Carnit-ish

Carnitas with sweet potato chips, avocado, and cabbage slaw

This is a hybrid of a few carnitas recipes that I modified to fit:
(1) what I had in the house, and
(2) the time I had to cook it in.

The surprisingly tasty results were waiting (nearly finished) in the crockpot when we got home from a long day out. Either I was really hungry, or this was the best thing out of my slow-cooker to date.  Eat this right away, then cook down the drippings to make awesome gravy.

Slow-cooked pork:

In a small bowl, blend:

• 1 heaping tablespoon sage*
• 1 heaping tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon good salt

use this to coat:

• 4+ pounds bone-in country-style pork loin ribs

Brown on all sides in a pan over medium-high heat. Place snugly in a large slow-cooker. Deglaze pan with a little white wine or water, scraping up the browned bits, add to slow cooker. Sprinkle over top:

• 1 large onion, cut into eight pieces
• 8 cloves garlic

Set slow cooker to low for 6-7 hours. Go outside and play. Come home 6 or so hours later, the meat should be falling apart by now.  Preheat oven to 450F. Use tongs to remove solids to a large oven-safe skillet, break up and scatter over the surface of the pan. In the slow cooker add to the remaining liquid:

• 1 cup whole milk**
• 1/2 cup orange juice**

Stir. Pour liquid over meat. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes, turning once, until the liquid is reduced somewhat and tips of meat are browned.  Eat up!

*Carnitas traditionally call for oregano, but I was out.

**Yeah, yeah, not orthodox paleo, but really, you could do worse. And 4+ pounds of pork cancels this out completely

Gravy

After dinner, discard bones, pack up any remaining meat an onions, and place skillet with juices over low heat, add:

• one egg yolk*

Whisk to incorporate well. Simmer, whisking often, and reduce juices by half.   Add another good splash of whole milk and simmer five to ten minutes more.

*An egg yolk seems to work well as an alternative to flour or cornstarch for thickening gravies.

Enjoyed after a great day at the Center for Land Use Interpretation on the Wendover Air Force Base. Don't miss this place if you ever find yourself on the border between Utah and Nevada.

Get Some: PEPITAS

Living in the south, I tend to get my nuts & seeds fix from pecans.  This is perfect when you're eating sweet potatoes under a magnolia tree.  In season - from the farmers' market - pecans are to die for, but my pallet and my wallet have grown tired of them as summer approaches.  This week, I've re-discovered pepitas (pumpkin seeds popular in mexican cooking). They run about $6/lb at our higher-end super market and come raw or roasted & salted. They're pretty, greenish and a little bigger than sunflower seeds.  They're versatile and tasty too.

Before (bottom) & After Toasting

Toast them:

• Spread a thick layer on a baking sheet, spray lightly with coconut oil cooking spray and toss.
• Toast in the oven at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes, until golden.

Use them for:

• Salads
• Curry*(along with chopped pineapple and toasted coconut)
• Chicken or turkey mole* 
• Trail mix
• Paleo Oatmeal*
• Granol-ish:  Sprinkle toasted pepitas and coconut over blueberries and drizzle with coconut milk

* Modified versions of these recipes are in the works. They need some substitutions to be solidly paleo.

Try this toasty sprinkle:

Mix toasted pepitas, sunflower seeds, and unsweetened coconut with a little cinnamon and ground clove. Add a little cayanne pepper for a sweet & spicy kick if it suits you.

Spicy green tomatoes

The local produce scene in Jackson, MS right now reminds me a little of the winters in Indiana, except that it is too hot, not too cold, for many summer veggies to bear fruit. My fall favorites, like onions and green tomatoes feel really seasonal right now.  As much as I love fried green tomatoes, there are lots of other ways to eat them.  Here's one that makes a great, spicy, tangy, breakfast veggie. I mixed mine with some browned, seasoned ground turkey and topped it with a couple of over-light eggs.

In a large skillet, saute in coconut oil:

1/4 - 1/2 large red onion, quartered and sliced
until it begins to soften.  Add:
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 hot banana pepper, sliced, without seeds (I used a red one for color, use more or less to taste) saute until onions and garlic are lightly browned. Push this stuff to the edge of your pan and add:
1 very large or 2 smaller green tomatoes, quartered and sliced
Arrange in a single layer, brown and then flip to brown the other side.  Drizzle with:
3 Tablespoons cider or rice vinegar, not balsamic (I used sugar-free rice vinegar).
mix everything together and cook for another few minutes until the vinegar evaporates and everything is softened.  Season with salt to taste.

Egg-cake experiment

I'm not confused. These are NOT pancakes but I think they could be tasty pancake-like breakfast food with a little tweaking, and they don't use, say, 10 pounds of nuts, a bunch of bananas, or anything else that I wouldn't eat in the course of a normal meal.  They hold up really well and could be spread with whatever pancake topping you like.

