Saffron Custard Pudding

This one is actually quite amazing! Who would believe you could make a dessert out of cauliflower? Carrots, courgettes, yes but cauliflower?! This recipe came out of a kitchen faux pas, a  mistake which will serve me well in the future: I accidentally made cauliflower meal, or cauliflower flour! Many low carb blogs and recipe sites use cauliflower rice in abundance, as do I, and they advocate a way for mincing, or “ricing” the cauliflower in a powerful blender, such as a Vitamix or a Bullet. It never worked for me, and this particular time when I tried to rice cauliflower in my beloved Vitamix blender, I ended up with what looked like thin, white soup, or milk.. Instead of just throwing it all out, I poured it through a sieve lined with a tea towel. After letting the water drain through the cloth, and then squeezing and squeezing out as much liquid as I could, I ended up with what looked like moist almond meal or coconut meal! I decided to incorporate it in to something that would resemble a Rice Pudding, and this is what I came up with. It gives all the satisfaction of a custard pudding, and the added cauliflower gives it a body that is reminiscent of rice pudding, the ultimate comfort food. I buy my saffron in Middle Eastern shops here in London, better value and quality than in the supermarket.

Ingredients:

300 grams cauliflower florets, raw

4 tablespoons double ( heavy) cream

2 eggs

2-3 tablespoons sweetener (I use Xylitol, but you can use Spenda, Stevia, a mixture of them all, or one of your choice)

2 pinches saffron threads

Butter for greasing

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 C. Butter a small (approx 15 x15 cm, or 15-20 cm diameter) ovenproof dish.

In a small saucepan, gently warm the cream, remove from heat and stir in the saffron. Leave to infuse for 20 mins. Meanwhile, place the cauliflower florets in your blender with enough water to just cover the florets. Blitz for a few seconds (depending on your machine) until there are no cauliflower pieces anymore, and the contents of the blender resembles watery soup. Place a clean tea towel in a sieve or colander and  pour the mixture through. When most of the water has drained through, start to squeeze out as much liquid as possible with your hands – you should end up with roughly 100  grams”dry” of cauliflower meal, depending on how moist your cauliflower was to start off with. Important: if too much liquid is left, your pudding will end up too soggy.. ( If you end up with more than 100 grams, simply use what you need and save the remainder in the fridge).

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, add the sweetener of your choice and lastly, pour in the cream, making sure you scrape any saffron strands off the sides of your pan in to your egg mixture. Stir in the cauliflower meal and pour the mixture in to your prepared oven dish. Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about 30 mins ( a toothpick inserted in the pudding should come out clean, but take care not to overcook). Remove from oven, let cool slightly. Serve with  cream, if desired.

Serves 2-3.

Simple, healthy lunch

I’ve been battling a cold this week,and thinking I ought to adhere to the saying”Starve a fever, feed a cold” I decided to feed my cold, rather, feed my body something healthy to help it fight the cold. I had some gorgeous, dark green, almost black cabbage leaves in the fridge, Cabalo Negro cabbage to be precise, and a couple of salmon fillets.We all know how good leafy dark green vegetables are for us, and with the healthy fats in the salmon, I was all set to rustle up something highly nutritious. I decide to make a Brown Butter sauce because it is delicious and easy to make but also because of the heath properties of butter according to the Ayurvedic medicinal tradition.

Salmon with Caballo Negro Cabbage and Brown Butter Herb Sauce

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 Salmon fillets

70 grams butter

Slice of lemon

Bunch fresh herbs ( I used Greek basil and rosemary)

350 grams Caballo Negro cabbage (or any other leafy green vegetable),washed

2-3 garlic cloves

Squeeze fresh lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Place a large piece of aluminium foil or parchment paper in an oven proof dish, and put the salmon fillets in the centre (skin side down if applicable). Season fish with salt and pepper,put half a slice of lemon on each fillet. Put a knob of butter on the fish and top with a few sprigs of your chosen fresh herbs. Fold the foil or parchment paper to make a closed parcel ( I secure the parchment paper with a tooth pick). Place in a preheated oven and bake for about 20 mins.

While the fish is cooking, prepare the green vegetable by removing the tough part of the stem and then shredding it in roughly 1 cm strips. Peel and crush the garlic cloves.

To make brown butter sauce, finely chop the herbs. Place the butter in a small frying pan or pan, and turn on the heat on medium; it will take about 3-5 mins to brown the butter, but you must keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. When the butter has a nutty brown colour, add a squeeze of lemon juice and the chopped herbs.

In a wok or large frying pan, melt 1 tbsp of butter over medium-high heat. When butter is hot but not browned, add crushed garlic and fry for a minute. Add the cabbage and stir fry over high heat for about 4-5 mins, or until vegetable is glossy, green and “al dente”. Divide the cabbage on to two plates, carefully place the salmon fillets on top of the cabbage, and pour the butter sauce over the fish. Serve immediately.

Hybrid Pizza

As promised yesterday, here is the recipe for Low Carb Hybrid Pizza! There’s a gazillion low carb pizza crust recipes to be found, and this is a combination of some of them and I think it works well – Teflon-mouth husband goes completely wild! You need to know, though, that it will not taste and feel like a regular Pizza Express pizza, but rather, it is a hybrid of a regular pizza that will satisfy when only pizza will do. Yet, it  stands on its own in the sense that it should be respected as a original creation even without the #pizza..!!

I give you the recipe for the crust only, and nutritional values are for crust alone. You can top it with any of your favourite pizza toppings but be careful with the tomato sauce as it can be rather carby. I used a lovely Sundried Tomato paste with only 2,1 grams of carbs/100grams.

*A note on preparing the cauliflower:
Wash the cauliflower  and grate it on the fine side of your grater. Then place the grated vegetable on sheets of kitchen paper,gather up paper and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Repeat. This makes for a crispier pizza base.

Ingredients:

• 300 grams cauliflower (finely shredded)*
• 2 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Milled Flax Seed
• 250 grams Grated Mozarella Cheese
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F

Mix the milled flax seed, coconut flour,baking powder and grated mozarella cheese in a bowl. Add the grated cauliflower and eggs. Mix well with your hands and leave to settle for 10 minutes.

Place a piece of parchment paper on an oven tray, gather up your “pizza dough” and place it in the centre of your tray.Press the “dough” out with your hands until it reaches a thickness of about  6 mm. It will look roughly like this:

Place it in the centre of the oven and cook for approximately 45 mins, flipping the crust over half way through. I do it by inverting the crust on to another sheet of parchment paper.After 45 mins in the oven, your pizza crust should be firm to the touch, hold together well and have a nice dark golden colour – a bit like this:

 

Remove from oven, and turn oven temperature up to 240 C. Now it’s time to get creative and top your crust with whatever takes your fancy! Finish off with some grated cheese and pop it in the oven for another 10 mins or so, or until the cheese bubbles and has a nice, golden  colour.Enjoy!

First post!

Yet another food blog – who needs it?! Blogging in general can be perceived as a rather narcissistic pursuit perhaps,but the main reason for me doing this Low Carb delicious food blog is to get my husband to stop nagging me for not doing it! Secondly, it will be a way of collecting the recipes for all the different dishes that I have created over the last few years of low carb cooking. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, I get so much inspiration,ideas and knowledge from other food bloggers around the world, so perhaps my recipes and ideas can inspire someone else out there?

I will post the recipe for this incredibly satisfying “Hybrid Pizza” later. Stay tuned!!