Tag Archives: cooking

Shredded ginger in oatmeal

Posted on January 5, 2015 by | 6 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

I’ve told you plenty of times the lengths I go to finding miniscule sodium or no sodium food products to prepare for myself.  I’ve found a good many more since the last time I talked about it.

For instance, cranberries were on sale for a buck per bag during the holidays and knowing how heavily I use cranberries I loaded up Jeanne’s freezer.  Every day I put a handful into my breakfast oatmeal.  Adds zest.  But even that gradually becomes ho hum.

Naturally there’s a lot of ginger nodules around here because both Jeanne, and I cook with ginger.  She’s careful and skins hers before grating it.  I just chunk mine into the blender, fill that blender up with shredded ginger, then flatten it so’s it’s easy to break off inside the baggie when frozen.  [Gallon freezer bags work best]  So spang, pull it out of the freezer, break off a piece, and you can put a hefty ginger flavor to anything you please.

This morning I’m having ginger-cranberry oatmeal.  It hits the taste-buds a bit hard the first spoonful, but after that oatmeal becomes a someone you’d like to get to know better.

I’ve come up with a number of other items I’m planning to tell you about, even though there’s probably not anyone else here who’s fanatic about keeping salt ingestion below 2000 grams per day.  There’s stove top pizza, stovetop wheat buns, green chili Swiss cheese omelets [amazingly low sodium] huevos ranchero style.

And so on.  I’m going to try to remember to post some ingredients and methodology as the year rolls out and I find more of them or run new trials on the ones I’ve already invented.

I’ve got to find a replacement for Hatch green chili, by the way.  They had it in the grocery stores [outside them] here during harvest time, and I bought a few pounds to run through the blender and freeze.  But I’m running dry on them.

These were only partly roasted, but Jeanne’s son, Michael, roasted them in an outdoor barbeque for me.  I debated on peeling them and decided it’s time the world found a way to get loose from green chili skins without anything labor-intensive.  So I blended the bejesus out of them and turned out to be right.  They’re great.

Old Jules

 

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Posted in 2015, Cuisine

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Hell of a fine no sodium added breakfast. Less than 8.5 mg sodium

Posted on September 5, 2014 by | Leave a comment

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.  I just topped off my smile with a deeeeelux double-extra-heaven breakfast I threw together.

First off I built a fat tortilla using half-cup of masa and a quarter-cup+one tablespoon water wadded into a ball, flattened thick, and place onto a frying pan.  Hot frying pan.  Really hot frying pan.  Then flipped it and browned the other side.

Okay, now that goes onto a plate and the frying pan gets a smack of no sodium butter melting into which goes an onion ice-cube, a tomato ice-cube, and a Hatch green chile ice-cube, all sizzling to beat hell.  Two eggs into that, carefully flipped over light at the proper moment.

Then, spang onto that tortilla and you’ve got yourself a breakfast real people would pay good money to have a second serving of in a real eating joint.

And you still have 1991.5 mg sodium left to squander during the rest of the day.

Damn that was good!

Old Jules

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Posted in 2014, Adventure, America, Food

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Masa harina as a no sodium pizza crust

Posted on September 3, 2014 by | 1 comment

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

I probably mentioned sometime that I’ve been having dreams about pizza.  The odor and the taste creep into my brain unexpectedly and sometimes I have to threaten myself with a pistol to keep from picking up the phone and ordering a large pepperoni or anchovies delivered.  Aside from me being dead when Jeanne arrived home from work after I sneaked around and did it, she’d never know.

One slice of pizza of any sort anywhere exceeds my 2-gram limit for each day.

Well, I’m wanting to avoid having to shoot myself in the hand or ear to keep from phoning in for a combination pizza.  So I’ve been working on developing a non-sodium, or low sodium substitute.

The filling, I’ve got whipped.  I told you before about my onion ice cubes and my tomato ice cubes.  I used two of each, and might have added one more.  When they were melted I used a lot of minced garlic, turmeric, oregano, cilantro, and ancho pepper.  Mixed them all together and poured them over a couple of slices of zero-sodium bread that’s awful, otherwise unfit for human consumption.

Okay, that stuff is the filling, and it is damned tasty.Roll out a quarter pound of ground beef into silver-dollar sized pieces and season the hell out of them to simulate pepperoni.  Space them around on the surface of the rest of the filling.

Now roll out the real crust using half-cup of masa harina pressed out thicker than tortillas, but not much thicker.  About a quarter-cup plus a tablespoon of water mixed with the masa.

Position that filling onto the crust and shove the entire shebang into the oven at 450 F for as long as it takes for the odor to remind you something’s in the oven.  Probably 20-30 minutes.

This is just the beginning, and you might need to make modifications based on personal tastes and the way your oven behaves itself.  But there’s no need to kill yourself out of desperation for a damned pizza just because it would kill you to eat one.

Make the damned thing from scratch and cheat the undertaker.

