Elk and goat piri piri meatloaf

I've been wanting a meatloaf for some time, and for some reason just never got around to making one.   This came together really well. 

Serves 6 meals with sides.  

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground elk meat
• 1 pound ground goat meat
• 2 small chicken eggs
• 1/2 cup gluten free bread crumbs
• Piri piri spice to taste
• Toasted onion 2 tablespoons
• Turmeric 2 tablespoons
• Medium yellow curry 2 tablespoons
• 1/2 cup shredded or chopped goats milk sharp cheddar cheese

Instructions:

• Combine all ingredients except cheese in bowl. 
• Form a 'bowl' with roughly 3/4 of the meat
• Full bowl with the cheese
• Cover the cheese with remaining meat and blend top and bowl seamlessly
• Bake in oven at 425 for 1 hour
• Serve and enjoy

Simple arepas

This is a recipe I got from a great Venezuelan lady.  I have modified it slightly to work for my tastes.  If you are in the Raleigh NC area look up bracci's.

Serves:1

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup PAN pre-cooked white corn meal (GF).
• 1/2 cup water
• touch of salt

Instructions:

• Add water and salt to a bowl mix quickly
• Add the corn meal and mix with your hands until it approaches a 'playdough' like consistency
• Note that if the consistency is not right add a touch of cornmeal or water.  (Not thick enough cornmeal, too thick water)
• Once mixed completely then let sit 2-5 minutes
• Grab a handful of the mix and roll into a ball.  
• Place ball on some wax/parchment paper and press down softly until a disc is formed.   This disc should not be too thin, possible a little less then a fingers width in depth.
• If the disk is showing 'cracks' on the edge then you did not have enough water in the mix add a couple drops and redo until this resolves.
• This should make two discs.
• Place some parchment paper on a pizza stone (I prefer pizza stones for making bread products)
• Cook for 30 minutes at 350.  
• The arepa then can be cut to produce a pocket.  note that the inside may seem a little gummy this is too taste.   This is a proper Venezuelan style.
• If you prefer crispier arepa's, I cook mine for 45 minutes at 385, this leaves almost no gumminess on inside, and a nice crispy exterior.

Fillings:

• Can be anything.  Note that sweet fillings will not be standard Venezuelan but don't shy away from fun :)
• My favorites so far are:
• Breakfast:   Scrambled eggs, Bacon, sausage, and a spot of cheese
• Lunches and Dinners:   Any ground or diced meat with veggies and cheese.   I typically spice out the meal with south American or middle eastern flavors.

Alternate uses for this recipe:

• The base arepa recipe if pressed much thinner can be made to an empanada or rolled around a sausage or other meats to form something like a taquito.   This recipe can be modified as needed to make hundreds of different meals, making this very flexible and a great base meal.

Peruvian lamb leg stew

This came out of a need to make a stew with a Peruvian flair.   This is a standard lamb stew, but with some pretty standard Peruvian pastes.

Ingredients:

• 6 medium potatoes rough chop
• 1 white onion rough chop
• 2 lbs boneless leg of lamb rough chop
• 3 tablespoons Mirasol paste
• 3 tablespoons homemade garlic scape paste (1-2 tablespoons garlic paste sub)
• 1-2 teaspoons 4 corners salt and pepper blend
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

Instructions:

• Sweat onions until translucent in hot oil
• Add the pastes and mix thoroughly 
• Add meat and brown while continue mixing to cover meat
• Add potatoes mix roughly and pat down until one layer
• Add water to cover
• Close lid on pot
• Very low boil for 1 hour
• Serve and enjoy. 

Potato, carrot, and turnip soup

Ingredients:

• 1 medium potato
• 1 large yellow carrot ( didn't want to change color of soup)
• 1 small 'baby' turnip
• 1 small handful of mixed grains of paradise and Szechuan peppers
• Salt
• 1/2 cup shredded goats milk sharp cheddar
• 1 cup cashew milk

Instructions:

• Rough chop potato, turnip, carrot and add in pot and cover with water with salt and pepper
• Low boil 1/2 hour until everything tender
• Immersion blend result should get very thick. 
• Add cashew milk and shredded cheese 
• Simmer 1/2 hour
• Serve and enjoy

Turkey meatball and Bokchoy soup

Having some left over frozen turkey stock from my last turkey I made I wanted to make a riff on a chicken bokchoy soup.  

