Happy Primal Birthday, Me.

And with that, a simple post. I have been primal for 1 year as of today. Stay tuned for a commemorative post, the re-vamp, and the beginning of what I will call 'The Odes.'

Anyone want to make me a very primal treat? *wink*

Foraged! Found Food (and some found links)

A few links: 

These people take food presentation and photography to an entirely different level of artistic beauty.

I made Adobong Pusit Sa Gata from 'Home Cooking Rocks' and I have GOT to reccommend it. Next I plan on making their Mushrooms, and I suggest you follow suit. This site is full of deliciousness, and is very primally workable.

Good News--- the bee hive found recently in the walls of my alma mater is being given a chance at survival! Or, at least, delayed execution. Its said to contain something like HALF THE BEES IN NORTH TEXAS.

_____________________

Foraging has always been something of a natural concept to me, and I was never one to be afraid to nibble on a leaf (or, perhaps more stupidly naively, a berry) as a kid. I LOVE the idea that we are surrounded by edible things, and there is no reason to stop at things that have been picked by someone else and 'labelled' for sale.


Eating for free is an alluring idea. Pair it with the romanticism of a whimsical stroll through a sunny field and you have created my Thursday-- and my salad. OK, maybe not really. Maybe you've just imagined my salad's accent-- scant seasoning-- whisper of--... alright, so not much. But the point isn't the AMOUNT of food-- it is that I danced (uh, stomped) through a grassy Texas field and found food!


I was told there was wild asparagus growing in a certain area by an amazing friend (Jim, the patriarch of my "Denton Family*). I made my way to where I thought he meant, found a place a few blocks away to park, and made my way over with little more than a bandana to carry my findings in and a car key. Not even my camera came. Dry yellow grass up to my knees and brush collecting in my Vibrams, I followed a kind of old path and wound around the entire property finding nothing that looked even remotely vegetable-like. The grasses I saw I knew of as different spring onions (three, actually) and I plucked a few, but wandered with growing disappointment toward the stalks that seemed to never come. Instead of taking a logical path around the back of the property (hours later), I decided to cut straight through the overgrown middle.


There amongst the grasses, in their yellow-green frailty, I saw them. How and why I spotted them as I traipzed on past, I don't know-- but there they swayed.


ASPARAGUS!


I plucked a few and left more so they could grow into something more substantial later on.


I think I'll toss them in vinaigrette and top my salmon with them.


Happy Eating!


*Bios to come later, after my Primal Birthday Revamp. TOMORROW!

Curry Beef with Radish and Okra

One of my favorite dinners, growing up, was when my mom would make curry out of an old Hawaiian cookbook and set out this tray with all kinds of little delights to sprinkle over the top. Green Onion, crushed nuts, raisins, coconut, cilantro... it was all so special and so customizable. I can't make a curry like mom, but I can do some good stuff with some good ingredients. I simply mandolined a tired wedge of purple cabbage. After steaming it, it popped to life, giving me a fresh bright bed to ladle my beef onto.

Ingredients 

1 TB Ginger, crushed and minced
3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 tsp dried minced citrus peel
Jalepeno, minced
1/2 L Onion, chopped
1 carrot, into tiny moons
1 cup okra, sliced
1 roma tomato, chopped
4 radishes, steamed and quartered
6 Brussels, steamed and quartered
3/4 lb...ish... beef
Fish Sauce
1/4 C Coconut Milk
Curry Powder
1/2 TB Cinnamon
Crushed Almonds
Shredded/Flaked Coconut
Cilantro

Oh, stop. Its not that long a list. Steam your brussels and radishes, and then lightly steam some cabbage. Sautee the first four ingredients in coconut oil. Sprinkle in fish sauce and add half of your curry powder (I used about 1 TB total, because I ran out, and it was far too little). Add onion, stir around a bit, and add beef. Brown, and before it is cooked through, add vegetables and the rest of the curry powder. Stir, hum to yourself, and add coconut milk. Sprinkle some more fish sauce, sprinkle some salt and arrowroot powder (I know it wasn't listed as an ingredient, but you were already baulking at the length...), give it all a thorough stir, and cover. Let it simmer while you pick some stuff up and then prepare little dishes of garnishes.

Spoon it all onto your purple cabbage, top with your favourites, and you're done.

