Lamb and Root Vegetable Stew

Yup, my creative juices are flowing!  This is delicious!!  I like it better than beef stew.  It has a milder flavor.  You can also tinker with the meat/veg proportions so that you can make it with as much meat as you prefer.  I find that I only need a few ounces of quality meat to satisfy my appetite and I'm trying to eat way more veg than I used to so this is a great recipe.

Since I am cooking more traditionally, the food isn't really fast anymore but the prep here is minimal and I was done in 15mins or so.  The cooking time is two hours with an intervention at the one hour mark.  You could make it in a slow cooker but I'm not sure how it will effect the taste.

To give credit where credit is due this is based on the lamb stew recipes in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything cookbook.  This is my go to cookbook along with my America's Test Kitchen books.

Ingredients
serves 2-3

1/2 -1 lb lamb stew meat
1 med potato
1 med onion
1/2 kohlrabi
1/2 celeriac
2-3 carrots
1 clove garlic
1 bay leaf
1t dried thyme or 1T fresh
A generous handful of fresh parsley about 1-2c
1t celtic sea salt
generous pinch of pepper
1-2c basic chicken stock or any organic chicken stock
filtered water

1. Peel all veg and cut into large chunks.  Keep potato separate from other veg and rinse everything in fresh water and drain.  Throw potato into pot.  Set aside other veg for later.  If you have something that is going to brown, cover remaining veg with water.
2. Peel and cut onion into 6 pieces and throw in pot.  Peel and mash garlic and throw in pot.
3. Rinse and drain stew meat and add to pot.
4. Add stock and add enough water to cover meat and veg.  Add salt, pepper, dried bay leaf and dried thyme.  If using fresh herbs wait until step 6 to add them.
5. Cover pot and let simmer on low heat for one hour.  Liquid should be just bubbling.  Check once in a while to make sure there is enough liquid still in the pot. Add more water if you like.
6. Add remaining veg (drain first if in water).  Add remaining fresh herbs.  Add more filtered water to just cover everything.  
7. Bring back to a simmer and cover.  Cook for another hour. 

Variations on the theme:

• Throw everything in a slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours until meat is tender.   Veg will probably get a tad mushy.
• Add peas for the last fifteen minutes of cook time.
• Other root veg: parsnips, turnips, beets (use yellow ones or they will make the stew purple and the meat gets nasty looking), sweet potato and radishes.
• Add portabellos cut into large chunks at step 6.

Portabellos with Apple Sausage Stuffing

I know.  It has been a really really long time since my last post.  I've been doing better and cooking again but I haven't been making anything new hence no posts.  But I got creative yesterday and it came out fantastic so here we go....

I've managed to find a winter farmer's market here in the Northeast.  They have several meat vendors and a bunch of veg vendors with one even selling a variety of fresh mushrooms.  I picked up some sweet Italian sausage from my favorite meat vendor and an absolutely HUGE mushroom cap.  The herbs were from one of the other vendors and I've had them out on the table drying.

Use one regular sized portabello per person or if you find huge ones you can split it with someone.  Use 1/4-1/2lb of meat per person depending upon appetites and affinity for meat.  I'm fine with 1/4 lb for myself but hubs tends to go for 1/2lb serving.

Ingredients
serves 2

1/2-1lb of sweet sausage
1 large or 2 normal sized portabello mushrooms (with stems if possible)
1 granny apple
1 large stalk of celery
1/2 a medium onion
1 clove of garlic
1t rosemary leaves
1t thyme leaves
2-3 sage leaves
1t celtic sea salt
generous pinch of pepper
1T ghee, lard or tallow for frying
1-2T olive oil
1 small egg slightly beaten
1/2c almond flour

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Chop onion, celery and apple into small pieces.
3. Peel mushroom cap.  Remove stem and chop stem into small pieces and add to veg.  Scrape out gills and add to veg leaving the cap itself intact.
4. Crush or dice garlic finely.
5. Remove sausage meat from casings and dice into small pieces.  (scissors work well for this)
6. If herbs are dried grind together or if fresh break into fine pieces.
7. Add fat to pan and saute sausage meat until all pink is gone.  Remove from pan and set aside in a bowl.  Do not drain fat from pan.
8. Add vegetables and garlic to pan. Add herbs, salt and pepper.  Add more fat if needed and saute until soft.  Add to bowl with meat.  
9. Drain any liquid off meat.  
10. Add flour and egg and mix well.  You could put this in a food processor if you like but I prefer mine chunky.
11. Brush mushroom caps with olive oil.  Place topside down in baking dish.  Pile stuffing into caps.
12. Bake for 20-30mins until it has nice browned bits on top.

Variations on the theme:

• Use acorn squash instead of mushroom caps.  Split and deseed squash.  Paint interior with olive oil and bake at 350F for 45-60mins until soft and easily pierced with a knife.  Stuff with sausage and bake as directed above.
• Skip the mushroom and serve over rice.  Bake sausage mix in any baking dish until browned while making rice of choice.  

