Hey all, just wondering if any of you SEers have been on low/no-carb diets and want to ask two questions: a)Did it work? and b)Any really good recipes that kept you going through it?
PS-Yes I know that dieting is anti-gourmet philosophy and all that, and we all know the theory etc, so please refrain from replying to give me a telling off!
Here in Ireland, where tea drinking is a national pastime - the definition of tea being black tea (Barry's or Lyon's), milk and maybe sugar. Obviously that's my favourite type of tea (lots of milk,two sugars, please), but I'm also partial to Earl Grey with a slice of lemon (no milk...ever!), Japanese green tea (o-cha) and peppermint tea. What type of tea do you like and how do you like it?
Hi, real live Irish person here in Dublin this morning on Paddy's Day! My advice on soda bread is that the authentic route is best, otherwise probably best to make another type. The really straight up recipe for white soda bread is probably the one available on the Odlums (irish flour company) website, here it is: http://www.odlums.ie/Recipes/R_WhSodaBr.html For reference, odlums cream flour is white normal flour (think you call it cake flour), not bread flour (extra gluten unnecessary as not kneaded - ha, one reading of that is a terrible pun, I mean the literal one). Contrary to BaHa's opinion, that is the flour that's used in Ireland anyway. Couple of bugbears, there should be minimal fat, definitely no eggs and you've got to use bread soda - that's why it's called soda bread, people!
I like a little one-fork combo of all the foods on the plate. Ultimate example is the very middle bit of a chicken kiev, mashed potato and peas,all on the one fork. The ultimate final forkful!
Raw tomatoes. They are so terribly awful I retch thinking of them. I'm not a food philistine, I like all tomato products, but the very thought of a caprese salad strikes fear into my heart! Also the concept of eating offal. To summarise: offal=gross!
I don't mind most foods touching,but I like them in separate piles. I'm happy then to have a forkful with say, chicken,potato and peas on it, but I like keeping them separate to retain texture better. That said I can deal with most things mixed up with one major exception- baked beans. I literally cannot handle beans touching stuff like meat,eggs etc on my plate. I can only have them touching potato and so I make a little dam out of mashed potato and keep the beans behind it! I don't want everything flooded with sweet tomatoey bean sauce!
I appreciate the criticisms of many here, but on a modified low carb diet,even during "induction", one's diet can be healthy. Drinking loads of water,eating moderate quantities of salmon, chicken, pork, beef, eating lots of green veggies and limited quantities of nuts and cheese, I can't really see how it can be dramatically bad for you? I understand criticisms of the old Atkins lets-eat-loads-of-cheese-steaks-and-grease type of diet that is obviously kind of stupid, but I query the idea that cutting out carbs in all forms,including whole grains, is a really bad idea. I mean you can get fibre from alternative sources,you avoid any blood sugar spikes at all, and the stuff about your brain needing pasta and all that is nonsense - CNS tissue metabolises both glucose and ketone bodies. To think that there is no glucose in your blood is a misconception - when glycogen is broken down you get glucose, it's just a constant steady release. The reports of modified sensible low-carb eating tend to show that there is stabilising of blood sugar in those who find it hard to control levels,lower levels of triglycerides and better levels of HDL(good) cholesterol.
Finally a q I can answer (am from Ireland)! Candied peel in the UK and Ireland is nearly always lemon and orange only, and suet comes in a vegetarian version, but if you can't get it, the best substitute is vegetable shortening which you should get really really cold and try to ideally shred,or if not chop up into the smallest pieces you can manage before it softens.
Raisins and perhaps a little honey - a top notch topping in my opinion! I always feel wrong going overboard on the sweet stuff on porridge, it kind of takes away from the feel-good healthiness. This is somewhat hypocritical from someone who had two slices of buttery toast with jam for breakfast today...
Please excuse my terrible grammar in the 1st sentence there, change the hyphen to a comma and "being" to "is"!
I agree to some extent, Kbear. I really like iced coffe during the summer, but I've always found that Starbucks really overroast the coffee in their iced range and it tastes so burnt I actually can't drink it. However when I have hot coffee from Starbucks either it isn't so burnt or I don't taste it anymore (it's not the best coffee in the world,but I disagree with those who say it's the worst - let's all remember Nescafé Instant Decaf!).
