Fellow low-carbers, here's an article from the NY Times that I found
interesting.
Lani
Hawaii Low Carb


A Dieter's Dilemma

August 25, 2002
By JASON EPSTEIN






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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/25/magazine/25FOOD.html?ex=1031319387&ei=1&en
=ec8c4bac3b5139c2



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