Vietnamese Stuffed Tomatoes - Ca Chua Nhoi Thit

I couldn't get a good after pic worthy of displaying as the first pic for this recipe. Seriously though, I can't believe I haven't made these before. And for those reading, I have a special treat for you: the filling for these tomatoes is...wait for it...the same as the filling for my Vietnamese egg rolls! Ta-da!!

Really though, this is another one of those very traditional Vietnamese dishes that you'll very rarely find in a restaurant. And, ugh, I always feel lame typing this, but if you skip the bean thread noodles like I did, this is a paleo-friendly dish.

INGREDIENTS

- 1 lb ground pork

- 1/2 lb the cheapest (smallest) raw shrimp sold at the seafood counter

- 1 tsp fish sauce (and add'l to taste)

- 1 tsp honey

- 1 tsp ground pepper

- 2 tbsp diced shallots

- 1/4 cup woodear mushrooms, dried (sometimes labeled in Asian grocery stores as "black fungus")

- 1 bunch of bean thread noodles

- 4 large beefsteak tomatoes

- 1 tbsp minced garlic

DIRECTIONS

1) Fill two separate bowls with warm water. In one bowl, place the dried mushrooms. In the other, place the dried bean thread noodles. Here's a pic of what the dried mushrooms look like before and after they've been re-hydrated.

2) Coursely chop the shrimp and place in a bowl.

3) Add pork and all other ingredients except the tomatoes and garlic into the bowl with the shrimp. (If you wanna splurge, feel free to substitute with crab meat here!) 

4) Mix with your hands until ingredients are blended. (Get messy!!) Set aside.

5) Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally, and core out the insides, placing the pulp in a medium sized bowl.

6) Using a potato masher, mash the tomato pulp so that there are no longer any large chunks. Set aside.

7) Scoop the pork meat into the tomatoes so that they heap over the tomato just a bit (less than a centimeter. See very first picture.)

8) In a pan, toss in the oil and garlic and sauté two minutes.

9) Place the tomatoes in, meat facing down so that it browns first. Pour in the tomato pulp around the edges of the tomatoes. (I had some extra meat that wouldn't fit into a tomato so I just cooked it like a meatball.)

10) Cook on medium high for about 15 minutes, covered.

11) Flip the tomatoes ONCE (carefully) and continue to cook for another five minutes, uncovered.

12) When the meat is done, remove the tomatoes and continue to reduce the sauce until a decent layer covers the back of a spoon.

13) when the sauce is done, spoon some on top of the tomatoes and serve!

Green Papaya Salad with Grilled Steak

This is Bobby Flay's take on a Vietnamese staple. I made a few changed to his recipe, using my own version of Nuoc Cham as the salad dressing. The recipe is a bit labor intensive (julienning the papaya taking the most time), but you get a refreshing result. A great salad for a summer night.

Steak Marinade

 

- 4 cloves garlic, chopped

- 1 Thai chile pepper, chopped

- 2 tbsp soy sauce

- 1 tbsp fresh lime juice

- 2 tbsp honey

- 1/4 cup oil

- 1.5 lb beef (tenderloin is a good choice)

1) Place all ingredients in a bag and marinate for 30-60 min.

Nuoc Cham (aka Viet Dipping Sauce)

- 3 tbsp fresh like juice

- 2 tbsp honey

- 1/2 cup water

- 2.5 tbsp fish sauce

- 1 small garlic clove, crushed

1) Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Let sot for at least 30 min. Makes 3/4 cup.

Papaya Salad Ingredients

- 1 whole green papaya, julienned

- a bunch of watercress, chopped

- half a cucumber, chopped

- fresh cilantro for garnishing

- 1 whole avocado, sliced

RECIPE DIRECTIONS

Ever seen a green papaya?

1) Peel the papaya, then chop it in half. Here's what you'll see...

2) Scoop out the seeds, and with your julienne tool, julienne the papaya so that you get a big pile of spaghetti looking strings.

3) Pour 2/3 of the dressing over the papaya. This will sweat the papaya a bit (water will release from the papaya itself.

4) Cook the steak on your favorite iron skillet to a beautiful rare. (Or, if you're a chicken, medium rare. Anything more done than that you probably shouldn't even be reading this blog.)

5) When the steak is done, set aside to 5 minutes on a plate. (It's still cooking.)

6) Add watercress, cucumber and cilantro to the papaya. Mix it all together. (Don't be afraid to use your hands.)

