Korean Beef with Cauli-Couscous

I was going through my old cookbooks, trying to "thin the heard" and I came upon this recipe that I used to cook for my kids.  I just couldn't throw this one out, so I tore out the pages and threw the rest of the book out.  I do that.  Alot.  I have a binder full of torn pages containing recipes of all sorts, just waiting for the day that I feel inspired and confident enough to translate them into something more primally appropriate.  I'm not exactly an "intuitive" cook--I need the idea of a recipe as a jumping point to get started.  So I collect these ideas and I hoard them.  A friend once called me a recipe whore because I always seem to collect these recipes, but I never actually get around to cooking 90% of them.  At least not the dessert recipes, because I'd weigh 300 lbs if I did.

So anyways, the original recipe called for thin strips of fast-fry steak, something I could never cook right and have it still be tender.  But what if I used ground beef?  Less expensive, tender....  A few tweaks to make it more primally-acceptable...  And this is the result.  It has a slightly sweet, but mild flavour and it pulls together in no time (something I MUST insist on).  Despite the addition of hot pepper flakes, this dish is not hot at all and will not alarm small children's taste buds....  S'alright--I added sriracha sauce after the photo anyways, because I ALWAYS do that.


Now for the rice--who doesn't want a new way to cook rice?!  If you are at all like me, you cook mashed cauli, make cauli rice and put cauliflower into just about everything (we buy 3-4 heads of cauliflower per week).  But really, any other veggie in this recipe might overwhelm the delicate flavour, so a new cauli idea was needed.  I've roasted cauliflower before, whole florets, and loved it (not so much roasted broccoli).  So why not shred them before roasting?  The shredded cauli takes on a nutty flavour as it roasts in the oven, even more so since I tossed my cauli with sesame seed oil first.  I never liked real couscous, but this cauli-couscous I really liked.  Easy.  So here it is:

Serves approx. 5
Ready in 1/2 hour or less

Ingredients:
(For the Beef)

2 lbs ground beef*
5-6 green onions (scallions)
5 cloves minced fresh garlic
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp hot pepper flakes
1/4 cup beef stock
4 tbsp soy sauce** + 1/8 cup water
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp tapioca
3 scoops stevia powder (equiv of 3 tsp sugar)

(For the cauliflower)

1 head cauliflower
1 tbsp sesame oil

sesame seeds, for garnish

Method:

First, prep everything; shred your cauli in a food processor with the grating tool.  Move it to a big bowl and toss it with the sesame oil.  In a separate, small bowl, mix your soy sauce, beef stock, honey, stevia and sesame seeds, set aside.  Chop your green onions.  Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Spread cauli between 2 cookie sheets and bake 10 minutes.  Stir.  Return to oven and cook for another 5 minutes, until browning in places.

Heat large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add beef and cook, stirring, until no longer pink.  Add garlic and pepper, cooking for another minute until fragrant.  Add the bowl of soy sauce and whatnot you already mixed up.  Bring to boil.  In that now-empty small bowl, mix your tapioca starch with an equal bit of water to dissolve.  Throw your green onions into the skillet, then while stirring, add the tapioca and allow to thicken for a few seconds.  Remove from heat. 

Taste and adjust for sweetness. 

Serve over cauli-couscous and garnish with extra sesame seeds. 



*if you choose to use beef strips, slice your meat across the grain diagonally into 2-inch strips.  Cook steak with garlic and pepper for scant 2 minutes, allowing it to remain slightly pink.  Remove from heat before adding sauce to skillet, continue with recipe above... Add meat back in at end.  Do not overcook it.

**I hear that coconut aminos is slightly sweeter than soy sauce, that it is not a perfect substitute, but in this recipe, the sweetness might actually come through very nice.  Thought I do not own coconut aminos, if I can get my hands on some, I will definitely try to sub it in this recipe and see how it goes.

Mustard & Rosemary Pork with Glazed Bok Choy

The inspiration for this recipe, oddly enough, originally came from a free "Our Compliments" magazine.  You know, the ones at the checkout that use recipes to pump up sales of their own brand of ingredients.  But hey, a little tweaking to make it paleo-friendly, and a fast, tasty pork dish was made! 