Simple Sausage Soup

This one came out of no where.  I had the ingredients kicking around in the fridge and freezer and decided that they would taste good together.  Low and behold I was right.  Tonight I fed it to hubs for the first time and he loved it as well so now it is time to publish it.


It is a simple idea of combining sausage, pasta and leafy green veg.  You can use all sorts of combinations of the three but I've found the most tasty to be mild Italian sausage and fresh cheese pasta from the local Italian grocer combined with kale or spinach.  The ingredient amounts are rough estimates since that is how I roll.  This isn't baking so we can be loose about things.

Ingredients
serves 3

2c Basic Chicken Stock
2c filtered water
~1lb sweet Italian sausage (one large link or several small ones)
~2 cups shredded kale (two small leaves or one large leaf)
~6oz fresh cheese tortellini
generous pinch dried thyme
generous pinch dried marjoram
Celtic sea salt
fresh ground pepper

1. Remove casing from sausage and discard.
2. Cut sausage into 1/2" thick disks and cut the disks in half.  I found scissors to work remarkably well for both the casing removal and sausage chopping.  If you like you can roll the sausage into little balls but this isn't necessary.
3. Tear kale into bite sized pieces.
4. If you have thin stock, use 4c and don't dilute with water.  My stock tends to be very strong so I cut it in half with water as this is a mild soup and I don't want the stock to overpower the other ingredients.
5. Add sausage and kale to stock along with seasonings and bring to a rolling boil.
6. Add pasta and cook according to package directions.  Fresh pasta will only take a couple of minutes tops.
7. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve.

Variations that I've tried and liked so far: chicken apple sausage, cheese tortellini and spinach or kale; sweet Italian sausage, cheese/prosciutto tortellini and kale.  You see the general theme here.  You want the spicy of the sausage combining with the creamy soft pasta.  The green veg helps more with eye appeal and nutrition than taste.  If you use spinach toss it in right before serving so that it only blanches rather than turning to mush.  Kale needs the longer cooking time to soften up.  This could also be made with GF pasta but I haven't found any tortellini in my area.

Baked Eggs #2

This is a slightly more complicated version of baked eggs since it has to be cooked in two stages.  Still fairly simple but it will take more of your energy to make.

Baked Eggs #2
serves one or two

vegetable saute
pastured butter
2-4 asparagus spears
1 leek leaf washed and dried
4-6 criminis (baby bella mushrooms)
1-2 kale leaves washed and dried

1. Break off course ends of asparagus.  Just grab and snap the end off.  It will break in the right place on its own.  Finely slice asparagus on the diagonal.  Discard the ends.
2. Peel and cut criminis into small bite size pieces.
3. Trim kale leaf off stem, discard stem, slice or tear into small bite size pieces.
4. Slice leek into 1/4" strips.
5. Saute vegetables in butter.  Set aside when everything is cooked through and mushrooms are starting to release liquid.

eggs

pastured butter

1T heavy cream

2 pastured eggs

vegetable saute from above

2T Parmesan cheese

2 strips of bacon (optional)

pinches of dried herbs: marjoram, dill, basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary (in any combo)

pepper

sea salt if not using bacon

1. Place single serving au gratin dish in cold oven and preheat to 350F.
2. If using, cook bacon and crumble it and set it aside.
3. Mix cheese, herbs, salt and pepper together and set aside.
4. Once oven and dish are hot, very carefully remove dish and put on heatproof surface.
5. Melt butter in dish and swirl so it coats the bottom.
6. Add cream to dish.
7. Place sauteed vegetables down center of dish along the short axis.  This will divide the dish in half.
8. Crack an egg into each side of dish being careful not to break the yolk.  If you're not brave enough to do this, you can crack the egg into a cup and then pour it into the hot dish.
9. Sprinkle bacon on top.
10. Sprinkle cheese mixture on top.
11. Bake at 350F for 10-15mins until eggs are set the way you like.  If you want runny yolks undercook the eggs since they will continue to cook once they come out of the oven.

Simple Baked Eggs

Variations of this recipe have been popping up all over the Paleo blogs.  I finally tried it this morning with my own twists of course and not only are they really easy to make but they taste FANTASTIC!!  I'm in love with my new breakfast food.

Ingredient quantities are loose so don't stress over amounts.  I actually didn't measure anything.  I used pinches, dabs and splashes and it came out fantastic.  I didn't use any salt because the ham adds its own saltiness.

