Mary Dan Eades, M.D.

In most of the country, it’s hotter than blazes, which means it’s a good time to make something light and cool for dinner. Our local newspaper, the other day, gave me a perfect idea: Viccyssoise.

It was mentioned in an AP article about Julia Child, which seem to be everywhere coincident with the hype surrounding the book and newly released movie, Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep as the indomitable Mrs. Childs. The article focused on three kitchen utensils Julia felt were mandatory in the kitchen: the crepe pan, the whisk, and the food mill, each with a recipe for using the item. The latter, of course, she used for making Vichyssoise, which on a hot summer day sounded pretty darned tempting.

OK, clearly not real vichyssoise, since it’s potato-based and thus too filled with easily digested potato starch (read glucose) to be of much use to those of us who keep a lid on the carbs. But a nice chilled low-carb version and some slices of cold grilled chicken over butter lettuce and tomatoes drizzled with a tangy lime and fresh rosemary vinaigrette. Now you’re talking!

So I set about to pimp Julia’s recipe. In it were cooked peeled potatoes, leeks, chicken stock, salt, heavy cream, white pepper and minced fresh chives. Really not much but the potatoes that had to go, which can most easily be replaced by cauliflower or celery root.

I chose cauliflower, since unless you get a very fresh celery root, you’re going to run into the possibility of some woody bits, which would really spoil the delicate and velvety puree.

Begin by making a double batch of Creamy Cauliflower Puree , about which I’ve posted before. (Scroll down a bit in that blog post for the recipe.) If you have more than you need, great; it keeps in the fridge well for use as the side dish that it is, just heated in the microwave.

Low Carb Vichyssoise
Serves 6 to 8

3 cups Creamy Cauliflower Puree
3 cups sliced leeks, white parts only
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock or broth
1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream (organic if possible)
Salt to taste
White pepper to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives
Sour cream garnish, if desired

1. In a 3 to 4 quart saucepan, over medium high heat, simmer the leeks in the stock with a ittle salt for about 40 to 50 minutes, until the leeks are tender.
2. Place the leeks and some of the stock into a blender and puree.
3. Return the pureed leeks to the remaining stock in the pan, add the Creamy Cauliflower Puree, add the cream until you get the consistency you desire, and stir well to combine.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt and the white pepper.
5. If you’re a real stickler for a perfectly smooth soup, pass the puree through a fine mesh strainer. (I am not usually so picky, but it’s a nice touch if you’ve got the time.)
6. Chill thoroughly, up to overnight.
7. When ready to serve, ladle into chilled bowls, garnish with a sprinkling of chives and a dollop of fresh sour cream, if you like.

Cool as the ‘Tom Brady’ side of the pillow!

(My fellow NFL fans will understand the inversion of the overworked allusion (cliche) that one particular ESPN talking sports head uses (over and over and over) to describe the degree of coolth, calmth, and collection under pressure of the storied New England Patriots’ QB, who returns this season from the disabled list.)

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Several of you have written in reference to a comment on one of Mike’s posts mentioning my mayonnaise recipe. I thought I’d post it here, instead of in the comments, since more people will be able to find it if it’s a blog. I don’t think you can search my comments…yet.

For those of you who may own one or more of our cookbooks, there is a good version of mayonnaise in the Low Carb Comfort Food Cookbook and another, slightly easier version that shows up in both our 30-Day Low Carb Diet Solution book and in our Low Carb CookwoRx Cookbook.

Mayonnaise is nothing more than an emulsion of oil and water, and as such, is a delicious and healthy low-carb food, if made with good oil. Therein lies the problem for most commercial mayonnaise: they’re usually made with nasty soybean oil or canola oil, basically a trans fat slurry. Now and again, I can find a good olive oil mayonnaise in Whole Foods or Lazy Acres or some similar natural food grocery, but for the most part the stuff that’s sold on the standard grocery shelf is made with simply wretched oils. And if you’ve read our books, you know that one of the most important aspects of good nutrition is the quality (not the quantity) of the fat you put into your mouth.

