Artichoke with lemon marrow sauce

Artichoke with marrow sauce
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

Artichokes are a major comfort food for me. I'm a native Californian and when I was little we used to drive up the 101 to visit my great aunt and uncle up in the Monterey area, driving through the artichoke growing region of the central coast. And every spring when artichokes came into season, and relatively cheap (since they were local) my mom and I would go nuts and have artichokes with dinner a couple times a week. The smell, the texture, the flavor, the rich creamy heart lurking under the thistle; artichokes are just amazing to me in every way. Then I went away to college and realized that not everyone grew up with this beautiful culinary thistle! If this is you, I'm here to hold your hand and introduce you to an amazing new vegetable!

For this recipe I branched out a little bit and made a bone marrow sauce based on the traditional flavors of gremolata. If you have some marrow bone handy, it's an interesting treat. But for an easier option you can never go wrong with good ol' mayo or clarified butter.

How to steam an artichoke

Beware! There are thorns at the ends of the individual leaves. If you're feeding children, you may want to use a sharp knife or scissors to trim off the leaf tips. Grown adults should be able to navigate the thorns, but if you're new to artichokes, stay sharp so they don't get you!

First, use a sharp knife to cut the stem off flush with the bottom-most leaves. Try to make the cut flat and perpendicular to the stem, so the artichoke sits on a flat base. Fill a large saucepan with 1-2" of water, and bring to a simmer. Put the artichokes in the pan, stem end down. Simmer for 30-40 minutes. Remove with tongs and allow to cool.

Eat the artichoke by pulling off each leaf individually, dipping it in your sauce of choice, and then scraping the meat off the fleshy bottom 1/3 of the leaf with your teeth. As you get to the inner leaves you can bite the fleshy part clean off. When you get to the thinnest inner leaves, you'll need to scrape or cut out the thistle choke to get to the "heart" of the artichoke. Be sure to remove all of the thistle, it is sharp. Slice the heart into small chunks, dip and eat. The heart is the very best part! The California Artichoke Advisory Board has a nice graphic on the basics.

Lemon Marrow Sauce

serves 2

2 marrow bones, about 3" long
1 lemon
2-3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Roast the marrow bones in a small oven-safe dish for 20-30 minutes, until they just start to brown. While the bones are roasting, use a citrus zester to remove the very top outside layer of the lemon (don't get into the white pith). When the bones are done, scoop out the soft inner marrow, and chop into fine chunks. This will get fat all over your cutting board, don't worry about that. Scoop up the marrow into a serving dish, and sprinkle the lemon zest, parsley and salt over the fat covered part of your cutting board. Mince it all together so that the vegetables soak up some of that luscious marrow fat. Add the lemon-parsley mixture to the marrow. Juice your lemon, and whisk the lemon juice in with the rest of the ingredients. Serve and enjoy.

(As for the remaining bone, you can either use it as a garnish as I did in the photo, or just throw it in the freezer for the next time you make stock.)

Perfect Pot Roast

Perfect Pot Roast
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

Disclaimer time: I don't like pot roast. In fact, I don't like roasted or stewed beef much at all. I like my beef with a fire charred crust and an itty-bitty-bit rare in the middle. We're a BBQ family and that suits me just fine. Winter comes and I'd rather throw a chicken in the oven than fix up some beef.

But, I got to experimenting and I came up with a pretty darn good crockpot pot roast. "Pretty darn good pot roast" is a weak name for a recipe though, so I did a little more tweaking until I made it perfect. Here it is:

Perfect Pot Roast

2-4 pound grass-fed beef roast, suitable for slow cooking
1 leek (or substitute 1 small onion)
6 carrots
2 medium turnips
3 medium parsnips
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup very low sodium chicken or beef stock (or water)
1 6oz can tomato paste (no salt or sugar added, check label)
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano
1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt
Dried mushrooms, 1-2 tablespoons finely chopped (optional)

