living in the ice age

Chocolate Panna Cotta

2012-05-16T20:00:00.000+01:00

Few desserts excite me, but Panna Cotta is one. Ice Cream and Cheesecake are the remainder of that very short list.

How do you make Panna Cotta even better? Add chocolate!

Cream, milk, cocoa and some berries on top. Perfection!

If you're not down with dairy as part of your paleo lifestyle, this really is not for you ... but I would encourage you to consider it - it is a great pack of fat, good dairy and an ideal dish with which to enjoy some berries.

Having primal tastes, the over sugared offerings in hermetically sealed packaging from the supermarket really does not cut it!

Here's how to keep it paleo ...

Use the ramekins that you will be pouring the dessert into as measures.

Warm up cream and milk, or buttermilk. I go for equal quantities of each since I love cream. If you're concerned about using milk, just go for all cream. Maybe experiment with yoghurt, mascarpone, raw milk ... do what you feel is right for you.

Warm up ... don't boil, don't get it frothy, don't get it excited ... just warm it up.

Add a good tablespoon of cocoa powder per ramekin of liquid. Stir this in well, whisking in if necessary to get all the lumps out. Keep stirring to ensure that the cocoa is really well combined.

Meanwhile, soften some gelatine.

Gelatine comes in many forms, but I like beef gelatine in sheets. The packet will tell you how much you need for the quantity of liquid, but do err just on the slight side - you want that classic wobble, not fully set.

Once softened, and with the cream blend warmed through, squeeze out the gelatine and drop it into the warm liquid.

Stir it through and then pour out into ramekins.

Back up ... you missed that, didn't you?

It's really that simple - soften the amount of gelatine required for the volume you've made and just stir it in. You could add sweetener in, but I don't like to - Panna Cotta done right is pure! Cream ... that's it.

Dress with a few berries - strawberries would be an obvious choice, perhaps with a little spring of mint. I went with a few blueberries.

Sweeter berries will form a perfect counterpoint to the bitterness of the dark cocoa, which is initially offset by the fattiness of the cream, but an additional sweetness will really bring out the best in all the flavours.

Enjoy! I'm sure you will ...

Spicy Braised Lamb Shanks

2012-05-13T18:30:00.000+01:00

What's better than lamb shanks? Spicy lamb shanks! Better still, this one pot dish is so easy and hassle-free it surprises me that I do not make it more frequently.

First, lamb shanks.

From the BBC, shanks are the "meaty cut from the lower end of the leg is full of flavour and will become meltingly tender, and fall from the bone after long, slow cooking."

Several hours before you want to eat ...

First, brown off your shanks in a heavy-based skillet.

While they're browning, chop some sweet red pepper and lay this into the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Sweet red peppers will give a deep, sweet flavour, which counters the spicy punch of the chillies we'll use. Cover with a good helping of tomato purée, for flavour and thickening.

Settle the lamb shanks onto the bed of peppers.

Chop an onion and sauté it in the residual fat in the skillet which will have rendered from the shanks. Pour over the shanks.

Mince a few bulbs of garlic and toss them into the dish - lamb can take a lot of garlic. I used maybe 6 or 8 cloves!

Mince a couple of chillies and toss them in.

Add a few flavours and colours, like coriander and paprika; aromatics, thyme, sage and rosemary; white pepper and celery salt.

Pour over some lamb stock to cover.

Lid on and into the oven set to 100C for the day.

Enjoyed you day? Great! Let's eat ...

Retrieve the shanks from the dish and place one into each bowl.

Blend the whole braising jus - this will help emulsify the fat into the liquid and make a deep, sumptuous sauce.

Boil the jus rapidly for a few minutes to reduce and thick, then pour over the shanks and garnish with some fresh herbs - I used parsley.

Is that it?

Well, yes ... you could serve some steamed veggies alongside, even some potato, but I prefer a light Mediterranean salad of feta cheese, olives, tomatoes, capers, pickled chillies and pickled beetroot.

The meat should literally fall off the bone. Don't forget to winkle out the marrow!

Burp!

Smoked Haddock & Cream Sauce

2012-05-09T20:00:00.000+01:00

Smoking is an ancient method of curing meat and fish, imparting a deep flavour into the flesh. Lightly poached and settled under a cream mushroom blanket! Delicious!

Accompany with something starchy and something green - here, Jersey Royal potatoes and some asparagus, both perfectly seasonal.

Jersey Royals are a cultivar of Kidney Potatoes and grown solely on the Isle of Jersey, and under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). With a short season, between the end of April through to just into June, their unique flavour comes from Jersey's rich fertile earth and gentle climate. Get 'em while you can!

If potatoes are really not a part of your paleo diet, feel free to use pretty much any root: swede works well for me, mashed, or sweet potato, again, mashed.

Anyway, let's go poaching ...

Not that kind of poaching! Poaching a fish.

Begin by diluting some cream with water to make a milky consistency, add a bay leaf and a sprinkle white pepper - this is the poaching liquor. Why not use milk? Why, when cream does a perfectly good job.

Bring the poaching liquor up to a simmer in a skillet and gently lay the fish pieces in, turning after a few minutes. Turn the heat right down just to keep the fillets warm.

Wash, peel and boil the Jersey Royal potatoes or whatever roots you are going to eat.

Drop a good knob of butter into a pan and toss in a few sliced mushrooms. Allow the mushrooms to soak up the butter leaving the pan dry. Pour in some cream and settle on a low heat for the mushrooms to infuse a flavour and the cream reduce. You can let the cream really reduce and thicken, since we'll be letting it back out with the poaching liquor at the end.

Gently boil or steam your green veggies.

When the potatoes are ready, drain, drop a knob of butter into the pan and some chopped dill. Swirl around to coat the potatoes with the herb butter.

