Haggis, Neaps & Tatties

Sunday dinner ...

Traditional Scots serving: Haggis with neaps and tatties, or mashed parsnip and potato. Greenage is tenderstem broccoli, peas and some baby kale which can be eaten like salad leaves.

Yes, Haggis is not Primal, but it is primal ... I mean, just how much more primal can you get: take all the offals left over and stuff it into the stomach then boil it. Granted, there is some barley in there, I think, perhaps oatmeal. The ingredients are pretty sparse, so I think I got a good one.

Bloody tasty, nevertheless ...

Chicken Liver Parfait

Similar to pâté but more creamy ...

Take some chicken livers, it doesn't matter how much; some, and gently fry off in butter.

Blend with cream, at something like a 1:3 ratio of cream to livers.

Spoon into ramekins and seal with melted butter poured over the top and garnished with a thin slice of lemon, sprinkle of Allspice, some green peppercorns and a sprig of dill.

Serve with crisp lettuce leaves.

Mayaj - Sheep Brain Curry

... something interesting for lunch.

I popped out with a pal of mine for a spot of lunch at Akbar's Café in Bradford, an excellent lunchtime venue with a really interesting menu.

For starters, we had Liver Tikka and Panner Tikka; mains, curried Lamb Shank and Mayaj - a sheep brain curry.

Nutritionally, brain is phenomenal giving something like 4000% RDA of cholesterol, massively protein-rich and full of good saturated fats. The only thing that could make it any better would be to curry it, a popular dish in Pakistan.

I think the curry was very simple, just the brains, onion and spice base and some fresh coriander. Served with steamed rice, lovely!

Lamb Liver Bhuna

It's the weekend, and I'm partial to a little (late) breakfast, but only at the weekend ...

Lamb Liver Bhuna

Lamb Liver
Large Onion, Garlic & Ginger
Ghee
Turmeric, Ground Coriander, Ground Cumin, Fenugreek & Asafoetida
Black Pepper & Sea Salt
Large Plum Tomato
Chillies

For two:

Take a large skillet and melt some ghee, caramelising off a large onion over a low heat with spices: turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, fenugreek & asafoetida (a teaspoon of the first three and half a teaspoon of the last couple), a couple of cloves of minced garlic and a good slice of ginger, shredded.

Raise the heat to medium and brown off the liver, chopped into chunks.

Add a splash of water and reduce fully.

Add a couple of whole chillies, simply sliced in two and a large plum tomato, cored and sliced into segments.

Cook on for several more minutes, turning frequently. Bhuna is a dry dish, so ensure that any liquid from the tomatoes is fully cooked out.

Sea salt and black pepper to taste.

Serve out with a light green salad.

Lamb's Liver

Gently fried in butter with leftover Taco salad and a chilli salsa ...

Black Pudding & Feta, Samphire & German Potato Salad

... more a case of dumping whatever food I had in onto a plate and enjoying. There was method, but it's more madness ...

Still finishing off this leftover German Potato Salad, I decided it would be lovely with salty, crunchy samphire, some leaves (pea shoots, watercress and rocket), some lovely cherry tomatoes and a couple of rounds of black pudding which I'd not eaten at the weekend.

Black Pudding is a sausage of pig blood and fat, often bulked out with rusk. The pudding I buy is a traditional recipe and very nice indeed.

Squirt of HP Sauce on top and we've got dinner. Mrs doesn't like Black Pudding, so had much the same but with some sausages.

Lamb's Liver, Onions, Mushrooms & Gravy

What a way to start the day!

Tunnelling through the freezer draws looking for something to defrost for an evening meal, I happened upon a bag of something or other ...

... and then it twigged! It's leftover gravy.

With liver in the fridge ... check ... mushrooms available ... check ... and an onion ... check ... it's time to cook up some breakfast.

Using a good knob of butter, shredded onions are softened for a few minutes and pushed aside to make room for the liver, gently cooked on each side for a minute or two, then in with the mushrooms to soak up all the spare fat and the gravy (now defrosted) poured over.

Simmer for a short while to reduce and really thicken up, then onto a plate.

Wolf down without pausing for breath!

Bury Black Pudding

Practically an institution here in the North of England, Black Pudding comes no more authentic than from Bury market.

