Roasted Sea Bass

Seriously flavoursome fish, packed with protein, high in magnesium, phospohorus and vitamin B6, and very high in selenium.

Best keep it very simple ...

Take your fish, gut it, scale it, slash it a few times gently down the sides, rub in sea salt, push in some herbs, like rosemary or dill, something perfumed and heady, stuff the gut cavity with lemon and roast in the oven at 200C (that's about 400F) for around half an hour.

Fancy something more primal? Wrap in foil and bake on the grill or over coals on an open fire.

The timing is not critical - the fish will be cooked through after about 20 minutes, so don't worry about undercooking it, but that little bit longer will have the lemons fully warmed and releasing all their flavour into the flesh.

Meanwhile, cook some veggies - I went for some simple steamed cabbage.

Steam and set out on a plate.

Ready? Gently lift the fish out onto a chopping board and then using a fork and a spoon, secure the fish with the fork and gently spoon off the flesh. It should slide off the bones with ease.

Once skilled, you'll know where the fins and start of the gut cavity are and how to work around them. First time? Just spoon it off and watch out for bones as you eat.

Lift the fish flesh onto the veggies, put some of the roasted herbs over the top, a good grind of freshly milled black pepper and a fresh wedge of lemon. Toss a few seeds or nuts around - I had a tablespoon, or so, of pumpkin seeds just to put some crunch in there.

Texas 'Bowl of Red'

I am led to believe that I might be tarred, feathered and run out of the State if I even thought about putting beans or ground meat into a Chili in the State of Texas.

Best get some practice in ...

The 'Bowl of Red' is aptly named. I have read a bewildering array of recipes, multiple spice dumps, all manner of exotic ingredients, but in the end ... this is a bowl of Chili and should be made simply, respecting the ingredients therein.

To work ...

I began by browning off some beef and some pork in a heavy lidded pan. I used some beef dripping here, but coconut oil, tallow or lard would do perfectly well.

Meanwhile, I blended a couple of small onions with a good few garlic cloves, some ginger and a few green chillies. This blend is not far off a green curry paste, and a paste which I happily use in 'Beef Soup' (or Chilli Con Carne to the rest of us), curry and many other spiced food dishes.

Why? Well, it just seems to work well. The paste adds to the richness and texture of the dish without imparting its own characteristics - flavour for the simple reason that it works.

Pour in the paste and brown off for a short while before pouring in a carton of chopped tomatoes, a good squirt of tomato puree and some beef stock.

Sprinkle a good quantity of dried oregano over, fresh is better, some ground black pepper, cayenne pepper and a good tablespoon or more of paprika - this will give is a serious red colour, the rest a heady scent and a good kick! Cumin is popular, but not so popular with my Mrs.

Get some heat under it, lid on and cook through for a couple of hours, topping up with hot water as necessary.

What goes well with red? Green!

Some time before you want to eat (and this can be eaten hot or cold, so timing is really not important), steam some cauliflower florets and mash into a soft avocado - think of this as a kind of green rice.

Ready to eat? Serve out a generous spoonful of red alongside a spoon of green. Garnish, if you're fancy, with some chopped chives.

Dig in!

Pollock & Prawn Crepes

Swedish? I like to think so ... this is something very similar to a dish I've eaten in Sweden, most likely crayfish tails, but any good fish and shellfish will do just fine.

First, you need to make some crepes ... there, that was easy enough.

The rest of the dish comes together quickly, so get the family assembled ...

Chop up some pollock, toss it a few times in a skillet with some coconut oil and add a chopped onion in. No garlic - garlic and cream is not brilliant.

Next, toss in some prawns - the smaller the better, in my opinion, so shrimp would work out well. We might have a language difficulty there because I gather folks in the US call the things we Brits call prawns, shrimp. We think of shrimp as very small, brown things, prawns as medium to large pink things.

Whatever language of manner of shellfish you have, bung it in! Scallops would do well here; crayfish, perfect.

Add some fish stock and boil it down to about half. How much? Well, enough to cover, but not overpower once reduced. We're going to add some cream, so it's not critical ... if the dish ends up way too salty, a good squeeze of lemon should just balance it, but do that at the end.