Making mayonnaise may seem daunting, but it’s really simplicity itself. I’ll share my blender version, but a word of caution. Don’t use your good quality extra virgin olive oil for making mayonnaise. It will become bitter in the blender. I haven’t a clue why, but it happens quite regularly, so don’t waste your money or the good oil. Most of the time, I use a ‘Light’ Olive oil–I think it’s Bertoli, maybe–that I can pick up at the regular grocery store for making mayonnaise. Occasionally, I will make it with avocado oil or if I want a particular flavor, with a nut oil, such as walnut oil, but not for everyday mayo.

Here’s all you do:

Basic Blender Mayo
(Makes 16 Tablespoons)

1 raw egg yolk (pasteurized in the shell egg if available)
2 teaspoons champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 lemon, juice only (about 1 tablespoon)
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
dash cayenne pepper
1 packet Splenda (optional, but gives it a slight sweetness like Miracle Whip)
3/4 to 1 cup light olive oil

1. Crack egg and put yolk only into the blender
2. Add the vinegar and salt and blend on low speed.
3. With the motor running, add all the remaining ingredients, except the oil.
4. With the motor still running, add the oil in a slow, steady stream until it makes mayonnaise of the consistency you desire. Be careful not to add the oil too fast or add too much oil or you may break the emulsion and the mayonnaise will separate and clump.*
5. Store in the refrigerator in a clean jar (good use for store-bought mayonnaise) or a container with a tight-fitting lid for up to a week.

*Don’t despair if your mayonnaise breaks and don’t throw out the result. While, once broken, it will not likely ever thicken into a spreadable form, you can save it in a jar in the refrigerator and whisk herbs and garlic and a bit more salt into it to make a nice mayonnaise-based dressing, which demands a looser emulsion anyway.

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The family gathered for a little Father’s Day/Mike’s birthday get together this past weekend. I’d planned a casual light meal for the evening that incorporated several of Mike’s favorites: steak and tomatoes.

The menu included Garden Style Gazpacho (like my usual Gazpacho Andaluz, but without going to the trouble of pressing the base through a strainer and served with the diced fresh vegetables already stirred back into the soup) and Grilled Flank Steak and Warm Mushroom Salad, Fresh Sliced Heirloom Tomatoes, a bit of baguette and brie and a nice local local wine.

I didn’t want to have to do too much work after the family got here, because when our granddaughter hits the door, it typically puts a serious crimp in her Nanny’s otherwise careful attention to slicing and dicing!

So, I marinated the flank steaks in vac-seal bags the night before using a steak rub I keep around, typically salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and sometimes cumin. To make it easier on myself at party time, I tossed them into a 135F sous vide water bath about 11 am on party day and left them there until practically time to eat, about 8 hours, then popped them out of the bags, patted them dry, and flopped them onto a hot, oiled grill just to give them a nice sear on the outside.

The sous vide method is the only way to get a cheaper, tougher cut of meat, such as a flank steak, to come out tender as filet mignon and still perfectly medium rare. And so it was. When I cut the meat and fanned it out onto the greens, I was rewarded with perfectly cooked steak: deep pink, flavorful, and tender.

Everybody enjoyed the Gazpacho and loved the flank steak and we had a lovely evening.

It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized that I had not ever sauteed the mushrooms and fennel to add to the salad. There the bag of chopped mushrooms, sliced fennel bulb, olive oil and herbs was, still marinating in my refrigerator. So I decided to turn them into soup, which turned into an accidental hit.

If necessity, as they say, was the mother, then absent-mindedness, apparently, was the father. But whatever the genesis, it’s good eats!

Mushroom, Fennel, and Sausage Soup*
Serves 4

1 pound Cremini mushrooms (baby bellas), cleaned and quartered
1/2 bulb fresh fennel, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil (divided use)
1/2 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (divided use)
1/2 pound Italian Sausage, sweet or hot, sliced
1/4 white onion, peeled and sliced
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 can (14-ounces) fire roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1 tablespoon sundried tomato paste
1/4 cup sherry
1 quart chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (or to taste)

1. In a zip bag, marinate the mushrooms and fennel with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, Herbes, and 1/4 teaspoon of the black pepper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or up to overnight.
2. In a soup pot, heat the remaining olive oil over medium heat. Add the Italian sausage and cook for 3 or 4 minutes to give it some color.
3. Add the onions and garlic and continue to cook until they are translucent, about 2 or 3 minutes.
4. Deglaze the pan with the sherry.
5. Add the mushrooms and fennel and cook until soft, another 5 minutes or so.
6. Add the tomatoes, garlic and onion powders, remaining salt and pepper, tomato paste, and chicken broth and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat and simmer for another 20 minutes or so.
8. Serve hot.

