I’ve always loved cumin. It has a warm aromatic flavour that adds depth to a dish like no other. In Autumn, when the evenings turn cold, this is just the kind of food I want – bursting with flavour, yet quick and easy to prepare. The perfume of spices instantly transports you to warmer climes – if ever there was soul food, this is it!

This dish is perfect for those on a ketogenic- / LCHF diet, or equally diabetics & gluten-intolerants. What little carbohydrate there is comes solely from vegetables, so it’s bursting with goodness. For those with a higher carb allowance, add a half-can of chickpeas or starchier vegetables such as squash or pumpkin. The ragout is incredibly adaptable to whatever you have on hand – just the thing for a mid-week meal therefore – use up the leftovers!

Start by dicing your vegetables. I used onion, celery, peppers, aubergine & mushrooms. Shake on a generous dusting of cumin and mix in two crushed cloves of garlic. If you like chilli, finely chop as much as you can bear then season well. Pour on sufficient olive-oil to coat then roast in a hot oven for half an hour.

Meanwhile, make your koftas. Place lamb mince into a bowl and measure in a small teaspoon of garlic salt, the same of paprika and two teaspoons of ground cumin. Grind in pepper and crushed sea-salt. Give it a good mix with your hands, then form into balls, about the size of a golf ball. Oven bake for half and hour until brown and succulent.

When the meatballs go into the oven, remove your vegetables and add to these a drained can of chopped tomatoes. Squeeze in some lemon juice and crumble in a chicken stock-cube. Chop the stems of your coriander and stir these into the mix. Place back into the oven for the remaining time it takes to cook the lamb.

Once cooked, take the lamb out of the oven to rest for a couple of minutes. Remove the vegetables and stir in a generous handful of grated cheese. This adds richness and a bit of body to the sauce. Ladle the ragout into bowls, then pile up your koftas to one side. Garnish with ripped coriander leaves and a final squeeze of lemon.

The perfect way to bring a little warmth to a cold November night.

Thanks for reading and bon ap!

Adam.

Oxtail is one of those things that has rather gone out of fashion. Principally I think because supermarkets rarely stock it, and consequently you have to go to the butcher’s to get it. Also, cuts of meat which require long, slow cooking don’t tend to fit in with our modern ‘convenience-lifestyles’ particularly well. It’s not the kind of thing you can grill for 12 minutes then it’s done!

In spite of its image problem, oxtail is something which definitely deserves the effort. Like lamb, it has that rich, unctuous quality, where the meat literally collapses and melts onto the fork. Because it’s braised on the bone, slow-cooking releases the marrow’s sweet, gelatinous stock, which gently cooks out into the sauce. It consequently has that feeling of ‘casseroles of old’.

Few low-carb dishes have the mouth-feel of a ‘thickened sauce’. The good news is that oxtail does it automatically, so you get the feel of flour, without the carbs!

As the kitchen slowly fills with the scent of braised beef, and each family member in turn asks hungrily “what’s for dinner?”; you’ll truly feel that rare sense of achievement which so often gets lost in modern cooking. This dish is one of those things where good things come to those who wait. Trust me; it’s worth it!

Heat a heavy-based casserole on the hob and then throw in a knob of butter and a little oil (to stop it burning). Salt the oxtail and add it piece by piece to the pan; enjoying the rich sizzle & odour as the cool meat instantly caramelises against the hot metal. Turn the meat as each side seals, re-seasoning the pieces as you go. Remember not to over-crowd the pan. Meat is a solitary fellow when it browns; it doesn’t much care for company. Put too much in at once and the temperature of the pan will cool. At this point, all you’ll get is meat which steams. There won’t be a sniff of caramelisation in sight. That would be a horrid pity!

Once the meat is nicely sealed, add a good handful of eschalions (also known as banana shallots). Stir these in, then add a clove of chopped garlic. Don’t go too heavy on the garlic with this dish. It’s not coq au vin, where the blandness of the meat requires a hefty boost in flavour. The oxtail can very much hold its own in taste and richness – but you must give it a chance.

De-glaze the pan with a good glug of port, then once the liquid has reduced, top up with water until the oxtail is ‘up to its eyebrows’ in liquid. Shake in some dried herbs, a bay-leaf and add a good teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Place the lid on the pan and, when it comes to the boil; move into a low oven (circa 130˚) with the lid on for a good two and a half hours.