Okay, liquour reduced, add in some cream and reduce further.

Just before serving, chop a good handful of dill and scatter in. Give it a good squeeze of lemon, too.

Spoon out of the fish into the crepes, fold over and enjoy.

Bangers & Mash [Alternative]

Bangers & Mash is traditional British fair and loved, universally.

Thick sausages, mashed potato, thick herb gravy ... too gorgeous and should really be left alone, but, with a glut of cocktail sausages, a hankering for some bacon and in need of a carb-up, here's a fun alternative.

First, make up a load of "pigs in blankets", then make them angry! Sprinkle some cayenne pepper over. Commit to the oven at 200C/400F for 20 minutes, or so, until crispy.

Boil some potato, sweet potato, swede, any kind of root that takes your fancy and mash with butter. Fold some herbs in - I went for chives.

Steam some cabbage, spring greens, kale, something green that takes your fancy.

Make up a quick gravy from a chicken stock cube and some arrowroot. Chicken stock works well here for a lighter dish.

Plate up ... mound of angry piggies, dollop of mashed roots, handful of steamed greens, gravy alongside.

Dig in!

Fig Salad

Figs, a good source of potassium, manganese and iron, vitamins A, B and C and a decent pack of fibre.

Tasty, too! But, being sweet, figs are best paired with strong opposite flavours - tangy, salty, peppery.

I went with spinach, pickled beetroot, cucumber, boiled egg and completely forgot the salty, tangy, creamy Gorgonzola!

Take a couple of figs, lopping the remainder of the stalk off and drawing a cross into the top of the fruit. Squeeze around the base of the fruit and the cross will open up like an Alien face-hugger pod!

Set onto a plate with the remainder of the salad, not forgetting to drop a few pieces of salty, tangy, creamy cheese over. Doh! We didn't need it - the other flavours worked out perfectly.

Have fun ...

Griddled Chicken over Ratatouille

Provençal. Ratatouille is an old French dish of stewed vegetables which may have formed its name around touiller, French "to stir up".

The list of ingredients should be simple and classic: tomato, courgette (zucchini), aubergine (eggplant), peppers (capsicum), onion, garlic, marjoram, thyme and bay.

Let's stir it up ...

In a large heavy bottomed pan get some chopped onion softening in some fat - dripping or butter is perfect, coconut oil will do fine.

Meanwhile, cube up some aubergine and courgette and toss these into the fat - they will soak up the fat, leaving quite a dry dish so be ready with the tomatoes.

Chop a few tomatoes into eighths and just at the point that the pan goes dry, toss them in and combine. The liquid released from the tomatoes will stew the rest of the ingredients. Drop the heat at this point - you want the dish to stew away without boiling off the liquid.

Chop a red and a green pepper into similar sized pieces and combine into the dish.

Toss in some minced garlic, the marjoram, thyme and bay leaf.

Stew away until the vegetables are soft and the liquid is reduced. Grind some freshly milled black pepper over and a little sea salt if necessary. Unlikely.

When ready to eat, griddle some meat - I went with chicken.

Ratatouille can be used as a filling for savoury crêpes or to fill an omelette. For crêpes, you could follow this method or make a thin omelette. For this, cut the vegetables smaller.

Scotch Eggs

Inspired by the Moghul dish Nargisi Kofta, or Narcissus Meatballs, Fortnum & Mason claimed the invention of the Scotch Egg as far back as 1738.

Conventionally made from wrapping sausage meat around a boiled egg, rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried, the Scotch Egg is largely too salty for my primal palate nowadays. Solution? Use a different meat.

Straight to it ...

You need a quarter pound of minced meat per egg. With that in mind, get the requisite number of eggs boiling - these should be on the side of well boiled because without a firm egg, you'll end up crushing it trying to form the meat around it.

With the eggs boiling, place the minced meat into a bowl and add any flavours. I went with turkey mince and added some ground coriander, cayenne pepper, white pepper and celery salt. You could add herbs here, too. I think I added marjoram which works well with chicken and turkey, but cannot remember for certain.

