Living in the Ice Age

Happy New Year!

2015-01-01T12:00:00.000+00:00

Happy New Year!

The start of another year full of hope and promise, another year to live in health and happiness.

I think you're all ready to fly and so, I won't be updating this site any more.

You'll find more than enough inspiration here to go your own way in ancestral eating and primal health, but here's what I've come to:

Eat real and whole food; all of it!
Engage in meaningful and social activity
Rest naturally and take time to just potter
Avoid dogma, charlatans and those who monetise health
Hone your own instincts and learn to trust them

Notice

Content republishers please take note.

I do not want to see my posts here in Top 10 this, that or the other articles on your websites. I am not interested in monetising health, I am not interested your "link love", I am not interested in my SEO ranking and I am not interested in traffic. Go jump on the next bandwagon, eh? Folks can find this site for themselves.

I find the monetisation of health quite abhorrent.

Non-profit bloggers, feel free.

I am not interested in social media. You won't find me tweeting, nor will you find me on any of the usual social media enterprises - I think it's all completely pointless and an utter waste of time, effort and resources, sapping energy and in the end counter-productive to real health.

Fin

In a word: So long, and thanks for all the fish ...

Lamb Escalopes & Leaves

2014-12-28T19:30:00.000+00:00

Hunting through an unfamiliar supermarket, I happened upon a couple of bags of lamb escalopes in the cheap section ... unable to open the bags to take a look, it was pot-luck but it worked out well. Home, I found a number of thin slices of lamb leg ready for the skillet ...

For serving, I grabbed a good handful of leaves, added some carrot ribbons, green olives, capers and cubes of feta cheese, black pepper, sea salt and some poppy seeds.

Mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in butter for garnish over the meat.

Gorgeous!

Fajita Filling!

2014-12-22T20:00:00.000+00:00

Fancying a quick dinner, I thought about Fajitas but just made up extra filling to go with a light salad and some yoghurt ...

The chicken Fajita Filling is simply chicken strips fried off in a large skillet with some coconut oil, herbs and spices sprinkled over: paprika, turmeric, coriander, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper and some marjoram, green pepper added then red cabbage.

Serve out with a leafy green salad and a bowl of probiotic natural yoghurt.

Eat, enjoy, feel replete.

Mid-Winter Venison Meatballs

2014-12-21T20:00:00.000+00:00

Mid-Winter, you want nothing more than good food on a plate ...

Venison meatballs with a creamy green peppercorn sauce, potatoes roasted in goose fat, red cabbage boiled with apples, honey, cinnamon & allspice and steamed sprouts turned with clementines.

Too gorgeous!

Haggis, Neaps & Tatties

2014-12-14T20:00:00.000+00:00

Sunday dinner ...

Traditional Scots serving: Haggis with neaps and tatties, or mashed parsnip and potato. Greenage is tenderstem broccoli, peas and some baby kale which can be eaten like salad leaves.

Yes, Haggis is not Primal, but it is primal ... I mean, just how much more primal can you get: take all the offals left over and stuff it into the stomach then boil it. Granted, there is some barley in there, I think, perhaps oatmeal. The ingredients are pretty sparse, so I think I got a good one.

Bloody tasty, nevertheless ...

Winter Chicken Salad

2014-12-13T19:00:00.000+00:00

Cruising around the supermarket, I happened upon some baby kale. Baby kale? Like kale, but the young leaves which can be eaten as salad or just lightly cooked through in a little butter. Massive in vitamin K, vitamins A & C, calcium and manganese if you want the nutritional benefits.

Anyway ...

It's the middle of winter and I'm holding a bag of salad leaves, but inspiration came to me with one seasonal ray of sunshine that I look forward to every Christmas: Clementines.

So, baby kale, clementines ... and there are some chicken thighs in the reduced section. See? When you eat primal, nature (or rather the supermarket) makes your plate for you! It really is, just put real food together. Even if it is salad, in the middle of winter!

Chicken thighs are so simple to cook: just cover with water and commit to the oven for a few hours, the timing is largely irrelevant since a couple will do, four or five will not be too long. Low and slow, so 150C (300F) and just turn it down if you're not ready to eat.

Let's have some baby potatoes, too, sliced, par-boiled and sautéed in a little butter, some red onion and what's left of a couple of bell peppers. Icelandic ash salt and black pepper.

Crowning glory is the clementines. Slice through and dot around the salad.

Dinner is served!

Turkey Steaks & Creamed Chicory

2014-12-12T19:00:00.001+00:00

Creamed chicory goes so well with lighter meats like pork and chicken; tonight, with turkey ...

Chicory? You might know it as endive, but I know it as chicory, so ... it's creamed chicory. We're having it over turkey steaks on a bed of rice pasta combined with mushrooms and spinach.

Let's go!

Griddle pan on ...

Two small skillets out ...

Milk pan out ...

Turkey steaks on the griddle pan for maybe four or five minutes on one side, then flipped over.

Meanwhile, in one skillet soften your spinach with a little butter, sea salt and white pepper. Once wilted and reduced, remove to a chopping board and really smash it up! In the other skillet, soften some sliced mushrooms in a little butter.

Once the steaks are turned over ...

Combine the two into one skillet (the one that had the spinach in) and keep the other skillet (the one that had the mushrooms in) for the creamed endive, which is a simple case of removing the leaves from the core and pouring cream over ... low heat, sea salt, white pepper and perhaps some powdered garlic, certainly some herbs: chopped parsley. Control the heat to just wilt the chicory and slightly reduce the cream.

Ready to eat?

The rice pasta that I like cooks simply with boiling water poured over for 60 seconds. Let's do that and then retrieve the now cooked pasta into the skillet with the spinach and mushrooms, splash of olive oil and combine together.

Plate up with the pasta down, the turkey steaks sliced on a Chef's angle and crowned with the creamed chicory sauce.

Super!

Tuna & Salads

2014-12-12T19:00:00.000+00:00

Not particularly special or interesting, just pretty ... enjoy!

Haddock & Crushed Potatoes

2014-12-08T19:00:00.000+00:00

Monday evening and I just want something quick ...

Kettle on, water boiled ... pototoes on and a steamer of broccoli, asparagus & peas and a couple of lime wedges ready to go on towards the end.

Small skillet on, cream, sliced mushrooms, garlic powder, white pepper, smoked sea salt and chopped dill. Low, slow heat ... let the mushrooms colour through the cream which will reduce to a thick and suptuous sauce.

Almost there ...

Pop the steamer over the potatoes and get a larger skillet on with some butter. Pan fry the haddock fillets for three or four minutes on the presentation side then flip over and remove from the heat allowing the heat from the pan to finish the cooking.

Meanwhile, crush some butter into the potatoes, add in sliced spring onions and some sliced chicory.

Server out, potatoes down in the middle, green vegetables over to one side and the fish the other, sauce over the fish.

Monday dinner, done!

Rice & Peas, Jerk Chicken ... and Breakfast

2014-12-06T19:30:00.000+00:00

I'm experimenting with occasional meals that include legumes, just a small, select few: so, Puy lentils, green lentils, red lentils, black beans and gungo beans.

Tonight, it's that Jamaican classic: Rice & Peas with Jerk Chicken ...

Jerk Chicken

My jerk sauce is simple: crushed up Scotch Bonnet peppers, spring onions, sea salt, fresh thyme and olive oil. Massage into the chicken (I went with some drumsticks), slashed ... and commit to the oven for about an hour at 200C (400F?), turning over once during the cooking.

... which leaves us perfectly sufficient time to cook the Rice & Peas.

Rice & Peas

Rice & Peas should not be rushed. Personally, I think of it like a Pilaf but with coconut milk in place of the stock, and if you keep that in mind your Rice & Peas will come out perfect!

Take a large skillet and soften some finely chopped onion in butter.

Add the rice (remember, rice will swell up during cooking, so have a sufficient sized skillet) for which I go with a ramekin amount per person, which will make plenty for a dinner and plenty left over. Just allow the rice to get coated in the remaining butter.