Split the leek, rinse out any sand and thinly slice. Place in the bottom of your slow cooker. Peel the turnips. If you're using large parsnips (like bigger than your average carrot), then quarter them and cut out the cores. Cut all vegetables into roughly 1/2" chunks. At this point I had about 6 cups of root vegetables.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large saucepan. Brown the roast on all sides, if your roast has a fat layer on one side, start with the fat layer, so that some of it renders out into the pan. Take your roast out and place it in the slow cooker on top of the leeks. If you don't have much oil left in the pan, add another tablespoon of olive oil, then dump all the the root vegetables into the sauce pan and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the root vegetables are cooking, add to the slow cooker the balsamic vinegar, chicken or beef stock, tomato paste, pepper, oregano, salt and mushrooms. When the root vegetables are done on the stovetop, dump them into the slow cooker.

Cook for 30 minutes on high, and then 5.5-6 hours on low. Take out the pot roast and slice it to serve, alongside the vegetables. If you have leftovers this makes an awesome lunch for the rest of the week, cut the remaining meat into chunks and add it back into the veggies to make a thick stew.

Note about sodium and mushrooms: If you use the smaller amount of salt (1/4 tsp), you should really get your hands on some dried mushrooms. The umami flavor from the dried mushrooms really rounds out the flavor of the dish. Serving size will vary widely by the size of your roast, but with the 2 pound roast I usually get, I estimate it at about 260mg of sodium per serving.

Mushroom & goat cheese tart

Mushroom & goat cheese tart
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

We gave up on going out to dinner for Valentine's Day years ago. It's really the worst night for eating out... rivaled only by trying to find a table for brunch on Mother's Day. Not only are all the tables booked, but the wait staff and kitchen staff would really rather be spending the evening with their loved ones. And now that we have a 3 year old, we'd have to find a sitter on top of all that? Forget it. I'd much rather fix a fancy dinner at home.

Anyway, who said you have to go for chocolates and fancy desserts to be romantic? Our menu this year is going to include cedar planked wild salmon, artichokes with homemade mayo, and this amazing mushroom & goat cheese tart. I did a trial run tonight, and my husband was raving about how amazing it was.

(My son on the other hand, was super excited about having "pie for dinner", then when it appeared on his plate, he refused to eat it and instead ate his weight in roasted cauliflower. Kids are weird. )

Mushroom & goat cheese tart

Crust:
1/2 cup blanched hazelnuts
1 cup almond meal
1/4 tsp ground sage
1/4-1/2 tsp table salt
2 tablespoons melted ghee
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon water

In a food processor, fitted with the S blade, process the hazelnuts until they are finely ground. Add the almond meal, sage and salt, pulse to combine. Mix the ghee, olive oil and water in a small bowl, turn the food processor on, and pour into the dry ingredients. Run until it is well mixed (should be no more than 30 seconds). Press the crust into a tart or quiche pan, thinning it out in the middle and pressing it gently up a the edges of the pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 18-20 minutes. Let cool.

Filling:
8oz crimini or oyster mushrooms
1 small leek
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 eggs
1oz soft goat cheese

Preheat oven to 350.
Split and rinse the leek, then thinly slice the white portion crossways. Thinly slice the mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms in the olive oil; when they soften, add the leeks and saute a little longer until the leeks and mushrooms start to brown. Take the leeks and mushrooms and spread them evenly across the crust. Blend the eggs and cheese together with an immersion blender or mixer. Pour eggs over the vegetables. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve.

Sodium: 1/4 of the tart has 230mg sodium, when made with the smaller amount of salt in the crust.

Bacon Nut-o-la

Bacon Nut-o-la
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

Sometimes I get inspired to be very, very naughty in the kitchen. Today was one of those days, I was randomly pondering what I could do with some leftover dried coconut, and then it occurred to me, granola... well, not grain-ola per se, but maybe a nut-o-la. And then that little devil on my shoulder whispered "bacon"... Bacon? Yes bacon!

