Shrimp and Corn Bisque

Like so many cajun recipes, this one starts with "first you make a roux"!  We keep this bisque under 200 calories a serving and below 6 grams of fat by using acceptable fats, non-fat evaporated milk, and lots and lots of fresh, sweet corn!

For the roux, use 4 tablespoons of margarine and 4 tablespoons of flour.  I used "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" due to it's ratio of "good" fats to bad. You can use whatever stick margarine or butter you choose, but it MUST be a stick.  Soft spreads that come in a bowl have too much water and won't make a proper roux.  Melt the butter over medium heat, and slowly add the flour while stirring.  Because most margarines are artificially colored, it's hard to tell when your roux is "blonde", but when the flour smells nutty and good, it's done, probably about 15-20 minutes.

Once your roux is cooked, add 1 chopped onion and 1 chopped bell pepper.  Stir to coat with roux mixure, and then begin adding non-fat evaporated milk, a little a time, stirring with each addition.  Let the mixure bubble after each addition, and then add more until all the milk is absorbed.


Add seasonings- the spicier, the better! Begin stirring in your seafood stock, about 1/4 cup at a time, returning to a boil after each addition.  The vegetables will continue to cook as you add your stock, and by the time all liquids are added, the bell peppers should turn from bright to dark green, indicating they are cooked. The whole process of milk and stock takes about and hour.

Once the vegetables are cooked, add the corn and cook for 5-10 minutes. Add shrimp, cook another 5-10 minutes until shrimp are cooked and no longer translucent. Adjust seasonings and serve!

You can substitue crawfish or crabmeat for the shrimp, if you wish. Or leave out the protein completely for a vegetarian option.

It's hard to believe a soup this hearty is so healthy:

Nutrition Facts
Shrimp and Corn Bisque
10  (8 oz) Servings
Amount Per Serving
Bitmap
Calories		165.3
Total Fat		5.7 g
	Saturated Fat	1.5 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	1.5 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	1.6 g
Cholesterol		68.9 mg
Sodium		174.7 mg
Potassium		325.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate		18.4 g
	Dietary Fiber	2.4 g
	Sugars	2.8 g
Protein		12.1 g

4 Tbs I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Stick

1/4 cup AP Flour

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium bell pepper, chopped

1 quart seafood or vegetable stock

1/4 -1/2 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy Seasoning

1/4 teaspoon Old Bay or Cajun Style Seasoning

8 ears fresh corn, stripped from cobs

1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined  Melt ICBINB over medium-low heat in 5 quart pot.  Whisk in flour, a little at a time, to make a roux.  Cook until blonde, stirring frequently. Add chopped vegetables, combine with roux.  Begin adding milk, a little at a time, stirring with each addition.  Once all of the milk is added, begin adding stock, about 1/4 at a time, stirring with each addition. Add seasonings.  Continue stirring in stock, 1/4 cup at a time, allowing mixture to return to boil after each addition. Once all the stock has been added and vegetables are cooked,  add corn, and bring the mixture back to a boil,  Add shrimp, and cook an additional 7-10 minutes, until shrimp are cooked and no longer translucent.  Adjust seasonings and serve.

Shrimp!

Although many people with heart disease and cholesterol issues have avoided shrimp to avoid dietary cholesterol, as it turns out, shrimp are good food!  It's a good thing for the Low Sodium Queen, because shrimp are, and always have been, her favorite food of all time!  The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has determined that eating shrimp does not raise bad cholesterols, which is great news!


The study showed that while there was some increase in bad cholesterol, there was a greater increase in good cholesterol, so overall cholesterol did not increase.  Because shrimp are virtually fat-free and high in omega oils, they are actually an ideal addition to a heart healthy diet when prepared correctly!

This Cajun Queen grew up on shrimp, so she has a lot to share about this marvelous food!
The best shrimp, by far, are white shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. They are the most flavorful of all, and are the most common shrimp sold by American fisheries. Wild caught shrimp feed on kelp, which gives them their iodine-rich smell and distinctive taste. They are the shrimp I grew up eating, and Louisiana fisheries provide them to fish markets and grocers across the United States. Many modern factory ships now freeze and package the shrimp directly from the water, providing the freshest, most flavorful delivery to every part of the country. Even the "fresh shrimp" in the case at your grocer have probably arrived frozen. When you buy American, not only are you supporting the Louisiana economy, you are getting the best tasting shrimp there is.