Pig blood and fat. Some contain rusk as filler, but it's pig blood and fat. As a sausage.

Simply cut in half and gently fry in butter. When it is flipped over and cooked on the back, the casing will shrink and can be removed.

Serve with whatever you like ... mushrooms, potato wedges, fried tomato and a boiled egg, in my case.

Blood never tasted so good! If you like your offals, you'll love this.Nutritional highlights are iron, vitamins B12 & D, sodium, fat and protein.

Burns' Supper

Haggis, Mashed Swede, Red Cabbage & Brussels Sprouts.

Burns' Night ... a decent excuse to eat haggis, if ever I heard one.

Liver, Onion, Bacon & Mushroom Salad with Waffle Crisps

Breakfast ... and just starting to get back to normality after the Christmas break and a first week back at work.

I've been shopping, so we have a fresh haul of food in and what better than a hearty breakfast to start the weekend?

Liver, bacon, onion, mushrooms and tomato over a leafy salad with pickled chillies, paprika, black pepper and Icelandic ash salt.

There's a waffle in there, too! Bird's Eye brand.

Potato waffles are pretty much just starch, in fact, the ingredients list as: Potato, Vegetable Oil, Potato Granules, Potato Starch, White Pepper, Salt & Stabiliser (E464).

So, pretty much all potato, no sugar, which is rare for processed foods and the role of E464 prevents the potato from being saturated with vegetable oil.  In fact, the vegetable oil is probably the only "bad" thing in there ...

... but let's just read a little more about E464.

From Wikipedia: "Use in whole grain breads Agricultural Research Service scientists are investigating using the plant-derived HPMC as a substitute for gluten in making all oat and other grain breads. Gluten, which is present in wheat, rye and barley is absent (or present only in trace quantities) in oat and other grains. Like gluten, HPMC can trap air bubbles formed by the yeast in bread dough, causing the bread to rise. Although it has not been widely studied, it is predicted that whole grain breads made with HPMC will have cholesterol-lowering effects."

Okay, so a gluten alternative ... akin to xanthan gum, or other such stabilisers?

I'm waffling on a bit here, but wanted to investigate these fully. Processed food? Yes, but "sometimes it is better to eat the wrong food with the right attitude than the other way around" Chris Kressler.

I'm not making excuses and certainly not trying to squeeze this in as "paleo" in the way that you see "Paleo Cookies" and so on. The paleo template is large enough an hegemony for each person to take as far as the want to, personally.

If this is a step too far ... don't! Leave it off the plate, but if you want some potato in there, simply slices of sautéed potato will do perfectly.

Let's get cooking ...

Grill the waffle. It wants to become crispy.

In a large skillet, fry off the bacon and once cooked through, toss in some shredded onion and cook through.

Pull to the side of the skillet while you soften some butter in the cleared space and fry off pieces of liver.

While one side is frying, pop a few mushrooms in cap side down. These will cook through and soften.

Retrieve the mushrooms, slicing into quarters and return to the pan on top of the onion and bacon mound. Flip the liver and cook on with half a tomato, fleshy side down also just taking on a little colour and warming through.

Retrieve the tomato, quarter and return to the skillet, folding all the food together.

Serve out over a handful of salad leaves, pepped up with a little black pepper, paprika and Icelandic ash salt (sea salt will do fine); cut the waffle through the middle to make two thin waffles, then corner to corner giving four crisps. Push into the dish.

Brown Sauce over, you've got breakfast. Gorgeous!

Stig's Autumn Stew

Way back when I first went Paleo (capitalised, following Robb Wolf's introductory template), I made up a gorgeous meat stew, pretty much just chucking in anything I had to hand ... they're the best meals, aren't they?

So, Stig, my proverbial Northern European Ice Age dweller, who I like to think is closer to the mesolithic, would have eaten whatever was local, seasonal and avalable.

... and so, Stig Stew is more an approach than a recipe.

Stig Stew

Constituents

Meat - seasonal and available

Veggies - whatever varieties are in season and local to you

Flavours - onion, garlic, bay leaves, herbs, black pepper and meat stock

For ideas around what is seasonal for folks here in Britain, check out: http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk - there will be a similar website for you, wherever you are in the world ... go hunt!