Happy eating!

1 Year... comin' up.

In 6 days I will have been "really" Primal for 1 year. AWESOME! This is epic, and I plan on doing a couple bloggy things in order to commemorate it. Here are a few things to expect:

First, a total revamp of the blog itself, as well as the move to playhardeatgood.blogspot.com (there is only a test post there now). It will simply be easier than having an unrelated (though endearing) URL to my blog's actual title.

On the new blog, I plan on utilizing a more consistant design and format (for things such as recipes) and bringing other aspects of myself and my life into the blog. I've been "awkward" about sharing much about myself, which I believe is good-- but it wasn't in as much a 'cautious' way as a 'confusing' way. (Don't you love how I'm mixing it up with quotations and apostrophes? I'm wild, I know.) I have accumulated many names and nicknames (not hear, so much as from the places that people find me from-- real life, forums, etc. I'm Shen, captainshen, ikaika, littlesaiyan, El...) and haven't avoided much identification despite that. So, I'll address you as me rather than as a mildly faceless nomenclaturally confused eating individual with inconsistent design. (some would argue that this description is me)

One aspect of myself that I have not embraced in this space is that of my art. I plan on hand-drawing many of my site's features, as well as illustrating posts every now and then. Art is an important branch of expression for me and I feel stunted by my lack of hardware (I need a good computer with good software) that allows me to bridge between the visual arts of the physical world and the graphical arts of the virtual world.

Certainly not least, I'd like to allow my embracement of local food and products to become, in some way, a hub of local resources. (Warning: this sounds rather self-congratulatory) I have a lot of information to share, and I've learned a lot that I think that people, especially in the Denton/DFW area, can benefit from.

So, in short:

• New blog URL, New Design
• Who am I?
• Incorporate Illustrations
• Provide Local Resources 

Other aspects that I will attempt to address with a little more clarity are my job and my connection to the other places on earth (my Hawaii/Texas background, my Japanese connection, my love of my country and other countries, my upcoming trip to Israel). 

So... dear viewers... please stay tuned! 

Jeff Visits The Treehouse

House-guests are generally great people. I love them, in fact. But to have a guest staying with me who is as entirely dedicated to food in the same exact ways that I am is a priceless, invigorating, and thrilling thing. I did have a primal guest for a weekend, and though he's gone home, he continues to be a guest of sorts-- piping in on the weekend here in this post!
___________

El: Jeff first embarked upon a driving adventure in which he missed my town (a couple of times) and then I led him back. When he got here, a feast awaited: Primal Tamale Casserole, as mentioned two posts back, and fixins. It got a little dry for me during the driving adventure, but my lovely neighbor came to the rescue with sour cream. We fared well, methinks.

Jeff: When I used Google maps to find how to arrive at El's location, I may have accidentally checked the "Please drive me around the city in efforts to show me all possible ways to not make it to the location" box. This did, however, provide the necessary time to make me all the more hungry for the meal El had provided for the night. The casserole was a great meal, but i feel that the true star of the night food-wise was the Mexican rice! I typically do not care for cauliflower rice but that stuff was the bomb.

El: The next morning, Saturday, we had Crossfit for breakfast at Crossfit NTX, my local box. Always a good time with Sean and the guys there. By good, I mean insane. I go on Saturdays when I'm off, for their community workouts (which are Saturday and Sunday) and it was stellar to bring Jeff to his first session. 

Jeff: Crossfit has always been one of the things I've desired to try out, and not only did i get to try it but it completly dominated me. I do not have a regular workout routine so by the time we were done with the 30 minute warm up I was already aching and sweating. In the end(five days of soreness) I have a huge desire to return to Crossfit because the workout was intense but the people involved were helpful, friendly, and made me feel accepted despite my lack of physical ability.

El: We earned ourselves a good lunch, and though steak or some-such may have been more appropriate, sustenance came in the simplicity of cod wraps with egg salad. The egg-salad I made with my herbed mayonnaise-- the basic recipe plus parsley, cilantro, dill, basil, and of course the rosemary-infused avocado oil. Big pebbles of blacked black pepper gave it a punchiness and plenty of dill pickle a familiarity. My only complaint was that there was not enough. The cod was... sigh. Better luck next time, self. 

