Recipe: Paleo Pad Thai with kelp noodles

Kelp noodles have been in my radar for ages. Kelp is a seaweed, and thus these “noodles” are grain-free low carb and a good source of iodine. I haven’t been able to find them in shops yet and I didn’t want to pay a fortune for the ones that are sold online (they come from the US). Fortunately I don’t crave noodles/pasta that often anymore, but I was still curious about them. Finally, I gave up and bought a package.

This 340g bag costs $10.50 plus shipping in the online shop I bought it from. The noodles come surrounded by liquid, and must be rinsed before using. They do not require cooking but you can soak them for a while to soften them up.

Given its appearance and texture I thought they would work better in an Asian-style dish than an Italian pasta remake. I chose a Pad Thai recipe and tweaked it to make it Paleo-friendly.

Paleo Pad Thai
Yield: Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 340g package of kelp noodles
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
• 1 small red chili (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 2 spring onions, in 2-inch pieces
• 1-2 teaspoons coconut or palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 8 large prawns, peeled and cleaned
• 250 g chicken breast, thinly sliced
• 100 g enoki mushrooms
• 40 g blanched & chopped almonds
• coriander leaves
• 1 lime in wedges, to serve

Directions

1. Rinse the noodles and drain them.
2. Combine tamarind with 1 tablespoon water.

Pound chili, garlic, and sliced spring onions (reserve the 2-inch pieces) with a mortar and pestle.

3. Combine both mixtures in a bowl. Add the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.
4. Heat your wok. Add 1 tablespoon of oil. Scramble the egg and reserve.
5. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil. Stir-fry the chicken, add the prawns, noodles and spring onion pieces.
6. Toss with sauce.
7. Mix with egg and serve topped with enoki mushrooms, coriander leaves and almonds.

Recipe: Slow-cooked cebiche de pato (duck cebiche)

Cebiche is usually raw seafood marinated in lime juice and served with chillies and sliced onions. But there are as many kinds of cebiches as flavours of potato chips in Australia, to give you an idea. There’s cold cebiche (raw, for example the classic one made with fish) and hot cebiche (cooked, for example camarones a la piedra). In the North of Perú, the land of the best ducks and the liberal use of coriander, there’s cebiche de pato. The best taste is achieved by slow cooking it in clay pot. Because I don’t have one, I came up with this variation for the slow cooker.

Slow-cooked cebiche de pato (duck cebiche)
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 6 duck legs (drumstick and thigh)
• 250 ml sour orange juice (I haven’t found sour oranges in Australia, you can use half orange juice and half lime juice instead)
• 50 gr Peruvian yellow chilli paste or 1 tablespoon Peruvian yellow chilli powder (or any chilli)
• 40 gr garlic (about 8 cloves), mashed into a paste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
• salt
• 2 cups duck or chicken stock
• 50 gr fresh hot chilli (optional)
• 600 gr red onion in thick slices
• chopped fresh coriander to taste
• juice of 2 limes
• 1 kg boiled cassava

Directions

1. Marinate duck in sour orange (or orange and lime) juice for at least 6 hours.
2. Remove duck from marinade (reserve the marinade) and rub with garlic, chilli, cumin and white pepper. Sprinkle with salt.
3. Place duck in slow cooker, add marinade and stock.
4. Cook in low for 4 to 4.5 hours. If using fresh hot chillies, break them with your hands and add them to the slow cooker. Add the onions and cook for extra 30 minutes.
5. Before serving, add the juice of the extra 2 limes.
6. Serve with chopped coriander on top and boiled cassava on the side.

On a non-culinary note: When I went to primary school (yes, I can still remember) I was taught that cebiche can be either spelled with a c and a b or with an s and a v, i.e. either cebiche or seviche. I always chose the first because it was the preferred form in the dictionary of the RAE – Real Academia de la Lengua Española (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language). Nowadays the RAE also accepts the spelling ceviche but I feel funny writing it that way. So here’s my disclaimer: I spell it the way I learned to, do not think it’s a typo ;)

Recipe: Celeriac (celery root) mash

I come from the homeland of potatoes. They originated in the Peruvian Andes and have been the foundation of my people’s nutrition. There are zillions of varieties currently grown there and most of the ones I’ve tried are delicious. But due to health concerns I’ve pretty much stopped eating them. When I was following Precision Nutrition‘s guidelines, I reserved them for post-workout meals. Then my knee issues got worse so I restricted them even further as well as the rest of the nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant and capsicum), which contain toxic components (glycoalkaloids) that can cause joint inflammation and, as a bonus, are a big trouble for people with gastritis and reflux (more info: here and here.)

