20 second mayonnaise

I find a lot of recipes when I’m lurking on the interwebs – some good, some not so much.

But, this is a winner:

http://www.lastappetite.com/how-to-make-mayonnaise-in-20-seconds/

It works and is really good. I rarely buy mayonnaise, but I also rarely take the time to make it the traditional way – by dripping the oil in slowly, slowly.

Rick is back from Fiji tonight. While he has been away I have been eating very low carb ie mostly meat (steak, fish, chicken).

I have not been the smallest bit hungry, but I have been hugely, unbelievably, sound-asleep by 7:10 – tired. I thought I might need to eat some more fat, so I made the mayonnaise, added some curry powder and stirred it over my sliced, poached chicken-breast. It tastes really good and I hope it does the trick with the exhaustion 🙂

Anyway, I hope this recipe is as useful to you as it will be for me.

 

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Quinoa and Celiac disease

I found this today and thought you may be interested. I know I can’t eat Quinoa without getting an upset tummy…

http://www.healthnowmedical.com/blog/2012/07/18/is-quinoa-causing-reactions-in-celiacs/

Another good reason to eat Paleo/Primal…

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Depot

Depot is New Zealand’s restaurant of the year 2012. It’s in Auckland, in the shadow of the Skytower. You can’t book – you just have to turn up and trust your luck. We got there early one lunchtime. It was already a third full, but the charming staff seated us on the top level (of two), near the open kitchen…we passed the oyster-bar on the way to our seats…

The tables are rumpty old planks – smooth, but pock-marked (if you know what I mean?); knives and forks plonked into old mackerel tins; water glasses are made of pewter (an idea I am going to steal because pewter keeps cold water – cold – does anyone know where to buy pewter tumblers??); wine is served in thick glass tumblers – at home, I sometimes drink my wine from a regular drinking glass…

Depot’s menu is a series of plates meant to be shared… lots were gluten-free, others could be changed to suit – the waitress was friendly and knowledgeable… we were discussing what we would eat when a chap came to our table – said hello and asked if we needed any help with figuring out what to eat…

Al Brown…

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Al Brown is a superstar of New Zealand food. He has a blog…  http://albrown.co.nz/

and there he was, talking to US!!!

We stammered something pretty daft, I think – I really don’t remember. It was one of those occasions when you think of all the clever things you should have said, while you’re awake in the middle of the night…

The meal was delicious. I can honestly say it was the best roast pork meal I have ever eaten – and I do a pretty darn fine roast pork dinner myself!

One of the sides was a ‘blackened kumara’ (sweet potato), which had delicate curls of pickled lemon sprinkled over it – it ‘lifted’ the sweetness of the kumara…

I was inspired – and came home to preserve lemons of my own…

Lemons cut long-ways into slices; salted.. lots of salt…. jam them into a small jar… top up with lemon juice… screw the top on and shake the jar to dissolve the salt (and to get the air-bubbles out). Put the jar in the fridge – shake it about every couple of days for about 3 weeks.

To use them, carefully fish out a lemon slice (you don’t want to touch the other slices if you can help it – because you might get something manky on them and they’ll go nasty on you) … and you only want the rind, so scrape the seeds and pulp out and discard. Finely slice the rind and away you float on deliciousness…

The only bad thing about preserved lemons is that the combination of salt and lemon juice gets into the scratches on your hands made by any random kittens who live with you… 🙂

 

 

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Oh crap!

Pardon the language, but … REALLY!

I’ve been feeling pretty ordinary for quite a while. Tired, weepy, misery-gutsy…

I put it down to our two friends deaths, our dear friend’s cancer diagnosis, assorted other crap that happens in every life…

I’ve even been questioning my diet – craving sugar again, having another half-glass of wine – when really I don’t want it…

I take all sorts of vitamin supplements…

Red Seal Executive Strength Vitamin B – one a day, for months…

I suspect it’ll take a while to undo the damage.

 

 

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Experimenting with the little cakes

When I was first diagnosed with coeliac disease I went and bought all kinds of prepared foods with ‘gluten free’ on the label… bread, cookies, cakes, pasta etc.

Almost without exception, they were nasty… which led me to the Paleo way of eating.

But, I fall of the wagon every now and then…  Some time ago I bought this…

It is a blend of stevia plant extract and non-GMO corn erythritol (whatever the hell THAT is [which, I guess, should have given me a clue…]);  it is supposed to be healthier than ‘real’ sugar – not raise your blood glucose or insulin levels… You use it just as you would ‘real’ sugar…

So, in the interest of science (pphhfftt!) I made the little 18second cakes again – using Betta Sweet instead of sugar…

They looked the same… they were still light and spongy… but the Betta Sweet didn’t dissolve properly – so the cakes were gritty, which wasn’t so pleasant. They also tasted… slightly … metallic…. and sat in my tummy like a lead balloon… BUT, the worst? They left me with a powerful thirst – I felt I simply couldn’t drink enough cold water…

So, if (when) I make these little treats again… I will use real sugar. I know sugar is terribly  bad for us, and I hardly have any anymore – but this substitute just reminded me of all the nasty things that pretend to be food and really aren’t.

