|
|||||
 Cottage cheese & one fresh, in-season local peach with pepper
 Did you know that it’s incredibly easy to make your favorite {insert nut here} butter? Here’s all you need to do: 02) Throw a bunch in a food processor; probably two or more cups. 03) Hit the start button, & PLUG YOUR EARS. The first few seconds are VERY, VERY LOUD. I did not know this when I tried it, & I’ve not seen this warning anywhere else. Did I mention that it’s REALLY LOUD?  04) Let it turn into butter! You’ll need to stop & scrape the sides down a few times, but that’s it. Once it reaches a perfectly buttery consistency, pour into glass jar, & put ‘em in the fridge. I like to use my coconut oil jars for this purpose. Some nut butter tips & tricks: » I find that Target has the best prices on all sorts of nuts. I have a really hard time finding macadamia nuts anywhere. » I got the idea to make coconut butter from HEAB. Although I don’t love it quite to the extent she does, I have found that it’s tasty to mix into fruit smoothies & popsicles (think strawberry & pineapple), & to add to the butter when I’m sauteing shrimp. Tastes a bit like coconut shrimp from Red Lobster, but much better for you! » A good primal snack or breakfast is nut butter spread between a banana sliced lengthwise. It’s great for those early mornings when you aren’t too hungry, but know you’ll need to eat something. » For a quick & easy breakfast, add some good dark chocolate to your nuts before you blend. Take a tablespoon of the butter, add to 4 ounces of coconut milk, & add 1/2 of a frozen banana. Blend together & enjoy!    I love being primal. I’m healthier than ever, & the entire primal community is such a wonderful supportive community. But here’s my confession: every once in a while, I realize that a special, seasonal food is now off-limits. I’m not talking possible 80/20 indulgences like picked-that-day locally-grown from the farm-down-the-road corn on the cob smothered in butter (totally enjoyed that earlier in the month; which is the only time you can enjoy it in Ohio). I’m talking the great big NO – things that require all-purpose wheat flour. Growing up, late summer in Ohio meant my mom would make peach kuchen, one of those wonderfully tasty things you can only make when the peaches are perfectly in season. Most summers, we’d only get one batch of it. Even after I left home, I made sure to get home during this very small window to make sure I could get at least a bit of it. What can I say? Food has always been very important in my family. One phone call back home in late July, my dad wondered when we’d be by to visit. He mentioned in passing, “if you stop by this weekend, you might even get some kuchen.” That was when my heart sank. I can ignore the primal dictates, indulging in a 5 Guys fries or eating sushi, but I simply cannot feed my body anything related to wheat. Even if I left this lifestyle behind, I’ll always be have to be gluten-free. Most of the time, that’s fine. We’ve still got pizza, pancakes, cheesecake… even burgers without their buns are delicious! But August passing without the delicious sweet & tangy taste of kuchen – I just don’t think I can handle that. And so I set about to make a peach kuchen I can eat. Last time I was home, I asked my mom to take me through the process of making kuchen – something I’ve helped her do as a child, but I’ve never really learned the ins & outs of the dish. &, to be honest, I think she was curious to learn about the infamous “oopsie” crust. Initially, I didn’t think it worked, but after the dish sat overnight, allowing the peaches, cinnamon, & sour cream to do their magic, yeah. We hit the flavor jackpot. Three very important things about this recipe: 02) I hesitate to call this recipe “primal” because the sugar content is much higher than what is optimal, & in addition to the six ounces of cream cheese used to make the crust, nearly an entire pint of sour cream smothers that crust. It’s definitely gluten-free, but I’m not sure the amount of sugar & dairy used quite qualifies this as primal. This a definite once-a-year indugence! 03) This is not a quick recipe. It’s not complicated, but don’t expect to be done in twenty minutes. Luckily, using the oopsie crust makes it much faster than the traditional yeast bread recipe, but still. Make this ahead of time – this really needs to chill overnight to reach perfection. Now – onto the recipe! As a word of warning, we’ll be using the entire kitchen to make this. Give your sink a good cleaning & make sure you have plenty of room on your counters! As mentioned, we’ll begin with a basic “oopsie crust” recipe, & build from there. Crust: Topping: The Process:   02) Mix the rest of the crust ingredients together: yolks, cream cheese, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt.  03) Now, gently fold the yolk mixture into your beautifully fluffy egg whites, being careful not to beat down the whites. We want the mixture to stay fluffy!  