So what do I do when I crave a soft, creamy, comforting mash? Celeriac is the answer. Celeriac, or celery root is an ugly vegetable. It reminds me of Bart Simpson’s grandpa.

Celeriac

My housemate Bonnie calls it “the new potato”. Although is not that starchy and firm, it’s a great substitute and has a nice subtle celery flavour. You can roast it, mash it, puree it into soups or add it raw and grated to salads. To get it ready simply wash it (a brush helps) and peel it like a pineapple.

Peeled celeriac

Today’s recipe is celeriac mash, which I served the other day for dinner with grilled kangaroo steaks, roasted beetroots and sautéed beetroot greens & stems. Who said healthy food isn’t yummy?

Celeriac mash
Yield: 4 to 5 servings

Kangaroo steak, beetroot, beetroot greens & celeriac mash

Ingredients

• 4 – 6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 1 celeriac
• 1 tablespoon butter
• salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Wrap garlic cloves in aluminum foil and roast for 20 – 30 minutes.
3. Wash and peel celeriac, cut into 1-inch cubes.
4. Steam for 10 minutes or until soft.
5. Squeeze garlic from the skins and add to celeriac. Puree in a food processor or using a stick blender.
6. Return mash to pot, add butter and season with salt and heat it up if needed.

Recipe: My mum’s sweet and sour meatballs with a twist

This is another dish I miss from home, definitely not Peruvian but prepared by my mum quite often. The original version calls for breadcrumbs, flour, Chinese soy sauce and sugar. As if that wasn’t enough, my mum used to serve it with white rice and boiled potatoes. I took a chance and Paleolized it as much as I could, and am happy to report that I liked my version almost as much as the original one.

Sweet and sour meatballs
Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 3/4 kg beef mince
• 2 eggs
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 100 gr bacon
• 4 tablespoons coconut flour (almond meal may work too)
• 1 teaspoon chopped parsley
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons tamari
• 3 tablespoons wine vinegar (red, white or rice)
• 1 teaspoon arrowroot powder
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• fat of choice (coconut oil, ghee or olive oil)

Directions

1. Mince garlic and chop bacon.
2. In a bowl mix the minced beef, coconut flour, parsley, garlic, eggs and bacon. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Shape into golf ball-sized meatballs.
4. Heat fat of choice in a pan and fry meatballs until golden. Reserve.
5. Pour stock in a pan or pot big enough to fit the meatballs. Bring to a boil, add honey, tamari and vinegar.
6. Dissolve arrowroot powder in a little cold water. Add to sauce and stir until thickened.
7. Add meatballs to the sauce and cook for 5 – 10 minutes.
8. Serve with white rice and/or steamed vegetables.

Recipe: Lomo saltado (Peruvian beef stir-fry)

I know nobody apart from me cares but I have to say it: this post does not follow the strict chronological order of the blog. I felt forced to let go of my obsession because of an issue with my camera’s memory card (with photos for two posts) and decided to keep blogging using other camera while trying to recover the lost pics.

Disclosure aside, let’s dive into this post’s business: Peruvian food. Lomo saltado (beef tenderloin stir-fry), one of my favourite dishes, was born as a fusion between Chinese techniques and Spanish/Peruvian ingredients. It’s prepared in a flash with just a few ingredients, which means that technique is important to get it right.

The basic components of the dish are beef tenderloin, red onions, tomatoes, garlic, chillies, soy sauce and vinegar. You can use any tender cut of beef or even pre-cut stir-fry beef. You can replace beef with kangaroo, chicken, fish, seafood, shiitake mushrooms, soy fake meat (although I don’t endorse it any more), or anything you fancy. Some people use a mix of light and dark soy sauce, some add oyster sauce, some add stock. White or red wine vinegar work equally well (I know someone who uses balsamic… overkill IMO).

