Sweet potato, garlic and herb bread (dairy, soy free)

I found a recipe for potato bread, Italian style with garlic and herbs. This sat in my bookmarks for months till I had the time to try it out. I didn't really stick to the recipe but it became a huge hit. So  I started thinking what can I do to make it better. First I have kilos of homegrown sweet potatoes, so I decided to use them instead of the regular ones. For the herbs I use what I have at hand at the moment.

And this bread turned out really beautifully.

I used one orange sweet potato and a white one. Taste wise I don't think there would be any difference either way, but the orange one gives it a beautiful color.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potato
1 cup integral wheat flour
1 cup brown wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 yeast (live one) + 1cup oat milk, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon brown flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dry oregano
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil for brushing on top

Instructions:
1. Cook the sweet potatoes for about 30 minutes, drain the water and mash them.
2. Put the yeast in a cup of warm water or oat milk. Add one teaspoon of sugar and one of flour and wait until it rises.
3. In a bowl where you mashed the potatoes (they don't have to be completely cooled off) add the flour, salt, olive oil, yeast and the herbs and knead the dough for 3-5 minutes.
4. Leave the dough to rise for about 30 minutes then put in an greased pan.
5. Bake for 30-45 minutes at 150-200 degrees Centigrade.

One final note, this bread goes whit everything salty. It is a bit to strong for jam or  chocolate spreads. What I would strongly recommend is making my homemade pate. 

Paleo pate II (gluten, dairy, milk free and adjusted for consuments with gastric issues)

I already published one recipe for pate on this blog some time back but I wanted to publish this one as a spin to the prior one.

As I was having trouble with gastritis and GERD recently I had to omit the mayonnaise I used to use for the period of time when my stomach has this inflammation in the acute and painful form.
Also the use of very fatty goose liver was out of the question. Coconut oil is my favorite thing in the world but it can irritate the irritated stomach lining even more, so it too had to go.

Sometimes I use to add onions and garlic to the "old pate" when blending, this I kept as it adds a lot of flavor, but again to adjust it to my current needs  I just pop it in the hot water with the rest of the ingredients and let them simmer as well. This does take a lot of the nutrients from them, but it also takes the irritants.

The final product

As a replacement for the coconut oil I add extra virgin olive oil. The quality of this oil will affect the taste a lot. I love the "grassy" tasting, not to bitter olive oil.
The making of the mayo itself is very simple. You cook the meat and vegetables and put them with the rest of the ingredients into a blender and blend.

INGREDIENTS:

• chicken liver (from one chicken is enough)
• meat from one half of chicken breast
• two larger carrots
• one large onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp tahini paste (this is optional, but I recommend adding it for the creamy texture)
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric (optional, I add it for the health benefits and the color)

PREPARATION:

• boil the meat, liver, vegetables for about 20 minutes.
• put in a food processor and add oil, blend for 1 minute, then add the rest of the ingredients and blend thoroughly for 3 minutes.
• store in a refrigerator for up to 4 days.

This pate is different by taste from the first pate recipe on the blog so you can use it when you need a change or as I do, when you need something lighter for your stomach.

Chewy almond butter cups (gluten free, dairy free)

This is a recipe for something fast and furious. It doesn't take long to make and can help with any kind of sweet tooth or crave out there.
Also it's dairy free, and if you use paleo chocolate it can be sugar free. I use regular cooking chocolate with high percent of cocoa (54%).

 Our 4 year old loves this and as he is allergic to soy and dairy this is a perfect treat for him. It's homemade jet totally has a store bought candy feel to it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup almonds (optional: roasted)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 100 gr chocolate (paleo if you can get it, or at least one with high percent of cocoa)

PREPARATION:

•  In a food processor grind the almonds and then add the coconut oil and blend until you get almond butter (liquid as in the picture-at room temperature).
• Melt chocolate in double broiler, or microwave oven.
• In paper cup put chocolate to cover bottom, then put it in a freezer for about 10 minutes
• Next add in every cup about one tbsp of almond butter and cover with the remaining melted chocolate.
• Put in fridge for about 1-2 hours.

Enjoy!

Olive oil mayo and horseradish sauce

I promised to post this a while ago. This is the basis for many sauces and can immediately improve any meal.

The recipe is very simple. But it does require some kind of a blender.

INGREDIENTS:

1 egg
1 lemon
1 tsp ground yellow mustard
1/3 tsp salt
1 cup olive oil

PREPARATION:

Put all of the ingredients except the olive oil in a blender. Add in one third of the olive oil and blend shortly. Then add in the rest of the olive oil as slowly as you can while blending. An emulsion will start to form and thicken. When you added all of the olive oil the mayo is finished. Put it in a fridge and use it up in maximum 5 days.

When using home grown eggs you don't have to pasteurize them, but when using store bought you do. Instructions on how to pasteurize eggs without coagulation can be found online.

Also I want to add that the oil you use doesn't have to be olive oil, especially if you are not accustomed to it. But up until now olive oil is the only oil I can get that is cold pressed and not processed.

