Sunday, August 30, 2015

Yucca and Zucchini hash with over easy eggs

Found some great frozen Yucca at one of the local International Food Markets and wanted to try and new idea for a quick breakfast.

Ingredients:
Instructions:
  • If you start with the frozen Yucca like I did for this recipe, or even if you find the fresh Yucca the process will be similar, but cook times may vary a bit as you are not defrosting first.
  • Place Yucca, roughly chopped in a pot of boiling water and cook for roughly 20-30 minutes until fork tender
  • Remove Yucca from water and rough chop or dice neatly, remembering to remove the hard fibrous 'spine' in the middle of the root.
  • Add this diced up Yucca to a heated up pan with 2 tablespoons coconut oil and start pan frying at about med-high heat with a good dusting of sazon
  • slice up the zucchini to fine strips. 
  • Once the Yucca starts showing some browning from the pan frying add the sliced zucchini.  Should be roughly 10 minutes
  • Cook mixture of Yucca and Zucchini for roughly 5 minutes until the zucchini is starting to show some browning and by now the Yucca should definitely have been browned well.
  • Remove the zucchini and yucca from the oil and place on plate, leaving the oil in pan.
  • Turn up the heat on the pan to high
  • Crack the eggs and place in pan trying to keep the yolks intact.
  • Cook the eggs 2-3 minutes each side, flipping once.
  • Cover the hash on the plate with the two eggs, resulting eggs should have a partially runny yolk.
Enjoy.   Alternately you can have a scramble with all the above ingredients or even an omelet.  It's all n how you use/prepare the egg.

Sazon blend I like

This is a Sazon or seasoned salt that I love to use where I need a touch of flavored peppers to re-enforce the salt flavor on a meal

Ingredients:
  • Course Pink Himalayan sea salt  (50% of resulting mixture)
  • Other 50% should come from a mixture of:
    • Grains of Paradise
    • Brown Mustard seeds
    • Black Tellicherry Peppercorns
    • Ground Ancho and Guajillo Pepper
Instructions:
  • Using a spice or coffee blender, blend the salt, Grains or Paradise, mustard seeds, and peppercorns.   Once well powdered, add the ground ancho and guajillo peppers and pulse in spice blender for a second or two to combine thouroughly.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Bratwurst, Jalepeno, and fingerling potato scramble

Simple easy leftover breakfast

Ingredients:
Instructions:
  • Heat up the coconut oil in a non-stick pan
  • Add in the bratwurst, potatoes, and the jalapeños and pepper salt blend to the pan and cook on med-high for 3 minutes
  • While this is cooking whisk the eggs.
  • Pour the eggs over the bratwurst and jalapeños and put the heat back to high and quickly keep 'stirring' the mixture until the eggs are properly cooked to a scramble.  Should be less then 2 minutes.

Vietnamese style cabbage salad with smokey pork

Had this great salad at a local Vietnamese Pho place and wanted to replicate it at home.  Warning I have not read the recipe anywhere so am solely working by taste and look and working with ingredients that as closely resemble the tastes that I could find that may come from other cultures.

Ingredients:
  • Thinly sliced Mechaalany pickled wild cucumbers
  • Shredded Red cabbage 
  • Shredded Lettuce
  • Shredded carrots
  • 1 lb pork loin sliced thinly
  • Smokey BBQ rub (http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/07/bbq-spice-blends-i-love.html)
  • 3 tablespoons Fish sauce
  • 3 tablespoons Mirin
  • 2 tablespoons Ume plum vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon Madras curry
  • 1 teaspoon Market lime powder
  • 1 traspoon Lemon peel powder
  • Splash of balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons Black Currant Syrup
  • 2 tablespoons coconut or grape seed oil
Instructions:

  • Combine the shredded cabbages, carrots, and pickles into a bowl
  • Combine the Fish sauce, mirin, vinegars, curry, and lime an lemon peel powders in a small container and pour over the bowl of cabbage
  • Remove excess liquid and place in small bowl after letting sit for 10 minutes tossing occasionally
  • Combine the Smokey BBQ Rub and the pork loin slices in a bowl and toss; coating well
  • Heat up a pan (I prefer a metal pan for this) with coconut or grape seed oil until hot, and toss in the pork.  
  • Cook the pork on high stirring occasionally to ensure not sticking to pan and to try and ensure that the pork is crusting equally.   This does not have to be perfect, but a good effort
  • Take out pork leaving any leftover oil and place in small bowl to cool for a minute
  • Add the excess liquid from the salad the black current syrup to the pan and reduce for 3 minutes on high or until nice and thick/syrupy.
  • Combine meat into salad and then pour over the syrup and toss salad
  • Serve and Enjoy.
The taste profile of this dish is that of Korean smoky BBQ mixed with a freshness and lightness of a  Vietnamese cabbage salad.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Visit to a local GF expo /event today

So this posting will not be a recipe but a list of some resources I found at a local GF expo I attended today.

