Just some quick ones, two different side orders and “Mc Feast” paleo burgers. Burgers made by the same killer recipe as before, mayo tuned with lemon. Deeeeelish!

Chantarelles and bacon

• chantarelles
• bacon
• -doh?

Chop them, bake them in the pan! You’d never had guessed?

Spring onion and cherry tomatoes

• spring onions
• cherry tomatoes
• olive oil
• salt, pepper

Cut the tomatoes in half, chop the onions. Put them on a baking tray and add a splash of olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Let bake in a hot oven until… done? A little char in the onions makes them taste sooo much better But any way you like!

Here’s a killer side order that’s almost so good, it threathens the main course status. Being no ordinary “paleo mashed potatoes” this nasty delicacy is guaranteed to satisfy even the most demanding comfort need. I served this with some salad and minced lamb meat (seasoned with paprika and salt, a little butter).

[The photo doesn’t do this side order justice! It’s beautiful!]

The Ultimate Mashed “Potatoes”

• a big cauliflower
• 2 onions
• 4 skinny chorizos
• salt, butter
• (garlic)

Rip the cauliflower in pieces and boil until tender. Slice the onions and cut the chorizos into a dice size bites and bake them on a pan. You may add some garlic, I did. Also a knob of butter and/or a little salt will do the food good.

Set aside and pour away the water from the cooked cauliflower. Puré with a blender and add the onion chorizo mix into the mash. Mix well, taste to adjust the salt. Dig in! You’re so gonna dig it.

…and what to do with it. I arranged a huge (well not huge but 130 kg anyway) order of meat some weeks ago. The idea was to buy some well kept (meaning ethical raising conditions) grass-fed meat of a quality beef from Highland Cattle. The whole procedure was more than easy and so the day arrived and our 10 kg share of meat. Six kilos minced meat, two kilos soup meat and two kilos silverside roast (or bottom side roast, ulkopaisti in Finnish).

Minced meat’s a piece of cake and the soup meat’s obvious. But in care anyone’s wondering what to do with the silverside roast here’s an ultimately easy and delicious recipe.

Love me tender

• silverside roast
• butter
• garlic cloves
• meat bouillon, from a cube or a fond (NOT containing MSG)
• a carrot

Cut the roast into rough cubes. Fry on a pan in loads of butter to get a nice tan for the cubes. Put into an oven casserole together with peeled whole garlic cloves, cut carrot and enough beef bouillon to cover the meat. Cover the dish with a tin foil and let it cook in the oven 1,5 or 2 hours on a mild heat (150 degrees or so). Remove the tin foil and let it still cook for about an half an hour. And whoomp there it is! Tender, garlicky, tasty meat. Can’t get any better than this. Veeeeery paleo.

Yeps, I know every one knows how to make burgers, but still: these were best I’ve ever made so am gonna share it with you. Just one word of advice. Alter all you want to, but DO NOT SKIP FRYING THE BURGERS ON A PAN IN BUTTER! It’s thee key to success.

The measurements are approximations since I just did it by heart as I always do… Forgive me. They just turned out so good I’m gonna try repeat it for you.

Golden Burgers

•  600 gr minced lamb meat
• 1 organic egg
• 1 onion
• fist size piece of a turnip or a small turnip (käytin kaskinauriin)
• 1,5 Tblsp coconut flour
• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast
• approx. 1 dl coconut milk
• salt
• pepper
• BUTTER for frying

Grate onion and turnip, mix into a dough with other ingredients, season with salt and pepper. Form into patties and bake in a generous amount of butter until almost done. Leaves them juice and tasty and the texture is perfect!

I’m overwhelmed by my own skills Can you imagine: just seven years ago I hated cooking and didn’t know anything. Now I’ve got me precious patties.

In Finland we’ve got this hugely popular and loved dish called makaroonilaatikko. It’s something every kid eats and all adults take a ton when it’s served in the lunch restaurants. In English it would be something like macaroni (pasta) and minced meat casserole so yeah, it’s not quite paleo. Since there’s no brilliant equivalent for macaroni in paleo diet (such as cauliflower rice which isn’t that ricy either imo) I had to come up with a little different solution. The result is somewhat of an application of the paleo loaf and tastes… Yes, GOOD! May be altered with different meats, why not make it veggie sometime as well?

