Meatballs (with hidden liver)

Liver is fantastic for iron and other nutrients but the taste and texture can be offputting. So I thought about sitting down with my kids and explaining rationally how good it is for their growing bodies but then realised the better option is just to lie. Well not declare the whole truth. So I grind liver up and put it into meatballs which are then smothered in tomato sauce. Even kids coming over for tea have been tricked into eating it!

The ratio of liver is up to you but I would suggest starting with a bit less and building up gradually. 

I always double the quantities below so that I can have a meal in the freezer 

I don't normally like to dictate in the recipe that ingredients must be organic but with liver it's a must as you anything the animal is subject to will affect its liver. 

If you prefer you could use the minced mixture in a bolognese sauce.  

Ingredients. 

For the meatballs: 

400-500g minced beef

100g organic calves or beef liver 

For the tomato sauce: 

1 jar of passata 

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

Tbsp oregano (optional) 

1.Grind the liver up until it is a mince consistency (it will be rather gloopy)

2. Mix thoroughly with the beef mince 

3. Season with salt and pepper 

4. Shape into small balls and place in a glass shallow dish

5. Grill until the meatballs are brown rather than light pink when cut open 

For the tomato sauce 

1.Heat 2-3tbsp of ghee or olive oil on a low heat

2. Chop the onion and add to the pan, sweating gently for about 10 minutes

2. Crush the garlic and add to the onions. Cook for a further two minutes constantly stirring so the garlic doesn't burn 

3. Add the jar of tomato sauce and season well, adding oregano if you wish 

4. Cook on a low heat for about 20 minutes or longer of you want a thicker sauce 

Biltong (a bit like beef jerky but a million times better)

Biltong is air dried beef.  Originating from Africa this was how tribesman would 'cure' meat and preserve it so that protein was available on the move.   We find it is a perfect snack for lunchboxes (or long train journeys!) and is also impressive enough to be part of a tapas or hors d'ouevre offering.

If you want to buy this in the UK you either pay through the nose at the Selfridges or Harrod's counter or online  (£32 - £50 a kilo!!!).  Or you can suffer the cheap nasty version that has hit the high street called beef jerky which is frankly a sugary abomination that should not be mentioned in the same breath as the original.  Even shop bought biltong can have sugar and MSG which is totally unnecessary if the right spice mix is used.

It's not a particularly pretty snack and sometimes we have had to employ a bit of arm twisting to get our more conservative friends to try it but they are soon converted.  Don't be put off by the look of the fat - I am not a lover of big chunks of animal fat and will refuse even the crispiest pork crackling (much to the dismay of the rest of my family) but I would kill anyone who tried to steal the fat off my biltong.

We don't always use organic but you have to go for the best you can afford.  Certainly the first time you try out the recipe it is probably best to go for an affordable joint just incase you make a mistake and find it is too salty or strong to taste

A dehydrator is a must unless you have space for a dedicated biltong maker.

You could invest in a coffee grinder or electric pepper grinder but we have managed fine with a pestle and mortar.

We would normally prepare about  2 kilos of beef 9 (a good sized roasting joint) as it does shrink and it can be frozen.  The ingredients below are based on 500g for testing purposes - just multiply ingredients equally as joint gets bigger.

We find we get the best results with Aspall vinegar.

Some tips for cutting the beef:

• You need different amounts of salt depending on the thickness of the beef strips.  If you want to try thinner strips use less salt but remember there will be a lot of shrinkage during drying
• Normally when you are carving you would cut against the grain but when cutting into strips, go with the grain. 
• As this is a curing process it is vital that every surface of the meat is coated in salt and vinegar 

Ingredients

500g of beef (silverside or topside roasting joint)
2 tbsp of sea salt or 1.5tbsp of himalayan rock salt (which is much stronger!)
1 tbsp of coriander seeds
1 tbsp of peppercorns.  If using ground pepper use 1/2 to 2/3 of tbsp
3 tbsp of red wine vinegar.  (Can replace with cider vinegar)