Of course the sides are starch + starch: potato chips and white rice (the chips in the photo look weird because they were steamed and then pan-fried in a tiny bit of ghee, the rice was cooked as usual with sautéed garlic and salt). There’s a controversy about how to serve the chips: if on the side or mixed with the stir-fry (and thus soaked by the sauce). I’m with the people who say it’s better to serve them on the side and let the diners decide if they want to soak them or not.

Lomo saltado (Peruvian beef stir-fry)
Yield: 4 servings

• 600 gr beef tenderloin
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 large red onion
• 1-2 fresh chillies (optional)
• 4 tomatoes
• ghee or fat of choice
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• salt and pepper
• coriander, parsley or green onions, to serve (optional)
• potato chips, to serve (optional)
• white rice, to serve (optional)

1. Have your chips and rice ready to go. Also pick and chop your herb of choice.
2. Cut beef against the grain in strips (stir-fry size).
3. Peel and mince garlic and toss on beef, along with some cracked black pepper. Give it a rub and set aside.
4. Cut onion in half. Discard core and cut in thick wedges, separating each layer.
5. Seed chillies and cut in long strips.
6. Cut tomatoes in 6 – 8 wedges each. Remove seeds.
7. Heat up your fat of choice in a wok. When super hot, throw in the beef and stir-fry for a few seconds, until cooked on the outside.
8. Add onions and chillies, stir-fry for a few seconds.
9. Add tomatoes, stir-fry for a few seconds.
10. Add soy sauce, vinegar and oyster sauce, stir-fry for a few seconds. Taste and add salt if needed.
11. Serve with chopped herbs on top, potato chips and white rice on the side.

Recipe: Ají de gallina (Peruvian chicken “curry”)

This one’s a classic. One of Peruvian favourite dishes of all times, as many others heavily influenced by Spanish cuisine. It’s Alvaro’s favourite Peruvian dish, and very easy accepted by foreign palates.

Ají de gallina translates as “hen chilli” although most of the times it’s made with chicken (easier to get, milder in flavour and more tender in texture than hen). It contains chilli but calling it a “chilli” would lead to think it’s similar to the Tex-Mex concoction. That’s not the case, so let’s call it a “curry”, for lack of a better category.

The original recipe is not gluten or dairy free. Feel free to use gluten-free bread (or even better, almond meal) instead of bread and almond/quinoa/rice/oat milk instead of evaporated milk. If you’re not completely lactose intolerant I’d suggest keeping the Parmesan as it’s not that much and plays an important role in the taste of the dish. Another twist I haven’t tried is using coconut flour and coconut milk but then the whole flavour profile of the dish would change and the Parmesan would be entirely out of place.

Ají de gallina (Peruvian chicken “curry”)
Yield: 4 – 5 servings

Ingredients

• 600 gr chicken breast
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 tablespoon ají amarillo (or any other yellow chilli, to taste)
• 2 – 3 slices of bread
• 50 gr Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk
• 50 gr pecans
• salt
• pepper
• boiled eggs, to serve
• black olives, to serve
• boiled potatoes, to serve (optional)
• white rice, to serve (optional)

Directions

1. Cook chicken breast in stock.
2. Chop onion and mince garlic cloves.
3. When chicken is done, reserve stock and shred meat with your fingers or using a fork.
4. Remove bread crust, cover with hot reserved stock and break using a whisk or fork.
5. Heat oil in a pot over low heat. Add onion, garlic and chilli, cook for 10 minutes.
6. Add chicken, bread and stock to the pot. Cook for a further 10 minutes.
7. Grate cheese.
8. Chop pecans. Size is optional, I like them chunky.
9. Add Parmesan and milk to pot. Season with salt and pepper.
10. Add chopped pecans.
11. Serve garnished with an olive and half a boiled egg, with potatoes and/or rice on the side (or vegetables if you’re taking it easy on the carbs).

Recipe: Tacu tacu (Peruvian-style rice and beans)

Some people think Latin Americans eat nothing but beans and rice. We do eat lots of other stuff but yes, beans and rice are a culinary staple from Mexico to Chile, thanks to our Spanish conquerors.

In Peru, tacu tacu is the most popular (and tasty) combination of those two ingredients. It’s been around for a while, apparently the slaves came up with the dish when reheating leftover beans and rice for breakfast. Of course there were no microwave ovens back then, so the mixture was reheated in a pan, achieving a wonderful crust.