Add a pint of chicken stock and boil hard and fast for about five minutes after which the liquid will be slightly reduced and the rice well on its way.

Add in a 400g can of coconut milk and a 400g can of gungo beans. That's the peas.

Low heat and very gently simmer for the remainder of the time it takes to cook the chicken through. If your rice is fully cooked, just add as splash of water to keep it going until you're ready.

Serve

Serve out a mound of Rice & Peas and lay the chicken alongside.

Drink? Guinness, of course, in my case a pack of Foreign Extra from the Nigerian brewery. Awesome!

Anyone else experimenting with legumes in their primal paradigm?

Breakfast

Leftovers. Breakfast is leftovers ... and something easy enough to come by, say some eggs or a fish.

Sprats for me! I love 'em! Whole, heads, guts in, the lot ... so does my mog, especially the crunchy heads.

Alternative Spag Bol!

2014-12-03T19:00:00.000+00:00

Spag Bol is not Spaghetti Bolognaise. Spag Bol is a British institution, a dish done quite wrong what with the sauce not being incorporated into the pasta, but so what? It's Spag Bol and the sauce on top of the pasta is how it's done. Deal with it ...

Spag Bol is: beef mince, onion, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, carrots, mushrooms and stock.

Carrots and mushrooms, neither of which I have in so I went with butternut squash and courgette, both of which I did have in.

It worked out well ...

Same drill, beef mince, onion, garlic, tomatoes, tomato puree, oregano, butternut squash, courgette and stock. Serve over pasta - in my case, a rice noodle which is a bit like tagliatelle. Fresh basil to garnish.

Sausage Casserole ... and Breakfast

2014-11-27T19:30:00.000+00:00

Weekly experiment with legumes, here, green lentils ...

Toulouse sausages, high meat content and little else in there ... as they should be. Combine with a few simple ingredients and a couple of store cupboard staples and you've got a great dinner!

Okay, so legumes are not primal but there is a spectrum here, a spectrum, folks. Not all legumes are made evil ... I mean equal. Some, down this end of the spectrum, like lentils are actually fine; red kidney beans down the other end, form a cross with your fingers, primal folks, they're still evil.

Anyway ...

Sausage Casserole

Skillet on, goose fat in, sausages browned off over a low heat and chucked into a lidded Pyrex dish.

In the remaining fat, soften a shredded onion and soak up the lovely fat with some shredded mushrooms. Pour over the sausages in the Pyrex.

Slice a red pepper and a green pepper. Add to the Pyrex.

Pour over a carton of chopped tomatoes.

Pour over a carton of green lentils.

Add three or four cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced, sea salt and black pepper.

Stir together and commit to the oven at 170C (350F) for a good hour, then remove the lid and let it reduce for another 30 minutes, or so.

Serve out when it's how you like it.

... and leftovers?

Breakfast

What do you do with leftovers? Bulk out with something fresh, here some courgette and asparagus, and stick and egg on top. Instant breakfast.

Salmon Bikesmad

2014-11-27T19:00:00.000+00:00

All pretty self-explanatory, really ...

Cubed roots par-boiled and fried off in butter with some spring onions.

Salmon pan-fried in butter.

Asparagus dropped in boiling water for 60 seconds.

Dill and soured cream sauce.

Pickles and a poached egg.

Dinner is served ...

Mackerel Fillet Salad

2014-11-24T12:00:00.000+00:00

Did I say how much I like mackerel? Lunch ...

Chicken Chasseur

2014-11-23T19:00:00.000+00:00

Classic French cuisine ...

Just the word "cuisine" can bring people out in a sweat when they're faced with that notion and put in front of a stove. Couple that with "French" and those people will be running for the door.

But, relax ...

Just because it's French Cuisine doesn't mean it's especially complicated; quite the contrary, in fact, given how rural France is and how much of their cuisine is simple rustic fair elevated to daft levels of culinary highs by Chefs who really should just come down to earth a little.

