learning: back to basics
17 May 2012 1 Comment
in general posts Tags: farming, food, healthy cooking, organic, reading, resolutions
about a month ago, i came across this book; the back to basics handbook.
it was at costco (ironic?) and when we flipped through it, we were instantly interested.
my husband has a dream of owning a farm.
to be honest, i find this dream slightly hilarious, because as much as i love him, he’s never farmed a day in his life and doesn’t really have a green thumb or a lot of patience.
but, his life aspirations definitely culminate with a plot of land away from society.
for me, its not so cut and dry.
part of me loves that idea and part of me knows i would hate my life if i wasn’t close to the city.
so, i picture more of a centrally located moderately sized house with land to grow stuff on. and a lot of making my own food and endeavoring to cut out the grocery store.
so this book, i guess i you would call it life porn.
they cover EVERYTHING. from finding a plot of land (checking for natural sources of water, the proper slopes for crops ect) to building your own house from wood found on the land… and then raising various types of livestock, growing crops, cold storage of crops, preserving ect.
this book is absolutely fascinating to me.
it literally chronicles the “need to knows” for a dying lifestyle.
this is true sustainability.
naturally the front half of the book, about land and farming and raising animals isn’t really applicable to me at this stage in my life… but the second half of the book is all things that i could use today.
they call it “household skills and crafts”… its a mixture of some skills i know like canning and preserving, but also cheese & sausage making, preserving all kinds of food for long term storage without chemicals, making fermented foods…
and then basket weaving, candle making, tanning leather, natural dyes, soapmaking and more.
and what i love is that it really guides you from the start. like, for natural dyes, there’s a chart of plants, pictures of the plants and a guide on where to find them growing so you can forage for them.
at no point in reading this, do you scratch your head and think “where the heck do i find X?” because this book has already shown you how to grow it or make it from something else.
i have a huge soft spot for this kind of thing. clearly.
when i was a young girl, i was absolutely obsessed with laura ingalls wilder books. i had them all memorized by age 7 and read and reread them voraciously trying to fathom this lifestyle that she described so vividly.
my mom was a little helpful on the matter because she was born and raised in saskatchewan with no running water. so a lot of things could be explained by her. but i’ve never forgotten the descriptions of the mill used to grind wheat to flour or churning butter and the soaking of the salt beef. the things you just don’t see today.
this book made me nostalgic for my childhood visions of frontier life.
and while i’m still very firmly a city girl in many respects, i have an unabated interest in this simple country life where everyone worked their balls off just to keep alive.
maybe its just because i’m super stressed at work lately, and maybe its what happens as you get older… but i find myself dreaming of working hard. not for a paycheque at an office… but for my household. raising and growing my food, making my cheeses and soaps and whatever i could. running away from society and being self sufficient.
these days, that seems like bliss.
the supermarket seems like a scary place to me. full of poison masquerading as food.
stocked to the brim with faux-foods designed to deceive your body and re-write your natural rhythms.
sometimes i wander the aisles at the “heath food” store next to my office on my breaks. its row after row of pre-packaged foods and supplements and substitutes… there’s little to nothing that my brain naturally recognizes as actually being healthy. but yet, its what we accept as health food as a society.
to me, the farm market that sells only produce next door is the real health food store.
these are good reminders to myself. if a lifestyle of ultimate sustainability is my goal, then it has to be carried out in daily life. and i have much work to do.
it means that bag of cheesies or chocolate bar that i was craving needs to be forsaken. and that hangover meal of macaroni & cheese out of the box needs an overhaul.
its a slow process… tough to break a lifetime of addiction… but i’m working on it.
food: jerk chicken
05 May 2012 Leave a Comment
in food & cooking, paleo, wheat free Tags: chicken, comfort food, gluten free, healthy cooking, paleo, recipes, whats for dinner, wheat free
believe me when i say i’ve eaten some jerk chicken in my time.
i’m a spicy food fiend and i’ve been to jamaica twice.
trust.
this here that i’m about to share is THE BEST jerk chicken i’ve ever had.
it comes from a jamie oliver recipe that my husband saw him cook on tv and he decided to make it for us on monday.
and WOW.
here’s the thing. i could wax poetic over the deliciousness of this meal, but you’ll either try it for yourself, or you won’t.
and i really suggest you do.
here’s the whole recipe.
we didn’t make the rice & beans or corn, instead we did kale and roasted potatoes & sweet potatoes.
