primal cavewife

Showing posts with label dinner. Show all posts

Slow-cooked Pork Shoulder

As you know from the food I cook, I love the gooey stuff on the spare ribs. It's delicious and full of good stuff... ie collagen. So I bought a pork shoulder and made myself more!

Ingredients:

Pork shoulder, boneless

Water

Salt

Pepper

Cut the pork shoulder in approximately 2 inch cubes.
Place the meat in a frying pan and pour in water until it covers the pork.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Cook the pork shoulder, covered, in medium heat for 3 hours. Remove the lid and simmer until the water is reduced and serve!

It is no secret that I love meat. I know that I would never be able to become a vegetarian. It is just too good!! And this is one of my favourite meats in the world! My boyfriend, not so much a fan of it. He doesn't like the gooeyness. I do... that's my favourite part! Try this and let the lovely collagen soak into your body...

Ingredients:

Spare ribs

Barbecue sauce

Coat the spareribs in barbecue sauce. You can make your own paleo sauce, but I am not too bothered about that at this stage... Maybe some day.
Wrap the spareribs in aluminium foil and put it in the oven at 180C for 2 hours.

Vegetable Bake

So this vegetable bake isn't Paleo 1.0 with all the cheese in it, but dairy is Paleo 2.0 and it is just too good to not have it in our lives. We have milk, cheese, cream and yoghurt everyday. So good!

I recently had a training course at AIM WA and the lunch that they provided us with was really good. The vegetable bake was one of those delicious foods they made and I wanted to make it myself. So I threw in the vegetables we had in the house, made my cream sauce and tadaa!

I did discover that I had to triple the recipe I found because it wasn't enough to coat all my vegetables. This was quite enough for the bake I made because the cooked vegetables produced more water so your bake doesn't necessarily have to be drowning in cream sauce when you put it in the oven.

Ingredients:

vegetables (zucchini, sweet potato, mushrooms, broccoli)

6 tbsp / 150g butter

6 tbsp cornflour

1 cup cream

3 cups milk

grated cheese (optional)

salt

pepper

nutmeg

herbs

Cut up the vegetables in chunks and boil the sweet potatoes in boiling water for 10 minutes. If you eat the broccoli stems like we do, I would suggest boiling that along with the sweet potatoes to soften it before you stick it in the oven.
Place all the vegetables in your oven dish.
In a saucepan, melt butter and then add corn flour. Mix well.
Add the milk and cream in the butter mix over medium heat stirring constantly.
When the sauce is thickening, add in grated cheese, salt and pepper, nutmeg and herbs.
Once the sauce has thickened, pour it over vegetables in the baking dish and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
If you like more cheese, sprinkle more grated cheese on top after 30 minutes and bake for another 10 minutes.

Avocado Cream Sauce with Bacon-wrapped Chicken

Avocado, creamy sauce, chicken... hmmmmm...

I also baked some sweet potato which we had with sour cream, and made some cauliflower mash. I messed up the cauliflower mash because I had put in too much parsley and milk and the parsley was too overpowering, hence the green. I am lucky to have a backyard though because the parsley, chives, lemon and cauliflower were from our backyard. Guaranteed freshness!

Ingredients:

2 avocados
1 can coconut cream

1 lemon, optional

3 tbsp coconut oil

salt

pepper

dried herbs (I used chives and parsley)

sesame oil

bacon

salt

pepper

coconut oil

Blend the avocado, coconut cream, lemon juice, coconut oil, herbs, salt and pepper in a food processor or blender. Flavour the paste to your liking.
Coat the chicken with sesame oil, salt and pepper.
Bake the chicken wings in the oven at 180C for 45 minutes.
Wrap the chicken breasts with strips of bacon and use a toothpick to hold the bacon in place.
In a frying pan, add a tbsp of coconut oil and fry the bacon-wrapped chicken for about 5 minutes on each side or until the bacon and chicken turns golden brown.
Place the chicken in the oven for 30 minutes or until cooked.
In the same pan that you cooked the bacon and chicken breast in, heat up the avocado sauce. You don't have to, but I like to infuse the bacon fat into the avocado sauce.
Serve the avocado sauce with the cooked chicken!