This is meant to be an extension of my general resources page until I either start using them as a general use.
http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/06/resources-i-wanted-to-start-resources.html

Now I focused on gluten free, grain free, dairy free, sugar free and nut free products that fit into my general leaning toward paleo.  I do not have nut allergies personally but my wife does so all recipes and products have to include that limitation. 

Many companies and vendors at this expo were focused on gluten free products using many different alternative grains or processed sugars in their products.   Sure the were certified GF, but for me that is not adequate.  

A couple I'd like to mention though for folks looking for the grain free lifestyle.  

So this company already has a paleo product or two including breads,  but I wanted to challenge them to make one nut free as well.  He indicated he just took delivery of casava root for future products.  

Gluten free by Sara.   http://www.gfwithsarahb.com/
First met her at the wake forest farmers market and she's been willing to work with me on making a bread that meets my dietary restrictions. 

Roots
hummus product that can be found at whole foods.  Pretty good list of ingredients and a very decent price.  I stopped by whole foods on way home to pick up a couple flavors that I sampled at the event.  Thai and Chipotle flavored humus current favorites.

Produce box.  www.theproducebox.com.   T
his is a NC delivery of farmers products to your door.  Cool if you aren't close by a farmers market or don't have time for going to one.  One of the things that drew me to find this resource prior to this event was the fact that they carry Imagine That GF product line which does not currently sell directly to consumers today.

Relayfoods.com.
Online grocery story for organic produce and products. Need to check this one out myself in more depth. 

Thrive bites.  Thrivebites.thrivelife.com.
Freeze dried fruits and veggies.  Alternative location for organic fruits and veggies for smoothies during off season.  Ok this is also prepper heaven probably if into prepping. 

Allergic traveller.  Www.allergictraveller.com.  
International dietary and allergy alert cards.  

The gluten & grainfree gourmet.  Ggfgourmet.com.
She had a great talk about grain free lifestyle. Her chocolate chip cookies I received as samples  were pretty good.

Rikkos inc.   Www.rikkosinc.com.
Great plantain and cassava root chips.  Bought a couple bags :).  They do have a local store in Raleigh they sell through.  

Honorable mentions of larger companies:  
Got swag (free samples) of kind bars, lära bars, and enjoy life chocolate chips.  


Thursday, August 13, 2015

Jalapeño Poppers

One of my favorite appetizers are jalapeño poppers.  These are a great balance of spicy and soothing relief.  There are many variations and I will put a couple I love making the most on this page.

This will serve 3-5 people.   just cut recipe in half or double as needed

Ingredients:
Basic Instructions for all options:
  • Prepare Cream cheese by mixing the cream cheese with the relish.
  • Prepare the ground meat
    • by cooking in a pan with 1 tablespoon coconut oil and spices to preference on high ensuring that the smallest pieces of ground meat are created.   For a bit more kick I usually use my spicy BBQ blend or a harissa spice
    • Brown the meat, if preferred you can go to the crispy side.
Instructions: (option 1)
  • Cut Jalapeño's in half and remove the stems and seeds.. 
  • Fill each half with cream cheese mix and cooked meat.
  • Wrap with half of a bacon slice
  • Cook in oven on 380 for about 20 minutes.  I sometimes do 425 or broil for 5-10 if in hurry.  Should crisp bacon and cook the jalapeño's. Now to prevent them from tipping over use Aluminum foil with ridges just wide enough to hold up the halves evenly.
  • Serve and Enjoy
Instructions: (option 2)
  • Core seeds out of whole jalapeño's
  • Fill each with cream cheese mix and cooked meat.  Alternating for maximum coverage per bite.
  • Wrap with a whole slice of bacon, trying to first cover the hole that removing the stem made.
  • Cook in oven on 425 or broil for 10 minutes.  This should crisp the bacon and cook the jalapeño's  Now keeping these from tipping could be crucial.  There are reasonably priced devices which are designed for jalapeño poppers.  Anything with holes that will allow the peppers to stand up with bacon wrapped around them would be appropriate.
  • Serve and Enjoy.

Bacon and Yellow sqush omelette

Wanted a somewhat healthy breakfast and had some bacon already defrosted so considered throwing that in.   According to a program I had based on ingredients this was about 400 calories.