Bacon Nut-o-la

5 slices natural, nitrate free bacon
1/3 cup unsweetened dried coconut flakes
1/2 cup sliced almonds (the kind that look like thin flakes)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon reserved bacon fat
Dash of ground cardamom (optional)

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

In a large pan, cook your bacon slowly over low heat, you want to render out a lot of the fat and pour it out a couple times while cooking, so that the bacon gets nice and crispy. When it's crisp, take the bacon out and drain on paper towels, then chop coarsely with a knife. Mix the bacon crumbles, coconut and almonds together in a small mixing bowl. Separately, mix the vanilla, maple syrup, reserved bacon fat and cardamom. Pour over the bacon/nut mixture and toss to distribute evenly. Spread the nut-o-la out evenly on a cookie sheet lined with baking parchment. Bake for 15 minutes, stir it a bit, and continue to bake checking every 5 minutes until the mixture is lightly browned. Watch it carefully for burning. Remove from oven and allow to cool, then break up (it should crumble easily). Store in the refrigerator.

The sodium content of this seems like it would be stupid high. But you're not going to eat much of it, I'm showing just about a tablespoon over yogurt in the picture. Using low sodium bacon (70mg per slice) I'm guessing it's about 50mg per tablespoon.

Poblano breakfast hash

Poblano breakfast hash
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

I've been doing a few variations on the same theme for breakfast these days. It's a ground beef & cabbage based breakfast hash, that's super easy to partially cook ahead and then throw it together in the morning. This particular flavor combo, with the poblanos & cumin is pretty yummy... but the basic model can be adapted ad infinitum.

Meat mix

1 onion
2 poblano chiles
1 pound grassfed ground beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/8-1/4 teaspoon salt (lower amount if you're sodium sensitive)

Thinly slice the onion and the poblanos. Using a large saucepan, saute the onion in the olive oil until it starts to soften, then add the poblanos and continue to cook until they soften as well. Add the ground beef (break it up into smaller chunks before adding it to the pan), sprinkle the spices over the top, and cook it all together until the beef is cooked through. Store in the fridge.

Breakfast hash

3-4oz of pre-shredded cabbage (yes, the kind in the bag, I use about 1/3 of a 12oz bag, or 2-3 handfulls)
Olive oil
1/4 recipe of the meat mix above
1/4 sliced avocado

Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add enough olive oil to swirl over the bottom of the pan. Throw in the cabbage and saute until the cabbage starts to brown. Add the meat mix to the pan, and continue to saute until it's thoroughly heated and the cabbage is well browned. Serve with thinly sliced avocado over the top.

Obviously, you can change the flavor of the meat mix considerably according to your tastes... I'm a huge fan of southwestern food, so this is a nice combo for me. If you're not sodium sensitive it would work really well with some bulk sausage and mushrooms (yum). Or you could use a thai curry paste and go the southeast asian route. Endless possibilities. But the best part is that it assembles lickety split in the morning and you have a nice filling breakfast with almost no work.

Sodium: 1/4 of the meat mix with 4oz cabbage will run about 175mg of sodium when made with the smaller amount of salt

Assemble & eat

I have two ultra quick "recipes" I want to share. No pictures because this stuff is super fast, throw-together, OMG-IT'S-MEALTIME??? type food. But both are pretty awesome.

Tuna Salad

Serves 1, double or triple as needed

1 can tuna (I use a no salt added variety)
1/2 a red bell pepper
2 small or 1 large cucumber
1 tbsp finely chopped onions of some sort (green onions or red onions are the best)
Any bits of random veggies you have sitting around in your fridge that are good raw (celery, cauliflower, etc), finely chopped (optional)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Cut red pepper and cucumber into chunks. Drain the tuna and dump over the veggies. Throw in the onion and any other veggies. Pour on the balsamic vinegar, and season with salt & pepper (I just use pepper). Toss. Do this before the olive oil so the vinegar gets evenly distributed. Pour on the olive oil & toss again. Chow down.