This is what happens to a little one after she plays and plays and plays and plays…. I think I can hear her snoring 🙂

Tomorrow she goes back to the vet to be spayed and micro-chipped – they will have to shave off all her sweet little tummy-feathers to check she has not already been fixed (they can only tell by the scars).  It will be a very quiet day here without her, but I will get lots of chores done – if only because keeping busy is a good way to make time pass while you’re worrying…

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Hard Boiled Eggs in Spicy Cream Sauce

We’ve had the most glorious Autumn – which is really nice because we had a deeply ordinary Summer. Autumn is my favourite season. I’m not good with extremes of temperature, don’t like being hot – nor do I like being cold. Picky – I know, but it is how it is 🙂

One of the lovely things about cooler weather is that a curry feels just right. I don’t know how people who live in India cope with spicy food in such hot, humid weather. I know there is supposed to be something about the spicy-ness of the food making you sweat, which in turn makes you cooler… But it just doesn’t make sense to me. Curry in cool weather? Now THAT makes sense!

This is one of our favourites. It is crazy-easy, delicious, cheap and really tasty. It is a Madhur Jaffrey recipe which I think I found on the interwebs…  It has come to my attention that – though I love cooking and eating curries, I don’t yet own a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook… I can feel some sneaky Amazoning coming on 😉

3 Tbsp ghee

50g onion  – peeled and finely chopped

1 inch cube of fresh ginger – peeled and grated

1/2 – 1 fresh green chilli – finely chopped

275ml cream – use coconut milk if you want this Paleo (I did, and it was delicious!)

1tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garam marsala

2 tsp tomato paste

150ml chicken stock

6 – 8 hard boiled eggs – peeled and halved

1 tbsp finely chopped coriander or parsley

heat the oil over medium heat and fry the onions, Stir and fry for about 3 minutes or until the pieces are browned at the edges.

Add the ginger and chilli and stir fry for about a minute

Add the cream, lemon juice, spices, salt, tomato paste and chicken stock. Stir to mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer.

Add the eggs, cut side up and spoon the sauce over them. Cook about 5 minutes.

Serve cut side up with sauce poured over, Garnish with coriander or parsley. 

I added some cauliflower and broccoli florets, and some chopped spinach before I put the eggs in…

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Asian-style Plum Sauce

Or, how to disguise that your plum jelly hasn’t set…

1 bottle of very good plum jam (!)

Add: (and these amounts are just a guide – add to your taste)

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 small onion – grated

2 tbsp white or balsamic vinegar

3 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder

4 cloves garlic – finely chopped

1 dstp fish sauce

1 dstp tamari (gf)

1 tsp sweet chilli sauce

Lime juice

brown sugar

Mix everything together – add a little water if you want to thin it.

Use as a dip, or as a sauce for pork ribs, bbq chicken, cold meats or cheeses.

Keep in the fridge.

 

No-one will ever guess that batch of plum jelly was a sloppy mess!

 

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Coriander Almond Sauce

 

1 cup onion – roughly chopped

5 spring onions – roughly chopped

5 – 6cm fresh ginger – roughly chopped (peel it if you want)

2 long, red chillies – seeded and chopped (or 1 tbsp mild chilli paste)

2 large handfuls fresh coriander

1 cup blanched slivered almonds

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp fish sauce

2 tsp turmeric

Blitz to a coarse paste

Transfer to a frypan and add to cans coconut milk, salt, pepper and the grated rind and juice of 2-3 limes

Great with Fish, chicken or vegies

 

 

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I lied!

A little while ago I told you I’d bought a new cook-book… I lied – I bought two! 🙂

If you’ve ever bought a book from Amazon, you will know how they always say ‘People who bought the book you’ve just ordered, also ordered this…’  Well this is one of those…

And I’m glad I did.

I wanted to make that curry mayonnaise chicken salad thing for dinner again, but I found I’d run out of curry powder – so I used a recipe from this book to make my own 🙂

I dry-roasted some spices, ground them up in a coffee-grinder that goes nowhere near coffee, added some more pre-ground spices and ended up with this…

The entire process took about ten minutes, my kitchen smelled exotic and lovely and the curry powder itself is much nicer than the stuff you can buy.

And the salad was good too.

The book is full of all sorts of information about herbs and spices (duh!) – and there are some very interesting sounding recipes for spice blends too. I think it will prove a winner.

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‘Pasta’ Alfredo

It’s ‘that’ time of year again – when friends make excuses not to talk to you… in case (!) you talk them into accepting more zucchini…

A little while ago, fellow Kiwi/Paleo Blogger Lynda mentioned on her blog, a recipe I had posted for Nigella’s Lemon “Linguine” using zucchini shoestrings…

Lynda said she’d like to try that idea, but making an Alfredo sauce – with eggs, parmesan, cream and bacon…

I’m here to tell you… GREAT idea! Fry up chopped up bacon (I put some onion in too – apologies to any Italians, who are – come to think of it – probably off saying a few prayers at the thought of alfredo… without the pasta :-)), take the bacon out when it is as crispy as you want it. Melt a little butter in the pan if you need more fat (g’wan – you know you want to! – DON’T forget – fat doesn’t make you fat)… put in your zucchini shoestrings

Wilt them a bit – this won’t take long… In a wee jug, mix up some cream, eggs and parmesan. Take your zucchini pan off the heat (cos you don’t want to scramble the eggs) – Pour in the cheesy mixture and stir – the heat of the zucchini will cook the eggs and make a lovely creamy sauce.

Serve it with the bacon sprinkled on top.

Rick had seconds…. 🙂

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