Eggplant Parmesan + Low-carb notes

Revised August 23, 2015
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Most everything you need for eggplant Parmesan is right here. Jalapenos optional.

This time of year all our dinners look the same—red and green—mostly red. That's because of tomato bounty, tomato beauty, and so many greens and eggplants and onions and garlic and basil and on and on. Truly an embarrassment of dishes/riches from kitchen bitches. Of which I am apparently one. I'm a little bossy about diet and cooking. An eggplant Parmesan recipe follows, pictures first. This year I have had to beg or buy eggplants as we had a mysterious eggplant crop failure.

I published an earlier eggplant Parmesan recipe that included this step: slice and salt the eggplant. Let drain then rinse and dry before proceeding. The next time I opined about how to make it, I said this:

Eggplant Parmesan is so much easier when you skip the salting-the-sliced-eggplant-then-rinsing-and-drying steps and also the dredging-in- flour-or-crumbs part. I omitted the flour/crumbs step because of my carb-avoidance behavior, but discovered that dipping the slices in a beaten egg and frying in olive oil is just as good, if not better, than the carb-dredging routine. Oh joy! I left out the salting part when I was in a big rush and discovered THAT doesn't matter either. So right there you lop off another 15 or 20 minutes.

I am sticking with the no-salting method. Anything that saves prep time is good, especially when you can't tell the difference with the finished product. 

Most eggplant Parmesan recipes direct you to dredge  the eggplant in a seasoned flour mixture before frying or baking. No, no, no. Not at all necessary. Some suggest you bake the eggplant after dredging in flour mix, ostensibly to save you from fat. No, no, no. No need to be saved from olive oil! The need to be saved from flour is, however, compelling.

Layered egg-batter fried eggplant. Full recipe below.

This is the deluxe eggplant Parmesan, which means I needed to use sweet onions and peppers, which are undulating toward the kitchen from our crazy pumped- up garden. A very aggressive garden indeed. Onions and peppers are optional.

More layering. Did we talk about the homemade marinara sauce?  Only if you have time and tomatoes to spare.

Eggplant Parmesan

Let's make some assumptions. You have fresh tomatoes and nice firm glossy eggplants. You have time. (The biggest assumption of all.) But listen. If you don't have time to make your own marinara from fresh tomatoes, but still want to make a fabulous eggplant Parmesan, buy a good marinara sauce and pump it up with garlic, a little pesto, some pepper flakes, and your desire to make yourself and others glow at the dinner table.

Do what you can do. Good cheese helps no matter what.

This makes enough for 6-8 servings in a 9X13 inch pan. It freezes well, and keeps for several days refrigerated.

Ingredients
2-3 medium to large fresh eggplants
1.5 to 2 quarts marinara sauce, more or less, homemade preferable
8 - 10 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
12-16 ounces shredded mozzarella, jack, cheddar cheeses, mixed
salt and pepper to taste
salt for treating eggplant slices
2-3 medium eggs
2-4 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced sweet red pepper or jalapeno pepper or combination—deluxe version  
1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion—deluxe version.
   
Directions
1. Slice the eggplants into 1/2 - 3/4  inch rounds.

2. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. In the meantime, heat half the olive oil  over medium heat in a non-stick pan. When the oil is hot, but not smoking, coat the eggplant slices in beaten eggs and fry in olive oil until lightly browned on both sides. Add more oil as necessary. (May be more than 4 tablespoons.) Set aside fried eggplant slices on a grate to cool. Blot with paper towels, if you're weird about oil. If you have leftover egg, fry quickly, chop, and add to casserole. It's a sin to waste food.

3. When all eggplant slices are fried, spoon a layer of marinara on the bottom of your casserole dish. Add a layer of eggplant, sprinkle with cheeses.

4. If you're using sliced sweet onions and/or peppers, spread some atop the cheeses
.
5. Add another layer of eggplant topped by more "deluxe" items, if using, then cover with marinara.

If you have leftover eggplant slices, place a piece of waxed paper between slices and freeze for later use. 

Pop uncovered into preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 35 - 45
minutes, or whenever sauce is bubbling around the edges. Remove from oven and apply the final layer of mixed cheeses plus a few fresh pepper/onions, if you like.  Return to oven and turn off the heat. Allow the cheese to melt for five to seven minutes. Remove from oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Low-carb notes
Eggplant is low-carb to the max. One medium unpeeled eggplant has about 13 grams of carbs plus 19 grams of fiber. Which, with fiber grams subtracted, is a minus-carb count.

Peppers are also very low in carbs, but onions are not, and fresh tomatoes, depending upon sugar content, may be high in carbs. However, they also have a lot of fiber, especially if you follow my directions for using the entire tomato, skins included, to make homemade marinara.

