Simple Chili

I put this together from about 5 different chili recipes. 

1 lb ground bison

1 lb ground beef

1 Tbsp coconut oil, bacon fat, or evoo

3-4 cloves minced garlic

1 c. diced onion

1 c. diced green pepper

1 can (14+ oz) diced tomato

1 sm. can tomato paste

1 c. water

1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder

1 Tbsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp salt  

1. In a very large sauce pan, heat oil/fat on med-high and saute minced garlic, diced onion and diced green pepper 5 mins.

2. Add ground bison and ground beef and cook thoroughly.

3. Add water, diced tomato and tomato paste, stir in.

4. Add spices, lower heat to warm-low, simmer between 2 and 4 hours.

Roasted Rosemary Veggies

This is pretty much how I cook all my green veggies: asparagus, green  baby zucchini & yellow summer squash, brussel sprouts, etc.

1 Bundle of asparagus, 1 bag of brussel sprouts, or a few baby zucc/squash

1 Tbsp evoo, less is more with this one

Rosemary salt, to taste 

Pine nuts 

1. Rinse veggies, shell as needed (brussel sprouts), chop to bite size pieces, and spread out in large pyrex pan (I plan to fill a 9×13 since I like to save half for leftovers, this sometimes takes 2 bundles of brussel sprouts).

2. Drizzle evoo over chopped veggies, toss to coat.  Less is best here.  If you over do it on the evoo, it just becomes oil-logged and the veggies don’t get crisp while roasting.

3. Sprinkle Rosemary Salt over veggies (I also have Lavender Salt and they are both yummy)

4. Sprinkle pine nuts over veggies

5. Cook at 350 for 15-18 minutes.  Try to get them just wrinkly…a tad beyond crisp and not yet shriveled.  Serve.

Notes:  I first found this Rosemary Salt from Eatwell Farm at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on the Embarcadero in SF.  I quickly ran out and bought a replacement on line, which is where I discovered their Lavendar Salt.  Needless to say, everyone in the family got Rosemary Salt and Lavender Salt for Christmas that year.  🙂

Curry Cauliflower “Rice”

This one started with a recipe from Steve P’s blog.  I tried the Tandoori Chicken, and frankly ended up with a painful 3 lbs of food that I had to force down over the course of a week.  So, although the chicken wasn’t for me, I did love the curry cauliflower “rice” side dish.  I changed some ingredients and added some spices, and now this is my favorite side of the moment.  All the chop chop chopping is kinda therapeutic. 

• 1/2 head of cauliflower chopped and put into a food processor (if you have a skillet big enough for a whole head of chopped cauliflower, then go for it)
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil, less is more on this one 
• Kosher or sea salt, to taste 
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste 
• Curry powder, to taste (I use a “heavy” shake to coat the chopped cauliflower spread out in the skillet)
• Onion powder, to taste (I am sure onion flakes or actual onions are good too, but I am pretty lazy) (“medium” shake)
• Turmeric, to taste (I love the gold color this brings, so I use a “medium” shake)
• Rosemary, to taste (I use the dried spice, so a “light” shake works)
• Cayenne Pepper, to taste (“light” shake for me, but for you, maybe more)

1. Chop 1/2 head of cauliflower as finely as possible, or chop it into chunks and put them in a food processor.  Blend until the pieces are the size of rice.  This is the “rice”.  I start with 1/2 head because frankly you will be surprised at just how much volume this will generate.  Be forewarned, finely chopping a cauliflower is a random science and not exactly “quick sport”.  I also discard most of the core (unless I snack on it) since it tends to gets stringy.  Also, this gets a tad messy as the little pieces start to fly around the kitchen in mid-chop.

2. Melt coconut oil in largest skillet you can find over med heat.

3. Once coconut oil is melted, add the chopped cauliflower and toss to coat.  Spread out.

4. Add spices in the amounts that you like, toss to coat, and saute for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the “rice” gets heated through and the spices are generally distributed and soaked up.  Serve.  DEELISH.

Notes:  This recipe is easy to experiment with, as none of the spices is overwhelming on its own.  And honestly, you kinda have to experiment with it each time because you never really know how much chopped cauliflower you are going to get.  You can substitute evoo for the coconut oil, or just use whatever you have.