Coconut Ambrosia

Serves 1

1 ripe banana
2 tbsp coconut milk
1/3 cup fresh berries
1-2 tsp unsweetened dried coconut (optional)

Break banana into chunks in a bowl. Mash with fork. Add coconut milk & mash some more. Throw in the berries and coconut, mix up and enjoy.

Ginger bombs

Ginger bomb
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

What's that? It looks awfully lot like a candy, doesn't it? Candy ain't anything near Whole30 compliant, now is it?

Basically, I need a ginger delivery system before some of my aerial classes. Not all classes, just the ones where we spin. You see... spinning sometimes makes me puke, and I've found the best thing to prevent that is gingersnap Larabars. Larabars are kind of a grey area on the Whole30, and to be frank... gingersnap is the least tasty Larabar flavor, it doesn't have enough bite for me. But they do a really good job of keeping me from puking. So I decided to try my hand at making something similar, but a little more tasty. Keep in mind that these are not for snacking on, I'm just going to grab a couple immediately pre-workout. So technically these are not candy. They're a very serious pre-workout supplement.




But really, they're pretty much candy and unless you have a damn good anti-puke reason for eating them, I'm pretty sure they're not Whole30 compliant.



A note about measuring:
I measured the ginger and dates on my kitchen scale in grams. Dates vary in size depending on variety and while I cook with raw ginger a lot and I've never been able to wrap my head around the quantities described in most recipes. So I weighed them. If you don't have a kitchen scale, the chunk of ginger I used was a little larger than my thumb.

Ginger Bombs

makes 18

3 small carrots
10gm fresh ginger, peeled and grated
10 dates pitted and cut into chunks (about 95-100gm pitted)
1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1.5 tbsp almond butter
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Grate the carrots on the fine side of a box grater (they should be very fine shreds like this). Empty them out onto a clean kitchen towel, roll the towel up over the grated carrots and twist to wring out ALL the juice. They should be fairly dry when you're done.

Put the ginger and dates into a food processor fitted with the S blade and pulse until the dates are broken up into fairly fine chunks. Add the grated carrots and the pumpkin pie spice and pulse a few more times to combine. Make sure there aren't any large clumps of carrot. Then add the almond butter and pulse until it's thoroughly integrated and begins to come together into a lump. You can add a little more almond butter if it seems really stiff.

Put the coconut on a plate, use a melon baller to scoop out little balls of the ginger goo and smooth them into a tight ball between the palms of your (clean) hands. Roll the balls in the coconut and set aside.

Store these in the FREEZER if you're not serving them at a party immediately. They're damp enough that I don't think they're entirely safe being stored at room temperature or for very long in the fridge. Plus, if they're frozen it's a lot harder to pop down the whole batch.

Sweet Potato Puffs

Sweet potato puffs
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

Good morning, a happy new year to you and a happy Whole30 to me. I'm starting off the morning with a cup of coffee (black, natch) and these awesome sweet potato puffs. Looks are deceiving, these are not really pancakes, if you bite into them expecting something pancake-y you'll be sad. They're really more of a savory fritter.

Don't use a nut flour here, use minced or crushed nuts, they add a nice crunchy texture. Or leave them out completely if you want a silky smooth puff.

Sweet Potato Puffs

Serves 1, double as needed

1 egg
1/2 of a previously baked sweet potato
1 tablespoon minced or crushed pecans
Coconut oil

Scoop all the innards out of your sweet potato and mash them up in a small bowl. Crack an egg in and whip it up to combine evenly with the mashed sweet potato. Stir in the nuts. Add the coconut oil to a heavy pan over medium heat, and fry small scoops of the batter till crispy. Turn over halfway though. They're pretty squishy, so you may need to use a fork on one side and the spatula on the other to flip them.

Sodium: 100mg

Cucumber Soup

We are overrun with cucumbers!

