Lettuce cups are very much in keeping with a Ketogenic diet, high protein and leafy greens. The problem with the original recipe is the Hoisin and sweet chili sauces, both of which have added sugar. Hoisin sauce is mostly bean paste with sugar and Chinese Five Spice added. I will make a keto hoisin sauce by leaving the sugar out. I will replace the sweetened chili sauce with a sugar free chili garlic sauce.
Karl’s Keto Asian Pork Lettuce Cups
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
For me Ham and Beans has always meant slow cooked dried beans with ham. As I was researching recipes recently, I found a few that included fresh green beans. This got me to thinking about really mixing up this recipe, If one fresh bean, why not all fresh beans.
Karl’s Ham and Three Fresh Beans
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
My younger daughter, Eilene, has just graduated from high school and she is having a few friends (10) over this week end. Teenagers must be fed, so I have decided to make ham and beans. One of her friends is meat intolerant (i.e. not a vegetarian by choice), so I will have to come up with something special for him. That will take some more thought.
Karl’s Ham and Five Beans
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork, Stews
Mapo Doufu is Jan’s favorite dish. She also prefers it the traditional way that Mao Zedong liked it, made with “stinky tofu.” Mapo Doufu actually takes days to make it properly, because first you need to let the tofu go “bad.” Fortunately she also likes it with made with fresh tofu, which is what I will be doing today.
Karl’s Mopo Doufu
(Mapo Tofu)
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
In the 1970’s I was working for a diving company based in Belle Chasse, LA. I have been thinking about that time lately (it probably has something to do with Lent and Mardi Gras). I can’t think about N’Orl’ns (one word) without thinking about the food. For two years I lived off of Muffulettas, Shrimp Etouffee, boiled crawfish, and Jambalaya. I have had a sudden desire for the flavor. Louisiana food generally falls into two main cuisines Creole and Cajun, which roughly corresponds to city and country.
Karl’s Cajun Jambalaya
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork, Poultry, Seafood
This Sunday is Easter, and around our house this means barbecues lamb and barbecued lamb means Greek. The combined flavors of garlic, lemon and herbs are always a big favorite. I decided to have Greek mushrooms, rice pilaf, and spanakopita rolls to go with the lamb and Jan made a lemon bundt cake for dessert. It has been a long 40 days and I am looking forward to the end of Lent.
Karl’s Greek Barbecued Lamb
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
Some assembly required. Many cultures have a festival dish that is something wrapped in dough that can be stored and then cooked quickly (so the moms can enjoy the festivals). The Hispanic countries have tamales, the Asians have jiaozi (pork dumplings) and the Eastern Europeans have perogi. However the price for this festival freedom is sometimes days of preparation. Making the dough, the filling(s) and assembling the final product are painstaking tasks. Usually this is made easier by making it a group activity. In China we would be treated to jiaozi parties. Our host would bring over the prepared meat and dough and then everyone would pitch in to make (and eat) the jiaozi. For a fun idea of how the Mexican culture does this, I recommend the children’s book Too Many Tamales! (for the hearing impared.)
Jan and I were watching Triple D and one of the featured restaurants was a Mexican place that always has 15 different moles. Jan loves mole and the show expanded my mind on what was possible in the way of mole and how to use it. One of their signature dishes was tamales with mole.
Karl’s Pork Tamales with Mole Poblano
Karl’s Green Mole Rice
Karl’s Refried Beans II
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
I am planning to make Pork Tamales with Mole Negro this Sunday, but I have used all of the roast pork I had in my freezer. As a result, I need to roast some pork this week. If I am going to spend hours, if not days, making roast pork I see no reason to cook only a pound or two for the one meal. Go big, there are lots of things you can do with left over roast pork. It is a sad task, but someone will have to eat it.
Karl’s Slow Roasted Pork
Pulled Pork
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
Adapted from CHICHI’S CHINESE
When we lived in Chengdu, Sichuan, this was one of my favorite dishes. My Chinese friends would ask, “Why do you want to order THAT? It’s a peasant’s dish!” One of my first culture shocks in China was when one of my students proudly announced, “My father was a peasant. My mother was a peasant. I am a worker.” Because there are no peasants in America, we tend to forget that many other countries still have them.
One thing that I have learned since that time is that it is not just twice cooked pork that I like, but the way that dish was prepared by the old cook at the Panda House Restaurant. Many of the recipes that I have found, since I came back from China, call for fatty pork belly and cabbage. The cook at the Panda House used a very lean cut of pork and lots of green onions. The other recipes are nice, but his was spectacular.
Twice Cooked Pork (on the left) and
Spicy Giant Bamboo and Daikon Stir-fry
(on the right)
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork
Jan asked for some comforting, warm Italian Wedding Soup. After a brief warm spell, winter just came back to San Jose with a vengeance and there is snow on the brown hills. San Jose is in the south of the Bay Area with hills on both sides, there is a reason they call it Silicon Valley. Locals orient themselves by the color of the hills. The green hills, the coastal range, are always green and west. The brown hills, the Diablo Range, are higher, dryer and east. If there is any snow near San Jose it will be at the top of Mount Diablo.
Karl’s Itallian Wedding Soup
I did not like any of the recipes on-line; they were either too simple or too complex. Although I generally avoid recipes that are “add can of A” to “can of B,” I am not a food-Nazi. I will use some shortcuts, especially if it is a weekday meal. I looked up what defines Italian Wedding Soup on Wikipedia. The basic ingredients are green vegetables, meat (usually meatballs), chicken broth, and usually some kind of small pasta. I decided to be creative.
Filed under Main Dishes, Pork, Soups
karllueck
Miriam
Jabberwocky Stew 