Retrieve the haddock from the poaching pan and settle onto a plate.

Your cream sauce should be really thick now and have changed to a mushroom brown colour. Let it out with a little poaching liquor, pouring in a small amount and watching for a change in consistency - you want a sauce which is not too thick, not to runny.

Pour the sauce over the fish and draw a line of crushed hazelnuts over the top. Grind some freshly milled black pepper over and garnish with a sprig, or two, of fresh dill.

Make a mound of potatoes alongside and a mound of green vegetables.

Grab your diggers and pile in!

Cream of Celery Soup with Trufflina

2012-05-07T19:00:00.000+01:00

Rustic, brought up to gourmet with truffle.

Celery is a superb source of vitamins A, vitamin K, folate and bioflavonoid antioxidants.

Enjoyed raw as a means of scooping up dips, or chopped as part of a salad; here, we'll be cooking it through and enjoying its unique flavour in a soup.

To work ...

Shred a good few celery stalks, some leek and a couple of cloves of garlic. Soften in some butter and then pour in some light chicken stock or bouillon.

Bouillon? Oh, come on ... what's wrong with salted water? Well, a bouillon is a broth made from a simmering of mirepoix, bouquet garni and some bones. Mirepoix? Bouquet garni? Now you're really taking the proverbial! This is paleo, not haute cuisine!

Here's a cheat - you can buy powered bouillion which only needs a generous tablespoon in a litre of water. If you wanted to make up your own, it's onion, celery and carrots (the mirepoix), thyme, bay and sage tied together (the bouquet garni), some bones and water - simmer for a few hours to extract all the flavour, freeze excess as appropriate.

So, back to it ...

Drop in a few cubes of white potato, swede, sweet potato or some other root - this is for bulking the soup. Bring to the boil and boil away until the roots are softened.

Once the roots are softened, mash in the pan using a potato masher or just a fork, but keep mashing to break everything down leaving some texture - this is rustic, after all. Want it all posh? Blend it!

Pour in a little cream and bring back up to temperature.

If you find the fats separating, just give it a light whisking with a hand balloon whisk.

Pour out into a soup bowl and drop a generous blob of truffelina in the middle.

Trufflina? No! Not those awful Guylian chocolates, trufflina is a paste of truffle with olive oil; truffle, the fruiting body of an underground mushroom, highly prized and often regarded as the "diamond of the kitchen". Seriously flavoursome and a perfect counter point to the creaminess.

Grok Donalds?

2012-05-05T18:30:00.000+01:00

The irony is, prior to ancestral eating, eating at fast food restaurants was something I simply did not do, still don't, but there is a certain trend on paleo forums towards emulation ... which is not always a bad thing.

For a fun Saturday night meal, have a go at nuggets with a salad and fries ...

First, you need some pink slime.

I went for turkey mince, because it is pink and because I love it! This is a lean meat. Feel free to mince some chicken breast if you like - they're your nuggets.

I used just shy of a pound of meat with some spring onions, shredded, a couple of chillies, finely minced, sea salt, white pepper and an egg yolk. Squeeze between your fists a few times to soften, then pat it out flat. Half, half again (quarters) and half again (eighths) - each eighth will make a ball just larger than a golf ball. Form meatballs and squash gently.

Dust in something starchy - I used farina, a mashed potato flour.

Fry off in some coconut oil until coloured and transfer to the oven set to 200C for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make up the salad - Caesar Salad.

Named after restaurateur Caesar Cardini, Caesar Salad is a simple affair of romaine lettuce and croutons with a sauce of parmesan cheese, egg yolk and lemon juice.

Using cubes of feta in place of croutons and embellishing with tomato, cucumber, olives and capers, we have a really sound paleo salad.

The sauce? Grate some parmesan, add an egg yolk, some lemon juice, a little cider vinegar, maybe some English mustard, sea salt, white pepper and stir it all together well. You should have an emulsion to spoon over the salad.

No such meal would be complete without fries, would it?

I appreciate that potato in the paleo diet is controversial and open to much discussion, so do this according to your dietary principles - sweet potato, rutabaga, celeriac, or any number of roots will work perfectly well here.

Fries represent a huge pack of carbohydrate and fat energy with a potentially high glycemic load ... unless they're eaten with fat. Simply put, fat slows the digestive process dramatically lowering the glycemic load. Want to know more? Check out J Stanton's article on Fat and the Glycemic Index: The Myth of Complex Carbohydrates.

What you fry your potatoes in is vitally important - saturated fats are the best! I wrote up an entire article about fries, or (skinny) chips as we call them in the UK: Chips!

Fry off your fries in dripping for a golden colour and full flavour, duck fat if you're doing it all continental.

Finally, you will need a condiment: tomato ketchup or barbecue sauce.

Easy to make - take some tomato puree and flavour with a gastrique of cider vinegar and honey, some salt and a touch of arrowroot in lemon juice. Ensure that the ingredients are thoroughly combined in a blender.

Honey? Honey is more than sweetener - natural and loaded with complex medicinal effects ranging from immunity boosters to anti-cancer and anti-microbial properties. It passes the hunger/gatherer principle. The honey I used is local (very local, like a mile or so away) from Denholme Gate Apiary.

Arrowroot? It's just a starchy thickener. Don't fret.

Don't like the idea of either? Don't put them in. Fancy Stevia instead? Well, it's a banned food in Europe, so out of my recipe, but feel free. I don't know enough about Stevia, having never tried it, but think that a chemically extracted powder is not really within the spirit of paleo. Agave syrup might well do the trick.