Ingredients:
  • 2 slices Bacon diced/sliced
  • 3 chicken eggs quickly whisked in bowl for omelet
  • 1 med size yellow (summer) squash roughly diced
  • 1 jalapeño diced finely
  • 4 corners Salt and Pepper to taste
  • 1 oz goat cheese
Instructions:
  • Slice up bacon in fine pieces.  I prefer this, if you prefer chunkier pieces of bacon cut to your preference.
  • Place bacon in a pan with 1 tablespoon coconut oil and cook at a little higher than medium to brown.  Roughly 2 minutes. 
  • While bacon browning dice up the squash and the jalapeño
  • Add the squash and the jalapeño to the bacon and salt and pepper to taste and cook for 2 minutes stirring occasionally.
  • Pour in egg mixture and cook 1-2 minutes per side on high heat and flip once to complete omelet
  • Serve on plate and place the 1 oz of goat cheese in small dollops all over the omelet.  This adds a tangy bite to the omelet.

Mixed seafood stew

Ingredients:
  • 1 package of frozen mixed seafood (mussels, shrimp, squid, octopus) rough chopped.  Note that fresh will always be better, but the frozen can be a money and time savor depending on where you live
  • 1 lb fresh shrimp deveined and shells removed (save for sauce)
  • 1/2 medium size red onion diced small. 
  • 1 tablespoon rocoto paste
  • 1 tablespoon homemade garlic paste
  • Old bay season to taste
  • 8 oz coconut milk
  • 2 cups rice
  • 2 cups water
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Instructions:
 
  • In rice cooker combine rice, water, and salt.  Cook to done
  • In a small pot with 2 cups water boil any shells from shrimp or mussels for 30 min for shrimp/shell stock.  Strain out shells once done and set aside.
  • In another larger (medium size) pot bring the coconut oil to temp, and add the onions and begin to sweat them
  • Once onions are translucent (not browned), add the rocoto and garlic paste and old bay seasoning and  stir quickly for 30 seconds to meld the flavors at med high.  
  • Add the Seafood and cook for 2 min until shrimp start showing pink.
  • Deglaze pot with coconut milk and cook for 2 minutes.
  • Add in the strained stock and simmer at low for roughly 20-30 minutes letting the sauce thicken and the soup flavors to come together.
  • Server over the rice and enjoy.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Modified Gumbo with Heart meat.

So a friend of my wife's handed her a bag of okra.  First time I have ever seen or used this vegetable personally.   I of course have eaten both good and bad examples.   So I decided Gumbo was the best way to inaugurate my use of okra.

Ingredients:
  • 1 lb Andouille sausages cut roughly
  • 1 lb rabbit hearts
  • 1 lb mixed goat and lamb hearts chopped roughly
  • 1 lb roughly cut okra
  • 6 pieces of celery chopped finely
  • 3 carrots chopped finely
  • 1/2 red onion diced
  • 2 tablespoons homemade garlic paste
  • Black River Creole Seasoning to taste
  • Salt to Taste
  • 1 tablespoon Coconut Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Ghee
  • 2 teaspoons coconut flour
  • 2 cups organic red rice
  • 5-6 cups water
Instructions:
  • Add Coconut Oil and Andouille to pan and brown quickly at high
  • Remove the Cooked Andouille, leaving the oil in pan
  • Add the diced and chopped vegetables (except okra) and the ghee to the Pan and on medium sweat the vegetables for roughly 10 minutes, do not brown.
  • Add the flour and brown the flour in the oil/ghee with the vegetables
  • Add the hearts and the cooked Andouille and keep browning for a couple minutes
  • Add the rice and let the oil coat the rice
  • Add the water and let the stew at a low boil for an hour
  • Add the chopped okra (note to reduce the slimyness of okra, you can swish and sit in vinegar for 30 minutes)
  • Let stew at low boil for another hour.
  • Server and enjoy

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

General Smoothie guidance.


This is my favorite guidance I have found on making smoothies.   I did download this from a group called Young and Raw.   I needed the image and keep this on my phone and iPad so that when I question how to build a smoothie it is there and easy to consult.

I hope this does assist someone else in making their own smoothies and show exactly how easy it is to make your own.


Kiwi Peach smoothie


So todays smoothie blend focused on fresh organic Kiwi and peaches.   I did get the peaches a month or so back and processed over 30 to be frozen for later smoothies from a local farmer.   I wanted a more fruit based smoothie, and skipped the greens for this one.

Ingredients:
  • 1 peach frozen (see above).  Now you can just buy frozen peaches from the store -- roughly 6 pieces.
  • 3 frozen kiwis that I had previously processed from a sale that I found at whole foods.
  • 1/2 cup cashew milk
  • 1 teaspoon each of cacao and maca powder
  • handful of dried goji berries
  • 3 pieces of crystalized ginger

Monday, August 3, 2015

Piri piri zucchini and patti pan squash

Time of year for fresh squashes from the local farmers.  Here's another way to enjoy them.