Be careful to check the package for country of origin if you buy packaged frozen shrimp.  Much of the frozen shrimp sold in cost clubs and value marts in the US are farm-raised shrimp imported from Thailand, where they are fed powdered feeds.  These shrimp have virtually no flavor, and provide little more than a rubbery nugget upon which to eat cocktail sauce! They are not acceptable for Cajun cooking.

When the Queen Momma made shrimp to feed 5 hungry boys, it took hours to peel them all, and one of my earliest kitchen tasks was to take my shift at the sink, peeling shrimp until my fingers were pruned! It's easy to poke and cut yourself when you peel shrimp, but I've done it for so long I've got it down pat!

There are as many shrimp peeling gadgets are there are small towns in Louisiana, but The Low Salt Queen has found that nothing works better than a serrated paring knife. Pinch the head off between your thumb and forefinger and throw it into your stockpot (more on that in a minute!) Hold the shrimp firmly between the thumb and forefinger of your left hand (near the neck) and hold the knife by the blade, sharp side up, close to the tip. I know this sounds precarious, but it's perfectly safe with a bit of practice! Insert the tip of the knife into the tip at a 45 degree angle with the right hand, and push the shrimp onto the blade with your left hand, slicing the shell about a quarter of the way. Release your left hand (the shrimp will hang on the blade) and regrip it about half an inch toward the tail. Push your hands together again to slice another quarter of the way and regrip again.  The idea is to hold the flesh firmly at the point where the blade is passing through the shell. This way, you can slice the shell and remove the vein without cutting the body of the shrimp more than about 1/8 of an inch. Once you get the swing of it you can shell a pound of shrimp in about 5 minutes.

Try to buy shrimp with the heads on when available, and by all means save the shells and heads! Add a chopped onion and a quarted lemon, along with a couple of bay leaves, cover with water, bring to a boil, and then simmer 3-4 hours to create the seafood stock that will be the base for many of the recipes the Low Salt Queen will share. You can make the stock and then freeze it if you don't need it now, or you can freeze the shells and heads in a ziploc and make the stock later, but, please, don't throw them away raw!!

If you want to keep whole shrimp in your freezer, buy them already frozen.  If the only place you see Gulf shrimp is thawed in the seafood case, ask the fishmonger to pull your order directly from the freezer.  Then they can go directly to your freeze without thawing and refreezing.

If you have thawed shrimp that you want to refreeze, you'll need to peel them before you freeze them again.  Pack them into containers, cover with water, and freeze.  They will thaw quickly in a collander under running tap water, and will be ready in a flash to go into your recipes!

Corn and Leek Soup

Here's a recipe that's like a double-booked streetwalker:  fast, cheap, and easy!!
Corn is in season right now, so by all means use fresh corn!  This soup is virtually sodium-free, fat-free, and 100% vegetarian.  It's also DELICIOUS!!

You'll need:
6-7 ears fresh corn
1 bunch leeks (3-4 stalks)
2 green bell peppers
1 onion
6 carrots
2-3 tomatoes (or one can no salt added tomatoes)
Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy Seasoning


Start by cutting the green part off the leeks (the part that's too tough to eat.)  Wash the green parts,  and put them in a stock pot with the bell peppers, seeded, the onions, and the carrots. Cover with water (about 3 quarts). Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for 3-4 hours.


Meanwhile,  cut the kernels off of the corn and reserve. Add the cobs to the stockpot, along with about 2 teaspoons of Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy Seasoning. (You may add salt or salt substitute if you wish.)  


Slice the edible portion of each leek lengthwise, and fan the resulting "sheets" under running water to remove all traces of sand.  Slice the leeks crosswise into quarter inch slices.


One the broth is flavored to your liking, drain through a chinois to remove the cooked vegetables and discard them.  Adjust the seasoning of the broth if needed, then add the corn kernels, leek slices, and the tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped.  Simmer until leeks become translucent; serve.


This soup is delish as a summer lunch, or a supper side dish!

How Low Can You Go?

Just as it takes years of practice for a limbo dancer to get his body under a flaming pole without injury, it will take a long time for anyone trying to reduce sodium to get themselves to a consistently low intake. But it IS possible, with a little discipline, planning, and knowledge.  It's all about the decisions we make every meal, every day.  


Here's a little exercise I like to call "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!" 


