Braised beef - Greek Style

Braised Beef - Greek Style

350g pickling onions or large shallots - peeled
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 kg beef  - cheeks or brisket - cut into 5cm pieces
20ml red wine vinegar
150ml red wine
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp finely grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp finely ground cloves
1/2 tsp finely ground cumin
1 bay leaf
3 cloves garlic - peeled and sliced
1 tbsp tomato paste
400g tinned tomatoes in their own juice - chopped
800ml water - to cover
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 130c
Put onions into a roasting tray with 1 tbsp oil and roast for 20 - 25 minutes until golden, but not cooked through.
Put a heavy-based casserole on a medium heat, add 1 tbsp oil and when hot, add beef - in batches and sear to brown all sides.
Add red wine vinegar and red wine to casserole and bring to the boil to burn the alcohol off.
Add cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, cumin, bay leaf, garlic, tomato paste and tomatoes to casserole and stir to combine.
Add water, to just cover - sugar and salt and pepper.
Bring back to the boil, cover the mixture with baking paper, then put the lid on the casserole.
Put casserole into the pre-heated oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove from the oven, stir and add the part-cooke onions.
Return the casserole to the oven and cook a further 1 to 1 1/2 hours or till the meat is very tender.
Season to taste.
Serves 4

First things first...

Blogger is not letting me make comments to anyone else who is on blogger. I'm grumpy about that. I don't want to lose touch with anyone and I know what a thrill it is when I get a comment, and I'm assuming it's the same for you?? And, I have OPINIONS - and no-one at home listens to me... so you are important! :-)
Sleeping Horse has offered to loan me her son (his techy expertise ladies! - control those grubby minds!) - he is to help me shift everything to Wordpress... cos I sure as heck can't do it myself - what do you think? - is it a good idea??

Diet up-date.... sigh

No weight loss ... no gain either, so I guess it's not all bad...
I still feel very much better overall - this is in spite of being glutened at dinner in Wellington over the weekend. I'm still not fully recovered from that, but if you discount the explosive gut issues (tmi? - lol) I feel great. No brain fog, no mid-afternoon fatigue, I'm sleeping really well... and the food is great!
I'm not going to lie - I do wish I had lost some weight and I guess it would be easy to say this isn't working, let's try something else... but I've done everything else, and that didn't work either. At least this way I don't feel deprived and cranky - and feeling good is not to be sneezed at!

And while we're talking about diet food - have you seen this?

Available at a supermarket near you! Inside are two little pottles of guacamole - avocado in perfect condition in your fridge any time you want it! - and it's gluten free too! Yay! (I use far too many exclamation points - if you could see me in person, you would know that I wave my hands when I talk... if you tied my hands behind my back I would be unable to speak )

Enough about me and my diet. Happy Birthday to Her Majesty and thank you ma'am for the holiday, which we will spend tidying the garden and cleaning leaves out of the guttering... and packing our bags for Rarotonga (www.royaletakitumu.com)

Duck Fat

I went to Moore Wilson's in Wellington at the weekend. Moore Wilson's is a deli/grocery/bakery/green-grocer/butcher/fish-monger/dry-goods and kitchen equipment store... and I think I probably have left something out.
Moore Wilson's is one of the reasons I love Wellington.
I bought several things, but the only one I have used so far is....

Duck Fat - OhMyGod!

I wrapped some chicken thighs in bacon, and peeled and sliced some pumpkin.

 I put them all in my large cast-iron pan, dotted everything with some duck fat and baked it in the oven until everything was cooked.

You haven't lived until you've eaten potatoes cooked in duck fat, but pumpkin is pretty damn good too.... and this is DIET food people :-)

We had it with a green salad.





Found it!

Do you remember how he lost the mouse?.... well I found it....  gaaarrgh! Peg on nose stuff. I guess this would count as Primal?? - NOT that it will be eaten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Urk.