Squeeze the mince through your fingers a few times as you make fists. This will break the meat down and give a blended texture.

So, eggs boiled, peeled and cooled take a quarter pound of the meat and pat it out into thin burger shape in your hand. Place the egg in the middle and form the meat around it.

There is a real technique here, which you will find as you do it. You will also find that the meat does not like to stick to the egg. Solution? Roll the egg in a little starchy flour.

Before rolling in the breadcrumbs, for which you can use ground almonds, coconut flour or even a really crispy crumb from gluten-free crisp bread, just reform the meatballs, squashing the meat firmly to the egg.

Roll the meatballs in the crumbs or flour and lower into your deep fat fryer - I use a small fryer with beef dripping so had to do them one at a time. Since Scotch Eggs should be eaten cold, this is not an issue.

Fry for about 8 minutes each and set aside to drain and cool.

Serve, cut in half, over a light salad with a herby yoghurt dressing.

Beef & Aubergine with Bean Sprouts

Bean sprouts? Malting, sprouting, soaking, fermenting, cooking ...

That's the mantra that is often trotted out amongst paleo circles when something off table is enjoyed. I like beer, which is grain, malted and fermented; I like whisky, which is a malted grain, fermented and then distilled - neither are paleo, but both are very enjoyable and I put the latter, certainly, down as a sensible indulgence.

So, why the bean sprouts? Well, I saw a recipe for this and thought it looked really nice. Simple as that.

It also struck me that since going ancestral, I have not actually tried any sprouted legumes. I don't need to try them since I am very happy with my paleo diet and so I don't really have an excuse - "just because", I guess.

All that said, I found mention of them in the Primal Blueprint recipe book.

As far as nutrition goes, there's not much to them really - no fat, no cholesterol, some carbohydrate although not a lot and some fibre. They're crisp, watery and refreshing making a nice backdrop to the heavier flavoured ingredients.

Let's get on with it, eh?

First, get the beef marinating. I used a couple of rump steaks carefully cut around the fat into strips. The marinade is simply balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, lemon juice, chilli, ginger, star anise and bay. Leave that for a couple of hours. The original recipe called for teriyaki which is soy based, although fermented, it's not something I want to get into.

Next, pre-fry some aubergine slices. I like to slice the aubergine straight through the body, giving nice rounds just shy of an inch thick. Aubergine? That's eggplant if your language went all wonky crossing the Atlantic :)

Fry them off in a little butter until all the butter has soaked into the flesh, the flesh softened and taken on a little colour. Set them aside.

On a couple of plates, scatter out some lamb's lettuce. Lamb's lettuce is a dark green plant with small leaves, sort of like spinach, sort of like watercress. Grind some freshly milled black pepper over.

In a mixing bowl, put some bean sprouts, sliced pickled garlic, some shredded spring onions, more ginger, shredded, fresh coriander leaves, a little sea salt and some olive oil.

Now the fun part ...

Get your grill, griddle or griddle pan up to heat and lay the strips of meat out to cook through until the vinegar is all removed. Set aside, clean the grill and pop the aubergine slices on to get those nice stripes.

Put the plate together placing the aubergine slices as the base, tossing the meat in the salad and placing a generous handful over the aubergine. Garnish with some shredded chilli and place a few cubes of feta around.

As a final word on bean sprouts, consider what J Stanton has to say about L-Canavanine and N=1.

Chocolate Panna Cotta

Few desserts excite me, but Panna Cotta is one. Ice Cream and Cheesecake are the remainder of that very short list.

How do you make Panna Cotta even better? Add chocolate!

Cream, milk, cocoa and some berries on top. Perfection!

If you're not down with dairy as part of your paleo lifestyle, this really is not for you ... but I would encourage you to consider it - it is a great pack of fat, good dairy and an ideal dish with which to enjoy some berries.

Having primal tastes, the over sugared offerings in hermetically sealed packaging from the supermarket really does not cut it!

Here's how to keep it paleo ...

Use the ramekins that you will be pouring the dessert into as measures.