Let's look at an average day's worth of meals- breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack in the morning and the afternoon.  Snacks are important because they help prevent us from overeating at mealtime!


This exercise shows that on a normal day, you can eat the foods you like and still stay under 1,500 mg of sodium.  A breakfast sandwich, soup and salad for lunch, and a spaghetti dinner. It's all in how you get there!


It all starts with a good breakfast, right? So our "Good" breakfast is a sandwich made with egg whites and a whole wheat roll, and some easy to prepare frozen hash browns.  Our "Bad" breakfast would probably be okay for people without hypertension, but it has too much sodium and fat for us.  And the "Ugly" breakfast is just not healthy for anyone, although we've all done it from time to time!

In our Good breakfast, even though the potatoes are prepared in oil,  it's controlled to 2 teaspoons because they are pan-fried, not deep fried. And the sodium content of McDonald's breakfast is off the charts.


For lunch, we're having soup and salad.  The Low Sodium Queen keeps homemade soup in her freezer and pantry, so she can throw a container in her lunch bag each morning as she heads out to work.  She makes her own broth to have a "Good" lunch with no sodium in the soup, but even the "Bad" lunch is not so bad with commercially available low-sodium broth!  The Campbells Soup in the "Ugly" lunch has a whopping 1780 mg of sodium, and that blows our daily goal in the "suggested" one cup serving.  But who opens a can of soup and eats only half!  If you eat the whole can, as most people would, it comes in at 4,450 mg of sodium! 

A healthy dinner could start with a "Lean Cuisine" from the freezer, right?  Check the label! Those frozen dinners are almost as bad as canned soup!  690 mg of sodium is too salty for any single food, and is over one third of our goal!  Making our own spaghetti with Ragu jarred sauce is even worse!  Our best best is to make our own spaghetti sauce, which can be done in large batches and canned in jars or frozen in containers for convenience!  By using low fat ground meat and eliminating salt, we can create a homemade sauce with only 49 mg of sodium!


We even get a frozen dessert, if we choose it wisely!  Would you have expected to find sodium in ice cream?  It's there, although some flavors have more than others!  Check the labels if you have to have the real deal!  A smarter choice overall is frozen yogurt, as long as you choose the fat free kind. And smarter still is frozen sorbet, which is the best choice among commercially available desserts.  It's even possible to make your own sorbet from frozen fruit using a blender or food processor, so you could reduce the sodium content even further!

Here's the full day, with snacks:

And, here are our totals:

Our "Good" meal plan comes in at 886 mg of sodium, well under our goal of 1,500 mg.  And, at only 1,293 calories, it's perfect for someone who is trying to shed a few extra pounds!


The "Bad" meal plan would probably be okay for most healthy people, although it's too high in sodium for most high blood pressure patients.  1,843 calories would be sufficient for most people to maintain their current weight.


The "Ugly" plan is just plain ugly! Even though the menu is the same, poor food choices make the sodium intake rise to a staggering 5,527 mg!! 2,400 calories is about the limit of a healthy caloric intake for most people, but 111 grams of fat is a lot of fat for our bodies to process. Anyone with a family history of heart disease would be well advised to adjust that fat intake at least to the "Good" range!

DISCLAIMER: The Low Sodium Queen is not a professional dietitian,nor a medical professional, although she did once portray "Nurse Goodbody" in a Mardi Gras ball, but that's another blog! 


So, use your own judgement, do your own research, and take her advice with a grain of salt substitute!

NOW it's Soup!!

This steaming bowl of Chicken Vegetable Soup has less than 100 mg of sodium and virtually no fat per generous 16 oz jar!


How did the Low Sodium Queen deliver such delicious soup realness?  By controlling the sodium that went in, she controls the sodium in each portion! It's simple math!  


So here's how she did it:

She started with 3 quarts of the chicken stock she made the day before, along with the chicken meat she had saved from the process. Thigh meat works great for soup as is has a bit more flavor than the white meat. She made the stock with no salt, so it is sodium free.

She brought the broth and meat to a boil, and to it she added about a cup of baby carrots (the kind you buy at the grocery to snack on for lunch), 3 fresh tomatoes, peeled and quartered, 2 large zucchini squash, sliced lengthwise and then chopped into 1/4 thick "half moons", and about 5 yellow squash, cut the same way.  That's it!  You can add additional seasoning if you need it! TLSQ added 1/4 teaspoon salt.