Meat

Venison provided the main meat, bulked with beef liver, lamb kidney and some smoked bacon.

The meat was all browned and then the base flavours added, cooked through and beef stock added.

Base flavours were onion and garlic, puréed, black pepper, thyme and bay leaves.

Cooked in a large, open skillet on low for about an hour and a half, time for the veggies ...

Veggies

Squash, courgette, chestnut mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and beetroot.

Simmer on for another half hour, or so, until you are ready to eat ...

Serve

Serve out into wide-brimmed bowls and an optional mound of carbohydrate: rice, for me, potatoes for the Mrs. Garnish with fresh herbs - chervil, here.

So, there we have it ... a wholesome stew that can be cooked any time of the year, celebrating the bounty of the seasons.

Foie de Boeuf

Simple beef liver given the French language makeover ... now it sounds posh!

Yeah, it's just beef liver ...

I say "just" but lets not forget that organs are the prize! I don't eat much land animal, but when I do ... it's the tough, sinewy cuts that need long and slow cooking, or offals.

Offals pack in the nutrients in a way that the flesh does not. Largely a pesce-paleo, I see organs as something too prized to overlook.

You need ...

Beef liver, gravy (leftover from a slow-cooked piece of meat), onion, mushroom and something green - samphire, in my case, and herbs. Chervil, here. Black pepper, sea salt.

Gravy

Using leftover meat juices from a slow-cooked piece of shin, get it up to temperature and add in some sliced mushrooms. Black pepper.

Meanwhile, caramelise some onions. Touch of sea salt.

Add to the jus, add some arrowroot and a good knob of butter, raise the temperature and watch it thicken.

Voilà! Gravy ...

Samphire

... needs nothing more than boiling water poured over, count to ten and drain.

Beef Liver

... wants little more than gently frying off in some butter.

Plate

... onions and mushrooms down first, beef liver over, spoon the jus on top, samphire next and crown with chervil.

Phenomenal!

Lamb Liver & Fries

Why? Because I can ...

I don't need to tell you about the great benefits of organ meats. Eaten once or twice a week, you'll get your requirement of all those micronutrients that organ meat is so rich in. Nature's multi-vitamin!

Nor do I need to tell you about how great spinach is. Together, wonderful, but it's Sunday morning and I've got an active day ahead, so a starchy breakfast is not at all a bad thing.

Fries ... chips, frites, whatever your language, they're always best cooked in animal fats.

Thinly cut, par-boiled and fried off in goose fat ... perfect!

What a breakfast! Time to get out there and enjoy the day ...

Breakfast Bacon ... Two Ways

Bacon. It's gorgeous!

I love the fatty bacon. Streaky and unsmoked. Outdoor reared and unfettled.

I don't eat breakfast through the week, but do like a spot of brunch at the weekends ... for which bacon gives me a lovely treat.

I've taken some leave this week to get the house in order (decorating and such like) and so, a good breakfast is in order.

So, a couple of ideas ...

Mushrooms, liver, onions and pickled gherkins - simply fry off the onions to soften in some lard, add in the mushrooms to soak up all the good fat and then toss in some bacon, shredded, and finally some chopped liver - lamb's liver for me. Prior to serving, some chopped pickled gherkins just to cut through. Serve over spinach leaves spiced up with cayenne pepper and black pepper.

How to top that?

Bacon, grilled and layed over spinach again, spiced with cayenne pepper and black pepper. Now, sliced mushrooms fried off in lard. Top that with pickled gherkin and pickled beetroot, garnished with cottage cheese and pea shoots.

Egg. Fried on the first one (not pictured) and boiled with the second (pictured at the top).

Let your imagination go ... empty the fridge onto your plate and breakfast centered around bacon need never be the same again.

Chicken Liver Parfait

Something for a nourishing starter, snack or just because ...

Chicken Liver Parfait, to give it its proper title, "parfait" the French for "perfect", and it is.

Worried? Yeah, I know ... French cuisine ... posh terms, complex processes; but, you know me ... I'll break it down and show you that it's easy and you really don't need a recipe, just real food, a frying pan and a hand blender.

Let's get to ...