Ever eat bok choy?  It's a household favourite.  Taste-wise, it's somewhere in between spinach and celery.  The stems are very mild and stay a bit crunchy, the leaves hold a bit more of their shape than spinach--maybe more like swiss chard.  It's a mild green, great in stir-fries, and cheap year-round.  It's tougher, too--it doesn't wilt in your fridge after only 2 days the way spinach does.  So here we go:

Feeds 5-6
Takes about 1/2 hour

Ingredients;

Pork:

2 lbs boneless pork chops, about  1/2" thick (Mine were fat, so I butterflied them)
salt and pepper
1 tbsp butter, for sauteing
2 tbsp Dijon (I like to use spicy, grainy deli mustard instead)
2 tbsp fresh rosemary,  or 2 tsp dry rosemary
3 tbsp ground almond meal

Bok Choy:

1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch bok choy
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp lemon zest


Move your oven rack to its highest position and heat the broiler to high heat.  Mix almond meal with rosemary.  Butterfly your chops, if needed, and salt and pepper both sides.  In a skillet on medium-high, melt butter and brown pork chops on both sides until almost done.  Move to a baking sheet.  Spread mustard on the face-up side of the chops, then sprinkle with the almond meal and rosemary.  Broil until golden and finished cooking through.  Move to lowest rack in oven until bok choy is done.

Meantime, wash and chop your bok choy.  Chop your onions.  In a large skillet on medium heat, saute the onions, garlic and the stems of the bok choy until onions are translucent.  Add water and green leaves, cooking just until they begin to wilt.  Add honey, vinegar and lemon zest, stir and serve.

Skillet Sausage and Squash

I was going to call this one Spanish Sausage and Squash, but honestly, there's very little that is authentically Spanish in this recipe.  It IS, however, pure comfort food.  Stick-to-the-ribs food.  And sausage was on sale at the grocery store, not chorizo, but hot italian.  Now, if I put one more meal on the table with cauliflower this week, the kids were going to kill me, so I thought shredded squash was a better idea if I wanted to live through this week.  Besides, little secret, squash cooks down and its flavour completely disappears in tomato sauce.  If you have a sometimes orange-vegetable-adverse family like I do, this is one of those places to get it into them with minimal struggle.  Ok, this, and in chili.  Squash is awesome in chili.  And OMG, squash fries...  My parents are killing themselves laughing at me right now.  I HATED squash growing up.  I hated ALL orange vegetables except raw carrots and peppers.  I'm over that now.  Mostly.  Just don't feed me mashed squash or carrots.  Mashing them is a sin, and besides, it's just gross unless it's dessert food.

I googled "spanish spices" and apparently they include paprika, cayenne, oregano, and thyme, but then also cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and saffron.  Hmmm.  Where to begin, and what to include?  The answer?  Include whatever tastes good.  Throw the rules away.  When all else fails, return to rule #1 of paleo cooking; you take some meat, a veggie or two, throw it in a pan with some spices, and you eat it.  This recipe looks like a lot, but its not.  Its ready in a half hour.  There's just a lot of spices, and you can add or delete any that you don't like or don't have.  Maybe you have saffron.  I didn't.  That stuff is expensive.

Feeds 5-6
Ready in 1/2 hour

Ingredients:

2 lbs sausage, whatever kind you like
2 cloves garlic
1/3 spanish onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
4 c butternut squash, peeled, cored and shredded
2 (5 0z) cans tomato paste
1 1/2 c chicken broth
fat of choice for cooking
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chipotle
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Prep everything.  The food processor is your best friend.  Have all your veggies chopped and/or shredded.  Chop your sausage into bite-sized chunks.  Have your tomato paste open and waiting.  Measure out the chicken broth.  Pull out your spices.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat.  When hot, add cooking fat and saute onions and garlic until fragrant and onion is translucent, add green pepper and saute for another minute or two.  Add all other ingredients, cover, and simmer for about 20 minutes until sausage is cooked through.  Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

Spanish Chicken and Shrimp

Ok, I was a bit lazy the other night, and I have to say, nothing beats a dinner that you can have on the dinner table in a half hour or less.  This recipe was just that kind of simple.

So this is a variation on my Smokey Paprika Paella, the lazy version, and I have to say, I actually like this one even better than the original.  And its fast.  Can I say that enough?  Real fast.




Serves 5
About 1/2 hour total


Ingredients:



Sauce:

1/3 c EVOO

1/4 c sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

2 tsp fresh minced garlic

1 tsp dried cumin

1/2 tsp dried lemon zest or lemon peel

2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp 2 tbsp lemon juice

1 5-oz can tomato paste

The Rest:

1 head cauliflower

1 1/2 lbs chicken

1/2 lb cooked shrimp

1/2 spanish onion

2 cloves minced fresh garlic

2 fresh tomatoes

Method:  

First, get everything ready; chop your chicken into bite-sized pieces, de-tail the shrimp and rice the cauliflower, chop your onions and tomatoes.  Next, blend all ingredients for the sauce in a blender (or a magic bullet).  Set sauce aside. 