Do you know about subtracting the fiber content from carb content to figure out how many carbs you're consuming? Example: a half cup of chopped raw tomato has 4.2 grams of carbs and 1 gram of fiber. Subtract the fiber gram and you get carb 3.2 grams. (The Complete Book of Food Counts by Corinne T. Netzer)

People who are serious about losing weight with low-carb diets count every carb and most try to keep their carb consumption at 30 per day or fewer. That's roughly the equivalent of two thin slices of bread, One large baked potato with skin has about 50 carbs and just 4.8 grams fiber. You could run on that thing for two days! Except that after eating that many unbuffered-by-fiber carbs, you're likely to feel hungry a couple hours after eating.

Blackberry-chipotle jelly with less sugar and without commercial pectin

I'm taking a quick break from writing about our recent travels on Vancouver Island because I've been derailed by a yen for blackberry-chipotle jelly. Never actually tasted it before, but the combination intrigued me. Chipotle flavors everything from chips to barbecue sauce to donuts. ... will ice cream be next? Probably not, but blackberry jelly is a good candidate.

Being a low-carb believer, I haven't made jams or jellies for years. Way too much sugar is required, and I don't care for the taste of preserves made with fake sugar. This year, with yet another ton of blackberries ripening on the edible "fence" that forms a boundary on our rural property, I decided to give low-sugar jelly another try. Jam isn't an option for blackberries, at least not for me, because of all the big seeds. Gotta strain those babies out, and jelly is the result.

I was pleased that the final product is spreadable, tasty, richly colored, and not cloyingly sweet. With chipotle cubes added, it has a bit of a bite, but nothing hot hot hot. The Mary's crackers have nothing to do with me, but are super good low-carb fare, about one carb each. A cracker topped with a little cream cheese and a dab of  blackberry/chipotle jelly, yum!

Before I go on, I must give credit where it's due. I searched online for reduced sugar preserves and the first thing that popped up was the useful and well-written blog, Mother's Kitchen. I adapted the strawberry jam recipe on the Mother's Kitchen link to make blackberry jelly.  My adapted recipe follows.

The author, in turn, credits the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving with providing direction for making preserves without commercial pectin. It is awesome! I could not believe that the blackberry/chipotle jelly wouldn't taste like apples, but it doesn't.

Mother's Kitchen also included this bit about commercial pectin that motivated me to NOT use it, especially not the low-sugar type. She writes:

I got interested in making jams and jellies without using commercially prepared pectin for a number of reasons. First of all, I am thrifty and it can cost well over $2 per box. Secondly, I just wanted something a little more natural. A pectin factory receives apple residue or citrus peels from juice factories. It's mixed with acid to get all the pectin out of the sludge. The solids are separated and then alcohol is added to precipitate the pectin out of solution. Ammonia is added to some kinds to make it work without added sugar normally needed (those expensive brands of pectin that allow you to make jams and jellies without adding sugar), and then it's mixed with dextrose or sugar to stabilize it. The good news is you can make all the pectin you need with apples and lemons. Mother's Kitchen blog

Here's how to use up eight cups of fresh blackberries to make seven or eight half-pint jars of jelly. Be warned—this is more time consuming than mixing fruit with a ton of sugar and a box of pectin.

Blackberry/Chipotle Jelly

8 cups blackberries
5 cups sugar   (I reduced the font for sugar because it still seems like a lot. But it is far less than if  made with boxed pectin.) I used a half cup less than the amount recommended.
5 tart apples. I used Granny Smiths and they were supermarket-large
1 entire lemon
2 -3 chipotle cubes* optional - using them or not does not affect ingredient quantities

* In the unlikely event you have your own smoked jalapeño peppers, from which you have made chipotle cubes, you'll understand what I mean by chipotle cubes
If not, and you want a little chipotle flavor, buy a can of chipotles in adobo sauce, chop them finely, juice and all, and add to the blackberries to taste. Use an ice cube tray to freeze what remains.

Here's my 2009 post that explains chipotle cubes. It's entitled Chipotle, Southern Oregon Style, and is kinda fun, if I do say so myself. 


Directions
Dump the berries into a large shallow container, add the sugar, and mash and mix. Add chipotle if using. Set aside, and start working on the apples and lemon.

Pull off those annoying supermarket stickers, trim the blossom ends and the stems from the apples, cut into quarters--seeds, skin and all-- and roughly chop them in a food processor. No food processor?Use a large sharp knife and a cutting board.

Cut the lemon into quarters and roughly chop, including peel and seeds. Mix the apples and lemon in a soup pot, something large enough to contain the big fruit froth that's coming soon.

Just barely cover the apples and lemon with water, enough to prevent sticking but without drowning. I used too much water and boiled the mix a long time, more than the 20 minutes recommended by Mother's Kitchen. When the apples and lemon are softened, and not too watery, run them through a food mill. In the absence of a food mill, force through a fine sieve with the back of a spoon, enough to make two cups of puree. (I think I had a bit more than two cups, but it didn't matter.)A jelly bag may also be used.

I was skeptical about how this was going to work. I was pretty sure I'd end up with purple-colored apple jelly. It seemed like way too many apples. And a whole lemon? But I followed the directions.

