Pho Nutty Kitchen Style

09/12/2011 5 Comments

Thank you Paul and Shou-Ching for this amazing dish and inspiration from your awesome Perfect Health Diet site.

Wonderful ingredients that you’ll need to make this dish:

  • 2 quarts of stock, we used some our duck stock
  • 5 cloves of garlic, sliced
  • 2 inches of fresh sliced ginger
  • 3 cups of whole shiitake mushrooms, we took the stems off
  • 3 sticks of cinnamon, keep whole
  • 10 whole cloves, keep whole
  • 1 – 2 tsps of whole pepper corn
  • 1/4 cup of fish sauce
  • 1 package of rice noodles
  • 1 lb lamb ribs
  • 2 tbsp coconut Oil

Garnish Ingredients

  • 1 lb of thinly sliced grass-fed stew meat or your favorite cut
  • 1 bunch off cilantro, chopped
  • 4 limes, cut into 8ths
  • a bunch of sliced Serrano peppers
Here is how to do pull it all together:
  1. In a large soup pot, heat your favorite stock on medium heat.
  2. Add garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper corn, fish sauce, mushrooms and cilantro and continue to cook on medium heat.
  3. In a separate cast iron pan heat coconut oil on medium-high to high heat; add lamb ribs and cook until nicely browned and most of the fat is rendered.  Once browned, add oil and ribs to  soup pot and continue to cook on medium.
  4. In another pot warm a few quarts of water on high heat.  Once the water is boiling add rice noodles and cook  for no more than 3 minutes.   Remove from boiling water, put into a strainer, and run some cool water over them to keep them from overcooking.
So here is how to build your little bowl of paradise:
Get your favorite soup bowl, place some of the thinly sliced raw beef in the bottom, add hot soup on top and garnish with cilantro and serano peppers. Squeeze 2 – 3 wedges of limes into your soup and through the squeezed lime into your dish.
OMG, this Pho is just to die for with the browned lamb ribs added. Amazing and a must try.

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Ćevapi – Croatian Sausage

03/14/2011 4 Comments

What a treasure to have my parents visit.  This is a very old, very traditional dish that I grew up with.  A good glass of wine and good company makes this meal even more enjoyable to share.  Tonight my dad made these amazing Cevapi, I loved every bit dad!   Thank you!

Ingredients for about 25 2oz sausages:

  • 2 lb grass fed ground beef
  • 1 lb ground lamb
  • 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
  • 5 shallots, finely chopped
  • 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
  • salt to taste

How to make them:

  1. Mix all ingredients together
  2. Form into 2 oz sausages, let sit a few hours or overnight
  3. Grill and serve

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Demystify Okra: Okra and Ground Beef in Indian Spices

09/27/2010 5 Comments

As promised, we are sharing some tasty ways to prepare wonderful Okra. Most people don’t care for it all that much because it can get a bit slimy…I happen to love Okra in every way, slimy or not.

This dish is brought to you by Henry, who wanted to be the first in the line up of demystifying Okra.

Here is what you’ll need for his delicious creation:

  • 3 Tbsp Fat of Choice (Grass Fed Butter, Coconut Oil, Tallow, Ghee)
  • 4 Stalks Green Onion, chopped
  • 4 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 Cup Finely Chopped Anaheim Peppers
  • 4 Serrano Pepper or more depending on desired heat (we like our with some heat)
  • 2 Tsp Chopped Ginger
    • Note:  we combine ginger and peppers and finely chop them in our mini food processor
  • 2 tsp Turmeric
  • 1 tsp Cumin
  • Black Pepper and Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to taste
  • 1 Lb Grass Fed Ground Beef
  • 1 Oz Cooked Pork Belly
  • 1 Lb Okra

And here’s how Chef Henry made it:

Dice and Soak Okra in a mixture of Apple Cider Vinegar and water  for about 30 minutes to reduce natural sliminess of Okra – BE SURE to rinse with water well after soaking
Now place Fat and Green Onions in large pan or wok, once onion starts browning add garlic, spices, peppers,and pork belly and cook for about 5 minutes on medium – high heat.  Add Ground Beef and cook for another 5 minutes making sure all ingredients are well combined. Now add Okra and mix well, and cook for 5 minutes, cover, reduce heat to medium low and cook for additional 15 minutes or until Okra is at desired tenderness (Soft but not mushy). It is best if served with a side of fresh lime to squeeze onto dish at table side.  We served it with oven baked Asparagus.

