 1 1/2 cups of evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup water (you can use 2 cups of whole milk or half-n-half to replace both the milk and water)
• 1/4 cup oat flour (oat flour has little or no affect on blood glucose levels and I have found it's a fabulous thickening agent instead of flour or cornstarch)
• 1/4 cup butter (don't use margarine; you're making a rue so you need it to be real butter)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2-3 cups of shredded cheeses, I used a really good Parmesan, white cheddar and some Monterrey jack
• 1/2 lb of bacon, cooked then crumbled
• 4 eggs

Cook up the pasta in salted water according to the directions, but take the pasta out of the water 1 or 2 minutes before the prescribed cooking time for al dente pasta because this goes in the oven and will cook the rest of the way there. Spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray and toss the pasta into it.

In a sauce pan, melt the butter, then add the oat flour, whisking and cooking over medium heat until it starts to thicken. The oat flour will bubble up the butter when it hits the pan, but it's fine, keep whisking while it thickens for about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the milk in a Pyrex measuring cup in your microwave until it is warm.

Gradually add the milk to the butter flour mix, whisking all the time. Add the salt and whisk. As it begins to thicken, start adding the shredded cheese a little at a time, whisking to blend as it melts until all the cheese is blended in with the mixture and melted. Then add the crumbled bacon.

Pour the cheesy bacon mixture over the pasta and bake in the oven. You can bake it fast, like I do, for about 12-15 minutes on 400 degrees F, or you can go the low and slow route at 350 for 30 minutes. Whatever you prefer.

If you want to add bread crumbs to the top of this, like many people do, make sure you make your own high-fiber bread crumbs to make this dish retain its low glycemic load. I prefer my mac-n-cheese to be gooey and creamy throughout.

Dish out small portions and top each portion with a poached egg. 

When the gooey egg yolk flows out over the cheesy pasta you will find it very hard to believe that this is a diabetic-friendly dish. The portion pictured here is the portion I ate. Yummy, yummy, yummy! And my blood sugar was back down to under 115 within 3 hours. 

With dishes like this, I can truly say I have fully embraced my low-carb lifestyle and am keeping my promise to myself that I will endeavor to avoid taking medication for as long as I can by eating right. So far so good.

Oh yes, and that part where I said that food cannot fill the hole in my soul . . . uh . . . you didn't really believe that, did you?

I'm supping with these talented chefs:
Flour Me With Love Mix it Up Monday
Creating My Way to Success A Round Tuit
C.R.A.F.T. Monday Funday