7) Plate the papaya salad, making sure to let any excess dressing drop off before placing it on your plate or in your bowl.

8) Ice the avocado and steak and arrange on top of the salad.

9) Drizzle the remaining dressing on the salad, and enjoy!

Thai Coconut Soup

This soup is AWESOME...maybe one of my favorite soups to date. (And, bore, it's also paleo-friendly, assuming of course, that you have paleo-friendly fish sauce. Red Boat Brand Fish Sauce, found at many Asian grocery stores, is just that!)

INGREDIENTS

- 1 lb. shrimp, shell on

- 1 bone-in chicken thigh (skinless)

- 3 bok choy plants, chopped

- 1/2 lb. shiitake mushrooms, sliced

- 4 cups chicken broth 

- 3 tbsp fish sauce

- 3 (13.5 oz) cans coconut milk

- 1 lemongrass stalk

- 2 tbsp ginger, grated

- 1 tbsp red curry paste

- 1 tbsp. honey

- 2 tbsp lime juice (juice from one whole lime)

- fresh cilantro, chopped

- avocado, sliced

A note about shrimp shells before I start. You will never know me to buy shrimp without shells. I'm an avid believer of using as much of an animal as you can, not just because it makes me feel better (and because I'm frugal), but rather there's usually always a good use for each part of the animal. The shells of shrimp, much like the bones of chicken or beef or pork, have a TON of flavor. And if you want to make a flavor-filled stock and soup, make sure to use shrimp shells! More on how below...

DIRECTIONS

1) Peel the shrimp and set aside the shells. Devein the shrimp and set aside in a small bowl.

2) In a large dutch oven, pour in a little oil and heat to medium high. Place the chicken thigh in the middle of the pot, along with the shrimp shells. 

3) Brown the chicken, while tossing the shrimp shells, which should start to turn pink. Do this for about 4-5 minutes.

4) Chop the top part of the lemongrass stalk off, using the bottom 4-5 inches. Slice the stalk in half, lengthwise.

4) Add the grated ginger, curry paste, and lemongrass stalk and stir so that it covers all the shells and chicken thigh. Sauté until fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.

5) Slowly pour in the chicken broth and stir, making sure to get any bits from the bottom of the pan. Heat until boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Simmer this broth for about 20 minutes.

6) Strain the stock so that all the shells are removed. Pour the stock back into the Dutch oven, along with the chicken thigh.

7) Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, honey, sliced mushrooms and simmer for another 15 minutes. Taste the broth and adjust accordingly, remembering that it'll be a bit tart once the lime juice is added.

8) Add the shrimp, bok choy and lime juice.

9) Remove the chicken thigh and cut off the meat, throwing the pieces back into the pot.

9) Serve with freshly chopped cilantro and sliced avocado. (Winner gets the chicken thigh bone!)

Paleo Buffalo Wings with Ranch Dressing

I just had a craving for wings, and in keeping with our attempt at a paleo diet, I fried these in natural lard (yes, LARD, and guess what? It's not that bad for you!!) and used Frank's Buffalo wing sauce. In addition, get this, I made my own mayo, which I used to make a ranch dressing.

Paleo Mayonnaise - so easy to make!!

- 2 eggs at room temperature

- 1 cup paleo-friendly oil (I used avocado oil, but next time I'll probably try coconut oil)

- 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard

- 2.5 tsp apple cider vinegar

Place all ingredients into tall plastic glass, allowing the oil to flow to the top.

Using an immersion (stick) blender, start blending the ingredients from the bottom up. When you start seeing the mayo form at the bottom of the cup, start pulling the blender up turning the whole mix intoayo. It's that simple!!

Paleo Ranch Dressing

- 1/2 cup paleo mayo

- 1/2 cup coconut milk

- 1/2 tsp onion powder

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 1 tsp dill

Whisk all ingredients together and refrigerate for a half hour before using.

Buffalo Wings

Before I start this recipe, I want to say a little bit about natural lard. Lard in general has gotten a really bad reputation. But the more studies that are done, the more people are realizing that if you use the real stuff, it's not that bad for you. When I say "real stuff", I mean rendered pork fat from an ethnic grocery store - from behind the counter. The main problem with lard that you get in a regular grocery store is that it's hydrogenated. Processing lard in this fashion makes it bad for you, because it produces trans fats. Natural lard (non-hydrogenated) has less saturated fat (the bad kind) and more unsaturated fat (the good kind) and less cholesterol than an equal amount of butter by weight.

