Menu for the Week of Feb. 15

MENU: Week of February 15

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Sunday	Turkey Bacon/Fried Eggs
Monday	Half-Boiled Eggs	Leftovers	Baingan Bharta & Pasanday
Tuesday	Half-Boiled Eggs	Baingan Bharta & Pasanday	Creole Shrimp Salad
Wednesday	Half-Boiled Eggs	Creole Shrimp Salad	Paleo Lasagne
Thursday	Half-Boiled Eggs	Paleo Lasagne	Palak Chicken with Cauli Rice
Friday	Half-Boiled Eggs	Palak Chicken with Cauli Rice	Moroccan Chicken Salad
Saturday	Turkey Bacon/Fried Eggs	Moroccan Chicken Salad

Baingan Bharta

Ingredients:

Two large eggplants, cooked as instructed above.

2 medium onions, chopped finely

3 tomatoes, chopped into small chunks

1 heaping tsp crushed garlic

1 tsp crushed ginger

1 tsp whole cumin seeds

1/2 tsp red chile powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

handful of fresh cilantro, chopped finely

2-3 green chilies, chopped roughly

3 tbs oil

salt to taste

While your eggplants are cooking, make a Masala Melt (see post below). Start by frying in oil the cumin seeds and chopped onions on high heat, then turn down the heat and cook until they are nicely sauteed and clear. Add in the ginger and garlic, allow to cook through, then turn up the flame and add the red chile powder, ground cumin, and ground coriander. Once the spices sizzle, toss in the tomatoes. 

Once the tomatoes have melted down and the oil has separated from the masala, you are done. Now mix in the eggplant flesh (stems, too). If by chance when you peeled the eggplant there were some uncooked parts deep inside, you can cook everything for a few minutes in the masala paste to cook them through. 

I usually add salt once I see how much eggplant flesh I have because you might have more or less depending on whether or not you had a lot of seeds in the eggplant. Some seeds are okay, but if you had a lot of seeds, you should toss that part out. 

Add salt now, mix well, and then mix in your green masalas (cilantro and chilies), and the garam masala. Stick the eggplant stems on top as a garnish. If you have an eggplant shaped serving dish, even cuter!

Garam Masala Pasanda

1 lb beef rump sliced into 1 cm thick steaks (ask the desi butcher for pasanda)
(I have also made this recipe successfully with pasanda sized slices of chicken breast)
1 cups yoghurt
1 tbs good garam masala
2 heaping tbs coriander powder (pisa hua dhania)
1 tsb red chili powder
1 tsp salt or to taste
2-3 tbs oil

Pound the meat slices, stab them with a fork, beat and abuse to tenderize. 

Whip the masalas with the yoghurt. Add in the meat and marinate over night, or at least for a few hours so the yoghurt can tenderize the beef. 

Heat oil, add the meat and marinade. Cook on high heat for about 10 minutes or so until gravy separates from oil. 

If you are using chicken breasts, lower heat and simmer for 10 more minutes and you're done. For beef, add in about 1/2 cup water, allow to boil briefly, lower heat and simmer for 1 hour or more until beef is nice and tender. You may need to add a little more water if it gets too dry. The gravy should be thick, velvety and separate from the oil at the end.

Pasanda in Ginger Garlic Gravy

1 pound pasanda beef slices
1 cup yoghurt
1 tbs garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
2 tbs crushed browned onion (bhuna hua pyaaz---I fry and freeze in large quantities, you will need to fry some up, say about 1 medium onion, if you don't have them on hand)
1 tsp red chili flakes
2-3 tbs oil

Mix the yoghurt and all the masalas except the browned onion. Add in the meat. Marinate overnight. Heat oil and add in the browned onion for one moment (don't blacken, just sizzle), then pour in the marinade. Braise on high heat for 10 minutes or so, add in 1/2 cup of water, bring to a boil, turn down heat, and simmer for one hour or until meat is tender.

Palak Murghi

The end result will be the spinach makes a wet gravy clinging to the chicken pieces, not a curry drowning the chicken in spinach:

2 tbs oil
1 skinless, bone-in chicken cut into medium pieces
2 tomatoes chopped
1 onion finely sliced
5 cloves garlic crushed into a paste
1 inch piece ginger crushed into a paste
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 dried red chilies whole
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1 heaping tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 tsp salt or more to taste

* if you don't have these all these spices at home and want to keep it simple, you could substitute all the powdered spices for some kind of curry powder that you like. use 1 1/2 to 2 tbs of the curry powder if so.

Heat oil, brown chicken pieces on high heat and remove from oil. Set aside. 

Heat oil again, add in the whole cumin and dried red chilies, then after about 30 seconds, the onions and sautee stirring frequently on high heat until they start to brown a bit and get soft (7 minutes or so). 

Add in garlic and ginger, stir for minute till garlic looks cooked, then toss in all the rest of the spices, then after 30 seconds, add in the tomatoes and salt. Keep stirring on high heat for about 5 minutes and allow the tomatoes to melt down a bit. 

Then add the spinach back in and when it is no longer in frozen chunks, add the chicken back in. Allow to bubble up once, then lower heat and cover. Keep covered for about 25 minutes on very low flame (or longer, my local chicken cooks very fast and will fall apart if I cook for longer), stirring occasionally. 

It is done when the chicken is cooked and the oil separates from the gravy. 

Don't add water, some liquid should come out of the chicken and the frozen spinach. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro. Serve with basmati rice or some type of flat bread, plus plain Greek yoghurt on the side.