04) Spread the mixture onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake @ 300° for about 20 minutes. When you throw it in, set a big pot of water to boil. Now we’ll move on to preparing the peaches.  05) Give your peaches a good rinse. Once the water is boiling, add half of your peaches & allow to boil for four minutes (this is blanching!). Fill your sink (or a very large pot/bowl) with ice cold water, & once that four minutes is up, throw the peaches in the cold water. You don’t want to work with hot peaches. Trust me. Repeat with your remaining peaches.   06) After allowing to cool completely (5-10 minutes), begin peeling & slicing! First, peel the skin off slowly – thanks to the blanching process, this is quite easy to do. Then, slice the peach all the way ’round the pit – you’ll want to feel the knife hit that little stone. When you make the next slice, sorta push the knife against the stone to make a perfect slice. My mom demonstrates below… 
07) Tired yet? We’re almost through, I promise! Once all the peaches are peeled & sliced, slather the crust with sour cream.  08) Now, add your sliced peaches…  09) Finally, sprinkle on some brown sugar & cinnamon. You certainly don’t need as much as you see here, but this is an indulgence, after all.  10) Bake at 350° until the peaches are just cooked. We did it in 15 minute intervals for about 40 minutes. It’ll be VERY juicy, so let it sit out for a bit until the juices sink into the crust.  Once all those juices have sunk in, you can serve it, but it’s best to stick it in the fridge & let it chill overnight. Then eat it for breakfast, lunch, dessert – whenever you want it. It’ll be gone far too quick!  Until next summer, when the peaches are ripe, I’ll just stare at these pictures. If you make it (& hurry up if you do! The peaches are almost all gone!), do let me know how it turns out!  Is there anything as amazing as tomatoes in season? I’ve professed my love for this humble red blob more than once, but seriously. There’s so good! Right now, of course, anyone with tomato plants has them coming out their ears. I am not one of those lucky people, so I’m forced to scavenge them off others like my mother & co-workers. The last time I was home, I snagged a bunch from the pile sitting on the counter (she didn’t even notice) for the exact purpose of making stuffed tomatoes. This is the magic that went on in my kitchen: Tomatoes (the filling was enough for 8 romas & 1 large… other one) 1) Preheat your oven to 300°. 2) Chop the tops off your tomatoes. 3) Carefully scoop out the insides. I used an iced tea spoon. If they split a bit, it’s okay! They taste the same. 4) Save those insides for your salsa! 5) Mix together all other ingredients. I added chives & basil, & then spinach until I reached a taste & consistency I wanted. Before I stuffed it inside, it looked like this…  …which would totally make a delicious dip for your next party. Just a thought! 6) Carefully stuff the filling inside, using both the iced tea spoon & your fingers. I let it spill out the top a little bit, but you certainly wouldn’t have to. 7) Bake 20-30 minutes on a foil-lined cookie sheet, or until heated through & tomatoes are slightly cooked. To be fair, there’s no reason to cook this, but I did anyways. Serve immediately, or refridgerate for up to a week. Mine only made it a few days – I’ve been enjoying them for breakfast, lunch, & dinner, just heating them in the microwave for about 45 seconds. Delicious!    If you recognize the above photograph, there’s a good chance you’ve tried your hand at the now infamous oopsie crust. If don’t, those are egg whites, whipped until perfectly stiff – a key component to making a rather interesting gluten-free pizza crust. Made of mostly eggs & cream cheese, I’ll confess that even I didn’t think it would work. But it does! I absolutely tip my hat off to the kitchen genius who first thought of it, & offer my undying gratitude. A life without pizza isn’t much of a life at all! Rather than post a recipe, I’ll offer some suggestions to make your primal pizza experiences just a bit easier:
Later in the week, I’m going to post about my experience transforming this recipe into a gluten-free crust for a personal family favorite: peach kuchen. Stay tuned!