Enjoy – there is more to come in the Okra series.

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Primal Lengua Estofada: Braised Beef Tongue

08/23/2010 11 Comments

We decided to introduce you all to a childhood favorite for both Henry and I, beef tongue.  It is very delicious and you can prepare it in different ways, we decided to make a slightly modified primal version of a classic Filipino dish called Lengua Estofada.  We purchased ours from The Meat Shop, first class tongue available anytime, grass-fed and locally grown, also very affordable at only $3.50/lb.   The tongue weighed in close to two pounds and after peeling and preparing was just enough for two of us.

First pre-cook beef tongue in a large pot of slightly salted water and boil for 10 minutes. Then place it into a large bowl with ice water to cool it.  This will allow you to peel the outer skin fairly easily.

Once you have it peeled, braise it in a cast iron pan with coconut or plam oil for a few minutes on each side.  Then place it into crock-pot along with:

  • 1 large white onion, cut into thick slices
  • 2 yams, cubed
  • 2 sweet potatoes, cubed
  • 2 stalks of celery, chopped
  • 2 medium bell peppers, sliced
  • sea salt to taste
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 tomatoes, boiled, peeled, and quartered
  • 4 serrano peppers
  • 1 bottle of red cooking wine
  • 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp of coconut or virgin palm oil

Turn crock-pot on and let it cook until you get home from work and enjoy your dinner.  We cooked ours on high for 6 hours, the meat was so tender that it was hard to cut into slices as shown above.   Enjoy!

Fight Back Friday

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Thai Basil Ground Beef

07/12/2010 4 Comments

Thai cuisines is one of our favorites. This is a very quick and easy dish to make and was inspired by our friend Joe Thailand in Boston. Joe and his amazing staff used to whip us up the best Thai primal/paleo dishes that you can imagine. Today’s recipe is 100% inspired by The House of Siam. If you are ever in Boston you must stop in for an amazing meal – truly authentic and fantastically fresh seafood. We miss Joe and his team.

We pulled together a small dinner party last night, about 10 people and served this light and delectable dish with some of Mark’s awesome Cauliflower Rice from his recently released Primal Cookbook – and it was an absolute hit. Everyone loved our Thai Basil in combination with Mark’s rice.

Here are the ingredients that you will need:

  • 2 lbs of Grass-fed ground beef
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • 2 1/2 bell peppers (we like a green and some red or orange for color)
  • 1 pinch sea salt (be conservative and add it last)
  • 3 – 4 Thai chili or Serano peppers (depends how spicy you like it; we eat Thai spicy, Joe knows :-) )
  • 1 large yellow onion, sliced
  • 4 big stalks of fresh Thai basil, regular works too
  • 5 tbsp Thai fish sauce
  • 1 tsp Coconut Crystals

Here’s how to make it:

Use a large 3 quart pan or wok and brown onions until golden in coconut oil, add chopped chili peppers (seeds in) and sliced bell peppers. Use medium – high heat. Continue to cook until it’s all glossy and gorgeous, then add ground beef and stir in well. If you like bigger chunks you will not need to stir so much.  Now add fish sauce and coconut crystals, stir well and add basil when the beef is no longer pink. We just rip the basil and toss it in. Let is simmer on ultra-low for 10 minutes and serve with some Cauliflower rice. Truly amazing and the whole thing will take you less than 30 minutes to prepare and cook! Enjoy and let us know what you think. J & H

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Primal Meat Sauce

05/11/2010 6 Comments

As many of you know, we had my parents fly in over the weekend with two other couples, so needless to say it was a great weekend, but very busy as they all stayed with us. Lot’s of meat was cooked up in a variety of ways with great veggies. So with that said, Henry and I were exhausted last night and had to take another day off from posting. We decided to whip up some grass-fed meat sauce that we love and served it over some spaghetti squash. I had mine plain as I was not that hungry after an amazing power yoga session. So the photo is obviously of my plate. :-) We have eaten this on top of a little bit of red quinoa or just wrapped in some butter lettuce.