You could buy a primal-friendly ketchup - Tiptree brand is pretty good, organic and hand-produced. Actually, Heinz now make an organic version of their ketchup which uses tomatoes grown free from pesticides and contains no MSG or HFCS! It's a strong step in the right direction, Heinz!

Ready to eat?

Lay the warm nuggets over the salad with the fries alongside and a ramekin of condiment.

Dig in, fingers only!

Traditional Swedish Meatballs

2012-05-03T19:30:00.000+01:00

Swedes love their meatballs, or köttbullar, which has to be served with gravy, or gräddsås - a thick chicken stock and cream sauce.

For a fun twist, I like to make up a big bowl of meatballs and all manner of veggies with a dipping bowl of sauce in the middle: Fun with Swedish Meatballs

Today was about doing it more traditionally and serving with a seasonal treat: Jersey Royal Potatoes.

Jersey Royals are a cultivar of Kidney Potatoes and grown solely on the Isle of Jersey, and under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). With a short season, between the end of April through to just into June, their unique flavour comes from Jersey's rich fertile earth and gentle climate. Get 'em while you can!

If potatoes are really not a part of your paleo diet, feel free to use cubes of pretty much any root: swede works well for me.

To the kök! That's kitchen, by the way ...

Begin with the meatballs, combining equal portions of beef mince and pork mince - a pound between two people is fine, for a good pile. Add some white pepper, sea salt and an egg yolk. Keep it simple ... that's it!

Squeeze the meat between your fists a few times and pick out small portions of meat, forming balls. Lightly fry with some dripping in a skillet just to colour up, then transfer to the oven set at 200C for maybe 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, scrape a few Jersey Royals - this will remove the dirt and the already peeling outer skin. Jersey Royals have a very delicate skin which is easy to remove. Get them boiling.

Shred some red cabbage and get it boiling with a little shredded pickled beetroot. You can add in a little red wine here for a strong colour and more tart flavour. Boil this right down to dry, keeping it boiling with the addition of more water when necessary, but it should finish fully dry with the cabbage soft.

Make up the gravy by heating up chicken stock and adding heavy cream. If you are completely off dairy, then just leave out the cream but do really thicken the gravy by reducing and add in some arrowroot at the end.

Ready to serve?

Drain the potatoes, add in a knob of butter and some chopped parsley or dill. Make a mound of potatoes on the plate.

Make a mound of meatballs, pouring over the cream sauce. Garnish with some dill sprigs.

Place a mound of red cabbage alongside.

Dig in and enjoy!

Baba Ganoush

2012-05-03T19:00:00.000+01:00

Levantine, as in from the Levant. That got your attention! Mashed aubergine with seasonings, oil, tahini and garlic.

Simple is the key ...

Popular methods of cooking the aubergine (that's eggplant if you were wondering) include roasting over an open grill to blister the skin which peel easily when immersed in water and puts a smoky taste into the flesh.

Not having an open grill or a gas flame, I simply halved and put under the grill/broiler. Once soft, the skin was removed and the flesh puréed with a number of ingredients.

I used olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice, a splash of cider vinegar, sea salt, white pepper, a couple of large teaspoons of tahini and some almond flour, maybe a tablespoon or so.

Those last two additions warrant some discussion.

Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds.

Is that paleo? I don't see why not, so long as it is just ground sesame seeds. While it is a good source of, particularly, magnesium it is high in omega-6 fatty acids. So little is used it really is not a concern - this is a not exactly a staple dish, is it?

Almond flour is not traditionally included.

I found the dish to be a little wet, perhaps from my own abandon with which I splashed ingredients in. I also wanted it to be a little more like a hummus, so thickened it with a little almond flour.

Chilled, then served out with some smoked salmon and celery stick for dipping, this was delicious!

Mackerel Pate

2012-05-02T12:39:00.000+01:00

More mackerel madness ... Pâté!

Just coming into season, mackerel is an oily fish, rich in saturated fat, cholesterol and omega-3 fatty acids, and a good source of selenium, and vitamin B12. Combined with cream cheese, perfect for a light, satiating lunch.

As with all fish, seek out a fresh catch - the fish should not smell of fish, should have bright eyes and a firm texture. Mackerel should not droop when held by the head.

Cream cheese should be as natural as you can get it - there really is no need to buy industrialised cream cheese which may have all manner of preservatives, emulfisiers and so on. If in doubt, check the ingredients! If you're still in doubt, rely upon what I call the Ingredient/Description Principle, as outlined in Coming in From the Cold on my personal paleo blog.

Interestingly enough, Philadelphia brand has Locust Bean Gum listed in the ingredients (urgh!), yet (one for the UK paleo people), Sainsbury own brand "So Organic" Cream Cheese does not even list ingredients on the tub - it is, literally, "cream cheese".

Simply put, the ingredients should list nothing more than the description of the food; so, 'Butter' should read as "butter" in the ingredients, 'Salted Butter' as "butter, sea salt" and ... 'Cream Cheese' as "cream cheese". Anything else in there are you probably don't want to eat it, particularly if it has an x in it!

Of course you could make the cream cheese yourself by hanging some full fat yoghurt up in a muslin bag and permitting the whey to drain out.

To work ...

Take the fish whole, gut it by slitting the belly where you feel the underside go soft through to the tail. Remove the guts and wash out the cavity. Fillet.

To fillet, lay the fish flat on a board. With a sharp knife, cut towards the head just behind the little fin on the side. Turn the knife so that the blade is now pointing towards the tail and slide it through the flesh using the rib cage as a natural level. That's your fillet.

Now, feel the fillet. There are still bones in the middle section. You could painstakingly pick them all out with tweezers, which will leave your fillet looking like the cat has already had a go at it! Or, you could slice that little ridge of bones out in a V shape which will leave the fillet with two visible sides.