While the apple/lemon mix is boiling, purge seeds from the blackberries with a food mill, a jelly bag, or the fine sieve/large spoon method. This is a pain in the keister, but you'll end up with a gloriously dark purple slurry. Mix it with the apple puree in a large pot. Mother's Kitchen recommends boiling for 20 minutes and then testing to determine whether the mix will be jelly or sauce.

I totally winged it, testing every few minutes (after the 20 had passed) and guessed how it should look and feel. Somehow, it turned out perfect. I dipped a spoon into the bubbling pot, let a bit pool in the spoon and swirled it around for a minute or so. When it appeared to form a sheet, I declared it done and proceeded with canning.

Later I discovered there is a scientific method; use a thermometer to take the mixture's temperature. (Not the kind you take your own temperature with, of course, but a candy or jelly thermometer. ) When the mixture is 8 degrees above the boiling point of water (212) at sea level, it has reached the gel point. 212 + 8 = 220.
We're at 1,000 ft. above sea level, so next time, I'll go with 218 degrees and take the guess work out of it. If you're at 2,000 feet elevation, boil to 216 degrees and so on.

Without a thermometer, you can do the spoon or sheet test as described by the University of Georgia's extension service

Spoon or Sheet Test: Dip a cool metal spoon in the boiling jelly mixture. Lift the spoon above the kettle out of the steam. Turn the spoon so syrup runs off the side. If the syrup forms two drops that ow together and fall off the spoon as one sheet, the jelly should be done.

Temperature Test: Take the temperature of the cooking jelly with a candy or jelly thermometer. When done, the temperature of the jelly at sea level should be 220°F, or 8°F above the boiling point of water. (Note – For each 1000 feet of altitude above sea level, subtract 2°F. For instance, at 1000 feet of altitude, the jelly is done at 218°F; at 2000 feet, 216°F, etc. For an accurate thermometer reading, place the thermometer in a vertical position and read at eye level. The bulb of the thermometer must be completely covered with jelly but must not touch the bottom of the saucepot. (Remember to rst test the accuracy of the thermometer by making sure it registers 212°F, or the boiling temperature for your altitude, when placed in boiling water.)

When the gel point has been reached, quickly pour jelly-to-be into hot clean jars, apply lids and screw bands, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. If you're unsure about canning, this link includes detailed directions.

Eight cups of berries with a frozen chipotle cube.
Later, I added a second cube. Next time, 3 cubes!

Five cups of sugar added to berries. Mix, mash and allow juices to
drain while preparing apples/lemon mix.

Berries, chopped lemon, and chopped apples. Time
to start boiling the apples/lemon and strain the berries.

Blackberries, apples and lemon boiling away. Time to take its temperature or do the spoon or sheet test for doneness.

In case I need to make more, blackberries  aplenty are bursting forth about 100 steps away.

Summer Berries Crisp- Low Carb-ish

A berry "crisp" made with coconut flour and oats isn't crunchy but it is delicious. 

I'm calling this dessert, which is a popular potluck contribution, "low carb-ish" because it tends in the right direction but oatmeal pumps up the carb count. Still, with four to six cups of berries and zero real sugar, it is far more virtuous than fruit desserts made with flour and sugar. It tastes great, too, and is so easy to put together. Figure about 10 minutes assembling and 45 minutes in the oven.

I credit my sister, Monette Johnson, for coming up with this recipe 10 years ago when we both were acquiring the low-carb habit. She modified a recipe that started with a boxed yellow cake mix. Yuck! Commercial cake mixes, with processed ingredients and high sugar/flour content, are death to a low-carb effort or healthy eating in general. I've tweaked her recipe a bit further to use coconut flour rather than whole wheat or oat flours. Almond meal would work well, too. This is also a gluten-free dessert, provided you use the right oats. Turns out that Quaker, the most commonly available oatmeal, has traces of gluten-containing grains, which could send the truly gluten-sensitive bolting for the restroom.

Splenda, oats, butter, coconut flour, walnuts, cinnamon—that's about it for an easy topping.

Summer Berries Sensational Dessert

4-6 cups of berries, fresh or frozen. I tend toward six cups of strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and/or raspberries
3-ounce package sugar-free J-ello
1 cup water
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup coconut flour (other non-wheat flours also work)
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 stick butter, melted
3/4 cup Splenda, or other sugar substitute
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (or other nuts)

Strawberries and blueberries this time around. I also use raspberries and blackberries, or any combination of these four berries. We are still harvesting and freezing strawberries, and our first picking from our wild blackberry "fence" is in the freezer. More berry crisps are coming soon.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350. Spread the berries in a 9X13-inch baking pan. Shake the J-ello powder on top, then drizzle with water. Mix gently.
Melt the butter, then mix in the oats, flour, Splenda or whatever you like for a sweetener, cinnamon, salt and walnuts.
Spread the mixture evenly atop the berries. Bake for 40-45 minutes. It's best served warm with plain half and half, whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream.

365 Days of Low-Carb Living - 1

The lovely stuff that makes Outrageous Snapper outrageous. Just make sure your snapper is FRESH!
Starting from the bottom left: Greek olives,  garlic, cilantro, fresh lemon, sliced bell peppers, diced sun-dried tomatoes.

