Roast beef in plum sauce with mashed cauliflower

Good God! I thought I mightn't post this week because of exams and whatnot, but this was genuinely too good not to share. I really enjoyed this meal. The sauce was amazing.
Let's get straight to it.
For 2:
4 Small Beef Steaks
2 Plums
3 Glugs of red wine (yes, that's a unit!)
3 Onions
1 Cauliflower Head
1 Beef Stock cube (Knorr)
Coconut Oil
Roasting Dish
Frying pan
Saucepan

1. Heat the oven to about 150 degrees C. Once hot, put the steaks in with some coconut oil.
2. Slice the onions finely. Fry in the pan on a low heat with some oil.
3. Cut down to the plum stone, run the knife all the way round, then twist the plum apart and remove the stone. Chop each half plum into four pieces (so 16 plum pieces in all). Add them to the frying pan with the onions.
4. Put a saucepan of water on the boil.
5. Chop the cauliflower up into bit and start boiling it once the water is boiling.
6. Add two glugs of wine and the stock cube to the frying pan and one glug of wine to the beef in the oven. Stir the frying pan until the stock cube dissolves.

7. Once the sauce is thickened up and the beef has had roughly 40 minutes, add the liquid from the baking tray to the frying pan.
8. Once the cauliflower is boiled, drain it, then mash it.

9. Once the beef has had 1 hour total and the sauce is thick, serve.

Volumise: Use more cauliflower, boil or steam some broccoli.
Add Carbs: Boil and mash some sweet potato instead or as well.
Add fat: Add coconut oil to the mash.
Add Protein: Wrap the steaks in bacon and with cheese.

PS Most of these recipes are now going up on Chowstalker. Two points come to mind:
1. They have a ratings system. If you enjoyed the recipe, let them know.
2. They have a butt-load more good recipes.
Enjoy.

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.

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.

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.

Chicken Curry

It took about an hour to make. First curry I've tried without coconut milk.
For 2:
2 Chicken Breasts
4 Small Onions
3 Small Green Chillis
Coconut Flesh
3 Garlic Cloves
Ground Ginger
Ground Cinnamon
Chilli Powder
Turmeric
Coconut Oil
Saucepan

1. Chop and fry the onions and chillis in coconut oil until soft.
2. Food processor or grind coconut flesh (about 3 cm x 3 cm) garlic cloves, cinnamon and ginger into a "paste". Or chop it all into small pieces. Add this to the onion and chilli, stir in and stir fry to three minutes.
3. Chop chicken into bite-size pieces and add to pan. Mix in chilli powder and turmeric. Lower heat and leave to cook with lid on for five minutes.
4. Add 125 ml of water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook until chicken is soft (about 30-45 min).

Volumise: Add some spinach about 3 minutes before meal is ready.
Add carbs: Mix in some glucose. Add more onions.
Add fat: Use more coconut or more coconut oil. Add some butter.
Add protein: Add a side of bacon. Mix whey into the sauce. Add more chicken.

Lemon Chicken

My mum made some lemon cake while I'm at home, which needed the zest of a few lemons. The lack of zest left the skin to dry out.
For 3:
3 Chicken Breasts
6 Spring Onions
1 Lemon
Ground ginger
Sugar
Butter
Frying Pan
2 Sauce Pans
Slotted spoon
Paper towels

1. Chop and fry spring onions in butter, keep in bowl until later, keep the pan.
2. Peel lemon and boil skin in enough to water to poach the chicken.
3. While boiling lemon skin, chop lemon flesh into small pieces. Mix with a little water in the second sauce pan along with a tablespoon of ground ginger, a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of butter and heat.
4. Chop chicken into thin strips.
5. Remove lemon skin from water and discard.
6. Poach chicken strips in water for 1 minute, remove chicken from water with slotted spoon and place on paper towels to dry.
7. Fry dried poached chicken in frying pan with more butter until brown.
8. Mix chicken and spring onions with lemon sauce in sauce pan and heat until lemon sauce thickens.
(9. Use chicken-poaching water to boil vegetables).

Volumise: Serve with extra vegetables - such as brocolli, cauliflower, carrots.
Add carbs: Add extra sugar or lemon juice to the lemon sauce. Fry some peppers.
Add fat: Mix some coconut oil into the lemon sauce (this will also add thickness to the sauce if eaten cold).
Add protein: Mix an egg into the lemon sauce.

Salmon with roast peppers and avocado

More on the salmon theme. I bought a few bags a while back, and now I need to empty out my freezer before the end of term, so here goes.
For 3:
6 Salmon Fillets
1 Avocado
3 Red Peppers
Olive Oil
Roasting Dish
Plastic tub

1. Heat oven to 200C.
2. Quarter avocado and slice peppers into large pieces (roughly four slices per bell pepper).
3. Place salmon fillets in roasting dish, cover in olive oil.
4. Place avocado and peppers on top of salmon, and add more oil.
5. Roast for roughly 30 minutes.
6. Take dish out of oven, put peppers in plastic tub then put the lid on. Serve avocados. Drain off oil from dish. Return dish to oven.
7. Shake peppers in tub, open tub and shred off skin - which should be blackened - with a fork. Serve peppers.
8. Serve salmon.

Volumise: Serve with some steamed broccolli or cauliflower.
Add carbs: Use more peppers (two or three peppers per person is not excessive), coat salmon in a honey glaze.
Add fat: Use more avocado, pour some of the oil from the dish over the finished meal.
Add protein: Again, wrap the salmon in bacon.

Salmon in tangy sauce

It's been a little while since an update. Made a batch of this today; tastes great.
The recipe is more for the sauce than anything else.
For 3:
6 Salmon Fillets
Mustard Seeds or Ground Mustard
Fish Stock Cube (Knorr)
Vinegar
Olive Oil
Tomato Puree
Cumin
Ground Ginger
Paprika
Pestle and Mortar or Small mixing bowl
Roasting Dish
Kitchen Foil

Served with sweet potato mash and stir-fried brocolli.

1. Heat oven to ~200C.
2. Grind mustard seeds and stock cube into consistant mixture, or mix in mixing bowl with fork.
3. Mix in 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp vinegar to form a mixture with the consistancy of puree.
4. Mix in 1 tbsp tomato puree, cumin, ground ginger and paprika.
5. With each fillet, sit the fillet on enough kitchen foil to wrap it, pour the sauce over the fillet, coating all of one surface, then wrap the fillet in kitchen foil.
6. Cook the salmon for 25-30 minutes.
Optional, Untested - 7. Remove the salmon from the oven and take off the kitchen foil. Scrape off most of the sauce, place the salmon skin-side up under a grill or skin-side down on a pan to crisp the skin.

Volumise: Add more brocolli. Mash some cauliflower into the sweet potato mash.
Add carbs: More sweet potato. Add a little honey, sucrose (table sugar) or glucose to the sweet potato mash.
Add fat: Mix some peanut butter into the mash. Add more olive oil and less vinegar to the sauce. Pestle and mortar only - mix coconut oil and/or almond flour into the sauce to thicken it and add some fat. Add oil to the brocolli until it has absorbed all it can.
Add protein: Wrap salmon fillets in bacon before adding sauce.