Pop them on the grill or under the grill/broiler for literally a couple of minutes until the surface can be seen to be bubbling. The remainder of the carcass can also be cooked in the same manner - I usually just remove the head and place the skeleton in alongside the fillets, picking off the last pieces of meat afterwards ... or, just letting the cats at it.

Once cooked, remove from under the grill/broiler and set aside to cool.

Once cooled, remove the fish flesh from the skin and break up the fibres with your fingers.

Simply cream some lemon juice and the cream cheese together until smooth and then fold the fish in. Whip these together until you have a soft paste.

Grind a good helping of black pepper over and perhaps a little sea salt.

Stir together well and turn out into a ramekin.

Spread onto gem lettuce leaves.

Alternatives | Variations

If cream cheese is not part of your paleo template, you can just leave it out and enjoy the fish with lemon juice, perhaps some minced capers ... or, blend some avocado and combine with the fish.

I would guard against mixing with coconut oil or dripping since these will solidify again when cooled although this would work very well for a warm pâté - fish straight from under the grill/broiler, shredded and stirred together with coconut oil and served immediately.

Mackerel Fillets

2012-05-01T10:30:00.000+01:00

Deserving of an entry in their own right, with its sparkling, silver belly and iridescent blue/grey stripes, the mackerel is an attractive fish with a delicious flavour.

Just coming into season, mackerel is an oily fish, rich in saturated fat, cholesterol and omega-3 fatty acids, and a good source of selenium, and vitamin B12.

As with all fish, seek out a fresh catch - the fish should not smell of fish, should have bright eyes and a firm texture. Mackerel should not droop when held by the head.

Take the fish whole, gut it by slitting the belly where you feel the underside go soft through to the tail. Remove the guts and wash out the cavity.

You could simply slash the skin on both sides, stuff the cavity with lemon, some herbs and place on the grill or under the grill/broiler turning over after a few minutes. The flesh will draw away from the bones with great ease using a fork.

Or, fillet them ...

To fillet, lay the fish flat on a board. With a sharp knife, cut towards the head just behind the little fin on the side. Turn the knife so that the blade is now pointing towards the tail and slide it through the flesh using the rib cage as a natural level. That's your fillet.

Now, feel the fillet. There are still bones in the middle section. You could painstakingly pick them all out with tweezers, which will leave your fillet looking like the cat has already had a go at it! Or, you could slice that little ridge of bones out in a V shape which will leave the fillet with two visible sides.

Pop them on the grill or under the grill/broiler for literally a couple of minutes until the surface can be seen to be bubbling. The remainder of the carcass can also be cooked in the same manner - I usually just remove the head and place the skeleton in alongside the fillets, picking off the last pieces of meat for myself, or not bothering and just letting the cats at it.

Once cooked, they can be cooled and eaten the following day with a salad, whole or shredded, or eaten straight from the grill hot.

Grind some black pepper over and serve with something zingy, tangy, astringent or bitter - my neighbour gave me a bag of peppers that he'd grown, so simply shredded, fillets over and a wedge of lemon does it all for me!

Crab & Avocado Salad

2012-04-30T19:00:00.000+01:00

Quick and easy to make, delicious as a starter, lunch or light snack.

Sourcing fresh crab takes this dish to the next level, but for the sake of convenience canned crab is perfectly good.

Crab, while low in saturated fat is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, cholesterol and a good source of vitamin C, riboflavin, niacin, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and sodium, and a very good source of protein, vitamin B12, zinc, copper and selenium; crab is low risk for mercury.

On the flip-side, avocado is very low in cholesterol and sodium but a good source of monounsaturated fat, fibre, vitamin C, vitamin K and folate. Perfect partners.

Let's go ...

Halve, stone and peel an avocado. Cut into cubes and scatter into bowls - half an avocado per person is sufficient.

Slice up some salad ingredients and scatter into the bowls. The combinations are literally endless.

For colour and complimentary flavours I went with some radishes and spring onions, both of which are absolutely seasonal at present, giving deep red and green shards with sharp, fiery flavours to reposte off the soft avocado and sweet crab.

Open and drain a can of crab meat, shred up the fibres with your fingers and for a flavoursome punch, mince a chilli and disperse through the meat. Scatter into the bowls.

Garnish with some fresh herbs - coriander, chervil or chives would be perfect. Perhaps dust with paprika or cayenne pepper. Certainly, place a slice of lime or lemon alongside.

What makes absolutely everything better? An egg! So, I topped ours with a good glob of probiotic yoghurt mixed with lemon juice and half a boiled egg dusted with paprika.

Pure Paleo Beef Brisket

2012-04-29T18:30:00.000+01:00

... or Brisket of Beef, if that's the way you say it.

Prior to paleo I always cooked my brisket in beer, as per the Belgian method. Since moving over to ancestral eating, this is one habit I have persisted in - I mean, just how many processes does a grain have to go through to be neutered? Malted, fermented and then cooked.

Anyway, this time was without the beer ... and ... it worked out okay.

At some point in the morning of the day you want to eat this, just brown off the brisket in a skillet and set aside.

Soften some onions in the skillet and toss into a lidded ovenproof dish as the base. Your slow cooker or Dutch oven would do perfectly well.

Chop a good few garlic cloves and toss them into the dish.

Sauté off a few lamb kidneys, cored, although that doesn't really matter too much for the long cook time. Toss into the dish.

Finally, collect all the juices and flavours from the skillet with a little water and a few mushrooms - I adore chestnut mushrooms for the deep, earthy flavour. Too into the dish.

Season with some ground black pepper and a good helping of sea salt. I use Maldon brand, which has a light flavour, not overpowering. Add a couple of bay leaves.

Make a well in the dish and settle the brisket in there.