Warm up cream and milk, or buttermilk. I go for equal quantities of each since I love cream. If you're concerned about using milk, just go for all cream. Maybe experiment with yoghurt, mascarpone, raw milk ... do what you feel is right for you.

Warm up ... don't boil, don't get it frothy, don't get it excited ... just warm it up.

Add a good tablespoon of cocoa powder per ramekin of liquid. Stir this in well, whisking in if necessary to get all the lumps out. Keep stirring to ensure that the cocoa is really well combined.

Meanwhile, soften some gelatine.

Gelatine comes in many forms, but I like beef gelatine in sheets. The packet will tell you how much you need for the quantity of liquid, but do err just on the slight side - you want that classic wobble, not fully set.

Once softened, and with the cream blend warmed through, squeeze out the gelatine and drop it into the warm liquid.

Stir it through and then pour out into ramekins.

Back up ... you missed that, didn't you?

It's really that simple - soften the amount of gelatine required for the volume you've made and just stir it in. You could add sweetener in, but I don't like to - Panna Cotta done right is pure! Cream ... that's it.

Dress with a few berries - strawberries would be an obvious choice, perhaps with a little sprig of mint. I went with a few blueberries.

Sweeter berries will form a perfect counterpoint to the bitterness of the dark cocoa, which is initially offset by the fattiness of the cream, but an additional sweetness will really bring out the best in all the flavours.

Enjoy! I'm sure you will ...

Spicy Braised Lamb Shanks

What's better than lamb shanks? Spicy lamb shanks!

Better still, this one pot dish is so easy and hassle-free it surprises me that I do not make it more frequently.

First, lamb shanks.

From the BBC, shanks are the "meaty cut from the lower end of the leg is full of flavour and will become meltingly tender, and fall from the bone after long, slow cooking."

Several hours before you want to eat ...

First, brown off your shanks in a heavy-based skillet.

While they're browning, chop some sweet red pepper and lay this into the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Sweet red peppers will give a deep, sweet flavour, which counters the spicy punch of the chillies we'll use. Cover with a good helping of tomato purée, for flavour and thickening.

Settle the lamb shanks onto the bed of peppers.

Chop an onion and sauté it in the residual fat in the skillet which will have rendered from the shanks. Pour over the shanks.

Mince a few bulbs of garlic and toss them into the dish - lamb can take a lot of garlic. I used maybe 6 or 8 cloves!

Mince a couple of chillies and toss them in.

Add a few flavours and colours, like coriander and paprika; aromatics, thyme, sage and rosemary; white pepper and celery salt.

Pour over some lamb stock to cover.

Lid on and into the oven set to 100C for the day.

Enjoyed your day? Great! Let's eat ...

Retrieve the shanks from the dish and place one into each bowl.

Blend the whole braising jus - this will help emulsify the fat into the liquid and make a deep, sumptuous sauce.

Boil the jus rapidly for a few minutes to reduce and thicken, then pour over the shanks and garnish with some fresh herbs - I used parsley.

Is that it?

Well, yes ... you could serve some steamed veggies alongside, even some potato, but I prefer a light Mediterranean salad of feta cheese, olives, tomatoes, capers, pickled chillies and pickled beetroot.

The meat should literally fall off the bone. Don't forget to winkle out the marrow!

Burp!

Black Pudding Burgers

Blood, fat and filler!

What a treat! It's not fully paleo, containing oatmeal and barley, but it is very good indeed and this is something I happily gorge on as part of my proverbial 20%.

I buy Bury Black Pudding, a northern English specialty and widely renowned as the best there is.

Sitting as a couple of slices on a plate with bacon, mushrooms and a fried egg makes for a perfectly good breakfast, but we can have more fun with the mushrooms.

Here's how ...

Begin by frying off the black pudding rounds in some good fat - dripping, lard, tallow or butter are all good.

Take a few portabella mushrooms and sit them open side up on a griddle, griddle pan or frying pan. Warm through until the juice collects in the cup - now, flip and press down hard with a fish slice or palette knife.