Jeff: I really enjoyed the Cod wraps(I blame the Cod itself for being tougher than desired, not El's cooking ability). The leaf veggie we used to wrap the Cod was surprising more substantial to the meal than you would think that a wrap would be. I found myself just chewing on the tasty leaf itself more so than the cod filling. The egg salad was great, and I believe I did get the larger portion of it, but you snooze you lose. 

El: As we finished licking our plates, we had already begun to ponder the direction that dinner would take us, and some great spark of ambition caught me. "I want pizza," I professed. And that was the end of that. Half an hour later, we roamed my favorite grocery store,  H-Mart, in Carrollton and allowed Jeff to stock up on things that he can't quite get where he's from. 

Jeff: Where I come from, finding something like almond flour or powdered coconut milk is next to impossible. So having the opportunity to do shopping for things I can't get my hands on was a welcomed expedition. At H-Mart I bought some Purple potatos, seaweed, and coconut products in various forms. I have to say despite not having a clue what they say on the label, the Asian brands of food are great! Later in the week I took home those purple potatos and fried them in some olive oil and spices, and they were amazing, with the crispness and consistency of a spud but with a sweeter taste. 

El: That got us talking about what else he can't get, and less than an hour later, we were in the vast and bright mall of food that is Whole Foods Park Lane in Dallas. Jeff doesn't get to go into Whole Foods so much, so it was a thrill-ride of sorts... we nabbed a basket of goodies for pizza making, general groceries, and Jeff's trip home. I forgot what all we got, but at one point I bought some Salish Alderwood smoked salt and ran back to the butcher, where he kindly rubbed it on fresh pork belly for us and sliced it like bacon. Thats as uncured as it gets. We got some in-store hand-stretched mozerella to top the pizza and some parm and eggplant to compose the crust, a la my favorite pizza recipe at This Primal Life. Another goodie we got was chipotle chili powder, which smelled so much like BBQ sauce it was unavoidable. I figured that's make a good pizza sauce... *cough, cough*

Jeff: Now I've been to a whole foods before, but I have to say its not quite the same unless you have El with you.. Not only does she know exactly what cheeses to buy but she will willingly help any customer who is need! I think I lost her like 5 times during the trip, whether she realized she was lost or not is another matter. Mainly bought some delicious cheeses from Whole foods, my favorite so far being the Goat Gouda. Having a market where you can buy organic/grass fed products is a blessing you may not realize you have until you don't have it at all. 

El: Now that I look at the pizza recipe, I realize why it was 'too wet...' ...we forgot almond flour! Or neglected it. But we bulked up our (tiny eggplant) recipe by adding more eggs, parm, and coconut flour. I also forgot to 'return to the oven' before topping, which would've improved upon it... but it was SO good that we didn't much care. 'Fresh' bacon, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and HOT tomato sauce mingled with delightfully fresh mozzarella chunks and left us satisfied and happy. 

Jeff: Oddly enough I love food. This love of food includes all types of food, except for the famous Pizza. My entire life has been filled with lackluster Italian pies, with too much sauce or too much greasy cheese and the like. That night, the pizza El made quietly restored my trust to pizza, she obtained perfect balance of toppings, sauce, and crust. That chipotle powder we used in the sauce was a bit spicier than intended so the first batch of sauce became a batch of bbq sauce to be saved for later. I think the pictures of the pizza should do some justice to it, but let my recommendation go out for all pizza lovers, this stuff was gooood.

El: When Sunday finally came, we rolled scrambled eggs in prosciutto and nori, packed lunch, and set out on a hike on the 380 Greenbelt, a nearby park. It was more of a stroll, I guess-- beautiful but too easy to be a 'hike,' and the weather was perfect. The walk was (thankfully!) sprinkled with dogs, which make most anything better. We settled on a log for a casual lunch of a recipe (another actual RECIPE!) that I've made and will make time and time again, from The The Primal Blueprint Cookbook-- little shrimp bites. I just made a quick Asian cabbage salad to go underneath. And some sauce.

