gluten-free | Nutty Kitchen

Mixed Ceviche (without Onions)

05/13/2013 3 Comments

We love ceviche just about every way. This past spring we enjoyed some variations with juices and coconut milk in Bogotá, Colombia. In my opinion, Colombia has some of the tastiest ceviche.

Ours today has three different seafood in it, for taste and texture. We chose to leave the onions out of this dish this time, and we did not miss them, actually.

It is very important to get enough lime juice and the proper balance of spices. I am not a big fan of adding spices in which the dish is marinating, rather we prefer to sprinkle cayenne and some turmeric over it. Mix it well and cover it and place it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, stirring it every 20 minutes. We always make a little extra for a snack or lunch the next day.

Today’s ingredients:

4 large diver scallops (cut into very small chunks)
2 cups of tiny bay shrimp
1.5 pounds of Tilapia filet (cut into strips and then chunk into small squares
1/2 – 1 cup of freshly pressed lime juice
1 great bell pepper, diced
2 vine ripe tomatoes, diced
1/2 bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped
4 – 6 cilantro peppers, diced seeds in
a little sea salt to taste
some fresh ground black pepper
sprinkle of cayenne and turmeric – for finishing
drizzle of olive oil, also for finishing

Note: if your seafood is frozen, please allow to thaw naturally, not in the microwave.

Take a large serving bowl and add diced veggies and seafood. Mix well, add some salt and pepper and continue to fold in well. Add lime juice and once again mix well. Let your food sit for a minute or two and stir again, repeat this a few more times before it’s covered and chilled. The extra mixing allows for the lime juice to cook the seafood evenly, and tt will make all the difference in taste.

As you can see we served ours with some Yucca. Enjoy this dish this summer, it’s easy and it’s refreshing.

Filed under Entree, Health & Fitness, Hors D'Oeuvre, Paleo, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe, Salads, Side Dish Tagged with Bell pepper, Bogotá, Ceviche, coconut oil, Cooking, dairy-free, gluten-free, HDL cholesterol, health, herbs, Lime (fruit), natural oils, Nutrition, olive oil, seafood, super-food

Boneless Leg of Lamb in Heavy Cream Sauce

04/17/2013 4 Comments

My mom’s secret boneless leg of lamb recipe shared with you in honor of her. In this past visit she took such great care of us, cooking and loving us everyday, treating us to amazing meal after amazing meal. We could not help but to share this with you. As complex as this tastes, it is not that difficult to make. Top restaurants in Vienna serve this dish, in my opinion – not this good. (and they use flour)

Give this a try and please send us your feedback.

The beautiful ingredients are:

5 lbs of leg of lamb, cut into 1 – 1.5 inch thinck slices
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp unsalted butter or ghee
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1/8 tsp cardamom seeds (not pods)
2 small rosemary twigs, whole
from a 1/4 lemon the zest
sea salt to taste
4 tbsp heavy cream
1 tbsp fine yucca flour
1/2 to 3/4 liter of water or beef or chicken broth

Here’s how to make it:

Use a big sauce pot, heat butter or ghee on medium high and sautee the garlic until golden brown. Then add the meat quickly browning it on each side and then adding the water or broth, including all other spices and ingredients with the exception of the flour and the cream. Cover, reduce heat to the lowest setting and cook it for about two hours.

Mix the flour with a little bit of water (typically 2 – 3 tbsps water) and slowly work into the meat. Increase heat to medium and add cream and reduce the heat, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.

Note, you can also remove the meat and set aside as you are preparing the sauce with a hand blender and then add the meat back in for a more consistent sauce texture.

Serve and enjoy with your favorite salad or carbohydrate, such as yucca, sweet potato or beets.

Thank you mom for this great dish!