This will evaporate the liquid quickly and bring all the flavour back into the mushroom leaving a dry mushroom, eminently suitable for supplanting a burger bun. Why put things into a burger bun when the bun itself can be so full of flavour and positive nutrition?

Shred some lettuce and slice a tomato.

When ready, build the burger ...

One portabella mushroom open side up, some shredded lettuce, the black pudding slice, a little sauce, a slice of tomato and top with the other portabella mushroom.

"This is a tasty burger ..."

Smoked Haddock & Cream Sauce

Smoking is an ancient method of curing meat and fish, imparting a deep flavour into the flesh. Lightly poached and settled under a cream mushroom blanket! Delicious!

Accompany with something starchy and something green - here, Jersey Royal potatoes and some asparagus, both perfectly seasonal.

Jersey Royals are a cultivar of Kidney Potatoes and grown solely on the Isle of Jersey, and under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). With a short season, between the end of April through to just into June, their unique flavour comes from Jersey's rich fertile earth and gentle climate. Get 'em while you can!

If potatoes are really not a part of your paleo diet, feel free to use pretty much any root: swede works well for me, mashed, or sweet potato, again, mashed.

Anyway, let's go poaching ...

Not that kind of poaching! Poaching a fish.

Begin by diluting some cream with water to make a milky consistency, add a bay leaf and a sprinkle white pepper - this is the poaching liquor. Why not use milk? Why, when cream does a perfectly good job.

Bring the poaching liquor up to a simmer in a skillet and gently lay the fish pieces in, turning after a few minutes. Turn the heat right down just to keep the fillets warm.

Wash, peel and boil the Jersey Royal potatoes or whatever roots you are going to eat.

Drop a good knob of butter into a pan and toss in a few sliced mushrooms. Allow the mushrooms to soak up the butter leaving the pan dry. Pour in some cream and settle on a low heat for the mushrooms to infuse a flavour and the cream reduce. You can let the cream really reduce and thicken, since we'll be letting it back out with the poaching liquor at the end.

Gently boil or steam your green veggies.

When the potatoes are ready, drain, drop a knob of butter into the pan and some chopped dill. Swirl around to coat the potatoes with the herb butter.

Retrieve the haddock from the poaching pan and settle onto a plate.

Your cream sauce should be really thick now and have changed to a mushroom brown colour. Let it out with a little poaching liquor, pouring in a small amount and watching for a change in consistency - you want a sauce which is not too thick, not to runny.

Pour the sauce over the fish and draw a line of crushed hazelnuts over the top. Grind some freshly milled black pepper over and garnish with a sprig, or two, of fresh dill.

Make a mound of potatoes alongside and a mound of green vegetables.

Grab your diggers and pile in!

Cream of Celery Soup with Trufflina

Rustic, brought up to gourmet with truffle.

Celery is a superb source of vitamins A, vitamin K, folate and bioflavonoid antioxidants.

Enjoyed raw as a means of scooping up dips, or chopped as part of a salad; here, we'll be cooking it through and enjoying its unique flavour in a soup.

To work ...

Shred a good few celery stalks, some leek and a couple of cloves of garlic. Soften in some butter and then pour in some light chicken stock or bouillon.

Bouillon? Oh, come on ... what's wrong with salted water? Well, a bouillon is a broth made from a simmering of mirepoix, bouquet garni and some bones. Mirepoix? Bouquet garni? Now you're really taking the proverbial! This is paleo, not haute cuisine!

Here's a cheat - you can buy powered bouillion which only needs a generous tablespoon in a litre of water. If you wanted to make up your own, it's onion, celery and carrots (the mirepoix), thyme, bay and sage tied together (the bouquet garni), some bones and water - simmer for a few hours to extract all the flavour, freeze excess as appropriate.

So, back to it ...

Drop in a few cubes of white potato, swede, sweet potato or some other root - this is for bulking the soup. Bring to the boil and boil away until the roots are softened.

Once the roots are softened, mash in the pan using a potato masher or just a fork, but keep mashing to break everything down leaving some texture - this is rustic, after all. Want it all posh? Blend it!

Pour in a little cream and bring back up to temperature.