Jeff: By this time the Crossfit was just beginning to take its toll, which caused me to walk in a funny stiff legged kinda way. I think what kept me going was two fold, first fold was the amazing breakfast we had. It was my first prosciutto to ever be had and certainly not the last. The scrambled eggs we filled it with were great, just light enough so we wouldn't feel sluggish on our hike. The second fold was knowing there was more delicious food to be had when we decided to stop and have lunch. The shrimp bites paired with the creamy Asian sauce was a match made in heaven, with the crunchy salad adding a great contrast. On the way back I think some of those dogs knew I had eaten a delicious meal because several of them tried to bite me, despite my friendly smile.

_____________

Our weekend came to a close with that-- a return to Denton and the seeing off of Jeff. Then, on a separate note, I was reunited with my car and had a spectacular Pappasitos dinner with my parents. But, unrelated it is!

Jeff, great to have you. Come back as soon as you can!

Next Up: My Awesome Asian Dressing Recipe.

Shout-Outs

Primal Shout-Outs:

Mom, having gone primal last September, continues to inspire me. She's a blast to eat with and a source of inspiration and someone with whom I can share. Every time she visits, we have an incredible time-- in eating and in goofing off. Who else can hula with their cave-mama? She's one of the youngest hearts I know.

Jeff! Meeting up with another crazy primal is always invigorating! I owe him thanks for the visit and an invite to come back anytime. Many meals and many adventures were had-- we did some crossfitting, some hiking, some shopping, and some chilling.

My Kumu. My hula teacher whom has just purged her home of grains and gone grocery shopping for the better. I'm so honored that she's decided to give this a go and I promised I'd get some good recipes up!

Audrey-- your son has always been one of my favorite friends. After we talked a lot online, it was very apparent that he came from good stock! I hope you are enjoying The Primal Blueprint thus far and continue to learn and experiment with this-- and always feel free to ask questions!

The fella in prep-foods at work: I'm sorry I haven't totally remembered your name yet, but I'm glad you've enjoyed my meal pics and hope you have fun experimenting with your own! Keep me updated!

The Vibram-Wearin' Paleo Eatin' guests from work: It was a PLEASURE meeting (I made the typo 'meating' and felt compelled to keep it... hah!) you both. You seem like amazing people and it is such a relief to meet someone you can talk to who GETS what you're saying, isn't it?? I hope you liked the pasta sauce and I hope the roast turned out good!
---------
Up next: A recap Jeff's visit and the menu that saw us through, as well as a lot of pictures. After that will come recipes. I'll include a restaurant review for Snappy Salads very soon, and talk about the Whole30, dairy, and what primal means. Last but not least, I plan on setting out a Japanese Primal Guide.
Stay tuned! Throw me a comment! Seriously I need the ego boost.

El

Yike! Long time.

OK, so I've been what I'd call-- well, not busy-- but... temporally coagulated. I have been eating, of course-- and I've been taking plenty of pictures of said food-- but they never make it here to be talked about. I do, however, have a house-guest (a fellow primal!) who I'll be hosting for the next few days. This means I've made (and will be making) heaps of food. Tonight's menu?

- Coconut Tamale Casserole
This includes my tamale dough, as seen in my Coconut Chicken Tamales as the bottom 'layer,' baked, then topped with grass-fed ground beef seasoned in 'tex-mex' ways. Recently I came across the statement that one of the main identifiers distingushing Mexican food versus Tex-Mex is the heavy use of Cumin in Texas. The next layer is stir fried multi-colored bell peppers and onions with jalepeno. This is topped with good cheese (Dubliner. Awesome Irish cheese that I thought fit really well despite its geographic inaccuracy!) and from there will be topped with dried onions and coconut flakes, as well as diner's choice of the following guest stars...

- Guacamole, Salsa, Coconut Sour Cream, and Jalepeno Cilantro Coconut Cream
The coconut Sour Cream was simply powdered coconut milk mixed THICK with lemon juice, water, and a little bit of raw goat milk yogurt. I then left it to sit out on the counter. I took a little bit of this mixture and blended it with a little more water, minced jalepeno, and HEAPS of cilantro. Just a little powdered garlic an onion resulted in a creamy green sauce that is chilling in the refrigerator as we speak. (Uh, are we speaking?)

- The BEST tex-mex cauliflower ever!
Sometimes I believe that pretending cauliflower is rice is very stupid. Sometimes, a heap of perfectly seasoned minced caulflower is the most AMAZING THING I'VE EVER COOKED. This was quite a process, but you'd swear you were eating the red 'spanish rice' from many-a-beloved tex-mex restaurants. OH MAN! Ask me about it. I may post the recipe, with pictures.

