Posted on 08/23/2002 5:07:58 PM PDT by Pokey78
In August and September, as the blueberry crop advances northward across Long Island on its way to Canada, I like to bake a blueberry pie, to which I add an entire lemon, including the peel, coarsely chopped. By the time the pie is baked, the peel and its pith caramelize and give the berries a surprising tang. A tablespoon or two of arrowroot doesn't quite absorb all the lemon juice, but I prefer my blueberry pie a little runny, not glutinous and stiff with cornstarch like pies from the bakery. I enjoy the way a scoop of vanilla ice cream melts into the warm juice.
During blueberry season, I usually make a dozen or so of these pies, their top crusts lightly browned with egg wash and accented with little rivers of purple syrup. But this year I'm not making any. And when they ripen, I'm not cutting up plump Golden Delicious or crunchy Mutsu apples from the Milk Pail in Water Mill on Long Island and laying the thick slices out neatly in circles in caramelized sugar and butter on the tarte Tatin pan that I bought from Fred Bridge in the 1960's. Nor will I be topping the apples with a thin sheet of buttery pie dough and sliding the tarte in the oven for 50 minutes at 360 degrees, to keep the apples from sticking to the pan the way they would at a higher temperature. And I won't be adding a tablespoon of flour to thicken the syrupy apple juice, because a tarte Tatin, unlike a blueberry pie, should not be runny at all.
Never again will I make the buttery muffins that I used to bake on Sunday mornings. I am also giving up ketchup, which is mainly corn syrup flavored with tomato and vinegar. Moreover, I'm going to think twice before I buy another Walla Walla onion, laden with sugary carbohydrates, or the wonderful rolls from Amy's Bread. That probably means no more hamburgers either and, for that matter, no more onion marmalade, the perfect accompaniment to magret de canard (the breasts of moulard ducks, the kind raised for foie gras), sautéed until warm and pink inside, then sliced and fanned out on the plate accompanied by the marmalade, a silky reduction of a half-dozen large, sweet onions -- a critical mass of carbohydrate waiting to turn itself into body fat.
According to Dr. Robert Atkins, 60 percent of the American population is perilously plump, an endangered group from whose condition I have been withdrawing for the past month at the rate of a pound every other day. I am especially wary of pecan pie, of which a single triangular slice contains three times the daily amount of carbohydrate permitted during the two-week initiation phase -- Atkins calls it the Induction Phase -- of his diet. This is the phase I have recently completed, having lost 10 pounds. I am now well into the Ongoing Weight Loss (O.W.L.) phase, with the permission of my wise friend and physician Stanley Mirsky, who for years has been urging me to avoid carbohydrates. But it was to the evangelical pitchman Dr. Atkins, not the stately Dr. Mirsky, that I finally succumbed, goaded by my son, Jacob, who, though not at all plump, lost 27 pounds and reduced his cholesterol in two months on Atkins.
The physiological case against excessive carbohydrates, reported in this magazine seven weeks ago, is fairly straightforward and by now well known. The low-carbohydrate diet, touted originally by Atkins and adopted successfully by millions of his followers, contradicts the widely accepted theory, introduced in the 1980's and later promoted by the Department of Agriculture's Food Guide Pyramid, that carbohydrates should be the basis of the American diet. Most researchers now agree that carbohydrates, especially refined ones like sugar and other vegetable-based sweeteners, white flour and rice, are quickly absorbed as energy by the body, while carbohydrates in excess of the body's immediate needs are stored as fat for future use. A secondary effect of this quick absorption is renewed hunger soon after a high-carbohydrate meal, for example after a Chinatown dinner of noodles, rice, wonton wrappers, egg-roll skins, syrupy ribs and cornstarch thickeners.
A low-carbohydrate diet, on the other hand, not only forces the body to seek energy by consuming its own stored fat but also suppresses appetite, since dietary fat and protein take longer to digest and enter the bloodstream than carbohydrates. Moreover, the body expends more energy burning fat than burning carbohydrates, yielding what Atkins calls ''a metabolic advantage.'' These phenomena explain the quick weight loss, especially during the Induction Phase, which allows only 20 grams of carbohydrates per day, about half the amount in a single bagel.
Even in its rigorous two-week Induction Phase, however, Atkins provides a rich larder of bacon and eggs, steak, lamb, pork and poultry, fish, including most shellfish, cheese, butter, cream (but not whole milk) and green vegetables except leeks, onions, peas and artichokes. Gin, vodka, whiskey and other spirits, according to Atkins, become ''acceptable,'' as does wine. Excluded forever are pasta, pizza, pastries and so on. No more sushi, congee, cookies, cereals, bagels, croissants, pancakes or waffles; no potatoes or corn, though one or two chips with guacamole is allowed. Above all, no more pretzels, which deliver five times as many carbs as potato chips. Orange juice, alas, is also out. But pecans, almonds and macadamia nuts are in.
Despite these restrictions, you can make a splendid breakfast of eggs scrambled through a strainer and cooked gently in a Teflon pan over simmering water, accompanied by warm prosciutto or its Austrian cousin, speck, with a few spears of asparagus, or a lunch of lobster, shrimp or chicken salad with homemade mayonnaise. (My favorite, Hellmann's, contains sugar.) For dinner you can have a pan-roasted rib-eye steak or striped bass with braised fennel or grilled trevisano radicchio. Most cheeses are acceptable, including blue, cheddar, cottage, cream and mozzarella. Tomatoes are iffy, but Atkins includes a recipe for fried green tomatoes using a noncarbohydrate bake mix. He may be an evangelist, but in his recipes he is not inflexible.