Outrageous!

That's how I described the red snapper in a dinner I cooked in January 2005, the year I kept track of everything I ate. That's right. Nearly 365 days of methodically recording breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. I stopped a couple weeks short of a year, which may be testament to my sanity. Am I really that boring? Sheesh.

However, I was then, and am now, a carb-conscious gal, and that's basically what this one-year food diary was all about. I also reported highlights of daily life, random thoughts etc., as well as recipes. (Kinda like my blog, huh?)

Nobody else was privy to my observations then, however, and I was not shy in rating the snapper meal a multi-cultural melange, a totally accidental gourmet dinner, and super good! Outrageous!

I've recently revisited these odd notebooks and am amazed and puzzled at what I wrote. I've decided to try to re-create some of the dishes I described with superlatives, such as the outrageous snapper,  and also to revisit a few of my thoughts. One never knows whether one's thoughts are worthy until revisiting them. Even then, it's dicey, which is a also good cooking word.

Ok, so one recent evening, because of wanting to recreate some of the 2005 recipes, I was really groovin' in the kitchen. Tunes were pulsating on our new sound system, my notebook was opened like a  cookbook next to the stove, and I was chopping and sauteing and dancing around. I think it was the Subdudes. Or maybe Ghostland Observatory.

Passing through the kitchen,  PK noted my excitement. What was so I doing? he asked.
I am trying to recreate THIS! I said. And I pressed into his hands the notebook turned to the page with the Outrageous snapper. Super Good! recipe.

He read the two pages and solemnly put the notebook on the kitchen counter.
Then he said, Can I tell you something? You're not going to like it. 
This is PK's way of being subtle and preparing me for a bomb.


Ok, say it! I got ready. Bristling just a little.


Ok. I will. You shouldn't be praising your own cooking!

I love this. PK would never praise anything he did,  except maybe that he fathered and helped raise two unbelievably great young men. (There I go again with my superlatives! Totally deserved, of course.) So for me to praise my own cooking in my private food diary was offensive. That's just how he is.

I love him anyway. I remember when he grew the best apples I have ever tasted, no exaggeration, and when people came to buy them, he said things like, Oh, don't take that one. It's probably got water core. Or,  Oh, the apples picked last week were a lot better.  Or,  You'd do better just to go to over to the supermarket and buy your apples. 
As a salesman, PK fails.

And so it embarrasses him that I would comment even to myself about the virtues of something I've cooked or created. I admire his humility, a trait he passed along to our aforementioned utterly amazing
two sons. I don't think of myself as a braggart, but I can't imagine suggesting a recipe (or a whole way of eating) that I didn't think was at least good, at best, great.

What I'm going to do is try to ignore him and tell you how to re-create some successful low-carb cooking experiences. To be honest, the outrageous snapper I made recently did not rate the superlatives I gave it seven years ago. But! I believe that has totally to do with the fact that I did not use fresh fish as specified by the recipe.

The weak link in my recent snapper dinner—the snapper!
It looks good, but not fresh and unworthy of the rest of the ingredients.

BTW, I had NO recollection of cooking this meal, so I was forced to follow my own directions. I commiserate, therefore, with those who have requested further direction on certain other recipes. I defend my position that altering recipes here and there matters little. You don't run to the store if you're lacking an ingredient. (Unless you're baking,which low-carbers do very little of)

However, when a recipe calls for fresh fish, use fresh fish! Not previously frozen and kinda grey looking—and the only snapper left in the case—as I did the second time around. Grrr. I should know better.

Here are recipes for the snapper and the cabbage.

An unlikely, but delicious, accompaniment: curried caramelized cabbage.

I'm not taking credit for either. The Indian curried cabbage came from Fran McCullough's book, the Low-Carb Cookbook, a great resource. The snapper may be credited to another low-carb author, Dana Carpender, as I have relied on her books a lot through the years. Or maybe I snagged it from the Internet. I'm pretty sure I wasn't smart enough to come up with combining the salty Greek olives with sweet dried tomatoes.

Outrageous Red Snapper
1 - 2 T olive oil, halved
3 fillets of fresh (!!!) snapper
1/3 cup chopped sundried tomatoes
1 medium green bell pepper, sliced into strips
1/2 large lemon
1-2 T minced garlic
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pitted Greek olives
1/2 bunch of cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Lightly saute garlic and peppers in half the oil, two minutes max
Add tomatoes and olives and squeeze in half a lemon
Heat the mixture through and remove from pan. Set aside.
Add remaining oil (if you need it) and fry the fish in the same pan. You want the fish to be just barely cooked through. Squeeze remaining lemon on and season fish with salt and pepper.
Return the veggie/olive mix to the pan and gently settle around the fish. Heat through and serve with curried cabbage. If you don't care about carbs, serve with brown rice.