Not really, of course. Our cucumber plant is producing about 2-3 a week, which is approximately 1-2 cucumbers more than we usually eat in a week. So I've been trying to figure out how to use the extras. Today's recipe is a super easy chilled cucumber soup for one. I made it in 5 minutes this morning and it's a nice fresh complement to a lunchtime salad.

Cucumber Soup

1 cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
2-3 sprigs parsley
1 tsp lemon juice
A pinch of dried dill
1/2 cup full fat greek yogurt

Throw the cucumber chunks & parsley into your food processor and process until they are the consistency of a smooth salsa. Add the other ingredients and pulse to blend them in. Chill until lunch. Enjoy.

50 measly mg of sodium. Plenty of cool deliciousness.

Cowboy Rumaki

Cowboy rumaki
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

Ever heard of rumaki? It was an appetizer back when I was a kid, chicken livers marinated in god-knows-what, wrapped in bacon and deep fried. Doesn't that sound just delicious?

Well, this recipe actually is more delicious than it sounds. Frankly, I've been playing around with beef liver because I know it's nutritious, and it seemed to me that there had to be a more creative approach than the same ol' liver & onions. Then, over the 4th of July weekend, we were grilling bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers, it occurred to me. An unholy alliance of liver, jalapenos & bacon. And I'm pleased to report that it's pretty darn good. The beef liver brings a heartiness that's missing from the cream cheese filling, but the jalapenos & bacon are strong flavors that stand up for themselves. Liver ain't pushing them around.

There are copious ingredient notes (and some credits) after the recipe.

Cowboy Rumaki

Jalapeno peppers
Grassfed beef liver
Bacon

Cut the tops off the jalapenos, cut them in half and scrape out the seeds and membrane. If you like things hot, you can leave in a bit more of the membrane, that's where a lot of the spice is. Rinse your liver thoroughly and pat dry. If you're running a very hot BBQ or will be cooking these in the oven, briefly sear the outside of the liver, about 1 minute each side in a cast iron saucepan. If you're going to be cooking the poppers over a slower heat then go ahead and leave the liver raw. Cut the liver into chunks about 1/2" x 1/2" x 2". Cut your bacon in half, so the strips are a manageable size. Put 1 piece of liver in each jalapeno, wrap with a 1/2 strip of bacon, and pin it together with a toothpick. If you're doing them on a grill, put them in an mesh pan intended for grilling vegetables and grill until the bacon is crispy. If you're using the oven, put them on a pan and throw them under the broiler (on low) until the bacon is crispy. Enjoy.

Notes:

If the whole procedure of coring the peppers and wrapping them with bacon is somehow confusing, please see these lovely illustrations from the Pioneer Woman.

GET GRASSFED LIVER! No, I'm not being a snob here. I tried working with normal supermarket liver once and it was DISGUSTING. Sliced super thin and it was slimy, slimy, slimy, like a slab of leech. Grassfed liver is firmer, less slimy and much tastier. It appeared to be actual MEAT rather than a meat by-product intended for pet food. It's also way cheaper than grassfed muscle meat, and you don't need a whole lot. One pound of grassfed liver costs me about $4 and will stuff about 32 jalapenos... that's 64 individual poppers!

As you can see in the picture, I tried a couple with cream cheese and liver. This was a failure (on texture), and didn't add to the flavor. Go ahead and skip the cream cheese. Or make some with just liver and some with just cream cheese. But don't cross the streams.

When I first got this idea, I googled "jalapeno liver" and found a very similar recipe from Kelly the Kitchen Kop. If you're trying to sneak some liver over on unsuspecting family members, you might want to give hers a try. Personally, I don't like the sneaky food approach... Cowboy Rumaki is liver, straight up, no apologies.

Bacon is a high sodium food. Oh yes it is. I continue to eat some bacon, but I restrict myself to small amounts of the lowest sodium nitrite free bacon I can find. 4 poppers have about 240mg of sodium. That's an amount that sometimes works for me, sometimes not, depending on what else I've eaten that day.