For the moment, at least, I seem to have successfully reversed my compulsions. Not only am I no longer addicted to croissants, hash-brown potatoes, blueberry pies and lobster salad stuffed into hot-dog rolls, but I am also slightly repelled by them. For moderately resourceful cooks, a low-carbohydrate diet offers abundant opportunity, and many of the recipes in ''Dr. Atkins's New Diet Revolution'' are worth considering. Nevertheless, I include my recipe for blueberry pie. Perhaps one day, when I am beyond Atkins's O.W.L. phase and into Maintenance, I'll make it again.
Blueberry Pie
For the pastry:
4 cups all-purpose flour
6 ounces unsalted butter, diced
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch salt
3/4 cup water
1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water
For the filling:
2 quarts plus a little more firm,
fresh blueberries
3 cups sugar
1/4 cup arrowroot
1 lemon, seeded and coarsely chopped in the food processor
Vanilla ice cream for serving.
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil beneath the rack where the pie will bake.
2. To make the pastry, place the flour, butter, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly until the butter has been cut in coarsely. Add half the water and pulse, watching to see if the dough forms a ball. If not, add a little more water until it does. Too much water will make a heavy, gummy pastry. Too little will make a crumbly one. If the dough feels too wet, add a little more flour and pulse. If too dry, add a little more water. Pulse sparingly. On a floured board, cut the dough into two parts, one slightly larger. Roll out the smaller portion and place it neatly in a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan. Refrigerate the larger portion while you prepare the berries.
3. To make the filling, pick over the berries, discarding green or bad ones, and remove any stems. Rinse the berries and drain. In a large bowl, mix the sugar and arrowroot. Add the berries and lemon and mix well. Mound the filling in the pastry shell.
4. Roll out the remaining pastry into a large round. Brush the rim of the bottom shell with some of the egg mixture and carefully lay the large pastry round over the berries. Trim the edges, leaving a 3/4-inch overhang. Press the top and bottom pastry halves together to seal well. Fold excess top pastry under and crimp the edges. Cut 4 triangular holes near the top. (Do not cut along the sides or all the juices will leak out.) Brush with more of the egg mixture.
5. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake 40 to 50 minutes longer, or until the top has browned and the juice has begun to spill out. Cool for about 1 hour so juices can settle. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Yield: 8 servings.
Guacamole
4 tomatillos
Juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped, or more to taste
1/2 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
5 ripe Haas avocados
Sea salt to taste.
1. Place all the ingredients except the avocados and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly.
2. Split the avocados lengthwise and remove the pits. Save one pit. Scoop out the avocado flesh and add it to the processor. Pulse twice, or until the avocado is roughly cut in. Add sea salt to taste. The salt is crucial and should be added with care. To keep guacamole from turning brown if not serving immediately, add the reserved pit to it and cover with plastic wrap. Remove the pit before serving.
Yield: 10 appetizer servings. Each tortilla chip contains 1 gram of carbohydrate, so take it easy.
Monday Salad
(Adapted from the Palm)
1 head iceberg or other firm, crunchy lettuce, chopped medium fine
1 European cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 sweet onion, peeled and chopped medium fine
2 stalks celery, chopped medium fine
1 red pepper, chopped medium fine
1 tablespoon chopped anchovies
1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon nicoise olives, pitted and chopped medium fine
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red-wine vinegar
Salt, sparingly, to taste.
In a bowl, mix the first 8 ingredients. Mix in the oil, then the vinegar, then salt to taste, although the anchovies may be salty enough.
Yield: 4 servings. Except for the onion, this delicious salad has practically no carbs.
After years of diets (including Atkin's) and yo-yo weight gain and loss, I finally lost the weight and have kept it off by, one, giving up diets of any kind for good; and, two, recognizing when I was hungry and when I wasn't and adjusting my eating accordingly. I no longer count carb grams, fat grams, calories, or use any willpower. By experience, I've found that becoming a normal eater is what works in the long run. Diets, on the other hand, cause food obsession and a slowed metabolism.
How does the Beer fit into low carb diet?I dunno really.
But there's no refined sugar, there are not alot of carbs (to my knowledge), it's cold, and it sure tastes good with a steak!
And, I'm still losing weight.
It works, that's all I know.
Slowed metabolism?
You never really were on Atkins, were you?
That's the beauty of Atkins.
You don't starve.
In fact, you're never hungry because you eat darn good - and healthy.
You feel great (and believe me, when you look in the mirror and actually see that you're losing weight and keeping it off - you feel even better!).
Go out and buy the book, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution.
Only $7.95 at B. Dalton.
You'll be a believer.
It's the best seven bucks I spent this year.
Jesus ate bread. There weren't enlightened Atkin's dieters back then to tell him how fattening bread was.
Did you ever see the NOVA special on dieting a few years back? It was very good in showing proof of how dieting slows the metabolism. When you go off the Atkins diet and start eating carbs again, you gain the weight back very fast. Your body is starving for carbs. The calories and water is retained again fast. I gained back the weight in a couple days after going off Atkins. Then I tried the Scarsdale diet (for the second time) to lose the regained weight. Then the carboydrate addicts diet, and so on and so on. A never-ending cycle.
Dieting of any kind, except for a specific medical condition, is nonsense. As the Bible says, "ALL food is permitted." What God did not intend for us to do was commit gluttony. That's the biggest problem today in America that people just don't want to face. And the deprivation feelings caused by dieting also inspires gluttony.
Besides, what else are you going to do with it? =;^)
Why no aspartame? Is it a carb?
Why not do the Weight Watchers diet and give up none of the above? The diet works and is something you can live with for a lifetime.
I've heard that. But I've never had a problem with it and I've been using it daily for years. Must be my 'iron' constitution.
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