Lamb Leg Roast

Boyfriend went to Thailand this week so we bought me a lot of meat and veg to hopefully last me until he gets back. One of the meats was a lamb leg, so the night before he left I made us a lamb leg roast! I've never cooked lamb leg or even lamb for that matter before and oh my God, this was so good!! Haven't perfected the marination yet but the meat was tender and juicy, definitely will give it a go again. Since my rosemary plant in the backyard is still quite small, I wasn't able to use a lot of it without killing the plant...

Ingredients:

lamb leg

rosemary
mustard seeds

salt

pepper

garlic

1 sweet potato, cubed

1 broccoli

Grind the mustard seeds.
Cut slits in the lamb at 3cm apart and stuff garlic, rosemary and ground mustard seeds in the slits. Salt and pepper the lamb.
Place more rosemary sprigs on top and under the lamb.
Chop up the sweet potato and broccoli and place them around the lamb.
Cook at 180C in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes for every 500g and add another 30 minutes. Set aside for 10 minutes before serve.
Flip the vegetables every once in a while to cover them with the lamb juices/oil so that they don't get dry and will get tasty with the lamb flavour!

Cheese and Mushroom Meatballs

The other night I made three different types of meatballs for dinner - Vegetable Meatballs, Sultana Meatballs and Cheese and Mushroom Meatballs.

Last time I made these, I grated the cheese and mixed it in with all the other ingredients. The cheese ended up melting off the meatballs when they were cooked which was rather disappointing. So this time, instead of mixing it in with the ingredients, I chopped them in little cubes and put it in the centre of the meatballs so they would still be cheesy and in the meatballs rather than off them!

Ingredients:

500g mince

1 cup mushroom

3/4 cup herbs (I used stuff from my backyard - parsley, basil, chives and oregano)

1 egg

2/3 cup almond meal (I didn't use this but I would recommend it so that the mix would be less soggy and the meatballs would be more solid)

cheese, cubed

salt

pepper

Cut the mushroom up in smaller pieces and together with the herbs, put it through the food processor until they become tiny bits.
Mix them in with the mince, egg, almond meal and salt and pepper.
Take a little portion, press a little dent in the middle and place the cubed cheese in it and roll the meat mix around it to form a ball.
Bake the meatballs at 180C for 15 minutes.

Vegetable Meatballs

The other night, I made a platter of trio meatballs for dinner! Mushroom and Cheese Meatballs, Sultana Meatballs and Vegetable Meatballs! They would make great finger foods at parties too if you are having one!

Ingredients:

500g mince

2 carrots, chopped

2 cups of greens (I picked all I had in my backyard - parsley, basil, oregano, chives, kale and spinach)

1 egg

salt

pepper

In a food processor, pulse the carrots and greens until they become tiny little bits.
Mix all the ingredients together and then form little balls with your hands.
Bake them in the oven at 180C for 15 minutes.

Beef Potjie

Last week we bought 7kg of meat. We used most of it to make biltong, cut some steak out, trimmed the fat to make beef fat, and the rest went into this potjie. This potjie is pretty much the same as the last, except with chuck steak instead of mince.

Ingredients:

2 kg chuck steak, diced

600g bacon, chopped

2 cups mushroom, sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

7 carrots, chopped

1/2 butternut pumpkin, chopped

parsley, chopped

7 tomatoes, chopped

salt

pepper

In a frying pan, heat up the beef and flavour with salt and pepper. Remove the beef from the heat when it is cooked and place it in the slow cooker.
In the same frying pan, fry the bacon until it is crispy then add mushroom and onion. When the mix is cooked through, layer it on top of the mince.
Layer the carrots, pumpkin, parsley and lastly tomatoes on top and add salt and pepper to flavour.
Turn the heat to high and cook for 4 hours or until all the vegetables are soft.

Surf and Turf with Kale and Spinach

We have been having lots of Surf & Turfs lately because it's easy, quick and delicious! But you will have noticed that our kale from the vege patch has finally made an appearance as a side along with the spinach! That's right, now that we've removed the snails from the equation, the kale is slowly growing back with leaves and all - not just stems!! Soon, we will be able to make kale chips with our food dehydrator! Can't wait to try it out! Heard so much about kale chips and I will finally be able to try some myself and picked fresh from my own garden as well!

