When is it going to get warm?

Today's music is from Kat Krazy (mainly remixes, all good, check out the Foster the People one)



I know that a lot of the people reading this will be a lot colder than I currently am (North America) and some of you may be drinking an ice cold beer with their legs up (Australia), but I find myself overly discontent with cold weather. There's something about not being able to properly feel my toes that I just don't like. And this accursed room leaks the little warmth my storage heater pumps out like a sieve. Tesco had a sale on porta-heaters the other day... hmm...

Anyway, I didn't mean for this to be about my toes, or any other part of my anatomy. Today is day number 13 of Whole30, and I'm continuously having to think about the next food I plan on eating. I think that's the worst thing for me in regards to all of this, I have to spend an hour a day cooking just so I can stay on the Whole30 path. If only the local takeaways did Paleo-compliant food... alas, the common opinion is still in favour of pizza and sugar-loaded Indian food. Still, one day...

Well, here are a couple of my favourite recipes that have received rave reviews from my room mate:

Hour-long, quick cook chilli:

-One large onion or two small, quartered.

-2 or 3 garlic cloves, peeled.

-Ginger, peeled, a little bigger than a garlic clove

-A box of mushrooms

-A jar of organic tomato purée

-Lard/Goose Fat/Olive oil (any one, though fat preferable)

-Diced steak (for speed, but feel free to chop up a rump steak) in cm/cm or inch cubes

-Cumin, chilli powder, oregano

-Coconut milk

To start, pull out a food processor, throw in your quarters of onion, the garlic and the ginger and pulse until in nice small pieces. You want it almost a purée (and in fact, you can have it as that, but I find it a little too soupy). Once this is done, heat up a pan, throw in your fat/oil of choice and start to sauté over a med-high heat. While it's starting to simmer, grab your mushrooms and pulse them too. Pour them into a separate bowl for now, you'll probably need multiple go's to get all of them done. After a few minutes, or once the onions are starting to go a little translucent, throw in the onions and sauté for another 3 or 4 minutes. Use this time to crack open the coconut milk and the steak.

After a few minutes of cooking, to soften it up a bit, pour in the coconut milk and stir it in. Grab your cumin and chilli powder and give a generous addition of both to the mix, and then add some oregano if you like (not as much though). If you have them, now might be a good time to add some actual chillis. Not sure though, haven't tried it. Your concoction won't look very nice at the moment, but stay optimistic and add your steak cubes to the mix, then grab a pot lid and leave it to simmer for about... 15 minutes. Once done, come back, and give a good stir. The meat should be nicely infusing itself right now, so grab your tomato purée and dump the whole jar in (I like tomato purée  adjust amount to your own personal tastes). Now, stir it in and the read should bring that colour to a more agreeable shade. Re-add the pot lid and leave for another half an hour or so. Before serving, taste and add more chilli powder, salt and pepper to season.

I usually serve this with parsnip fries...

Parsnip fries

-Salt

-Pepper

-Olive oil

-Cumin

-Parsnips (duh)

I use two bags of parsnips as we go through these in next to no time at all. Pre-heat your oven to around 220 (that's Celsius, for you North Americans!) and chop the parsnips into decent sized chips. When I first made these I cut them into more fry shaped sizes, but they shrink in the oven, so bare this in mind when you do it.

Drop the lot into a bowl and sprinkle some olive oil over them (as little as possible to stay paleo... you could probably do this with lard?) and follow up with some salt and a generous coating of pepper. Now get your hands in there and mix them so they've all got a good helping of everything on them.

Pour them into a baking tray and slide them into the oven. After 20 minutes, pull them out and very lightly dust them with a sprinkling of cumin. A light dusting gives a lovely flavour, a dosing ruins them. Turn them over and put them back in. Depending on your oven and the size you cut them will determine how long they take, try one and see if it's got a nice crispy shell.

I've also recently been enjoying carrots a lot more. They're a good snack for when you're hungry and don't want to cook. Carrot sticks and cherry tomatoes are great! 

Well, that's it for today, thanks for reading!

Andy