Also, from a merely epicurean standpoint, cooking with LARD is awesome. There's a crispiness you get with lard that you just can't get with any other type of oil I've ever cooked with, including peanut oil. (Plus, unless I want to kill Jonathan, I can't use peanut oil anymore. Lame.)

The problem is finding natural lard. It's actually not as hard as you'd think. If you find yourself Hispanic grocery store, or a place that sells FRESH pork rinds, likelihood is they have fresh lard. (Lard is just the rendered fat from the pork rinds.) The Hispanic grocery stores call it "Manteca", and it's really cheap. I get mine at the Buford Hwy Farmer's Market in Atlanta for less than $3 a quart.

- 14-15 whole wings (connected, meaning flats and drums together)

- 2 qts NATURAL lard

- 1 large jar Franks Buffalo Wing Sauce

1) Heat the lard up in a Dutch oven to 350 degrees.

2) Place half the wings in and fry for about 10 minutes. Remove and fry second batch.

3) Dip the wings in the wing sauce, and then fry AGAIN for another 6-7 minutes, or until crispy.

4) Remove the wings and douse them again in the wing sauce before serving.

Crockpot Paleo Spaghetti and Meatballs

Ok. It's not a great picture...but I promise it was tasty! 

I've been looking for an excuse to use Jonathan's slow cooker, and came across this recipe on Pinterest. I had to make a few adjustments (like who has almond meal just laying around the house?) But overall this is a pretty food recipe for meatballs.

INGREDIENTS

For Sauce

- 1 medium spaghetti squash, cut in half

- 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

- 1 15 oz can tomato sauce

- 2 tbsp Italian seasoning

- 1 tsp salt

- 1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced

For Meatballs

- 1 lb. ground beef

- 1 lb sweet Italian sausage

- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

- 1/4 cup ground pistachios (original recipe called for the same amount of almond meal, but I only had pistachios on hand so I ground them up in a blender until I got a flour-like consistency)

- 1.5 tbsp Italian seasoning

- 2 eggs

1) Mix the ingredients for the sauce (except for the onions and spaghetti squash) in a large bowl. (Feel free to taste, but remember that when it cooks with the meatballs, it'll be a lot tastier.)

2) Mix ingredients together for the meatballs. Roll them into large balls, about an inch and a half in diameter. It should make about 12 meatballs.

3) Line the bottom of the crockpot with the thinly sliced onions. Place the two halves of spaghetti squash, open-side down. (Am I totally immature of does that picture make you laugh too?)

4) Pour in some sauce and them gently start placing the meatballs in, anywhere they'll fit. When I had to start stacking. Them, I poured a later of sauce between the meatballs. I don't know fitbit actually helped in making them not stick to one another, but I like to think it did.

5) Cover and cook for 6 hours on medium or high.

6) Be careful pulling out the spaghetti squash, it'll be soft. You can either scoop out the insides (the "pasta") and serve it in a bowl, or just pour some sauce into the cavity and use the squash itself as a bowl. I opted for the former.

I was really afraid the sauce would be bland, but after 6 hours of cooking along with the meatballs, it came out thick and tasty. I'll definitely be making this again!

Meatless Monday: Homemade Veggie Burgers

Oh, the things you do for love.

I've never loved veggie burgers. Why would I?! Especially when I can run to Mickey Dees and get a McDouble on the dollar menu? And yes, I said "McDouble" and not Double Cheeseburger because I believe the extra slice of cheese that comes on a Double Cheeseburger (which costs you an extra $0.30) really throws off the meat to cheese ratio. Give me twice patties and ONE slice of cheese instead of two patties and TWO slices of cheese any day.

But alas, Jonathan and I are trying this whole Meatless Monday thing, so I googled veggie burger recipes and this one had great reviews. Up until this burger, the only veggie burger I deemed worthy of respect was from Houston's - a great chain restaurant. Not to brag, but this one rivals that. It's got a Mexican flair to it, though. Next time, I might nix the cayenne pepper. I love spicy food, but spice to the point that it drowns out flavor is never good.

And in case you didn't know, because I didn't, "millet" can be found in the organic hippie section of your grocery store. It's a seed, I think...something birds eat. (No seriously, it's what you feed birds. Again, the things you do for love.) It's gluten free, cooks like quinoa, but a lot cheaper.