Method

• Grind the coriander seeds and peppercorns in a pestle and mortar.
• Add the salt and mix together the dry ingredients in a large dish. 
• Cut the meat into equal size strips of approximately 2 centimere width.  
• Coat each surface of the meat in the mix and leave in the dish
• Pour the vinegar over the meat and move the meat around to ensure every side of the meat has been in contact with the vinegar 
• Wrap the dish in clingfilm and put in the fridge for 2 days.  Every 12 hours rotate and move the meat around to ensure that the marinade is covering the meat equally
• After two days the meat should all be brown with no red areas - any red areas means there is not enough salt and vinegar and you may need to marinade for longer
• Lay the meat out onto the dehydrator racks so that the pieces are not touching
• Set the dehydrator or 35c and set for continuous.  Smaller pieces will be ready in 72 hours,  Larger bits will be ready in 5 days. 
• The pieces are ready when they are half the size of the original meat and are thoroughly dried.  You can test this by checking there is no 'give' or 'squashiness' when you press the meat.  Thin bits should splinter if twisted
• The drier it is the longer it will last at room temperature. Wrap in greaseproof paper and store in a dry place (we use kitchen, Simon's mum using the airing cupboard!)
• To store for longer than a week: cool, store in a air tight freezer bag and freeze for up to three months.  (We would store longer - this are cautious guidelines!)

This is served on its own as a snack - delicious sitting outside a tent with a glass of wine or as a paleo snack watching the box! Just make sure you have a sharp knife, cut in thin slices against the grain... 

Chocolate muffins

These are perfect for parties or lunch boxes (although they make for a sticky lunchtime!)

Follow the recipe for chocolate cake but divide mixture into 12 muffin cases and bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes.

To make the chocolate icing take the topping 1/3 mixture that was set aside and add in 2 tbsp of yoghurt and a tsp of honey to thin. (If you do not want to use dairy you can use the mixture as is, or add in some coconut milk)

Allow the cakes to cook before icing

One happy customer! 

Chocolate!!!!

My daughters reaction to this recipe was 'wow I feel like I am not on that funny diet any more'.  This is incredibly rich.  The only downside is that because there are no stabilisers etc it goes liquid if left at room temperature so if you want 'block' chocolate it needs to be eaten straight from freezer. However that also means it works as a chocolate cream for cakes or chocolate sauce for ice-cream or pancakes.

I can't actually claim this is a recipe more of a happy accident. I made the chocolate mix for the cake (see post) and decided that it was too thick to spread between cake layers so I added approximately half the amount of yoghurt to sauce.  Then add more honey to taste.

Spread into a shallow dish, cover in clingfilm and bung in freezer.

Chocolate birthday cake

So this was the first grain free chocolate cake I attempted and I left it until 8pm the night before my son's birthday so I was very relieved to find out it is delicious. (And firm enough to be cut into the requested batman shape!)

Before we were gluten free I used to make a Jamie Oliver chocolate cake which was reminiscent of chocolate orange and delicious so this cake has a lot to live up to!

I have researched recipes in the web and amalgamated two - always a risky manoeuvre. Most recipes seemed to favour coconut flour over almond flour so I have gone with that even though I generally prefer the texture of sponge from nut flours.

The second time I made this I doubled the portions for a bigger cake (but I only used 1.5 times bicarbonate of soda and 1/2 tsp salt).   My cake needed 55 minutes - best to cook for 50 and then check

Here goes!

Recipe

113g butter / ghee. (Could probably use olive oil or coconut oil as well)
6 large eggs
255 g honey
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla
90g cocoa
56g coconut flour
Zest of 2 oranges

Method

- Preheat the oven at 140c (fan) / Gm 3
- Sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl
- In a separate bowl beat the eggs until frothy
- On a low heat, melt the butter, vanilla and honey together. Add in the cocoa powder and stir.
- Put aside one third of the cocoa mixture in a bowl to make the topping later.
- Add the eggs into the flour and mix well until there are no lumps (coconut flour is harder work than normal flour!)
- Stir in the orange zest
- Add in 2/3 of the cocoa mixture you set aside earlier
- Pour into a 9 inch tin. Ensure the tin is well lined / greased as coconut flour can stick to the sides.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean
- Allow to cool
- Spoon the remaining cocoa mixture over the top. If it is too thick it can be thinned out using some natural yoghurt

Buckwheat bread

This is a great bread for those who can tolerate buckwheat.  A relation to rhubarb rather than wheat buckwheat can be bought as a 'groat' looking like larger couscous or flour. We use the groats so we can soak them over night.  The weight is the dry weight not the soaked weight which will include water.

