Tuesday, December 22, 2009

GAPS Lasagne

We have family over for the Christmas season, and I have been busy in the kitchen making all kinds of non-GAPS treats, that I have been (sometimes) successfully resisting.

Tonight I made lasagne but I didnt want to miss out so I made the following GAPS version for hubby and I to share. It is a tweaked version on a recipe I found on the net. Unfortunately I didnt keep the link to give credit - but I have altered the recipe enough to make it my own.

Enjoy this dish it is absolutely delicious.

LASAGNE

2 - 3 Zuchini
1 T lard or coconut oil
1 Large onion
1 large beef steak - cut into thin strips
One large pinch of basil, oregano, thyme
1 large handful of pecan or walnuts
1/4 cauliflower diced
1-2 cups tomato puree
2 pinches salt
pepper to taste

Melt a little fat into a lasagne dish and grease bottom.
Slice the zuchini lengthwise and lay a few slices in the lasagne dish to cover bottom.


Fry the onion in the lard on low heat
Add the beef strips and stew in the fat for a few minutes
Add herbs and and tomato pure
Cover pot and simmer 10 mins
Add cauliflower and nuts simmer a few minutes

Pour a little tomato mix over the zucchini slices
add another layer of zucchini before pouring some more tomato mix over that too.

If you can tolerate cheese then add some grated cheese between each layer too.

top off with some chopped parsley and grated cheese. ( I dont tolerate very much dairy but I could have the cheese on top without any problems).

Bake for 30 -60 mins at 180 degrees celcius. (my oven is super fast and our lasagne was ready in 30 mins. I also dont like my zucchini overly soft. The original recipe called for 60 minutes so you can adapt as needed).

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Turkey "Rissotto"

Gosh I have been so slack with adding the recipes that I promised. Ive been so busy with my new job that the blog has been severely neglected.

So here is our current favourite meal, "Turkey Hash". It is suprisingly delicious. We call it "rissotto" as it is a good substitute when you are feeling like rice. We recently had a boy staying over at our house and I served this up and just said it was rissotto. Said boy ate 3 bowls full, even though his mother swears he never eats vegetables!


I found this one on the grainfree foodies blog - here is the link: http://grainfreefoodie.blogspot.com/2009/06/turkey-hash.html

Turkey Hash

Ingredients
3-4 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large stalk of celery, chopped
1 tsp. dried sage, rubbed
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1 tsp. dried thyme, rubbed
1 head of cauliflower, cored and finely chopped (I use a food processor.)
1 -2 cups cooked chopped turkey meat
Turkey or chicken broth as needed to keep from sticking
Salt and pepper to taste

My Tweak: We also add capsicum, broccoli, bok choy, and lots of garlic

Method

In a large frying pan or wok, cook onion, carrots, and celery in the butter until they are starting to soften. Add dried herbs, rubbing to release flavor. Stir. Add cauliflower, turkey and some broth to keep from sticking. Continue cooking and stirring until cauliflower is cooked through and the veggies begin to caramelize. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

My Tweak: We use a rolled boneless turkey leg that we get from the butcher and slow roast it the night before.

Enjoy.

How to Render Fat

Here is my suggestions for rendering fat, although there are some variations on this and you could check the web for others.

I usually buy 2 kilos at a time of port back fat or beef suet. Some butchers sell “grated” suet, it is more expensive but it comes in little granule that you can add direct to your cooking. I prefer to do the rendering myself and save the money.

I like to put the fat in the oven in a large/deep baking tray and cover it with another baking tray to stop it spattering everywhere. I cook it at about 150 Celesius for about 40 – 60 mins. Basically just keep checking it and when there is a nice pool of fat at the bottom of the pan you can pour it off into some jars. Then stick it back in the oven to cook some more and you will usually end up with another pool of fat that you can pour off. This process can be continued several times but the fat at the end starts to become a little browner and I like my lard/tallow to be white.

The jars you use need to made of nice thick glass with wide necks. Any mayonnaise or pickles jars will do the trick. I tried using some glass jars that I had bought at a discount store and they broke when I poured the hot fat in. The sides where obviously too thin.

You also need to sterilize the jars before putting the fat in, and it is a good idea to put the fat into a warm jar anyway, so the way I sterilize them is to just lay them on their sides, (without lids) in the oven for a few minutes before I am ready to pour the fat. They get hot really quickly so when you pull them out use an oven mitt.

I just place them in the sink on a couple of paper towels and then pour the fat in. The paper towels catch any drips.

Leave them on the bench for several hours until cooled and then refrigerate the lard (from pork) and the tallow (from Beef) can be left in a cool place – although I do put mine in the fridge.

Now is the fun part the cleaning up. I usually get fat on everything. LOL. Dump out the big grizzly lump of fat that is left, into the bin. Then wipe out the fat tray using a paper towel. I then also use my enjo grease mitt to get the last of the grease off and then was with soapy water.