Filed under Entree, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe Tagged with Cook, Cooking, gluten-free, HDL cholesterol, herbs, lamb, Recipe, sauces

Crab Cakes

01/07/2013 3 Comments

We can never eat crab cakes because of the breading, but I love them. We haven’t eaten one in years, but recently, amazing Chef, Abbie accommodated me by making me gluten-free crab cakes. Thank you Chef Abbie! She has a wonderful restaurant in tucked away, but worthwhile to visit Cottonwood, AZ. We took a quick drive up to see our family that was visiting the Grand Canyon, and on the way down we met for a most wonderful day ending at Abbie’s. Our cousin, Rick Schwartz radio personality, treated us that night – thank you so much and it was so great to see you!! Next time we’ll see you in Moab. Catch his show sometime.

Needless to say that night inspired me to come up with my own gluten-free crab cakes, and OMG, these are really good. Why did I not make these sooner?

Ingredients:

240 grams of “real” crab meat (if you used canned, be sure to drain it very well)
1 tsp of organic dijon mustard
3 tbsp of Manioc flour (coarse, you’ll find this in the Asian market, we prefer Goya)
1 egg
pinch of sea salt, I used pink Himalayan
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
tiny pinch of ground Coriander
pinch of ground Cardamom
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp Curry powder (Indian)
2 tsp rice vinegar

Whisk the egg first till a little frothy, then add all other ingredients. Whisking it all very well, and then blending it in to the crab meat ensuring that all ingredients mix seamlessly with the crab. With a tablespoon spoon out a perfect little pile with which you’ll make a little medallions. You could make these into two or four cakes, but in this recipe, we’re featuring these as an amazing appetizer. You decide.

Chill these medallions for an hour and then get a pan hot with ghee and cook them for about 5 – 7 minutes depending on your pan and stove.

These are really good, you should give these a try – you’ll be sure to amaze your dinner guests, or surprise your spouse for a weekend afternoon goody with some of your favorite white wine.

Love to eat – Love life!

Filed under Entree, Paleo, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe, Side Dish Tagged with cayenne, Cooking, Crab, Crab cake, dairy-free, Fish and Seafood, gluten-free, HDL cholesterol, health, natural oils, Nutrition, Recipe, seafood

Almond Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

12/17/2012 Leave a comment

Have you ever wanted to bring something homemade to your friend’s house or a function, but decided not to because you thought it would take too long to make? Well now you’ll have a very easy, quick and super delicious recipe to whip up into a batch.

Ingredients:

2 cups of almond meal
2 1/2 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
1/8 cup of coconut butter (mana) – melted
pinch of pink Himalayan sea salt
few drops of almond extract
4 cage free eggs
1/2 cup of dark semi-sweet chocolate chips
generous 1/2 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts
1 tbsp palm sugar (you can adjust depending on how sweet you like it; we always stay on the less sweet side)

Mix everything well together in a large bowl with a hand mixer. Scoop each cookie to be with a small ice cream scooper or spoon and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 10 – 13 minutes at 350 degrees convection and cool for a few minutes – Enjoy warm or cool. My fellow yogi teachers loved these – what’s your feedback?

Filed under Desserts, Paleo, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe Tagged with almond flour, Almond meal, coconut oil, Cooking, dairy-free, dark chocolate, eggs, gluten-free, HDL cholesterol, natural oils, Recipe

Cranberry Sauce

11/22/2012 2 Comments

I have tasted many cranberry sauces and most of them are delicious, but usually too sweet for our taste. Try ours, you’ll be sure to like the well balanced tastes and it partners well with a variety of proteins aside from Turkey. Our recipe will yield 4 jars of sauce. We always make extra as it’s great to have around. The antioxidants and health benefits of cranberries are fabulous, and the palm sugar’s low glycemic index rating make this a superfood in our book.

For reading more about the health benefits of cranberries, visit The Cranberry Institute.

Ingredients:

4 – 8 ounce bags of fresh organic cranberries
1 ruby-red grapefruit (juice only)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped Turkish apricots (without sulfites)
heaping teaspoon of whole cloves
teaspoon of ground cinnamon, you can add a bit more if you like…your taste buds
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup palm sugar (I used a little less, try to taste)
water

It is easy to make your own, you can play with variations, such as apples, or pear, cherries, blueberries whatever you want. That’s what makes cooking fun.