If I’m not mistaken, traditional tacu tacu is made with canario beans, which don’t exist in Australia. Not to worry, you can use whatever beans or legumes you want. Personally, I like the taste and texture of borlotis. Trendy Peruvian chefs nowadays are using a variety of exotic ingredients and other existing dishes to make tacu tacu. The sky is the limit.

What to eat tacu tacu with? On its own it’s kind of dry, so salsa criolla (thinly sliced red onions with lime juice, salt and chopped coriander) on the side is a must.

Salsa criolla

Add a fried egg on top to boost the protein content. Add fried plantains and you’ve got tacu tacu a lo pobre (poor man’s tacu tacu). Forget about the fried egg and plantain and serve it with a minute steak, a chicken schnitzel, seafood, or, as we did this time, grilled fish.

Tacu tacu (Peruvian-style rice and beans)
Yield: 4 servings

This recipe is best started the day before, but can be done in one go.

Tacu tacu served with grilled fish and salsa criolla

Ingredients

• 2 cups borloti beans (or any other kind), soaked for at least 8 hours
• 3-4 tablespoons oil
• 1 red onion
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1-2 teaspoons ají amarillo (or any other chilli, to taste)
• 50 grams bacon (optional)
• 1 cup white rice
• salt
• pepper
• dried oregano
• 1-2 teaspoons honey (optional)
• olive oil, to serve

Directions

1. Drain and rinse beans. Put in pot with water, bring to a boil. Turn heat to low.
2. Chop bacon in small squares and put in pot with beans and water. Simmer until beans are very soft.
3. While beans are cooking, mince garlic cloves and onion.
4. Heat one tablespoon of oil in a pan over low heat, add half an onion, half of the garlic and chilli and cook for 10 minutes. This is called aderezo. Reserve.
5. Heat one tablespoon of oil in a pot over low heat, add the other half of the garlic until lightly browned.
6. Add rice, stir to coat with oil and garlic, and cook for 1 minute.
7. Add 1.5 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt. Cover, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until cooked.
8. When the beans are ready, add the reserved aderezo (see step 4) and season with salt and pepper.
9. If you’re making this recipe in two days, stop here and refrigerate the beans, rice and reserved half onion.
10. When ready to assemble, mix rice and beans, add honey if you want, and heat if chilled.
11. Heat 1-2 teaspoons of oil in a pan (a wok works best) over low heat, add a fourth of the reserved chopped onion and about a teaspoon of oregano, cook until soft.
12. Add a fourth of the bean/rice mixture to the edge of the pan, in order to shape it like a rugby ball. Wait a couple of minutes so that it browns in the bottom. Then, if you’re up for it, start shaping the rugby ball by tossing the pan/wok like a seasoned chef. If it sounds too challenging, use a spatula or plate to help you turn the tacu tacu. The idea is that you get a nice brown crust all over the rugby ball.

13. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil on top and your accompaniments of choice.

Recipe: Escabeche de pescado (fish escabeche)

While this dish is mostly served during summer because it can be eaten hot or cold, I can’t see why you can’t have a simple, delicious and healthy fish dish any time of the year. Escabeche comes from the Arabs and arrived to America with the Spanish, their onions and tendency to marinate stuff in vinegar.

I really wasn’t into escabeche back home but now I crave it once in a while. The best thing about it is that is extremely easy to prepare given you’ve got nice fish on hand. I normally use barramundi or red snapper but any white fish will do (try tilapia if you don’t like your fish to taste fishy).

Escabeche de pescado (fish escabeche)
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 white fish fillets
• 1/2 cup almond or coconut flour (you can use wheat flour but it won’t be as healthy)
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon ghee or oil
• 1 large red onion
• 1-2 chillies medium
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon powdered chilli (optional)
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• 2 eggs
• 4 black olives
• cassava (optional, to serve. Another good option is sweet potatoes)

Directions

1. If serving with cassava, boil it in salted water until tender, 20-30 minutes.
2. Boil eggs.
3. Thickly slice onions (1 cm wide, approximately). Thinly slice fresh chilli. Peel and mince garlic cloves.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon ghee or oil in a pan and sauté onion, chilli (both, if using) and garlic until cooked but not soft. The onion and fresh chilli should still be slightly crunchy. Add vinegar, season with salt and pepper and cover pan.
5. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon ghee or oil in a non-stick pan. Dry fish with paper towel, season with salt and pepper, cover with flour and fry until golden in both sides.
6. Plate fish covered with “sauce” and topped with half a boiled egg and an olive. Serve with cassava and vegetables (if you’re riceholic as most Peruvians you can add some, too).