Pork Shoulder and Sausage Ragu

This one comes from The Washington Post via Alison…and so does the farm-raised pork shoulder and pork sausage. 

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
• 3 pounds boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), in 1 or 2 large pieces
• Kosher or sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 3 large yellow onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice (about 5 cups)
• 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup dry red wine, such as a cabernet sauvignon
• 7 cups canned diced tomatoes, with their juices
• 4 fresh bay leaves
• 1 large or 2 small sprigs rosemary
• 1 pound mild (fresh) Italian pork sausage, casings removed

1. Heat evoo in deep pot over med-high heat.

2. Salt & pepper pork shoulder on all sides, using tongs to hold it, brown each side about 3 minutes.  Remove to large plate.

3. Reduce heat to med, add onions and 1 Tbsp evoo, if needed.  Add garlic, cook 10 minutes or so until onions are translucent.

4. Return pork shoulder to pot, increase to med-high heat, add wine/stock, and let bubble 1+ minute.

5. Add tomatoes, bay leaves, rosemary.  Reduce to med-low heat.

6. Add pork sausage in small pinches, cover and cook 2 – 2.5 hours.  Adjust heat to cook gently (I had to reduce my electric stove to low heat).  Pork shoulder should be fork tender.

7. Remove pork shoulder to large plate and shred with forks, return to pot, and cook until shredded meat is heated through.  Add salt if needed.  Discard bay leaves and rosemary and serve.

Notes:  If you are going strict Paleo, you can substitute chicken stock for the wine.  I had some Shiraz open, so I used 1/2 c. Shiraz and 1/2 c. chicken stock, since I still wanted some vino aroma.  Of course Shiraz is nothing like Cab, but it was still deelish.  I had the most random collection of tomato products on hand that I just threw in to get to the RX’d amount – diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, chopped tomatoes with basil, etc.  I didn’t have fresh bay leaves, so I used 2 dry bay leaves.  I also didn’t have fresh rosemary, so I used about a tsp of dry rosemary and substituted the rosemary sea salt I have in the cabinet for the kosher salt.  I plated this over spaghetti squash, and by the end of the batch (I had a week of leftovers!) I was just eating it out of a bowl like a hardy goulash.  Oh so good.

Cabbage and Sausage Soup

This one comes from my brother, amazingly enough.

• 1 lb sausage
• 1 small head of green cabbage
• 1 large Vidalia or other sweet onion
• 2 – 3 gloves garlic
• 4 – 5 soup can-sized cans of chicken stock

1. In a large pot, boil 1/2 inch of water (I used 1 can chicken stock), add sausage.  Cook sausage through, then remove and slice and return to pot.  (I used farm-raised Kielbasa, and removed the casing before crumbling it into the boiling chicken stock – which saved me the step of removing -slicing-returning.)

2. Add 2 – 3 chopped Vidalia onions.  (I used just one big one and it was enough for me.)  Cook/sweat the onions with the sausage until the onions go limp.

3. Add 4 soup cans of chicken stock and 2 – 3 cloves minced garlic. 

4. Bring soup to a simmer and add a chopped small head of cabbage. (Depending on how big the cabbage is, you might need to add extra chicken stock to cover it – I added an extra can.)  Cook on simmer until cabbage begins to go limp.  Serve.

This is so easy, and you really can’t mess it up.  It’s a nice soup on a winter night.  You can literally use any type of sausage that you like and it will still taste good.  My brother likes bratwurst and rotwurst.  Next time I am going to try rosemary sausage.

Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp

This yummy dish comes from Cooking Lite via my friend Lynn.

