Saturday 11 June 2011

Vinegar-Poached Salmon Stir Fry

Given a choice between revision and cooking, it's pretty clear which one I pick!

For 3:
6 Salmon Steaks
100 g Spinach
2 Red Peppers
1 Chilli
1 Garlic Clove
Vinegar
Coconut Oil
1 Wok
1 Saucepan
1 Baking Tray
Slotted Spoon
Paper Towels

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Chop peppers into 4 pieces. Put peppers and some coconut oil in baking tray and baking tray in oven.
2. Fill saucepan with vinegar to height of thickest piece of salmon, heat to simmering.
3. Submerge three salmon steaks in vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove salmon steaks with slotted spoon and place on paper towels to dry. Repeat with other three salmon steaks.
4. Chop chilli and garlic clove into small pieces. Melt some coconut oil in the wok. Sweat the chilli and garlic in the wok.
5. Add the salmon to the wok and stir fry. While frying, break the salmon into small flakes.
6. Once salmon is cooked, quickly wilt spinach in wok.
7. Take wok off heat. Remove peppers from oven and place in plastic container with the lid on. Shake vigorously. The heat and shaking will loosen the skin from the peppers, allowing the burnt skin to be peeled off.
8. Serve.

Volumise: More spinach in the stir-fry.
Add carbs: Use more peppers.
Add fat: Roast some avocado with the peppers.
Add protein: Mix some bacon into the stir-fry.

Friday 10 June 2011

Orange Chicken and Sweet Poato Mash

I thought I'd make a variant on the lemon chicken from a while back.
A quick congratulations to my friends who have just finished their finals here at Oxford! Can't believe we've all been here for 4 years!
This recipe is going up in a blog carnival over at Food Renegade, so go check it out over there for more recipes and food-based discussions.

For 3:
3 Chicken Breasts
4 Clementines (I know, not oranges)
1 Bunch Spring Onions
1 Chilli
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes
Ground Ginger
Butter
1 Frying Pan
1 Saucepan
Paper Towels
Slotted Spoon

1. Slice the chicken into small strips.
2. Skin the clementines.
3. Boil some water in the saucepan along with some clementine skin. Remove the skin from the water.
4. Poach the chicken strips in the water briefly (30-60 s). Remove the chicken from the water with the slotted spoon and dry on the paper towels.
5. Chop the spring onions and chilli. Sweat these in the butter in one of the frying pans along with some ginger.
6. Skin and chop the sweet potatoes into small chunks and add to the boiling water.
7. Increase the heat on the frying pan and stir fry the chicken into the mix.
8. Once the chicken is browned, juice the clementines (or squeeze the juice out with your hands if you lack a juicer, like me) and add the juice to the pan. Simmer this slowly.
9. Once the potatoes are boiled, drain them then mash them with some butter.
10. Serve
Volumise: Boil some cauliflower with the sweet potatoes to make cauliflower-sweet potato mash. Serve with some stir-fried broccoli and cabbage.
Add carbs: Add some honey to the orange sauce and/or to the sweet potatoes while mashing.
Add fat: Mix some coconut oil or more butter into the mash.
Add protein: Add bacon bits to sweet potato mash.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Pork and Sweet Potato Stew

It's less than a week til my final exams start here in Oxford, so obviously, it's time for comfort food. What better way than a nice thick stew?
I came up with this recipe a while back, an experiment with a beef stew would not thicken in time, so I saved the beefy tomato-y sauce in the freezer, then I used this as the basis for the original of this dish.
As failing to make beef stew to make sauce for another dish seems a little wasteful, I just used stock cubes and tomato puree this time.
For 3:
6 Pork Loin Steaks
1 Large Sweet Potato
250 g mushrooms
2 Beef Stock Cubes (Knorr)
Tomato Puree
Chilli Powder
Cumin
Cinnamon
Rosemary
Thyme
20g butter
300 ml Water
1 Saucepan

1. Melt the butter in the saucepan.
2. Chop the pork into roughly 1 cm wide strips across the loin steak. Fry the pork strips in the butter until lightly browned.
3. Peel and chop the sweet potato into large chunks. Mix them into the pan, coating them in any fat remaining in the pan.
4. Add 300 ml boiling water, tomato puree, stock cubes, chilli powder, cumin and cinnamon to the pan. Mix and heat until the tomato, spices and stock are dissolved into the water.
5. Cover the pan with a lid, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Remove the pan lid. Crush/mash the sweet potato pieces (I used a spoon) into the water, so it is a thick paste.
7. Chop medium mushrooms into quarters, any others to roughly the same size pieces. Add the mushrooms, rosemary and thyme to the pan and mix in.
8. Continue to simmer for 10-15, mixing frequently to prevent anything sticking to your pan bottom.

Volumise: Add some onions to the mix at roughly the same time as the mushroom.
Add carbs: Use more sweet potatoes.
Add fat: Add some coconut oil or more butter. Use fattier pork.
Add protein: Use more pork. Add more mushrooms.

I hope the extra pictures come in handy and give you a better impression of how I cook and what to do, I'm hoping to incorporate more pictures into the blog from now on. Also, here are some bonus pictures of it served up and the table where I prepare everything.
Finally, some link love for Modern Paleo Blog, who published me in their blog carnival this week. Lots more recipes and interesting discussion there.
Any questions, leave a comment.

Stuffed Peppers

I made these ages ago. They worked quite well.
I just had another go at them, they were delicious and very easy to eat.
I imagine that, with some dressing (like replacing the lids) they could be used as a (relatively) fancy starter.
On the other hand, you can eat them like a (rather messy) apple once they've cooled down a bit:
For 3:
800g Beef mince
6 Peppers
Chilli Powder
Roasting Tray

1. Cut the centre out of the peppers.
2. Mix the beef mince with as much chilli powder as you want.
3. Stuff the peppers with the mince.
4. Roast the peppers at 200 degrees C for 30 minutes.

Volumise: Add shredded spinach to the beef mince.
Add fat: Use fattier mince.

Meatza

Sounds crazy; tastes amazing.
For 4:
800g beef mince
1 Carton Tomato Passatta
1 Onion
1 Pepper (Red)
4 Mushrooms
Oregano
1 Saucepan
1 Baking Tray

1. Press the beef mince into an even layer in the baking tray.
2. Mix the passatta and some oregano in the saucepan, boiling down to make a thick sauce.
3. While this is boiling, put the baking tray in the oven at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes.
4. Chop the onions, pepper and mushrooms into thin slices.
5. Once the mince is cooked, pour the tomato sauce onto the base, and place the onion, pepper and mushroom on top.
6. Return this to the oven until the vegetables are slightly crisped.

Volumise: Add some spinach with the veg in step 5.
Add carbs: Use more peppers.
Add fat: Place a layer of cheese on top of the vegetables.
Add protein: Use more beef mince. Use some usual pizza toppings such as pepperoni.