Top up with boiling water until just the top of the brisket is sticking out - it doesn't want to float.

Lid on and into the oven at 125C for ... well ... as long as you like, really. I went for about 4 hours before removing the lid for a further hour, or so, to reduce the now flavoured liquid.

When you are ready to eat, remove the brisket from the dish and wrap in foil to keep warm.

Get some veggies steaming.

We had seasonal Jersey Royal potatoes, spring carrots, stringless beans and a few peas; all good primal chow.

We could just blend the remaining ingredients to make a seriously sumptuous sauce, but I like to retrieve the kidneys and mushrooms by sieving the juice and picking them out. This leaves just the onion in the sieve, which I push through to give the stock more body.

Wash the mushrooms and kidneys through to remove all the bits and return to the stock pot with the sieved stock, thickening with a little arrowroot. Warm through.

Serve out slices of brisket with the kidney and mushrooms alongside and your gently steamed vegetables.

Paleo Musings' Smoky Chipotle Five Alarm Chili

2012-04-27T19:30:00.000+01:00

We eat Chilli Con Carne at some point over the weekend, most weekends. Seeing a really tasty looking alternative recipe posted on one of the paleo forums with the full article on her website, I thought it would be a fun change to follow somebody else's method.

Here goes ...

The recipe calls for tomato paste. I enquired as to the consistency of the paste - firm, like puree; sloppy, like passata; slurry, like chopped tomatoes? Her reply put me in mind of somewhere between puree and passata, not that it really matters I suppose - once cooked in its in there for flavour. As it happens, I simply hand blended a carton of chopped tomatoes.

The recipe also calls for a box of chopped mushrooms. I went for a small can of button mushrooms, which are usually tiny and retain a firm texture. This turned out to be a good choice.

The recipe also calls for Applegate Spicy Sausages. These were not available to me, but any good spicy pork sausage will do fine. I went for venison, which were all meat and flavoured with a little red wine. Perfect for this since we'll be getting all the heat from the chipotle.

To the kitchen ...

Begin by browning off a pound of beef mince. That's ground beef if you're following from over the pond.

Meanwhile, get the sausages in a frying pan and gently cook them through. Too high a heat and the skins burn. Medium is just right.

Chop some onion, fennel, a few garlic cloves and just a little ginger. Hand blend to a paste, then quickly blend further with a carton of chopped tomatoes.

Pour over the browned mince and combine, wetting up with a good pint of beef stock.

Sprinkle over some chilli powder suitable to your tastes, a couple of teaspoons of red wine vinegar and a few dried, smoked chillies - chipotle. This will deliver the smoky flavour.

Set on an active simmer for a couple of hours and then, maybe, half an hour before serving, pour in the can of mushrooms, chop up the sausages and chuck them in.

Raise the heat and reduce.

Serve out over spaghetti squash, cauliflower rice, maybe white rice, maybe just as is in a bowl with some salsa, yoghurt and guac alongside with a few leaves of gem lettuce.

Whichever way you do it, have fun and finish up with Chilli all over your face, grinning like a good 'un!

Beef Lindström

2012-04-26T20:00:00.000+01:00

Russo-Swedish. Resembling a hamburger but with the sweet taste of beetroot countered with the saltiness of capers. One great recipe to combine meat and pickled vegetables.

Introduced in Sweden in 1862 by Henrik Lindström, born in Saint Petersburg and raised in a Swedish family, it was while visiting a hotel restaurant in the Swedish city of Kalmar that Lindström instructed the kitchen on how to make his special fried beef patty. From there, the recipe spread all over Sweden.

In miniature format, this beetroot patty is a delicacy that is part of the classic Swedish smörgåsbord.

To the kitchen, Chefs ...

You need some mashed potato in this, so get one cubed and boiling away. I actually used two, since I was making some potato croutons to accompany and wanted them all regularly square, so all the trimmings from two potatoes made the mash.

Don't forget to retrieve the cubes after a few minutes - we don't want these to be too soft and will be frying them off later.

If white potato is not part of your paleo diet, you could use all manner of other root vegetables but do allow all the steam to evaporate the liquid. It might also be worth adding in a teaspoon, or two, or another starch - arrowroot, manioc, yam, that kind of thing. It's the starchiness in the potato which helps bind these and give a soft middle texture.

Meanwhile, drop a pound of minced beef into a mixing bowl. That's ground beef to some. Add a small amount of pork mince, too - maybe a quarter of a pound.

Finely chop an onion and then break it down further by shredding it. Scatter into the mixing bowl.

Mince some capers. Scatter into the mixing bowl.

Mince some pickled beetroot and scatter into the mixing bowl. Three golf ball sized beets will do perfectly.

Crack a couple of large eggs and retrieve the yolks, adding into the bowl. Reserve the whites for making up a mega-egg for breakfast.

Add in some sea salt and white pepper. I added in some shredded wild garlic, too, just because.

Your mashed potato should now have softened, so just mash it down and allow the steam to take off a lot of moisture. Add to the mixing bowl.

Now we get to the fun part, which should never be done with a food processor!

Roll your sleeves up and get your hands in there, squeezing the meat through your fingers. This action will break down the meat and ensure that everything is really well mixed together.

Fun, that!

Form a number of patties, somewhere between quarter and half pounders. You can make these flat or tall. I went for a bunch of tall patties.

Fry off over a medium heat in a little butter.

In another frying pan with some more butter or dripping, gently fry off the potato cubes to golden brown.

Ready to serve? Get a fried egg going while you plate up.

Place a patty in the middle of the plate, scattering pickled gherkin slices and the potato cubes around. Of course, you could accompany with some greens and some mashed sweet potato - that would be fantastic, too.