But for our recipe take out a large pan and cover cranberries with just enough water, so that they are covered, add cloves and bring to a boil. Soon you will hear them begin to pop, you want this, but cover your pan with a mesh cover or you’ll have sticky spots to clean up. Once they have nearly all popped, add all other ingredients stir, turn off and cover. Let the it sit for 10 minutes or so and then bring to another boil, reduce heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring sometimes. Turn it back off and cover it – let stand for an hour or so. We like the cranberries, so I usually don’t puree it, but you could. I use a potato masher to make it a bit more smooth, but overall I leave them.

Enjoy with your Thanksgiving meal or with one of our lamb or pork dishes, duck works too!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your friends and family!

Nutty Kitchen

Filed under Condiment, Paleo, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe, Side Dish Tagged with antioxidants, Cooking, Cranberry sauce, dairy-free, gluten-free, Nutrition, Recipe, sauces, Thanksgiving

Fresh Vietnamese Spring Rolls

11/05/2012 2 Comments

It’s about time that we share our fresh spring rolls with you. Our favorite version is this one, clean, fresh and delicious, perfectly suitable for lunch or an appetizer.

The beauty about making your own spring rolls is that you can pretty much chose any ingredients that you like and enjoy, as long as they are fresh. Celebrate fresh ingredients whenever you can!

Here are our ingredients for our fresh rolls:

get a package of rice paper for spring rolls (you will have a lot left over for next time)
baby arugula
basil (remove all large stems)
mint (leaves only)
organic pea sprouts
1/2 large English cucumber, Julienne
1 Manila mango, Julienne
1 – 2 inches of fresh minced ginger
1 pound of cooked shrimp, remove tail and slice shrimp in half (as if you were to butterfly them, but cut through all the way)

Grab a pie pan and fill 1/2 way with warm water, soak one rice paper sheet at a time for about 10 seconds, remove very carefully with both hands and place onto your working surface. Place 2 – 3 basil leaves in the middle first, then place some arugula, a couple of mint leaves, some pea sprouts, few slices of mango and cucumber, sprinkle a little ginger and place 4 – 5 shrimp halves down the middle. Very carefully fold ends in first and then roll (if you are right handed, right to left rolling it tightly and slowly. The first couple might be sort of a disaster, but those can be a snack while making the food. Don’t worry, they will get tighter and perfect as you do them.

Place them whole on a sheet or plate and cover them with a wet paper towel. I have a water spray bottle near by to spray the towels to keep them moist. Once you are ready to serve them, you should cut them in half diagonally.

Henry made this amazing dipping sauce: ..mix really well the following…

Ingredients:

1/4 cup almond butter
2 tbsp water
3 tbsp coconut aminos
1 tbsp fish sauce
4 Thai chilis, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
some fresh cracked pepper

Filed under Condiment, Entree, Hors D'Oeuvre, Paleo, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe, Salads, Side Dish Tagged with almond, antioxidants, Black pepper, dairy-free, gluten-free, HDL cholesterol, health, herbs, natural oils, Nutrition, nuts, prawns, Recipe, Rice paper, sauces, seafood, Spring roll, super-food, vegetables

Harvest Pomegranate Chutney

10/23/2012 2 Comments

Thank you all for being patient – we have been burning the candle at both ends; thus the tardy post. I began my Yoga Teacher Training and you can follow my journal here.

We made this chutney a few weeks ago in anticipation of fall, and have made it a few times since. It really is very easy to make and quite tasty.