Beef Mince Potjie

My boyfriend and I went to visit his dad and he gave us a potjie recipe book because my boyfriend wanted potjie. I have no idea what potjie is... layered South African stew is the closest I can describe it. I think potjie itself is a cooking pot thing? But we used a slow cooker. It takes way longer. The recipe said 1.5-2 hours, but we cooked it for about 4 or 5 hours in the slow cooker. The recipe also asked for 4kg of chuck steak but I only had just under 1kg of mince so that had to do.

Ingredients:

1kg mince/ chuck steak/ lamb

400g bacon, chopped

500g mushroom, sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

7 carrots, chopped

1/2 butternut pumpkin, chopped

parsley, chopped

4 tomatoes, chopped

salt

pepper

In a frying pan, heat up the mince and flavour with salt and pepper. Remove the mince from the heat when it is cooked and place it in the slow cooker.
In the same frying pan, fry the bacon until it is crispy then add mushroom and onion. When the mix is cooked through, layer it on top of the mince.
Layer the carrots, pumpkin, parsley and lastly tomatoes on top and add salt and pepper to flavour.
Turn the heat to high and cook for 4 hours or until all the vegetables are soft.

Surf and Turf with Baked Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Mash

Most weekends my boyfriend would buy a whole lot of steak, lamb chops and ribs. He would them cook them on the barbie on sunday when we have our sunday barbecue with our housemates and we would put the leftovers in the fridge. I would then heat up the leftover meat the next couple dinners and cook something on the side. Last week was Surf and Turf with spinach from the garden... Monday, it was Surf and Turf with spinach and baked sweet potatoes. Tuesday night was Taco night. My boyfriend cooked that for the house but I forgot to take a picture of it. Last night, I heated up the steak and served up Sruf and Turf with Baked Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Mash!

Have you ever had sweet potato with sour cream? It is absolutely delicious! And the mash... I've never imagined it to be good because I personally don't like cauliflower. I think it tastes like nothing... but this mash is an absolute delight.

Baked Sweet Potato

Wash the sweet potato and wrap it in foil. Bake in the oven at 180C for an hour or until it is softened. Remove from the foil and cut it vertically in half. Serve with sour cream.

Cauliflower Mash

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower

milk

salt

pepper

Chop the cauliflower in pieces and wrap with foil.
Bake in the oven at 180C for an hour to an hour and a half or until it is soft.
Place the cauliflower pieces in a blender and add milk, salt and pepper and blend.

I baked the cauliflower and sweet potato in the same foil because I am lazy. It doesn't affect anything. I am going to try and add in some herbs. This was my first time and I forgot I have a whole heap of parsleys, chives, oregano and basil in the backyard. Excited to try it again!

Surf and Turf with Spinach

Surf and turf doesn't seem that special, but the vege that accompanied the dish was! As you may or may not know, we've recently started growing veges in our vege patch and I'm super happy to say that it is becoming a success.

So my boyfriend barbecued some steak and I cooked up some prawns and mussels with garlic and butter and plucked some spinach from the backyard and voila!

Do you have a vege patch? What is in it? What would you grow if you don't have one?

Bobotie

As you may or may not know, my boyfriend is South African, so I tried to make him this South African dish called Bobotie. Since I've never had the proper one myself, I don't know what it really looks like or how it tastes. But I've tried to stick to the recipe as much as I could and here's the outcome. I didn't make enough of the crust on top so it didn't come out as pretty as it should, maybe the dish I used was too wide. So you might want to use a smaller dish.

Ingredients:

900g ground beef

2 onions, diced

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp cumin powder

1 tsp turmeric

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cups purple cabbage, finely chopped

2 large eggs

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup apples, finely chopped

2 bay leaves, powdered

1/2 cup almond meal

Preheat the oven to 175C. Fry the onions in the oil over medium heat until golden brown.
Add the cumin powder and turmeric. Fry for two minutes stirring the whole time and then add the lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Crumble the ground meat into a pan and cook over medium-low heat until mostly done.
Mix the meat, cabbage, onion mix and fruit with 1 egg. Pack into a casserole dish and sprinkle with the crushed bay leaves.
Mix the almond meal with the remaining egg. Spread the mix out on top of the meat to make a thin almond crust.
Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes.