  • This feeds 4 hungry Primals if served with a side dish
  • Active cooking/prep time is only 10 minutes, the rest of the 30 minutes is simmer time

Have a great Tuesday and enjoy this simple, but yet energy providing meal.

Primal Meat Sauce

Ingredients

2 large Shallots sliced
2 medium Green onions sliced
1/8 cup Coconut oil
2 Serrano chiles seeds in
1 medium Red bell pepper chopped coarsely
2 small Vine ripe tomatoes chopped
1 teaspoon Majoram ground in your palm
3 pinches Turkish Cumin
1 teaspoon Caraway Seed
2 pinches Sea salt to taste
6 ounces Tomato paste
6 ounces Water
2 lbs Organic Grass-fed Ground Beef
2 tablespoons Red wine vinegar
2 Baby Portobello Mushrooms coarsely chopped
1 Bay leaf

Instructions
We use a high-rimmed quart size pan with a lid.

Heat coconut oil on medium-high and add shallots and green onions – brown until glossy golden. Then add tomatoes, bell pepper, bay leaf and chiles. Sautee for about 5 minutes, and add mushrooms, majoram, cumin, caraway seed, continue to cook for another minute or two stirring all ingredients well. Then add grass-fed 85/15 ground beef. Be sure to break up any large chunks of meat so to ensure that spices and flavors can penetrate through the beef. Once the beef is slightly browned, add sea salt and stir well. Now add the tomato paste (it should not have any other ingredients except for tomatoes), and stir in 6 oz of water. Stir well, add vinegar, stir well once more, cover, and reduce heat to the lowest possible. Simmer for 30 minutes and serve with your favorite side dish.

We love it on top of spaghetti squash! Amazingly tasty and always a hit with our friends and family.

The best part is that you can prepare this dish in advance.

Note: Modify spices or ingredients to taste after simmer time is up. Sometimes extra salt is required.

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Grass-fed Beef Stuffed Bell Peppers

05/07/2010 Leave a comment

Now that everyone knows how much we love bell peppers, we wanted to share our favorite stuffed bell pepper recipe with you.  Of course we use grass-fed ground local beef. The peppers and eggplant are organic and also locally grown. When choosing your bell peppers make sure to pick shiny crisp ones, not ones that are soft, or wrinkly, as it will alter the taste and may become a bit bitter.

Traditional ground beef recipes, such as meat balls or stuffings such as this call for bread crumbs, or white bread, instead, we use the more delicious and healthier alternative - eggplant.

This is such a great dish to pre-cook and freeze for those evenings when you are pressed for time. These babies are so delicious and usually taste even better the next day. It should only take about 10 minutes to prep the stuffing and to fill the peppers, the rest of the time is yours as they simmer along for 40 minutes. So it’s a very easy to make meal that you can enjoy that day or keep for another. Satisfies 3 – 4 Primals! :-)

Please try and enjoy our recipe for Stuffed Bell Peppers!

Ingredients

6 whole Green Bell Peppers
2 lbs Grass-fed ground beef
1/2 White onion diced
3 cloves Garlic minced
1 teaspoon Caraway Seed
2 teaspoons marjoram ground between your palms
1 pinch Jalapeno pepper flakes or 1/2 fresh spicy
3 pinch Sea salt to taste
1 small Eggplant peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon Paprika
1 pinch Turkish Cumin

Instructions
Filling:
Combine all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix with your hands until everything is perfectly blended. Adjust the salt and/or spice according to your liking. If you prefer to add a whole spicy serano or jalapeno pepper instead go for it, but make sure to mince them.

Bell Peppers:
Wash bell peppers well and carefully cut off the top on the stem side. Carefully remove seeds and any other remaining flesh inside the pepper, but be sure not to crack or split the peppers. Place a pepper in your hand and stuff with the other. Hand-stuffing ensures the least amount of damage to the peppers. If you have left over meat mixture, just roll them into meat balls and place along side the stuffed peppers when you cook them.