Some major qualities of this tasty fruit are:

Antioxidant power house
Helps to prevent Osteoarthritis
Helps to promote heart health
It’s known to lower blood pressure
It has cancer fighting agents
It’s great for your gum and teeth health
It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber and Folate, and a very good source of Vitamin C and Vitamin K

Here are the lovely fresh ingredients:

2 Large Pomegranates, seeds only
1 bunch of fresh green onions, chopped
sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
3 Thai chiles chopped
1/2 inch fresh turmeric, peeled and minced, (
1 inch minced fresh ginger
1 large lime, juice only
1 tbsp coconut vinegar

Fold all ingredients together and chill for about an hour or two in the refrigerator. We love pairing this with pork, especially pork chops. It’s refreshing and light; this also works well with fatty white fish and lamb.

What is your favorite protein combo? We are going to try this with our turkey this Thanksgiving.

Filed under Condiment, Paleo, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe, Side Dish Tagged with antioxidants, Cooking, dairy-free, gluten-free, health, Nutrition, Recipe, super-food, Vegetarian

Zwetschkenknoedel Nutty Kitchen Style

09/18/2012 7 Comments

YUMMM! That’s all we can say. I grew up eating these all the time, but they were made with flour. The end of summer is perfect for these as the European plums are in season and they have just the perfect ripeness and flavor. The original dumplings are made with dough from flour and are boiled and then rolled in buttered bread crumbs, which believe me were amazing. But for those of us who can’t have gluten or simply chose not to, these are a terrific alternative.

We made ours with Yuca root aka Cassava and they are just out of this world and rank up there in our most loved desserts. Even though we don’t post many recipes about Yuca, we eat it often and use it for versatile dishes.

This time around we thought we would teach you how to make an amazing dessert with it. It’s simple, delicious and it’s power food for those who love to gear up for some good sweating in the morning. Every time we eat it for dinner, we sleep like babies and wake up with a ton of power. For those of you who just love an amazing dessert, just go for it and give this a try.

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Here is what you’ll need:

1 – 2 medium or 1 large Yuca root
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 egg
1/2 to 1 cup coconut oil
tiny pinch of sea salt
European plums (1 for each dumpling)
1 – 2 tbps homemade jam (low sugar – we use honey with ours and real fruit chunks) Apricot is best

First heat a large pot with slightly salted water and bring to boil. Peel and Yuca, cut into 2 – 3 inch chunks – quarter those and remove the woody stem from the middle and boil until they get opaque in color. They should be fairly soft for this. 20 – 30 minutes on medium cooking.

Remove and strain well – place into a food processor while hot add butter and a tiny pinch of salt and pulse on dough. You can absolutely use coconut oil instead of the butter. It will be really sticky so prepare yourself for that! Remove it all and put into a dish covered tightly and place in the refrigerator over night. Don’t wait more than two days before making this or it will get dry and it will not work.

It will be best if you make it the next evening. Take out your cast iron pan or your favorite equivalent and heat coconut oil. The reason for the cast iron pan is that it heats evenly and you’ll get the best results.

Sprinkle your counter or favorite surface with coconut flour and dust your hands, so that the dough will not stick.

With a small serving spoon scoop out a golf size ball of dough. Roll it between your hands and then press it into a patty. Then roll it out with a dough roller, I use a small wooden one. Once you have a nice flat round dough patty fill it with a pitted European plum that has been filled with the apricot jam and close the dumpling up. Be gentle so not to rip it.

Whip the egg with a fork until frothy and then bathe the dumpling before placing it in the hot oil. Once you start baking/frying the dumplings reduce the heat to medium so not to burn them and keep rotating them with a fork until all sides are golden. Serve warm and sprinkle with coconut flakes and serve with your favorite side. Coconut whipping cream, Greek yogurt, or heavy cream, whatever floats your boat. These will make you smile; they are worth the effort – let us know what you think.

Filed under Desserts, Paleo, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe Tagged with Cassava, Coconut, coconut oil, Cooking, dairy-free, eggs, gluten-free, HDL cholesterol, health, super-food, Vegetarian, Yuca

Pad Thai

08/21/2012 7 Comments

We love Thai food, it’s fresh and so delicious as it satisfying. We wanted to share a healthy version of Pad Thai with you and is quick and tastes authentic. We are going to show you our with shrimp, but you can use your favorite protein.