Following this, lift the lid and you should see a rich, ‘glossy’ sauce which has reduced by roughly half its volume. If there is still any fat remaining that hasn’t cooked out; upend those oxtail pieces in the pan, so that the fat is facing upwards (like fat on a roasting joint). Return the pan to a hot oven without the lid, so that the remaining fat browns and the sauce reduces down by a further half.

Meanwhile prepare your béchamel. When I say ‘béchamel’, this is really a sauce based on cream-reduction, as it uses no flour. The end result is still the same however – rich, creamy and smooth. Make up a full cup-worth of double-cream, diluted by half with water. Pour this into a thick-bottomed saucepan and place onto the simmering-plate. Crumble a handful of blue-cheese into the pan, season and leave to thicken for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chop your broccoli and steam with the mange-tout for a couple of minutes, until a sharp knife goes in but ‘meets resistance’ (we still want the vegetables to retain their bite). Take your oxtail out of the oven and ladle into a serving-dish. Pile the steamed vegetables next to this, and pour over your blue-cheese sauce. Serve in large bowls, making sure each portion gets a generous scoop of the thickened gravy.

Perfection itself!

Thanks for reading and bon ap!

Adam.

Sometimes, all we want from food is a sense of indulgence. When that’s your mood, it needs to be quick and fuss-free (you don’t feel very indulgent when you’re up to your ears in washing-up!).

Thankfully, Italian food comes up trumps on all these fronts. It’s light yet rich; packed with flavour, yet simple. I’m a huge fan, especially now that the evenings are getting so wintry and dark! Close your eyes and dream of Italy. Then feel smug as this won’t affect your waistline! It’s low-carb, gluten-free and won’t impact a diabetic’s blood-sugar. What more do you need? Give it a go.

In a sauté-pan, brown your chicken-fillets in a mix of butter and oil. Dice your bacon and add this to the pan. Slice half a leek & mix in, continuing to cook on a medium heat until soft. Finely chop a large clove of garlic and sauté this with the rest. After a couple of minutes, crank up the heat and de-glaze your pan with a very small amount of dry martini.

Add half a cup of water and a good tablespoon (at least) of pesto. Reduce this on the hob until the liquid is half its original volume. Stir through half a tub of mascapone and some chopped basil.

Meanwhile, finely slice red, yellow and green peppers, then mix these in a salad-bowl with crisp, fresh salad and a good glug of olive-oil. Sprinkle with parmesan-shavings, then serve piled up next to your chicken in a generous-sized bowl.

This is the sort of indulgent comfort-food that hits the spot each and every time. The carb-count means you can dive straight in for seconds, so what’s stopping you?!

Thanks for reading and bon ap!

Adam.

When lamb-shanks are done well, there can be few things to rival them. The lamb should be unctuously tender, and fall from the bone at the merest suggestion of a fork. Although the meat should be meltingly soft on the inside; that tenderness is countered by a thick, stickily-glazed crust. Succulent, brown, & caramelised is what we’re aiming for. The only word is mouth-watering!

Because lamb is so rich, I always tend to accompany it with ‘plainer’ vegetables. Whatever you use needs to provide a sharp contrast in texture with the softness of the meat; al dente cabbage is both seasonal and incredibly fresh-tasting, to counter out the depth of the lamb.

One trick with lamb is that it requires a generous amount of salt. To provide this, and equally introduce a third and final flavour to round off the other two; I’ve added blue cheese. This gives the dish that all important ‘saltiness’; yet is strong enough to hold its own against the lamb and cooked greens. Be careful not to choose a ‘blue’ which goes runny with heat (e.g. Gorgonzola). We don’t want the cabbage to be swimming in cream-sauce (that would compromise its freshness). Instead, we want little ‘taste-explosions’, so that the cheese doesn’t over-power the dish; rather ‘punctuate’ it.

I used a local cheese ‘Binham Blue’, which is artisan-made and has that slightly ‘chewy bite’ which doesn’t crumble or turn to liquid. For a blue-cheese, the taste is ripe & robust, but also mellow & delicate. I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in these parts. Any blue you like will be fine however; as long as you bear in mind how the texture will respond to heat.