Chicken Chasseur is about as rustic as you can get. Cooked over an open fire, this is Hunter's Chicken, Pollo a la Cacciatore or whatever you want to call it in whatever language.

Chicken Chasseur

Chicken - Thighs, for me: 5 of them
Mushrooms - Portobello in my dinner: 3 large
Tomato - Keep it simple: carton of chopped tomatoes
Tomato Purée
Onion - 1 Medium
Garlic - 3-4 Cloves
Herbs & Spices - Thyme & Ground Coriander
Seasoning - Sea Salt & Black Pepper
Fat - Your favourite paleo fat or Lardons of Bacon

Cut up the chicken pieces into large chunks, or if you have meat on the bone just keep it as-is, so full thigh, full wing, whatever.

Take a large lidded skillet and a little of your favourite paleo fat or if you actually prepared for this, bacon lardons and seal the meat. Medium heat ... don't be nuking this thing!

Toss in a shredded onion and fry off until soft.

Add in sliced mushrooms to soak up all the lovely fat. Garlic, too, sliced.

Pour in a carton of chopped tomatoes and beef up with a little tomato purée.

In with the dried herbs, spices and seasoning.

Top up with water, bring to the boil, lid on and settle over a low heat for a couple of hours to cook through, soften, tenderise and reduce.

Ready to eat?

Just cook off the last of the liquid with the lid off while you boil some potatoes or rice, or cook through some rice noodles. Something starchy, anyway.

I went with lovely creamy mashed potatoes. Mash.

Plate up and gobble down hungrily and hopefully a little messily ...

Grilled Mackerel & Stir Fry Vegetables

2014-11-23T10:00:00.000+00:00

Got a load of veggies to use up? Shred the lot and stir-fry 'em ...

Now you need some protein.

Ha! Fish! Mackerel! I love mackerel ...

Fish

Gut your fish and fillet, v-boning to remove the middle bone set and slash the skin.

Fry off in a skillet with a little butter, skin side down until crispy then flip over, turn the heat off and let the flesh cook through in the residual heat.

Meanwhile ...

Stir-Fry Vegetables

I don't need to tell you how to do this, do I?

Suffice to say, shred whatever you want and toss it through with a little fat in a skillet or wok.

Serve

Serve out, vegetable down, fish on top, lemon or lime wedge alongside, perhaps an avocado? This was my breakfast, so I did just that ... and forgot the boiled egg.

Grilled Jerk Mackerel & Vegetable Rice

2014-11-20T19:30:00.000+00:00

Leftover are great! Instant dinner ...

I have some pre-cooked rice in the fridge (resistant starch, and all that) and some leftover cubed vegetables from some meal, or other. Protein? I have a fish! It's a mackerel ... lovely soft, fatty flesh.

What to do, then?

Well, I could spice up the vegetable rice with some chilli, or do it the other way around and jerk my fish. Let's do that ...

Jerk Seasoning

Simple stuff, this, and good to make in a batch.

You need Scotch Bonnet peppers, fresh thyme, spring onions, sunflower oil, black pepper and sea salt.

Blend the lot together. The bulk comes from the spring onions and the Scotch Bonnet pepper, fragrance from the thyme and a good saltiness, so over-salt, from the sea salt, wetness from the oil and the black pepper adds another depth of hotness (hotness, not heat) to it.

But, sunflower oil? Well, yes. I know, there's the omega-6 thing what with all that linoleic acid but as Mark points out in his Is it Primal? post, not all sunflower oil is bad. Grab yourself a cold-pressed example "which preserves vitamin E and reduces oxidation" that is a "high-oleic/high-stearic oil".

... and relax.

The quantities are up to you, but I would advise you start out just blending the Scotch Bonnet pepper together with some spring onions and then start to add the oil, then the thyme, then salt and pepper. You'll build up a sense of how YOU want your jerk seasoning as you go.

Fish

Take your fish, gut is and lay it flat on a board.