The chicken is already cooked, and the vegetables cook quickly, so before she put the soup on, she cleaned her jars and put them on to boil so she could can this soup for later!

Once the soup was cooked and simmering, and the jars had boiled 10 minutes,  the rest it easy!  Each jar is lifted from the boiling water and drained, and filled about 1/2 full of vegetables and meat, using a slotted spoon.  Then, a ladle is used to fill the jar with liquid, leaving 1" of headspace at the top of each jar.  Once the jars are properly filled, wipe the rims with a clean, damp paper towel, apply the lids and rings, and they are ready to process!

Fill the canner with about 3" of water and allow it to come to a boil while you fill the jars.    (Be sure to follow the instructions for your canner if they are different!) Place the jars on the rack in the bottom of the canner, attach the lid, and let the canner heat for 10 minutes while a stready stream of steam escapes the vent pipe.  This ensures there are no air bubbles in the canner that would prevent it from pressurizing evenly.

After the canner has vented 10 minutes, place the pressure regulator onto the vent pipe. If your canner has variable pressure settings (indicated by 3 different holes with numbers) use the 10 pound setting at normal altitudes.  If you are more than 2,000 ft above sea level,  see the USDA guidelines for proper pressure settings and times. Once the weight is in place, the canner will begin to pressurize.

The regulator does it job of maintaining pressure in the vessel by closing off the vent pipe when the pressure is below the set point, and rising on the column of steam when the pressure rises above the set point to allow steam to escape and reduce the pressure.  The gauge does nothing to control the pressure (some canners don't even have a gauge) but simply confirms that the unit is pressurized. 

Once the canner has reach the set pressure level with the stove set on high,  the regulator will rise slightly, and "rattle" or "dance" steadily.  While the regulator weight will keep the pot safely within the desired pressure range, the constant escape of steam can cause it to boil dry prematurely.  So, when the pressure reaches the desired level and the regulator begins to rise, lower the temperature gradually until the regulator "dances" about every 15 seconds- 4 times a minute.  This video clip shows what it sounds like.

The soup recipe processes for 60 minutes from the time 10 pounds of pressure is reached. Once the time has elapsed, turn off the heat and allow the unit to cool naturally.  Once the unit has cooled to the point that the gauge reads "0", remove the weight to reduce any last bastions of pressure, then careful release the lid, opening it away from you to prevent a face full of hot steam! Remove the jars with a jar lifter or oven mitts, and place on a wire rack to cool.  Voila!  You have low sodium, fat-free canned soup that can sit on your pantry shelf for a year, and reheats in your microwave in a quick 3 minutes!


You may also freeze this recipe in plastic freezer containers. 


Oh, and here's the math:


From 3 quarts of stock + vegetables and meat, we yielded 4 quarts of soup = 8 pint jars.


1/4 teaspoon salt= 800 mg sodium / 8 jars = 100 mg per jar!


Most soup cans give nutritional values in 1 cup servings, so if you used that convention for comparison, this soup would have 50mg sodium per 8oz serving!!

It's STILL Not Soup!

It's only broth! But what delicious broth it is!


Broth, or stock, is a basic ingredient that forms the base for most soups, and is used in many other recipes as well.  A good broth is not difficult to make, and the time spent is well worth the effort!  It's easy to make large batches, and there are several way to preserve it to have on hand to use whenever your recipe calls for it!

Most commercially available broths and stocks are full of sodium. In fact, they typically get most of their flavor from  salt, and tend to be very clear and otherwise flavorless.  Even the  "lower sodium" versions still have more sodium than they should! Making your own broth with fresh meats and vegetables allows you to control the salt, flavors and strength to suit your tastes and needs.








Today, the Low Sodium Queen made 3 batches, all at once.  She made a light chicken broth to use in vegetable soup, and saved the white meat from the breasts to make low sodium chicken salad for her lunches this week. She used the rest of the chicken to make a darker stock to store for use in recipes as needed.  And she made a batch of beef stock that she's planning to use for vegetable beef soup. Here's how the day went:


She started with 2 whole chickens, and about 6 pounds of beef soup bones. If your local grocer doesn't have packaged soup bones in the meat case, ask the butcher.  While not all grocers break down meat in-store, the Queen has found that most ethnic grocers sell beef bones right in the meat case.


If you want to keep the white meat separate from the rest of the chicken, use a cleaver or large knife to separate the breasts from the rest of the bird.  You don't really have to be neat and exacting in your butchering, you just want to get them apart so they can be used separately.