Start by seasoning your shanks. Seal these on a high heat until the surface starts to brown. Add a sliced onion and continue to seal in a hot oven for 20 minutes. Bring back to the hob and turn your oven right down to low (140-150º max). Deglaze the pan with a little port or red wine, then add a bayleaf, chopped herbs and a small amount of water. Place the lid firmly on the pan and roast in the slow-oven for ideally three hours. At this point, remove the lid and check the meat for tenderness by ‘nudging it’ with your spoon. The bone should have retracted by one quarter of the original and the meat should ‘threaten’ to fall off the bone if moved. Sprinkle a final amount of seasoning on the meat, then back into a hot oven with the lid off the pan for 20 minutes to ‘crisp up’ on top.

Meanwhile shred your cabbage. Steam for 5 minutes until tender but still with bite. Season, sprinkle in chopped herbs, then your diced cheese. A small knob of butter or ‘shake’ of oil with give the cabbage a shine and keep it glossy. Keep the stirring to a minimum to preserve the shape of the cheese, then pile up in the middle of your serving-plate. I like to add a small squeeze of lime to lift the cabbage.

Take your shanks out of the oven and position each one atop its cabbage-bed. Drizzle a few of the pan-juices around the bowl then voila! Dinner is served.

I needn’t tell you how good this is – you must try it yourself! The dish is suitable for a ketogenic-diet (LCHF), but also diabetics and gluten-intolerants. There’s no excuse therefore; everyone can get stuck in with gusto! And they’ll all agree it was worth the wait!

Thanks for reading and bon ap!

Adam.

Spatchcocking poultry is far easier than it looks. But why go to all the effort? Quite simply, the meat will cook far more quickly, as a greater surface-area is exposed to the heat. This makes the manifest joys of dishes like roast chicken easily accessible on a week-night! What would normally take two hours in the oven, only takes one, which is much needed when you’re late home from work!

Cauliflower rice is my new big discovery! I shall devote a specific post to its wonders later in the week; but trust me when I say, it’s one of those low-carb, diabetic and gluten-free dishes that will change your life! It adds that all important “fill-factor”, which can sometimes be missing on a ketogenic diet. Expect to see it cropping up a lot on this site therefore!

Satay is always a pleasure to cook. The thick, richness of the sauce is aromatic and truly satisfying. Above and beyond that, it’s incredibly easy to make! This dish may look carb-heavy and time-consuming, but in actual fact, it only takes an hour and couldn’t be simpler! Take my word for it – it will soon become a staple in your low-carb repertoire!

Start by spatchcocking your chicken. This is done by cutting down the length of the breastbone with a very sharp knife. This will open the chest-cavity, which you then break back on itself to flatten the bird out. Once done, trim the parson’s nose and neck-end, so that you have a nice neat butterfly. It’s worth noting that with a sharp knife, this is simple and takes 2 minutes. With a blunt knife, you’ll be hacking for hours and the finished product will very much reflect that. Like all things therefore, preparation pays off! Sharpen your knife.

Season the skin-side, applying a liberal amount of rock-salt and a good shake of dried herbs. Into a hot oven it goes for one hour, or until golden and crisp.

Meanwhile, slice an onion and sauté in butter / oil until translucent. Then add chopped chilli and garlic and cook for a further two minutes. Shake in a good teaspoon of ground-cumin and coriander then, once the mix starts to clump, pour in a cupful of water. Add 2 chicken stock cubes and reduce to half its volume. Once reduced, stir in two large tablespoons of natural, unsweetened peanut butter and simmer on a low heat until thickened. If it gets too dry, pour in a little water. The texture we’re aiming for is melted chocolate. Immediately prior to serving, add a good squeeze of fresh lime-juice and chopped coriander. This lifts the dish and adds a freshness which cuts through the rich density of the peanut-butter.

If you’re having additional vegetables (I used mange tout), steam them for two minutes then toss in butter.

Whilst the sauce is reducing, pulse cauliflower-florets in a food-processor until they’re finely chopped to the size of rice-grains. Experience dictates that one cauliflower is best done in two batches to prevent purée! Sauté your ‘riced’ cauliflower in butter for 2-3 minutes, checking the texture at intervals to ensure it doesn’t over-cook and go soft. Once the required texture is achieved, pile onto your serving-dish and place the chicken beside it.

Spoon your sauce over the rice and chicken, then garnish with a flurry of chopped coriander. Rush to the table and serve piping hot. Delectable!

Thanks for reading and bon ap!

Adam.