Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

Easy tomato sauce

This is an adaptation of a recipe I found online, I left out the garlic, used less onion, used water instead of wine and added several spices. Having a good food mill makes this a recipe that doesn't require peeling or coring the tomatoes. Because the tomatoes aren't cut up, the sauce is less likely to separate because the enzyme that is released when you cut up tomatoes is deactivated if they're cooked whole.

In an 8 quart or larger pot:

10 pounds of tomatoes, stems removed and washed but not cored or peeled. Discard any with bad spots (or use for something else.)

2 1/2 cups of water

4 medium onions, diced

Spices (added later):

2 tablespoons oregano

1 tablespoon marjoram

1 teaspoon thyme

2 teaspoons parsley

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)

2 teaspoons basil (optional)

1/4 cup vinegar (optional)

Cover and cook for about 1 hour on medium heat. It can boil but it shouldn't be a full boil. Using something like a potato masher, crush the tomatoes and cook for another 1-2 hours.

Run through a food mill to remove the skins and (usually most of) the seeds, add spices, then continue to cook uncovered at a simmer or light boil until it has reduced to the thickness you're after, we like it fairly thick. If including the basil, do so at the end and cook for only 10 minutes after adding the basil.

Depending on the variety of tomatoes used, can be fairly sweet, a quarter cup of vinegar can be added along with the spices.

We like it somewhat coarse, if you prefer a smooth tomato sauce you can use a food processor or stick blender at the end.

Depending on how much you reduce it, this recipe should yield about 4 pounds of sauce, around 6 cups.

I use an induction cooktop, you may not have quite as precise temperature control as with gas or electric cooktops but it won't heat the kitchen up nearly as much. (For some reason, it always seems to be in the high 90's when I'm processing tomatoes.)

[Mike Nolan]

Keto-Friendly Vanilla Ice Cream

This is an adaptation of the recipe that came with my Krups ice cream maker, which has a 1 1/2 quart capacity. Chill the bowl in the freezer for at least 24 hours. Because it is made with cream instead of milk, it is very rich, but that makes it delicious.

1/4 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup allulose

2 eggs

2 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I use vanilla bean crush extract)

Heat the 1/4 cup of cream and water but not to boiling. Whisk the two eggs with the allulose powder until well-combined. Slowly add the warmed cream/water to the eggs, then pour everything back in the pan and cook on low/medium heat, stirring continuously, until it starts to thicken. It won't get very thick, but don't let it boil. Cool to room temperature, then add the cream and the vanilla and stir to combine. It is best to chill it overnight before churning it.

After churning it will still be soft, so transfer it to a freezer-safe container and freeze overnight.

Nutritional information: According to Nutritionix a 52 gram scoop is 11 grams of fat, 1 gram protein, 0.9 grams carbs and 110 calories.. (Nutritionix doesn't have allulose in its food database, but your body can't digest it, so I just leave it out of my food log entirely.)

[BakerAunt]

Good to see you resurfacing, Aaron! BTW, your thoughts a while ago about forming spread out buns rather than tight rolls helped me figure out why my sandwich buns were not coming out flatter.

I would say that with oil for butter in cookies, it depends. When I bake the Soft Oatmeal Cookies (use canola oil) from Jenny Can Bake, I find that it helps to press them down gently so that they spread out a bit rather than remaining as haystacks. The King Arthur Spiced Rye Cookies that I baked last week use oil (I use avocado for these) spread of their own accord, as do Big Lake Judy's Best Ever Molasses Cookies (use canola oil in these). The Drop Sugar Cookie recipe that I adapted from Betty Crocker online--I reduced the oil and use avocado oil--needs to be pressed down.

Perhaps it depends on the ingredients and their proportions? I do not think it is the oil itself. I favor avocado oil when I want a bit more fat (double what canola oil has) as I removed what the butter has.

I use white whole wheat flour for most of my cookies these days, so that may make a difference as well.

[Mike Nolan]

In some states (FL) it is illegal to even touch a gopher tortoise.

