Almond Loaf

Bread! Richard Nikoley inspired me with his number of attempts to make a decent bread from gluten-free ingredients, but it is his first attempt that was the most successful for me and one which I wanted to perfect.

The first time I made this, I used almond butter. Getting a hold of almond butter that has not been messed with proved a difficult task and had me resorting to the internet. £4.95 plus £2.50 P&P and a few days later I had my almond butter ... all 236g of the stuff!

What now? Blend with three extra large eggs, four if yours are not gargantuan, a splash of cider vinegar, some sea salt and a heaped teaspoon of baking soda. Blend the lot together with a fork and pour out into a buttered dish and into the oven at 180C for 45 minutes.

It was good! Reassuringly expensive at something like £10 a loaf from which I gleaned about 8 slices. Impractically expensive and so something do reserve as a treat.

I got thinking ...

Almond butter can't be that hard to make, can it? Well, it turns out that it isn't.

What you do is get a couple of cups of almonds, pulse them in a food processor a couple of times and then set it on low for a few minutes. This processing breaks down the almonds into flour, then the magic happens ... the oils are released and you wind up with sloppy butter.

Easy! Except I don't have a food processor. I do have a stick blender.

Armed with a bag of almond flour (that's ground almonds), I set about trying to get this magic to happen. It wasn't happening ... the flour impacted into the blended and needed clearing out every few seconds of blending and the blender itself got so hot, I feared it would pack up altogether.

Change of tack ...

I added an egg and started blending again. Better. I added a second egg and then the third. This was about right. So, add your eggs to the ground almonds and blend. I blended this for a few minutes and think the oils were released, but just to make sure (since I didn't know what processing had gone on to make the ground almonds), poured in a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil.

Add a pinch of sea salt, a splash of cider vinegar and a heaped teaspoon of baking soda. Blend the lot together with a fork and pour out into a buttered dish and into the oven at 180C for 45 minutes.

The result was a perfectly usable loaf, which wasn't eaten with the meal it was intended for, but made a smashing breakfast of soft boiled eggs and soldiers - toasted fingers with obscene amounts on butter on.

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!

Lamb Massaman

Thai. Muslim in origin, this is dish usually of beef, often prawn, could be duck, chicken, tofu ... even pork, which is haraam in Islam.

From Wiki, Massaman is a dish of "coconut milk, roasted peanuts or cashews, potatoes, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, star anise, palm sugar, fish sauce, chili and tamarind sauce. Traders brought spices such as turmeric, cinnamon, star anise, cumin, cloves and nutmeg from Indonesia to the south coast of Thailand. The dish is served with rice and sometimes with pickled ginger or achat, an accompaniment made with cucumber and chili peppers macerated in vinegar".

Keeping this dish paleo and in principle with its origins, I made it with lamb - neck fillets. There are a few things to leave out there, like the sugar, perhaps replace the potato with sweet potato, or squash as I did, but really, this dish is pretty damn paleo as it goes.

Lamb neck fillet is a deep, buttery meat, somewhere between soft and tough. It is best slow-cooked or marinated, which is how we're going to do it for this dish.

To the kitchen ...

The day before (yes, this takes some preparation, but it is well worth it ... and not actually a lot of fuss), slice the neck fillets into half inch thick slices on the slant across the fat.

Place the meat into a dish and add a couple of star anise, bay, some ground coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, turmeric, some garlic, chillies, ginger, a good squeeze of lemon juice, fish sauce and some tamarind in water. Cover and leave to marinate overnight. In the fridge is fine, on the kitchen top overnight and transferred to the fridge the following day, fine, too.

That's the marinade.

Oh, tamarind? Is that even paleo?

Well, I don't quite know - it is a member of the Fabaceae family, and so technically a legume, although we're just using the seed from inside. Seed? Yes, the seed. So, um ... paleo?

Well, I just don't know. Either way, tamarind has a unique sour flavour which is the absolute key to this dish. In the spirit of paleo, I did my hunger gatherer thing and collected a tub of pure tamarind extract from the local supermarket and tasted it. It didn't kill me and had a curious flavour. Being the largest and strongest in my tribe, I took the challenge! I'll eat some and see if it's okay. It was!