Slice the fried egg on top of the patty and dig in ...

Njuta!

Cotriade

2012-04-24T18:30:00.000+01:00

Breton fish stew!

I could get all regional about this and do it perfectly, but in the end, this is a simple and fun excuse to bung all the fish and shellfish you can find into a pan and pour cream over it!

Normally, this would not contain shellfish, have some more exotic ingredients like eel in there, but I love shellfish and that's a good enough reason to include them. Shellfish are packed full of great micronutrients.

So, first, get some fish - I had salmon, smoked cod and pollack; shellfish - squid, scallop and prawn. Any will do, of course.

Next, cube up a potato and a carrot. I guess any roots will do, but would advise against sweet potato since it sogs too readily. Heck! Why not ... cube a sweet potato; it'll go with the rest of the ingredients.

Get these boiling away in some fish stock since the actual stew will come together quite quickly.

Chop a load of herbs - this is a herby dish! I went for thyme, chive, wild garlic and dill.

Chop some onion, leek, regular garlic and a few green things - asparagus is the obvious one, but green beans, even peas will do fine.

To the cooking ...

Warm some beef dripping, coconut oil or some good butter in a heavy based lidded pan and get some of the shellfish cooking through until they're coloured.

Toss in the onions and leek, splash some Pastis, Vermouth, maybe Gin ... or just water in for a little steam and pop the lid on to soften the onions.

Lid off (enjoy the steam), toss in the fish and just warm through.

Sprinkle some turmeric over. Usually, use saffron for the colour, but there are good medicinal qualities to turmeric and the colour is deeper - I prefer it. Fold into the fish.

Scatter the wild garlic, chives and thyme over. Fold into the fish.

Pour over the cubes of softened vegetables with the remainder of the fish stock and toss in the asparagus.

Pour in some heavy cream. How much? Enough! This is a rustic dish and does not need measuring cups.

Warm through and serve out into wide-brimmed bowls, grinding some freshly milled black pepper and scattering a good quantity of dill over. Enjoy!

Fish Tacos

2012-04-20T19:30:00.000+01:00

Mexican. Snack dish of a corn or wheat tortilla folded around, well, pretty much anything: meat, chicken, fish, beans and accompanied by tomato, cucumber, avocado and salsa. Fish Tacos, or Tacos de Pescado, originated in Baja California.

According to Wikipedia: "The original sense of the word is of a 'plug' or 'wad' used to fill a hole ... derived from Mexican Spanish 'light lunch'."

We'll keep it paleo ...

First, the fish. Use some firm white fish: cod is popular; I like pollack.

You could batter the fish and shallow fry, the batter made from egg and some kind of starch, or simply roll the fish in starch. I did the latter, simply dusting in cocoyam flour and shallow frying in beef dripping for a couple of minutes each side. Done. How easy is that?

Back up ... cocoyam flour? Yup! Any starch will do: yam, fufu, potato, cornstarch, at a push, even arrowroot. Just something to dust and to take on some colour while frying in the dripping.

Accompany with a salad, or Pico de Gallo, large pieces of tomato, cucumber, avocado, pepper and onion; some Greek-style yoghurt or sour cream, your favourite chilli sauces and a few wedges of lime.

The Taco? Easy! Gem lettuce.

Lamb Harissa

2012-04-19T19:30:00.000+01:00

Harissa is a hot Tunisian paste used in tagine.

Red chilli peppers, garlic, cumin, coriander and caraway ground into a paste. Rose petals can be added for a really fragrant blend.

Don your Fez! To the kitchen ...

Make up the harissa, grinding several chillies, garlic cloves and spices together with a little lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

Slice some lamb and place into a bowl. I used lamb neck, which has a lovely marble of fat running through which turns buttery when cooked.

Spread the paste all over the lamb, turning it several times.

Add some further aromatics - bay, star anise and cinnamon; colours - turmeric and paprika; and a good splash of white wine vinegar.

Cover and leave overnight in the fridge to marinate.

When it comes to cooking, seal off the meat in a large lidded sauté pan, pour in the remainder of the marinade and add in a good amount of water with a little arrowroot. Simmer away for a good hour.

Pre-heat your oven to 180C.

With the meat softened and half an hour from serving, add some cubes of sweet potato and red onion into the sauté pan and cook on a higher heat with the lid off to soften the potato and reduce the liquor.

Place some sweet red peppers, cored and halved into the oven for 15 minutes. Retrieve, slice and add to the sauté pan.

Place a couple of large lemon wedges and a couple of sprigs of vine tomatoes in the oven for the remaining 15 minutes.

Wilt some spinach in a frying pan with a good helping of butter.

Serve up - spinach in a ramkin, Lamb Harissa alongside garnished with fresh herbs, tomatoes over and lemon to the side with a few olives.

Beef Mince with Aubergine & Mushroom

2012-04-18T20:00:00.000+01:00

Absolutely effort-free, deep, rich, flavoursome and packed full of goodness!

Aubergine (you may well know this as an Eggplant) contains anthocynanins in the deep purple skin which are beneficial anti-oxidants against cancer, aging, inflammation, and neurological diseases. Furthermore, fibre, a strong vitamin B complex and a good pack of minerals.

Mushrooms (here, I used Portabello Mushrooms), again, have a good complex of vitamin B and provide a rich source of zinc.

Let's get cooking ...

I said at the top that this is an effort-free dish. Really, it is!

Begin by browning some beef mince, ground beef, or whatever you call it in a frying pan. Meanwhile, purée a couple of shallots and some garlic, pouring into the beef.

Stir in just a little tomato purée, maybe half a teaspoon per pound of meat and transfer to an covered oven-proof dish, just covering with water and settling into a pre-heated over set to 150C.