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This serves 4 – 6 people

2 – 3 lbs of shrimp
1 – 1/2 packages of rice noodles, chose your preferred thickness (one of our packages contain 14 oz of dry noodles)
2 whole eggs
2 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 cup of Tamarind sauce, make it fresh it will be better
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp ground dried chili pepper (we use the seeds from the dried red Thai chilis)
1 pinch of fresh ground pepper, to taste (black pepper is fine)
1 lime
4 large shallots, minced
1 tbsp palm sugar
8 tablespoons tamarind pulp (or 2 – 3 tbsp paste) we prefer the fresh version – well worth it!
4 tbsp coconut oil
1-1/3 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup chives (coarsely chopped)
2 tablespoons macadamia nuts, crushed (we substitute these for peanuts, as peanuts can carry dangerous fungus)

Easy Preparation:

This will be best in a large Wok. Add coconut oil heat on high, add macadamia nuts and roast them until they get light brown and remove to cool and set aside. Now add garlic, shallots, fish sauce, tamarind, palm sugar and cook until nice and glossy.

In the meantime boil noodles in salted water for about 3 minutes and drain. Set aside.

Now add eggs to garlic and shallots and cook on medium-high breaking the eggs up with your cooking spoon. Quickly add shrimp, pepper and any additional Thai chilis that you would like for spice; we eat Thai spicy. Stir shrimp in until they are about half way cooked and then add noodles, which should still be warm. Mix very well and serve with a lime on the side.

Guaranteed you will love this! Jo & Henry

Filed under Entree, Paleo, Perfect Health Diet, Primal, Recipe Tagged with antioxidants, coconut oil, Cooking, dairy-free, gluten-free, Pad Thai, prawns, Recipe, sauces, seafood, Tamarind, Thai cuisine

Sauteed Beef Kidneys

07/30/2012 2 Comments

We haven’t posted any offal lately, but could not resist sharing this with you. We got our whole steer not to long ago from our favorite local ranch, Date Creek Ranch. Always make sure that you eat grass-fed, and know where your meat is coming from.

Why should you eat kidney? Kidney is a good source of Protein, Vitamin C and Zinc, and a great source of Vitamin A, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Vitamin B12, Pantothenic Acid, Iron, Phosphorus, Copper and Selenium.

Here is what you will need and how to go about making it. Serves 4, unless you are Jo and Henry then it’s for two.

Ingredients:

2 whole beef kidneys
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 large yellow or white onions, sliced
3 – 6 red dried Thai chilis, whole
2 – 3 Anaheim pepper, sliced
1 – 2 bay leaves
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
pinch of sea salt, to taste
fresh cracked rainbow pepper, to taste
pinch of caraway seeds
pinch of marjoram, rub between palms to activate herb

The beef kidney has a very thick white cord connecting the various nodes of the organ. Ensure that you use a very well sharpened knife, I like a boning knife. Try to get all the white cording out, this is a time-consuming task, so know that going in and take your time with it, it’s actually really interesting.

Whole kidney with cord in tact

Kidney with carefully removed cord

Next it is very important to soak the kidney in a bath of 1/3 vinegar (we use coconut vinegar) and 2/3 parts water. Soaking is important to ensure that there is no smell or taste of urine. If the kidney is not cleaned properly there is a chance that your dish might be ruined – IF you don’t soak for about 20 minutes. Rinse very well and set aside.

Kidney soaking in vinegar/water bath

In a large wok or saute pan, brown onions in 1/4 cup of coconut oil, once they are glossy add peppers and all other ingredients, except for the kidney – this goes in last, as kidney cooks as quickly as liver does.

While your onions and veggies are sautéing on medium heat, begin to slice your kidney into thin slices.

Sliced kidney

Once your veggies are caramel in color and beautifully glossy, add kidney and stir well, up your heat to almost high and cook for 2 – 4 minutes, only.