If you find the fats separating, just give it a light whisking with a hand balloon whisk.

Pour out into a soup bowl and drop a generous blob of truffelina in the middle.

Trufflina? No! Not those awful Guylian chocolates, trufflina is a paste of truffle with olive oil; truffle, the fruiting body of an underground mushroom, highly prized and often regarded as the "diamond of the kitchen". Seriously flavoursome and a perfect counter point to the creaminess. 

Grok Donalds?

The irony is, prior to ancestral eating, eating at fast food restaurants was something I simply did not do, still don't, but there is a certain trend on paleo forums towards emulation ... which is not always a bad thing.

For a fun Saturday night meal, have a go at nuggets with a salad and fries ...

First, you need some pink slime.

I went for turkey mince, because it is pink and because I love it! This is a lean meat. Feel free to mince some chicken breast if you like - they're your nuggets.

I used just shy of a pound of meat with some spring onions, shredded, a couple of chillies, finely minced, sea salt, white pepper and an egg yolk. Squeeze between your fists a few times to soften, then pat it out flat. Half, half again (quarters) and half again (eighths) - each eighth will make a ball just larger than a golf ball. Form meatballs and squash gently.

Dust in something starchy - I used farina, a mashed potato flour.

Fry off in some coconut oil until coloured and transfer to the oven set to 200C for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make up the salad - Caesar Salad.

Named after restaurateur Caesar Cardini, Caesar Salad is a simple affair of romaine lettuce and croutons with a sauce of parmesan cheese, egg yolk and lemon juice.

Using cubes of feta in place of croutons and embellishing with tomato, cucumber, olives and capers, we have a really sound paleo salad.

The sauce? Grate some parmesan, add an egg yolk, some lemon juice, a little cider vinegar, maybe some English mustard, sea salt, white pepper and stir it all together well. You should have an emulsion to spoon over the salad.

No such meal would be complete without fries, would it?

I appreciate that potato in the paleo diet is controversial and open to much discussion, so do this according to your dietary principles - sweet potato, rutabaga, celeriac, or any number of roots will work perfectly well here.

Fries represent a huge pack of carbohydrate and fat energy with a potentially high glycemic load ... unless they're eaten with fat. Simply put, fat slows the digestive process dramatically lowering the glycemic load. Want to know more? Check out J Stanton's article on Fat and the Glycemic Index: The Myth of Complex Carbohydrates.

What you fry your potatoes in is vitally important - saturated fats are the best! I wrote up an entire article about fries, or (skinny) chips as we call them in the UK: Chips!

Fry off your fries in dripping for a golden colour and full flavour, duck fat if you're doing it all continental.

Finally, you will need a condiment: tomato ketchup or barbecue sauce.

Easy to make - take some tomato puree and flavour with a gastrique of cider vinegar and honey, some salt and a touch of arrowroot in lemon juice. Ensure that the ingredients are thoroughly combined in a blender.

Honey? Honey is more than sweetener - natural and loaded with complex medicinal effects ranging from immunity boosters to anti-cancer and anti-microbial properties. It passes the hunger/gatherer principle. The honey I used is local (very local, like a mile or so away) from Denholme Gate Apiary.

Arrowroot? It's just a starchy thickener. Don't fret.

Don't like the idea of either? Don't put them in. Fancy Stevia instead? Well, it's a banned food in Europe, so out of my recipe, but feel free. I don't know enough about Stevia, having never tried it, but think that a chemically extracted powder is not really within the spirit of paleo. Agave syrup might well do the trick.

You could buy a primal-friendly ketchup - Tiptree brand is pretty good, organic and hand-produced. Actually, Heinz now make an organic version of their ketchup which uses tomatoes grown free from pesticides and contains no MSG or HFCS! It's a strong step in the right direction, Heinz!

Ready to eat?

Lay the warm nuggets over the salad with the fries alongside and a ramekin of condiment.

Dig in, fingers only!

Traditional Swedish Meatballs

Swedes love their meatballs, or köttbullar, which has to be served with gravy, or gräddsås - a thick chicken stock and cream sauce.