Is tamarind paleo-friendly? I'd love to know.

Back to the main feature ...

The next day, come dinner time, get it cooked up. The lamb will not need much cooking now since it has tenderised in the marinade.

Shred a couple of shallots and get them softening in some coconut oil in a lidded sauté pan.

Add the meat pieces to brown off a little.

Pour in one can of coconut milk - as pure as you can get it.

Pour in the remainder of the marinade along with a couple of kaffir leaves for a fresh zing and more garlic.

Cook on the hob for an hour on low/medium. If the liquid drops too much, just add in a little water - we want to do the reduction in the second hour.

Add in some more chillies, chopped sweet potato, squash or even small waxy potatoes and cook on for another hour by which point, the curry should be reducing and thickening.

Just prior to serving, retrieve the aromatics - the star anise, bay and kaffir leaves. Liven everything up with some chopped coriander leaves and some wild garlic.

Serve out into a bowl, accompanied by some achat, which is just cucumber macerated in vinegar - I used cider vinegar, and had some rice alongside. Garnish with fresh coriander and some almond slivers.

Butternut Squash Kutta

Butternut Squash Kutta is a Middle-Eastern dish centred around butternut squash and flavoured with all manner of accompaniments including spices, chillis, olives, capers and a sprinkling of nuts - almonds or pistachio.

Often served over cous cous or rice (see the main picture taken prior to me moving over to paleo), we can easily make this a paleo dish. Taking that inspiration and working in the requisite amount of meat or fish and serving over something like strong green vegetables, this delicious dish can be made into a paleo tour de force!

So, let's build the dish ...

Assemble the ingredients - butternut squash, other vegetables such as stringless green beans, peas, green peppers, olives, capers, harissa paste, onions, garlic, smoked salt, cumin and coriander.

You can use meat, but my suggestion would be for meatballs - beef or lamb would both be fine. Fish is another great inclusion and a strong white fish like cod or haddock is perfect; smoked even better. If you're going to have meatballs, prepare them, fry them off in fat and set them aside.

Begin with a glug of avocado oil in a pan on a medium heat and sweat off half a large onion.

Add in a tin of plum tomatoes and break them down to a rough paste, adding in a good squirt of tomato puree. Add water, maybe half a pint.

Cut up butternut squash into good chunks and add to the pan along with good sized pieces of green pepper.

Add some garlic, a couple of chillis, a helping of capers, a teaspoon of harissa paste and a sprinkle or so of cumin. Chop coriander stalks and add them at this stage. Salt to taste using pure sea salt.

Cook the dish at a good simmer for half an hour, adding the already cooked meatballs, or uncooked fish in about a quarter of an hour from the end.

Meanwhile boil or steam some strong green vegetables like tenderstem broccoli, kale or spring greens.

Just prior to serving, stir in some olives - green or black, any will be fine.

Plate up serving the Kutta over the vegetables. Garnish with coriander leaves and some nuts - almond, pistachio or pine nuts are all good. Slices of avocado would be an excellent accompaniment as well.

Kutta is about trying things out - there is a core recipe based around butternut squash, but add in what you think will work well. I hope I have mentioned a few ingredients which will inspire you. The dish should be fresh, warm, aromatic and deep.

Caveman Crumble!

Quick and easy!

Fruit ... you need some fruit or berries, so slip on your huaraches and get out there! Blackberries, bilberries, gooseberries, any kind of berries!

Let's build the dish ...

If necessary cook down the berries or fruit a little and spoon into an overproof dish. Add honey, if necessary for sweetness - yes, honey is perfectly paleo. How natural can you get? Ensure that it is pure, unadulterated and local. Okay honey has a glycemic load, just like sugar, but this is a treat!

We can cope with it ...

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-definitive-guide-to-sugar/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/is-honey-a-safer-sweetener/ ... I tend to think so.

In another bowl, rub butter and almond flour together and then spoon the mixture over the berries or fruit.

Cook for 20 minutes, or so on 200C and then spoon out, enjoying with some coconut milk ice cream.

Caveman Crumble is about gathering - get out there! Get into the fields and gather some berries! Get home, wash them and turn them into a delicious dessert.