Curried cabbage
Melt a couple T of butter in a large non-stick skillet and stir in a little curry powder.
Thinly slice half of a large head of cabbage and mix into the butter and curry. Cover and cook on medium heat until wilted, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook, stirring frequently, for about a half hour or until cabbage begins to caramelize. Add more curry and/or butter to taste, and salt and pepper.

Spring Smoothie - A Sorta Low-Carb Breakfast

I've developed a major taste for breakfast smoothies. Why didn't I catch on to this easy, delicious and nutrient-packed meal-in-a-glass earlier? Better late..., as the saying goes. I have the luxury of not having to charge off to work or feed kids or pack lunches—retired, ya know—but smoothies are an excellent and relatively carefree answer to making sure everybody gets out the door with enough fuel to last until lunch without the mid-morning crash created by the typical bowl of cereal.

For low-carbers, smoothies are the bomb. You can omit bananas and use just berries and/or cantaloupe for fruit. I've been doing the low-carb thing for so many years I kinda just know what to eat and what's off limits. I'm not trying to lose weight (except by cutting way back on drinking wine) so I throw a frozen banana in for sweetness and texture. What the hell. A half of a banana isn't going to plump me too much. We are enjoying fresh strawberries now, and will until fall, but frozen berries from the store are perfectly fine.

Kale in smoothies? You betcha. I load it up and defy anyone to detect it.
It does add a green tinge and TONS of vitamins and minerals and fiber. I am sad for
the day, coming soon, when kale will be out of season in our garden.
 But wait! We'll have chard! 

Two coffee cups full of smoothie goodness. More awaits in the blender.

A cracker or two spread with peanut or almond butter goes
great with smoothies. These are tasty and ridiculously low-carb.
Two crackers = 13.1 g carbs and 3.8 g fiber.  

This smoothie could be enjoyed any time of the year, it's just that we have so much KALE and the strawberries are coming on and well, it is May, so this a spring smoothie. And it is breakfast several days a week, enjoyed with two rye crackers spread with peanut or almond butter.
Spring Smoothie
As usual, this "recipe" is a guide. Use what you have and what you like. A lot of smoothie recipes—and there are THOUSANDS online, list four or five ice cubes as ingredients. I'm not sure why. I'd rather toss in some frozen fruit. I've never found water to be particularly satisfying.
This amount serves three easily. I don't have a big enough blender for a crowd. I don't precisely measure anything—these are approximations. That's the great thing about smoothies. You can make them up as you go along and correct after all is blended. Have fun! And remember to add kale, spinach, chard, or another nutrient-packed green. Don't tell anybody and see if they can detect it. Bet not.

Ingredients

2 cups, more or less, berries: black, blue, straw, rasp, and maybe some stone-free cherries thrown in for sweetness

1 RIPE banana, frozen is best
1 small handful of raw walnuts, almonds, cashews or other nuts
2-3  cups of torn-up kale, stems removed
1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla to pump up flavor
2 cups coconut, almond or soy milk* approximately, or a combination thereof
1/2 cup half and half (skip if you're calorie adverse. Add ice cubes instead! Or more coconut milk.)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 scoop protein powder, I use vanilla-flavored whey protein and/or organic pumpkin protein, a local product that I discovered at the Growers and Crafters market in Grants Pass, OR.
1-2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup or honey. Substitute equivalent stevia powder or other sugar substitute to save calories/carbs. Adjust to taste.

*I've recently been advised by a healthcare practitioner to eliminate dairy products. I have not complied all the way, but have cut back by using these alternatives. I like them!

Directions
If you're using frozen fruit, put some in the blender at night to thaw and add the rest  in the morning. Toss in the banana, pour in the liquids and yogurt and kale and protein powders and everything else and blend thoroughly. Serve in cups or bowls. Refrigerate leftovers and use within a couple of days.

Sweet on Sauerkraut—Low-carb and delish.

Mouth-watering braised spareribs with homemade sauerkraut, cauliflower "mashed potatoes" AKA cauliflower faux potatoes, and one of the season's last dense, sweet, and colorful San Marzano tomatoes.

 I'm not sure you could buy this combo anywhere for any price. See below for faux potatoes recipe and how to braise spareribs with sauerkraut.

Who grows up eating sauerkraut these days? I did. Ya. Back der in Nor' Dakotah, den.

I remember dark, cold winter days with dankness seeping up from the cellar, where laundry (washed in a wringer/washer) took three days to dry. Pork and sauerkraut simmering on the stove made everything right. As a child, I wasn't shy about sucking the marrow noisily from pork ribs and lapping up the sauerkraut juice when eagle-eyed mom wasn't hovering. I didn't know sauerkraut was good for you. I only knew that when cooked for hours with pork and served with richly buttered mashed potatoes, it was heavenly. But then I grew up with German/Scandavian heritage in the deep midwest where meat, potatoes, and kraut were winter staples. My parents didn't make their own kraut, but they sure loved whatever they bought. I have no idea if it was teeming with lovely bacteria. I only know that when it was on the table, words were not spoken and slurping was acceptable.

