Cauliflower "rice" sushi WIN.

Just a quickie to expound the virtues of cauliflower.  Turn that stuff into "rice" by giving it a whirl in a food processor until it's in rice-sized pieces, steam it in the microwave until it's cooked through, splash some rice wine vinegar on it, and use it to make super delicious sushi rolls!

Maybe something about spending my first five years of life in the Asian wonderland of Hawaii gives me powerful cravings for salty, umami-ey Japanese food, or maybe I just love salt and fish.  Either way, trying to go grain and soy free makes things difficult.  Using cauliflower rice and soy- and wheat-free coconut aminos is akin to blasphemy, probably, but it's a fun thing to mess around with.  I used our Paleo Dinner Club as an excuse to sway the theme to "Asia" and guinea pig my paleo peeps on this stuff

I followed this site's advice for the rice and the main idea, and this adorably weird and mesmerizing video for some of the fillings and rolling instruction.

Shrimp, egg, mushroom, cucumber, avocado!

You'll need your prepared cauliflower rice (a large head, with the inner core removed, yielded about 4 large rolls, enough for a few crossfitters to demolish in a matter of minutes), a package of seaweed wrappers (nori yaki), a bamboo rolling mat, and your fillings of choice.  Some prepared or powdered wasabi, pickled ginger (usually not paleo, but you won't eat gobs of it), and coconut aminos or tamari rounds out the experience.

Some suggested roll-fillings:

Real crab meat (the surimi stuff is full of garbage and the fishing practices for pollock are questionable in terms of sustainability)
Avocado
Cucumber
(I love Cali rolls that have yummy mayo and tobiko in them, but the tobiko at my Asian-mart had like, 12 ingredients, including HFCS, so I passed on it)
Steamed shrimp (I have to get on my soap box and encourage you to find shrimp from sustainably managed fisheries... a lot of farmed shrimp from SE Asia is grown using methods that harm vulnerable marine habitats), remove shells and "vein" (digestive tract), make small slices along the bellies to allow them to lay flat in the roll
Rolled omelet following the directions in the video above (it really works!)
Re-hydrated dried shiitake mushrooms, sliced thin
Daikon radish sprouts
Sushi-grade ahi tuna (add sriracha and a touch of toasted sesame oil to roughly chopped tuna to make spicy tuna... this was a BIG hit)
Sushi-grade wild salmon

As you might have guessed, the only real difficult part of this is just assembling and preparing a fun variety of fillings... it would be sneaky/fun to have a sushi assembly party and put out all the prepped fillings and make people roll their own creations (que Martha Stewart, eh?)

 

The damage about 10 minutes into the event

Party paleo people moving on to sashimi

We used the leftover fillings to make a tasty breakfast - cooked up the salmon and warmed up the shiitake mushrooms and shrimp, scrambled it with eggs, and topped with sriracha and avocado.

Super speshul Valentimes dinner for ur speshul flower (or, ya know, friday night)

Let's get one thing straight - I do not celebrate Valentine's Day.  I have a husband and I love him and all, but after the obnoxiousness of the holiday season, I'm ready to mow down any further commercial guilt-trips about proving our love with fugly jewelry, Scarface-style.  Blech.  That's not to say, however, that you shouldn't show someone you love how much you care by feeding them a delicious meal of good, nutritious foods.  This duck preparation is super delicious, easy, and fancy, so fix it up for your sweetie, for your cat, for a friend, your family, or just for yourself.  You're worth it.

Braised Duck Legs with Red Wine and Fruit, Cauliflower Puree, and Greens

(via Epicurious, I found this recipe on my phone while in the supermarket, with duck legs in my basket, and wishing for something braised and red-winey... it takes a while to cook, but it is SO good)

1-2 duck leg portions per person (1 if you have other courses, like fancy chocolates for dessert, 2 if you've done an epic crossfit WOD beforehand)
1/2 C dry red wine
1-2 heads (yes, heads) of garlic, separated into cloves, peeled, and left whole (this time I threw a peeled and quartered shallot in, as well, just for fun...)
5 sprigs of fresh thyme, or ~1/2t dried thyme works just fine
1 C dried fruit of your choice - I have always used dried sour cherries, but the recipe suggests a mix of chopped dried apricots, chopped prunes, and/or raisins
3-5 C chicken broth

Garlic, shallots, and cherries, ready to go

Preheat oven to 350F

Season the duck legs with salt and pepper, and heat a kettle large enough to hold all the meat over medium-high heat.  Place duck legs skin side down in the hot pan in a single layer, and cook until the skin is dark, mahogany-colored and crispy, about 10-15 minutes.  Moderate the heat so nothing burns.  Remove the fat that renders into the pan off with a bulb baster as it cooks.  (Sidebar: 1) Be patient at this step, you want all the (delicious) fat to render out of the skin.  Crispy duck skin = yum, flabby duck skin = gross. 2) SAVE THE FAT!  Collect it in a small Mason jar and keep it in the fridge, it is delicious to cook with!!)
Once the skin side is nicely rendered, turn the legs and brown the other side for 3-5 minutes.  Set aside.