In a large rimmed sauce pan, prepare our “Perfect Tomato Sauce”, which will serve as the base sauce for our Stuffed Bell Peppers.
Ingredients:
2 6 oz tomato pastes
2 cups of water
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 pinch sea salt to taste
1 pinch black pepper to taste

Place stuffed peppers into tomato sauce, bring to a quick boil, cover and simmer for 35 – 40 minutes on the lowest heat.

Serve with spaghetti squash, mashed sweet potato, or just plain with a nice chilled butter lettuce as a side salad, as we prefer it.

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Lomo al Trapo! grass-fed, of course!

05/05/2010 2 Comments

Since my husband is Colombian and from Bogotá, he is more than familiar with this absolutely fantastic dish – I, however was not. So on our recent trip to Northern California, we cooked some lomo al trapo together at our friends Rob and Francesca’s house. It is traditionally a Colombian dish and is a beautiful large piece of beef tenderloin. Lomo = filet, Trapo = rag or cloth, so Lomo al Trapo = beef tenderloin in cloth!

I forgot our camera, so our pictures are not great this time. …sorry!

For 4 adults, with several side dishes, :-) we bought 3.5 lbs. Make sure to trim it of all fat and silvery skin that may be around it. (Normally I would never suggest to trim the fat, but this dish calls for it for good reason)

What you’ll need:

  • 3 – 4 lbs of center cut beef tenderloin, grass-fed of course
  • 1.5 lbs salt (don’t worry  - it will not be salty)
  • 2 – 3 stems of fresh rosemary
  • 1 – 2 stems of fresh thyme
  • 1 cotton 18 x 18 napkin or cloth
  • some twine
  • hot smoldering embers
  • and 45 to 50 minutes of time

Fresh herbs are always key, you can choose your favorite ones – they don’t have to be rosemary or thyme, just as long as they are fresh and you love the taste.

First, place the cotton cloth diagonally, corners pointing toward you, onto your counter. Pour the salt on top of the cloth to form a layer 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick that extends to about 1 inch of the edge of the cloth.  Place herbs onto salt.

Lay the beef tenderloin on top of the salt at the far end of the cloth and roll the cloth and salt around the tenderloin, starting in the far corner. You want to make a very compact roll.    Now take the points of cloth at each end of the resulting package and tie them together on top of the tenderloin. Do this right before your charcoal or gas grille are ready.

So now to the cooking methods. As you can see, our friends cooked the lomo al trapo in their fireplace. But you can also cook it on your gas grill.

First here’s how to cook it the fireplace method:

Light a fire with some wood, burn it down until you have beautiful embers, and lay the wrapped tenderloin right on the wood cradle, knot side up. Let it cook in the fireplace for about 40 – 50 minutes for a tender red middle – turn it a couple of times within that time frame. The cloth will burn and  yes you’ll see some flames, but that is ok, it’s meant to.  The whole thing will look like a burnt log, but not on the inside. It really is amazing.

cutting in motion :-)

Once it’s done 40 mins for rare plus, carefully remove it and cut the cloth open. Slice it and serve. It is so incredibly smooth, soft, tender…amazing. You have to taste it to be able to describe it. Oh, and let’s not forget the amazing flavor.

Here’s the gas BBQ/grill method:

Heat your BBQ/grille as hot as possible. Arrange the cloth wrapped tenderloin on the grate, knot side up.    Grill until the bottom is charred black, about 18 – 20 minutes. Cover the BBQ! Turn the meat log over and grill until the other side is jet black and remove. Should roughly be about the same amount of time.

We served it with Butternut Squash boats, and yesterday’s post of bell peppers with Bacon Swiss Chard.

Lomo al Trapo is one of my new favorite dishes of all time!

We hope that you too try it and let us know what you think. It is not a cheap dish, so save it for a special occasion! :-)

Happy Cooking! Jo and Henry

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Live-r for life!

04/26/2010 8 Comments

Today we wanted to introduce something a little different, an organ meat, or offal that some of you may have never eaten, or perhaps one that you’ve not eaten since your childhood.  We grew up eating calf’s liver, and although it might be an acquired taste for some, we find it to be quite delectable and sweet.  We prepare our calf’s liver in a very simple fashion, because we feel that the more flavors are added the more the actual taste and sweetness is lost.

