Paleo Pasta

I am trying the paleo diet again.  To be honest I am not really sticking to it 24/7.  I am allowing myself a day off every week so I dont get sick of it again.  While I was off with tonsillitis, I went and did a majah paleo shop at the supermarket.  It was soooo fun!  I left with eggplant, zucchini's, mushrooms and all the different veggies I love. I also left countdown with 2 of the Bordeaux glasses in there coupon/sticker collection I had been eyeing up!  I was soooo excited, I am such a geek.

So on Pinterest I saw the spaghetti squashes which don't exist/ hard to find  in NZ.  I was/ still am quite gutted about this.  Instead I saw images of spaghetti made out of zucchini's!  Instantly I had to make this. 

I combined it with my go-to tomato and cream pasta sauce. It is sooooo damn quick to make and so healthy for you!

  It was delish......

Ingredients.

Zucchini- sliced very finely like fettuccine.

1/2 a teaspoon of crushed garlic.

Oil to fry the zucchini

Sauce:

Cubed eggplant 

finely sliced sun-dried tomatoes

cherry tomatoes halved

3/4 of a can of tinned tomatoes -Watties crushed & seived are the best

1/2 of a large white onion diced

100 mls of cream (you can use more, I just add more depending on the taste

1 heaped teaspoon on crushed Garlic

olive oil. 

good pinch of grated parmesan

Salt to taste

Method

Add the oil, zucchini fettuccine and the garlic to the fry pan and fry till limp.  Once its limp set aside.  

Add some oil to a frypan on medium to high heat , add the diced onions and cook till transparent.  Add the garlic and fry off till flavours combine.  Add the tinned tomatoes and cook for a few minuets till all the flavours combine.  Add the sun dried tomato, cherry tomatoes and cubed eggplant and fry till the eggplant is limp.

Add the cream and stir through.  I would taste the sauce at this point to see if you need to add more cream.

  Once the sauce is right, add the parmesan cheese and stir through. 

 Taste again and see if you  need more parmesan or salt and add what is required. 

Images by me

Chili Crab

This was the moment I had been waiting for for the last 3 months.  CRABS ARE BACK IN SEASON!  I would go to the market to check to see if they were back week after week asking the same fish monger only to get "come back in another month".  I kind of gave up hope, then kind of forgot about it.

Growing up in Australia having crab in your diet is not unusual. Its kind of a right of passage as a child to go fishing and eat fresh from the sea.  Or I could of been really lucky and exposed to some opportunities that others were not.

 When I was a wee girl, we use to go snorkling for blue swimmer crabs. We would swim above them, I would hold a really long sick, dad would hold a really long handled fishing net and be about a meter or so away from me.  I would use the stick to tap the crab on the side and the crab would run into the net. DONE! The most effective way to catch blue swimmer crabs.  Then straight to the BBQ on the boat they would go.

We also would order mud crab at the local Chinese restaurants.  The mud crabs are alive, fresh and tied up. As kids we would get to choose which ones we wanted.  Mud Crabs are different to blue swimmer crabs as the are much larger, with much larger claws (good for family eating).

Mud crabs

 Dad would educate us on which ones were the females and which ones were the males.  The males have a narrow V underneath their bellies and the females have a more rounded V underneath their bellies. I have never caught a live Mud Crab as the live in mangroves.  I have seen shows where people sick their hands into mangrove holes to fish them out.  Not on my to do list, Mud crabs have huge claws with moler like grooves on them.  I value not having broken bones and fully functioning hands LOL. At the Chinese restaurants, we would have the crabs in either Chili sauce, Black Bean sauce or Salt & Pepper.  They all taste fantastic.  Its probably one of my favourite foods.

All the crabs I bought from the market were male.  I think they dont keep/sell the females for breeding purposes here in NZ.  They return them to the water.  These crabs from the Otago Farmers Market are so cheap!  They were $2 each.  Such a cheap, healthy and yummy meal!

Now for this, I used a Junior Masterchef recipe from Australia. It actually blows my mind a child under 12 was able to come up with this recipe.  It was really yummy and the coriander really makes the dish.