Paleo Lemon Curd Tart (sugar, dairy and gluten free)

When you buy new silicone molds you naturally have to try them out. So I found dozens of recipes for tarts I liked and then chose out of them 4 for lemon tarts. Took out of them parts I liked and paleolized them to get this beautifully light and delicious dessert.

For the crust:

• 1 cup almonds
• ½ cup coconut flour/flakes
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup coconut oil (cold)
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon ground vanilla

Roast almonds quickly in a skillet (optional) and grind them in a food processor. Coconut flakes can be ground in a coffee grinder and added to the mixture and in also the salt, soda and vanilla and mix. Then add in the egg, honey and the oil, mix shortly. A ball of dough will form. Press it with fingers into one large pie mold or six small tart ones like I did and stab the bottom with a fork. Bake it at 170 C for about 20 minutes (the middle has to be baked without the edges being burned).

For the lemon curd:

• 5 eggs
• Juice from (1 lemon + 1 orange)
• 5 tbsp honey
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp gelatin

Combine eggs,  juice, honey and coconut milk. Gently heat stirring constantly. Stir until thick (3-5 minutes). Soak gelatin in 1 tsp cold water. Stir into curd mix. Spread the curd mix into the baked crust and let cool. Sprinkle with cinnamon (optional).

Eingemachtes soup with paleo dumplings (the best comfort food ever)

This is a perfect recipe for winter time. Especially this winter that has been overwhelming us with viral diseases, especially colds and the flu. 

When down with a cold there is no better then chicken soup and this is just it, the best chicken soup you'll ever taste.

I make it with what ever parts of a chicken I have around, be it chicken liver, heart, the so called lesser parts, or the "better" parts. But I do try and put enough meat so that it can stand as a selfsufficient meal. Also for the vegetables it's the more the merrier rule. So what ever you have around, fresh or frozen goes.

INGREDIENTS:

250 gr of chicken meat
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
100 gr of peas
1 small cauliflower
1 small broccoli
2 garlic cloves
1 medium onion
1/2 celery root
2 carrots
1 small spoon of lard
thyme
salt
+ anything that comes to mind, vegetable vise
OPTIONAL:
1 egg
2 spoons of tapioca flour
olive oil


INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Chop the onion into medium pieces, and  fry it on the lard until translucent
2. Add in the chicken meat and fry for a minute or two.
3. Add in all of the vegetables chopped into medium pieces and put the lid on the pot. After about 5 minutes, when all of the vegetables has started to loose it's juices add in about 1dcl of chicken stock or water and simmer.
4. This has to gently for about 45 minutes and then you can add enough stock to make it into as much soup as you want (it will be thick enough with out any flour) add in the salt to taste and some thyme.
5. OPTIONAL: make dumplings from one egg, 2 spoons of tapioca flour, little salt and little thyme and spoon them in. They will be cooked very quickly, as soon as they come out to the surface they are done.
6. OPTIONAL: Slice garlic into thin slices and roast it on some olive oil and sprinkle it on the soup before serving.


This will definitely make you feel you lot better when you need any kind of comfort food. :)

Paleo Pate (dairy, gluten, soy and sugar free)

So, PATE! I have never been a huge lover of store bought pate. It just doesn't sit with me, the mush of things I can not identify and the probability of them being toxic.

As our son is allergic to dairy and soy proteins he could have never tried it any way because every commercially available pate that I checked contained either of this two proteins, as well as sugar and additives. And the meat and/or the liver that they put in it I are neither meat nor liver.

Industrial pate also contains a lot of fat, so OK, we have nothing against animal fat WHEN it is home raised. Industrial animals unfortunately are fed with a lot of things one would never think of putting in their mouth in normal conditions, and all that poison is best gathered in the fat parts of the animal. Why? because it is most soluble in the fat. There is not a one plus why one would eat this industrial kind of a leftover mush.

I never ventured into making it at home before because I believed it to be complicated...and expensive. Well, it is neither!

Before the recipe itself  I wanted to add few more comment. As I have been away from the blog for some time we added some new changes to our cooking. We stopped using traditional salt altogether and are now using only Himalayan salt. This is something I wanted to do for a while now, but dreaded the added expense. But there is none. It is a bit more expensive, but the expense of using Himalayan comes down to 21 kn per month....(the price of 1/2kg), really not much if you include all of the added benefits (Himalayan salt).


INGREDIENTS

• 30 dkg  chicken breast
• 20 dkg goose liver (or any kind of poultry liver)
• 2 medium carrots (cut into chunks)
• 2 Tbsp tahini paste (this is optional; I used Alnatura, which is made from organic sesame without anything else added; If you own a high speed blender make it yourself) 
• 2 Tbsp home made olive oil mayonnaise (this too is optional; will give a recipe in one of the following blog posts)
• Himalayan salt
• Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

• In a salted, boiling water place the meat, the liver and the carrots, and cook for about 30 minutes.
• Place the cooked and drained meat, liver and carrots in a blender and blend until smooth.
• Add in the tahini paste, salt and pepper to taste and blend.
• Add in the mayo (it has to be room temperature or the mayo will separate) and blend.