Leeks & Chicken

IMG_7719
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

Isn't this a lovely leek? Leeks are one of those vegetables that's awesome to grow in a home garden. They're expensive in the grocery store and when you grow them at home, you realize why. They don't actually require a lot of work, they just require time and patience... things in short supply on commercial farms. I think we started these leeks back in January, and only now are we getting some ready to harvest. However, with a little care, they are BEAUTIFUL. Clean, white, fresh and sweet.

Today I did something really simple with our leeks, a luscious dinner that took only 5 main ingredients and a sprinkle of whatever herbs you happen to have on hand.

Slow cooker leeks & chicken

2 Leeks, rinsed and thinly sliced
1 Chicken cut into parts, skin removed
1/2 Cup chicken stock
8 oz Fresh mushrooms, sliced
Butter or your cooking fat of choice

Fill the bottom of your slow cooker with the sliced leeks and add a pinch of whatever dried herbs you happen to have handy (I used sage & dill). Don't use a whole lot of herbs, you don't want to overwhelm the dish. Put the chicken parts over the top of the leeks and pour in the chicken stock. Cook for 1 hour on the high setting and then 4-5 hours on low.

When the chicken is done cooking, saute the mushrooms in the butter, until they are soft. Take the chicken out of the slow cooker and set aside. Pour all the leeks & cooking liquid from the slow cooker, into the saucepan with the mushrooms. Cook down until the leeks are falling apart and the sauce is starting to thicken. Serve the mushroom leek sauce over the chicken.

Fruity Custard Pops

This post goes out to everyone with a teething toddler. My 3 year old is finally getting his last set of molars (he's been late with all his teeth), and you parents know what teething does to a kid. Their poor mouths hurt a lot, which means they don't want to eat much. The combination of pain, hunger and blood sugar swings makes them into cranky little beasts. Can't say I blame them, I'd be pretty miserable too.

I discovered the original recipe for these custard pops about a year ago and they were a big favorite last summer. I've tweaked the recipe more and more and eventually I just had to write down my variation. They're pretty tasty, teething or not... but they're a godsend when you have a sick or teething toddler who won't eat much proper nourishing food. If you're making them for a child who's not eating much, be sure to make them with full fat milk and yogurt.

Fruity Custard Pops

1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon honey, maple syrup or sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 banana (on the brown side)
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup fruit puree (applesauce, freshly pureed berries or soft stone fruit... strawberries and peaches go well) or 1 jar fruit baby food

Put the milk and eggs in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Whisk regularly as it warms up, once it starts to get slightly steamy add the sweet stuff & the vanilla. After that whisk continuously until it starts to thicken. (Food safety note: I've checked with a candy thermometer, the point where it starts to thicken is around 165 degrees, which is the safe point for cooked eggs.) As soon as it starts to bubble, take it off the heat and pour into your blender. Add the banana, yogurt and other pureed fruit. Blend thoroughly until there are no more banana chunks. If it's very frothy, let it sit for a bit before filling molds. Fill your ice pop molds to about 1/4" below the top of the mold, put the sticks in and pop in the freezer until frozen. Makes 8-12 ice pops.

A few words about ice pop molds: I see these fancy, expensive instant ice pop molds are all the rage. I'm not impressed. To be honest, I'm lazy. I would rather make 8-12 healthy ice pops in one fell swoop and have them sitting in my freezer than mess around with fixing up a fresh pop every time a whining child asks for one.

However, I also don't recommend going with the cheapest ones you can find in the Summer section at your local discount store. When you try to pull the pop out of the mold, you'll often find that the stick pops right out. Cue sobbing toddler. The ones we use most are Tovolo molds, we have the ones that look like ice cream cones and some of the normal ones. They're a little more expensive, but they're sturdy and frustration free. We also sometimes use the Kinderville silicone molds, however those are a little tough for little hands to manage squeezing the pop up without squeezing it out and onto the floor. The Kinderville ones are nearly drip proof though, which is nice.

