I will share two favorites:
Smoked Salmon
- Prepare a salmon fillet. Remove skin and pull pin bones.
- Dry cure mix:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
Plastic wrap and heavy-duty aluminum foil
- Dry the salmon with paper towel. Place on plastic wrap and cover both sides with the dry cure. Wrap up tight and refrigerate on a sheet pan to catch any juices. You can use another sheet pan with weight to effect a more dry and more cured fillet. Cure 24 hours.
- Fire up your smoker with your favorite wood and raise to a steady 150 degrees.
- Rinse the fish thoroughly and dry well.
- Place on smoker rack so smoke and heat can surround the fillet.
- Cook to 120 degrees. This temp will give you the texture and doneness of lox. A temperature of 130 degrees will begin to produce flakes. Any more and you may as well eat canned tuna! :)
Fathead Pizza
For low carb and keto - enjoy a good pizza!
I will begin by telling you - adjust the proportion of cheese and almond flour until you get the texture you want. More almond flour will produce a more bread like dough. Less almond flour will produce a more crispy crust.
Put 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat as needed to get a warm gooey ball of cheese. Don’t get too hot; you have to handle it.
To your gooey ball of cheese, add one cup almond flour on top of cheese then add one whole egg. If you put the egg first, you will get undesirable chucks of cooked egg. Mix by hand until you have a formed ball of dough. You will be pleasantly surprised the first time with the result.
Put ball of dough between two sheets of parchment and roll out to 1/4” or so thickness. Remove top parchment sheet and dock the dough with a fork.
Bake on bottom parchment paper on a sheet at 350 until golden brown. Remove from oven at let cool. Lot of leeway here in doneness preference. It’s your pizza!
When cool, top with you favorites and bake at 350 to desired crispness.
As a long time keto eater, I was a huge skeptic at first based on many disappointments with keto breads and pasta. I will say Fathead Pizza will not disappoint. Remember to adjust the amount of almond flour to get the mouth feel you prefer. More bread like or more crispy.
Go crazy. Cut out a square of golden brown fathead crust, put a schmear on it and some of your lox!
The pizza looks good; I’ll get my husband to try it. (The cauliflower crust pizzas always look like a lot of work for a poor result, so we haven’t tried that.)