Recipe: Seco de cordero con frejoles (lamb & coriander stew and beans)

This is my favourite Peruvian dish. Do I need to say more? C’mon and try it.

Despite its name (seco means dry), this stew is very moist, almost soupy. It’s prepared pretty much all over the coutry, using different meats (lamb, baby goat, beef, chicken, even fish in the most unorthodox versions) and served with a variety of sides (always rice, plus potatoes or yuca or beans).

My favourite version has a Northern influence because it involves chicha the jora, that fermented maize beverage I’ve written about in the past. It’s used to marinate the meat and added to the stew later on. But don’t panic, if you want to give the recipe a go but don’t want to bother going to Fairfield to get a bottle of chicha just use white wine or vinegar. Won’t be the same but won’t taste bad either.

Seco de cordero con frejoles

Seco (stew)
600 gr diced lamb
3/4 cup chicha de jora or white wine or 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
3/4 cup dark ale
4 tablespoons oil
1 medium red onion
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons powdered ají amarillo or any chilli
100 gr pumpkin
2 tomatoes
1 small bunch coriander
1/2 cup beef stock
1 cup peas
salt and pepper

Frejoles (beans)
1 1/2 cups borlotti beans, soaked
2 tablespoons oil
1 small red onion
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon powdered aji amarillo or any chilli
salt and pepper

Seco (stew)
Marinate lamb with chicha de jora and beer in the fridge for at least 8 hours.

When ready to cook, take meat out of the fridge, drain and reserve marinade.

Chop onion and garlic. Heat oil in a saucepan on low heat and cook onion, garlic and ají amarillo for 10 minutes.

Grate pumpkin. Peel, seed and chop tomatoes. Add to saucepan.

Blend or process coriander leaves and some stalks with some of the marinade. Add to saucepan.

Add meat and stock to saucepan, cover and cook over low-medium heat for 40-50 minutes, until the meat is tender.

Season with salt and pepper.

Add peas and cook for another minute.

Frejoles (beans)
Cook beans until soft but not mushy.

Chop onion and garlic. Heat oil in a saucepan on low heat and cook onion, garlic and ají amarillo for 10 minutes. Add to beans, season with salt and pepper.

Serve seco with beans and white rice.

Recipe: Locro

Recently I read in a Peruvian food portal that locro and empanadas unite Latin American cuisines. There are certainly several other dishes that are common to our countries but according to the article, those are the first two dishes that were created as a fusion of native Latin American and Spanish ingredients. Don’t know if it’s true, but makes sense.

What is definitely true is that a dish can have the same name across countries and be entirely different. This is the case of locro. The Peruvian version is based on a variety of pumpkin called macre, which is less sweet and more yellow in colour than common Aussie pumpkins, but in general any pumpkin will do. It belongs to the category of home weekday dishes because it’s easy to make the sweet and non spicy taste is suitable for kids.

Locro is usually served with chunks of beef but both Alvaro and I prefer it with lots of cheese and a fried egg on top instead.

Locro
Yield: 4 servings

2 tablespoons oil
1 medium red onion
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon huacatay paste (optional)
1/2 medium to big pumpkin
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 cob sweet corn
1 cup shelled peas (fresh or frozen)
200 gr queso fresco, Haloumi or feta
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper

Chop onion and garlic finely.

Chop pumpkin in small cubes (1/2 to 1 cm).

Cut the kernels off the corn cob.

Cube or crumble the cheese.

Put oil in a big sautée pan or pot over low heat. Cook onion, garlic for 5 to 10 minutes, until very soft. Add optional huacatay paste and cook for a couple of minutes more.

Add pumpkin and stock. Cook for 10 minutes or so, until tender. Then add corn and peas and cook until they’re cooked and the pumpkin cubes have lost their shape.

Add cheese and milk, cook it for a couple of minutes until the cheese has melted down a bit. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Serve with a fried egg on top, and white rice and something green on the side.