Paleo Breakfast

Paleo breakfast. Three-egg omelet with spring onions (eggs were from the egg guy at the Waverly farmers market and the spring onions were from the downtown market), apple salad, and sweet potato, served with mustard/cider vinegar dressing, chipotle salsa, and salsa verde with avocado. I used ghee to cook the omelet, and I melted extra butter and a touch of ghee into the sweet potatoes. I didn't put any cheese in the omelet. For those of you still getting acne or gaining weight, or generally still feeling a bit bloated and gross, please try eliminating dairy from your diet for a while. Ghee is ok because the milk solids have been removed, it's just pure fat, which is good for you. It's the casein and the lactose in milk that are particularly growth-inducing. Chill on that shit. The irony of that ashtray in the picture is not lost on me.

Also, another note, when doing scrambled eggs or omelets, scramble the eggs in a bowl before you cook them - really whisk them to get them to froth up a little. Once you pour it into a hot pan, turn the heat down and stir very gently once every 30 seconds or so just to get them to cook evenly. Don't scramble in the pan. You need to be gentle with eggs when you cook them, otherwise they stick to the pan or become mealy and gross.

Lamb Stew

I made lamb stew.

Ingredients:
Chunks of bone-in lamb (the bone is important if you don't have stock on hand because that's where the flavor comes from)
Onions
Carrots
Bay leaf
Water
Tomato (optional)
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Lemon zest

I rubbed the chunks of meat with salt, pepper, and cumin. I then heated some ghee (I'm trying to use more saturated fats to cook, and ghee has a very high smoking point and tastes awesome) and browned the meat in it. The important thing here is to use a heavy pan (I used a cast-iron pot) and use pretty high heat. You want to get a nice sear on it, which should be a rusty copper color. Too many people are afraid to use high heat, so they wind up with grey, unappetizing meat. Ok, so once the meat was seared, I added chopped up onions, bay leaf, a little more salt, and gave it a stir. When the onions were transluscent, I added carrots and a tomato. I let that cook down a little, then I added a few cloves of garlic, a little lemon zest, and enough water to just barely cover everything. I covered the pot, and put the whole thing in the oven (sort of like with my Fuck You Texas Chili, except covered this time). I intended to leave it in there for at least 2 hours, but when I checked on it after a little over an hour and a half, it was already done. I then chopped up some parsley I got at the farmers market and threw it in. I ate the stew with roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed zucchini, and sauteed turnip greens. Again, I used ghee for everything. There was no vegetable oil at all in this dish.

Fuck You Texas Chili

Tonight, I got bored and went up to Waverly to wander around. Of course I had to stop at Punjab. I got a pound of ground beef. I can't afford grass-fed most of the time, and at least Punjab is halal and they grind the meat for you in front of you, so you can be reasonably sure there's minimal weird crap in it. Also, the fatty acid profile of ruminants is less adversely affected by grain feeding than poultry is, plus the beef at Punjab is very lean, so the fatty acid thing is pretty much a non-issue.

I went home and made chili. I decided I needed to put veggies in it, which is very un-Texan, which is why this is my Fuck You Texas Chili. Chili purists forbid the use of all veggies except garlic and onions (the red color should come from the chili and spices, not tomato). Beans are verboten as well, and the proper thickening agent is corn meal. Since I'm doing a paleo chili, I didn't even intend to use beans or cornmeal, but I definitely felt the need to eat some vegetable matter. Even though they're not seasonal, I used zucchini because that's what they had at Punjab, and they go rather well in chili.

Ingredients:

Ground beef
Onion
Bay leaves
As many cloves of garlic as you can handle
Chili powder
Cumin
Chopped tomatoes (fuck you Texas! Also, anyone allergic to nightshades can omit these.)
Lemon zest/some juice
Salt
Pepper
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Zucchini
Stock (beef, chicken, veggie, whatever)

Ok, so I didn't list these in the ingredients because most of you probably won't have these on hand, but I used rendered duck fat (you can use bacon fat or light olive oil) and duck stock despite my previous warning about fatty acid profiles of poultry. Duck is delicious, and the fatty acid ratio is better than that of chicken, so whatever. I first heated the duck fat in a dutch oven, then I threw the spices in to let them "open" to use Indian terminology to mean that they become fragrant. I browned the meat in the spice/oil mixture, letting all the exuding liquid evaporate. Then I threw in the chopped onions and tomatoes, stirred it, let the veggies exude their liquid, then I squeezed some lemon juice into it and zested the peel into it as well, threw in a couple bay leaves, a dash of cinnamon and nuteg, a couple cloves of garlic, and enough stock to cover the rest of the stuff by about half an inch. I then put the whole pot, uncovered, into a 350-degree oven for about an hour. Then I chopped up some zucchini and threw them in the pot, and let the whole thing cook for another 20 minutes or so. And that's my Fuck You Texas Chili.

Eating Solo

One thing I've been thinking about a lot during the course of doing the paleo thing is how culture can reflect something evolutionary. Sharing food seems so natural to me that I have to believe it's built in somehow to our genetic code. Indeed bonobos, who we often look to for insight into human behavior, have very complex systems of gathering, hunting, and sharing food. This is why I feel the modern habit of each person getting his or her own plate of food, restaurant style, is not only wasteful and inefficient, it also flies in the face of our intense need to connect to each other via the meals that we prepare and eat together. For the same reason, I also abhor convenience food and food designed to eat on the go. I much prefer cooking and eating family style.

Recent changes in my daily routine have resulted in me cooking mainly for myself most days. This is very awkward for me. Beyond affecting my cooking times and quantities, by the nature in which fresh produce is sold, it's hard for me to use everything fast enough. I also really hate putting so much effort into cooking when no one else is around to appreciate it. I do indeed enjoy cooking, and it's a meditative process for me, but it's just a little less rewarding when I can't share the fruits of my labor with people I care about.

I think sharing food helps us prepare healthier food. We feel free to buy produce and meat and good ingredients when we feel that we are doing so to take care of the people we love. When we're solitary in our eating and cooking habits, it's too easy to slip into convenience foods. Sandwiches, ramen, and microwave dinners are for lonely eating. Real food is to be eaten and shared with your tribe. What I mean is that I miss you guys on nights when I'm eating alone.