*For a vegetarian option to this delicious soup, simply substitute one (14-ounce) can of soy beans, rinsed and drained, for the sausage and substitute mushroom or vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Enjoy!

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We just had a quick bite tonight at Dargan’s, our favorite Irish pub in Santa Barbara, where they’re already gearing up for St. Paddy’s Day and today’s paper was filled with recipes for everything Irish. There was a recipe for lamb stew, corned beef and cabbage, and Irish Coddle and a lengthy discourse on Guinness. Clearly, that day when everybody sports a shamrock and wishes they were Irish is just around the corner and with it another holiday to challenge a person’s low-carb commitment.

Actually, some Irish culinary traditions are pretty low-carb friendly–corned beef and cabbage, for instance. It’s that pile of the traditional Irish staple sitting next to the corned beef and cabbage that causes the problems for a low-carbing lover of St. Paddy’s Day. But substitute fauxtatoes for the potatoes by substituting Creamy Cauliflower Puree that I’ve posted about in another blog for the mash and you’re good to go.

Same with a meaty Irish stew. With a little low-carb sleight of hand you can pimp out the potatoes with a celery root substitute. When selecting a celery root, be sure it is moist and heavy for its size. If it is old and the least dried out it will be woody and awful when cooked.

Celery roots peel just like potatoes, but with considerably more effort. Once peeled, cut them up just as you would a potato, into a 1/2-inch dice. They are slightly tougher than a potato, but if you meet excessive resistance in the cutting (and your knife is not dull) it can indicate that the root is old. Old roots are woody and fibrous. And so will be the dish made from them. It’s like eating wood splinters when this happens, so select with care for freshness. You could also use cauliflower, cut into individual florets, in the stew, but in this application, it’s less potato-like.

Here’s my low-carb adapted crock pot version, just in time to celebrate the big day.

Luck o’ the Irish Stew
Serves 8

2 pounds lamb or beef, cut for stew into 1-inch chunks
1 large celery root, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium sweet onion, peeled and sliced
2 large orange or red bell peppers, stems and seeds removed, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 stalks of celery, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
8 ounces beef or chicken broth
8 ounces Guinness (or substitute another 8 ounces broth)
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves (chopped just before serving)

1. In a 6-quart crock pot, combine the meat, celery root, onion, peppers, celery, Guinness and/or broth, and all seasonings, except parsley.
2. Stir well, cover, and cook on low about 7 to 8 hours, until meat is fork tender.
3. Just before serving, sprinkle on the fresh parsley to brighten the flavor.

Serve with a nice chewy Guinness (only about 15 grams of carb) or an icy cold pint of hard cider (Strongbow weighs in at only 12 grams per serving) and you’ve got a feast any leprechaun could love.

May the Luck o’ the Irish be with you this St. Paddy’s Day!

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Nothing says love on Valentine’s Day quite like sweets, particularly chocolate, which can make it a mine-field for the low-carb devotee. But here’s a solution that may surprise you: truffles!

My all-time favorite recipe for classic Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles comes from Alice Medrich’s wonderful book A Year in Chocolate: Four Seasons of Unforgettable Desserts(Warner Books 2001).

Click on the image of her book at left to find out more.

I sometimes make batches of these delicacies to take as a hostess gift to dinner parties instead of wine, since just about everybody loves a luscious chocolate truffle.

And besides, good cocoa is a health food (see here) filled with active flavinoid compounds, such as epicatechin, which according to some researchers may be protective against the development of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes.

But what about the sugar content?

I confess that I’ve always felt a little twinge of guilt, in light of my own dietary dictums, being the bearer of temptation by bringing truffles, assuming them to be too carby for anybody’s good. So one day last fall, I got out the recipe and ran it through my food processor nutritional calculator to see exactly what kind of damage I might actually be doing to my friends.