Slash the skin both sides, gently so as not to go through the bone and massage some jerk seasoning into the slashes.

Under the grill for 5-7 minutes each side, just to make the skin bubble and you're done.

Vegetable Rice

Combine your pre-cooked rice and leftover vegetables, chopped up, in a skillet with a little (that is a little, since our fish is fatty) of your favourite paleo fat. All together now, "goose fat, for me" ... and cook through.

Serve

Serve out, vegetable rice down, fish on top ... perhaps with a little soured cream alongside.

Breakfast

I still had some rice and vegetables left, so did much the same for breakfast but served with a pickled herring ...

Dead simple! Two great meals for the price of one concept.

Fast & Furious! Turkey & Mushroom Stroganoff

2014-11-18T19:30:00.000+00:00

I've shown you this a good number of times in various guises, but it's worth showing again ...

... and to emphasise just how fast a good meal can be made using this recipe.

Turkey & Mushroom Stroganoff

Clock is ticking ...

Skillet on, coconut oil in, sliced turkey meat in.

Maybe a minute or so later, shredded onion in, sliced mushrooms in, garlic powder, black pepper and a little sea salt.

Rice noodles in boiled water ... 60 seconds. Retrieve and add to the skillet.

Cream and chopped herbs, dill in this case for a nice Russo-Scandic feel, toss together and turn out into a bowl.

Shredded spring onions to garnish.

Done! Four minutes? How quickly can you make it?

Steamed Cod & Hot Tomato Sauce

2014-11-17T18:00:00.000+00:00

Relaxing start of the week dinner ...

Monday dinners can be tough, what with so much to do when you get home from work after the weekend ... not least, cooking dinner.

When you have 10 minutes, or so, you can make up the sauce and just let it simmer on a very low heat until you're ready to cook the rest ...

Hot Tomato Sauce

Carton Chopped Tomatoes (400g)
Half Small Onion
Garlic Cloves (3-4)
Chilli Flakes
Olive Oil
Sea Salt & Black Pepper

Heat up some olive oil in a skillet. Olive oil does not tolerate high heat well, and one of the forgotten skills in Italian cooking is to keep the heat moderate or low and take your time. I repeat: take your time. Relax into the sauce.

Finely chop half an onion and soften in the warmed oil.

Lightly blend the chopped tomatoes so that you have almost a passata, but still with some structure. Pour into the skillet.

Slice the garlic cloves and add. I don't like to add garlic to the oil and onions since it can burn. I much prefer to add garlic later.

Sprinkle over some chilli flakes, add some sea salt and black pepper, reduce the heat and let it simmer ... it will be perfectly happy until you're ready to cook the rest of the dish and will improve with that time. Relax!

Steamed Cod

Cod Loin

Our cats eat fish. They love their fish! I get all the tail ends and offcuts from our local Chippy and all I need to do it remove the really big bones and steam the rest.

So, steamer on, I might as well steam some fish for us humans, too ...

I have a lovely loin of cod, thick, big flakes, gorgeous. Steamed, perhaps 10 minutes.

Salsa

Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Spring Onions
Capers
Green Olives
Dried Oregano
Sea Salt & Black Pepper

Fish on sauce is a bit dull to the eye, so I made up a quick salsa of olive oil, lemon juice, shredded spring onions, capers, sliced green olives, dried oregano, sea salt and black pepper.

Serve

Sauce down first and gently lay the fish over, salsa over the top.

The fish falls apart in huge flakes, picking up the sauce and gaining an extra pique of interest with the salsa. This truly was a gorgeous meal!

Beef Medallions & Root Cubes

2014-11-16T17:30:00.000+00:00

Quick and easy Sunday dinner ...

Cube up a load of root vegetables: carrot, swede, celeriac & potato. Steam.

Slice some mushrooms and place in a skillet. Pour in cream, a good teaspoon of green peppercorns and a touch of white pepper and celery salt. Gently heat through. If the sauce becomes too reduced, just add water.

After about 10 minutes, warm up a large skillet with some butter for the beef.