For a fun twist, I like to make up a big bowl of meatballs and all manner of veggies with a dipping bowl of sauce in the middle: Fun with Swedish Meatballs

Today was about doing it more traditionally and serving with a seasonal treat: Jersey Royal Potatoes.

Jersey Royals are a cultivar of Kidney Potatoes and grown solely on the Isle of Jersey, and under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union covered by a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO). With a short season, between the end of April through to just into June, their unique flavour comes from Jersey's rich fertile earth and gentle climate. Get 'em while you can!

If potatoes are really not a part of your paleo diet, feel free to use cubes of pretty much any root: swede works well for me.

To the kök! That's kitchen, by the way ...

Begin with the meatballs, combining equal portions of beef mince and pork mince - a pound between two people is fine, for a good pile. Add some white pepper, sea salt and an egg yolk. Keep it simple ... that's it!

Squeeze the meat between your fists a few times and pick out small portions of meat, forming balls. Lightly fry with some dripping in a skillet just to colour up, then transfer to the oven set at 200C for maybe 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, scrape a few Jersey Royals - this will remove the dirt and the already peeling outer skin. Jersey Royals have a very delicate skin which is easy to remove. Get them boiling.

Shred some red cabbage and get it boiling with a little shredded pickled beetroot. You can add in a little red wine here for a strong colour and more tart flavour. Boil this right down to dry, keeping it boiling with the addition of more water when necessary, but it should finish fully dry with the cabbage soft.

Make up the gravy by heating up chicken stock and adding heavy cream. If you are completely off dairy, then just leave out the cream but do really thicken the gravy by reducing and add in some arrowroot at the end.

Ready to serve?

Drain the potatoes, add in a knob of butter and some chopped parsley or dill. Make a mound of potatoes on the plate.

Make a mound of meatballs, pouring over the cream sauce. Garnish with some dill sprigs.

Place a mound of red cabbage alongside.

Dig in and enjoy!

Baba Ganoush

Levantine, as in from the Levant. That got your attention! Mashed aubergine with seasonings, oil, tahini and garlic.

Simple is the key ...

Popular methods of cooking the aubergine (that's eggplant if you were wondering) include roasting over an open grill to blister the skin which peel easily when immersed in water and puts a smoky taste into the flesh.

Not having an open grill or a gas flame, I simply halved and put under the grill/broiler. Once soft, the skin was removed and the flesh puréed with a number of ingredients.

I used olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice, a splash of cider vinegar, sea salt, white pepper, a couple of large teaspoons of tahini and some almond flour, maybe a tablespoon or so.

Those last two additions warrant some discussion.

Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds.

Is that paleo? I don't see why not, so long as it is just ground sesame seeds. While it is a good source of, particularly, magnesium it is high in omega-6 fatty acids. So little is used it really is not a concern - this is a not exactly a staple dish, is it?

I found the dish to be a little wet, perhaps from my own abandon with which I splashed ingredients in. I also wanted it to be a little more like a hummus, so thickened it with a little almond flour.

Almond flour is not traditionally included.

Chilled, then served out with some smoked salmon and celery stick for dipping, this was delicious!

Mackerel Pate

More mackerel madness ... Pâté!

Just coming into season, mackerel is an oily fish, rich in saturated fat, cholesterol and omega-3 fatty acids, and a good source of selenium, and vitamin B12. Combined with cream cheese, perfect for a light, satiating lunch.

As with all fish, seek out a fresh catch - the fish should not smell of fish, should have bright eyes and a firm texture. Mackerel should not droop when held by the head.

Cream cheese should be as natural as you can get it - there really is no need to buy industrialised cream cheese which may have all manner of preservatives, emulfisiers and so on. If in doubt, check the ingredients! If you're still in doubt, rely upon what I call the Ingredient/Description Principle, as outlined in Coming in From the Cold on my personal paleo blog.

Interestingly enough, Philadelphia brand has Locust Bean Gum listed in the ingredients (urgh!), yet (one for the UK paleo people), Sainsbury own brand "So Organic" Cream Cheese does not even list ingredients on the tub - it is, literally, "cream cheese".