Heat up 2 frypans.  In one, heat on med-high, add a bit of fat of choice, add chicken and onion and saute until chicken is cooked through and onion is translucent.  Add garlic and continue cooking for another minute until fragrant.  In other frypan, heat to med-high, add a pat of butter or ghee, and saute cauliflower just until it begins to soften and brown.  Do not overcook it. 

When chicken is no longer pink, add tomatoes and cook just until they begin to soften.  Add shrimp and sauce and heat through.  Serve over riced cauliflower.  This will have a bit of heat on its own, but if you like more heat, add sriracha sauce.  Enjoy!

Gourmet Thin-Crust Pizza

Yes, I said thin crust, and you can eat it with your hands.

This is the best pizza crust I've made so far.  I've been searching for a pizza crust that feels like real crust, and most recipes for almond-flour crust DO feel right, but they all have a cup of cheese in the crust, then even more on top of the pizza, and while I do eat cheese, my lactose-intolerance means I can only eat small amounts of it.  So it there's going to be cheese on a pizza, I want it ONTOP of it.

The inspiration for this one came from "Everyday Grain-Free Gourmet" by Jodi Bager and Jenny Lass.  I can't take all the credit on this one.  It took only some minor changes.  Here's what I did:

Feeds about 3-4

Crust:

2 c almond meal
2 eggs
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheet or pizza tray with parchment paper.  Mix all ingredients for pizza crust--it will have the consistency of cookie dough.  Gently press flat onto parchment.  This should make about a 14 inch round.  You could easily increase the almond meal, egg and oil to make this a monster pizza crust.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until set firm and edges have begun to brown.  Remove, and proceed as below.

Sausage-Topped Pizza:

Sauce:

1 5-oz can tomato paste
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
pinch salt
pinch hot pepper flakes

Combine all ingredients and set aside.

Topping:

1 lb italian sausage
1/2 onion
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 c cheddar
2 tbs parmesan cheese

Brown meat, onions and spices in skillet until meat is cooked through.  Move oven rack to highest setting and turn on broiler.  Top pizza crust with sauce, parmesan, meat mixture, then cheddar, then place whole under broiler just until it begins to bubble and brown slightly.  Remove from oven.  It should slide right off the parchment for easier slicing.  Cut into 1/8ths and serve. 


The pizza dough is firm enough that you could actually top the whole thing before cooking the crust and the toppings will slightly cook into the base, making it a bit softer.  If you choose to do this, the oven needs to be set to 500 degrees, with the rack at it's lowest position, for about 10 minutes.  If you were using a cake pan for this and wanted a more deep-dish effect, this is the route to go, but you'll have to experiment alittle as I haven't tried it this way yet.

Smokey Paprika Paella

Ok, so here's what inspired me to try to cook paella this week.  This lovely picture came in the Insider's Report flyer.  The Presidents Choice makes such awesome sauces.  They've been making them since the first Sechewan Peanut Sauce came out (and rocked my boxed-foods world way back when).  The caption stated it contained "pure olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin, chili peppers, lemon, garlic and fire-roasted tomatoes".  Oh, I could so make that.  Who doesn't love that flavour combo?  They had me at smoked paprika and cumin.  Heck, I'd poach fish in that combo.  But I didn't this time.  Because I was making paella.

Serves: 5
Time: about 1/2 hour Sorry for the grainy shot, but this is the picture they stuck with it.  I chose to skip the green peas, you're welcome.  And I could have barbecued all of my ingredients, too, it would've looked this fabulous, but would it have tasted fabulous?  No, because the flavours would not have had time to "mingle."  So I didn't, and I spared both you and me a lot of time fussing around in the kitchen.  Sometimes they do this stuff to make a good photo without taste in mind.  I like simple and tasty, presentation isn't a priority for me.  So here's how it went down:

Ingredients:

Smokey Paprika Sauce

1/3 c EVOO

1/4 c sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

2 tsp fresh garlic

1 tsp dried cumin

1/2 tsp dried lemon zest or lemon peel

2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes cayenne

1/4 tsp salt

3 tsp lemon juice

1 fresh tomato 5-oz can tomato paste

The Rest

1 lb boneless chicken (white or dark)

1/2 lb cooked shrimp

2 large tomatoes

1/3 large spanish onion

1/2 c shelled pistachios

1 red pepper*

1 head cauliflower

Ok, first throw all of the ingredients for the Smokey Paprika sauce into a blender--I used my magic bullet-- and just puree everything together.  Set aside.  **(see notes below on added uses)

Rice your cauliflower. Chop your tomatoes and onion.  Chop your chicken into bite-sized pieces (and if you buy your chicken skin on, make cracklin's in another frypan at the same time as you cook dinner to snack on while you cook....)