Ingredients:

• Bag of baby Bokchoy from local farmer (any Bokchoy is great.  I prefer the smaller ones, but even a large one cut up will be great.  )
• 2 lbs ground turkey meat
• Szechuan pepper salt blend
• Turkey stock (prefer home made myself, local farmer sells parts like back/wings great for making stock if you haven't made turkey recently)
• Soy sauce
• 1 chicken egg
• GF breadcrumbs

Instructions:

• Making the meatballs:
• Mix the ground turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, and Szechuan salt blend until balls can be formed.   The mixture if you grab handful will stick together when you try and lift handful from rest of bowl.  
• Bring a tablespoon of coconut oil to heat in a deep soup pot (8 quart usually good)
• Place the turkey meatballs at bottom spaced out so you have room to roll them.  You may need to do multiple batches.  Brown/sear the balls.  
• Add the stock and cook for 20 minutes.  
• Add the Bokchoy and cook for 2-4 minutes and serve with a touch of soy sauce and enjoy.  

Lamb Stew

Found a great deal on a lamb chuck roast and was in a stew mood.   So this recipe was created

Ingredients:

• 1 White Onion, roughly chopped.
• 3 1/2 pounds of lamb chuck roast (roughly chopped and deboned and fat removed)
• Smokey BBQ Blend (http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/07/bbq-spice-blends-i-love.html)
• 1 dried Limon Chili
• 1 dried Guajillo Chili
• 1 dried panca seco chili
• 1 dried cascabel chili
• 6 cups water
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 6 tablespoons Black Strap Molasses

Instructions:

• Start with the bones and fat from the lamb chuck roast and add 3-4 cups water enough to cover and a splash of apple cider vinegar.  low boil for 30 minutes to make a quick bone broth.  Once done remove bones and fat.
• In another pot add the dried chilis and 3-4 cups water and low boil for 60 minutes.  
• Immersion blend the chili
• Add the Molasses and quick immersion blend and let sit for 30 minutes
• Combine the bone broth and the chili sauce.
• In a pan bring the coconut oil to het and once ready to start frying add the chopped lamb. 
• Brown lamb for 5 minutes until a good sear on all sides.
• Add in the sauce and the rough chopped onions. 
• Mix well
• Reduce heat to just above a simmer and cover for 1 hour.
• Enjoy and Serve over Baked Potato or Rice.

Chicken in cashew sauce over noodle

Instead of using a peanut sauce which is more traditional I had to modify these recipes due to my wife's allergies to peanuts.   So I use Cashew as an alternative and thankfully she's not allergic.   Also I had leftover roasted chicken that needed to be used up.  Note that this recipe can be made with any leftover white meat or bird.

Ingredients:

• 1 small chicken breast (roughly 1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons cashew butter
• 1 cup cashew milk
• My Sazon Blend http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/08/sazon-blend-i-like.html)
• Korean Chili threads
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Instructions:

• Warm up the coconut oil until the oil is hot enough to 'fry' the chicken when added.  Add the chicken and liberally sprinkle with the sazon
• Start browning the chicken.
• Mix the cashew butter and milk to create a viscous liquid
• Add in the chili threads and the cashew milk and butter mix
• Cook at a low simmer for roughly 10 minutes until the liquid thickens.
• Serve over Kelp noodles (my favorite noodles) and Enjoy.

Chicken Gizzard and Heart stew

My wife absolutely loves this stew.   She makes it often for herself so decided to add it to my list of recipes.   Due to the inclusion of tomatoes this is a recipe I myself can't eat, but I do make a similar stew without tomatoes (http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/07/simple-rustic-chicken-heart-stew.html)

Ingredients:

• 3 lb's of chicken hearts and gizzards (cleaned and rough chopped)
• 4 Russet Potatoes
• 1 tomatoes diced
• 1/2 diced yellow onion
• Peruvian chili lime spice blend  (Alternately Mirasol paste or even rocotto is an option here)
• Oregano
• 2 cups chicken or turkey stock

Instructions:

• Heat up two tablespoons of Coconut oil and add in the onions.  Cook the onions until translucent.
• Add the tomato and the chili spice and warm up the tomatoes
• Add the organ meat and cook for 5 minutes browning the meat.
• Add in the stock and the potatoes and oregano 
• cook at low boil roughly 30 minutes.
• Serve and Enjoy.

Simple Turkey soup

The farmer I buy the majority of my meat from had a special going on Turkey thighs, which are larger then chicken thighs. Since it was raining all weekend here I decided a good soup was what the day called for.

