Seaweed Noodle Broth

Made up this broth-y breakfast today with quite random stuff. Easy-peasy and is done in no time. (The noodles were left-overs.)

Dried seaweed, 2 tbsp

Left-over sweet potato noodles

2 cups water

Smoked mackerel

Asparagus

Put everything in a bowl. Microwave for about 5 minutes, ensuring the asparagus is cooked. Season with pepper maybe.

Tuck in!

Note: You can substitute kale/spinach for seaweed, but seaweed is refreshing.  No need for salt as the smoked fish will contribute to that.

Butternut Squash with Pecan and Blue Cheese

It's been a while since our last post. Apologies as the lads had to move abode. We are now in a more spacious place, and the kitchen is waiting.  :D

Now, this dish isn't totally paleo as it contains dairy. You can easily remove the blue cheese if you choose but it should be ok if you are not that sensitive to lactose. This is quite a hefty dish, so it is good for supper.

Here's what we used:

lard-ons (substitute with bacon if you don't have it handy)

1 kg butternut squash pieces

1 cup pecan nuts, crushed (walnuts are good too!)

2 handsful grated blue cheese (cheddar or any mature one will do)

pinch of dried rosemary

hint of nutmeg

ghee or coconut oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

pepper/cayenne pepper

Steps:

1. Melt the fat in a pan and place the lard-ons in. Brown.

2. Add in the onion and garlic and cook on low until onion is a bit translucent.

3. Drop in the squash pieces. Add a tablespoon or two of water to help it steam and cook on low/medium until soft.

4. Scatter in the nuts and the cheese. Mix.

5. Season with rosemary and nutmeg, and the pepper if using. 

6. Taste. Shouldn't require salt as the cheese and lard-ons should be sufficient. 

7. Enjoy!

Beef Penang

Disclaimer: I am not Malaysian and I don’t really know the difference between rendang and penang, so forgive me if this is not the correct one. Formalities done, let’s proceed.

I am a big fan of no-fuss cooking. Toss everything in a pot and leave. Come back to a mouth-watering dish. Sound about perfect!

Beef penang is just that: melt-in-the-mouth pieces of beef, infused with all the lovely flavours of galangal (Filipino: langkawas), coconut, lemongrass, chili and kaffir lime. All it requires is basic prep.

Cheap cuts work best for slow cooking. Shin of beef is ideal, as the tough, sinew-y flesh is guaranteed to turn moist and buttery. A trick for this recipe is to use pre-made red curry paste (no MSG, no E-numbers), and awaken the flavours by using fresh ingredients too. I used:

1.5 kg shin of beef, chunks/diced

2 tins coconut milk (no E-numbers please!), about 800mL

2 tbsps red curry paste

2 stalks of fresh lemongrass, bashed

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 pcs star anise

2 sticks cinnamon

1 tbsp grated ginger

10 large fresh kaffir lime leaves, shredded

1 tsp cumin seeds

A bit of ghee / coconut oil

Fish sauce

1. Pre-heat oven to 140C.

2. In an oven-friendly pan, heat 2 tbsp ghee/oil on medium and fry the curry paste, garlic, ginger, cumin, lemongrass, cinnamon and star anise until fragrant. Make sure they do not burn.

3. Turn heat up, put the meat in and partially brown for about 5 minutes, stirring every now and then.

3. Pour in the coconut milk and stir. This should cover the meat. If not, top up with a little water. Heat up to boiling.

4. Cover and place in the oven, and let cook for about 3 hours.

5. Check the tenderness of meat and adjust seasoning with fish sauce.

6. Put back in for another 30 minutes or an hour.

7. Take out and stir in shredded lime leaves.

8. Serve on rice or lots of vegetables of your choice.

This keeps well in the fridge or freezer, and tastes so much better after a few days. If it lasts that long. ;)

Pulled Pork

I bet many have been wowed by the utter deliciousness of pulled pork sandwiches/wraps/buns. Juicy and flavourful with melt-in-the-mouth texture. Surely such complex creation can only be achieved by the select few gastronomic geniuses!?? Wrong.