When PK and I first grew a garden back in the 1970s, cabbage was one of our first crops, and making kraut, one of our first projects. Somehow with kids, jobs, etc. etc. kraut-from-scratch disappeared from our to-do list.  This year, however, it made a comeback, spurred, in part, by the fact that fresh kraut resides in small jars with huge prices in the millionaires-only section of supermarkets. Like $6-8 bucks for a pint? Canned kraut is cheap, but canning zaps the fermentation benefits.

Sauerkraut, and other  fermented veggies, are rich sources of bacteria advantageous to our guts and other parts. You can look it up. Fermented grapes make wine, which everyone knows is a magic elixir, fermented milk/cream, makes yogurt, a gut boon if there ever was one, and fermented cabbage makes sauerkraut, a delectable tangy treat that will have you thumping your chest. You should see PK's chest from all that thumping. Bruised and swollen!

Sauerkraut is a low-carb treat with only 6 carbs per cup. That makes for a hearty meal of kraut, pork ribs and faux mashed cauliflower potatoes at only around 12-15 carbs per heaping plate.

It all starts with volleyball-sized cabbages, which we started from seed in the spring and harvested in July.

We weighed the cabbages and sliced them into thin rounds with a super-sharp knife.
A Mercer. Thank you, Lanny. Then we salted the shredded cabbage with non iodized salt.
How-to link for making sauerkraut follows. 

Nearly four months later, I'm removing fermented kraut into cold-storage jars.

It's perfect sauerkraut. Crunchy and tart. 

A half gallon on top, and a gallon on the bottom in our garage refrigerator.

Here's some gross stinky stuff, including mold, that was skimmed off the top.
Don't worry. Stinky moldy stuff is part of fermentation. Skim as much as possible.
With this batch, I also scooped out any kraut that had turned soft, which was on top and around the perimeter.
Despite our efforts to keep everything submerged, the edges were somehow exposed to air.  

Our outside "kitchen" for messy and/or super-heated projects. Here PK slices  cabbage for  fermenting in a crock while our Four Wheel camper glowers in the background wondering when the hell we'll go camping!

Want to make your own kraut? It helps to have homegrown fresh cabbage, but sauerkraut can be made from any fresh cabbage. See this for directions.

Braised spareribs and sauerkraut
1 rack of spareribs
half of a large onion
one medium-sized apple
1 quart (or more) fresh kraut

Directions
Cover the spareribs with foil and bake at 275 for an hour. Drain the fat and juices and set aside. Cut the ribs apart and brown in a large skillet. When browned, add half of a large chopped onion and a cored apple cut into pieces. Cook and stir for a few minutes, then dump the kraut into the pan and cover. (Add the juice back from the fat and juice drained after roasting the ribs.)
Cook covered over low/medium heat until the rib meat is falling-apart tender. Remove the cover if liquid is too much.
Serve with mashed potatoes or, if you're a low carber, cauliflower faux mashed potatoes.

Cauliflower faux mashed potatoes
1 head cauliflower cut into flowerets
water
salt
pepper
butter
half and half or whipping cream

Directions
Cut the cauliflower into pieces. Place into a pot and cover with lightly salted water. Boil until tender.
Remove from heat and drain thoroughly. Apply butter in the quantity that pleases you. Ditto salt.
Drizzle with half and half or whipping cream. Smash with a fork or an immersion blender. Add cream to desired consistency.
To ramp it up a notch, scoop into an oven-proof pan, mix in a dollop of sour cream, and bake at 350 for a half hour. Remove from oven, cover with grated cheese, and return to oven for five minutes.

Love that kraut!

Caprese Salad Deluxe (plus low-carb notes)

Low-carb notes follow this scintillating ($10 word!) recipe for embellishing a traditional summer salad.

A full meal for one. Caprese salad decked out with fresh peppers, sweet onions, and lots of cheese.

PK has been away for a few days and I lived it up, eating fresh from the garden and not cooking much. Not that he wouldn't be fine with a big salad for dinner, which we have at least once a week year around. I predict  he'll be jealous of this beefed up, so to speak, super summer salad and dang! I'll have to make it again.

INGREDIENTS - This is for one person for a satisfying meal, no other dishes. It would be sufficient for two-four as a starter for a dinner with more courses.

 One large fresh tomato, preferably a heritage type. This is a Brandywine, one of the first of the season. If your tomatoes aren't this big, use two. Or three.

One fresh large sweet green/red pepper A bell pepper would work, and so would a more picante variety.

One quarter SWEET onion, such as a Walla Walla. Don't use a regular cooking onion.

Olive oil, generously administered

Generous handful of fresh basil

One small ball of fresh mozzarella cheese

A couple ounces of feta or other cheese, crumbled. I used a goat/sheep cheese combo. Delicious.

Pepper flakes to taste

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Smoked salt to taste

Slice the tomato and place in a colander for a few minutes to drain some of the juice. Most Caprese salad recipes call for large round slices of tomatoes, but this one is different. Bite-sized pieces are best. 

