Quarter Pounders With Low Carb Psyllium Husk Burger Buns

Friday night. Traditionally it's a time to unwind. Traditionally, it's a time to eat easy-to-make comfort food. Oftentimes, that food is bad for you, or makes you feel worse come Saturday morning. But not these babies!

The Buns
This bread recipe from Maria Mind Body Health is a real gem. This recipe is made with psyllium husk powder and coconut flour so not only is it low in carb, it's a great source of fiber. Psyllium husk binds with water when mixed and it's this reaction which replaces the gluten and allows the burger buns to rise. 
You can pick it up in The Quay CoOp, but if that's not an option for you there are a number of websites which deliver it, including healthstore.ie. Make sure you're not getting the dietary capsules though!

The Burgers
Pair your buns with some homemade slider-style burgers. I'll usually add salt, pepper, onion salt, thyme, rosmary and a little garlic to great quality mince. Form into patties and press a little hole in the centre of the burger to help it keep its shape. 
Cook on a high heat for 3-4 minutes per side, depending on size and personal taste.

The Cheese
Once the burgers are cooked to your liking, place your choice of cheese on top. Add a drop of water to the fying pan and cover with a saucepan lid. Leave for approximately 30 seconds to gorgeously melt the cheese.

I'm fond of the traditional cheddar but mixing things up with a different cheese can transform a burger into an entirely different experience. We recently tried some gorgeous manchego from Sheridans Cheesemongers. This goes particularly well with a nice, sweet relish like the homemade one from Cork's Nash 19. Careful though, relishes can be very high in sugar!

Serve with your choice of vegetable and sauces. May I recommend rocket leaves, pickles, mayonaise and mustard?

Pro Tip: The burgers seem to rise better when the psyllium husk powder used is very fine. If you can be bothered, I'd recommend grinding it further before use, but it's not necessary.

Low Carb Cheesecake (Take 1)

Okay, so it collapsed but it still tasted good! Too many berries I reckon. Overberried.

On the plus side- the low carb almond and chocolate base was perfect. I'll post the recipe once I've perfected the top part and it holds.

Easy Low Carb Breakfast Muffins

These keto breakfast muffins are so simple to make and really tasty to boot! If you've read the blog before you'll know that I'm always trying to find new ways to eat eggs. I hate eggs. But I love these muffins.

This is what I like to think of as the 'classic' recipe, but you can pretty much fill them to suit your taste. They're also a great way of using up leftovers or those odds and ends in the fridge which are about to go off.

This recipe makes six muffins, which S and I love to eat warm on a Sunday morning. You can equally make them ahead of time and grab one on your way out to work in the morning- keto breakfasts can be a time-consuming affair. They'll keep for a day or two in an airtight container.

Ingredients (makes 6 muffins)

6 slices of pancetta

2 eggs

1/2 a white onion, finely diced

3/4 cup of double cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 cup of grated cheddar cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 220/430 degrees and grease your muffin tray with a spray oil.

1. Heat a little oil or butter in a frying pan- I used ghee- and fry off your pancetta slices.

2. When crispy, set aside and saute the onions in the bacon grease.

3. Chop the pancetta into small pieces and mix with the onions. Evenly distribute the mixture into the muffin tray.

4. In a bowl, break the two eggs and add the cream and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

5. Pour the mixture into the muffin trays, covering the pancetta and onion.

6. Top with grated cheddar cheese.

7. Bake in your preheated oven for 15 minutes et voilà!

Get creative with your fillings and try adding mushrooms, peppers or chorizo! If you like your food on the spicy side, sprinkling some chili flakes into the egg mixture will add a nice kick.

Carb Count: With the ingredients I used, these muffins work out at a very respectable 1.5g net carbs each. If you're watching your carb count, make sure to do your own math.

Low Carb & Gluten Free Pizza

Pizza is part of that universal food type- a flat piece of carbohyrate as a convenient delivery system for meat and/or vegetables. It's something I love, particularly on a Friday night when I'm starting to unwind and it's something that I don't want to have to go without. I've tried and disliked the cauliflower pizza base- this one is far closer to the 'real thing'.

As part of my neverending quest to treat low carb as a way of life, not a punishment, this recipe is a big deal to me!

Ingredients
2 Cups Grated Mozzarella
2 Tablespoons Cream Cheese
3/4 Cup Almond Flour/ Ground Almonds
Pinch Salt
1 Large Egg
Pinch Black Pepper
Garlic Powder

Your choice of toppings.

Preheat the oven to 180/350 degrees.

Method
1. Put the grated mozzarella and cream cheese in a microwavable bowl and heat on high for 1 minute. Take it out and stir well, then pop it back in for another 30 seconds.
It should look something like this:

2. Once the cheese is done, mix in the almond flour, egg, salt, pepper and garlic powder as quickly as you can. Mix well until it binds like a dough.
You'll see differences in the colour of the dough where there the cheese & dry indredients aren't well combined. Aim to get it as even a colour all-over as you can.

Place the dough on a baking tray. I've found the best results are achieved with a silicone pat on the baking tray.

4. Use your fingertips to gently push out the dough into an even layer with no holes. The dough will be quite sticky, so wetting your fingers with cold water will help make it easier to spread.

5. Prick the dough allover with a fork to stop air bubbles forming. Bake at 180/ 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Then take it out and prick again with a fork. It'll look a little more solid:

7. Put it back in for 6 minutes and then it should come out looking something like this:

8.  Now, add your toppings! My go-to combination is passata, grated mozzarella and chedder mixed, pancetta and pepperoni from Iago.
If using a tomato sauce, spread it thinly so it doesn't make the base soggy. I usually use Bunalun organic passata as it is relatively lower in carb than other shop-bought sauces.