[cwcdesign]

I made sheet pan fajitas tonight with an avocado sauce (leftover avocado, chopped tomatoes, lemon juice, s&p and some garlic powder) it was too loose to be considered guacamole, but it worked. We still had some of Will's whole wheat tortillas in the freezer. It was a nice dinner.

[Mike Nolan]

I used half of the King Arthur Keto Pizza Mix (it makes two 12-inch pizzas) and our usual toppings, and it came out pretty good. The mix is actually lower in carbs (total and net) per slice than the pizza made using the King Arthur Keto Wheat Flour.

It should reheat well, too, so it'll be supper tomorrow, too.

I will definitely buy more of this mix. (It costs less per pizza than the one made with the Keto Wheat Flour, too, but either one is still a whole lot less than take-out pizza, even if we use expensive toppings like artichoke hearts.)

The tomato sauce I made today tastes fairly sweet, the tomatoes I used were mostly 4th of July and Porter, but it was acceptable on tonight's pizza. Took about a half-cup of sauce. I simplified the recipe, leaving out the garlic and red wine, so it was just: 10 pounds of tomatoes, 4 onions, water and some spices (oregano, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper.) I think I'm going to mostly make tomato sauce this year, we still have tomato juice left over from last season.

[Mike Nolan]

The final specific gravity was about 1.15, but the thickness of the sauce is what I was after (1.2 was a WAG.)

[Mike Nolan]

I wound up with just under 4 pounds of sauce from 10 pounds of tomatoes (plus onions, spices and some cooking water), about 6-6 1/2 cups.

Gonna use some of it on a pizza for supper tonight, freeze some and possibly can some in a few days when it cools off. It only got to about 96 today but they're currently calling for 105 tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

I did get an answer from W-S on the rice cooker, but it didn't say which type of low-carb rice cooker this is, it just repeated the sales literature's description of it. (I flagged it as 'not helpful'.)

I'm inclined to think it must be a 'wash-down' type, which is doesn't remove quite as many carbs as a 'siphon' type.

[Mike Nolan]

Question (mostly) for Chocomouse:

Do you use a floating hydrometer to measure the sugar content of your maple syrup? I'm looking for a way to check the thickness of things like sauce. What I'm currently doing is measuring out 10 ml of sauce in a graduated cylinder and weighing it on a scale that does milligrams. (Water comes in at 1.002, so my methodology is probably accurate enough.) The batch of tomato sauce I'm making is currently at about 1.12 specific gravity, I'm aiming for about 1.2. The biggest limitation with this method is that when filling the cylinder with tomato sauce, some of the solids stick to the sides so it is harder to know when you've got exactly 10 ml.

I'm looking for an inexpensive floating hydrometer that would be durable enough to survive in a kitchen of klutzes. Based on the reviews on Amazon, a lot of the glass ones don't even survive transit. I don't care if a plastic one is not quite as accurate if it is more durable.

I'd use my refractometer but it doesn't work well with things that aren't smooth, like tomato sauce.

Any suggestions?

[Mike Nolan]

My spaghetti squash are doing fairly well, I haven't tried to count the number of fruit, but one of them is getting pretty large already. I think I put in 6 plants (3 hills) and they all came up (unlike the dill I planted where only one seed came up.) Usually you get 3-5 usable fruit per plant. It'll keep blooming until frost hits, but the late-setting ones won't get ripe enough to eat.

It is supposed to be possible to freeze cooked spaghetti squash, you let it drain off excess water first. Might have to do that if I get a lot of them all at once, which is how it usually works.

I picked about 11 pounds of tomatoes today, mostly small ones like 4th of July and Porter, but a couple of bigger one that we'll probably save for sandwiches. I doubt I got them all, I'll look for more in the morning. I'm going to make a small pot of sauce tomorrow using the new 8 quart induction-ready stock pot I bought earlier this year. And of course it's supposed to be really hot again tomorrow, 100 or so. One advantage of using an induction cooktop is it doesn't heat the kitchen as much.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm guessing it essentially uses steam to cook the rice, with some of the starch dripping off into the bottom of the cooker.

FWIW, recently I asked Harold McGee, author of "On Food and Cooking", how much starch (aka carbs) is removed when you boil potatoes and other vegetables. He said there's not a lot of research on it, and it depends on the surface area, so the finer you cut them up, the more starch would leach out. But in general, he said it isn't much. Rice has a relatively large surface area, though.