Paleo Butternut Lasagne

Ingredients

• 1 lb hot Italian sausage, casing removed
• 1 red onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 15 oz can pizza sauce
• 1/2 c roasted red peppers
• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• couple leaves of fresh basil (leave it out if you don’t have it, just freshens up the sauce a bit)
• 1 small butternut squash

Method

Get your oven to 400ºF. In a saute pan crumble the sausage and brown it, along with the onions & garlic. While that’s going, cut the top and ends of the squash off and peel it. Split it into 1/4′s. What I mean by that is, right where the squash starts to turn bulbous, cut it in 1/2, width-wise. Split those two halves in half, lengthwise. This will make it much easier to cut into planks. 

Pull out the seeds. Don’t be anal about getting out all the strings, as you won’t even notice those when they’re cooked. Slice the squash into the aforementioned planks.

Make the sauce by pureeing the pizza sauce, red peppers, olive oil and basil. If you don’t a contraption that will puree (blender, food processor, immersion blender), chop up the red peppers and just whisk everything together.

Using a 9×9 oven safe baking dish, put down enough sauce to lightly cover the bottom of the dish. (This keeps the squash from sticking to the pan.) Next add the squash, trying not to overlap the pieces, then spoon on the sausage mixture, followed by the sauce. Repeat until all your ingredients are used up…trying to reserve enough sauce to cover the top of the lasagna.

Bake for 45 minutes. You’re looking for a bubbly pan with a crispy, browned top. Right out of the oven, the lasagna may by liquidy, let it set for a good half hour before cutting into it, as it will solidify.

Creole Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

2 apples diced

Fennel Bulb

1 ½ lbs shrimp, peeled & deveined

2 bell peppers, diced (whatever color is your favorite–or cheapest)

4 stalks celery (and the leaves), diced

3 green onions, diced

2 recipes mayo (about ½-¾ c)

1 ½ t Old Bay seasoning (taste and then add more if you’d like, it’s quite strong)

1 lemon, juiced

s&p

Method

Once the shrimp are cool enough to handle, chop them up into bite size pieces. Dry them off really well with a dish/paper towel.

In your serving bowl, mix together all the ingredients.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

•4 medium sweet potatoes

•8 oz. mascarpone cheese* (or cream cheese or coconut milk)

•1 chipotle pepper in adobo (NOT 1 can) + 2 T adobo sauce from the can

•zest of 1 orange

•2 T maple syrup + extra for drizzling on top

Method

Preheat your oven to 350ºF.

Split the sweet potatoes in 1/2, lengthwise, and coat with a bit of oil. Bake until they’re tender, depending on how big they are, about 25 minutes.

Once the potatoes are done and have cooled enough so you can handle them, scoop out their insides and place them into a mixing bowl, along with the rest of the ingredients. 

Mix well to combine. Place the mixture back into each of the potato halves and bake for 20 minutes. Put the oven on broil and caramelize the tops of the sweet potatoes until a nice brown-like crust forms on top–about 5 minutes, keep your eye on them.

Drizzle the tops with a bit of maple syrup and serve hot.

*Mascarpone is an Italian triple cream (40% fat) cultured cheese, similar to, but not quite like American cream cheese. It’s pretty freakin’ awesome. If you eat dairy, you must try it.

Slow Cooker Korean Grass Fed Beef Ribs

6 pounds of bone-in English-style grass-fed short ribs

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 medium pear or Asian pear, peeled, cored, and chopped coarsely

1/2 cup coconut aminos

6 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

3 scallions, roughly chopped

1 hunk of ginger, about the size of your thumb, cut into two pieces

2 teaspoons of Red Boat fish sauce

1 tablespoon coconut vinegar

1 cup organic chicken broth

Small handful of roughly chopped fresh cilantro

Method

Preheat your broiler with the rack 6 inches from the heating element. Season the ribs liberally with salt and pepper… …and lay the ribs, bone-side up on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Broil the ribs for 5 minutes and then flip them over and broil for another 5 minutes.

Stack the ribs in a single layer in the slow cooker. I lay them on their side to cram them all in the pot.

Toss the pear, coconut aminos, garlic, scallions, ginger, fish sauce, and vinegar in a blender and puree until smooth. Pour the sauce evenly over the ribs……and add the chicken broth to the pot.

Cover with the lid, set the slow cooker on low, and let the ribs stew for 9-11 hours.

Let the braising liquid settle for 5 minutes and then ladle off the fat if you wish. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, and pour a cup of sauce over the ribs.

Sprinkle on the chopped cilantro and serve the remaining sauce on the side.

Moroccan Chicken Salad

Chicken

•1 ½ lbs. chicken breasts, cut into chunks

•2 t  paprika

•1 t coriander

•1 t cumin

•½ t cinnamon

•¼ t red pepper flakes

•salt

Salad

•2 heads romaine lettuce

•4 small golden beets

•1 small-to-medium butternut squash

•toasted almonds

•dried cherries (or cranberries–something tart will work best)

Dressing

•juice 1 lemon

•juice 1 lime

•½ avocado

•1-2 T vinegar (champagne or cider)

•¼ – ½ c avocado oil (olive oil will work too)

•s&p

Method

Preheat your oven to 400ºF.

Peel the beets and butternut squash (+remove the seeds). Chop into small pieces, salt/pepper and oil the pieces. Roast until the squash is soft, about 20 minutes (depending on how big the pieces are).

While the veggies are roasting…

In a large bowl, combine all the spices together. 

Toss the chicken pieces into the bowl and coat them evenly with the spice mixture. 

Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat and saute the chicken until cooked through. Remove from the pan and add to the serving bowl.

Wash and chop the lettuce. Add it, along with the rest of the “tasty” ingredients to the serving bowl. Add the squash and beets too.

For the dressing:

Combine all ingredients into a small food processor and process until smooth. Of course, you could use a whisk and bowl, in lieu –just make sure you’ve smashed the avocado up before adding it to the dressing.