Sultana Meatballs

When I made the cheese and mushroom meatballs last weekend, I made these deliciously sweet meatballs as well. These sweet meatballs balance out the savoury meatballs quite well!

Ingredients:

600g mince beef/lamb

1 cup sultanas

1 cup almond meal

salt

pepper

Preheat oven to 200C.
Line baking tray with baking paper and set aside.
Mix all the ingredients together with a fork or your hands.
Roll the mix into balls and place them on the tray.
Bake in the oven at 200C for 25-30 minutes.

Lamb Roast

For Christmas dinner last year I cooked up a storm for me, boyfriend and his dad. There was shrimp cocktails as entree, this lamb roast with a side of sweet potato topped with sour cream for main and flan for dessert. I didn't french trim it because I think it's too wasteful just to make it look pretty. I think this looks fine anyway.

Ingredients:
3 racks of lamb
1 cup macadamia nuts
1 large garlic clove, peeled
1/2 cup chopped parsley
4 tbsp coconut oil
2/3 tsp salt
salt and pepper to taste
butter or coconut oil

Wash and pat dry racks of lamb. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.
Place macadamia nuts, chopped parsley and garlic clove in a food processor. Add 4 tbsp of coconut oil and a pinch of salt. Process into a thick paste.
Heat a teaspoon of butter or coconut oil in a frying pan. Seal each side for a minute each. Remove to a plate and once cooled down, cover the meaty side with 50mm thick layer of macadamia paste, pressing down with your fingers. Place in the fridge to set.
Preheat oven to 200C. Place lamb racks in a slightly oiled tray crust side up and bake for 13 minutes at 200C. Turn the oven down to 165-170C and roast for a further 8 minutes.
Rest out of the oven for 10 minutes before serving with gravy.

Pork Pot Roast

I don't normally cook pork because it's not the kind of meat we often buy. But I saw this recipe and thought why not? And oh my God! It's SOOOOO GOOOOOOD!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp coconut oil
sea salt, pepper to taste
4- to 5- pound pork loin roast
1/4 cup desiccated coconut
6 carrots
a celery stalk
2 onions
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 cans of tomatoes
6 fresh thyme branches
6 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tbsp organic butter

Heat coconut oil over medium heat in a large frying pan.
Sprinkle salt and pepper all over the roast and then roll the roast in the coconut.
Sear the roast in the frying pan for 4 minutes on each side.
While the roast is searing, chop the veges into large pieces.
Remove the roast from the pan, add all the veges and cook in the drippings from the roast until the onions become tender.
Add the stock, canned tomatoes, thyme branches, garlic and pepper.
Stir well and bring to boil.
Place the roast in a slow cooker and Pour the vege mix over the roast. Cook on high for 4 hours and then on low for another hour.
After the roast is done, remove the roast from the vege mix.
Remove the thyme and pour half of the vege mix into a food processor or a blender. Add the butter and blend until smooth.
Place the sliced meat on a plate, top with the remaining cooked veges and pour the blended sauce all over it.

Zucchini Carbonara

This the first Paleo dish I actively looked up to make for my boyfriend. It looks a little sloppy but it is so good. Especially if you love zucchinis, and bacon, and carbonara… Being a big fan of zucchinis, I chose this recipe out of all the many other recipes from his ebook. It was easy and did not require many ingredients, and most importantly, the ingredients were really accessible. My boyfriend likes zucchini more because of this dish as well!