Old Jules

 

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Posted in 2014, America, Food

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Culinary arts, broken toes and peaches

Posted on August 31, 2014 by | 2 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

Because of the differences in our dietary idiosyncracies Jeanne and I don’t cook much for one another, almost never anything shared.  I usually cook breakfast for her, but only as a separate deed.

So yesterday when she pronounced she was going to make two [2] peach pies, one for me without salt, one for herself, I was only surprised she was doing one for me.  She carefully cut up the peaches, got everything ready but the crusts, then refrigerated it all.

I thought she’d already found the crust recipe she’d been searching for.  But there she was barefoot by the bookcase, holding the 10 pound, The Victory Cook Book, Binding of the American Woman’s Victory Edition published in 1943.  Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer, director of the Culinary Arts Institute.

Great book.  Dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur.

“His heroic leadership and gallant fight against overwhelming odds should inspire every American woman to make the most of daily opportunities to support the war effort in her home and in every sphere of worthwhile activity.”

Nice full page pic of Dugout Dug inside opposite the dedication, him having recovered from his nighttime scurry out of Manila leaving his command to surrender to the Japanese, Death March across Bataan, that sort of thing.
But I digress.

Jeanne tried to lift that book and SPANG, it slipped out of her hand!  She doesn’t have much strength in it because it was broken a while back, and it’s not easy for her to remember. CRUMP went Douglas MacArthur and all the cuisine prepared by the women of America supporting WWII.

Jeanne doubled over in pain and I hopped up figuring I’d try to help.  But Jeanne just lost WWII and the War in the Pacific, broke at least one toe, possibly two.

By the end of the evening the one toe was swelling and turning purple.  We were alternating artificial ice in and out of the freezer, and she was in a lot of pain.  The toe is purple enough for most usual purposes today and swollen, but she’s able to get around.

All the peaches are there in the fridge, but I’m thinking I might just figure on eating them without pie crust.  She’s going out with friends tonight and planning to be busy today, so I don’t think cooking pie is in the cards.

I suggested she tell her friends when they ask why she’s limping, tell them I pissed her off and she sidekicked me in the head.  If she doesn’t take me up on it she’s missing one hell of a good story.

Old Jules

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Posted in 2014, America

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Tomato ice cubes

Posted on August 23, 2014 by | 3 comments

So. Hi readers.

I’ve told you in the past about being a low-sodium fanatic. I don’t want to ingest any more salt than comes with whatever I’m eating back when it was the next best thing to being alive. Eggs when they come out of the shell and hit the frying pan running. Or on the half-shell, boiled.

In the past I’ve explained how I blend onions and make ice cubes so’s to allow easy use for broths and blogs. I’ve told in loving detail how I do the same with jalapeno.

And now I’m telling you Jeanne’s sons had a bumper crop of tomatoes and I’ve blended all I could get my hands on, frozen them in ice cube trays after boiling them down. Now I’m telling you a large tomato doesn’t have a dozen milligrams of sodium.

Well hell, I also told you a few days ago my faith is eroding … showed you another viewpoint from Dr. Mercola, which might help mitigate my fanaticism. Once I’ve digested it, if I’m still alive.

But he didn’t say anything about tomato ice cubes. And damn I do love the idea of all the stuff I’m going to be able to do with them, 8.5 mg of sodium, or not.
Meanwhile:
Onion ice cubes, jalapeno ice cubes
Low sodium / no sodium Saimin
Internet Wisdom

Old Jules

 

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Posted in 2014, America

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Improving on the near-perfect – no sodium catsup substitute

Posted on July 21, 2014 by | 2 comments

Hi readers.  I posted this ersatz salt catsup substitute recipe a while back because it’s so almost perfect I figured you’d love it if you tried it.  But today I trumped that recipe.  I added three large green onions into the blender with the rest.  Watched them get liquified with everything, then added about half a bundle of fresh cilantro.

I believe with some jalapeno in the mix this might provide the best salsa I’ve ever eaten.  And not one speck of salt added anywhere in the equation.

sweet pepper and bells

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read. I’m sitting here dipping home-made no sodium catsup substitute in Art’s & Mary’s no salt homestyle potato chips.

So shoot me. Fact is, this catsup substitute tastes so much better than catsup a person might as well call catsup a substitute for whatever this como se llama delicious concoction is. And it’s so damned easy to make they ought to put grocers in jail for carrying the original salt-bomb Hunts, Heinz, you name it catsups on the shelves. Killing people slowly.

sweet pepper and bells in blender

What you need to make Como Se Llama? Sweet peppers and/or Bell peppers of various colors. A blender. 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar. A cup of sugar, or however much less you prefer. A tablespoon of black pepper.

sweet pepper and bells blended

Blend it until it’s all liquid, adding the sugar and vinegar while it’s blending. I use unground peppercorn and let the blending reduce the grain size with everything else.

sweet pepper and bells ireducing

Once that’s done all you need to do is put it over medium heat and bring it to a boil, then let it simmer until it’s reduced approximately 1/3, but mainly is the thickness you prefer in a Como se Llama. Keep it in mind you’re using it for a dip.

