PaleoLab

I made raisins.

They are yummy.

The end.

Let’s call this Larb Gai taken up several notches.  Let’s also call it delicious.  It’s full of interesting flavors and fresh vegetables and, you know, good stuff like that.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground chicken (or if, like me, you don’t have ground chicken, very finely diced chicken breast)

1 T. olive oil

1/2 onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 t. fresh grated ginger

1/3 c. cilantro, roughly chopped

1/3 c. mint, roughly chopped

2-3 T. fish sauce

3-4 T. lime juice

crushed red pepper, to taste (optional)

1 bag kelp noodles (or other grain-free noodles)

1-2 bell peppers, diced

3-4 scallions, snipped

1 avocado, diced

1 can diced water chestnuts

1 kiwi fruit, diced (Check out this video on how to peel a kiwi!)

Preparation:

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat.  Saute chicken until just cooked, being careful not to brown.  Add onions, garlic and ginger near the end and saute with chicken for about 2 more minutes.  Remove from heat and add fish sauce, lime juice, cilantro, mint, and crushed red pepper, if using.

Mix the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.  I like these kelp noodles because they’re mild in flavor, but add good texture—and no carbs!

Add the chicken mixture—with all the juices—to the vegetable/noodle mixture and toss.  

As you might imagine, the avocado and kiwi are great in here, and the mint with cilantro and lime is really delightful.  Enjoy!

I have a dirty little secret.  I’ve never learned how to properly make an omelette.  I make a LOT of omelettes, but not the “right” way.  And they’re a little off.  The egg gets puffy and chewier than I’d prefer.  I’ll stand for it no more!  I’m determined to master the art of the perfect omelette.  Master.  I don’t want just to be able to pull it off.  Mastery is what we’re after here.  Omelette perfection will be mine!

After looking up the proper method on the interwebs, (this video might be my favorite), I’ve committed myself to proper omelette technique.  My first try was a mess.  While the texture was much closer to what I’m after, I didn’t get it out of the pan in one piece.  It was more like a pile of breakfast.  I didn’t get a picture of that one, but I did get a picture of my second attempt.  Not perfect yet, but definitely getting closer!  And it was mighty tasty!

(Ingredients:  3 eggs, bacon, onion, mushrooms, garlic, jalapeno, avocado, goat cheese.)

Second Indian dish in a row!  We almost have tic-tac-toe!  

Tonight I made cardamom chicken.  CARDAMOM.  Chicken.  I need you to understand:  I ADORE cardamom.  This cardamom was another Spice House buy, and, never having cooked with it before, I was eager to give it a spin.  But without having to go to the grocery store for ingredients.  So, I did a little googling, scanned some recipes for inspiration and came up with dinner!

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 two inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated

4 cloves of garlic

1/2 white onion

1 can diced tomatoes 

1 jalapeno (optional, for heat)

1 to 1 1/2 t. ground cardamom

1 t. fresh ground black pepper 

1/4 t. turmeric

1/4 t. yellow curry powder

handful cilantro, chopped

1/2 c. chicken stock

olive oil, for cooking (about 4 T.)

Preparation:

Heat oil over medium high heat and add ginger.  Saute 1-2 minutes, stirring, so as not to burn it.  Add chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, until no longer pink.  While the chicken cooks, pulse onion, garlic, jalapeno, and tomatoes in food processor (or blender) until uniform.  Add it to the skillet and cook for 2-3 minutes more before adding spices and cilantro.  Stir.  Add chicken stock and simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes.

Rather than rice, I sauteed about 3 cups of fresh broccoli florets (about 2 heads), a yellow bell pepper, sliced, and 3 sweet red peppers, sliced, to go with this.

The results were bold and delicious.  I venture to say that this was believable as an Indian dish, and one I would make again.  Bon appetit!

Recently, I went to The Spice House for the first time.  It was a fantastic, addictive experience.  Glass jars full of spices—standard and exotic—and proprietary spice blends line the walls, and the aromas hanging in the air are intoxicating.  I will be going back.  Repeatedly.

One think I bought was fenugreek.  I’d been reading a lot of Indian recipes, and saw it listed often, but couldn’t find it in my regular grocery store.  The Spice House had it, of course, and tonight I cooked with it for the first time.  The results were frankly amazing.  I followed this recipe pretty closely, aside from using olive oil rather than vegetable oil (duh) and using a couple of mild red (ortega?) peppers in place of the third bell pepper.  And, of course, I skipped the rice.  But riced cauliflower would substitute quite well.

The marinade is less a marinade than a paste, that almost serves as a (very delicious) crust when cooked.

Coconut milk simmered with browned onions, garlic and ginger makes a fantastic sauce to braise the salmon in and to serve over it.

But time out for a minute.  I also made brussel sprouts to go along with the salmon.  These were incredibly simple and incredibly delicious.  I trimmed and quartered the sprouts (about a pound) before sauteeing them in about 2T. olive oil over medium-low heat.  After they started to brown, I added 2T. of (grassfed) butter, 1t. dried dill, 1T. white wine vinegar, and salt and pepper, and sauteed until they were browned and wilted.

The dill and vinegar brightened the richness of the butter and played very nicely with the salmon.  I love it when my food all gets along with each other.

Tonight’s dinner turned out really well.  I mean REALLY WELL.  Also, it was extraordinarily simple to make and required relatively few ingredients.  (Which is lucky, since I still haven’t made it to the grocery store.)  On the menu: broiled, bacon-wrapped salmon; balsamic-wilted kale; butter-ginger sauteed carrots.  Is your mouth watering yet?  No?  It oughta be—trust me.

Ingredients:

2 salmon filets

4-6 slices of bacon

5-7 carrots

1 knuckle of ginger, peeled and grated

1/2 t. lemon juice

black pepper

1 bunch of kale

2 T. olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 c. balsamic vinegar

For the salmon: Simply wrap your fish in slices of bacon.  Secure with toothpick or skewer, and broil close to the heat source for 3-4 minutes per side.

For the carrots: I used the Vincamt Method of carrot preparation:  in order to get thin, quick-cooking slices of carrot, after peeling, I used the peeler to slice the carrots into long, thin strips.

5 carrots, 2 T. butter, 1 t. fresh, grated ginger, a dash of lemon juice and a bit of black pepper.  Heat the butter over medium heat, add carrots and ginger.  Cook for a few minutes.  Add lemon juice and pepper.  Cook for a few minutes more, until the edges start to caramelize a bit.

For the kale: Trim the kale into bite-sized pieces, removing the stems.  Heat about 2 T. of olive oil with about 2 cloves of garlic, minced.  Add kale and cover, cooking for about 4-5 minutes, to wilt.  Add 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar and stir, uncovered, over medium-low heat for a few minutes more.

And voila!  This was a really delicious—and colorful!—meal.  I’d eat this OFTEN.  And I plan to.