Alright, in a large skillet, brown chicken on all sides (chicken may still be a bit pink in the middle).    Add onions, cooking just until the onions begin to turn translucent.  Reduce heat and add cauliflower, red pepper, sauce and tomatoes.  Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until cauliflower begins to soften.  Add shrimp, stirring and allowing to heat through.  Remove from heat and add pistachios.  Eat!

   

Your sauce will be thicker and more red than mine is here; I used a fresh tomato in the sauce the first time around.  Using tomato paste will make for a far richer, fuller flavour and thicker sauce that coats the "rice".

This has a hint of heat to it already due to the cayenne, but feel free to add sriracha sauce if you're anything like me.  My family agreed this was a keeper recipe; they'd eat it again and again.  No one argued that it was too spicy, but no one else added extra heat, either.  Hmm.  Must be just me.

**You could throw this sauce into the fridge and it would stay fresh for weeks because of the olive oil base. This sauce would be very good on many things; fish, pork, ribs, sauteed okra...  On a lazy night, just stir-fry some chicken and shrimp with a couple of chopped tomatoes, add this sauce and serve it over top of steamed cauli-rice.
*I used a fresh red pepper because that's what I had.  If you have the time or happen to have one on-hand, use a roasted red pepper for a more intense sweet.

Asian Pork & Cabbage

I always add hot sauce.  Always.  That s#@% goes with everything.

Serves 6
Takes about 1/2 hour

Meat:

2 lbs pork tenderloin
2 tbsp tapioca or arrowroot starch
1 tbsp soya sauce (or coconut aminos)

Veggies:

half large spanish onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh gingerroot, minced
4 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 sweet red/yellow/orange pepper, thinly sliced

Sauce:

3 tbsp chicken broth
3 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp curry paste
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp chili sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil
Light-tasting olive oil for frying

Cut up your pork into thin slices.  Salt and pepper the meat.  In a large bowl, mix tapioca starch, 1 tbsp soya sauce and 1 tbsp water together and stire in your sliced pork. While this sits in the "marinade", prep ALL your other ingredients. Slice the veggies, shred the cabbage, mix your sauce.  Heat your wok.

Add a splash of oil into the wok, and before it scorches, add some of your meat.  Cook meat in batches until seared on all sides, but still a bit pink in the middle.  Set aside.  Add onions to the wok and cook until they begin to turn translucent.  Add garlic and ginger for a minute.  Then add rest of veggies.  As soon as they become tender enough for your taste buds, add the pork back into the wok.  Add your sauce and continue to cook until sauce thickens and pork is no longer pink and warmed through.

Remove from heat and drizzle with sesame oil.  Taste and add more salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste, if necessary. 

Cabbage Roll Stir-Fry

This recipe was one I used to cook my family over and over.  Of course, that was pre-paleo, so in order to keep  the recipe, some changes had to be made.  But the recipe had great potential; it cooked up in a half hour or less - and I'm a lazy cook, it wasn't fussy, it was stick-to-the-ribs hearty, everyone liked it and since the cabbage was shredded, it cooked up much easier on my teeth which meant I could still eat it with my braces.  The original recipe came from Chatelaine Magazine ( if you read these blogs regularly, you know I have a recipe-hoarding habit).  Before Pinterest (which I still haven't joined), I would tear out recipes from magazines, then glue them onto good paper and keep them in page-protector sleeves in a binder.  Then email became the more popular choice, so I have 2 email accounts--one is my regular email, and the other is for emailing myself recipes that I then move into email files under Breakfast, Dinner, Snack,  etc.  My email file storage is HUGE.

You can omit the honey if you're doing a Whole30, but if you're not, you'll find the tiny bit of honey really brings out the flavour nicely.

