Asian braised short ribs when slow cooked for hours, are tender, juicy and literally fall-off the-bone great!  Make sure you get a meaty short rib with delicious marbled fat.  This creates a lot of flavor in a small bite and is flavorful on a KETO Diet!  There are two popular ways that they are cut, English style and Flanken.  For a Chinese Asian-fusion twist to the above recipe, add ¼ cup fresh orange juice and ¼ cup hoisin sauce and 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and 2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind.

Where All Short Ribs Come From

All short ribs are from a rib section that contains three to four ribs.  Depending on where it is cut from, it can be three to five inches thick, and contains meat interspersed with a lot of muscle, fat, and tendon, which give it a lot of strong beefy flavor.  

Flanken

In the flanken style of short ribs, this thin cut, which is about 1/2 inch thick, goes across the bones so that each slice contains a few pieces of bone.  This is a popular way to cut the short ribs if you are going for a Korean barbecue kalbi-style result.  This cut is mainly found at an Asian grocery store, you most likely have to ask your butcher to cut these to order.

English Cut

The English style of short rib cuts between the ribs to separate them, leaving a thick piece of meat sitting on top of one piece of bone.  These ribs can be left as is in one long piece or cut into smaller, approximately 2-inch long pieces.  Boneless short ribs can sometimes be found, which mean that the meat is cut off the bones of an English-cut short rib.

 

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Chinese  takeout restaurant favorites have a “westernized” menu of egg foo young, chow mein,  beef and broccoli, egg drop soup and egg rolls…the typical cooked dishes are full of oil and sodium.  I’ve prepared a vegetable egg foo young recipe “take – out” version at home that is low fat, high protein, low carb dinner option –cooked in 30 minutes.  Use your imagination and load your stuffed omelettes with  extra vegetables on a KETO DIET! 

Egg foo young is derived from fu yung egg slices, a mainland Chinese recipe from Guangdong, literally meaning “Hibiscus egg”.  This dish is prepared with beaten eggs and most often minced ham.  Most traditional Asian restaurants use up leftovers a combination of minced vegetables, eggs and small pieces of meat, seafood or poultry cooked into an omelet-style pancake. 

The Chinese omelette egg mixture usually has some type of protein (prawns, shrimp, lobster or pork) with traditional Asian vegetables: bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, cabbage, water chestnuts.

Most Chinese “Take Out” restaurants prepare a well-folded omelette with non-egg ingredients embedded in the egg mixture.  It is covered with a sauce or gravy.  American-Chinese restaurants in the Midwest serve a sandwich which is an egg foo young patty served with mayonnaise, dill pickles with lettuce, tomato between two slices of white bread

EGG MIXTURE

COOKING EGG MIXTURE

GRAVY PREPARATION

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STIR-FRYING, a continuous stirring-scooping-tossing motion to ensure even cooking…a quick way to cook thin uniform pieces of meat and vegetables in a small amount of fat in an open pan– a variation on sautéing.  Finishing the dish by adding natural juices to the pan, letting the liquid bubble and thicken and coat the ingredients. 

A GREAT WAY TO COOK ON A KETO DIET…USE YOUR IMAGINATION WITH DIFFERENT COMBINATIONS OF MEAT, FISH AND VEGETABLES.

My grandmother never had a recipe and knew the dish by smell and feel, sensing exactly when the pan was hot enough to add the meat, or how much ginger and soy sauce…enough to flavor the HOT blistering oil that she poured over the meat and vegetables.  A wonderful aroma that filled the house…the ultimate childhood comfort food. 

COOKING TIPS ON STIR-FRYING****

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What is your favorite way to eat rice?  Plain white or fried with soy sauce? Chinese cooking and a side of rice!  Rice is incredibly high in carbs and isn’t nutritious at all…other than to sop up all the wonderful gravy and sauces to any Asian dish. How many times have you eaten at an Asian restaurant and ordered additional sides of rice…overeaten more than one cup of measured rice (equivalent to consuming a few days worth of CARBS in one sitting).  You leave feeling bloated and stodgy for hours!

The previous food blogs I’ve posted need a side dish of “RICED CAULIFLOWER” to sop up all the wonderful natural juices and flavors.

KETOGENIC RICED CAULIFLOWER is “faux rice”, or low carbohydrate cauliflower rice.  One large head of cauliflower will yield 6-8 cups of cauliflower rice.  When making the rice for your family, allow one cup per person as a small side dish.  it is a quick and easy way to add an Asian staple on a low carbohydrate diet.  Cauliflower is low in carbs, high in fiber, full of Vitamin A, B6 and C.  I’ve added several fresh vegetables that add a “crispness” & “color” to the dish.  For a hearty one dish meal, add additional vegetables…use your imagination!

The easiest way to chop the cauliflower is to use a food processor (pulse button) or hand grate with a food grater.  For a quick alternative, buy a bag of pre-riced cauliflower in the frozen produce section.

Cauliflower has 25 calories per cup vs. 218 calories for a cup of cooked brown rice (carbs: 5 g per cup for cauliflower and 46g for a cup of brown rice). 