Tropical Cod with Mango Relish

This recipe kind of came together over a few meals. First I did the relish just scrounging things that were about to go bad in the fridge... it was so tasty, I've made it a few times since over broiled fish. But frankly, the fish was a wee bit bland, so today I got the idea to do a coconut crust... oh man it's tasty! And so easy!

As is it serves 2-3, but obviously if you doubled it to serve 6 you'd use up the whole avocado & mango. It comes to about 100mg sodium per serving.

Tropical Cod with Mango Relish

1/2 of a medium mango
1/2 of an avocado
1/2 tablespoon minced red onion
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice

3/4-1 pound cod or another mild white fish
1 whole egg
1/2 cup shredded dried coconut (unsweetened)
Coconut oil for frying

Cut the mango and avocado into roughly 1/4" chunks. Mix them with the red onion, cilantro and lime juice. Set aside so the flavors can meld.

Heat a small amount of oil to a medium high heat. Divide the cod into a reasonable size pieces. Whip up the egg with a fork and spread the shredded coconut on a small plate. Dip the cod first into the egg and then coat on both sides with the coconut. Fry the fish on both sides until lightly browned and the fish flakes in the middle. Serve with the mango relish over the top.

Early easter lamb

Inspired by the lovely greek style infused olive oil I made yesterday, I decided on a whim to make my first attempt at cooking lamb. It's one meat that I've actually never eaten, but I know it's traditional for greek cooking, and they had it at a halfway decent price. Remarkably, it came out very good, even though it's also the first time I've roasted meat without a salt rub. Here's a rough recipe.

Greek lamb with cherry sauce

1 pound lamb shoulder fillets
2 tablespoons lemon oregano infused olive oil
A handful dried oregano
Pepper
1/8 cup dried cherries
2 ice cubes of real chicken broth (maybe 1/4 cup?)
Balsalmic vinegar

Rub the lamb liberally with infused olive oil. Sprinkle freshly crushed oregano on both sides and then lightly sprinkle with pepper. Let sit for 1 hour. Soak cherries in about 1/4 of hot water.

Heat the oven to 350. Rub a cast iron pan with a light coating of olive oil. Pop it in the oven for 30 minutes. (I roasted some potatoes at the same time.) When the lamb seems done, remove from pan and allow to sit for 8-10 minutes before slicing. In the meantime, put the cast iron pan on the stove, add the broth, cherries and soaking liquid. Bring to a simmer and add a few glugs of balsalmic vinegar. Cook down to a thick sauce and serve over slices of lamb.

If you use low sodium chicken broth (I make my own from chicken bones), a 3oz portion of the lamb with 1/4 of the sauce should come out to about 85mg of sodium.

I'd show you a picture, but we sort of ate it all! ;-)

Spring salmon cakes with snow peas

IMG_7485
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

Don't these salmon cakes look yummy? It's an adaptation of the salmon cake recipe I've used before, replacing the red bell pepper with minced parsley & chives, and using a wee bit of mustard for extra flavor.

The dressing is a garlicky buttermilk dressing, that I came up with mixing and matching recipes. It is a little thin, but full of flavor and with no weird ingredients.

Garlicky Buttermilk Dressing

1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
1/2 cup full fat greek yogurt
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic minced
1/8-1/4 cup minced herbs (whatever you've got)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper

Blend thoroughly and enjoy.

Amazing lentil salad

I just realized that I've never posted here the amazing lentil salad I often have for lunch. It's great because it's a sturdy salad that keeps well all week, I make a huge batch on Sunday and get 4 days of lunches out of it. So here it is:

Lentil & Kale Salad

(Yes, I know the idea sounds horrible, but it's actually quite good, so hang in there and give it a try.)