Instructions on how to precook and prepare paddle crab here.  I precooked mine as that's how I roll. I find it easier to gut them if they are precooked.  Just make sure you crack the claws to get the chilli sauce in.

If you are going to cook them raw, please look up some instructions on the net on how to clean and gut a crab.  There are many video's on youtube.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons peanut oil

2 fresh red chillies, sliced

1 tablespoon ginger, grated

2 cloves garlic, sliced

½ tablespoon fish sauce

40ml tomato puree

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ cup fish stock

½ cup water

1raw mud crab, broken into claws, half bodies and top shell

1 handful coriander, chopped, to serve

Method

For chilli crab, heat peanut oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.Sauté chilli, ginger and garlic for 1-2 minutes.

 Add fish sauce, tomato puree, sugar, stock, water and seasoning. Stir until the mixture boils.

Crack crab claws to allow the sauce to penetrate into the crab meat and cook in the sauce for about four minutes. 

Remove from pan once the shell colour changes to a bright orange. Keep warm

.Place half bodies and top shell in the pan and cook for five minutes, remove and keep warm.

Assemble the crab so it resembles its whole form.

 Serve with sweet chilli sauce. Garnish with coriander. 

Recipe from Junior Masterchef Australia

Images by me unless stated otherwise.

Paleo Stuffed Mushrooms - Goats Cheese & Char Grilled Peppers

Will its official, I have Tonsillitis. It sucks.  It really, really sucks.  I have been off for 3 days, and right now its getting worse.  I am on codeine to manage the pain and itchy throat.  I feel like shit.

So I have spent some time on Pinterest.  OK, I am obsessed with Pinterest.  

Pinterest is pretty awesome except for the the following trends:

People selling work out programs- Thanks for all the pictures of models making me feel like shit

Deserts and sweets everywhere- Lucky I don't care for sweet stuff cause that mixed with the above would create an unstable existence.

Wedding/bridal crap- I bet half of these chicks arn't even engaged and they are clogging up Pinterest with stuff that is irrelevant to them at this point in time.

Pinterest Stuff I love:

Paleo inspiration.  When you get stuck you can find new ideas (Spaghetti Squash- major obsession right now)

Fashion trends- You can see what is ahead of the next season

Interior design inspiration- I love EVERYTHING in this category

Actually it just helps you get inspired about things you didn't know exist or never would of though of.

So the point of my crapping on (well I have more or less been unable to talk fro 3 days straight so this was bound to happen) is I saw something similar to this on Pinterest last night and decided to grab the ingredients after my doctors appointment for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:

Portobello Mushrooms x 3

1 large char grilled pepper sliced finely

Crumbled goats cheese (use as much as you want, I didn't use enough)

Mixed herbs or oregano (a wee pinch per mushroom)

Method:

Take the stalks out of the mushrooms, Add the sliced roasted peppers and then the crumbled goats milk cheese the the herbs.

Heat the oven to 180 and roast for 15-20 minutes.

DONE

Images by me.

The GC.

IM BACK!!!!!!!!

I have been super lazy/busy and have not posted for maybe 3 weeks?!  Pretty poor effort.  I have been to the GC and back, we have been looking at appartments/ properties for next year and I havent cooked in 2 weeks!  2 WEEKS!  Its crazy.... I have no motivation!

When I was over on the GC I did some cooking for my grandmother.  It was sooooooo fun.  My beautiful sister Bree and I spent 6 hours in the kitchen cooking up a storm (and drinking our weight in wine) It was great!  Then we woke up with a hangover!

So the highlight of my trip aside from seeing my family and the shopping (6kg's over the limit :S) was Dan Murphy's.  That shop rules.  $2.99 for a bottle of wine! (I probably wouldnt drink it) but it reminded me how cheep things are in Australia. 

 I think we are going to move to the Gold Coast!

FUCK YEAH! Cheap Wine and a three legged goat..

So here is a recipe for you all.  A tip from Bree- Add milk and cream, it will make the quiche go further!