Oh, and the side dish is sautéed kale with mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil and fresh garlic.

VEGGIE BURGER INGREDIENTS

• 1½ sweet potatoes
• ⅓ cup millet
• 1 cup old fashioned oats (use certified gluten-free oats if you are avoiding gluten)
• 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained (or 2 cups cooked black beans)
• ½ small red onion, diced
• ½ cup lightly packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon chipotle powder or smoked hot paprika
• ½ teaspoon cayenne powder (optional, to taste)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• High quality vegetable oil for cooking burgers (or coconut oil, if you don't mind the coconut taste, olive oil may burn)
• 8 whole wheat hamburger buns (optional)
• your favorite burger fixings (avocado or guacamole, tomato or pico de gallo, lettuce, sprouts, ketchup, hot sauce, mustard, pickles, cheese)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Chop up the sweet potatoes and boil them until soft. Remove from water and mash them. Set aside to cool completely.
2. Cook the millet: In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup of water to boil. Stir in the millet, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until tender (about 25 minutes). Drain off any remaining liquid and set aside to cool.
3. Grind the oats: Use a food processor or blender to grind the oats until the flakes are broken up, but not as fine as flour.
4. Mix the burgers: In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your electric mixer, combine the cooled sweet potatoes and millet, black beans, onion, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, chipotle or paprika, cayenne (optional, add to taste for spicier burgers) and salt. Use a potato masher, big mixing spoon or the paddle attachment of your mixer to mix really well. It's ok if the black beans get smashed in the process.
5. Mix in the oats: Sprinkle the ground oats over the mixture and mix well with a big spoon until the mixture holds together when you shape a portion into a patty. If possible, cover and refrigerate the mixture for best results (the patties will hold together better during cooking if they are chilled first).
6. Shape the burgers: Use a measuring cup to measure out ½ cup of the mixture. Gently shape it into a patty about 3½ inches in diameter. Use your hands to gently flatten the burgers and smooth out any jagged edges. Repeat the process for each patty; you should end up with 8. If you would like to toast your hamburger buns, preheat the oven to 350 degrees now.
7. Pan fry the burgers: Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large cast iron or non-stick skillet over medium heat. When it's hot, place several burgers in the pan, leaving enough room to flip them. Cook each patty until browned and heated through, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet for each pan of burgers you fry.
8. Toast the buns (optional): Place the buns on a baking sheet, cut sides up, and bake until lightly toasted, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Frittata

So in an effort to eat as "paleo" as possible, last night I made a frittata, which is a fancy word for crustless quiche, which is fancy for baked egg scramble. 

When I was visiting NYC once, my wonderful sister took me to Bouchon, where I tasted the most delicious quiche I've ever tried in my life. Haha, this doesn't even come close. However, in researching Bouchon's recipe, I tried to pick up some tips.

This is a great recipe to use leftover meats or whatever random veggies you have in your fridge. This one included kale, asparagus and sausage. I ended up topping it with some slices avocado and salsa verde and it was ridiculously tasty!

INGREDIENTS:

- 6 eggs, yolks and whites separated

- 1/4 cup half and half

- 1/2 lb. sausage

- 10-12 stalks asparagus, chopped into inch-long pieces

- 3 large handfuls of chopped kale

- 1/2 sweet onion, chopped

- 1 tomato, sliced

- 1/3 cup feta cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350. In a large iron skillet, sauté the sausage until no longer pink.

2) Add asparagus, onions, kale and cheese and sauté until soft. Remove skillet from heat and set aside.

3) Separate the eggs, one small bowl with the yolks, a larger one with the white.

4) Add the half and half, along with some salt and pepper, to the yolks and mix.

5) With an electric mixer, or your own hands in you dare, beat the egg whites until they form stuff peaks.

6) When the egg whites have formed peaks, carefully FOLD in the yolk mixture with a large spatula. Be careful not to mix  too well. You want the egg whites to still have a somewhat fluffy consistency. This will give you a fluffier soufflé-like end-result.

7) Carefully pour the egg mixture into the iron skillet. Again, carefully FOLD the meat and veggies into the egg mixture, still trying to maintain some of the airy-fluffiness.

8) Top the mixture with slices of tomato. Here's a pic of what it looked like before I put it in the oven.

9) Bake for 20 minutes.

10) Slice and serve with sliced avocado and salsa.