Approx 225 grams of buckwheat groats (soaked overnight and repeatedly rinsed in water) 

4 tbsp of natural yoghurt 

76g melted butter or oil 

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

2 eggs 

1/4 tsp salt 

- Soak the buckwheat overnight, drain and rinse repeatedly 

Preheat the oven at gas mark 4 

Line a 2 1b loaf tin (or two small ones) 

Mix buckwheat in blender 

- Add the other ingredients and mix 

Pour into the lined tin and cook in the middle of the oven for approx 50 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean 

Saving time on a clean, grain free or gluten free diet

I nearly choked on my chicken wing when I read the bit in the GAPS book where Natasha McCampbell bride says 'it takes no longer than normal cooking'.  Similarly there is a cheery australian vlogger who I could cheerily slap in the face if I hear her say once more that 'I find cooking this way is actually easier'.  Even with a tenuous grasp on maths its easy to see that going down to the local polish baker and ordering a couple of rye breads, some ham and some hummus is going to be quicker than baking a loaf, soaking some haricot beans and curing your own meat!  However there are some tricks that once mastered have shortened my time in the kitchen.  After all its no good putting all this effort into making your kids super healthy and active if you actually have no time to play games with them! (Or god forbid have some of your own time doing something completely pointless and selfish)

Batch cooking
When you try a new recipe its advisable to only make one serving incase everyone refuses it or it is not quite right for your family tastes .  I often find I have to adapt American recipes as they are sweeter than we are used to in England.  Once I know something is workable (good enough, remember we are not aiming for perfection here!) then I always make at least two at once and freeze some.  This not only saves cooking time and washing up but saves money on gas and electric.
Good candidates for this are breads, cakes, curries, cottage pie, casseroles, stock, soups, pates and dips, sauerkraut and yoghurt.  (I always slice the loaves before freezing so we only need to take out what we need.  Given that a loaf of almond bread can cost near a fiver to make I don't want to waste any! We even bought a second yoghurt maker as I reckoned £20 to only have to make yoghurt every other day instead of every day was well worth it.  Although biscuits and crackers don't freeze well you can make big batches of the dough and pop into bags so  you only have to roll out and cook.  Ideally only make small batches of biscuits if you use honey as the sweetener as honey attracts moisture out of the air making the biscuits go soft quickly.

Limit choice
At the beginning of our dietary changes I was still used to having half a dozen different baked goods in the house at any time - oatcakes, rice-cakes, biscuits, cakes, etc. I also tried out at least one new recipe a week  I fell into the trap of thinking it would be cruel if the kids didn't continue to have this much choice.  I have toughened up now.  It is not the end of the world if you are not given a choice of what cake you get in your lunch box or what you get for supper and neither is it the end of the world to serve the same dinner two days running (especially when chances are you are only doing that because you are either working / ferrying kids to appts or taking a child who shoved a pea up his nose to Accident and Emergency.  And for that situation its also good to ...

Have a tried and tested emergency dinner 
Sometimes is just all goes tits up.  Even if you start planning the dinner two hours before there could be a massive tantrum, a work call or you get caught up bidding on a bargain retro chair on Ebay (that is an emergency in my house).  Or you have little children they really can't wait if the casserole needs another half an hour and you can't just sling them a sandwich.  In our house it is an omelette. I mean literally two eggs whisked together and thrown into hot frying pan with coated in butter.  I also try to have some cooked meat in the fridge at all times and frozen peas in which will make a passable lunch easily supplemented by pickles, olives, crackers etc.

Internet shopping
Set up a list on amazon and you can have repeat orders every month or as you wish, meaning you never have to remember to order again.  Set up an order list with a supermarket for the basics you don't pick up at speciality shops.  Ok so you may have to pay to deliver and your mum points out there is a Sainsburys five minutes from your house but you have to start thinking about what your time costs (and frankly your sanity)   See here for my post on online suppliers and where to go for what

Make lists and menus
Personally I have OCD and quite like writing lists anyway so it works for me.  However even if you find writing them a ball ache, as they have proved on all those terrible BBC 3 programmes about money it does save you time and money to shop from a list.  Going to Tesco metro on the way home is fine when you are just going to get home and sling some pesto in pan with some pasta.  When you have to go home soak beans, drain yoghurt and stick a lemon up a chicken's bum you really want to limit your hours spent shopping.   It also really does pay to work out a week or even a couple of day's menu in advance because there are very few short cuts when cooking from scratch and its really annoying to find out you can't make something because you forgot to soak the peas or lentils!

Invest in some gadgets
Going green and organic is great but I think its bordering on martyrdom to try and do everything the traditional way like our grannies would have.   See here for my post on kitchen gadgets