For the light chicken stock, put the breasts into a large pot and cover with about 6 quarts of cold water.  Add 2 onions, cubed, and about 2 cups each of celery and carrots, cubed to about an inch or so.  Add about 1/4 cup each of dried rosemary and dried oregano, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. After about an hour, check the breast meat for doneness. Once it's cooked,  remove the breasts, allow them to cool slightly, and remove the meat from the bones.  Save the meat for another use and return the bones to the pot.  Continue to simmer for 6-8 hours for flavors to fully develop.

To make a more flavorful chicken stock, and always for beef stock,  the bones should be roasted for about an hour at 400 degrees to let their flavors develop.  This is a pan of about 6 pounds of beef bones, plus another pan with the remains of the 2 whole chickens after the breasts were removed.










After roasting for about an hour or so, the 2 pans of bones are transferred to stockpots, and covered with water. Deglaze the pans and add the rich gravy to the broth.  Add onions, celery, and seasoning as above, then bring to a boil.  Reduce to simmer and cook 6-8 hours, until flavors are fully developed.


Once the stock is fully cooked and flavored to your liking,  pour the stock through a collander into a large bowl or refrigerator container.  Allow the bone mixture to cool slightly, and pick away any large pieces of meat for soups, salads, etc.  Discard the rest.
Strain the broth again through a chinois lined with cheescloth.  Skim a much fat from the top of the broth as possible. Cool the broth, then refrigerate the remainder until all remaining fat congeals at the top of the container.  Remove the congealed fat and you will have 100% fat free, sodium free broth! At refrigerator temperature, your protein-rich broth may congeal into consomme, but once it's reheated it will return to it's liquid state.


Broth may be refrigerated for 3-4 days, or frozen for about 6 months.  You can also can your broth in jars so it is shelf stable following the instructions for steam-pressure canning.

Is it Soup Yet?

Is anyone else old enough to remember that Lipton commercial where the little girl keeps asking her mother: "is it soup yet?"  No?  Well, Queen Ginger is!  The Queen Mum wasn't big on Lipton soup packets-  she gave us Campbells, in a can. But that was only for quick lunches. This Queen can't eat any of that stuff now- packaged and canned soups are some of the saltiest foods on the market! Check the labels!




At least once a year in the fall, Momma G made a big pot of homemade Vegetable Beef soup, and froze the the leftovers for later. She wasn't big on Chicken Soup- as a matter of fact, I never remember her making it.  Of course, in South Louisiana there was always gumbo. But that's a different blog!


ANYWAY, as this Low Salt Queen moves forward with this reduced sodium lifestyle, she is learning to use her weekends to make large batches of sodium-controlled foods to help her keep as many days healthy as possible.  By starting with simple recipes that make large batches, anyone can reduce their overall sodium intake by preparing and packaging their own "make ahead" meals that are healthy, nutritious, and delicious! Notice the use of the phrase "sodium controlled";  even folks without heart disease would be well served to reduce their sodium intake below what a diet of packaged soups, frozen dinners, restaurant meals, and fast food can provide.  By preparing foods at home,  you are in complete control of the amount of salt and seasonings that go into each dish! 

Got a big pot and a freezer?  Then you have all the tools you need to make delicious, healthful soups at home?  Just pick up some plastic freezer containers at the grocery and you're ready to go!

Tight on freezer space?  With readily available home canning jars and their special lids and seals, it is possible to shelf-stable soup recipes at home.  Because soups and stocks are low acid foods, safe canning requires the use of a pressure canner, but lets face it, we are stuck with the low-sodium lifestyle for the rest of our lives,  so the investment may be reasonable if intend to stick with this!

This intimidating looking contraption is really nothing more than a big, heavy stockpot with a lid that bolts down to allow pressure to build within the unit.  Stories you may have heard about the lids blowing off are impossible with modern units- they use metal-to-metal contact rather than a vulnerable rubber gasket, so there's no chance it can get seated improperly.  A weighted valve maintains the unit at the right pressure, a dial gauge lets you see what's happening inside, and three rubber relief plugs are designed to eject and release the pressure in case of any mishap. You can get one for about $250 here.

Right now, there are 3 big pots of stock simmering on the Queens burners.  Once the stock is ready,  she'll show you how she created it, how she'll save it, and what she'll make with it!