Cauliflower 1 cup serving: 5.3g carbs, 2.5g fibre, 2.4g sugar, Vit A 0.3%, Vit B6 10%, Vit c 77%, calcium 2.2%, iron 2.4%, magnesium 4%
White rice  1 cup cooked : 53.2g carbs, 0.6g fibre, 0.7g sugar, Vit A 0%, Vit B6 15%, Vit C 0%, calcium 0.6%, iron 15%, magnesium 21%
Brown rice 1 cup cooked : 44.8g carbs, 3.5g fibre, 0.7g sugar, Vit A 0%, Vit B6 15%, Vit C 0%, calcium 2%, iron 4.5%, magnesium 21% (% of your daily requirement)

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I transformed a classic stir fry dish that can be quickly prepared and cooked while on a healthy “KETO” diet.  Cantonese beef tomato stir-fry is one of my favorite “comfort food recipes”.  This dish is often served at Chinese restaurants as a “rice plate” (saucy, gravy entrée poured over rice) for a quick meal.  The typical flank steak sliced into 1/4-inch thick pieces has a sauce base of ketchup, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ground pepper, fresh ginger, garlic and large ripe tomatoes cut into wedges.  Most Asian tomato-soy sauce bases are full of ketchup and sugar, omit them from your diet. 

My version of the spicy sausage tomato stir-fry is a healthy alternative to the beef tomato stir-fry recipe.  I added more vegetables; colorful bell peppers and celery to the stir-fry.  The original recipe already had sliced onions, ginger, garlic and tomatoes.  Use your imagination and add additional vegetables to the stir-fry mixture. 

My maternal grandfather (lovingly called “gramps”) often cooked this stir fry tomato dish with a “spicy twist”.  Gramps was raised in Mississippi and often cooked with a Southern “spicyness” to his Asian cooking.  He substituted a “spicy sausage” alternative to the sliced flank steak.  My grandparents owned a grocery store with a full deli & fine meats butcher shop.  Gramps always ground his own sausage and ground beef.  I have fond memories of spending time with him at the butcher shop.  Unfortunately,  the original sausage recipe was never written down to add to our family heirloom recipe collection.

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Sushi on a low carb diet is a challenge! Usually, low carb sushi choices are limited. Most sushi is high in carbs, because of the rice and the different “sweet” sauces.  When eating at sushi restaurants, you really have one keto friendly option, which is sashimi.

With a busy schedule and limited time, I’m constantly creating food that I can prepare the ingredients and it will only take 20 minutes and it’s ready to serve.  I enjoy taking prepared foods and improvising by adding new ingredients to make a “quick” healthy snack or meal.  

I’ve taken ahi tuna and “spiced” the recipe to create “Ahi poke sashimi with a spicy zing”.  This simple and quick recipe can be prepared ahead of time and added to other recipes, “Stuffed Avocado with Ahi”, “Ahi on Cucumber Slices” or a (low carb grain cracker) with Wasabi Mayonnaise, “Ahi Avocado-Ginger Salad with Spicy Sriracha Mayonnaise”.  Use your imagination with the ingredients! 

NOTE:  When eating out, avoid seaweed salads that are marinated in mirin or other sweeteners, imitation crab has carbs and any “sweet” tasting sauces.  Alternative rice-free rolls:  cream cheese, smoked salmon, avocado and cucumber, Spicy tuna or Hamachi with avocado and tobiko, Rainbow roll, Spicy toro handroll. 

How to Choose Sushi-Grade Seafood

Since most sushi or sashimi includes raw seafood ingredients, it is essential to know how to select the correct fish, and how to keep it fresh. Proper food-safety precautions are the key to creating good sushi, as this will minimize the risk of foodborne illnesses associated with eating raw fish.

Raw fish is not something to be afraid of. Virtually every fish or sea creature is edible, it’s just that not every fish can be eaten raw. Knowing which sources are safe is the best place to start when choosing your sushi ingredients.

Fish safe to eat raw

• Tuna: Any sort of tuna, be it bluefin, yellowfin, skipjack, or albacore, can be eaten raw. It is one of the oldest ingredients used in sushi and is regarded by some as the icon of sushi and sashimi.

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I took my grandmother’s simple soy sauce chicken recipe (Cantonese home-style dish) of soy sauce, garlic, star anise, water and boiling the chicken braised in a heated bath.  Simmer and it is done! 

I updated this recipe with additional ingredients (organic coconut sugar (KETO DIET) or brown sugar, fresh ginger, raw honey, rice vinegar, red chili paste, & liquid smoke).  After simmering the chicken, I put the whole pot of ingredients into a container and refrigerated overnight.  24 hours is enough time to add more flavor into the skin and chicken meat.  I use chicken thighs because it is more moist and won’t dry out during the second step of oven roasting to make the skin crisp.  Any chicken parts can be used (chicken wings and breast meat) but don’t over cook the chicken parts in the first step of simmering in the pot. 

The crispy skin is my favorite part of the chicken (great in KETO diet) with the savory flavors!  The chicken meat is flavorful and just melts off the bone.  This recipe provides enough chicken for 8 persons (2 pieces each).  This recipe would be enough liquid to cook 2 whole chickens.

I have not tried putting the chicken pieces on a BBQ grill instead of the oven.  I’m sure this would taste great grilled?… you would have to watch the heat so the soy and sugars wouldn’t burn on the grill.

 

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