Something fishy afoot

So as far as I can see, this paleo thing is here for good. Ive never felt better, never eaten better, and never been stronger.

Ive eaten some delicious things this past couple of weeks. Theres been steak (as usual). This morning I had a nosebleed and my instant after thought was 'I should eat some steak to reboost my iron'. Like anyone needa an excuse for eating steak. Last time I made it I had it with roast veg, and it was delicious. And once every fortnight (or so) isnt too bad for a steak fix.

Ive also been experimenting a little more baking with paleo style ingredients. Its not something I do all the time, as eating cake everyday, even if it does count as paleo, is not a good idea for anyone. However, I decided to make some chocolate banana brownies. I played fast and loose with the ingredients, I didnt measure anything really, I just threw in around 100g ground almonds, 2 mashed bananas, 1 good squeeze of honey, some vanilla paste, 2 eggs, some 90% cocoa chocolate melted with a little coconut oil, and a tablespoon of green and blacks cocoa.
They were really sweet, and though I only ate one, everyone else seemed to really enjoy them. They were very rich and people were impressed at how tasty they were, despite the lack of sugar.

We've had some beautiful weather lately, which has made it ideal salad eating time. Last week I ate lunch outside every day, which is my favourite place to eat lunch. Ive had pretty much the same thing everyday....salad with chicken and guacamole.

Even having to eat it inside today, it was wonderful.

On Friday I made fish in a puttanesca style sauce. I got hold of some plaice (I really wanted more coley, but the market was closed by the time I got home) and made a sauce using tomatos, garlic, anchovies, olives and capers. It was really yummy. I served it with some sliced fried potato.

On Saturday we went out for dinner to Tonic. Tonic is one of my favourite restaurants in Nottingham (http://www.tonic-online.co.uk/tonicflash.html). Though I'd decided to have Saturday designated as my non-paleo day if I wanted one, I havent really indulged much so far. This week I had a dairy dessert, otherwise Ive stayed pretty on track.
The food there is always amazing, its one of those menus where you want to eat everything. To start I had mackeral fillet and my partner had the scallops with black pudding. Both were great, and it was nice to have mackeral in a restaurant, as I havent seen it many places.
For main my partner had pork with butternut squash. The pork was cooked perfectly, and was so juicy. The different types of squash with it were also delightful.
I had lamb rump with garlic mash and spinach. It was heavenly, the lamb was so pink and the mash was smooth and creamy. It was amazing. For dessert I had tonka bean brulee with blueberry and lavender  compote. It was seriously good. Creme brulee is my favourite dessert, and it certainly hit the spot. Overall the meal was lovely, the staff were excellent as ever, and the food was presented beautifully. Apparently the've had a recent change in the chef and I have to say, they've maintained standards, it was fab.

Until next time....

ReHashing things

Since starting to eat paleo, egg and potato hash has quickly become my favourite weekend brunch. Ive been experimenting with different ways, as has my partner, who thoughtfully found a breakfast on nomnompaleo to make for me a couple of weeks ago. I usually grate up some sweet potato, fry it off, add whatever meat or fish and veg, maybe some chilli, some tomato and then crack in the eggs and scramble it all up or fry/poach and pop them on top. The two below were particularly good. The one my partner made was with smoked salmon, and the other was chorizo and spinach.

Not the neatest bowl of food, but really yummy.

Ive made a variety of different things lately, Theres been Tuna steak, homemade guacamole (avocado, chilli, garlic and lime juice, sometimes tomato) and roasted veg.

Tuna steak in thai red curry with roasted squash and other summer veg

Baked sweet potato with turkey salad or, my favourite, prawn and veg stew (garlic, chilli and onions fried, add any veg you want, I added courgettes, brocoli, mushrooms and peppers, then add tomatos, YUM!)

On Sunday I made a roast dinner. I roasted parsnip and carrots in honey and made sweet potato mash. Cooked green beans and wrapped them in proscuitto and then sealed the pork fillet, added apples and water to the pan, and threw it in the oven for 10 minutes. The pork was cooked beautifully, and the apples made a lovely sweet-ish sauce.

With healthy food this good, who needs anything else.

Plenty of Mussel

This Friday I cooked up another paleo style dinner for my partner. He's enjoying the food I make, and as I have still made him dessert there have been no complaints so far. We started Friday evening with some mussels. I used a John Torode recipe from BBC http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1854641/mussels-in-thai-broth , but I omitted the tomato and palm sugar, and added some creamed coconut to make a creamy sauce. They were amazing, really delicious and fresh.

For the main I made chicken in a sundried tomato sauce. I pan fried the chicken, then added it to a casserole dish with some sweet potato and baked it. I used the pan the chicken was cooked in to fry some sundried tomatos, then added chicken stock, thyme and the leftover sauce from the mussels. It made a really rich, creamy savoury sauce, and I served it up with some spinach on the side.

Dessert was a chocolate frangipane style pot. I cut up some cherries, and popped them in the bottom of ramekins, then mixed high quality cocoa, ground almonds, an egg and some vanilla paste into a thick batter and spooned it on top. I baked them in the oven for 15 mins at 180c. They were soooooo rich! A really rich dessert treat. The picture looks like a little pot of dirt, but trust me, it tasted lovely.

Saturday I attempted to make coconut flour pancakes, which just went awfully wrong, that flour is not designed for pancake making. For dinner we went to Jamie Olivers Italian. As it was my 'free day' I had a bit of non-paleo food. We shared arancini (fried risotto balls) and some fried squid to start. For my main I had a sea bream in tomato, capers and olives, which was amazing, and for dessert I had the richest, gooiest chocolate pot. Im still not eating very much grain on my cheat meals, as Ive been feeling so good it seems a shame to spoil it.

Sunday brunch I made a menemen style eggs and chorizo hash. I fried cubes of sweet potato and chorizo and onions, then added some tomatos, cracked some eggs on top and threw it in the oven. It was wonderful. Full of spicy depth and was filling too. Ill definitely be making that again.

So, another weekend done, and more yummy food eaten. I'll post more paleo recipes as I try them :)