Ingredients:
  • 1 patti pan squash diced roughly
  • 1 zucchini diced roughly
  • 1 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 2 teaspoons coconut flour
  • 1 teaspoon ghee
  • Piri piri spice to flavor
  • Lemon peel powder to flavor
  • Four corner salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup of rice, teff, quinoa, noodles, or zoodles.

Instructions:
  • Melt ghee
  • Add the coconut flour and cook the flour on medium for 1-2 minutes to brown. 
  • Add coconut milk and spices and cook for 5 minutes on medium while stirring occasionally.  Sauce should start thickening at this point. 
  • Add squashes and cook for 5 min on high.  
  • Pour over rice, teff, quinoa, noodles, or zoodles. If you choose zoodles (zucchini noodles), then replace zucchini in main recipe with another squash or additional patti pan. 
Serves two people.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

homemade Spicy Banana Pepper Mild Hot sauce

This is a simple pepper sauce and relish I make once the farmers markets start rolling out the spicier peppers.

This blend is a mild for me and I use it in a variety of applications from mild Chili's, stews, scrambled eggs, as a relish on a burger or sausage, and even in small quantities in dressings.  

As a note for some folks not used to eating a lot of Caribbean dishes, or the spicier middle eastern or Asian dishes:  This sauce could be considered a spicy hot sauce, all depending on how spicy the peppers were. 

Banana peppers like jalapeño can range from a very mild to a damn what did I just eat depending on variety.  I did want to add this warning in here, because people who frequently love ghost, habanero, and other peppers higher up on the scale take these peppers for granted and they can sneak up on you.   Also the flavor is completely different (much sweeter), and it's usage in meals needs to be balanced out.

Ingredients:
  • 8 Spicy Banana Peppers
  • toasted onion flakes
  • Head of Elephant Garlic
  • white vinegar
Instructions:
  • Clean the peppers of seeds and the ribs and place in blender of choice.   I use my Ninja juice blender for this.
  • Clean the head of elephant garlic and add to pepper
  • Put in two handfuls roughly of toasted onion flakes  (to flavor)
  • Put in white vinegar to liquid fill line if using a blender, or to cover if using a food processor
  • Blend/process until it looks like a relish.  Usually less then a minute depending on machine.
Packaging:
  • So I save up bottles that have re-closable lids for this for my home use.   Make sure they are clean.  
  • I typically like an 8 or 16 oz bottle.   This can be potent stuff for most people and I personally do not try and keep a batch longer then 6 months.   With the vinegar it may be theoretically last longer, but I like making fresh every year, and I save some peppers in freezer for a batch off season.
  • What I like to do so that it's not too watery is to use a fine mesh sieve and separate the vinegar and the 'pulp'
    • Pulp goes in a small 8 oz or 16 oz container.   This will look like a fine relish.  Pack well and then cover with some of the vinegar.
    • The vinegar with all the awesome heat and flavor I save in a jar appropriate to amount 32oz typically.  I can use this vinegar for a wide variety of applications including salad dressings.  Not as spicy as the pulp but great flavor.

Homemade Habanero Hot Pepper Sauce

This is a simple pepper sauce and relish I make once the farmers markets start rolling out the spicier peppers.

Todays blend is roughly a medium for me and I use it in a variety of applications from mild Chili's, stews, scrambled eggs, as a relish on a burger or sausage, and even in small quantities in dressings.

Ingredients:
  • 8 Habanero's
  • 8 Jalapeño's
  • toasted onion flakes
  • Head of Elephant Garlic
  • white vinegar
Instructions:
  • Clean the peppers of seeds and the ribs and place in blender of choice.   I use my Ninja juice blender for this.
  • Clean the head of elephant garlic and add to pepper
  • Put in two handfuls roughly of toasted onion flakes  (to flavor)
  • Put in white vinegar to liquid fill line if using a blender, or to cover if using a food processor
  • Blend/process until it looks like a relish.  Usually less then a minute depending on machine.
Packaging:
  • So I save up bottles that have re-closable lids for this for my home use.   Make sure they are clean.  
  • I typically like an 8 or 16 oz bottle.   This can be potent stuff for most people and I personally do not try and keep a batch longer then 6 months.   With the vinegar it may be theoretically last longer, but I like making fresh every year, and I save some peppers in freezer for a batch off season.
  • What I like to do so that it's not too watery is to use a fine mesh sieve and separate the vinegar and the 'pulp'
    • Pulp goes in a small 8 oz or 16 oz container.   This will look like a fine relish.  Pack well and then cover with some of the vinegar.
    • The vinegar with all the awesome heat and flavor I save in a jar appropriate to amount 32oz typically.  I can use this vinegar for a wide variety of applications including salad dressings.  Not as spicy as the pulp but great flavor.