Cook on for an hour, a couple of hours, but an hour is about right for this first stage.

During that hour, the meat will soften.

Remove from the oven and drop some slices of aubergine and mushroom in, folding into the meat. There will still be some liquid in there which will assist with the next part - both the aubergine and mushrooms will release liquid, but it will be reduced by the heat.

Return to the oven with the lid off for a further half hour, folding the ingredients again half way through.

Ready to serve?

Shred some spring greens, place in boiling water for a couple of minutes, drain and then toss in the remaining fat in your initial frying pan .You didn't wash it up, did you?

Serve out into a bowl, spring greens first, beef, aubergine & mushroom in a mound on top.

Arrange a few cubes of feta around, to offset some of the fattiness in the dish and perhaps a boiled egg alongside.

Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and a good splash of Tabasco if you want it pepped up.

Mackerel Salad

2012-04-17T12:30:00.000+01:00

Seasonal, quick and easy lunch.

Mackerel is right in season at the moment and such a gorgeous oily fish needs little more than grilling and placing with some simple, but robust flavours.

This was my lunch ...

While cooking dinner the evening before, simply fillet a mackerel. Have your Fishmonger do this if you're not a dab hand with a knife.

Lay the fillets under the grill for a few minutes until it's bubbling away in its own fat. Remove, leave to cool keeping inquisitive cats away!

Once cooled, simply flake off the flesh from the skin. Some of the skin will come with it, but it's all good! I tore the skin and chucked it all in a bowl to chill overnight in the fridge. You just want the flesh to come from any remaining bones.

In the morning, just shred some salad ingredients and toss the fish over.

I went for some shredded cos lettuce, radish, pickled chillies, pickled garlic, the fish and some spring onions over the top, accompanied by a few olives and some smeitana - Polish soured cream.

Khoreshte Esfenaj

2012-04-15T19:00:00.000+01:00

Persian. Simply, Spinach Stew. Fragrant, unctuous and filling.

From Wiki: "Spinach has a high nutritional value and is extremely rich in antioxidants. It is a rich source of vitamin A, and especially high in lutein, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, folate, betaine, iron, vitamin B2, calcium, potassium, vitamin B6, folic acid, copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc, niacin, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids."

What a food! Let's get Mesopotamian ...

Grab a lidded oven proof dish and start to fill it.

Chopped shallots, baby courgette and wild garlic go in first.

Cube some sweet potato, chopped chillies and lay over as the next layer.

Sprinkle the spices over - turmeric, coriander, white pepper, celery salt and sea salt.

Lay some chicken on top - thighs are good. Other meat can be used - lamb. Fish, also.

Pour over chicken stock (with a little arrowroot stirred in) until the meat is just covered.

Wilt the spinach in a frying pan and then place over the very top, pushing it down into the dish.

Place in a pre-heated oven set to 180C for an hour, or so, removing the lid for a further half hour to reduce.

Serve out into a wide bowl.

Traditionally, this would be accompanied by some rice, but we've got sweet potato in there as bulk, so no need.

Lamb Massaman

2012-04-12T20:34:00.000+01:00

Thai. Muslim in origin, this is dish usually of beef, often prawn, could be duck, chicken, tofu ... even pork, which is haraam in Islam.

From Wiki, Massaman is a dish of "coconut milk, roasted peanuts or cashews, potatoes, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, star anise, palm sugar, fish sauce, chili and tamarind sauce. Traders brought spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, star anise, cumin, cloves and nutmeg from Indonesia to the south coast of Thailand. The dish is served with rice and sometimes with pickled ginger or achat, an accompaniment made with cucumber and chili peppers macerated in vinegar".

Keeping this dish paleo and in principle with its origins, I made it with lamb - neck fillets. There are a few things to leave out there, like the sugar, perhaps replace the potato with sweet potato, or squash as I did, but really, this dish is pretty damn paleo as it goes.

Lamb neck fillet is a deep, buttery meat, somewhere between soft and tough. It is best slow-cooked or marinated, which is how we're going to do it for this dish.

To the kitchen ...

The day before (yes, this takes some preparation, but it is well worth it ... and not actually a lot of fuss), slice the neck fillets into half inch thick slices on the slant across the fat.

Place the meat into a dish and add a couple of star anise, bay, some ground coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, turmeric, some garlic, chillies, ginger, a good squeeze of lemon juice, fish sauce and some tamarind in water. Cover and leave to marinate overnight. In the fridge is fine, on the kitchen top overnight and transferred to the fridge the following day, fine, too.

That's the marinade.

Oh, tamarind? Is that even paleo?

Well, I don't quite know - it is a member of the Fabaceae family, and so technically a legume, although we're just using the seed from inside. Seed? Yes, the seed. So, um ... paleo?

Well, I just don't know. Either way, tamarind has a unique sour flavour which is the absolute key to this dish. In the spirit of paleo, I did my hunger gatherer thing and collected a tub of pure tamarind extract from the local supermarket and tasted it. It didn't kill me and had a curious flavour. Being the largest and strongest in my tribe, I took the challenge! I'll eat some and see if it's okay. It was!

Is tamarind paleo-friendly? I'd love to know.

Back to the main feature ...

The next day, come dinner time, get it cooked up. The lamb will not need much cooking now since it has tenderised in the marinade.

Shred a couple of shallots and get them softening in some coconut oil in a lidded sauté pan.

Add the meat pieces to brown off a little.

Pour in one can of coconut milk - as pure as you can get it.

Pour in the remainder of the marinade along with a couple of kaffir leaves for a fresh zing and more garlic.

Cook on the hob for an hour on low/medium. If the liquid drops too much, just add in a little water - we want to do the reduction in the second hour.

