Saturday Cooking
I'm just about to get going on assembling stuff to make lasagna, tonight. But of course, it's going to be noodle-less, based instead on something I've had in mind for quite a while. Also, it will have a very unique meat ingredient.
In the meantime, here's last Saturday's fair for friends & family. It was braised short ribs again, but different from my last go-round. Here's stage one.
That's most of the stuff. In this case, I actually began with a recipe and made some changes. First, I used 4.5 pounds of meat and so reduced quantities accordingly. I also further cut down the amount of tomato to the one 14 oz can. In addition, I cut back on the wine and increased the amount of beef broth somewhat, using my own broth, of course. I also added in about a handful of blueberries and, as well as pine nuts.
In terms of procedure, I did this in the oven, about 4 hours at 300F and I only put the carrots and pearl onion in for the last hour.
Alongside is a stir fry of finely chopped cauliflower, done in lots of butter and some almond meal. You should be able to click on the one below for the full size version.
Later on, our friend robert made up this nice dessert plate for the four of us who were playing cards. The chocolate was 70% cacao.
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That's pretty much how I do it. I look at a recipe and get the general idea of where the flavor is going, and then just wing it on my own. Unless there is a spice that I know I have to be careful with (dry mustard for example). I either don't add it or double check the recipe for the exact quantity.
But I hadn't thought of chopping the cauliflower into risotto. That looks so good with the almond meal, it almost looks illegal.
That is some great Paleo food porn!
That dessert plate looks SO yummy… does the Paleo diet mainly end up being gluten-free, too? I'd love to learn more (you can contact me at my website http://www.makeovermomma.com, if you'd like) Thanks! : )
"The chocolate was 70% cacoa" which means it was also about 30% sugar (of some sort). There are 100% bars available in the US through Dagoba. Then, even more palaeo, you can get raw cacao beans through any serious natural foods store. This is the source I use:
and there's bound to be one near you too.
Bailey:
Exactly. That's probably the most hard & fast "rule" of a true paleo diet — no gluten at all. Others vary the diet to include dairy, which isn't truly paleo because nobody milked wild animals.
Yep. I get 85% usually and sometimes the 99%. On the other hand, I don't do the chocolate regularly.
I'm interested in both cacao beans as well as vanilla beans. I'll have to look around.
Something to keep in mind about chocolate bars is that so-called "low carb" bars are not better than standard. They make use of maltitol, a sugar alcohol, which is advertised as having no or little effect on insulin levels. This appears to be untrue or not wholly true.
handcoding.com/archives/2004/08/31/beware-of-the-sugar-alcohol-maltitol/
I started researching this when I bought one of these bars at Trader Joe's and ate the whole thing in one sitting, much to my chagrin.
Result: I don't buy them anymore.
Nowadays, I simply combine unsweetened cocoa powder with whipping cream and literally whip it up. You'd be surprised how quickly you adjust to a lack of sugar. Plus, you taste the milk sugars in the whipped cream. If you want some additional sweetness, throw a few raspberries on top.
Real FOOD!!!! Thanks!!!!