Keto thread

One thing I won't do without for the Thanksgiving day meal is real cranberry sauce. It is no relation to the canned crud. Here are 2 versions one is cooked and will sorta gel, add more pectin for better gelling. The other is a relish. Both are sooo much better than the canned crud. Oh, and both ingrdient lists are pretty much the same, cook one and grind the other.

Oranges are high in sugar content. To lower the carbs just use the zest. I take the carb hit and use the entire orange. Did you know there is more Vit' C in the white pith in the orange than in the pulp? Just a factoid. It's said that the pith is bitter. I've ever only found it to be tasteless.

Cranberry Sauce (Brians)

Time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients:

12 oz Cranberries
1 1/3 cup sugar ( 1 ½+ cups** of Erythritol for keto)
1 whole organic* Orange, less seeds
One apple, optional (adds pectin and sweetness, but it’s not keto)
Optional, Some added pectin to goose the jelling (an indigestible carb aka as soluble fiber). Only for the boiled version but it won’t hurt the uncooked relish version below.

Pick over the berries and wash them.
Wash and chop the entire orange.

Place everything in a saucepan start with a low heat until juice begins to develop in the bottom of the saucepan. After the juice begins, stir frequently. Then bring to high simmer to release all the juices and to get he cranberries to split their skins. Reduce the heat to a med simmer and reduce the liquid . It’s done after the juices have reduced and thickened a bit and the cranberries have broken up. One or 2 may need to be broken between the spoon and pot. Place in suitable container for cool down, refrigerate.

**Erythritol is 70% as sweet as sugar so adjust for taste and don’t be surprised when it requires more. I’ve also added some monk fruit powder to goose sweetness.


OR


If you wish to not cook the sauce, a relish can be made.

Just put everything (except the sugar) through a food/meat grinder. After grinding mix with the sugar.

The sugar can be increased slightly to taste (another 1/3 cup), and apples can also be added if desired. But apples are sweet so take that into account when adding sugar.

Allow to stand refrigerated for a time before serving. This is best done a day ahead.

* Why organic? The vast majority of commercial oranges today are floated in an aniline dye bath. If your orange is completely orange, it’s had that treatment. An untreated orange is also slightly green. OK, why should you care? Aniline dye is based on benzine and benzine is a known carcinogen. By consuming the orange rind, as required in this recipe, you’d be consuming a known carcinogen.

My favorite veg' is rapidly becoming Kale. That's good because I've read the words, "The king of vegetables" in reference to it since it's so high in nutrition. Yes, I know people either love it or hate it and I've read words stating that young kale is to be preferred. That tells me that the writer just doesn't know how to prepare it. Kale can be tough, but not the entire leaf is tough, just the central rib. So remove that (after washing the leaf) and discard it. Keep the rest and very coarsely cut it just enough to make the final cooked pieces small enough for eating without embarrassment. How long to cook it? In a little liquid, just enough for steaming, bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to allow it to simmer. Do that for 40-45 minutes at sea level. Test for doneness and if not tender simmer it longer. Like any green a huge pile of it cooks down to nothing, so I fill the pot to overflowing and as it cooks down giving me room, I fill it again.

So a recipe that works for me... the first version uses ham. This time I had some ham "stock" from a boiled dinner, and the shank bone with meat that can't be cut off of it. keeping a smallish reasonable amount of stock I boiled the bone for another few hours. After it cooled down I stripped the bone of meat and discarded everything inedible. I refrigerated that along with the stock, which jelled due to the natural gelatin, and scraped off the congealed fat. Then I added the kale (2 bunches) as I already described to the remaining stock. I also added some more cut up ham because there just wasn't enough for what I had in mind. 45 minutes later the kale was tender and ready to eat. Since I'm in ketosis I added no other carbs and the dish was finished as a sort of soup. If I had used less stock it would have been less of a soup and more of a side dish. I did mean to add a few bay leaves to the simmering ham bone, but forgot. Some black pepper can be added either to the boil or afterward. If one isn't in ketosis some onion and carrots would work fine for the soup version. I make a chicken soup similar to the ham soup version but without the bay leaves, and an addition of fresh parsley. I can't eat noodles but if you can that would be an excellent addition. I think potatoes would work fine in the ham version. I do cheat a bit with the chicken version and add a bit of onion and carrot. You can add more.

For the ham version I've also used bacon and used the bacon and fat to make a stock in the same pot as the Kale will be cooked in. But that can make it salty, just be aware of that. I think I wrote of that somewhere previous in this thread.

I really appreciate the detailed review of the bread-making process, and your observations about the taste, texture, and carb load. I also like your idea of using beer instead of water to give a fermented yeast taste to the bread, that sounds interesting. I also recommend you to check out https://reverse.health/ for more tips on natural and effective weight loss. Keto dieting seems expensive, but it's worth a try, and I'll keep your tips in mind. Thanks again for sharing your experience and insights, it's always helpful to hear from others who are on a similar journey.