Chicken livers. I used 400g raw, trimming off sinews, green areas (which are bitter) and teasing off anything which looked okay. Net result, possibly 350g of liver. This will make two glasses, as pictured.

Where were we? Livers ... now dice them and gently fry them off in a pan with butter. Real butter. Lovely stuff. Don't colour up the liver, just warm it through until it's not pink any more.

Drop it into a blending receptacle. I have a hand blender, so a Pyrex jug. If you have a food mixer, go nuts.

Flavours ...

I popped in a sprinkle of mixed spice - cinnamon, nutmeg and paprika. Just a little. Sea salt, black pepper and a little more melted butter. Oh, and double cream ... just a smidge.

Blend!

Pass through a sieve. Nah! Don't! First, it's prissy and second, it's pointless.

You're done. Spoon into glasses.

Faffy French side note - you can use a spray of Marsala, Sherry or Brandy just to pep up the mix.

Now we need to seal it ... because we're going to keep it for some time ... yeah, right!

But, do this anyway ...

Melt butter. Pour over. Pop into fridge to chill. The butter will act as a natural barrier to keep the liver parfait just so.

When serving, bring up to room temperature, so the butter can be enjoyed. Hungry primals will pick off the disc of butter, eat it and then plunge unwashed fingers into the parfait. Feel free to use the celery and carrot sticks, or just eat them afterwards.

Perfect, eh? Fuck, yeah!

Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Cream

Wise up sucker! Ice cream, indeed ...

We've got paleo ice cream, here. Chicken Liver Parfait, to give it its proper title, "parfait" the French for "perfect", and it is.

Worried? Yeah, I know ... French cuisine ... posh terms, complex processes; but, you know me ... I'll break it down and show you that it's easy and you really don't need a recipe, just real food, a frying pan and a hand blender.

Let's get to ...

Chicken livers. I used 400g raw, trimming off sinews, green areas (which are bitter) and teasing off anything which looked okay. Net result, possibly 350g of liver. This will make two good ramekins - the picture at the top is after I had a go at it in the fridge, feeling peckish in the middle of the night.

Where were we? Livers ... now dice them and gently fry them off in a pan with butter. Real butter. Lovely stuff. Don't colour up the liver, just warm it through until it's not pink any more.

Drop it into a blending receptacle. I have a hand blender, so a Pyrex jug. If you have a food mixer, go nuts.

Flavours ...

I popped in a sprinkle of mixed spice - cinnamon, nutmeg and paprika. Just a little. Sea salt, black pepper and a little more melted butter. Oh, and double cream ... just a smidge.

Blend!

Pass through a sieve. Nah! Don't! First, it's prissy and second, it's pointless.

You're done. Spoon into a ramekin.

Faffy French side note - you can use a spray of Marsala, Sherry or Brandy just to pep up the mix.

Now we need to seal it ... because we're going to keep it for some time ... yeah, right!

But, do this anyway ...

Melt butter. Pour over. Pop into fridge to chill. The butter will act as a natural barrier to keep the liver parfait just so.

When serving, bring up to room temperature, so the butter can be enjoyed. Hungry primals will pick off the disc of butter, eat it and then plunge unwashed fingers into the parfait.

Perfect, eh? Fuck, yeah!

That's the chocolate ... now, the vanilla ...

Parsnip Cream - a simple blend of one parsnip, boiled, drained and blended with cream. That's it. One decent sized parsnip makes one ramekin (above).

Serve with celery sticks, carrot sticks, whatever sticks float yo' boat.

Did I mention liver is a paleo superfood? Chicken, parfait; Lamb, perfect; cow, beauty!

Do it, have fun, don't worry about quantity and ratio, just clean up, dice, cook, blend and lightly wet up ... preferably with butter and set in the fridge.

The inspiration came from a visit to our local pub which just happens to have all manner of awards, accolades and general industry good-feeling, including Yorkshire's Pub of the Year for gawd knows how long ... and they've a mighty fine restaurant alongside.

... which put out a lovely piece of venison with duck liver parfait for my Mrs on her birthday this weekend passed, washed down with a damn good Perrier. Laurent Perrier, naturally.

So, Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Cream. True, there's cream in them, there pots.

Fillet Steak & Lamb's Liver

... because I can!