So, dare I say it... I believe I'm 'back' and will start posting with more regularity. That is, perhaps, enough regular posts that I will not have 'whopper' posts that people are disinclined to read?

Happy eating,

El

Pumpkin and Coconut Curry Soup

1 TB Ghee
1 Med Yellow Onion
3" Ginger, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 slice of jalapeño
1/2 stalk of celery, upper, with leaves, sliced
4 cups chicken stock, low sodium
1/2 cup water
8 oz coconut milk
heap of pumpkin, cubed*
1/2 TB black pepper
1 TB GOOD yellow curry powder**
Pinch of saffrons

*I used an Australian Pumpkin, phenomenally sweet and creamy, baked for about an hour. I like the part next to the skin best so I wasn't too careful in removing the skin. Seriously-- I don't know how much pumpkin I used-- I have pumpkin all over my kitchen and in every container I own. I mean there are so many pumpkin cubes that I don't know what to do. Anyway, I'd say... oh... 4 ""cups""? Like a 4 cup pyrex would've been nicely mounded but loosely filled. How about you decide? Geez, you're so needy.
**I like Spicely.

Get out your stock pot. In there, saute the garlic, onion, jalapeño and ginger in ghee or coconut oil until and stir for a moment. Add the celery and cook until onion is translucent. There is probably a good layer of brown on the bottom of the pot-- get ready. Deglaze the pot with about a cup of the chicken stock, then scrape around like mad with something wooden or good. Now-- you add that pumpkin in there buddy, and then the coconut milk. Add the rest of the spices and let this simmer for... I don't know, a while. Thats where it is now-- I'll let you know what adjustments to make when its done! I may blend part of it and add chives and cilantro at the end-- but this broth is delicious!

-El

Foodland Dreamworld

Merguez Sausage
Originally uploaded by CaptainShen

I've always been a little on the adventurous side of the kitchen, in comparison to most people I know. I find myself most at home in asian markets, and as such, have always had access to 'exotic' produce and exciting flavors.

Recently, however, I've been ebbing ever-so-quietly toward the vast craggy canyons of culinary dreamworld. I excitedly bought up parsley root and let it shine in Stir-Fry Day's (Dec 25th) giant stir-fry. I nibbled on Parmesan crisps-- not exotic in the least, but certainly delicious and reasonably uncommon-- and savored three types of caviar* (Yukon Gold Salmon, Golden Whitefish, and American Sturgeon) with litlte spoonfulls of crème fraiche. Into my lunchbox I have tossed, without a thought, everything from ahi sashimi nori rolls to Kabocha-Tuna Salad (made with homemade mayonnaise). Raw Cocoa nibs with coconut flakes, cinnamon, and black pepper are a regular snack for me.

I say all this not to idiotically commend myself for my uniqueness, but to highlight the fact that in this world (uh, country?) of unending pressures for ease and quickness, a person in my situation might come to realize something. Inevitably, this would go one of two ways: I would retract, snap-quick, into a swirling pit of fruit-loops and hot-dogs, never to touch a well-seasoned iron skillet or a jar of coconut oil again, or: something phenomenal would happen. I would stand in my kitchen, laugh maniacally, and sear the underbelly of wonderment on an open flame (while Super Saiyan).

The latter occurred.

But lets back up, shall we? It began this evening-- nay, December 24th, even-- when I saw two unnassuming, unfamiliar little figures lying in the glorious Whole Foods meat case. A variety of the in-house sausages... unknown to me. This cannot be. I have scoured the world for a good sausage, something without sugar and that didn't taste solely of salt and unidentifiable (unmentionable?) things. And there it sat like a humble little prince: Mergeza Lamb Sausage. Ingredients? Lamb, Paprika, Cumin, Chili, Sea Salt, Garlic, Natural Pork Casing. Mergeza...?? I did not know what this was, and that was unacceptable. I bought it (5.99 a pound.. I paid 2.40 for a single sausage! Mumble) and let it wait anxiously in my fridge for a bit.