This recipe makes about 6 hearty servings
Takes about 1/2 hour
This recipe re-heats even better next day


Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground pork or beef
• 1 cooking onion, or 1/3 spanish onion
• 1 green pepper, thinly sliced
• 1/2 head of cabbage
• 28-oz can chopped tomatoes
• 5-oz can tomato paste
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbs apple-cider vinegar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• salt and pepper to taste 

Method:

Using a food  processor, shred your cabbage really fine.  Set aside.  Slice up your onions and green peppers.

In a very large skillet on med-high heat, cook your meat with your onions (about 5 minutes).  When meat is almost cooked through, add your tomatoes, tomato paste, vinegar, honey and spices, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes to allow flavour to develop.


 Now, add your pepper and cabbage to the pan.  Cover and simmer until cabbage is tender (aboout 10 minutes--I like my cabbage soft).  You may need to add a splash of water now and then to keep things moist until cabbage beginns to soften.

Taste, and add red pepper flakes as needed.

It really was that fast and easy.

For variety, you could add mexican spices in place of the thyme and basil, making it into Beef Enchilada Stir-Fry.

Stovetop Beef & Cabbage Enchilada

Now, I found this recipe originally on Healthy Living How-To here http://www.healthylivinghowto.com/1/post/2012/01/winner-winner-beef-enchilada-dinner.html#comments 

This is how the idea started out...

The picture looked delicious, and I'm a complete sucker for all things Mexican.  Oh, how I have tried to re-create a grain-free tortilla, really I have tried.  But they always come out....dry as the sands of the desert, or just eggy like an omlette and it's just not right.  Then I found this recipe, and thought--hey, wrap the enchilada filling in cabbage?  That sounds brilliant!  So we tried it (and perhaps we are kitchen-disabled), but it took us an hour to get the cabbage cooked soft enough, to get them out of the pot without burning ourselves or shredding the cabbage leaves, and then rolled around the meat without tearing them even more.  They baked up fine, but then, with two of us in braces, we could not easily cut and chew those tough cabbage leaves and the kids, despite liking cabbage, just removed the meat from the filling and ate the filling because, well, because they could...

 ...And then I remembered.  I've seen this game before.  My kids were masters at de-cabbaging a cabbage roll.  But then I also remembered (I can play this game, too)--I have a recipe that we all love and ate frequently before going paleo/primal--"Cabbage Roll Stir-Fry" by using shredded cabbage.  Good luck seperating the cabbage from the meat when it's shredded and cooked down!!  My cabbage roll stir-fry recipe is totally convertable to paleo-approved eating by just omitting the rice.  (Maybe I'll post that recipe sometime soon--it's my favorite take on the cabbage roll with only a half hour worth of effort...)   Was it possible to make this a half-hour meal?  You betcha!  I'm all about the speedy cooking.  I work a regular full-time job--and don't we all come home tired at the end of the day?  Who wants to spend hours in the kitchen after a full day of work??  So this idea for a one-pot stovetop beef enchilada with cabbage began...

Just a quick note--if like Mexican flavours, but you don't like spicy, the enchilada sauce that Vanessa makes (follow the link) is absolutely perfect.  It is delicious and she gets it dead-perfect.  But me?  I can't resist messing with a recipe.  I like fire.  My son dares me to make something hot enough that he'll actually admit is hot.  Even with everything I added to this, he still doused it in X-tra Hot Frank's Hot Sauce (and discovered the next day, for the first time, what happens when you eat something THAT spicy...lol)

Serves about 5 large meals.
Takes about 1/2 hour

The Enchilada Sauce:

1 5-oz can tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

2 tbs chili powder

1 tbs liquid from jarred jalapenos

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp chipotle

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp mexican coriander (optional)

2 tbs olive oil

Add all ingredients except oil to pot and bring to boil over medium heat.  Once it comes to a boil, remove from heat and stir in oil.  Set aside.

The Meat Mixture:

2 lbs ground beef

1/4 spanish onion

1 clove garlic

4-5 jarred jalapeno rings, minced with garlic press

2 tbs lime juice

1 tbs chipotle hot sauce

4-5 cups cabbage, shredded

1/3 c fresh cilantro/coriander

cheese, full-fat yogurt and avacado for garnish

In very large skillet or in a dutch oven, on med-high heat, cook beef, onion and hot sauce until beef is no longer pink.  Add garlic and jalapeno and cook for 1 minute more.  Add cabbage and enchilada sauce, stirring to combine.  You may want to add about a cup of water to keep everything moist until the cabbage begins to cook down.  Cover, reduce heat to med-low, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is tender.  Remove from heat, taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary, stir in lime juice and chopped cilantro, serve and add garnishes.