Ingredients:

• 2 Turkey thighs
• 3 stalks of celery
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 2 cups concentrated turkey stock from last years Thanksgiving turkey.
• 4 russet potatoes rough chopped

Instructions:

• Place the turkey thighs in about 6 cups of water and low boil for 1 hour
• Add the celery, carrot, onion, and the previously made stock and low boil for another hour
• Fish out celery, carrot, onion, and turkey thighs.
• Place the rough chopped potatoes in the stock and low boil for 20-30 minutes until potatoes fall apart to touch.   Sample stock and salt to taste if needed.
• While the potatoes are cooking, mince the turkey thighs by removing the skin and pulling apart the meat into thin strips for the soup.  Ensure skin and bones are not in the meat.
• Once potatoes are done cooking add the meat back in.
• Serve and Enjoy.

Simple chicken noodle soup

Had a carcass leftover from a rooster I made this past weekend, so that and some chicken thighs from a local farmer are the basis for this soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 carcass bones
• 4 chicken drumsticks
• Handful of 4 corner peppercorns
• 1 large carrot
• 3 stalks celery
• Celery salt to taste
• 1 serving gluten free noodles of choice

Instructions:

• Combine all ingredients in all ingredients except noodles and low boil 2 hours
• Remove meat, peppercorns, carrots, celery from stock and bring to roiling boil
• Verify taste of stock and adjust as needed with salt or other herbs
• Add noodles cook for desired time to bring to aldente.  
• While noodles are cooking strip meat from bones and mince and when noodles cooked add meat back in.
• Serve and enjoy

Turkey olive burgers

I love turkey burgers, but by the nature of turkey mostly come out dry and tasteless unless you work with the flavorings a bit.   This is especially true while making the recipe GF.   The canned sliced olives and a touch of the sauce they were canned/pickled in adds some moisture as well as some flavors that compliment the turkey meat.
 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground turkey
• Cambridshire seasoning salt 
• 1 egg
• GF breadcrumbs to consistency
• 1 small can of sliced black or green olives

Instructions:

• Mix all ingredients well.  Mixture should stick together when lifted. 
• Put in frig for 30 min give time to make proper consistency. 
• With 1 tablespoon coconut oil, cook 4-5 minutes per side in pan
• Serve and enjoy

Slow Cooker Osso Bucco

Ok I admit I'm on a bit of a slow cooker kick this weekend, but with the meats I have chosen from the local farmer from the rooster recipe I posted earlier to this osso bucco cut of meat; I wanted to be able to let the meat work it's way to completion over a long period of time.   The farmer I buy meat from had some great items they usually don't have lie that rooster and now this cut of meat so I had to go for it.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of Osso Bucco cut of meat 
• Greek Seasoning
• 3 large carrots rough chopped
• 4 pieces of celery rough chopped
• 2 tablespoons garlic paste
• 1 yellow onion rough chopped
• 2 cups water

Instructions:

• Toss in the veggies and the water into the slow cooker and form a nice bed for the meat to rest on
• Sprinkle the meat well with the Greek seasoning and place either on top of the bed of veggies or if your slow cooker came with a rack that keeps the meat out of the liquid use that.
• Cook on low for 6 hours in the slow cooker
• Remove the rack and place the meat directly in the liquid making sure it is as covered as possible.
• Cook for an hour on high in the slow cooker
• Turn over the meat and cook for another hour on high.
• Let the meat sit on a plate for 5-10 minutes while you work on the Gravy below
• Reserve the veggies and the sauce that formed at the bottom of the slow cooker

Instructions for a quick Gravy:

• Take the reserved veggies and sauce place in a pot and immersion blend the mixture and cook on high
• Take a good steel pan (for heat distribution) and 1-2 tablespoons butter and melt the butter and add 1 teaspoon of coconut flour and brown quickly.  
• Pour the blended sauce into this steel pan and cook on high until the gravy becomes nice and thick.  Drips slowly off of a spoon.
• Stand up the osso bucco on plate if you want this to look sort of like what they do in restaurants.
• Pour a good couple tablespoons of the gravy over the meat.  Be as generous as you feel like and reserve remaining gravy for a future meal

Suggested Sides:

• Ok there is no question here in my mind.  Mashed potatoes, and if you want to be fancy put the mashed potatoes on plate first, put meat on top and then pour the gravy all over.
• For the veggie:  Green beans, corn, peas and carrots, and brussel sprouts all would do well with this meal.