Back to tonight. I went on my monthly trip to Super H-Mart, a large Korean market about 30 minutes from me. That isn't too far, but commuting an hour to and from work leaves you with not-so-much of an urge to drive elsewhere. When I got to H-Mart, there was a large light up sign suspended in the sky above the store, that read: "CAUTION: ALL OF YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS AWAIT*". I grabbed a cart and went inside. This is where the magic happened. I bought not many things, not individually so unique at all, but my heart went all a-flutter for each of the little treasures that I found. Into the cart went a lotus root, a banana leaf flower, powdered coconut milk, seaweed salad, very good shirataki noodles, oyster mushrooms, tomatillos, okinawan sweet potatoes, guavas, and Grey Squash (or so I thought).
I came home and fried a few thin slices of lotus root to try. Awesome. I then did some internet digging on the Mergeza sausage and found it by another name, Merguez, to be a Tunasian sausage. I prodded a bit deeper and found other dishes, such as Mechuoia and Les Ojja. I didn't make them, but I did take inspiration from their ingredients. I stir-fried garlic and slivered purple onion in a pan with red bell-peppers. I began to batonnet my Grey Squash (if you must know) and was shocked to find myself staring at what looked like a neon cucumber. I bit it. It tasted like a neon cucumber! Was it a Grey squash? Was it a Korean Cucumber, which I recalled being adjacent to the former? The world may never know. Anyhow, in went wedged tomatoes as well. Finally, to top it off, I scrambled an egg into the mix.

I had removed the Merguez sausage from the broiler by this point and sliced carefully into it, revealing the most gorgeus paprika-fire imaginable. I don't know how to describe the beauty of it, but I can tell you that I used to own white dish-towels and now I own orange dish-towels. After tasting a slice of the best sausage that I have EVER had (like some kind of mash-up of a regal chorizo and a refined corned-beef hash, taken to the next level by the complexity of lamb), I decided that a creamy slice of avocado would be a nice addition to cool it down.

How was this meal, you ask?

I mean, did you see the length of the post that it inspired?

*Despite the price (and expectation) that comes with American Sturgeon, I liked the oily burst of the Salmon the best.

*It did not actually say this. It also did not exist.

松風 Chicken

松風 Chicken
Originally uploaded by CaptainShen

Japan has had a huge impact on my life. I have studied the language since I was 12 years old in 7th grade, and met a penpal that I have kept in touch with for at least a decade now. Japanese elements were always in my young life-- and I ended up getting a minor in the language.

Anyhow, if you've known me for a very long time, you might know that my experiments in cooking began, long ago, with teriyaki salmon. It was delicious, at the time, and probably about half sugar and the other half salt-- but my friends and family tended to love it. Even this blog began as a sort of 'bento' blog (I still do use my boxes), and yet, I've strayed far from Japanese style cooking. I began poking around, recently, at a blog called Tess's Japanese Kitchen, and upon finding the Matsu Kaze Chicken, I was completely re-inspired and went out and bought the things to make it. What a delicious sounding name-- Wind In The Pines!

So, with my own 'primal' adjustments (as well as a culinary one or two), I made this. Please check out that blog-- there are MANY exciting, amazing recipes (check out the Minty Carrot Tsukemono!) that I want to take inspiration from and make. For the most part, they are easily primalized.

Changes:

I omitted the sugar, used Coconut Shoyu (that is what I have come to call it-- it is Coconut Secret's Aminos) in place of Shoyu, and used only a teensy pinch of salt. My topping (where on earth do you find white poppyseed??) was a mixture of black poppyseeds and white toasted sesame, as well as an addition that I thought sounded delightful-- crushed Juniper Berries!

I also added to the chicken mixture white pepper. Oh yeah-- and as the original poster mentioned-- I was also generous with the ginger juice!

When I baked the chicken I left it covered for 15 minutes and uncovered it for the last 15, heeding the warning of 'dryness' found in that post's comments.

I served it on spinach and wakame tossed with the same topping tha the chicken got and green onion as well as a drizzle of sesame oil and coconut shoyu. On the side was thinly sliced sweet potatoes sauteed with green onion, onion, coconut shoyu, and cinnamon. This was very delicious and VERY filling. It'll be stellar on salad cold, I'm sure.

I used a bit too much egg white on top and it ended up looking like cooked egg, but was still delicious.

めっちゃおいしかった！