  

Enjoy!  Add more hot sauce if you like things spicy, like I do!  Just not too much.  Or you'll regret it the next day.  You know what I mean....

Blackened Fish and Mashed Celery Root

This recipe was adapted from a site called "The Refined Chef"--to see the original recipe, go here http://www.refinedchef.com/recipes_details.php?rec_title=Blackened_Catfish_over_Parsley_Mashed_Celery_Root

I clearly did not use catfish.  I don't know if I'd even like catfish.  But I like tilapia (and basa)--so that's what I used.  If you're not a fish know-it-all, tilapia and basa are firm white fish, mild in flavour but not bland as sole is.  The meat holds together well (haddock and sole can be pretty delicate and hard to flip over).

I love spice.  Really love spice.  The kids, not as much, but I'm slowly burning their taste buds off so they can join us in my love of spice.... 

This recipe feeds 4, with a bit of leftover fish if you're not greedy....
Takes about 1/2 hour

For mashed celery root you will need:

• 1 celery root
• 1/4 c fresh parsley
• splash of coconut milk or real milk
• butter for mashing
• salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cube celery root.  Place in pot, cover with water and bring to boil.  Simmer/boil for about 15 minutes until tender enough to mash.  This will not stink up your kitchen like turnip and cauliflower.  Once softened enough, drain water off, and mash in pot with milk, parsley and butter.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  BTW, if you do dairy, a bit of cream cheese is really nice mashed in here in place of the milk.  But shhh, I didn't say that....

For 1 1/2 lbs fish fillets of your choice you will need:

• blackening spice (see previous post for recipe or use your own)
• melted butter

Move rack in oven to highest setting.  Use crappy baking trays--don't warp your good ones!  Set oven to broil.  Pat fish dry with paper towels.  Place on baking sheets, baste with butter and sprinkle with blackening spice.  Do this to both sides.  Go a bit easier on the spice for the fillets you plan on serving the children.  Place fish under broiler for 3-5 minutes per side.  Keep an eye on them as they will cook fast.  Burn fish is not blackened fish.

Serve fish over mashed celery root, dollop with butter and sprinkle with lemon juice.  Trust me.  Butter makes everything better.

Stuffing Pot Dinner

I found the original recipe to this "stuffing" on Caveman Strong, and even though Josee, the author, had not even tried it herself yet, I was determined to try it at my Thanksgiving dinner.  But then my appendix burst and I was in no shape whatsoever to start cooking up a storm, so I let my family all bring dishes of food, my husband made the turkey and stuffed it with old-fashioned bread stuffing (he makes an awesome turkey...) and promptly forgot all about this recipe.  Until Christmastime.  I was determined that I would have a paleo-approved dinner (in between stuffing my face with chocolates) so I hauled all the ingredients with me up to the cottage and cooked it up there.  It got the stamp of approval from several non-paleo family members, but the comment over and over again was, "there's so much in there that it could be a meal unto itself."  Well.  I freakin' love stuffing.  So why not?  It is a one-pot half-hour hastle-free dinner.  And it has everything but the kitchen sink in it.  So of course, me being me, I needed to go ahead and add a kitchen sink.  Ok, maybe not a sink, but I added even more stuff.  So here it is....

 

Serves 4 (as a main course)
Takes about 1/2 hour

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 5 slices nitrate-free bacon
• 1/4 spanish onion, chopped
• 1 c mushrooms, sliced
• 2 ribs celery, sliced thinly
• 2 tsp dried sage
• 2 tsp dried rosemary
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 apples, peeled and chopped
• large handfull unsweetened dried cranberries
• large handfull pecans, broken up

Instructions:

Chop bacon and saute in pan over medium-high heat until it begins to brown.  Crumble pork into the pan and continue to cook until pork is no longer pink.  Add thyme, rosemary, sage, onion, celery and mushrooms and continue to cook until onions become translucent.  Reduce heat to medium.  Add apples, cranberries and pecans, stirring frequently until apples just barely begin to soften.  

Serve with gravy, if you have any leftover from the holidays.... 

Ok, it is so darned flavourful that it simply doesn't need the gravy.  The gravy is distracting from the goodness.  Oh, you didn't have gravy, anyways?  I do.  I freeze mine in ice cube trays then move them to ziplock baggies for flavour bombs later.  Well, good thing you don't need them here.  There won't be any leftovers.