Arrange tomato pieces on a plate and sprinkle with smoked salt. Yes, smoked! In the absence of such a luxury, just use sea salt or lemon-flavored salt or something other than just plain table salt. Drizzle on a bit of balsamic vinegar. Reduced balsamic would be best, but I didn't have any. Don't overdo it with the vinegar. A tablespoon or two.

Slice the onion and pepper. Slice the fresh mozzarella and crumble the feta, if using. Tear the basil

Assemble veggies on a pretty plate. 

Add the cheeses. Add the basil.(missing from this photo. See photo of complete salad at the top.) Drizzle with olive oil, and don't worry about using too much. I'd say at least a quarter cup. 

I ate the whole thing! And after I took this photo, I drained the smoky tomato juices right into my eager upturned mouth.  A small piece of dark chocolate and a nice glass of pinotage later, I'm ready for anything.
 Which will be going to bed with a book. Sigh.

Here they are! The low-carb notes!

I'm not a scientific low-carber. I go on general principles that include:

• No bread
• No pasta

• No potatoes
• No corn or corn products
• No sugar 
• Few, if any, grains (screw the popular "healthy whole grains" theory)
• Lots of berries and green veggies and tomatoes, in season
• Meats 
• Cheeses
• Fats (the good ones, including coconut, flax, and olive oils) 
• Nuts and seeds

So. Even though I have these so-called principles, I am a human being with many flaws and weaknesses and also potatoes and corn in the garden. When I say "no potatoes, no corn" I am not necessarily thinking of what's growing within striking distance.

 A few days ago, I was forced to harvest all the corn because it was ready. 

So beautiful and innocent looking, that corn five minutes off the stalk. 

Then I had to process and freeze it. PK is out of town, remember? That entailed blanching, cooling, then cutting the kernels off the cob. In so doing, I happened to finish off the corn on many cobs. I enjoyed this very much. Smack, smack. 

 The same day, I had for dinner leftovers that included fried veggies including potatoes.

A couple days later, I stepped onto the scale. Four pounds. Unbelievable. I am, as I already knew, a carb-sensitive person. PK is not carb sensitive in that he does not gain weight when he gets a big hit in a scone or doughnut or full-sugar piece of pie. On the other hand, he gets the shakes about an hour later and feels like crap. So, in his own way, he is carb sensitive. The potatoes and corn don't seem to bother him.  I really don't want to gain weight, so I'm going to have to forego those delicious spuds and corn, for the most part. Moderation and discipline. Why do we grow corn and potatoes? Ask PK. That skinny corn-and-potato-loving bastard. 

Garden Greens and Ham and Cheese. Jeez! Low carb, too.

HEAL!!! And it will, after a month of neglect as we traveled. And, of course, it was winter. All things considered, the garden is doing fine after our absence. Yes indeed. Feed us, please. The is the first winter/spring  in a long time that we haven't relied on a cold frame. Cold frames bring on the greens earlier and in greater amounts. We knew we'd be gone during prime harvest, so didn't bother to put the heavy frame in place. Maybe next year.

Sweet little harvest of lettuce, winter spinach, garlic chives, kale flowers, kale, asparagus etc. Make you hungry for a dinner salad? Me too.

This is how our main garden looked today.

This is how it looks in mid-season,  mid-July. But even the tiny piece of productive land currently producing supplies us with greens several  times a week. Most years we use a cold frame, which allows way greater production than open-air planting. The message: no matter where you live, with protection and sun exposure, you can grow spinach, lettuce, kale, etc. etc. during late winter and spring. In most climates. Those same crops do not do well in summer, as heat makes them bolt and get bitter and ask, Why don't you  just grow tomatoes?

The message: no matter where you live, with frost protection and southern sun exposure, you can grow spinach, lettuce, kale, etc. etc. during winter and spring. In most climates. 

To make a dinner salad, chop kale, cabbage, chives, broccoli, etc. That cabbage? Gotta confess. Green Giant. They have apparently dropped "jolly" from the name, leaving that to Santa.

Grate Swiss cheese and cut up ham. The ham has a story.

The ham was not procured from the grocery store, but resulted from a barter between our doctor friend and a patient. He often barters services for meat and such. The doctor and his wife couldn't see consuming an entire hog, however, and offered to sell us half. We accepted. The hog was butchered and smoked locally. We baked the ham when my sister and her husband visited a few days ago. As a result, we sent them along with ham sandwiches, enjoyed together a delicious ham and scalloped potato dinner, ham and eggs for breakfast, a huge batch of ham and bean soup (several meals in the freezer) plus our dinner salad. And more.

Assemble veggies and top with ham and cheese and dressing of choice. I use our go-to dressings:

Laurie's sesame dressing and chipotle sauce, mixed.

Laurie's dressing is here.http://ordinarylife-mk.blogspot.com/search?q=laurie%27s+dressing So good!

Thanks for checking out this post. Other low-carb entries— every post I ever wrote about diet and food—is probably contained in the link below.

However! Google Blogger does not seem to care about preserving photos, which annoys me. I am going to see about migrating to another blog host, perhaps WordPress. In the meantime, if you feel like looking back on a low-carb life, photos or not.....here you go.