‘Jamie Oliver’s Meals In Minutes’
killer jerk chicken, rice & beans, refreshing chopped salad, chargrilled corn
main courses | serves 4
CHICKEN
• 4 x 180g chicken breasts, skin on
• 1 tablespoon runny honey
• a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
• a few sprigs of fresh coriander
CORN
• 4 large corn on the cob, husks removed
RICE & BEANS
• 2 spring onions
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 250g long-grain rice
• 600ml organic chicken stock
• 1 x 400g carton of black beans
JERK SAUCE
• 4 spring onions
• a small bunch of fresh thyme
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• ground cloves
• ground nutmeg
• ground allspice
• 6 tablespoons golden rum
• 6 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon runny honey
• 1 Scotch bonnet chilli
• 4 cloves of garlic
SEASONINGS
• olive oil
• extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt & black pepper
SALAD
• 1 red pepper
• 1 red chicory
• 1 cos or romaine lettuce
• 2 limes
• 1/4 of a red onion
• a small bunch of fresh coriander
• 1 punnet of cress
YOGHURT
• 1 x 250g pot of natural yoghurt
• a few sprigs of fresh coriander
• 1 lime
TO SERVE
• cold beer
TO START Get all your ingredients and equipment ready. Fill and boil the kettle. Put a large griddle pan and a large saucepan on a high heat. Turn the oven on to 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
CHICKEN Put the chicken breasts on a plastic board and halve each one, leaving them joined at the top of the breast. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper, then rub all over both sides of the chicken. Put into the hot griddle pan, skin side down, and leave to cook. Clear away the board and wash the knife and your hands.
CORN Put the corn into the saucepan with a good pinch of salt and cover with boiling water. Put the lid on.
JERK SAUCE Trim and roughly chop the onions and put into the liquidizer with the leaves from most of the bunch of thyme, 3 bay leaves (stalks removed), a large pinch each of ground cloves, nutmeg and allspice, 6 tablespoons each of rum and vinegar, 1 tablespoon of honey and 2 teaspoons of salt. Remove the stalks and seeds from the Scotch bonnet chilli and add the chilli to the liquidizer, then quickly crush in 4 unpeeled cloves of garlic and blitz with the lid on until you have a really smooth paste. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to loosen, if needed.
CHICKEN The undersides should be golden now, so turn the chicken over. Pour the jerk sauce into a snug-fitting baking dish and use tongs to lay the chicken on top, skin side up. Drizzle over 1 tablespoon of runny honey and scatter over a few sprigs of rosemary and the remaining thyme sprigs. Put on the top shelf of the oven and cook for 15minutes, or until cooked through. Carefully pour away the oil from the griddle pan and wipe clean with kitchen paper, then put back on a high heat.
RICE & BEANS Put a large wide saucepan with a lid on a medium heat. Trim and finely slice the spring onions and put in the saucepan with the cinnamon stick, a good lug of olive oil and a big pinch of salt & pepper. Stir and let soften for a minute or so, then add the rice and chicken stock. Drain and rinse the beans, then add to the pan. Stir gently. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a medium heat. Pop the lid on and leave for 12 minutes.
YOGHURT Tip the yoghurt into a small serving bowl. Finely chop a few sprigs of coriander and add to the bowl with a pinch of salt and a good lug of extra virgin olive oil. Finely grate over the zest of 1/2 the lime and squeeze in the juice. Stir in, then take to the table with the other lime half for squeezing over.
CORN Use tongs to move the corn to the hot griddle pan and drizzle over a little olive oil. Cook and turn frequently until charred. Once ready, put on a platter and take to the table.
SALAD Get a very large board that you’re happy to serve on. Deseed and roughly chop the red pepper. Put the red chicory and cos lettuce on top and keep chopping until everything is fairly fine. Make a well in the centre. Pour in a few lugs of extra virgin olive oil and squeeze in the juice of 2 limes. Finely grate over the red onion quarter, season to taste, then toss everything together. Tear over the coriander, snip over the cress and take to the table.
RICE & BEANS Take the lid off the rice after 12 minutes and give it a stir. All the liquid should have been absorbed. Taste and correct the seasoning if need be, then take to the table.
TO SERVE Take the chicken out of the oven, sprinkle over some coriander leaves and take straight to the table. When serving, spoon over the jerk sauce from the bottom of the baking dish. Crack open a few cold bottles of beer and enjoy.
food: sweet potato tuna melt
26 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in food & cooking, wheat free Tags: gluten free, healthy cooking, wheat free
a couple months ago my best friend mentioned to me that she’d seen a recipe for a tuna melt made in a sweet potato jacket and she mentally filed it away because she thought i’d like it.
i, in turn, mentally filed it away with the intent to one day try it as a lite lunch or snack because as soon as she described it to me, it sounded pretty yummy in my head.
but truth be told, i’ve never been a huge canned tuna eater. i have environmentalist guilt about the whole dolphin thing… and well, it was just never something we ate as kids, so as an adult it’s not something i ever think of to eat.
then, a few weeks ago, i was shopping at whole foods and came across this tuna from raincoast trading.
yes it was $7 for a can of tuna… but it seemed very environmentally responsible so my guilty conscience paid up.