Who needs Chipotle, McDonald’s, or IHOP when you can just eat real food made from real ingredients? Alright, so, enough teasing. Here’s how to do it! A big bowl of awesome is pretty much just lots of meat & veggies all cooked together to perfection. It’s a staple in my life for many reasons: » quick & easy, I suppose you could call this a stir-fry, but I think the taste factor & how all the flavors mix together moves this dish beyond a simple stir-fry (hence the name). I’ve used an electric griddle for this recipe, which I personally suggest using for this sort of dish. I’ve made it on a stove, but this is nice & big, cooks consistently, doesn’t heat up the whole house in this miserable summer we’ve been having, & I can control the temperature a bit better. If something is cooking too fast, I can quickly turn it down. For this dish, I set it to about 300° F. But please, try this using whatever you’ve got! I just happen to not own a wok. As I mentioned, the ingredients for this are completely interchangeable. It’s great as an entree, perfect as a side, & wonderful for any meal of the day. I’ll be using shrimp for this particular dish, but I’ve made the same thing with chicken, steak, & any combination of the three. If you’re veg, don’t feel left out! Just use coconut oil in place of the bacon, & you’re golden. Add some apples when autumn hits, or some aspargus in early spring. Honestly, any vegetables that you like will work, just add them in order of how well you’d like them cooked – thickness of the veggie in question is a good rule of thumb. If using carrots, that’s one of the first veggies added, but spinach always goes in last. Make sense? Good. Now, here’s what we’ve got going on with this dish:  Cilantro, basil, onions, tomatoes, zuchini, squash, mushrooms, green peppers. Not pictured is three strips of bacon, raw shrimp, or spinach, but we’ll get to those ingredients soon. The great part about something like this is that the quantity of ingredients doesn’t really matter; you can make as little or as much as you want, & the process is the same. The only other thing you’ll need is some sort of oil – I prefer to use my leftover bacon drippings, but feel free to use butter, ghee, coconut oil – whatever you ‘d like. Now, on to the first step:  Start cooking your bacon. This is close-up, so never fear – there are three strips here, cut into smaller pieces. I prefer my bacon quite crispy, so I let it cook by itself for a bit. Once it’s reached about halfway to that perfectly crispy quality, I add a spoon or so of my leftover bacon drippings. Once that’s perfectly melted…  It’s time to add the green pepper & onion. I let those cook for a few minutes, & then I add the zuchini & squash…  Soon after, it’s time to add the mushrooms. I seem to have not snapped that step, so just imagine adding the mushrooms…  Once those have cooked down a bit, go ahead & add your tomatoes. For me, it’s the addition of this ingredient that really melts everything together. I add my herbs (in this case, cilantro & basil) now as well, so that all those flavors can mix…  We’re nearing the end of the process. If you’re using chicken, go ahead & add that at the same time as the tomatoes & herbs – it takes a bit longer to cook than other meats. At this point, I add my shrimp, but if I was doing steak in this, I’d save that for last – that way it’s not too well-done…  Once the shrimp are turning pink, I grab two big handfuls of raw spinach & throw it on top. I apologize for the quality of the photo, but all that steam makes it hard for the camera to focus…  I just allow the spinach to wilt, so as to not lose all the yummy things in the leaves. & we’re done! Doesn’t that just look delicious? When you serve this, as a main entree or as a side, be sure to scrape all the good stuff into the bowl. You don’t want to lose any of the flavors you’ve just created! This is divine as is, or you can toss a bit of goat cheese on top. The tomatoey herby flavor mixed with the cheese reminds me of the mac & cheese with tomatoes my mom used to make me, & I’ve got to tell you, it’s nice to have that familiar flavor without any of the guilt. So what are you waiting for? Come back here & tell us all about your big bowl of awesome adventure! Next week, I’m going to teach you, step by step, how to make a big bowl of awesome. You know, one of these: 
To hold you until then, I’ll just post this lovely breakfast I made last week.  I love when lots of vegetables are in season. So many delicious things to make!  What’s the best way to ensure you’ll reach for the salad for lunch? Cut up your weekly ration of veggies ahead of time. Yeah, it seems like a no-brainer, but unless you honestly take the half hour over the weekend & chop up the lettuce & etc ahead of time, you might find yourself reaching for something seemingly quicker to make. Also – don’t forget that you don’t need lettuce just to make an amazing big ass salad! Try just a big bowl of your favorite vegetables. Back when asparagus was in season, I bought a whole bunch, but wasn’t eating it fast enough. After I came upon this post from Elena, I was inspired to make my own version with whatever veggies I had in the fridge. I combined asparagus with tomatoes, avocado, bacon, carrots… you get the idea. ‘Twas quite tasty! |
I'm Sarah, a hippie-dippie primal who loves to cook! What's primal? Well, it means I live my life with Grok in mind. If you're up for some reading, you'll discover that if you live like a cave girl (or boy), you'll be healthier & happier than you've ever been.
@ Simply Primal, however, we're here for the tasty bits of the primal lifestyle. Once or twice a week, I'll post a recipe or cooking tip to make your primal lifestyle easier & tastier. Thanks for stopping by!  
 |
||||
|
CC Simply Primal & simplysunshine.net - please feel free to re-post anything you find here, just provide a link back! |
|||||
August 31st, 2010 | 