Monkey Pie goes Paleo

• couple of onions
• 400 g canned meat (sikanauta! may also use minced meat)
• mushrooms
• approx. 3 dl coconut milk
• 3 organic eggs
• salt, pepper
• coconut flour and nutritional yeast for crust

Cut onions into stripes and cook in butter on a pan. Add minced meat/canned meat and mushroom and cook until done (the meat cooked and the mushrooms lost a bit of their moisture). Pour into an oven casserole. Mix coconut milk with eggs in a separate bowl. Season with salt and pepper, pour into casserole. If you want a crisp, salty crust on the top such as is in the original makaroonilaatikko, put some two teaspoons or so coconut flour and nutritional yeast on the top. Bake about 40 minutes in 220 degrees. Enjoy food and childhood memories!

The simplest paleo dish: a tartar steak. Calls for quality (and usually low fat) minced meat and is totally RAW. May be seasoned according to taste. Also pretty civilized, so if you wanna be a posh cave(wo)man, try this.

Steak Tartar

• minced meat (preferably low in fat, this time)
• salt
• pepper
• (optional: an egg yolk, worcestershire sauce, minced onion)

Season the meat and mix well by hand. Add egg yolk or other ingredients if you prefer, I just stuck with this very basic stuff. Form into a patty and eat away! Soooo sophisticated.

Some people suggest sides such as

• pickles
• raw onion
• anchovy
• olives
• pickled onion
• capers

Choose your weapons.

Just to keep you ON YOUR TOES!! No, but seriously, to remind you of this brilliant possibility to have some alteration in the menu: minced meat bends so easily into a loaf, non of the fuss that’s included in meatballs or burgers but the juicy tastiness! Variable, easy, perfect to keep in the fridge and to bite when ever you feel like it. Could “bake” some boiled eggs into it or whatever you wish. Mine consisted this time of:

• minced lamb meat
• organic egg
• onion
• garlic
• fresh basil
• puréed tomato (I found one from Rainbow which DOESN’T INCLUDE SUGAR! …or any other sh*t)
• salt, pepper, oregano

Chop onion, basil and garlic, mix ingredients, season and taste. For into a loaf on an oven tray, bake for about an hour, 175-200 degrees.

Home made beef jerky. Sounds tricky, but is über simple. At least when you’ve got yourself a food dryer. By preparing jerky yourself you’ll save cash loads of money, your gut from unnecessary additives s and may treat yourself RIGHT even when travelling or going to movies. The smell rising from the dryer is divine and the end product… Chewy, tasty, satisfying. Something no paleo monkey would ever refuse.

Monkey Jerky

• a good piece of meat (such as ulkopaisti)
• organic shoy soy sauce (being pure paleo it should be gluten free)
• black pepper, other spices (optional)

Cut the meat into thin stripes. Put in a bowl and splash soy generously, mix it well. Add some pepper if you want a bit of a bite to the taste. Cover and let sit in the fridge overnight. Next day wipe out the excess marinade by some kitchen towels and place in the dryer. Some good 8 hours of 40 degree drying should do it. You may want to experiment a little to achieve the level of chewiness you prefer and the marinade is of course entirely variable.

There you have it. All you need now is a good movie, easier said than done…

…on her plate!

This is the most simple recipe and thee most delicious! Gotta post it again in English so to enable all the English readers to prepare it as well.

Thee Bää-äääst Cabbage Dish

• 500+ g minced meat (lamb/mutton or else)
• small cabbage
• salt

Cook the minced meat on a pan until browned. Take out an oven tray. Chop the cabbage into relatively think slices and spread onto the tray. Cover with cooked minced meat and place a tin foil over the whole thing, doesn’t have to be tight. Bake in an oven for at least an hour, in 200 degrees, then remove the tin foil and bake half an hour more. Season with salt and soy sauce if you tolerate that, ketchup goes also well with this (but has sugar :-/). Brilliantly delish and tender, makes an excellent meal and is easy to take the leftovers to work the next day.

For all my Finnish readers, I HAVE TO put a word out about this wonderful organic product: Kotivaran Luomumeetvursti. It’s not only organic and unbelievable delicious, it also does not contain glucose or any other sh*t so commonly messing with cut meat. I won’t even mention E621, the most evil monosodium glutamate (MSG) that’s put into so many products it makes me sick. Literally.

But this beauty saves the day! Brilliantly fatty and tasty it’s a perfect snack with some veggies or a part of a good meal. Doesn’t get much better.