Autumn Garden

Rocket (argula) nearest the camera, and Coriander (Cilantro) and parsley, on a table under the kitchen window. Coriander/parsley have survived having Percy nest his large rear-end on them...

The mint has recovered from a drastic pruning at beginning of Autumn.

They say rosemary grows really well in a place where a woman is in charge.... don't tell Rick!

We're hoping for carrots - cats and drainage issues permitting...

NZ native spinach, which has appeared by magic. You pinch out the growing tips and steam it - delicious - with none of the furry teeth feeling that you get with regular spinach.

Fish with butter sauce

The only way this could get better would be to have it with bacon...

Beurre Blanc
1/4 cup (60 ml) dry white wine
1/4 cup (60ml) white wine vinegar
1/2 a small onion - thinly sliced
4 tsp lemon juice
200g butter - chopped and chilled

Put the wine and vinegar into a small pot and bring to the boil.
Add the onion, season and reduce the heat to low.
Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated - you need to leave about 1 - 2 tbsp.
Add 2 tsp lemon juice then strain - keep the liquid.
Return the liquid to a clean pot and bring back to hot.
Turn the heat down again and whisk in the butter piece by piece - wait until each piece is melted before you add the next - keep whisking.
Add the remaining 2 tsp lemon juice, season to taste and keep warm.

Pan fry your fish in butter.
Serve fish with sauce spooned over. We had ours with zuchinni, Rick had potatoes too.

Progress Report

I've been hesitating to write about it - just in case I jinx myself...
I've lost 1 inch off my waist and 2kg so far.
I feel great. I'm not the smallest bit hungry, I'm sleeping really well generally (unless the students over the back start shouting at 2am - as they did last night!) and my tummy no longer looks 'pregnant'.
And as an extra bonus - my elbow and shoulder no longer hurt :-) .  I ripped all the muscles in my left arm a couple of years ago when I shifted furniture in order to paint walls. I had physio, but it never really came right - until now. You don't realise how pain affects you, until it stops - I know, slow learner!! :-)
The weightloss has been completely painless, and my Mum is interested in giving it a go, so all is good.
I'm taking photos, but doubt they will ever be published! They are a HUGE incentive though :-)

Grilled Beef Patties Vietnamese Style

3 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
500g lean minced beef
1 garlic clove - finely chopped
1/2 a small onion - finely chopped (or 4 spring onions)
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp coconut cream
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp caster sugar
pinch of salt

Stir sesame seeds in a dry pan over medium heat for a minute, then add the cumin and stir until fragrant.
Put all the other ingredients into a bowl, add the sesame seeds and squoosh well together.
Divide the mix into about 16 portions and form into patties.
Put them in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Cook them for about 3 minutes each side.
Serve with dipping sauce, or just do what we did and pour some sauce over.

Nuoc Cham dipping sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
3 tbsp water
a garlic clove - finely chopped
1 small red chilli - finely chopped (take the seeds out first)
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp fish sauce
Put the vinegar, sugar and water into a small pot. Bring to the boil, turn it down to a simmer and stir till the sugar dissolves. Let it cool, then add the other ingredients.
Be careful, this stuff is addictive.

Have left-overs for breakfast :-)

Yum

Have you tried this yet?

 I keep reading about how fabulous Coconut Oil is, so I bought some... And it is! Such a subtle flavour. Some bloggers have mentioned eating it by the spoonful - I'm not up for that - yet - but I did lick my finger and it is really good stuff. It melts in your mouth like the best Belgian chocolate and doesn't taste at all oily. I expected it to be a bit like lard, but it isn't at all.
 I cooked last week's liver and bacon in it, and I made a date and chocolate and almond and coconut oil thing yesterday (I know I'm dieting, but it was one of those days). I'll do the recipe tomorrow - Yoshi has helped me eat some steak and is now asleep on my lap. It's kinda hard to blog around a cat.