1 cup dry lentils
1 bunch kale
4oz fresh shiitake mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp dried mustard
1/8 - 1/4 cup fresh herbs (whatever's in your garden, I tend to go with parsley, oregano & sage), measure them loose and then finely chop
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

Sort through the lentils and pick out any rocks, then put in a saucepan with 3 cups of water, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 20-25 minutes. You want them tender, but not falling apart. Drain them and set them aside to cool.

Wash the kale, remove the stems from and loosely chop it. Slice the mushrooms into thin slivers. In a large saucepan bring 1/4-1/3 cup of water to a boil, stuff all the kale into the saucepan, then throw the mushrooms in as well, cover it, and simmer for 3-5 minutes. No longer, you don't want to overcook the kale, it should still be bright green and tender.

Make the vinaigrette dressing by mixing the olive oil, vinegar, dried mustard, herbs salt & pepper. In a large bowl mix the lentils, kale & mushrooms, then top with the dressing and toss. Chill for 2-4 hours.

Peach & pistachio salad

IMG_6482
Originally uploaded by thatgirljj

Today, for Meatless Mondays, we had an awesome salad for dinner, with a side of stuffed mushrooms. The salad was a tweak of an idea I found online, the combo of pistachios & peaches just sounded luscious and I've been anxiously awaiting peaches so I can try it out. The Small One doesn't like lettuce, so I just served his portion without the lettuce, and he sucked it down and asked for more! Not bad.

Peach & Pistachio Salad
Serves 4

1 head of green leaf or butter lettuce
4 peaches
1 avocado
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
Dash of salt
Pinch of pepper
1/2 cup unsalted, shelled pistachios, chopped
Basil, thinly sliced (optional)

Wash the lettuce and tear into edible sized pieces. Divide into 4 portions among the serving bowls. Slice the peaches and avocados into chunks, mix them together and divide among the bowls. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Spoon the dressing over the salad. Sprinkle with pistachios and garnish with basil. Enjoy!

5 spice roasted chicken, ginger coleslaw

OK, I'm just going to call a spade, a spade here: This is a food blog. Any pretensions of mine that it was going to be anything else were foolish. I'm a foodie through and through and I can't try to write about things having to do with food without getting sidetracked by... OOOOO! FOOD! So yeah, I'm still probably going to tackle some other themes, but for now, I'm just going to settle in and post some recipes.

Today I roasted the second of our chickens. I'd popped this one in the freezer with a 5 spice marinade, pulled it out of the freezer Friday night and threw it in the oven this evening and it was thoroughly delicious. The wings especially were divine, tender with a nice crispy salty skin. As a side, we had my vegan ginger coleslaw. I'm not vegan (by a loooooong shot), but eggs don't agree with me, so I prefer to avoid things that are heavy on the mayo. However, this coleslaw is so amazing, it will win you over even if you're a die-hard traditionalist. I love bringing it to BBQs because people are always surprised by the big time flavor.

5 Spice Marinade

2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons sake (I have a cheap bottle I use just for cooking)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon 5 spice powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Mix all ingredients together. Makes enough to marinade one 3-5 pound chicken. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with chunks of onion before roasting. Roast in a 350 degree oven for an hour & 15 minutes, or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. For an extra crispy skin, baste with a little peanut or sesame oil after 1 hour in the oven.

Ginger Colelsaw

1/4 cup tahini
Juice of two limes
2 teaspoon roasted sesame oil
~1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cups finely chopped cabbage (about 1 bag)
3 medium carrots, grated

Put everything except the cabbage and carrots in the food processor and whizz it until it's a nice dressing-like consistency. Set aside about 1/2 cup of the cabbage, and dump the dressing into the remaining cabbage and carrots. Throw the 1/2 cup of reserved cabbage in the food processor and buzz a couple times, then throw in the bowl with everything else. (This is just an easy way to get all the extra dressing out of the bottom of the processor.) Toss well, let sit for at least 2 hours and enjoy.

If you don't have a ginger grater, just peel about 1" long chunk of ginger, and run it through the food processor before adding the other ingredients.