Day 5 - New Zealand - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

I can list the things I know about New Zealand cuisine on one hand:

1. Vegemite
2. Pinot Noir
3. Sauvignon Blanc
4. Livestock

Ok, I didn't even need the whole hand... and half of what I knew was wine related. This was basically a blank slate for me. I figured that there would be a big meaty factor to my dish as they are known for having a lot livestock and that I would pair it with a wine.



Marlborough (the big wine region in NZ) is mostly known for their Sauvignon Blanc. However, that is not a white to have with a red meat so I knew I'd have to go red. I popped into Bevmo and picked up a Marlborough Pinot Noir... and then another because the 5 Cent Sale was going on... and then 7 more bottles of wine. I mean... NZ isn't the only wine country. I figured I'd stock up. Also... 5 Cent Sale!!! That mixes my two weaknesses: sales and wine. Damn you BevMo!

I was really excited with what I was finding about NZ cuisine. As I figured, there were a lot of meaty dishes. There was also a lot of overlap with Australia (a problem I found a lot when doing the South American countries last year). I ended up going with meat pies and, of course, when I looked specifically into it, my recipe was actually from Australia. It's interesting to me what spills over with similar countries -and even moreso with the fact that this does not happen as much in Europe where countries are smaller and closer together. I figure it's a history thing - the older countries developed more independently whereas the newer countries take a lot of their roots from their founding country. I mean - meat pies are really English after all.

For this recipe, I stuck super close to the filling. I added some extra carrots because it seemed celery heavy. I also added extra bacon.. because it's bacon. For the beef... I didn't know what beef mince was so I just got some stew meat and cut it into tiny pieces. Of course, I came home and looked at the picture and realized it was ground beef. I like my choice better and I think it only added to the quality and taste. I also went a little nuts with the dried herbs adding parsley, thyme, sage, coriander, and cumin so there was a very rich flavor.

I ended up having a lot of trouble with the crust though. I originally bought a pack of mozzarella cheese from the grocery store. It was some non fat store brand poor quality cheese and it turned to plastic when I tried to melt it in the microwave. I can't even tell you how disgusted that makes me. I noticed that the concept of the cheese based crust though wasn't very different than how I make cheese bread tho so  I decided to try again with a new plan.

I ended up mixing a half pack of cream cheese, 3 cups of high quality Kerrygold grass fed cheddar, 2 eggs, and the almond flour in a food processor. The result was an ooey gooey blob. Normally when I make cheese bread, there is tapioca flour and milk as well and it ends up liquefying in the food processor. I needed this to be a solid though so I could form a crust. Dan luckily helped sprinkle tapioca flour into my blob while I kneaded it until it was a doughy consistency. I then molded it into my muffin tin and started filling those suckers.

I suffer from a condition called "trying to make more than you have the materials for" and figured I easily had enough dough for 12 pies. And I did... if you don't count the top crust. I stretched a little bit of dough a long way to cover some of these pies and some of them... well, they wouldn't win me any cooking challenges.

Pies only a mother could love

They smelled amazing though and I was excited to pop them out, take some pretty pictures and then pack them up. Dan and I had a movie date and I knew I could smuggle my meat pies and wine into the theater. They make a perfect meal and were so filling that 3 were plenty for a dinner.

The wine is really tasty as well. I got the Curious Kiwi Pinot Noir. It's a little more fruit forward and vibrant than I'm used to from a Pinot and I would probably think it was a light Zin if I had to guess. It's really good though the boldness of it helps it stand up to such a meaty dish.

Puppy wants one REAL bad

The pies basically taste like beef stew inside Brazilian cheese bread. I mean... that's basically exactly what they are. They are just the perfect little primal all in one meal pocket though and I would love to make these for a tailgate or something.

Also - Jurassic World was AWESOME. 

Day 4 - Korea - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

I'm going to say something kind of controversial... I don't like Korean food.

Ok, I'm glad I got that off my chest. Despite not liking Korean food though - I still added to my list. This challenge isn't about eating what I like or could have every day. It's about pushing the boundaries, trying new things, and opening my experiences. So while I may not opt for the kimchi or Korean short ribs, I can't imagine not finding anything I'd be willing to try to make.

I did a little Pinterest search for Paleo Korean food and came across this recipe which seemed perfect.

Looking at it, it's obviously not Paleo but the idea was there so I decided to go with it. I replaced the sugar with a tablespoon of honey. I left out the sesame oil because I have a mild allergy to it. For the chili garlic sauce, I was a little stumped. I figured I could find something at the grocery store and the best I came up with was a chili lime garlic marinade. Reading the ingredients was disapointing but I figured it would be ok in such a small quantity in the sauce and I wanted the flavors to be right.

I added the sauce mixture to my ground beef and put in on low in the crock pot for 4 hours. During that time I thought about this chili lime sauce debacle again. It seemed to weird to have a marinade as the ingredient. And then I looked at the picture in the recipe... and there was clearly a bottle or sriracha in the background. Well, that made more sense. While I know using sriracha would have made it taste better and more authentic, it's probably better I made the mix up as Dan doesn't like spicy food. 

The nice thing is that I was able to add it as a topping! I also chopped up some green and red onions, cucumber, and grated some carrots.

This was all served on leaves of Romaine lettuce. I really just loved how all of the colors from the veggies made everything pop! My favorite thing about eating Paleo is how colorful fresh vegetables are.

I also added a little sriracha on top. I definitely feel like that would have made this dish just fantastic. The beef turned out ok but I know it was that over processed marinade that kept it from being better. 

All in all though, I really liked this dish. The previous few days had a lot of heavy food so having something that was mostly vegetable was a nice change. Maybe Korean food isn't so bad after all? I have some friends who really want to get Korean BBQ. I'm a lot more open to going with them now!

Day 3 - Sweden - World Cup Eating Challenge

It's kind of nice going into a country and having at least a little knowledge of their cuisine. I knew I was going to make Swedish meatballs. Sometimes this challenge can be a little daunting though and when we passed Ikea on the way to Costco, I so badly wanted to park and run in and get meatballs.

Swedish Meatballs

I saw this recipe for Swedish meatballs and knew I wanted to do it. I decided to start with pre-made meatballs. I actually had a big challenge finding some that were gluten free though. I know brands like Adele's usually has some but lately I've only been finding the wacky flavors and that wouldn't work for this challenge. 

The first step was just to get them heated up (since they were already cooked). I was able to just leave them in the oven while I made the sauce. For that, I did some Pale substitutions, of course. I used tapioca flour as my thickener and coconut cream instead of regular. Mine was a little more liquidy since I added too much cream and stock. 

All together though, it tasted awesome! I think the meatballs may have had quite a bit of their own flavor already but the sauce was super tasty. I might hold onto it as a gravy base for other dishes!

Cream and Dill Potatoes

The creamy potatoes were kind of interesting to me. I had thought it was going to be a sort of potato salad. Then I looked through the rest of the recipe and realized there is never a place where you cool it down. They actually turned out more like potatoes in an alfredo sauce. It was a really interesting flavor profile and with a pinch salt, they were pretty tasty. I sometimes have issues with food that doesn't taste the way that I expect it too though so it took me a minute to get around that. 

As usual, I made substitutions here - coconut milk for cream, almond milk for milk, and tapioca starch for flour. This worked well but definitely but the sauce on the sweeter end so I made sure to balance it with salt and pepper.

One thing that I ask myself sometimes is how accurate the recipes I find are. I feel like Sweden is the type of place that has food way beyond the Ikea cafeteria offerings we're familiar with. Does anyone have any insights on this?

Day 2 - Norway - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

One of the best parts about this challenge comes from looking up food from countries I'm not as familiar with. I had Norway as country #2 on my list and my mind drew a blank. The only thing I could think of was the movie Frozen and aside from chocolate and sanwhiches, I'm not sure they really mention food at all. So it was off to the drawing board! Which looks a lot like a Pinterest board.

Ok, it's Pinterest.

Pinterest is my go to for looking up recipes a lot of the time. If you want to follow along with my ideas for future posts, definitely check out my World Eating Challenge board.

But I digress...  I found some recipes for Norwegian fish cakes and potato pancakes that seemed really amazing and I thought they would make a good breakfast.

Fish Cakes

These salmon and cod cakes looks so fresh and paleo friendly, I knew they would be great. I went to the market and was able to get fresh cuts of each fish. I didn't measure perfectly for the herbs though which I think was misstep #1. I also decided to skip out on the coconut flour since I don't think these types of things really need the binder. I was really happy with that decision.

Putting them all together was really easy though! I cut up the fish into small pieces and processed it with the herbs. I think I made have over processed them a little though. I wish I'd left the mixture a little chunkier. I also would suggest a second egg for moisture. After that, I just let them cook in some butter on the stove!

All in all, I found these to be really dry and I think it's for some of the reasons I mentioned above. I put more herbs than it called for, I over processed the fish which increases the surface area (faster cooking time), and I made 4 instead of two big ones. All of these changes would lead to faster cooking and just drying out of the cakes. I also didn't want to do the poached egg, mostly because I was short on time. The cakes were also really fishy. I think my cod wasn't great. I would suggest to only use salmon if you want to try this at home. I ate mine with a sriracha mayo which helped but you know it's not good if you're just trying to mask a taste.

Potato Pancakes

As good as the fish cakes looked though, they didn't hold a candle to the potato pancakes. I knew I could make some good substitutions to be able to pull these off. I'd use tapioca flour and almond milk instead of the regular versions and then honey and coconut sugar as toppings.

I made my mashed potatoes and then when I added in the rest of ingredients, it seemed too doughy and dry so I added another splash of milk... and then realized I was a total idiot. Of course the mixture should be doughy... I had to roll out the flat pancake shape. I tried adding more tapioca flour to thicken the goopey mixture but it didn't worth. Tapioca flour is a little to elastic so at such a high quantity, it made it really gummy when I tried to roll it out and make the pancakes. I ended up dumping everything. It was really sad.

Kitchen failures definitely aren't fun especially when it's not salvageable. Which is why I was happy I decided to go with a fun little addition to these dishes...

Ice Wine

Since I knew Frozen was from Norway, I wanted a little icey addition to the day's food. Since I'm such a wino, ice wine seemed like the best choice. Ice wine isn't from Norway at all but it's still cool. It's a dessert wine made from grapes left on the vine until after they have frozen. As such, it's only made it really cold areas like Canada, New York, and Germany.

I was happy to find this Vidal Ice Wine at Bevmo for a reasonable price. It had such a beautiful honey flavor and was super delicious. When the cooking gets frustrating, it's nice that wine doesn't disappoint.

Day 1 - China - World Cup Eating Challenge 2015

IT'S BACK!!!

The World Cup Eating Challenge has probably been one of the most fun and challenging things I've done to push my creativity in the kitchen. It started on kind of a whim and I really ran with it by the end of the challenge last year. This year, I decided to try again with a little more planning.

Here are the rules:
- Every day of the World Cup, eat something from a country playing that day.
- Try to cook for as many of these as possible (in a pinch, eating out is ok - the eating is the main goal here)
- Stay as paleo/primal as possible. This is mostly so I don't have to buy sugars and flours that I won't ever use again but it's also nice to push my creativity.
- While there are choices (e.g. group stage, early rounds), pick countries that you aren't familiar with or aren't as likely to proceed.

The goal here is try new food and do new things in the kitchen. I'm not going to lie, this doesn't always work well. You'll get a glimpse of that soon enough. However, when it does work and a paleo substitution comes out good, it's really good kitchen education for me.

So let's get rolling. Day 1 was Chinese food! Even though they were projected to move on when I looked at predictions, Paleo Chinese food has been something I've really been wanting to try to do and it's a country that wasn't in the World Cup last year.


I decided to start on the ambition end. I had a recipe for paleo beef and broccoli. I'd done some testing with walnut shrimp and wanted to take that all the way as well. I also thought a rice dish would be important so paleo fried rice was a no brainer for me.

Beef and Broccoli

So, I have just realized that the ratios on my photos are kind of odd. I'm going to adjust my phone settings so that they look better later. I guess I could edit them but that seems like a lot of work.

Anyways, beef. I used the PaleOMG beef and broccoli recipe. I normally like to adapt my own recipes but it was nice that it was done for me, especially since the magical flavor of beef and broccoli has always been a mystery to me. The first step was to cut up the beef and then make a marinade. I left out the red pepper flakes because Dan doesn't like spicy food (and then I just added them on to my bit later). I straight up forgot the arrowroot powder. This would come back to haunt me.

While the beef marinated, I worked on some of the other dishes and also started on my broccoli. The recipe suggested adding a little bit of water to the pan so that the broccoli steams. Normally my broccoli gets a little charred (which I like) but I didn't think that was right for this dish so I went with the steaming option. This worked like a charm... maybe too well because my broccoli was a little softer than I would have liked. Oops.

Around this time, I realized I missed the arrowroot powder. For those who aren't familiar with it - it works instead of flour as a thickening agent for sauces. It was going to be what transformed the marinade into a thicker sauce for the beef and broccoli.

I cooked my meat and as expected, the sauce didn't thicken. I kind of ended up with a beef and mushy broccoli soup. It still tasted good but it's always a little sad when you work hard and something doesn't come out how you expected... and it's totally your fault.

"Walnut" Shrimp

This was really my biggest goal. I love walnut shrimp but hate how sticky sweet it can be. I also used an already established recipe for this with the intention of making a lot of adjustments to tone down the sweetness. However, as I was going through, I loved so much of it that I stuck pretty close to the recipe.

This was a great recipe to work on while I let my beef marinade. I was able to peel and start frying my shrimp all while the beef prepped itself. I love when recipes work out that way. For change number one - I decided to not egg my shrimp before putting the tapioca starch on them. I didn't want the batter to be as thick on it and I figured the shrimps natural wetness would stick the starch good enough. This has worked well for me before and did again this time. This is just a personal preference. I figured since it's already fried and sweet, I didn't need so much batter on it.

My oil was avocado oil. This is my go to for frying as it's got a high heat and imparts little to no flavor. It's just further proof that avocados are perfect.

Next, I prepped my walnuts. I have a pretty big pantry of nuts and paleo flours and things. I knew I had a big bag of walnuts so I wasn't worried about buying them at the store. Except I didn't have walnuts at all. They were pecans and I'm dumb. However, I don't love walnuts and wasn't going to do the (excessive) three cups of nuts that the recipe called for. I ended up doing about 3/4 cup of chopped pecans. I let those roast and then made the sauce.

At first I was going to tone down the sweetness of the sauce.. and then I realized it wasn't really that much sweetness. I mixed it all up (maybe with a bit more lemon) and loved the flavor. It had a hint of sweetness but was more tangy and creamy and just wonderful.

I originally wasn't going to candy my "walnuts" either but I was so impressed with the sauce I decided to just go with it. In the end, I was licking my fingers. My candied pecans tasted like toffee and gave me lots of ideas for future paleo treats. 

Mixing it all together was just perfect. I don't know where three cups of walnuts would have gone so I'm happy I toned down the nuts and really happy with how it all came together.

Cauliflower Fried Rice

At this point, I was multi-tasking like crazy and didn't get too many pictures. Cauliflower rice is really easy. Fried cauliflower rice is more steps yet somehow seems easier.

I started with frying some chopped up bacon. I let that get crispy while I prepped the other ingredients. I chopped up some carrots and green onions and added that to my bacon grease. Meanwhile, I had a bag of peas steaming in the microwave.

Next came the star - cauliflower. I was going to get the frozen cauliflower rice from Trader Joe's but apparently everyone else had this idea and they were super sold out. It's probably better that way since the ice would add too much liquid and not fry the rice as well. Instead I bought some cauliflower florets. TJs also has little bags of florets. I bought two bags but only used one. I tossed it into the food processor and just pulsed until the cauliflower was in little rice sized grains. I added this and the peas into my pan and let that cook. 

From here on out it was very typical fried rice. I cracked a couple of eggs into it and added some gluten free soy sauce. Coconut aminos are also a great option if you are strict paleo but I love the Tamari gluten free soy sauce as it tastes the most like traditional soy sauce. 

It definitely was the easiest of all the dishes. I really wish I'd made more as I was craving it really badly early the next morning and there was just a tiny little bit left over. It was so easy, I know I need to make some more to enjoy in a pinch.

All in all, I'd mark this one as a success. There were some missteps with the beef and broccoli but it still tasted good. The shrimp and rice turned out better than my highest exceptions though and that's always really rewarding. 

These were really involved recipes. I'd like to say the challenge will continue in this vein but it's a little draining on me and our fridge is already over flowing with leftovers so I think I'm going to to tone it down to 1-2 dishes for some of the upcoming countries. 

A Puesto Fiesto - Our First Cinco de Mayo in San Diego

I've been so bad about writing lately. The extra bad thing is that I actually have a ton of topics! I've just been really lazy so sorry about that. However, I'm bringing back the World Cup Eating Challenge for the Women's World Cup!!! You can check out some of my favorite posts from last year while you wait for that or you keep reading to see how we spent our Cinco de Mayo!

A few months ago, our friends invited us out to Taco Tuesday at a place called Puesto. They are pretty well known in these parts for having gourmet tacos and their Taco Tuesday prices are amazing for a higher end taco. So when we started seeing fliers around for their Cinco de Mayo / Taco Tuesday party, we were really excited.


With that said, our first stop was obviously the taco booth. The line was long but it was all worth it because it wrapped around to where the chef was preparing the tacos, and I got to spy on how they were made. Some of the Puesto tacos have a grilled melty cheese wrapped around the meat. I was so excited to see how this was made. As readers of this blog know, I love playing around in my kitchen at home and I'm really excited to try to make these myself now that I've seen how it's done.

If you're curious too - they melt a little handful of cheese on the grill and put the meat into that. Then they scrap it up and roll the crispy cheese around the meat. I'm sure it's the kind of thing that looks easier than it is but it's so delicious, I won't mind eating my failure.

Seriously, look at those. The top are carnitas tacos and the bottom are chicken rolled in that amazing crispy cheesey goodness. And yes, all four of those were for me. I probably could have eaten another four as well. They're that good.

Puesto is located in a little pavilion near Seaport Village called "The Headquarters." I never got that name but it turns out it used to be the SDPD's headquarters so while we enjoyed our tacos and beer, we also got to take lots of silly jail pictures.

I think the important take away here is that Dan is just ridiculously taller than I am. 

We also found out one of our favorite San Diego spots, Donut Bar, was going to have a booth. They made special churro donut waffle sandwiches with horchata ice cream filling. Obviously Dan got one. I snuck a bit and it was delicious. I know they were making them on weekends in May. Hopefully, they keep it up all summer so everyone can have a chance to try them!

I probably need to make a post about Donut Bar in general. It's the famous San Diego donut shop that luckily is only a couple of blocks away from our apartment. We are known to stop by a little too frequently.

All in all, we had an amazing Cinco de Mayo Taco Tuesday. In general, San Diegans seemed pretty well behaved and the only person we saw making an ass of himself was this guy:

Recipe: Paleo Sriracha Crab Canapes

I'm a sucker for seafood. I always love to buy crab meat and lobster at the grocery store and then I get home and I'm at a loss for what to make with it. When I recently bought a crab of can meat, I started thinking about a nice little paleo appetizer. I've always thought cucumbers slices made a great alternative to a crostini or filo shell for these kinds of things so I went to work. I figured it would all tie together with a little spice so I whipped up some sriracha mayo to go with it.

This is literally the easiest thing I've ever made and was perfect as a little appetizer for some friends I had over so I'm really excited to share it!

So this recipe has 4 ingredients. The hardest part of it is making the ingredients if you are trying to do strict paleo. Otherwise you just need crab, cucumber, mayo, and sriracha. I decided to make the mayo but I used pre-made sriracha since I have some awesome gluten-free stuff. The only paleo downside to mine is a little bit of sugar but I use sriracha so infrequently that it's never made sense to make my own.

For the mayo, I used the Nom Nom Paleo recipe. This recipe had always alluded me in the past. I could never hand beat the mixture hard enough myself and didn't have an immersion blender. I tried using my Ninja once but the power just broke it and I ended up with an egg vinaigrette. This time I decided to use a hand mixer on the lowest setting and it came out PERFECT. I think this is a more common tool than an immersion blender so I really recommend it.

Next was to the add the sriracha. Nom Nom Paleo has a recipe for that too! If you don't feel like making it though, Organicville is amazing gluten free Sriracha.  For the spicy mayo, you just combine 6 tablespoons of the mayo and 2 tablespoons of Sriracha.

From here on out, it's all super simple. I use about 2/3 of my Sriracha mayo mixture on a can of claw crab meat. The amount of mayo you use is really personal preference. Too little and there won't be that kick, too much and it will be super overdressed. I was aiming for the lighter side at first but it didn't really have enough Sriracha goodness so I added another tablespoon and that was perfect.

I used a mandolin to slice the cucumber slices. You ideal want a little under 1/4 inch thick slices. Too thin and they are kind of papery and won't hold up the crab. Too thick and it will be too much cucumber for crab. I super recommend using a mandolin (and definitely buying one if you don't have one). That's the best way to guarantee perfect slices and it's such a useful cutting tool.

Then all you have to do is plate your canapes. I spoonful on each cucumber is perfect. I served these with a couple of bottles of light acidic white wine and it was awesome. I definitely recommend these as a light appetizer for a summer BBQ.

Paleo Sriracha Crab Canapes

Ingredients:

- Can of crab meat (lump or claw are fine)

- 6 tablespoons paleo mayo

- 2 tablespoon Sriracha (homemade or bought)

- One large English cucumber

1. Mix paleo mayo and gluten free Sriracha to make Sriracha mayo.

2. Mix about 6 tablespoons of Sriracha mayo with crab meat. You can use more or less depending on how much of the Sriracha flavor you want.

3. Thinly slice an English cucumber to about 1/4 inch thick using a Mandolin.

4. Spoon the Sriracha crab onto the canapes.

5. Arrange on a pretty plate and make all of your friends happy by sharing them!

Bonus tips: if you are a Sriracha fiend, an extra drop of Sriracha on each one might pack the extra punch you love also. 

Wine pairing tips: A crisp white wine would go great with this. We enjoyed it with the Bonny Doon Pinot Gris/ Chardonnay which is light and acidic and went perfect with it. Try to avoid an oakey Chardonnay if that's your wine of choice. If you do add the extra Sriracha though, you'll want some sweetness to cut the spice. An off-dry Riesling would be a nice pick.