Simple Baked Eggs
serves one or two

2 pastured eggs
2t pastured butter
2t of heavy cream
1 slice of deli ham
1 fistful of baby spinach
2T grated Parmesan cheese
pinch pepper
pinch dried marjoram
pinch dried dill

1. Place two small single serving ramekins in cold oven and preheat to 350F.
2. Mix herbs, pepper and cheese together and set aside.
3. Rip spinach up into 1/2" pieces, discarding stems, set aside.
4. Cut ham into 1/4" squares, divide in half and set aside.
5. Very carefully remove hot ramekins from oven, add 1t butter and swirl to coat with melted butter.
6. Add 1t cream to each ramekin.
7. Line each ramekin with spinach.  Layer ham on top.  Don't worry if it clumps.
8. Crack egg into each ramekin carefully keeping egg yolk intact.  Break into separate cup/bowl if desired and then pour into ramekin.
9. Sprinkle cheese mixture on top.
10. Bake for 10-15 minutes depending upon how well done you like the yolks.  For runny yolks undercook slightly as the eggs will continue to cook after they are removed from the oven.
11. The eggs will deflate slightly after coming out of the oven.  Don't worry about it.
12. Gently remove from ramekins and let cool slightly before eating.  

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

I got an ice cream maker for my birthday.  Woohoo!!  Thanks sis!!

I've been trying to eliminate sugar from my diet so I'm finding regular ice cream much too sweet.  Now that I have my own ice cream maker, I can control all the ingredients from the type of milk, cream and cocoa, to the amount and type of sweetener.  So, I used local dairy and organic, fair trade ingredients.

Not sure this really qualifies as dark chocolate since there is milk and cream in it but it has very little sugar so it tastes like dark chocolate.  If you want to experiment, you can use other extracts besides vanilla.  For instance, orange would be nice.  This is on my list of experiments along with using stevia instead of sucanat (my son's girlfriend is diabetic and can't have sugar).  Other people use honey or maple syrup which are GAPS friendly.  These, however, will change the taste significantly.  I'm not a maple fan so that is off the menu for me.  I'll probably use honey at some point but not in my chocolate ice cream.

BTW, the coffee brings out the chocolate flavor.   You won't actually taste it in the ice cream.  Hubs says he can taste it but that was only after he saw me adding it.  When I used it before he never mentioned it.  Of course, you can always leave it out or add extra for mocha ice cream.

Ingredient
makes 5 cups

3/4c cocoa powder (I've been using Rapunzel)
4T sucanat (also known as rapadura)
1t instant coffee powder (don't use actual coffee because you don't want the water in the cream)
Generous pinch of Celtic sea salt
1 1/2t of vanilla extract (I actually use vanilla powder)
1c whole milk
2c heavy cream

1. Sift dry ingredients, including the vanilla, into the cup of milk in a saucepan.
2. Heat on stove while stirring to get ingredients to combine well.  Sugar and salt should dissolve into the liquid.  Do NOT let it boil.  You can taste test this and add more sugar, coffee or extract if desired.  Just remember you still have to add the cream which will sweeten it up some more and change the taste profile.
3. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
4. Add cream and stir well
5. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
6. Follow your ice cream maker's directions.

Vivaldi Salad con Pollo e Bello

This is a my version of Bertucci's Vivaldi Salad.  I got tired of their portions shrinking to minuscule sizes plus I knew the version I could make at home was healthier since I use all organic ingredients.

If I am doing badly, their are some easy cheats for this one.  Instead of my dressing, use Newman's Own Parmesan and Garlic for the mushroom caps and asparagus, and Balsamic Vinaigrette for the chicken and salad.

You can also double the salad dressing ingredient amounts and save the extra for later.  I always have a jar of this on my dinner table waiting for spontaneous salads to appear.  I use an old Grey Poupon jar.

Ingredients
serves 2

salad dressing and marinade
4T extra virgin cold pressed olive oil
4T good balsamic vinegar
fresh ground pepper
1/2t dried thyme (1t if using fresh)
1/2t dried marjoram (1t if using fresh)

salad base
Organic Spring Mix salad mix (amount varies depending upon how hungry you are)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (preferably free range organic)
2 large portabello mushroom caps
2/3 bunch asparagus

salad options
cherry tomatoes
cucumber slices
sliced scallions
red onion slices
Crasins
feta cheese crumbles
goat cheese crumbles
walnut pieces

1. Place marinade ingredients in jar with a tight fitting lid and shake well.
2. Put 1-2T of marinade in a large Ziploc bag along with chicken.  Add a pinch of celtic sea salt.  Seal and coat chicken well.  Let sit while BBQ heats up.
3. Peel mushroom caps.  Pour some marinade on the caps and massage marinade into cap and gills.
4. Snap off ends of asparagus.  Pour some marinade on the spears.
5. Grill meat, mushrooms and asparagus.  Put asparagus on cool part of grill since the tips burn easily.
6. While meat is grilling plate up salad greens and add all the options that you prefer.
7. When meat and vegetables are done slice up and place on top of salad.  Pour remaining marinade on salad.