Sunday, October 14, 2012

Pulled pork (sort of)

One of the finer things in life (in my opinion, anyway) is pulled pork - particularly in a tortilla.  This recipe, sadly, isn't quite the same, but it will do in a pinch.

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, in 2 inch / 5 cm cubes
  • 1 quart vegetable stock
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp cloves (whole)
  • 1 Tbsp pickling spice mix
  • 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
And for the "sauce":

Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 tsp orange zest (zesty!)
  • 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped (minus the seeds and stem, of course)
  • 1 stick (or stalk, if you prefer) of celery, again finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • more salt and pepper, to taste
  • a dash of hot sauce (or more if you like it SPICY!)
Instructions
  1. Throw everything in the first list of ingredients into a big pot (well, not TOO big).  Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer everything until the pork is tender, about an hour.
  2. Remove the pork, allow to cool, and shred using two forks.
  3. Now you have a choice.  You could do any of the following:
    1. Combine the second list of ingredients above in a bowl, and serve with the pork.
    2. Remove the chunky bits (especially the cloves and bay leaf) from the pot, and reduce the liquid until it's a nice thick sauce (optionally thickening it further with something like arrowroot), and then mix back with the pork.
    3. Find a low-carb barbecue sauce (like the ones that Walden Farms makes, although that's not really an endorsement - they still don't pay me), or make your own, and mix that with the pork.
  4. Now comes the hard part - how to serve it?  I'd prefer it on tortillas, but, you know.  Wheat.  Evil.  Enough said.  However, it's been suggested that you could serve this on large lettuce leaves, such as Boston lettuce (also sometimes called Bibb lettuce).
Enjoy!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Pumpkin Pie

Well, I don't know where in the world you might be when you read this, but here and now it's Thanksgiving in Canada.  Recently, at a family gathering, we discovered something:  I'm the only person in my family who likes pumpkin pie!  Now, most pumpkin pies come with a flour-based crust, and lots of sugar in the pie filling, but not this one...

Ingredients
  • 1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling, just pure pumpkin)
  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 3/4 cup spoonable stevia (or equivalent of your favourite sweetener)
  • 2 tsp "pumpkin pie seasoning" (I used 1-1/2 tsp today, and I think it could use a bit more)
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 1 dropper full of liquid stevia (or to taste)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Spray six 3-inch aluminum tart pans with non-stick spray (I use an olive oil-based one), and place them on a baking sheet.
  3. Combine the first five ingredients in the blender, and blend until smooth (and roughly the consistency of pancake batter).
  4. Fill the tart pans evenly with the pumpkin mixture.
  5. Bake in the oven about 30 minutes.
  6. Let them cool for a while on the counter, then put them in the fridge overnight (or at least 30 minutes).
  7. When ready to serve, whip the whipping cream with the liquid stevia until it forms peaks, then put a dollop on top of each tart.
  8. Enjoy!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Meat-zza!

I'd previously used an almond-crust pizza (as seen here) whenever I started craving pizza, but I recently tried this variation instead, and I'm hooked.  Of course, it's mostly meat, so it's VERY filling.  Oh, one warning - this will make a mess of a cookie sheet, which will be hard (but not impossible) to clean.  I recommend a good soaking.  I don't think you can grease the cookie sheet, but I will try that for next time.

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds ground beef (or mix it up - ground pork, chicken, etc.)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the weird stuff in the cardboard tube is okay for this)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • tomato paste OR tomato/pizza sauce
  • pizza toppings (I went with plain old thin-sliced pepperoni)
  • cheese for top (I used a four-cheese pre-grated store blend)
Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Combine the Parmesan, herbs, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a small bowl (do this first because it's easier when your hands aren't covered in raw meat).
  3. Combine the ground meat and the eggs by hand until well-mixed.
  4. Add the combined herbs/cheese/etc to the meat and egg mixture (if you add before the meat and egg are well-mixed, the egg just causes the herbs to clump up).
  5. Pound it flat onto a baking sheet, as thin as possible (it will shrink back up during cooking).
  6. Bake the meat "base" in the oven for 10 minutes, remove, and crank the oven up to "Broil".
  7. Drain the excess grease and water that's come out of the meat base while it cooked.
  8. Add your tomato paste or sauce (tomato paste, while my preferred pizza sauce for the intense taste, is admittedly hard to spread here).
  9. Add the toppings and cheese.
  10. Broil for about 5 minutes (keep an eye on it!) until it looks pizza-ish (i.e. top cheese is melted and browned).
  11. Let cool for a couple of minutes, and dig in!.
Additional:  If you substitute a package of taco seasoning for the spices, use salsa in place of the tomato sauce, and cover with a cheddar-jack cheese blend, you get something different, but awesome!