If it gets so you’re on the road or for come other reason can’t make Como se Llama, you can always stop into a grocery store and buy a bottle of catsup for a temporary substitute.

Old Jules

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Posted in 2014

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Steamed rice under curry chicken with bean sprouts, broccoli, green onion and cranberries.

Posted on July 19, 2014 by | Leave a comment
Low sodium, no MSG

Low sodium, no MSG

And of course it’s all no sodium/low sodium.  Stir fry it or steam it with the rice.

Once it’s all in the bowl steaming sprinkle coconut across the top and a splonge of fig preserves on the side to simulate chutney.  Chopped cilantro, ancho molido, minced garlic and minced ginger to taste.

Raw peanuts sprinkled into it and you’ll be ready to rock and roll.

Believe me when I say it’s easy to discover you’re going to have to put some leftovers into the freezer.  It’s containerized cargo for the digestive tract.

Don’t try this anywhere but home.

Old Jules

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Posted in 2014, America, Food

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Getting rid of weevils in oatmeal and flour – rediscovering the past

Posted on July 11, 2014 by | 9 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

I want to share something I’ve discovered with those of you who cook:

Have you notice that when you bring flour, oatmeal or corn meal home it frequently has weevils already in it?  Do you find it disgusting, annoying, irritating?

Well, here are a couple of things you can do.  First off, put the bag of grain product into the freezer a few days as soon as you get home.  That will keep them from reproducing, eating more of your flour or whatever.

But once you take it back out there’ll be a lot of little bug carcasses dotting things.  Your grandmother would have sifted those out before using the grain product.  Her grandmother would have shrugged, if she noticed them at all, and ignored their existence.

So depending on which generation of grandmothers you want to emulate, you might try one of those methods.  Or you can do what I do to make those dead bugs vanish in a heartbeat.

Flax seed.  Every time you use flour, oatmeal or cornmeal for anything, toss in a tablespoon full or hand full of flax seed.  All those dead or alive weevils will vanish.  I don’t know whether the flax seed eats them, dissolves them, or waves a magic wand and sends them to an alternate reality.

But what’s strange about it is the fact that flax seeds themselves resemble tiny roaches.  Or bugs of some other kind.  Maybe that’s what they are, predatory little bugs going around eating weevil carcasses.

Maybe grandma’s grandma knew that, maybe that’s what she did, too.  A lost old wives tale.

And here I am rediscovering it by modern science.

Old Jules

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Posted in 2014, America, Food

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About that Herb Ox Bouillon – MSG Deniers

Posted on July 9, 2014 by | 5 comments

Low sodium / no sodium Saimin

I got this in an email from Jeanne sometime during the night:

it has two ingredients which  minimize the amount of MSG, but they don’t remove all the MSG in the product.   Better read up on them before you decide it’s safe to consume any.

http://healthybliss.net/the-truth-in-food-labeling-food-additives-to-avoid-hidden-sources-of-msg/


http://www.livestrong.com/article/551058-disodium-guanylate-vs-monosodium-glutamate/

 

To be honest I hadn’t gotten around to hoping it would be this complicated.  MSGs more of a poison to me than too much salt.  But I’m not sure I’ll be able to figure out yea or nay without bellying up to the bar and watching my blood pressure afterward.

Old Jules

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Posted in Food

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Low sodium / no sodium Saimin

Posted on July 8, 2014 by | 6 comments

Hi readers.  My occasional yearning for saimin [ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saimin ] experienced a hiccup when the various sawbones convinced me I needed to be serious about sodium if I wanted to keep making a nuisance of myself.

The other ingredients aren’t a problem, but finding a low sodium, easy to prepare broth is.  I tried using the onion ice cubes and it almost worked, but not quite.  Onion ice cubes, jalapeno ice cubes

But there’s an auction near here every Saturday, and everything that doesn’t sell goes out into the parking area to be sifted through by anyone who wants it before they haul it away to the dump.  I occasionally find things I want there because Jeanne’s been a frequenter and trafficker of auction castaways for a number of years.

Saturday I hit the jackpot.  A brand new, unopened box of Herb Ox NO SODUM chicken bouillon broth.  I never knew such a thing existed.  Never thought it might enough to search for it.

So when I arrived back at Jeanne’s I immediately used one package to test as a cup of bouillon hot drink and it was great.

Yesterday I used one of those onion ice cubes, a package of Herb Ox NO SODIUM bouillon as the base for my first post-discovery saimin.  Everything added was sodium free, or only had naturally systemic sodium.

I used bean sprouts, thin wheat noodles, shredded cabbage and carrots, mushrooms, some corn off-the-cob, and various seasonings.

Tasted precisely as saimin ought to taste, which varies.

Old Jules

 

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Posted in America, Food

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