Whining about the weather

We bundled up the tomatoes, covered the peppers, mulched, as best we could, the potatoes and protected flowers with pots. We'll be doing this for the next two nights.

From a local newspaper:

Believe it or not, drivers may actually have to worry about driving in snow on Friday going over mountain passes in the region. The National Weather Service says an unusually cold air mass will move through on Friday, with "brief but heavy snow showers bringing snow levels down to around 2,000 feet at times."

The snow may be heavy enough to stick on roads for several hours. The cold air mass will linger over the area on Saturday as a series of storms move across the region, continuing the same pattern of potential snow below 2,500 feet.

Siskiyou Summit south of Ashland could see heavy snow, along with Highway 140 to Klamath Falls and 62 to Crater Lake.


Low temperatures are predicted in the mid-30s by the NWS for Grants Pass, but outlying areas such as Cave Junction, Williams and Evans Valley may see temperatures dip to freezing Friday and Saturday night.

We live in a cold pocket on the valley floor. It's a low-lying area that collects frost. and our low temps are often a couple degrees below the predicted. I'm sure we're not the only gardeners staring in disbelief at the skies and wondering, is the global warming thing a hoax? (Compelling arguments exist to that effect. ) Our rule of thumb is "don't put frost-sensitive plants out before May 10." But May 20, 21, & 22? Come on!

Kale and Garlic Frittata Starring Yoga Eggs

Note: If you're reading this on email, everything looks better if you click on the blog headline to get to the website. Also, if you could care less about my ramblings and just want the recipe, scroll down about 10 inches and you're there: Kale and Garlic Frittata.

I didn't realize how much I missed my yoga teacher's eggs until I opened her egg carton this morning and cracked a smile that lit up the kitchen. Yes! A rainbow of farm-fresh eggs from Shanti's clutch of quirky hens fresh out of their winter slump. A couple years ago, when I first scored eggs from Shanti, she was selling them for $2 a dozen. What?! Too cheap, I told her. She said $2 was enough to almost break even, and that wasn't counting the hens' entertainment value. She finally came around to $3 a dozen, still a major bargain considering that hers are truly cage-free happy hens wandering her little farm hunting bugs and greens and eating organic feed and enjoying Shanti's admiration. Despite our recent cold, wet weather, her "girls" have responded favorably to longer daylight and are pumping out the protein. Cluck, cluck, such luck.

Shanti Chagnon, unconventional yoga teacher and
keeper of hens. This is what she
wears to teach kick-ass power yoga. Love her.

To show off the difference between eggs laid two days ago by happy hens and one that came in a $5 carton claiming it to be "all natural, vegetarian fed, produced without hormones or antibiotics, containing 350 mg of Omega 3." In addition to the paler yolk, the store-bought egg white is runnier. Even with the one anemic loser, these eggs made a fine frittata. (Yoga eggs are nice, but not required.)

Kale and Garlic Frittata

4 large eggs, beaten

5 ounces of fresh chopped kale (about three large handfuls, chopped. The kale, not the hands.)

3-4 medium-sized garlic cloves, minced

1/4 large onion, chopped

3 T olive oil, butter or coconut oil

1/3 cup shredded Parmesan, cheddar or other cheese (or more)

salt and pepper to taste

Two servings, low-carb, gluten-free.

Directions

Heat the oil in a small frying pan, if you're cooking for two. Add the chopped onion and saute over medium heat until translucent. Add the minced garlic and stir fry until fragrant, about a minute. Add the chopped kale, stir with onions and garlic and cover. Steam over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, or until the kale has wilted. NOTE: I used Trader Joe's. kale-for-cooking, about half of a 10-ounce bag. It had some nasty chunks of thick kale stems, which I picked out and bestowed upon the compost pile.

Kale, onions, and garlic before steaming.

Beaten eggs setting up. At this point, it's good to gently turn them over. 

After turning, cook until the eggs are set, a minute or two, season with salt and pepper,

then add cheese. Turn heat to low and cover for a few minutes to melt the cheese. NOTE: I used a great product, chipotle finishing salt, from Salinity LLC. Check it out. They have lots of natural flavors. Made in Southern Oregon.

If you eat this nutrient-packed kale frittata, you might be able to do this!

At Sundance Healing Arts Studio.

Or this!

Shanti on the farm tractor, hens foraging nearby.

And now, what you've been waiting for, a cold frame update! I can bend over to work in the cold frame and lift its heavy cover more easily because of yoga.

Russian kale is starting to surge in the center while endive lettuce and puny spinach are wondering

if I forgot to add enough compost when I planted seeds in October. 

My favorite kale variety, lacinato, AKA dinosaur kale, is emerging in pots where seeds were planted a week ago. Yeah! Seedlings will be thinned to one per pot and transplanted to the garden in late March, early April.

 BE BRAVE ABOUT WINTER. SPRING IS ON ITS WAY. IN THE MEANTIME, DO YOGA. 

EAT KALE.  MAKE A NICE FRITTATA.