Something I've been playing with is dessert. Who doesn't like sweets and they were hard to come by but easier today. Some are just fantastic.

Full disclosure, OK, I love lemon. These are absolutely delicious.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1NKMKS5/ref..._page?th=1

So I got to thinking in the kitchen and that can have mixed results. So far the results have been good. Mission makes a 10"ish whole wheat tortilla that is low carbs and I use them for lots of things. Why not a sweet? I have low or zero carb sweeteners and cream cheese or Neufchatel would make a decent vehicle, all it needs is flavoring. So far I've used Passion fruit, banana, pumpkin spice , Strawberry, Red raspberry (with blackberries in the wrap), and reading the wrapper from the wafers linked to above, today natural lemon (and lime) flavors arrived. Why not just buy lemons? I hate waste and they might go bad between uses. The stuff I bought should be shelf stable for a long time. So very soon I expect my citrus addiction will be fully satiated. The sweetener I use? Either erythritol or monk fruit extract (a beige dry powder).

All of this is experimental and it involves adding, mixing, and tasting until I'm satisfied. But I find that 2 "scoops" of monk fruit powder, and they are exceedingly tiny scoops (included in the monk fruit powder) is plenty to sweeten 1/3 of a bar of Neufchatel with flavoring. Erythritol also works but has a bit of carbs.

I also used the cream cheese mix on low carb pancakes and it worked fine.

Very soon lemon then lime will be on the menu.

So those folks in ketosis, question for you... Is this a dessert or a fat bomb? Or is it either? I have used it as a snack when the county required my assistance that I couldn't ignore but thought it best if I brought along a "lunch" snack. It worked fine and I'll do it again in a heartbeat. Want more of a fat bomb? Use cream cheese instead of neufchatel for the higher fat content. The taste and texture are the same IMO.

Would cocoa work? Why not? But cocoa beans have carbs. Might add a few  cocoa nibs to make it interesting. :-)

So here's the Brians Lemon Roll Up recipe thus far. If there are any changes it might be to add some vanilla extract. But I like the sweet/tart lemon flavor as is. So far all I've used them for is for a quick breakfast, that's if the spread is already made and in the refrigerator. For a dessert or fat bomb I think I'd want to cut it into multiple servings and not est the entire roll up.

Neufchatel has less fat than cream cheese so that’s what I use, but cream cheese is definitely OK.

The lemon powder is pure dried lemon juice, and the lemon flavor... I’ll link to everything that I use.

When I write “scoop” below it refers to the scoop that comes in the packet of product. If yours doesn’t come with a scoop you’ll need to add, mix, and taste. Erythritol can be substituted for the monk fruit, I’ve done it and it works fine but you’ll need to add, mix, and taste since I didn’t keep notes when I used it. Monk fruit has zero carbs and Erythritol has carbs that’s why I made the change.

Brians Lemon Roll Ups

Ingredients:

Low carb wheat tortilla (Mission "Carb Balance" 10"(ish) low carb whole wheat tortillas is what I use. Not to be confused with the "Carb Balance" tortillas that use white flour)

1 block of Neufchatel

6 scoops lemon powder (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NY4MF5Y?psc...ct_details)

3 tsps Lemon flavor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090UIYCC?psc...ct_details)

1/2 tsp 100% lemon oil

6 scoops dry monk fruit extract (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PRY...UTF8&psc=1)

Directions:

Remove the block of neufchatel from the wrapper, put in a mixing bowl and allow to warm up.

Add the flavorings and sweetener and mix.

For a 10" tortilla use 1/3 of the mix. Spread, fold the base “up” and roll the tortilla. Enjoy!

..........................................

I'm also working on these flavors.

Strawberry - Pretty good, but working on it

Banana - pretty good, pretty good but working on it

Chocolate

Vanilla

Red Raspberry Not impressed with this so far

No photos of the finished product, Brian.

If I think of it maybe next time. The problem is remembering. But in all the years I've been writing about food, mostly on a BBQ forum, I was noted for never posting pix. It's no deliberate, I just don't think of it.

In the meantime, it's just a rolled up wheat tortilla. Not much to see actually. For a picture I might sprinkle with powdered erythritol for presentation eye candy, but normally I don't.

Celestino, you wanted pix. You have pix.

This is the last of the experimental lemon filling, but I'll definitely make it again. Maybe next time I'll add lemon zest, if I have fresh lemon on hand, to give it an even more rounded lemony taste. I love lemon.

Could I add ricotta to lighten them up a bit? Sure, but I'm in ketosis and fat is my fuel. If I want my body to consume it's own fat again (should I want to go into weight loss mode again) I'd add ricotta. Could anyone else add ricotta? Absolutely! I sprinkled this with powdered erythritol, if I was eating carbs I'd just use confectioners sugar. Normally I don't sprinkle with anything.

Looks great, Brian. Thanks.