OH MY GOD! I honestly thought that Yan Can Cook was a weird imagined dream of mine. I live in Ireland and when I was little (early 90s), the main tv station used to show Yan Can Cook on Sunday mornings. I loved it, but nobody I've ever met remembers it. Thank you for the reference! Anyway, back on topic, I never remember to wear an apron but the odd time I do I like my laminated white apron with a big picture of asparagus on it. It says "Asparagus" as well, which I find very descriptive!
A hot T-bone steak, slightly charred on the outside - the part that is nestled in the "T" part of the cut next to the bone, with a bit of charred fat on the edge - that is all the steak I need!!
EuropeanCuisineGuy says, "Leaving out the raisins --" (which he doesn't care for -- ) he is entirely in favor of the latter recipe. (And adds, "Wow, would that go with goulash!") Caraway is a commonplace, being one of the herbs that grows well here: I forget which writer it was who said, about potato cakes baked in a Bastable oven, "They came out hot and hot from the oven, full of caraway and soaked with butter, and we ate them greedily..." Whiskey was also mentioned. :)
An interesting side to all this is the debate that could be indulged in as to whether a recipe should be used for its authenticity or for its deliciousness - as sometimes things with the same name can be more or less authentic and more or less delicious, too. Historic authenticity can be the only taste one might want (if one knows it and remembers it) but adaptation and improvement might be to other's tastes who do not have memory imprinted upon them.
Yes, yet another dry commentary. Oh well.
There is an excellent recipe for Irish Soda Bread (made in an inn in Cork) that includes yogurt, golden raisins, and caraway seeds - plus eggs and a bit of butter and sugar - in Sheila Lukin's Around the World Cookbook. Best one I've ever had.
Can I suggest our soda bread article and master recipe (with variations) here?
Peter's Mum's soda bread recipe
P's mum made soda bread on site in Ireland from the mid-1920's until she died last year at the age of 90. She passed me her basic recipe and (much more importantly) her method, which works brilliantly. At her instigation I added video tutorials a while back.
The secret for getting it right seems to be mostly speed. Also good ingredients, and (agreeing with others above) buttermilk rather than plain milk. Also, yes, the "plain soda" version of the bread is supposed to be a bit on the dry side. It's not meant to be a keeping bread, but something you make fresh every day. For a moister product, you do need to begin tinkering with the more authentic approach, or adding fruit, sugar, cream, etc, as in some of the tea breads mentioned further down in the article.
(The article, BTW, also has directions for soda farl, which is the less well-known version of soda bread -- a little more northern, but much loved, especially as part of the Ulster fry.)
Also: Just this morning I experimented (can't believe it's taken so long) with the same recipe using the NY Times-style no-knead, hot-pot method. It works absolutely perfectly (but then the cake style of soda bread baked "in the pot" or Bastable oven is the stuff of many childhood memories here).
I detest:
- onions
- garlic
- cilantro/parsley
- sweet-sour anything
- brown rice
- basmatic rice
- celery in my salads (I don't mind celery sticks, but I hate that "Suprise!" chopped celery in any type of salad)
- un-thoroughly-cooked bell peppers
I don't care for
- pork/bacon
- chocolate
- pizza
- pilaf (sacrilege!)
We actually did a Monthly Mouthful on this same question...."What food does everyone else love that you can't stand?" We got some good answers!
Mayonnaise or any mayonnaise based foods. I hate cole slaw, I hate potato salad, egg salad....all that stuff. Yuck.
Hillary
Chew on That
Hmmm I definitely don't do this consciously. I've always been told to not save the best for last because that way if you get full, you won't enjoy it!
Hillary
Chew on That
I can't stand the taste of Rosemary.
I don't like chunky yogurts. In fact, I can only eat about 1/2 container of smooth yogurt at a time, something about the texture.
Chocolate & mint together-- it's like eating chocolate and brushing my teeth at the same time, gross.
Licorice- ew. just ew.
Coconut- i love the smell, can't stand the taste
"fishy" seafood- i love sushi, shrimp (except when fried), tuna, salmon, but if it tastes distinctly seafoody/fishy, i can't do it
hot dogs
jello
wheaties/shredded wheat/soggy cereals
american cheese (blech)
i'm so picky haha
spaghetti and angel hair pasta- the tiny noodle texture bugs me
Subscribe to our RSS Feeds:
All of Serious Eats, Talk, Required Eating, Videos, Eating Out, Recipes
Subscribe by email:
Website:
Location:
About:
Favorite foods:
Last bite on earth: