Pickle Salad

Perhaps you, like me, have some jars of fermented pickles in your fridge that will not taste as delicious soon, and are finding it time to make a move on them. Perhaps you also, like me, ate too much hollandaise and eggs benedict for lunch and needed a lighter dinner. 😂 

Here then is a good move: Pickle Salad. I though about substituting pickles for cukes in a tabouli sort of salad, but then I did a search to see if any recipes would come up - one from Bon Appetit did, which I used as inspiration for this dish. I didn't have fennel though, and instead used parsley and tomatoes, meaning I still sort of went with the tabouli salad idea! I thought it was great, and will make it again, especially since I still have tomatoes turning red on the counter and fresh parsley in the fridge. The toasted walnuts and Parmesan are especially delicious in there.

• ½ cup walnuts
• 4 whole pickles, halved lengthwise, sliced crosswise into 1" pieces, plus 3 Tbsp. picklebrine 
• 3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp. honey or monkfruit sweetener
  
• ¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• ½ small white or red onion, thinly sliced
  
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper 
  
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved  
  1 banana pepper, finely chopped
• ½ cup parsley, shopped
  
• 2 oz. Parmesan, shaved
  
• Extra-virgin olive oil (for drizzling)
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Toast walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing once, until golden brown, 8–10 minutes. Let cool; coarsely chop.

Meanwhile, whisk pickle brine, vinegar, mustard, honey/sweetener, and red pepper flakes in a large bowl. Add onion and season with salt and pepper. Let sit to allow onion to soften slightly, at least 5 minutes and up to 15 minutes.

Add walnuts, pickles, tomatoes, pepper, parsley and Parmesan to dressing and toss to coat. Transfer salad to a large shallow bowl or platter (or individual bowls) and drizzle with oil.

Roasted Savoy Cabbage

I opted to pick my not full sized savoy cabbages before this recent snowfall and have several heads hanging out on the porch, along with the (now picked) beets and carrots and some kale. This week I did some more reading about fabric covering and hoop houses after watching a neighbor at my garden plot who very skillfully/simply employs such coverings. I am going to do that next year!! Very helpful to extend both front and back end gardening time. But, for this year we'll see how the remaining greens fare with the low night temps and snow sans cover. 

This recipe was simple - very similar to how I've cooked brussel sprouts before - and SO good. I tried this method with mini savoy heads that I thinned some weeks ago, that I halved or quartered, which was very brussel sprout like. In the high heat the outer leaves get brown and crispy and the inner leaves are soft and tender. Yum. 

Serves 1-4 depending on how much you want to eat and the size of your cabbage!

• 1 head Savoy cabbage
• 2 T olive oil (or other fat of choice, melted)
• salt and pepper
• lemon squeeze at end (opt)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. (I actually did mine a little hotter b/c I was cooking some fish at 450, so either works.) 

My quarters, or eighths maybe, falling apart

Quarter your cabbage and take out the core. Cut in half again. The pieces will start to fall apart. You can either just toss them up, or sort of keep them together. Pour olive oil/fat over the pieces to coat. I kept mine partially together and poured the oil over the side to penetrate the layers. (You could also have melted coconut oil or ghee and just stir everything together to coat everything.) Salt generously and sprinkle with pepper. 

Bake on a cookie sheet or baking tray for 15-20 minutes, checking once or twice to turn/toss pieces. I put my tray on the lowest oven rack to get direct bottom heat, which resulted in good browning. 

Once browned to your liking, remove from oven and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice. You could also top with parmesan cheese here?! I found it so delicious it was a little hard to stop. :) 

I ate mine with some tomatoes and the last basil, and fish that turned out really weird.

Beef Stew - Keto

There are so many beef stew recipes, at least a few on this blog alone. This NomNomPaleo one is lower carb & keto - no potatoes and limited carrots, and includes a good number of mushrooms. It was delicious, aided by the fact of cooking it on a wood stove amidst snow flurries up north after having hiked some miles. What would not be delicious under such circumstances?! I love something cooking on the woodstove, wafting up the house with good smells, especially after a walk or ski or whatever, requiring no other heat or energy source than what is already happening.

Here is a photo of an all important protective orange hat ("I am not a grouse!") with me underneath it. (The hunters I talked with were empty-handed. The grouse, presumably, were staying put with the snow.) This stew was SO good - lots of umami - the cremini mushrooms were a perfect texture/flavor addition, the turnips were creamy, and the meat melted in my mouth. I had two big bowls, where the broth was nice and shimmery with the fat. It was so satisfying.

This recipe is also easy. I didn't brown the meat, I didn't chop up tomatoes, or use wine. I followed the NomNomPaleo recipe, but she makes hers in an InstaPot. I used some broth in mine to compensate for the longer cooking time and need for more liquid; I also added some apple cider vinegar. With weather like today in Minneapolis (5 or 6 inches of snow!), this stew is all I want. 

*Note part of why I think this was so good is that I did use Michelle Tam's magic mushroom powder (that I also use on chicken). I highly recommend it - it adds an extra boost of mushroomy/umami goodness. 

Ingredients: serves 6-8

• 3 pounds beef chuck roast, boneless short ribs, or beef brisket cut into 1½- to 2-inch cubes
• Kosher salt or Magic Mushroom Powder
• 1 tablespoon ghee, avocado oil, or fat of choice
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 1 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and quartered
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 2 tablespoons tamari
• 1 teaspoon (Red Boat) Fish Sauce (I did a long pour on this tsp!)
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs
• 1 dried bay leaf
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 c beef/venison bone broth
• 2 turnips, diced (or daikon radish/sunchokes/any combo)
  
• 2 large carrots, diced
• ¼ cup Italian parsley, roughly chopped for serving
  

1. Toss beef cubes in salt (or magic mushroom powder) and set aside. 

2. Melt ghee/fat in a dutch oven or large pot. Add onions, and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and saute another 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and garlic, cook for several more minutes.

3. Add to the pot: the salted beef, tamari, fish sauce, apple cider vinegar, thyme, bay leaf, pepper, and bone broth. Bring to a boil, then set the heat to low and let simmer 2-3 hours, until beef is tender. You could also put it in a slow cooker, or move your pot to the wood stove, if you have one. 

4. 30 or so minutes before serving, add diced turnips and carrots to the stew. Continue simmering until they are soft. Taste for salt, and add more (or magic mushroom powder) until delicious. Ladle heaping chunks of meat and veggies into bowls, with just enough broth to sip at the end. Top with chopped parsley. Or sauerkraut. Or eat as is. 

Fermented Salsa

To add to the ferments of the season: fermented salsa is now one of my favorites! How did I not know this before? I pretty much never do traditional canning, which means the bottom of my fridge is full of jars of things since I have to store the ferments there instead of a pantry. I seem to have enough room, and it means I get so much more good bacteria! (My freezer holds the remaining berries and tomatoes and sauces.)

I made my first batch of salsa about a month ago, and it is still tasting great in the fridge. The online recipe inspiring this one says that the salsa lasts a couple of months in the fridge. So, this is not a long-term ferment (like kraut that will last for 2 years), but more a shorter-term one (similar, in my experience, to cucumber pickles). 

You can use whatever combination of salsa ingredients you like - my version is below based on what was in my garden and following salt recommendation from the link above. It is a much more liquid-y ferment due to the tomatoes and lime juice, and it doesn't take long - a few days or so on the counter. *I used the food processor for my first batch for everything but the tomatoes, which resulted in a thinner/saucier salsa. The 2nd time I chopped by hand and I like the texture better because everything is more uniform in size and more chunky.

Finely chop the following for 1 quart plus another pint of salsa:

• 2 pounds tomatoes
• 2 jalapenos
• 1 mild pepper
• 3-6 cloves garlic (mine were really big so I just used 3)
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 T salt 
• opt bunch of cilantro (I did not use because mine is mostly done in the garden)

I topped mine off with a horseradish leaf (or you can use an oak leaf) to increase tanin and keep things crisper, which I then use as the top to keep the ingredients submerged under the liquid. I don't know if the tanins are helpful here, but I did it anyway (you could also use a collard leaf or half pepper or whatever). In the photo you can see that for the pint jar I use a rock on top of the leaf, and for the quart jar I used this coil spring fermentation product I got at fleet farm a month or so ago. It works, and presses the ingredients down extra firmly once the lid is on (see photo above where it is just red liquid in the top 1/4 of the jar).