Breakfast, and the Mrs wanted Egg & Chips. It works different for guys 'n' gals, and she does seem to do better on the carbs than I do, so a good pack ahead of a busy day is not going to be an issue.

These chips were Jersey Royal Potatoes, simply sliced, par boiled and then fried off in goose fat. Easy enough. Fried eggs over, and she's done.

Me? I do like the fat, but I'd prefer a couple of things I picked up at the supermarket for an absolute song the night before ... a good sized fillet steak discounted from shy of £8 down to just over £2 and some lovely lamb liver for literally peanuts; 75p for 400g.

Plates were dressed with some spinach, sliced tomato, capers and a drizzle of olive oil, grind of black pepper and a little Icelandic ash salt.

Fillet steak, simply seared, liver, too. Liver down first, fillet steak sliced and placed over, rare, naturally.

I also had a few chips and a blob of leftover guac alongside.

Paleo breakfasting at it's very best. Does it get any better?

Power Breakfast!

It doesn't get much better than this!

Liver, onion, bacon, seaweed and a MEGA-egg!

All power foods. Yes, bacon is a superfood ... honest.

Simply fry off some shredded onion in your favourite paleo fat - goose fat, for me.

Add in some reconstituted dried seaweed.

Toss in some lamb's liver and good outdoor reared bacon.

Sprinkle with chilli powder and serve over an egg.

How do you make an egg better? Make a MEGA-egg! Simply crack a fresh egg into collected egg whites (maybe you made some Hollandaise the other day) to make one huge egg.

That's it ... garnish with superfluous greenery if you like, otherwise dig in, be charged up and get about your day.

Keto-breakfasting at its very best!

Liver & Onions with a Mushroom Gravy and Wasabi Greens

... much the same as last time I showed you this, but with a thick mushroom gravy and wasabi greens.

Wasabi greens are the tops from wasabi root, with just a subtle horseradish flavour; perfect for offal and a meaty gravy!

The gravy can be made up from a simple stock cube or from leftover juices of a slow-cooked piece of beef - mine was from brisket.

Set it to simmer with some chopped mushrooms, maybe a little sea salt just to bring the right saltiness and flavour out, celery salt adds further flavour and black pepper gives it the bite.

Meanwhile, chop an onion and set it caramelising in some butter or ghee.

Once the onions are softened, coloured and really sweet, thicken the gravy (if necessary) with a little arrowroot or whisk in butter and get slices of liver frying off. The liver takes no time, so plate up while it's cooking through.

Onions down first, some gravy and most of the mushrooms, and some of the wasabi greens.

Lay the liver over the top, spooning more gravy over and a garnish of wasabi greens.

Boiled egg alongside, naturally.

Perfect breakfast!

Open Nordic Sandwich

The open sandwich can be found across Europe and Scandinavia, each nation bringing its own variation, but nowhere is it more celebrated than in Denmark where is it practically an institution.

The open sandwich, or open-faced sandwich, is a simple slice of bread topped with meat or fish, sometimes pâté, eggs, pickles and salad.

Originating perhaps as early as the 6th Century (according to Wiki) but certainly during the Middle Ages, the bread was in place of a plate and the food layed over, the bread eaten at the end.

As paleo eaters, we don't eat bread. I could have made up a loaf of nut/seed bread or even just gone for a less problematic slice of rye bread, but it's just as much fun to remove the bread altogether ... we have plates, afterall.

While many open-faced sandwiches are quite simple, based around one or two ingredients, I decided to go to the other extreme, to the quite ridiculous and load everything I could think of onto a plate. Actually, I was inspired by such a similar creation that I ate in Stockholm airport only a few days before.

So, your open-faced sandwich can be anything you want ... meat or fish, perhaps pâté, eggs, pickles and salad.

I went with some nice lettuce at each side of a rectangular plate.

Next, some smoked salmon and prawns in stripes.

Fill in the gaps with boiled egg, sliced, pickled beetroot, pickled gherkin, tomato, cucumber and pink grapefruit segments! Yes, pink grapefruit, a perfect accompaniment to smoked salmon.

Poke a few cubes of chicken liver pâté in and garnish with dill, lots of dill.

Yum!