Note: I've found that you get a crispier base if you can transfer it from the solid baking tray to one with holes before adding your toppings. It's not the end of the world if you don't have one, but I'd recommend investing if you like your pizza crispy!

For something a little different, try adding chilli powder or mixed herbs to the dough. Add some creative toppings and your base can set the scene for some pretty interesting flavour combinations.

With the ingredients I use, each full pizza works out to about 10 carbs. However, I'm not your mama so if you're counting carbs for weight loss make sure to do your own calculations!

The Slow Laura Burger

Friday evening and the eternal question- what to have for dinner? After a busy, busy week I was certainly not in the mood for anything boring or blaaaaaah. I wanted flavour, sensations, craziness!

These amazing burgers are a version of the Slow Larry as cooked by The Rivestaurant.

Constraints on my time and availablity of some of the ingredients at short notice meant that the following recipe is an approximation of the culinary genius you can watch at the link above. 

The original recipe calls for a mixture of beef and pork mince, but unfortunately I could only get beef. I've made gorgeous meatballs with a mixture of beef and pork several times, so I'd imagine the burgers would be awesome. But these turned out pretty darned tasty nonetheless. Next time though, I will certainly be trying it his way.

Recipe for the Slow Larry, done my way: The Slow Laura. 

Makes 4 giant burgers.

Ingredients 

800g Minced Beef

250g Streaky Bacon

1/2 Block of Cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 a white onion, finely diced

1 Medium Egg

1 Tablespoon Paprika

1 Tablespoon Barbeque sauce - I used the Jack Daniels Smokey sauce

1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder

Salt & Black Pepper

Jalapeño Slices- I used these Discovery ones 

Method

1. Fry off the streaky bacon in a little bit of oil. I use steamed coconut oil from Biona, which is odourless and flavourless. Once lightly cooked, take off the heat and finely chop.

2. In a bowl, combine the minced beef, bacon, diced onion, egg, paprika, barbeque sauce and garlic powder. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper. Mix these ingredients well, using your hands if you don't mind that.

3. Now for the cheese filling. Put the grated cheese in a bowl.

4. The jalapeño bit: The Rivestaurant roasted their jalapeño before mashing it, but in Tesco at 7:30 Friday night there wasn't a fresh jalapeño to be found. 

I had a jar of Discovery jalapeño slices at home, so in a pinch these would have to do. De-seed and mash about two tablespoons worth of flesh and add these to the cheese. Though this tasted great, next time I'm going to try to roast it.

5. Mix the cheese and jalapeño well, don't be afraid to sqeeze it and get it all mushed up. Just don't then touch your eyes without washing first.

6. Next I took the full bowl of minced beef, and divided the mixture into half, then half again so I had four equal-sized balls of meat.

7. On a clean work surface or cutting board, slap down one of the balls of meat. Press down on it and even it out so it's in a very large circular patty. Make the patty double the size you would make a burger.

8. In the centre of the patty place a small handful of the cheese and jalapeño mixture. It might be a good idea to divide the cheese mixture into four pieces before you begin stuffing burgers, so you end up with an even spread.

9. Carefully curl up the edges of the patty around the cheese mixture, covering it completely. Make sure there are no gaps for the cheese to seep out of. You can see exactly how The Rivestaurant do it here.

10. Once all your burgers are formed, place under the grill for about 15 minutes in total. I turned them once during cooking and they didn't break open but be fairly careful with them.

11. Serve! 

The Rivestaurant have a couple more recipes for sides to go with this dish, but at that time on a Friday I wasn't getting into all that. We had ours with a giant pile of mixed greens and a couple of sauces I knocked together.

12. Bonus Step: Dips

To make your dips, put three tablespoons of mayonnaise in three bowls. 

Into one I added a teaspoon of French's mustard, into another I added a teaspoon of Encona West Indian Hot Sauce, and into the third I added Mexican tinga paste, which contains chipotle chilli flakes. This gives you a great range of flavours to choose from with every bite.

Feta, Olives & Peppers

One of the biggest challanges in switching to a low-carb diet is dealing with snacking habits.
While it's true that you feel full most of the time, there are times when you sit down to watch some TV and feel like having something to nibble on.

One of my favourite snacks is a mix of feta cheese, black olives and peppers from The Real Olive Company in The English Market. You can get one large scoop for about €3.50, and it goes perfectly with a glass of red wine.

Low Carb Breadless Mozzarella Sticks

Mozzarella Sticks are one of my favourite things, ever.
As a teenager my friend A and I would annoy the waiting staff in Captain America's on North Main Street by sitting in there for a whole afternoon and ordering only those golden breadcrumbed bites.

Thankfully, eating a low-carb diet doesn't mean having to give these up. Here is S's take on a brilliant starter or snack option.

Ingredients

1 Block of Mozzarella
2 Eggs
1/2 cup powdered Parmesan cheese
1-2 cups preferred cooking oil (vegetable/ sunflower oil is fine)
Garlic powder to taste
Salt to taste

Method

1. Cut mozzarella block into 'sticks'.

2. Whisk 2 eggs in a bowl.

3. Mix dry ingredients on a plate.

4. Dip the mozzarella sticks in the egg and roll in dry ingredients.

5. Re-dip the mozzarella sticks in the egg and repeat coating.

6. Place the sticks in a freezer for 30mins (This will prevent them leaking during frying).

(mozzarella sticks after freezing)

6. Heat the oil in a pan and deep fry the mozzarella sticks until golden brown. This should take 1-2 mins.

Serve with a dollop of sugar-free (diabetic) jam or a handful of fresh redcurrants.