What to look for when choosing your calf liver:
Make sure that it is nice and shiny, slightly pink, organic, and fresh.  Always buy it from a quality store or butcher.  Smell is a good indicator of a livers freshness.  It is very perishable so once you buy it, it should be consumed within 48 hours.  It can be frozen, but we don’t recommend it.

So why should you eat some calf’s liver?
It is available year round, delicious, easy to make, and most importantly it contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food!

From “The Liver Files” on the Weston A Price Website.
Some of the benefits provided by liver:
  • An excellent source of high quality protein — 25 grams, per 4oz serving
  • Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A  — Over 600% of RDA, per serving
  • All of the B vitamins in abundance, particularly B12 — 690% of B12 RDA
  • One of the best sources of folic acid — 215% RDA
  • A highly usable form of iron — 16.5% RDA
  • Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
  • An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
  • CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
  • A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

Here is the way we prepare it, this makes 4, 4oz. servings or just enough for two hungry Primals. :)

Calf’s Liver Simplified

  • 1 lb of Calf’s liver
  • 1 pinch of sea salt, to taste
  • 1 medium onion or 4 large shallots, sliced
  • 1 very large clove of garlic, sliced
  • 1 pinch of fresh ground black pepper, to taste
  • 3 tbsp butter, or tallow, or ghee, you decide

We prefer to use a cast iron skillet because it cooks foods more evenly and the pan will not cool off as quickly as others once the meat is introduced.

Heat oil in cast iron skillet, add garlic, onions, salt, and pepper, brown until golden and glossy. Slice calf’s liver into 1/2 inch strips and toss into pan – cover with onions and garlic. Sautee for about 5 minutes and serve.

We had ours this weekend with some sweet potatoes (after a crazy workout) :-) , but it is very delicious if served with dark green veggies such as spinach or kale, or even some spaghetti squash. Yummm! It’s a staple in our house and we recommend it to anyone who is a meat eater and loves to live healthy.

Go out and get some today!

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Slow Food: Authentic Hungarian Gulasch

04/13/2010 Leave a comment

Not everything we cook is fast, but most of it is easy. As most of you know, Henry and I are supporters and members of the Slow Food movement. We believe that it is vitally important to eat right, buy local whenever possible – know where your food and ingredients really come from.

With that said, I wish to share with you today my mom’s amazing authentic Hungarian Gulasch. It is not difficult to make, but you need to have patience, especially with stirring the onions. If you do not stir the onions down, rush the process or burn the onions the whole dish will turn out watery or just flat our ruined. We think that it is important to cook slow, time-consuming dishes once in a while. It changes the way you appreciate and view food. If you don’t have time during the week, make it on the weekend with a loved one or a friend. It’s worth every bite and it usually tastes even better the next day. So give it a try and let us know. Serve it with some sweet potatoes or some spaghetti squash. Talk about food orgasm! Yummm – thank you Mom!

Mom’s Authentic Hungarian Gulasch

Ingredients

2 lbs Stew meat cubed (use grass-fed)
2 lbs Onion chopped
2 tablespoons Paprika
2 tablespoons Coconut oil
1 pinch Caraway Seed
1 pinch Sea salt to taste
1 pinch Black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon marjoram crushed

Instructions
In a high rimmed pan, melt oil and roast onions on medium – high.

It is essential that the onions roast down completely or the dish will not work. You must constantly stir the onions to make sure that they do not burn, which will also destroy the flavors.

After the onions are completely browned and are nice and glossy, add the paprika (roast the paprika quickly so to avoid burning it – it would turn everything bitter), add the meat and quickly blend it into the onion mixture. Add just enough water to cover the meat, add sea salt, caraway and mix everything once more. Next bring Gulasch to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to the lowest setting and simmer for about 2 hours, or until the meat is nice and tender.

Then add marjoram, and pepper. (If you like it spicy, you can chop a serano or other chili to taste) If you’d like to have a thicker sauce you can take ½ cup of water and dissolve a teaspoon of arrowroot in it and mix it into the Gulasch. Same goes for thinner sauces, you can just add some water to adjust the consistency of the sauce.

This is great to pre-cook and freeze for those nights when you don’t want to cook. My mom has been making this dish since I was small and it has always received the utmost praise!

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