Here's my duck fat jar

Legs in the pot, skin side down

Nice dark rendered duck skin, yum yum.

Pour off any remaining fat (into your jar!) and put back on the heat.  Pour in the wine and deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits with a spoon.  Boil the wine until it is reduced to a syrup-like consistency (coats a the back of a spoon), then add the garlic, thyme, 1/2 the fruit.  Put the duck back in the pot, skin side up, and add stock until the tops of the duck legs just stick out of the surface.  Bring to a simmer, then put it in the oven, uncovered, to braise for about 2 hours. 

(Meanwhile you can make the cauliflower, and sit back and relax, see below)

All braised and happy

When the braise is finished, remove the duck legs to a warm platter.  Pour braising liquid into a glass measuring cup, let settle, and skim off any fat that's risen to the top, then pour through a strainer back into your pot, and press on the solids to get all the good flavor out (alternatively, use a fat separator pitcher like this to de-grease and strain at the same time).  Add the rest of the fruit to the sauce and simmer/reduce for about 5 minutes.  

The rest of the cherries into the sauce

Cauliflower Puree

(this has proven to be a really great alternative to mashed potatoes, and is super quick to make)

1 head of cauliflower
2 T butter
Salt & Pepper

Wash cauliflower and remove the leaves, cut into quarters, then slice off the core in the middle.  Separate into florets (don't have to be perfect, but similar sized chunks will ensure even cooking), put in a microwave-safe container, and steam in the microwave for 3-4 minutes, or until nice and soft.  Add the butter and seasonings, and then either puree in a blender or food processor, or blend it up right in the microwave container with an immersion blender.  Ready to serve!

I didn't get a perfectly smooth puree this time, but it was still delicious

Serve the duck, cauliflower, and sauce with a side of sauteed spinach or other greens, or a green salad. You can thank me later.

Off the journal wagon, but... RECIPES!

Hi. Apparently my resolve to food-journal ends when my head fills with snot and I have no choice but to surround myself with drifts of wet kleenex, moan, and eat nothing but tea and various international noodle-bearing soups to make myself well again.  So there'll be no more of the (boring) lists of my ingestions, sorry.

BUT!  I made some foods that you might like to replicate, because they were yummy (and lovely and whole and paleo-ey), so here you go -

Last night I had a hankering for meat in minced/browned form.  Nothing else would do.  So, meatballs and sauce and veg. it was. 

Forget about weird marinara in a jar... it always gives me and husbeast a stomach ache for whatever reason.  I still use canned tomatoes, but I swear a below-average monkey could make the best tomato sauce ever (that doesn't send you off to the loo 20 times the next day).  And really, what else are you doing while you're making the meatballs?  Multitasking, people!

Best, Simplest Tomato Sauce (makes about 1.5 cups?) (from Smitten Kitchen)

1 big (28 oz.) can of whole peeled tomatoes (I like the San Marzano kind, I think I'm influenced by the pretty can label, though)
5 T butter (pastured if you can swing it) (I guess ghee to sub if you're strict paleo)
1 big onion, peeled/trimmed and hacked in half, leave the root end intact, since you'll be straining it out at the end

Dump everything into an adequately sized saucepan or dutch oven, turn on the heat and bring to a simmer, and let it do its thing for about 45 minutes, stirring frequently and breaking up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon as they cook.  I also like to blend the tomatoes about halfway-to-pureed at the end of cooking with my immersion blender, but this is totally not necessary. Season to your liking with salt and pepper.

(N.B. if you're not up for making the meatballs, it is super easy to make this into a meal just by adding a whack of sauteed mushrooms and browned meat, and whatever other vegetables or herbs you feel like doing, at the end.  I've even poached eggs in it to great success.)

Meatballs-Without-Bready-Stuff  (makes... a lot of meatballs, at least to serve 4 generously) I apologize for my wishy-washy amounts of ingredients here... I tend to just add things until it "looks right".  I think it is totally necessary to learn to trust your instincts when cooking, so freeball it a little bit.  If you go overboard or under.. board(?) with something you'll learn for the next time.  (do not attempt for baking)

1 lb. each of ground grass-fed beef and pork
1-2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 C almond flour
1/4 C fresh grated Parmesan cheese (omit if going strict paleo, but face it, this hard cheese is basically pure fat, so why not?)
A big pinch of fines herbes and oregano, or Italian herb blend, whatever you like
A big pinch of onion powder
4 cloves of minced garlic
salt and fresh ground pepper

Meatballs ready to brown... a big piece of waxed paper makes a good staging area

Squish everything up in a bowl until it's uniformly blended, then form into meatballs (obviously).  Heat the fat of your choice (I used duck) in a large, flat-ish skillet, and brown on all sides.  Set aside.

Multitask!  Do your sauce and meatballs at the same time!

Then, when your tomato sauce is done, stick the meatballs in the sauce, cover, and simmer until the meat is cooked through, about 10 minutes.  I also sauteed some sliced mushrooms and added those to the sauce, for kicks.

Serve this over spaghetti-ized spaghetti squash, noodle-sliced zucchini, or do like I did and nuke some broccoli, if you're lazy.