Salmon Quiche (crust-less)

Ingredients:

Treat this like a pizza.  Add whatever you think is needed.

12 eggs

250 grams of smoked salmon (we used hot smoked and cold smoked)

1/3 of a cup cream

1/3 of a cup of milk

1/2 a red onion

200gms-250gms of cream cheese (just use whatever is needed)

1/2 a bag of sliced baby spinach

Method:

Whisk the eggs.

scoop the cream cheese into wee balls and add to a bowl

Combine all the ingredients into a large bowl, add to them to the cake tins.  Use a spoon to ensure all the ingredients are spread through evenly.

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Add the tins to the oven and leave for about 30 mins (fan forced).  Keep an eye on this, it may take longer.  If it does, get a knife and poke it till it the knife comes out clear.

Images by me :)

Egg Cup's

 I love finding random photo's on my iphone!  Last night after my friends 21st birthday party we went to countdown to pick up some dinner.  After a few quite a few glasses of red wine we decided to make home made pizza. We also found some supermarket floor advertising that I felt the need to pose with.... whilst holding a bottle of wine I didn't need.

So this week I have decided to try the Paleo diet again.   I am not going to do it over the weekends though as that would possibly jeopardise my blogging. I use to make these egg cups all the time.  They are great for breakfast and lunch.  I have done them with 3 cheeses, chorizo and onion etc.  They are really fun and yum!  With the Paleo diet you need to be organised as you can fall into the carb trap really quickly.  As I come up with new recipes I will share them with you.

So here we go with the recipe.

Ingredients:

8 large eggs

200 grams of finely diced bacon

2 large handfuls of baby spinach sliced

50 grams of feta crumbled.

Method.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl and set aside.

  Add the baby spinach to cupcake holders.  The baby spinach is the  physical foundation for this recipe.  It stops the other ingredients sinking to the bottom of the egg mix. 

Fry the bacon till cooked.

 Add the bacon and the feta on top.  Quickly stir.  

Heat the oven to 180 degrees.  Bake for about 20 minutes.  I use a fan forced oven and it takes between 20-25 minutes.

Once they are cooked.  remove from the cupcake tray and let them stand till cool.

Images by me

San Choy Bow

I may have mentioned that I was on the Paleo diet for some time.  I think it was around 5-6 months.  That was no pasta, bread or rice.  That was when I rediscovered this dish. I love this dish.  I could eat it every day.  In Sydney as a kid we use to have this at the local Chinese restaurant every week.  Its a very novel dish, you eat it with your hands and it is served in lettuce cups! 

San Choy Bow..  Some times we have just San Choy, with out the Bow.  I dont quite know which word represents lettuce, but lettuce is out of season at the moment so sometimes the mince mixture is enough.... I use pork mince, you can use beef or chicken, however I wouldn't know how it would taste so I stick with pork. I have also added some optional ingredients.  This dish is good with or without them.

  I rate this one as one of my signature dishes.

Ingredients.

1 whole lettuce

1 tablespoon of oil

1 small tin of water chestnuts diced

1 onion diced

800grams of pork mince 

4 tablespoons of oyster sauce  

1-2 teaspoons of minced chilli

1 heaped teaspoon of minced garlic

1 handful of dried Shiitake Mushrooms (optional)

1-2 cm's of ginger grated (optional)

Method:

Separate the lettuce cups, wash them and pat them dry with a clean tea towel then set aside for serving.

 Put the shiitake mushrooms in a cup of boiling water to soften, once they are soft and ready for cooking remove them and dice them. Heat the oil and fry the onion on a medium heat till soft and transparent. Add the water chestnuts, the garlic, chilli and optional ginger and fry till fragrant. Add the Shiitaki mushrooms and stir.  

I love water chestnuts.  They are sooooo crunchy!

Two options here, either remove the mix  from the frypan and set aside or chuck the mince in.  I personally just chuck the mince in. 

 Fry the mince till its cooked through.  Add the oyster sauce and stir till it is through the mince mixture.

Add the mixture to the lettuce cups and serve.