Ingredients:
4 zucchinis, sliced (I used a slicer because it’s easy and they are sliced evenly and not too thick)
bacon, cubed (amount depends on how much you love meat)
1 egg
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup coconut cream

Fry the zucchinis in a frying pan in olive oil for about 2-3 minutes until just cooked so that they are not too soft. It may be easier to cook in batches.
Set zucchinis aside. Fry the bacon in the frying pan until browned. Beat the egg, cream and coconut cream together and pour it in with the bacon making sure the egg does not scramble.
Place the zucchini in the frying pan with the sauce and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Zucchini Stuffed Curry Mince

Paleo Gluten-Free Zucchini Boat Stuffed Curry Mince Recipe

I love zucchinis. Back in Canberra we used to grow them in the backyard and they would grow so big, bigger than the size of my arm and they are very easy to grow as well. This recipe is one of our favourites. Mine because of the zucchini and my boyfriend’s because of the amount of meat in it. Perfect for dinner for the both of us!

Ingredients:
4 medium zucchinis
300g mince, beef/lamb
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 cup onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 can coconut cream
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne, depending on how spicy you like it
1/2 tsp cumin

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
Cut zucchini in halves lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and set aside. The shell should be about 1/4 inch thick.
Sprinkle the zucchini shells with salt and pepper and microwave, covered, for 3 minutes. Set aside.
Chop the zucchini innards.
Heat the oil over medium/high heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until onion is translucent. Add the mince and cook until browned. Drain the fat.
Add the zucchini innards and sauté for a minute, until it just starts to soften.
Stir in the curry, garam masala, cayenne, and cumin.
Pour in the coconut cream, bring to boil, then lower to simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the sauce is thickened and creamy.
Spoon the mince mix into the zucchini shells, ensuring not to add too much liquid.
Bake for 10-15minutes.

Sushi with Sweet Chilli Mayonnaise

Deciding what to pack for a surprise picnic can be quite difficult. You can’t bring the conventional stuff like sandwich or cheese and crackers (though we did bring some brie cheese because dairy is one of the few things we don’t cut out. In fact my boyfriend drinks at least 2 litres of milk a day to gain muscle weight – that and lifting of course. Just last week alone, we bought 32 litres of milk and none of it gone to waste). So ended up bring this paleo sushi, paleo cheesecake, avocado chocolate mousse to go with some strawberries, bananas and kiwi and some brie cheese.

Sushi
Ingredients:
canned crabmeat, drained
cucumber, sliced
capsicum, sliced
prawns, deveined, shelled and cooked
eggroll
avocado, sliced

Note: I haven’t actually perfected the eggroll yet, when I have, I will post a recipe on the blog. Make sure to drain the crabmeat, cook the prawns through and slice all the other ingredients up. Lay them on the seaweed sheet and roll it up. I didn’t drain the crabmeat very well so the seaweed got a little soggy but it was healthy and delicious! Go ahead and practice making your own sushi rolls for picnic this summer!

I would also recommend stuffing in pieces of chicken from your leftover roast. Since this was a seafood based sushi, I whipped up some sweet chilli mayo to go with it.

Sweet Chilli Mayonnaise
Ingredients:
2 tbsp mayo
a dollop of sweet chilli
a pinch of cayenne pepper

Mix the ingredients together and adjust according to your taste.

Shepherd's Pie

I used to work at a bakery when I was still studying my Bachelor degree. I love the smell of pastry and bread. Smells so homely. I can still bake them now, but it’s no fun baking when you can’t share it with your other half properly. Even though it’s not the same without the smell of freshly baked pie, this is a close alternative especially for those cold winter nights to keep your bellies warm.

Ingredients:

coconut oil
1.5kg beef mince
2 onions, chopped finely
4 medium carrots, chopped finely
dried herbs
2 bay leaves
8 tomatoes, chopped
2 cups bone broth
cinnamon

Mash Potato Topping:
1 large sweet potato
pepper
cinnamon
butter, melted

Preheat oven to 190 degrees.
Add coconut oil to a large frying pan and heat over a low/medium fire.
Add the mince, onion and carrot and stir until cooked.
Add the bay leaves and herbs and stir through for about a minute.
Stir in the cinnamon, pepper, chopped tomatoes and broth, and cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Season to taste.
Peel the sweet potato and cut it in thirds and boil it until it is soft. Drain the water and mash them. Season to taste.
Pour the mince mix into a large casserole dish and cover with the mashed sweet potatoes. With a brush, glaze the top with butter.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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