Add in some more chillies, chopped sweet potato, squash or even small waxy potatoes and cook on for another hour by which point, the curry should be reducing and thickening.

Just prior to serving, retrieve the aromatics - the star anise, bay and kaffir leaves. Liven everything up with some chopped coriander leaves and some wild garlic.

Serve out into a bowl, accompanied by some achat, which is just cucumber macerated in vinegar - I used cider vinegar, and had some rice alongside. Garnish with fresh coriander and some almond slivers.

Cavolo Nero Shooter!

2012-04-11T22:25:00.000+01:00

Cavolo Nero is an Italian kale, black in colour and very dark green once cooked.

Very very damn tasty and absolutely bang in season right now ...

When you get a bunch of kale, you don't use it all at once. Some loses its colour and looks a little bland, still very green, but bland next to the darker leaves around it.

Stop! Don't throw it away! Make up an amuse bouche ... better still, chill it.

Chop the kale and add to some leek and wild garlic in a pan with some butter. Fry off, add water and some stock - any will do; failing stock, some bouillon.

Boil, blend, pass through a sieve, reduce and chill in the fridge.

Chilled, pour into a glass, splash of green Tabasco, Worcestershire Sauce, ice cube and slice of lemon. For a sensible indulgence, give it a shot of vodka, Russian, naturally.

Fauxlafel

2012-04-11T19:00:00.000+01:00

Felafel, that Middle Eastern snack of chick peas and spice ... gorgeous.

But, how to keep it paleo ...

Inspired, well directly copied from Mellissa over at I Breathe ... I Eat ... sans the tahini, mine was a straight down the line cauliflower, almond flour, coconut flour, herb, spice and a couple of eggs.

Not being a weigher and measurer, I struggled a little with a real recipe.

Taking the largest quantity and working around it worked out for me. I cut off some cauliflower florets and broke them down with a hand blender. The recipe calls for a food processor, which I do not have, so I hand blended and pulled out the largest pieces which had not broken down.

I had about a cup ... great! The recipe calls for a cup. My cup was a real cup, not a "cup".

Anyway, one cup of cauli florets broken down, half a cup of almond flour, some spices - cayenne pepper, white pepper, celery salt, sea salt, cinnamon, coriander, some herbs - parsley, and a couple of eggs, hand blended with some desiccated coconut, since I had no coconut flour and ...

I let it sit for a half hour, thinking the eggs were a little too large and the mix a little wet. Maybe the nuts will soak it up.

It kind of did ...

Divided into four Chef's rings and dropped into a frying pan with some butter, set on low, I cooked the Fauxafels through - maybe 6 minutes each side and we're done. The Fauxafels went from sloppy to firmed up through this cooking.

Served out over shredded lettuce, interspaced with beef tomato slices and topped off with Greek yoghurt and mint ... gorgeous!

This method did take a lot of time. Next time I make this up, I will probably make up little balls and bake them in the oven.

Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Coquina Squash

2012-04-08T19:30:00.000+01:00

Some things just go so well together, it is a crime to put anything else on the plate.

My apologies for the serious depth of focus fail, but I've been leant a rather fine Nikon D90 camera from a friend and I popped a 24mm Macro lens on which opens right up to 2.8. Even at 3.2, or whatever this is, it's still very focussed.

You get the picture, though ...

Pork tenderloin and apples is classic! Here's to criminality - I used squash instead. Why? I've nothing against apples, but did have a squash that needed using - a Coquina squash. For paleo palates, it's sweet enough.

First, peel and slice the squash. Get it in the oven at about 200C and roast it. I placed the squashes in some beef dripping and turned them over after about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown off the pork in a skillet and cook it over for about 10 minutes.

Once the squashes have been turned over, transfer the pork to the oven for 10 minutes, then remove to rest for a further 10 minutes while the squash finishes off.

That's 40 minutes in total for the squash, after 10, start the pork, after 10 minutes of cooking the pork on the hob, transfer to the oven for another 10 minutes, remove and cook the squash on for a further 10 minutes while the pork rests.

Got it?

You've a gravy to make too ...

Some chicken stock and a small, but significant amount of English cooking apple along with some garlic to stew throughout the cooking time. Sieve off. Done.

I also served some shredded cavolo nero, or black kale, which was lightly steamed.

Damn good eating!

Wood Pigeon Leftovers

2012-04-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

Dead simple!

Having thoroughly enjoyed the Wood Pigeon the night before, I cooked up a big batch with the intention of having a couple cold for lunch.

That worked out great ...

Simple shred some things you love eating and layer thinly sliced meat over.

I went for red cabbage, red onion, sweet red pepper, some shredded lettuce, pickled garlic, pickled chilli and dropped a few cockles in, along with some streaky bacon.

When it came to eat, I sloshed a good helping of chilli and garlic sauce over to wet it all up.

Wood Pigeon

2012-04-03T19:30:00.000+01:00

Actually a member of the dove family, the wood pigeon is a wild bird which gleans fatty pink breast meat with a game flavour from its diet taken from open fields or gardens and lawns where young shoots and seedlings are favoured.

Seasonally shot from January to March, this was a celebration of the passing of the season for this delicious bird.

Wilt some spinach with a little butter in a skillet and keep warm.

Trim the breast off the bird, reserving the remainder of the carcass for stock, and taking care to remove all shot from the flesh.

Warm a little butter, dripping or coconut oil in a skillet and lay the breasts in to colour up a little on one side before flipping over to colour the other, warming the middle through in the process.

Wood Pigeon is best served slightly pink so plate up a mound of spinach, laying the meat over.

While the fat is still hot, whisk in a shot of whisky or red wine, emulsify and pour over the meat. Garnish with a little black truffle which is right in season, presently.