The Flesh Of A Good Pig II…

Stereo on, cooking bacon

Bacon frying in one pan, eggs in the other.

I had my breakfast earlier – two perfectly boiled eggs instantly devilled with a splash of Louisiana  Hot Sauce, and a bowl of berries and coconut.

No, this is Mrs. Paleovirtus’ breakfast.

Ironically, the Englishman takes extra strong Swedish coffee with his breakfast, and the Swede English tea. Funny old world, innit?

I took a cup of coffee just after sunrise on our balcony, before even the first of the day’s joggers and dog-walkers hit the beach over the road.

It reminded me of that scene from King’s “The Langoliers“, that what I was seeing was a day pregnant with possibility and potential.

Not just a day, though, a season, an entire year, all fanning out from this datum line, this pause between tick and tock, a frozen instant when the pendulum stops at the end of an arc.

It starts here, I thought, the great Outdoors campaign, a time of longboard cruises and kick-scooter trips for coffee, long bike rides and short-notice, ad-hoc picnics.

Come the back-end we might be bored of it all, but I sincerely doubt it.

That all comes later, of course.

Right now, I’ve got new bushings to fit on my longboard, and a 16 tooth sprocket to fit on my bike.

This is going to be brilliant.

See you in October…..

Burgers With Aubergine Buns

Burgers with aubergine buns

I, personally, don’t subscribe to any model of the market which sees the consumer as just a helpless victim, completely at the mercy of ogre-like corporations.

I believe that markets work best when there is an open exchange of information between customer and supplier.

You won’t receive if you don’t ask in the first place. Shy babies get no goodies.

Ground Meat Groundhog Day

King Meatloaf II – picture courtesy of Beegabild

It was a dark and stormy night. A shot rang out.

Oh, hang on. It was morning. Definitely dark and stormy, though.

And, to be picky, a shot never rang out. A sock was thrown, actually. At the cat.

Out Like A Lion

Pork and beef with aubergine

Daylight savings time. It’s supposed to herald the return of Spring, non? Summer just round the next bend in the road? Eh?

Better weather? The death of Old Man Winter, stuff like that? That’s what I’ve always believed to be the case, anyway.

Obviously someone in the Weather Planning Department never got the memo.

Fourth Floor Scooters And The Big Game

Chicken and vegetable stir fry with cashews

All things considered, Winter could have been a lot worse.

The frozen season was, even by the relatively gentle standards of Southern Sweden, a mild one.

Dark, short, days, as always, but very little of what my pa-in-law poetically referred to as “The White Crap”.

Luscious Leftovers – Return of the Frankensoup

Frankensoup

“Dad, what are you doing in there? The cat’s terrified!”, demanded Paleovirtus Jr.

“I’m cooking lunch!”, I retorted, somewhat indignant.

I can only assume that the source of the cat’s discomfort was my latest experiment in the dark arts of leftover reuse. To be perfectly frank, I was more than a little nervous myself. I think all that frantic meowing was his way of saying “Man-father, are you serious? Stop. Please stop! STOP NOW! NOOOOOOO!”

Luscious leftovers – quick mushroom curry

Quick mushroom curry

I have to confess, I have a thing about leftovers, and food going to waste.

This attitude is a product of what I like to refer to as an Orthodox Northern English Working Class upbringing.

Wastage of precious food was simply not an option in our household, and would not have been tolerated.

My parents grew up during the Great Depression, and witnessed first-hand real, grinding, poverty, of the kids-going-hungry-to-school-with-no-shoes-on-in-January kind, not some variant 21st. Century faux-poverté, defined as not being able to afford the latest X-Box accessory, or a new flat-screen TV.

They were lucky, both my grandfathers worked, so they themselves were never stalked by the spectre of hunger, but what they saw during those times shaped their future attitudes, and in turn, mine.

Which brings us to this delightful little lunch I cobbled together just the other day.

Mid-day was approaching, my supplies of fruit were running perilously low, and my belly was making it known quite clearly that it expected a cargo of fuel to be deposited in the engine room, and soon.

Luckily for me the fridge contained not only a cup or so’s worth of sauce leftover from the previous day’s Country Captain curry, but also a good couple of handfuls of mushrooms.

The mushrooms were and still are a bit of a mystery, as for the life of me I cannot fathom out who actually bought them or what indeed they were bought for!

They were still looking good to go, however, so after a quick wipe and a trim they were thrown into a frying pan with the leftover sauce and a little extra water, stirred well, and simmered until tender.

I ate the resulting curry with some roasted sweet potato wedges.

Some pennies saved, and a little precious fridge-shelf real estate reclaimed. Result.

Happy homecoming

The view from the Home Kitchen window…

Due to various commitments, and those bothersome must-do post-move tasks, I’ve not really had a chance to do any real cooking since I made my happy, triumphant return to the Home Kitchen on Sunday last.

Thankfully, today a window of opportunity opened, and I finally found myself with ample time available to plan, shop, and cook.

I decided on a 3 course menu, 2 of which, the starter and the dessert, are ones I’ve been itching to try from chef Daniel Green’s book “The Paleo Diet – Food Your Body Is Designed For”.

So, (cue dramatic drumroll…), tonight’s menu is…

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Starter

• Cold-smoked salmon with egg and avocado, with a lemon juice, mustard and dill sauce.

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Main Course

• Courgette Tagliatelle a la Bolognese

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Dessert

• Coconut and almond ice-cream

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Ready, steady, cook….!

 

The view from the Home Kitchen window…

Bara Brittiskt’s Breakfast

Bacon and eggs

Now that I’ve successfully relocated back to the Home Kitchen, I’m looking forward to cooking for my womenfolk again.

Mrs. Paleovirtus, who blogs in Swedish about all things British over at Bara Brittiskt, is especially happy about this.

Her busy morning routine, which involves a commute over an international border, doesn’t usually give her the time to prepare a full breakfast for herself, and so having a willing volunteer ready to serve up a cooked meal is a serious boost to the start of her day.

Here I went along with her love of all things British, and knocked out what is perhaps the stereotypically British early morning meal, bacon and egg. This is a combination that is not only perfectly Paleo, but also puts a smile on the face of Mrs. Paleovirtus, what with her being a disciple of all things LCHF.

Since I was using a good quality non-stick frying pan, only the merest sploot of olive oil was added to the pan when cooking the bacon, with the eggs subsequently frying in all that delicious rendered bacon fat.

The only other thing that was needed to send Mrs. Paleovirtus on her way with a spring in her step and a smile on her face was a bucket sized mug of builder’s tea made from good old PG Tips.

Proper job!

The Wisdom of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

 Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s  great work “The Physiology of Taste” is quite simply a must-read for anyone who takes the subject of food seriously. It is available to read over at Project Gutenberg here.

Brillat-Savarin penned perhaps 2 of the most often quoted lines about food in the history of gastronomy, namely…

 

“The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity than the discovery of a new star.”

 

…and…

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.”

 

He was also one of the first people to recognise the twin evils of flour and sugar – consider this observation from “The Physiology of Taste”…

“Sure enough, carnivorous animals never grow fat (consider wolves, jackals, birds of prey, crows, etc.). Herbivorous animals do not grow fat easily, at least until age has reduced them to a state of inactivity; but they fatten very quickly as soon as they begin to be fed on potatoes, grain, or any kind of flour. … The second of the chief causes of obesity is the floury and starchy substances which man makes the prime ingredients of his daily nourishment. As we have said already, all animals that live on farinaceous food grow fat willy-nilly; and man is no exception to the universal law.”

 

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin – the Godfather of Paleo…!