Slow Cooker Stewing Hen or Rooster

I personally prefer the flavor to the Stewing Hens or Roosters.  For many people this is a tougher cut of meat but if you know what you are doing with this bird the flavor is phenomenal.  Also these birds are much harder to find in an average grocery store and may require you to look at local farmers markets and get to know the farmers that sell eggs and chickens.   A stewing Hen is a hen that essentially has been around laying eggs for several years and has reached the end of the laying cycle.

Typically these birds are much leaner as well and their body will not be as rounded making a stew much better way to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 1 Rooster or Stewing Hen (I had a 4lb bird for this recipe)
• 1 cup water
• Sazon (http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/08/sazon-blend-i-like.html)

Instructions:

• Place 1-2 cups water in slow cooker.
• Remove the chickens legs at the body joint to get a leg+thigh combo, and then remove the wings again at the body joint.
• Sprinkle well with Sazon and place these pieces outer skin down in the slow cooker.
• If you were lucky enough to get the neck with your bird sprinkle well with sazon and add to bottom of slow cooker with the legs and wings.
• Take the remainder of the bird, sprinkle well with sazon inside and out and place on top of the above ingredients.
• Cook at low on the slow cooker for 6 hours.   By hour 4/5 depending on your slow cooker the meat will start falling off the bone, I prefer mine just a little more rendered. 
• Serve and Enjoy
• This should feed 5 portions of meat.  You will need sides.
• Save the liquid as a base to make a chicken broth soup later, This should be very concentrated chicken broth capable of serving a soup for 5.

Alternate ingredients:

• Typically I love to add Celery, Carrots, and Onions to the broth.  I did not have any in the house when I made this one so went without.

Recommended Sides:

• Rice if you are not grain free.  If you make rice try and get a couple tablespoons of the chicken broth per cup water for a flavored rice.
• Potatoes or sweet potatoes.  I typically prefer a quick stove fry, but mashed and oven roasted work as well
• Any Vegetable.  I typically stick with an oldie but goody like peas and carrots, but there is no limit here. 

My Wife's favorite pasta sauce

Though I personally can no longer eat tomatoes, I do get requests (like this) occasionally for items I can no longer eat.  As part of the nightshade a family they cause considerable inflammation for me if I eat more than a slice a month.  My wife still loves the red sauces I made before I cut them out of my diet.  So for her I'm bringing this recipe back.   She loves a good solid red sauce, and honestly so did I before I realized the negative impact it had on my body.

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes
• 3 Large Beefsteak tomatoes
• 15 cherry tomatoes that were too soft for salads.
• 2 teaspoons Garlic paste
• 2 teaspoons Cilantro garlic scape paste
• Handful of Italian herbs to taste
• Pinch of dried rosemary leaves
• 2 teaspoons of roasted onion
• Salt and pepper to taste (light handful)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric

Instructions:

• Combine all ingredients and boil for 15 minutes.  
• Use immersion blender to make a smooth red sauce
• Cook at low for 30 minutes to thicken.  Try flavor 5-10 minutes before complete and if too acidic for your taste add teaspoon sugar at a time to reduce acidity to taste.   

Alternates:

• Beefsteak tomatoes make the best sauce in my opinion but Roma were a close second for me and I know some Italians prefer the Roma.
• Leftover salsa can be used, but will change flavor profile.  
• If processed sugars a problem add honey or blackstrap molasses to reduce the acidity without adding processed sugars.  This is what I do for similar sauces I make for myself  

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:

• 1 Yucca
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sliced zucchini
• Sazon (http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/08/sazon-blend-i-like.html)
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

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.

Bratwurst, Jalepeno, and fingerling potato scramble

Simple easy leftover breakfast

Ingredients:

• 2 large chicken eggs
• 1 bratwurst already cooked diced small
• 3 already cooked fingerling potatoes sliced thinly
• 1-2 jalapeño diced small
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 4 corners peppercorn salt to taste http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/06/salt-blends-i-love.html

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.

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:

• 1 lb any ground meat you like.  I have used, Elk, Boar, and Venison.  Pork and Beef will work as will Chicken and Turkey
• 15 Jalapeño's
• Daiya Coconut cream cheese. 
• 5 tablespoons spicy banana pepper relish (http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/08/homemade-spicy-banana-pepper-mild-hot.html)
• 1 slice bacon per jalapeño popper

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.