This picture was taken in summer, but the effect is the same

Cauliflower Rice with Prawns

I thought I would miss rice.
You're not supposed to eat grains on this Primal/Paleo thing, and rice is a grain...
I'd seen cauliflower rice on several other blogs I look at, and thought it might work...
I put some chicken stock in a pot and boiled it to reduce it right down, then I added some finely sliced leek and reduced it until there was only a few tablespoons left.
I munched about half a cauliflower in the food processor - using the 'large grate' blade.
I put a knob of butter into the reduced stock.
Then I added the cauliflower, grated zucchini (that I had frozen earlier - thanks for the idea Ina x), prawns and grated parmesan.
It steamed for 3 - 4 minutes.
Then we ate it.

I'm still not sure that Rick realises it was not rice.
It was really tasty and the meal didn't leave me sleepy - the way eating risotto used to do.
On the subject of sleep - since starting this way of eating... I hesitate to say 'diet', because that is a four-letter-word that means 'failure' in my personal dictionary.... I have slept like a rock.
The only thing that wakes me is a cat on my chest... and he's only on my chest, because he hasn't been able to wake me any other way!
It's now 11:10am - I haven't yet had breakfast... because I simply haven't been hungry... I still feel really good :-)

Slow-cooker Smokey Beef

Rick's cousin has a bit of land on the outskirts of the city. They grow some beefs and some sheeps. We bought a quarter of a beef beastie from him. Nigel and Andrea delivered it on the Saturday night.
That critter was HUGE.
We now have no space in our freezer, the beer-fridge freezer part is full - and we've taken some to store in Mum and Dad's freezer...
We will be eating a lot of beef in the next few months. :-)
I'm cooking a topside roast in the slow-cooker for dinner tonight and it's smelling really good.
I made a rub based on the one here http://everydaypaleo.com/2011/05/13/smokey-roast/#more-2357. I don't have ground chipotle - so I just used chilli seasoning (which will probably make it not quite as spicy - a good thing because I made a pork curry on the weekend that blew the top of Rick's head off... I need to be on my best behaviour!), and I also didn't have any garlic powder... so I left it out :-)
The roast seems to have cooked down quite a bit, but I think there will be some left over for me for breakfast and for Rick for lunch.
I love that it is ok to eat left-over roast meat for breakfast!!!

Herb Gravy

Blogger is back! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Being unable to use blogger has been like having an arm cut off... now they just have to make the comments bit work again... or is that just me?

I made roast pork for dinner last night, with pumpkin, kumara (sweet potato) and parsnip.
There is no recipe - you just put everything in the oven and wait for it to cook.
With a roast dinner, you need gravy - you just DO!
I found this one:  http://www.elanaspantry.com/herb-gravy/
It is easy and really, really good.

The trouble with following food blogs is that you keep finding lovely recipes that you want to try, and my usual technique of putting a post-it-note on it - doesn't work well with a computer...
AND it also means the recipes (ninehundredandseventytwelve of them!) I have already put post-its on, is as large as it ever was :-)

On the diet side - I dished up our meal last night (Rick usually does this). I dished my meal up so small that Rick was worried 'Is that all you're going to eat?'
I ate half and was full.

Steak and Kidney Stew

This Primal eating thing is going really well... mostly.
I started out eating quite a lot. Now I find I'm not eating that much at all...
Because I have some weight to lose (and a holiday involving swimsuits coming up), I'm trying to keep the carbs to a bare minimum - which means I'm eating quite a lot (compared to before) of meat, fish, poultry and eggs.
I think it might be going easier for me because I was already gluten-free, and because I don't really eat a lot of grains at the moment at all.
I had a headache last week, so had a quiet day. The headache passed and apart from that, I have been feeling very much better.
I made steak and kidney stew in the slow-cooker.
I cut some beef (blade steak I think) into cubes, added some onion, garlic and tomato paste, added some gluten-free stock (home made) and cooked it all on slow for about 4 hours.
Then I chopped up some kidneys and put them in, stirred it all around and added some sliced leeks too.
I cooked that for another couple of hours.
I seasoned it with salt and pepper.
It is really good - I froze some and have eaten the rest over a few days.
I'd take a photo, but... it's ... brown.... I need to figure out how to make brown stew look as good as it tastes :-)