I was astonished when I discovered that these classic truffles, made exactly according to Ms. Medich’s recipe without any carb pimping on my part, had a mere 3 grams of carbohydrate each. Not nothing, but not much for something so decadent and satisfying. So I set about last December to make boxes of a couple of dozen Handmade Classic Truffles as Christmas gifts for many of our friends and family.

I intend to make another batch for Valentine’s Day, for there can be no greater calling than plying your love with good chocolate. If you’d like to join me, here’s my favorite recipe from Ms. Medrich’s most wonderful book. If you’re a chocolate lover, as I confess that I most definitely am, it’s one you may want to add to your cookbook library.

Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles
from Alice Medich, A Year in Chocolate
[with photos and commentary by me]
Makes about 30 bite-sized truffles

Ingredients
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsaltd butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1/4 cup boiling water
1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder

Equipment: Instant-read thermometer

To make the truffles, place the chocolate and butter in a 4- to 6-cup heatproof bowl set in a wide skillet of barely simmering water over low heat. Stir frequently until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth.

Remove the bowl and set aside. Leave the skillet on low heat.

Place the egg yolk in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in the boiling water . Place the bowl in the skillet and stir constantly until the yolk mixture thickens slightly to the consistency of light cream and registers between 160 and 165 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. [I have discovered that on a chilly day, it helps speed this process along to put a square of aluminum foil over the bowl while stirring.]

Remove from the skillet and scrape the yolk mixture immediately over the melted chocolate.

Stir gently, without whisking or beating, just until the egg is completely incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Pour through a fine strainer into a clean bowl. [I confess I skip this step for the sake of ease.] Cover and chill until firm, 2 hours or more.

To form the truffles, remove the truffle mixture from the refrigerator and allow it to soften about 30 minutes if the mixture is very hard. Pour cocoa into a pie plate.

Dip a melon baller or small spoon into a glass of hot water, wipe off the excess water, and scrape across the surface of the chilled truffle mixture to form a rough 1-inch ball. Pinch the truffle into shape with your fingers if necessary; it should not be perfectly round. [They're supposed to look something like the gnarly savory 'real' truffles that pigs root up under French oak trees.] Deposit the truffles into the cocoa [a few at a time.] Repeat with the remaining truffle mixture. Gently shake the pie plate to coat truffles with cocoa. [I usually roll them around a little bit with my fingertips to get them well covered and then pinch them gently into a rounder shape. Sometimes after they sit a bit, I give them an extra roll in the cocoa just for good measure.]

Store truffles, tightly covered and refrigerated, up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 3 months.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

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As promised (by my darling husband) here is the recipe I have used for years for an authentic Spanish Andalusian Gazpacho. Mike proclaimed it difficult, which it really isn’t. Time consuming and in parts a pain in the keester, but not difficult. In the summer, when the tomatoes are at their peak, I use fresh tomatoes, but otherwise, the canned diced ones, particularly the fire roasted ones that are now available everywhere, are a tastier option.

Authentic Gazpacho Andaluz
Serves 6

For the Soup Base
3 pounds of ripe, red Roma or plum tomatoes, stemmed and quartered
(or 3 (14-ounce) cans of diced fire roasted tomatoes, drained)
1/2 large red bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/4 large green bell pepper, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/2 large English (seedless) cucumber, cut into large chunks
1 clove finely chopped or pressed garlic
1 ounce lemon juice
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (preferably Spanish)
1/3 cup sherry vinegar (not cooking sherry, sherry wine vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste

1. Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor and pulse to chop, then process until pretty smooth. You may have to do this in two batches depending on the size of your machine.
2. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours. Overnight is fine, too.
3. Remove from refrigerator and press the soup through a medium mesh sieve into a large bowl, using the back of a wooden spoon to extract every luscious drop from the pulp. Discard the pulp.
4. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding a bit more salt, pepper, or vinegar as desired.
5. Return the soup base to the refrigerator until ready to serve.