Cut the medallions into inch thick slices and lay in the large skillet to colour up. Flip over after about 3 minutes, same again on the other side. Reduce the heat and go for 5 minutes each side on the lower heat. The meat should be cooked through, but not "well done".

Serve up, roots down first, laying the (rested) meat over the top and spoon the sauce over.

Spicy Chicken & Mushroom over Roasted Marrow

2014-11-15T19:00:00.000+00:00

It's a bit of a use-up meal ...

Take a marrow, or at least a good length of, cut in half lengthways, remove the seeds and commit to the oven at 180C for about an hour. Optionally, drizzle some olive oil over.

When the marrow is about done, shred an onion and some chicken breast.

In a large skillet, melt a little coconut oil, pop the onions in with some flavours: sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika and ground coriander.

Once the onions are cooked through, add in the chicken and quickly cook through before adding in sliced mushrooms and chopped fresh coriander.

Serve out with the marrow down first, chicken and mushroom over, garnished with some pine nuts and a good drizzle of yogurt and lemon juice. I also sprinkled some sumac over.

... for a random bunch of ingredients, just cooked through and put together, it worked very well; testament to the chorus of the ancestral chef: "cook real food and put it together".

Turkey Mince Sliders with Celeriac Remoulade

2014-11-13T19:00:00.000+00:00

... just a simple meal, quick to make and great to eat!

Turkey Mince Sliders

1lb Turkey Mince
Lemon Rind
Chilli
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Ground Coriander

Coconut Oil to fry

Mix the lot together, divide into 8ths and make meatballs, pressing down gently once you pop them into the skillet for frying.

Coconut oil in the skillet for frying.

Fry off on a higher heat for 2-3 minutes each side, lower the heat and cook on for maybe 5 minutes each side.

Meanwhile ...

Celeriac Remoulade

Celeriac
Egg Yolks (1 per Person)
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Cider Vinegar
Sea Salt
White Pepper
Poppy Seeds

Slice the celeriac into thin slices and shred into long matchsticks.

Blanch in boiled water.

Make up the remoulade by whisking the egg yolks, drizzle of olive oil, splash of cider vinegar, juice of half a lemon, no need to be exact ... together with sea salt, white pepper and poppy seeds.

Drain the celeriac and combine with the remoulade which will cook through in the residual heat.

Serve

Mound up some of the celeriac remoulade in the middle of the plate and surround with the sliders over some salad if you like - I went with shredded lettuce and tomato slices.

Chicken Liver Parfait

2014-10-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

Similar to pâté but more creamy ...

Take some chicken livers, it doesn't matter how much; some, and gently fry off in butter.

Blend with cream, at something like a 1:3 ratio of cream to livers.

Spoon into ramekins and seal with melted butter poured over the top and garnished with a thin slice of lemon, sprinkle of Allspice, some green peppercorns and a sprig of dill.

Serve with crisp lettuce leaves.

Canned Tuna Fish Cakes

2014-10-13T19:30:00.000+01:00

Fast and easy ...

Combine drained canned tuna and cold mashed potato at a 1:2 ratio of potato to fish.

Add in any flavourings you like - chilli, ground coriander, lemon rind, whatever.

Gently fry off in your favourite paleo fat, goose fat for me.

Serve with mixed vegetables, some mayonnaise and a wedge of lime, scattered herbs over.

Roasted Sprouts & Bacon with Mashed Cauliflower, Feta & Soured Cream

2014-10-11T19:30:00.000+01:00

Really two meals combined ...

Roasted Sprouts & Bacon

Oven on at 180C.

Par-boil some Brussels sprouts, half and drop into a roasting tray with shredded fatty bacon and a few cloves of garlic.

Omit the bacon and add in some coconut oil or olive oil for a vegetarian alternative.

Commit to the oven for about half an hour.

Mashed Cauliflower, Feta & Soured Cream

Steam some cauliflower and crush with feta cheese and soured cream.

Serve

Roasted sprouts down first, cauliflower over and a good knob of butter on top, shredded spring onions to garnish.