Last night we ate out. We were careful to make sure it was gluten-free.
I ate a small meal, but it did include sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots and peas.
I woke this morning with severe cramps and an upset gut.
I've been reading some of the primal people's blogs and they suggest that too many carbs can do that to a person. In my 'old' life I would regularly have eaten as  much (which is perhaps why I have weight to lose???) , but I have learned my lesson and won't do that again! LOL
It's all a learning curve - but I really am feeling good so far...
PS This blog started as a place to put all my many recipes, but has skewed off in a different direction... My Mum (who to the best of my knowledge has never seen any blog - let alone mine!) tells me that all bloggers are self-absorbed...  are we? ... and is that necessarily such a bad thing? What do you think?

Paleo/Primal

Since being diagnosed (sort-of) with celiac disease, I have been doing a LOT of reading.
Everything I thought I knew about nutrition has been turned on its head, and I'm simply not sure of anything anymore.
I have been reading a lot about the 'Caveman' diet. My GP recommends it. So, I'm trying it out.
A lot more protein, veggies, but not potatoes or beans or lentils. A little fruit - mostly berries. No grains - not even rice, which I will miss a lot.

As a bonus, I expect to lose some weight. I had BETTER lose some weight. (in a few weeks we will go to Rarotonga. To a small resort that lists 'hammocking' as its prime sporting activity). Pacific Islands mean swimsuits, and I can't tell you when I last wore a swimsuit in public :-) I've taken 'before' photos - which will NEVER be published :-), but are a huge (!) incentive!

Rick bought home some lamb's liver (we call it lamb's fry - have no idea why). I cooked it with onions and garlic and bacon. I rolled the liver in my gluten-free flour mix (I know that is grains, but surely a very little can't hurt?), then I browned it, put the onions and bacon back in the pan and poured over some stock... let it simmer a bit - just till it thickens.
We had it with gai larn (Chinese broccoli) - Rick had mashed potatoes too. It was tasty and very satisfying.

What I did.

We went to a Royal Wedding watching party. It was pot-luck, which means that everyone brought food for everyone else to share. I brought Lancashire Hot-Pot. If you have a Lancastrian heritage - look away now!
I'd recently had an uncomfortable experience having been invited to dinner at a friend's home.
As a result of that, I knew my friends don't 'get' the gluten-free thing. I have to look out for myself.
So - I made my Lancashire Hot-Pot into a one-pot meal. Something I knew would be completely 'safe'.
Traditional Lancashire Hot-Pot is very simple - Lamb, onions, potatoes layered in a casserole, pour stock over it and bake. Simple. Delicious.... (a little bit bland - if I have to be completely honest, but that might be my Yorkshire blood talking)
I used Mutton (elderly sheep), the meat has a stronger taste than lamb - but we are Kiwis - we can handle it.
I used onion, garlic, leeks, bacon, celery, carrots and potatoes. I used home-made stock. I used quite a lot of rosemary. And I used half a small jar of my home-made mint chutney.

It.Was.Fabulous.
There were left-overs (I made a HUGE crock-pot full)
We ate it all weekend.
We gave some to  my parents. My Dad made a special phone call (he HATES telephones) to tell me it was the best Lancashire Hot-pot he had ever eaten.
Our hostess - who had turned down our offer of some of the left-overs phoned to tell me she was an idiot to do that :-)
The wedding was fabulous.
Kate and her boy were GORGEOUS (as was David Beckham, by the way)
A good time was had by all.

Asian Chicken Parcels

This meal is so easy, and when you unwrap the parcels the smell is delicious.