• 1 tsp canola oil
• 1/2 c. chopped onion
• 1/4 tsp red curry paste
• 1 tsp sugar
• 12 oz. large shrimp
• 1/3 c. light coconut milk
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1/4 c. chopped green onion
• 1 Tbsp chopped basil

Heat oil in large pan on med-high heat.  Add onion, curry past, and saute approx. 1 min.  Add sugar, and saute approx. 15 sec.  Add shrimp, and saute approx. 3 min until cooked through.  Add coconut milk and fish sauce, cook approx. 30 sec until heated through.  Remove from heat, add green onion, basil, and serve.  Makes approx. 2 servings (you are going to wish that you doubled this).

notes:  I made these substitutions simply based on what I did/didn’t have on hand.  I had a small bundle (~7) of green onions, so I chopped them all up and used the bottoms for the 1/2 c. onion in the dish and the tops for the 1/4 c. garnish.   Other substitutions include using 16 oz. medium thawed cooked shrimp, sesame oil, no sugar, full-fat coconut milk, and dried basil.  It still tasted great.  I would just offer that it is best if you can get as much water out of the shrimp as possible before starting.

Paleo Crab Cakes

This recipe comes from Mark’s Daily Apple.  I made one or two tweaks along the way.  The cakes are dense, so don’t be concerned if they look thinner than standard non-Paleo crab cakes.

• 1 lb. lump/back fin crab meat
• 2 egg yolks (I used the whole eggs, which seemed fine)
• 1 Tbsp chopped onion/shallot
• 2 Tbsp chopped celery
• 2 Tbsp chopped dill (I used dried dill)
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp hot sauce (I used spicy mustard)
• 1/4 tsp paprika (I used Old Bay)
• 1/3 c. olive oil

1. dry crab meat by placing in a dish towel and wringing out water

2. whisk egg yolks.  add shallot, celery, dill, lemon zest, hot sauce (or spicy mustard), paprika (or Old Bay).  add crab and mix together.

3. on a non-stick cookie sheet, using a cookie cutter approx. 2″ in diameter, put 2 heaping Tbsp of mix inside cookie cutter, press down, and lift cookie cutter off.  refrigerate crab cakes on cookie sheet for approx. 1 hour.

4. set oven to 375.  in a frying pan on the stove, heat olive oil and fry crab cakes approx. 3 minutes each side.  place back on cookie sheet (not too close to each other) and bake in oven for approx. 6 minutes.  serve warm.

Warm Bacon Egg and Spinach Salad

I got this one on page 206 of Tyler Florence’s fab cookbook Tyler’s Ultimate.  It’s recipes like this that make me Paleo-happy.

• 2 large eggs
• 2 slices bacon, cut on the bias into thin strips
• 1 sm. onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, whacked
• 2 Tbsp honey (I use just 4 drops of honey, one in each corner of the skillet)
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 bag baby spinach (the original recipe calls for 16 oz., but I use about 3 cups packed ~12 oz.)

Put 2 eggs in a sm. saucepan, cover with water, bring to simmer over med-high heat.  Turn off heat and let eggs sit 10 mins.  Rinse eggs in cold water to cool down the shells so you can handle them, then peel and set aside in medium shallow bowl (this is your plate). 

Meanwhile, cook bacon strips in big skillet for 5 or so minutes to render fat.  Scoop out crispy bacon and put in the bowl with the eggs.  Leave bacon fat in the skillet and add onion and garlic.  Cook for 5-6 minutes until soft.  Add honey and vinegar (beware, the skillet will flare up with popping grease) and continue cooking until the onion caramelizes (about 3-5 minutes).  Carefully place spinach into skillet, slowly toss with tongs until all leaves are coated, sprinkle with salt (barely needed, if at all) and pepper, and continue over heat until spinach is just wilted (less than 1 minute).

Take eggs out of bowl,  Dump spinach out into bowl (try to keep the garlic out) and mix with the bacon.  Halve the eggs (which should be almost soft-boiled) and place atop the spinch mound.  Dig in.  DEE-lish.

Notes: I have also made this with kale, which I am always sure to cut into bite-sized pieces before I cook it.  The kale takes longer to cook down than spinach, and needs more bacon grease – so have some extra on hand.  Just as yummy as the spinach!

Tarragon Shrimp Salad

I got this one from my friend Wendi who has a great recipe catalog.  It’s super easy and packs well for snacks at work.

• 1 lb. shrimp (I use the small ones so I don’t have to cut them up)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 c. mayo
• 1 sm. shallot or onion diced
• 1 stalk celery diced
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried tarragon
• salt/pepper to taste

Mix ingredients.  Eat.  See?  I told you it was easy.  🙂