Low-Carb Japanese Steamed Whitefish

Ok, I may not be Japanese, but I think I should have been.  I really, really, really love their food.  The other day I needed something to eat for supper, and this simple idea came to me.  It may not be new, but it's tasty.  Any ingredients that sound strange to you can be found in your local Asian grocer or most large mega marts.

Here's what you need:

1 4 oz. fillet of white fish (cod, whitefish, etc. - any white meat fish)
1 sandwich bag

Marinade:

3 Tbls. Shoyu (soy sauce)
2 Tbls. mirin (sweet cooking wine)
1 Tsp. minced garlic
1 Tsp. minced ginger
1 Tsp. onion powder
1 Tsp. sriracha sauce

Combine all ingredients right in the sandwich bag, including the fillet.  Seal the bag and shake well to distribute the mixture.  Marinate 15 minutes, then turn fish over and marinate for 15 more minutes.  Reserving marinade, place fish in steamer and set timer to 15 minutes.

While the fish cooks, place marinade in a small saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add sriracha sauce and stir well.  Reduce sauce to thicken, about 5-10 minutes.  When fish is finished, put on plate and pour reduced marinade over fish.  (If you can have rice, it will go well with that).  Enjoy!

Low Carb Ribs

The wonderful thing about ribs is that they come low carb.  It's what we put on them that makes them super carby.  Here's my take on low-carb ribs.

First, it starts with the rub.  Here's what you need:

1 Tbls. ground black pepper (fresh if you have it)
1 Tbls. paprika
1 Tbls. coarse ground salt
1 Tsp. dried mustard
1 Tsp. chipotle powder
1 Tbls. garlic powder
1 Tsp. onion powder
1 Tsp. five spice powder
2 Tlbs. Splenda

Mix together all spices in a container with a lid.  Cover and shake until well mixed.  Place ribs meat side up on a plate and coat well with mixture.  Turn ribs over and coat underside.  Allow ribs to stand for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days in the rub.  The longer it sits, the more flavor it will impart.

When ready to cook, turn oven to 225 degrees and let preheat.  Place ribs meat side down in an oven safe pan, and cover with foil.  Cook for 4 hours.  Remove foil, flip ribs over using tongs, and coat well with low-carb BBQ sauce (see earlier post).  Place back in oven and cook for 20-30 minutes to set the glaze.  Remove and enjoy.

In Which The Pouch Says, "Hello."

Ok, so I've had my surgery and have recovered quite well (to this point, at least).  I've decided to start a miniseries on my pouch and the foods I eat.  Since I'm past the OMG bland Jell-O (I never ever want to eat that again) and broth stage, things are getting a little more interesting.

I've always been a chef and I love good food.  It's part of how I got to where I needed surgery.  However, I don't see any reason why I can't continue to eat great food, as long as I re-purpose it to be what my body needs instead of what it doesn't need. 

My surgeon places a strong focus on a high protein, low carb diet following surgery.  Makes sense, and you'd think it'd be simple to follow - plenty of meat all the time, life's great, right?  Anyone who'd tried the Atkins diet for a couple of weeks will tell you that meat gets old quickly.  However, with the right sauce, meat can come alive, and be something special.

I was walking through the store, innocently, and a rack of ribs caught my eye.  It was literally staring at me.  It looked so lonely, I thought to myself, "This would be great as a BBQ, with homemade baked beans!"  I bought it, and took it home.

Once I got it home, though, it sank in.  I have no low carb BBQ sauce, and I've never even see any in the store advertised as low carb.  Distraught, I went back to the store only to have my suspicions confirmed - no low carb BBQ sauce could be found.  It became clear I needed to make my own.

I searched online for some ideas, and the best I found was to use diet cola in the sauce.  Yep, you read that right.  Now stop laughing for a second and let me explain.  If you use diet cola (flavored with Splenda, please) you bring a lot of flavor to the party.  No need to worry about the carbonation, you're not drinking it, you're cooking it.  Anyway, the Splenda they put in adds just the right amount of sweetness, and a few extra spices and you have yourself a spicy BBQ sauce worthy of those ribs and beans.  So why Splenda?  If you use regular diet soda, it's flavored with Aspartame.  To me, that's not good eats, and it also breaks down under the heat of cooking and loses its sweetness.  If you can't find Splenda sweetened cola, you can use the Aspartame stuff and add 2Tbls. Splenda on your own.

Low-carb BBQ Sauce

1 small/medium onion
1 Tbls. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbls. minced garlic
12oz. Diet Cola (flavored with Splenda)
1 Six oz. can Tomato Paste
1/3 cup All Natural Ketchup (no sugar added)
1 Tbls. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbls. Garam Masala spice powder
1 Tbls. Yellow Mustard
Optional - hot sauce as desired

Directions:

Chop onion fine.  Heat a sauce pan over medium heat and add oil.  Add onion and fry for 2-3 minutes until onion softens.  Add garlic and fry for about 30-seconds to 1 minute, until fragrant.  Add diet soda and tomato paste.  Stir to dissolve tomato paste.  Add ketchup, worcestershire sauce, garam masala spice, yellow mustard, and if desired, hot sauce.  Stir to combine all ingredients and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.  Allow sauce to cool and use as you would BBQ sauce.  About 3 net carbs per serving.

I'll post the rib recipe and low-carb baked bean recipe if anyone is interested.