Let sit out 3-4 days, until the taste is to your liking, depending on temperatures. The warmer it is, the shorter fermentation time needed. Store in the fridge for up to 2 months. 

I ate some on a taco salad, and attempted to make little kale tacos another night, which were really tasty and a total mess: young kale leafs wrapped around meat, avocado and salsa filling.

Coconut Tilapia Chowder

This is another recipe courtesy of my pandemic podmate. She told me about this dish a few times over the years, and we finally made it (twice!) in the last several weeks. It's delicious, really easy, and very keto friendly. To me it is almost like an oyster stew - somehow the onions and the tilapia come together to be oyster-like. This soup is rich and delicious, with chunks of fish that sort of melt in your mouth.

I did my best to quantify these amounts. She says, "use enough paprika until it is the right amount of red" which you know, is less precise. 😂 See photo for redness - it is quite red!

 Ingredients (serves 3-4):

• 1/4-1/2 cup avocado or coconut oil
• 1 red onion, sliced thinly
• 2 roma (or other) tomatoes, chopped
• 2-3 T paprika
• 1 T chicken or beef boullion/stock flavoring
• 1 tsp "garlic and herb" seasoning 
• 1+ T black pepper
• 1 can coconut milk
• 3 tilapia fillets 
  
• salt to taste

Directions:

1. In a large pot, saute onions and spices in oil over medium heat. You are going for a saucy texture: you want plenty of oil, and will cook onions down 8-10 minutes. We started with about 1/4 c coconut oil and added some more as it cooked.

2. Add tomatoes. Cook until they soften, another 5 minutes.

3. Lay tilapia fillets in a single layer on top of onion sauce. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

4. Add coconut milk and turn the heat to low. The tilapia will have broken apart in large chunks in the soup. Stir gently to mix the coconut milk with sauce. Heat through for flavors to blend, and add more paprika to get to the "right amount of red." Salt to taste (this soup can handle a lot of salt, so don't be shy!) and serve.

Keto Savory Porridge with Dukkah, Eggs and Greens

I wanted to make a keto/paleo porridge that was more like kongee or grits - a creamy, savory sort of breakfast porridge to have with eggs and greens. It was so successful! Such that I will also use this for my liver on grits recipe that I keep wanting to make again. Yum. This is modified from a sweeter "fauxt-meal" recipe that I ended up liking better than the recent one I posted because it is less chia-pudding like and more toothsome. I happened to have homemade dukkah spice (an Egyptian roasted nut, sesame seed and spice mix that is ground up) that I used for this that was stellar, but you could also use ground up pumpkin seeds or ground sunflower seeds, or another nut, no problem. The latter would also give less flavor, allowing you to top this with seaweed and kimchi and get other flavor profiles. I include an easy dukkah recipe below.

• 2 T dukkah spice (or ground up pumpkin/sunflower seeds or nuts)
• 1 T chia seeds
  
• 1 T ground flax seed
• 1 tsp sunbutter
  
• 1 tsp almond flour
  
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 c water
•  2T butter

Directions: Add everything but butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer and stir frequently. After a few minutes and as porridge is thickening, add butter. Stir and turn off heat. Let sit several minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Serve with 6 minute eggs and greens, or whatever other savory toppings you like. My greens were just chopped up kale and onion, sauteed in coconut oil. I cooked them with a bit of water to soften things.

Dukkah spice - Typically this would include hazelnuts, or I've used pistachios, but you can use whatever you have on hand. I always have pumpkin seeds, and that is what I made most recently. This mix is good on just about anything: veggies, fish, salad, etc.

Ingredients

• ½ cup hazelnuts (or other nut or pumpkin seeds) 
• ⅓ cup sesame seeds 
• ¼ cup whole coriander seeds 
• 2 tablespoons cumin seeds 
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt or sea salt 
• 1½ teaspoons black peppercorns

Toast nuts and seeds separately on a cast iron skillet until they are brown or starting to pop - each will roast for different lengths of time, hence doing them separately and not together. If using hazelnuts, after toasting, rub them with a kitchen towel to try to remove the outer skin as much as possible.

Put all ingredients in a spice grinder (I use a coffee grinder) and blend until the texture is coarse crumbs. You could also do this in a mortar and pestle if you have one. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge. Makes about 1 1/4 cups.