This research article says on average it lowers the rice from 34 grams of carbs per 100 grams of cooked rice to 27.5 grams. Not a huge reduction, but when combined with lower-carb strains of rice it might have some benefits, maybe enough to allow some rice in a modified keto diet. Probably not good enough for someone aiming to stay under 20 carbs a day, though.

It isn't clear to me whether the W-S one is a 'siphon' or a 'wash down' low-carb rice cooker as described in this article, so I asked that question in the W-S questions area, I'll let you know if I get an answer.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8997980/

[Mike Nolan]

We haven't had any sweet corn this season, and I'm not sure if the ones I planted as part of the soil test program are going to produce any. (The professor running the program has already noted poor germination rated with the corn for this year's common vegetable.)

[BakerAunt]

Navlys--one of those pans would be too small. However, if you have at least three, the recipe might fit. I also own the set of three different shapes, and I acquired a fourth one at a sale somewhere. I, too, have yet to try them, but I did save the recipe that King Arthur had developed for the pans, and one of these days I will try it.

The recipe for Icelandic Rye Bread must have a pan that is 13.75 " long, and has the width and depth specified. Mine, alas was not long enough. If I am remembering the length of those shaped pans (6 or 7 inches?), I'm pretty sure that at least three would be needed, probably filling them no more than 75% full.

[BakerAunt]

Spaghetti Squash-Turkey Casserole [Faux Lasagna] serves 6

Marliss Desens made major changes to the original recipe at eatyourselfskinny.com
I have used a 4-lb. spaghetti squash with a 13 x 9-inch, using a bit more sauce. I often added sauteed celery and red bell pepper.

2 lbs. spaghetti squash

About 3 to 3 ½ cups homemade spaghetti sauce
1 lb. ground turkey
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
2 tsp. dried onion, rehydrated
Minced parsley
Olive oil
1 Tbs. tomato paste
3 Tbs. flax meal
2 Tbs. freshly grated Parmesan, and a bit extra for topping.
½ cup [56 g] grated low-fat mozzarella

Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Line a large half-sheet pan with parchment. Cut spaghetti squash horizontally and scoop out seeds. (Discard seeds or put them out for the squirrels.) Lightly rub olive oil on cut side of spaghetti squash halves. Place with cut-side down on prepared baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until tender enough to pierce with a small knife.

While squash is cooking, spray a 9 x 9-inch-deep ceramic dish (or equivalent size) with non-stick spray. Set aside. Heat a 4-qt. sauté pan, add a bit of olive oil to coat surface and, brown the ground turkey. [If using regular onion, add it here and sauté.] Add a bit more olive oil and the mushrooms, cooking until soft. Add the tomato sauce, rehydrated onion, tomato paste, whatever spices you prefer, and parsley and cook over low heat. Stir in the flax meal. Stir in the Parmesan.

When spaghetti squash is ready, remove from oven, and turn oven down to 350 F. Use a fork to remove the strings of squash, keeping the strings from each half separate.

To assemble casserole, place 1/3 of the meat sauce on the bottom of the dish. Distribute the strings from one of the spaghetti squash evenly on top. Place another third of the meat sauce on top of the squash, then put the squash from the second half on top of it. Finish with the rest of the meat sauce. Sprinkle with the grated mozzarella and grate a bit more Parmesan over it.

Cover dish tightly with foil and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10-20 minutes before serving. Refrigerate leftovers. It re-heats well in the microwave.

What I changed: Marliss Desens made major changes to the original recipe at eatyourselfskinny.com Use fresh onion and add garlic (if desired) if not in sauce. Also, add 1 tsp. Penzey's Tuscan Seasoning, if you are not cooking for sensitive stomachs like my husband's. The original recipe used 4 lbs. of spaghetti sauce and did not use ground turkey or mushrooms or flax meal. The casserole was made in a 13 x 9 lasagna pan. I find that the smaller size works better, and with just one spaghetti squash, is not runny. (The flax meal also helps solidify it.)