Heres the basic idea...they're fluffy because I whip the egg whites separately from the yolks and fold them in later like a souffle.  This version is totally neutral, and I imagine you could season or augment them to be sweet or savory. . . say, grated sweet potato and cinnamon - zucchini - coconut flakes - coco powder - spinach. . .

Separate:
3 Eggs, putting the yolks and whites in separate bowls
Beat egg whites until thick and fluffy, they should form soft peaks when the beaters are pulled out.

Combine:
3 yolks from above
1/3 C Water
3 Tablespoons coconut flower
Beat until thoroughly combined and as thick as possible.

Gently fold the yolks into the whites, combining without totally deflating your egg whites.  Spoon onto a greased medium skillet to form small pancakes, cook a few minutes each side until golden and just cooked through.

10 Minute Turkey Tomato Spinach Meal

A better version of this would start with some sauteed onion and garlic, finish with better seasoning and so on and so forth.  This, however is perfect just the way it is when I'm hungry and tired and want to eat, like, right now:

In a skillet on high, heat:
Olive oil
and brown
1 lb Ground Turkey with
1 Tablespoon Sage
1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
until cooked through, and remove from pan.

Without cleaning pan, add
1 14 oz can Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
1 big spoonful (about 1/3 cup) tomato paste
cook, stirring occasionally until thickened just slightly

Meanwhile, fill your dinner bowl with
Fresh Spinach
Pile it as high as you can, since it will cook way down and microwave: 30 seconds for baby spinach, 45 seconds for regular spinach

Once tomato sauce is cooked, stir turkey back in and heat through.  Remove from head and add
1/3 can coconut milk

Pour a portion of the meat sauce over your spinach and chow down.  Try the leftovers over roasted spaghetti squash.

How I make lunch

This is not really a recipe, but I find myself telling a lot of folks about my lunch-building process lately, so I thought it might be useful.  This is how I make my work lunches. They're no masterpiece, and I know some people are not entirely cool with eating 5-day-old chicken, but it works for me.

Every Sunday I get home from grocery shopping, and prepare...


(1) Enough chicken breast of a week of lunch, seasoned with whatever I'm in the mood for. (Italian, greek, tex-mex...)

(2) Week's worth of salad.  I avoid delicate greens and veggies that get mushy, so usually use: parsley, napa cabbage, spinach, parsley, watercress, bell peppers, carrots, celery, seedless cucumber and avoid: tomatoes, regular cukes, run-of the mill lettuce, baby spinach.

(3) A bottle of home made salad dressing, again, the recipe varies at whim.

Then, in 5 1-gallon zip-lock bags, I layer up...

(1) The chicken, cooled and chopped up.  This goes at the bottom so it doesn't mess up your veggies.

(2) The salad stuff.

(3) A handful of nuts - almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, whatever.  Sure, these are a *little* soggy by friday, but I'm lazy enough not to care.  Sometimes I'll do half an avocado sliced in Monday and Tuesday's lunch instead of nuts, but they won't make it till Friday.

I leave my salad dressing and a big bowl at work, and grab a bag every morning on the way out the door.  At lunch time, I dress my salad in the bag, shake it up, dump it in my bowl, and make my co-workers jealous.

Snacks!

No, not rose petals:  beet chips and nori chips

While I try not to give myself too many attractive options for mindless eating, I'm working on a few reasonable "emergency" munchies that keep me out of my roommate's leftover pizza.

There are some good ideas here, but my quest continues to find a few good options that will work on the fly. For now I am figuring out how many different vegetables I can turn into "chips" in the oven. The beets and sweet potatoes would also be good PWO with a protein. Here's what I know so far...

For all veggies:
Set the oven to 250, and turn on the convection or "speed bake" if you have it.  Slice veggies to a very thin 1/8 inch as evenly as possible.  I get better results if I slice most veggies in half lengthwise first so they don't roll around while I'm trying to precision-cut. Grease your baking sheets with coconut oil, and spread one layer think.  Keep and eye on them while cooking, turning once they start curling up, and moving them to towels or plates to cool once they curl up and just start to brown.

Beets:
Peel, sprinkle with a little red wine vinegar.  Up to 2 hours in the oven depending on thickness.  Red beets seem to fare better than golden beets.

Sweet Potatoes:
Leave skins on. Try seasoning with cinnamon and chipotle powder.  Up to 2 hours depending on thickness.

Kale:

(Don't slice!) Tear out thick center stem, toss with good oil to just barely coat (I used almond oil), scatter on a try and sprinkle with a little good salt (I like smoked salt or truffle salt). About 15 minutes or when they turn dark green.  These are really brittle, and while tasty, do not travel well.

Radishes:
People make them, but I tried was not impressed.  Don't bother.

Nori:
You have to like seaweed to enjoy these.  See instructions here.

I tend to micro-manage this process, picking chips off one at a time as they get done, but they should finish up evenly if you slice them very evenly to begin with.  They crisp up a little once they're cool, so its ok if they're a little bendy so long as they've curled up and toasted a little.