Simply put, the ingredients should list nothing more than the description of the food; so, 'Butter' should read as "butter" in the ingredients, 'Salted Butter' as "butter, sea salt" and ... 'Cream Cheese' as "cream cheese". Anything else in there are you probably don't want to eat it, particularly if it has an x in it!

Of course you could make the cream cheese yourself by hanging some full fat yoghurt up in a muslin bag and permitting the whey to drain out.

To work ...

Take the fish whole, gut it by slitting the belly where you feel the underside go soft through to the tail. Remove the guts and wash out the cavity. Fillet.

To fillet, lay the fish flat on a board. With a sharp knife, cut towards the head just behind the little fin on the side. Turn the knife so that the blade is now pointing towards the tail and slide it through the flesh using the rib cage as a natural level. That's your fillet.

Now, feel the fillet. There are still bones in the middle section. You could painstakingly pick them all out with tweezers, which will leave your fillet looking like the cat has already had a go at it! Or, you could slice that little ridge of bones out in a V shape which will leave the fillet with two visible sides.

Pop them on the grill or under the grill/broiler for literally a couple of minutes until the surface can be seen to be bubbling. The remainder of the carcass can also be cooked in the same manner - I usually just remove the head and place the skeleton in alongside the fillets, picking off the last pieces of meat afterwards ... or, just letting the cats at it.

Once cooked, remove from under the grill/broiler and set aside to cool.

Once cooled, remove the fish flesh from the skin and break up the fibres with your fingers.

Simply cream some lemon juice and the cream cheese together until smooth and then fold the fish in. Whip these together until you have a soft paste.

Grind a good helping of black pepper over and perhaps a little sea salt.

Stir together well and turn out into a ramekin.

Spread onto gem lettuce leaves.

Alternatives | Variations

If cream cheese is not part of your paleo template, you can just leave it out and enjoy the fish with lemon juice, perhaps some minced capers ... or, blend some avocado and combine with the fish.

I would guard against mixing with coconut oil or dripping since these will solidify again when cooled although this would work very well for a warm pâté - fish straight from under the grill/broiler, shredded and stirred together with coconut oil and served immediately.

Mackerel Fillets

Deserving of an entry in their own right, with its sparkling, silver belly and iridescent blue/grey stripes, the mackerel is an attractive fish with a delicious flavour.

Just coming into season, mackerel is an oily fish, rich in saturated fat, cholesterol and omega-3 fatty acids, and a good source of selenium, and vitamin B12.

As with all fish, seek out a fresh catch - the fish should not smell of fish, should have bright eyes and a firm texture. Mackerel should not droop when held by the head.

Take the fish whole, gut it by slitting the belly where you feel the underside go soft through to the tail. Remove the guts and wash out the cavity.

You could simply slash the skin on both sides, stuff the cavity with lemon, some herbs and place on the grill or under the grill/broiler turning over after a few minutes. The flesh will draw away from the bones with great ease using a fork.

Or, fillet them ...

To fillet, lay the fish flat on a board. With a sharp knife, cut towards the head just behind the little fin on the side. Turn the knife so that the blade is now pointing towards the tail and slide it through the flesh using the rib cage as a natural level. That's your fillet.

Now, feel the fillet. There are still bones in the middle section. You could painstakingly pick them all out with tweezers, which will leave your fillet looking like the cat has already had a go at it! Or, you could slice that little ridge of bones out in a V shape which will leave the fillet with two visible sides.

Pop them on the grill or under the grill/broiler for literally a couple of minutes until the surface can be seen to be bubbling. The remainder of the carcass can also be cooked in the same manner - I usually just remove the head and place the skeleton in alongside the fillets, picking off the last pieces of meat for myself, or not bothering and just letting the cats at it.

Once cooked, they can be cooled and eaten the following day with a salad, whole or shredded, or eaten straight from the grill hot.

Grind some black pepper over and serve with something zingy, tangy, astringent or bitter - my neighbour gave me a bag of peppers that he'd grown, so simply shredded, fillets over and a wedge of lemon does it all for me!