Only two key things are needed: great ingredients and patience. The process is so forgiving; things do not have to be exact. Adjustments can be made. There is almost limitless room for error. A bonus for those who prefer to free-style in the kitchen (i.e., me). ;) You’ll need:

Around 2 kg pork shoulder off-the-bone (belly works fine too)

1 head of garlic, crushed

2 onions, roughly cut

2 tbsp tomato paste/puree

3 tsp sea salt (or less, you can always adjust at the end)

Lots of crushed black peppercorns

2 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Some dried bay leaves, maybe 4

Hot water

1. Pre-heat oven to 140C.

2. Mix everything (apart from the pork) in a pan that can accommodate the size of the pork using about a cup of water.

3. Place the pork in the pan skin side down, then top up with hot water until just about fully covered.

4. Cook in the oven for 2 hours. Turn the pork, skin side up for the remaining 2 hours just to give the skin a bit of colour.

5. Take the pork out and leave to cool.

6. Heat the cooking liquor until reduced. Test and play with the seasoning.

7. Once the pork has cooled, start ‘pulling’ using 2 forks.

8. Return to the liquor to re-absorb all the goodness.

9. Eat however you please.

Easy Spicy Beef Pieces

It’s been a long time coming. Apologies, apologies! Have been so busy with work, training and flat hunting.  The latter is exhausting and occasionally frustrating. Fingers crossed one with a good dining space is available and hopefully a paleo supperclub might just materialise!!! Still far out though.

Right, this beef nibble is so easy.  All you need is a larder staple: red curry paste. Just make sure it does not contain nasty stuff like MSG and added sugar --- check the label. You can use sirloin for the meat, but I found flat iron steak works just as good. Half the price, too. Here are all you need:

1 kg flat iron steak, cut into thick strips

1.5 tbsp red curry paste (or more)

2 tbsp cane vinegar

2 tbsp fish sauce

3 cloves grated garlic

1 inch grated ginger

1 tbsp honey (optional)

1. Mix the marinade and dunk the meat in. Leave for 30 minutes minimum, overnight ideally.

2. Pan-fry on very high heat for about 2 minutes each side depending on the size of your beef. I prefer mine a little bit pink. TIP: do not crowd the pan, otherwise, the meat will steam.

3. Eat with your favourite veggies.

You can have this any time of the day. Great for breakfast with avocado and plum tomatoes.

Honey/Chinese Spiced Pork Skewers

Inspired by a recent visit to SE Asia, this recipe uses street-food cooking and Chinese spices. Marinated thin slices of pork belly are skewered and simply grilled or barbequed. Easy-peasy, and a good breakfast idea too.

Ingredients:

1 kg pork belly, sliced into thin pieces

For the marinade:

2 tbsps honey

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp ground cloves

1 tbsp fresh grated ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1. Mix the marinade and marinate the pork for at least 2 hours.

2. Soak the bamboo sticks in water for 30 minutes. This stops burning.

3. Skewer the meat. 

4. Grill on medium for about 5 minutes each side, basting with residual marinade with a little oil.

5. Devour. :)

Crispy Pork Belly

As you may have guessed already, we love pork at the Paleo Larder.  And many will agree that pork belly is the crowning glory of all swine cuts (beats tenderloin, anytime).

The mix of fat and muscle that melts in your mouth is just way too enticing. Then, there is the crackling. A bit tricky to get right, but when you do, it beats winning the Olympic gold. ;)

Most recipes will ask you to cook the meat at a really high setting in the oven then turn it down. We tried the opposite method over the weekend and it turned out ok actually. Better, actually. We think it is because the initial cooking at a lower temperature cooks the meat without burning or crisping, while driving out water. So when the temperature is ramped up, the skin crisps up nicely.

All you need is the best pork belly you can find (free-range, flown first class, went to Eaton, massaged, and had a facial J), oil and salt.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan.

2. Score the skin of the pork and dry with paper towels.  Rub with oil and season with salt all over.

3. Place in oven and cook for an hour, opening occasionally to let the steam out.  If water gathers in the pan, tip it out carefully.

4. After the hour, ramp the temp up to 180C for 20 minutes, then to 200C for another 20 minutes. Again, occasionally letting out steam.

5. Brush the skin with a little oil and season again. Grill under setting 2, or just one notch above the lowest.  At this stage, make sure that you keep an eye on it as it could burn.  If the skin burns before it crisps up (forms little bubbles), turn the setting down.  If it is taking ages, turn it up a bit.

6. Rest for 15 minutes or longer before carving.

7. Serve with lime, fish sauce and chilli dressing to cut through the richness.