Asian Chicken Parcels

Chicken pieces - skin removed, flesh slashed - I used thighs
1/3 cup gluten free soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
2 garlic cloves - thinly sliced
2 small red chillies - seeded and chopped finely
2cm piece fresh ginger - peeled and cut into thin matchsticks
4 star anise
green vegetable - I used peeled broad beans, but bok choy, brocolli, spinach, green beans
Put pieces of foil on a baking tray (you need to make the foil big enough to make into a parcel, line foil with a piece of baking paper the same size.
Put chicken pieces and green vegetable on top of the baking paper.
Scrunch the foil a bit to a cup shape, to hold the sauce.
Warm the soy sauce, honey, garlic, chilli, ginger and star anise together until the honey has melted.
Spoon the sauce over the chicken.

Fold the edges of the foil and paper together and seal to make parcels.

Bake at 180c for about half an hour.
Serve with rice.

Go To Pork

I make this 'recipe' a lot. It has become a kind of comfort food. I think it is Jamie Oliver, though I'm not really sure... it's one of my collection that isn't labelled, but it 'sounds' like Jamie.
Pork with Parsnip, Apple,Lemon and Rosemary
Pork slices or chops
Parsnip - peeled and sliced
Apple - cored and sliced thickly
Garlic cloves - peeled and chopped roughly
Lemons - juice and skin (slice the skins into strips)
Oil - olive or grapeseed
Fresh rosemary - chopped

I also used gold kumara, butternut pumpkin and carrots - a one-pot meal, my favourite kind!
Put oil, garlic, lemon juice and rosemary into a big bowl
Put the vegetables, apple and lemon skins into the oil and stir to coat - use your hands - much easier
Put the vegetables into a shallow baking dish
Put the pork into the bowl and stir to coat in oily herby mix
Put the pork on top of the vegetables and tip the remaining oil over.

Bake till all is cooked and delicious.
The lemon skins go almost caramelized and cut through the richness of the pork - delicious (did I say that already?)
I didn't take a photo of it once it was cooked. Now that daylight saving is over, it is dark by the time the cooking is done and I'm having trouble with getting the lighting right...

Barbecued Pork Spare Ribs

Pork slices - bone in - or not, but the bones are nice to suck
4 tbsp barbecue sauce - which I didn't have, so I used home-made tomato sauce
4 tbsp honey
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Chinese chilli sauce
1/4 tsp five spice powder
1/3 cup sherry - the recipe says use dry sherry, but the liquor store doesn't have it - I used medium sherry
2 tbsp gluten free soy sauce
1 clove garlic - crushed
2.5cm piece green ginger - grated.

Combine  the sauce ingredients and mix well
Put the pork slices into a baking dish and pour sauce mix over, marinate at least an hour.

Bake in a moderately hot oven for about an hour until the pork is tender - baste frequently.

Soft, sticky, juicy, sweet-sour delicious.

Window shopping with my Mum and sister

We do it every now and then. Spend the day together, deciding what we would buy if money was no object... we have lunch and maybe a gelato later in the afternoon, and we spend our imaginary dollars (on boots and Merino sweaters).
Eating out can be quite an exercise with celiac disease - where to go to eat safely. The answer yesterday was Moxie's Cafe. Moxie's is on the corner of Main and George St, Palmerston North. The place was buzzing, a cabinet of lucious looking food clearly marked - green stickers for ordinary people, red for those of us who have special needs. They even have an entire menu (red of course) with gluten-free options - an.entire.menu. ! The staff are young, beautiful, friendly and aware. Moxie's deserves a medal - and the Cajun Chicken Salad was delicious.
I didn't need dinner last night - I made this pork the day before...

 HONEY SPICE PORK

4 tbsp clear honey
4 tbsp gf soy sauce
juice of 1 large orange
zest of 1 orange
4 star anise
4 garlic cloves - chopped

Combine all the ingredients in a small pot, heat until melted together and pour over pork (chops or slices).

I forgot the garlic, but added it later

Cover and cook at 150c for about 1 1/2 hours.