(how does whole foods always do that to me?)
so, i mixed it up with a little mayo and some chopped pepperoncini peppers, gave it a dash of salt & pepper and loaded it into a cooked sweet potato (5 minutes in the microwave).
i added some fresh mozzarella on top and broiled it in the toaster oven for a few minutes and voila, a delicious and healthy lunch that pretty paleo… except that pesky cheese. but i’m doing my best here.
food: salmon cakes
11 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in food & cooking, paleo, wheat free Tags: healthy cooking, paleo, salmon, whats for dinner
i came home from work the other day and realized that i had no meat in my house.
when you eat paleo, not having meat is a meal-killer.
and then i remembered… i *do* have meat. i have canned salmon.
and i also have a recipe that uses said canned salmon.
thanks once more to my primal blueprint cookbook, i made their delightful fish cake recipe for my meal.
it was dead simple and really really tasty.
this recipe made 8 cakes – served 2 of us.
Paleo Salmon Cakes
- 2 cans of good quality canned salmon – no bones/skin
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup chopped green onions or scallions
- 1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 tsp prepared mustard
- salt & pepper
- oil/butter for pan frying
- drain salmon and combine in a small mixing bowl with eggs, lemon juice, herbs, seasoning and coconut flour
- form into patties
- pan fry in batches until golden brown. i kept mine hot in the toaster oven while cooking the others
i served it with lemon caper mayo, which you’re supposed to make your own mayo for, but that’s just not happening on a work night.
so i used mayo from the fridge and added lemon juice, lemon zest and chopped capers… and dried jalapenos.
it worked wonderfully.
i served it with other things that were hanging around my fridge… peppers and broccoli.
and ta-da… dinner!
food: paleo risotto
10 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in food & cooking, paleo Tags: healthy cooking, paleo, recipes, whats for dinner
here’s a fun game (for me)… i’ve been trying to figure out which rice recipes work well when cauliflower rice is used instead.
so far the answer is… all of them.
while i loved my paleo fried rice, i wasn’t really in the mood for asian flavors for dinner the other day… i was thinking more italian.
so i made what i can only call… paleo risotto.
this recipe made enough for me for dinner and a lunch portion.
Paleo Risotto
- 3 cups of grated cauliflower
- 1/4 fennel bulb, finely chopped
- 1 cup of diced tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- splash of chicken stock and/or white wine
- 1/4 cup chopped herbs (i used basic & parsley)
- butter/oil for cooking
- salt & pepper to taste
- optional: grated parmesan or romano cheese
- saute fennel & garlic in butter/oil until soft
- add tomatoes and cook until broken down
- add cauliflower and splash of wine or stock if dry (i’ve say up to 1/4 cup)
- cook until tender – about 5-10 minutes
- add herbs & seasoning
- serve with grated cheese if desired
truth be told, this was a total cleaning out the fridge meal… because all i had were vegetables.
but it turned out to be a real delight and was great as a lunch the next day.
and yes, i did cheat and put a little cheese on it. but i don’t feel bad because it was delicious. so there.
food: salmon in parchment
01 Dec 2011 1 Comment
in food & cooking Tags: healthy cooking, recipes, salmon, whats for dinner, wheat free
it seems to me like this whole paleo/giving up wheat thing is pretty popular among some of my friends right now… and as i mentioned in an earlier post, i’m intrigued. my friend jen posted about it the other day – http://jenasherself.wordpress.com and i’ve been trying to do some more reading about it when i have time (when that is, i’m not exactly sure)
in any event, i’ve been making an active effort to avoid wheat in my meals. this is HARD. especially when you’re not planning ahead. like most things, i guess… planning is the key.
yesterday i found myself at work with no food… okay, so breakfast is easy, i have oatmeal, but lunch? the only thing really accessible is sandwiches or frozen meals. eek. i ended up going with a salad from safeway and a box of rice crackers, which was fine, but obviously i need to get some better ideas than just salad or i’ll go crazy.
at home, where i have options and can make things from scratch, it gets easier. and my husband is on board (kinda) so when he makes meals, he’s trying his best too. he doesn’t really have the same struggles with wheat that i do, so he doesn’t fully wrap his brain around the importance of it… he’s more just trying to be a good husband and be supportive (awww, right? what a guy)
on tuesday i came home to this fabulous meal waiting for me:
that makes me hungry just looking at this photo.
the salmon was cooked with slices of orange, a sprig of fresh rosemary & a little hot sauce from our collection and wrapped up in parchment to steam. takes about 12 minutes in the oven – no dish washing required, dead easy.
the vegetable mixture is butternut squash, asparagus & tomatoes. it’s been pan roasted with a little butter, white wine to deglaze the pan and fresh sage. he also roasted & seasoned the squash seeds and tossed them in at the end.
and let me tell you, i in no way felt like i was “missing” anything when i ate it. it was fresh, healthy & simple clean food. which makes natalie a happy girl.
i had forgotten all about the fun of cooking in parchment.
obviously, it’s ideal for seafood, but vegetables, chicken… anything like that works well in parchment too. and i love these zero to low cleanup dishes, especially on a weekday.
not to mention that you can cook whatever without added butter or oil if you desire… although, i must say that if you put butter mixed with herbs & anchovy in with say, a piece of sole, it comes out to be pretty magical.