For the garnish
1 large red tomato, peeled, seeded, and diced small
1/2 large red bell pepper, seeded and diced small
1/2 large English (seedless) cucumber, peeled and diced small
1/2 red onion, peeled and diced small

1. Prepare the garnish vegetables, keeping each type separate, and refrigerate until serving.
2. Place a pile of each of the garnish vegetable onto a serving plate or tray to pass.

At serving time
1. Ladle about a cup of the gazpacho base into each bowl.
2. Pass the garnish tray to let each guest load up their soup as they’d like.

That’s the way we do it at Casa Eades, though there are many other also traditional garnishing options that we noted on our Spanish travels through Andalusia, such as tiny croutons, chopped up hard-boiled egg, fresh kernels of corn. Personally I don’t need anything but the fresh, cool, crunchy veggies we always use. On occasion, when I haven’t had enough cans of tomatoes, or the fresh ones didn’t have enough flavor and acidity, I have spiked it with organic V8 juice to perk up the tomato-y essence of it.

No matter how you make it, gazpacho Andaluz is the perfect low carb soup: piquant, refreshing, flavorful, and filled with lycopenes, antioxidants, and other phytochemicals.

Enjoy.

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This past New Year’s Eve, we had (as we often do) a number of friends over for dinner to ring in the new year. I had intended to post the menu, photos, and some recipes long before now, but life has been a bit hectic in our neck of the woods, with multiple projects with looming deadlines on my desk, so I apologize for my sporadic attention to this blog.

The New Year’s Eve plan involved dinner at 8 o’clock for a group of friends, with another two couples joining us for dessert and champagne after attending the Symphony Pops Concert earlier in the evening. We expected six for dinner, but one lost guest–who had never been to our home before, couldn’t find it, and didn’t have the correct phone number–and one sick guest reduced us to a smaller, but still very merry group.

Here’s the menu for the evening:

Caviar, Blinis, and Sour Cream
Roasted Yellow Pepper Consomme with Sundried Tomato Pesto
Seared Foie Gras with Sherry Reduction
Herbed Rack of Lamb
Roasted Baby Beets
Garlic-herb Cauliflower Puree
Field Greens
Epoisses with Currant Walnut Bread
Dessert Sampler, including:
Low-Carb Creme Brulee
Handmade Chocolate Truffles
Drunken Rubies
Mike’s Mom’s Fruit Cake Fingers

…and of course lots of champagne and vino throughout the evening.

While the foie gras was our holiday splurge (and worth every penny) the surprise star of the meal turned out to be the Yellow Pepper Consomme, deemed by our food-knowledgeable guests from France as ‘elegant.’ High praise, indeed, for a very simple soup, so I thought I’d share that one with you.

Yellow Pepper Consomme with Sundried Tomato Puree

Serves 4 to 6

1 jar roasted yellow peppers, drained, rinsed and any seeds removed (about 5 or 6 peppers)
1 clove garlic, peeled
2 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth with salt and spices*
dash cayenne pepper
Garnish: (1) 3-ounce jar of Bella Terra Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto**

1) To make the consomme, place all ingredients into a blender and puree well. (At this point you may refrigerate the consomme until you’re ready to serve it. A day actually helps the flavor.)
2) Place consomme in a saucepan, over a medium flame, and heat through.
3) At serving, ladle soup into bowls and center a teaspoonful of sun-dried tomato pesto in each bowl.

* if you cannot find broth with salt and spices, simply use low-salt chicken broth and add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.

** if you’d like to make your own pesto, it’s simplicity itself. In a food processor, place 1 jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, 1/4 cup pitted or sliced black olives, 1 handful fresh basil, 1 clove garlic (crushed), a dash of Tabasco, generous pinch of salt, pinch of pepper and blend. Stream in some good olive oil with the motor running until you’ve got a soft, pesto consistency.

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A reader just commented that the link to the Butternut Squash Soup recipe wasn’t functioning and bemoaned the recipe’s not being available. Until I am able to figure out what happened, I thought I’d repost the recipe here and now, since it’s the perfect season to enjoy this savory, filling soup.

I just made a big batch of it to serve in espresso cups as one of several passed hors d’oeuvres at a recent Santa Barbara Choral Society fundraising event we held in our home. It’s one of my favorite soups and everyone seems to enjoy it. Hope you will, too.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup