Around the world in 80 days: All on this thread

[JudyMac]

Scotland Day 1

In a moment of madness, I decided to seek out authentic traditional low carb recipes from around the world.

My emphasis is on ease of making, taste, and a carb content of anything from 5g Net to 10g Net, making them achievable for everyone. Some recipes will be suitable for Slowcookers / Crockpots.

I hope you will enjoy the next 80 days and my personal challenge to find something tasty to be a FOOD Inspiration to you all !

If you know of a good recipe from the country highlighted each day, do add it to the thread.

Today we visit my homeland Scotland, a truly magnificent part of the world, with lots of amazing food, men in kilts , and women who wield a mean rolling pin! (not that I'm biaised or anything )

Welcome to Skye.



Aberdeen Angus steak with whisky sauce

50 g /2 oz butter
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
2 x 200 g/ 2 x 7oz Good quality beef steak, Aberdeen Angus if you can get it. salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 shot/1 fl oz malt whisky
150 ml / 1/4 pint beef stock
4 Tbsp cream
Servings: 2
Nutrition Facts per serving: Total carbs 4.87g, Fibre 0.43g, Net Carbs 4.44g

Melt butter in a frying pan / skillet and gently saute the onion. When the onion is soft, increase the heat and add the steaks. Cook for 3-5 minutes each side.

Remove steaks and onion to a hot dish and keep warm.

Add the whisky to the frying pan, stir with a wooden spoon to help absorb the juices in the pan. Add the beef stock and reduce until thick.

Turn the heat to low, and add the cream, heat through gently and continue stirring. Adjust the seasoning to your taste with salt and freshly ground pepper, then pour over the steaks and serve immediately.

There are over 3oo different malt whiskys in Scotland, each with it's own special taste of seaweed, peat etc. The whisky you use will effect the taste of the sauce, so chose one you like.

Enjoy

Judy

[sallyseachange]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: Scotland, day 1.

Yummm.... Nice recipe and nice pic!

This thread is a lovely idea! Thank you.

[The Procrastinatrix]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: Scotland, day 1.

Oh my gooses that sounds soooooo good! I'm making that next week for sure!

We spent two weeks in Scotland, and two in Ireland for our honeymoon. Scotland was my favorite. No offense to the Irish, but Scotland just had my heart. I'm sure we saw that exact place in your photograph. I think we saw it from the Ferry. Is that right?

[JudyMac]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: Scotland, day 1.

Procrastinatrix if you took the ferry from Ireland to Scotland, it is almost certain you passed the Isle of Skye, that is the view of the wharf. Best whisky in Scotland...Talisker from the sole 'legal' distillery of Skye. Again I'm not biaised at all

Judy

[sallyseachange]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: Scotland, day 1.

Agree with you about the Talisker Judy, though I'm partial to Glenfiddich and Laphroeig (sp?) too. Even after so long away, there are some things we Scots will yearn for, now and again!

[JudyMac]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: Scotland, day 1.

Ireland Day 2

Well it was going to be a surprise but Procrastinatrix guessed, today we sail across to Ireland, Dublin in fact. In search of a good meal.



In the past there was not a great tradition of fish eating, but today the daily Irish catch landed in Dingle, or Ballycotton or Kilkeel, and elsewhere, takes pride of place on the Irish table, and not just on Fridays.

Plaice is cooked in cheese sauce or batter; black sole grilled simply on the bone; monkfish and ray are poached and served with simple butter sauces, while lobsters, crawfish, shrimps, mussels, oysters and that most famous Irish crustacean, the Dublin Bay prawn, are all highly prized and enjoyed by the Irish themselves. Salmon, king of fish, continues to be a much saught delicacy, as it has been since the days of Finn, son of Col, head of the Fianna, who gained his wisdom through eating the Salmon of knowledge.

Which brings us to todays offering...

Dublin Bay Prawns with herb Mayonnaise

12-16 Dublin bay prawns or langustines (approx 100g of 'meat' per person), cooked, shelled, de-veined and cut into chunks. Leave one whole prawn per serving for a garnish. (you can find these precooked and frozen)
1 lettuce chopped (I like Iceberg or cos)
Lemon cut into 4 wedges

Herb Mayonnaise
6 tbsp mayonnaise (real homemade mayonnaise or sugarfree)
1 tbsp thick cream
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp mixed fresh herbs - dill, fennel, chives, parsley finely chopped
1 spring onion (scallion), finely chopped
Pinch of dried mustard (colmans) or 1/4 tsp normal mustard
1/2 tsp tomato puree
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Servings 4. Nutrition per serving total carbs 9.56g, fibre 3.02, 6.54g net carbs.

Make a bed of chopped lettuce on each plate. Mix the ingredients of the herb mayonnaise together and then toss the prawns in this dressing. Arrange on lettuce, and garnish with the whole prawns and lemon wedges.

Fantastic in the summer or as a nice change anytime!

[sallyseachange]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: Scotland, day 1.

Another mouth-watering one!

[Miss Phode]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: Scotland, day 1.

JudyMac, I think I love you. What a great thread. A lot of my favorite foodies have vanished over time, and the food threads were getting rather dull. I'm really looking forward to following this.

[JudyMac]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: All on this thread

Wales Day 3.

Back across the water again to the homeland of one of my grandmothers Gladys Pusey, Wales. I remember her with great fondess, a small whippet of a lady who made the best cakes and pastries for Welsh High Tea, that it has ever been my pleasure to eat! I'm drooling....



Anyway back to Cymru (Wales), The food of Wales recalls its ancient Celtic traditions. In the mining valleys of the south and in villages in the north perched below mountains of slate shards, in quiet coastal fishing harbours, through the rolling rural landscape of sheep dotted hills and chuckling salmon rivers, to the rugged upland farms of Prescelly, it is one which has developed to satify the needs of hardworking men and women: the appetites of farm labourers and coalminers, of quarrymen and fisherman.

The 'old foods' that people still speak of and relish with such fondness, are earthy and simple, reflecting this harsh Celtic land and it's staple foods of oats, pork, fish, root vegetables, leeks and cabbage.

This recipe is aimed at those on the OWL cereal rung, pre-maintenence and maintenance. Their carb intake is higher so I felt justified in posting something nice for them.

My grandmother used to cook this most Fridays:



Herrings in Oatmeal.

4 large herrings (or mackerel), cleaned, scaled and gutted.
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 beaten egg
100g / 4 oz medium oatmeal (unsweetened, normal oatflakes, not instant)
100g / 4oz pork dripping or butter
lemon to garnish

Servings 4. Nutrition per serving 18.5 total carbs, 3.02g fibre, 15.48g net carbs.

Score the skin with a sharp knife. Season well on both sides and dip into the egg.
Coat the fish in oatmeal, pressing it in well.
Heat the dripping in a large frying pan, skillet or wok, and fry the fish for 3-5 minutes each side, until brown and crisp.
Drain well and garnish with a lemon wedge.

(I like mine served with stir fried cabbage, leeks and bacon)

Simple and good for you.

Remembering that AWOL is aimed at a lifetime choice, I will include a few recipes up to 20g net carb for those on pre-maintenance or maintenence.

[sallyseachange]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: All on this thread

"Simple and good for you"... like all the best things!
I remember eating those too. Totally yummy! This thread is a great 'reminder' of things one can cook/eat!

[JudyMac]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: All on this thread

I hope to inspire some other ADBB's to get in the kitchen!

Glad you like the Herring and the Talisker

Judy

[JudyMac]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: All on this thread

England Day 4

The surprise for you all today is not the country, the last of the UK, but the fact we are going to travel back in time to rescue a recipe!

We will get into our time machine, then go and taste the forest fare of Robin Hood, renowned for stopping the rich, asking them to a feast, then exacting a high price for the meal! This recipe has survived centuries until the present day and is eaten still in the Forest of Dean and in parts of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. It goes under the various names of Foresters Pie, Hunters Rabbit, and Good Robyn, and whilst the recipe has changed slightly, spices and herbs added, essentially it is a link to one of our oldest folk heroes.



Yes Robin Hood did exist, and the best known historical Robin Hood was a Norman. The King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Roll of Easter 1262 notes the pardoning of the prior of Sandleford for seizing without warrant the chattels of one William Robehod, fugitive. This case can be cross-referenced with the roll of the Justices in Eyre in Berkshire in 1261, in which a criminal gang is outlawed, including William son of Robert le Fevere, whose chattels were seized without warrant by the prior of Sandleford.





In all these tales, the forest figures prominently. The forest in the Middle Ages included very extensive areas of cultivated land as well as wood and waste land. They were the private preserve of the king and his officers, and were protected by a harsh series of forest laws, against which there could be no appeal - not even to the ecclesiastical courts.

Forest law was extremely unpopular, among all sections of society, but it achieved its purpose of retaining vast areas of semi-wild landscape over which the king and his court could hunt. Yet the very wildness of the land made it a perfect place for fugitives to hide out, and this is why areas such as Sherwood Forest and Barnsdale feature so prominently in outlaw legend.

So what could you find to eat in a forest? Well, wild boar, rabbit, venison, partidrige, pheasant, hare, chickens, (turkeys USA), mushrooms, many wild herbs and greens, (in place of onions, wild garlic and chives). When added to the items stolen from the rich, spices, wine, and ingredients swopped with small villages, eggs, cheese, and root vegetables, these ingredients form the basis of Good Robyn.

Good Robyn

Topping:
450g / 1 lb minced pork with 1 tsp mixed herbs, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp white pepper, well mixed together with an egg.

Base:
25g / 1oz butter
1 medium onion, chopped finely
450g / 1 lb mixed forest meat (chicken, duck, turkey, venison etc)
6 bacon rashers
150ml / 1/4 pt chicken stock
300ml / 1/2 pt dry white wine
225g / 8oz mushrooms
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt
pepper
mixed herbs

Mix together the topping, then put into the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

For the base.
Melt butter in a large frying pan / skillet, gently fry the onion and crushed garlic until translucent, add the meat and bacon, then fry until all meat is just sealed. Add mushrooms and stir well.

Put into a casserole. Season with salt, pepper and a tsp mixed herbs.

Use wine to deglaze the frying pan, a couple of quick swirls, then into the casserole. Add enough chicken stock to barely cover the base.

Roll out the sausage meat topping, as you would pastry, then place over the top of the base in the casserole.

Put the lid on the casserole and cook in a cool oven 150C / 300F / gas mark 2 for 2 1/2 hours. This can also be cooked in a crock pot/ slow cooker.

You can ring the changes by placing chilli, cheese or bacon rashers on the top, remembering to add the extra carbs. (I like mine with bacon strips and gruyere cheese) Do experiment.

Servings 4, Nutrition per serving 7.82g total carbs, 0.78g fibre, 7.04g net carbs.

[sallyseachange]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: All on this thread

Well... they knew how to cook in those days! And they cooked with wine too... interesting!

I love this thread!

[JudyMac]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: All on this thread

Medieval cooking was dominated by rich dishes, including dishes made with wine and cider. Of course the wine would have been a bit rougher than todays.

Judy

[sallyseachange]

Re: Around the world in 80 days: All on this thread

Yes... and I believe they used more herbs and spices then, too. Those seemed to go out of fashion in the first half of the 20th century. I wonder if it was the wars that did for them...? Glad that now things are getting a bit more revved up in the UK. Cuisine there really seems to be improving.