Paleo chocolate bars with hazelnuts

My favourite treat is nutty chocolate. If you look around the supermarkets it's everywhere but usually with heaps of sugar... sweet shop windows in Florence are stacked with enticing looking organic chocolate bars that shamelessly taunt me. I have yet to see a 90% cocoa Lindt bar with any kind of reference to nuts barring the disclaimer on the back of the packaging for those with allergies. 

When my mum came up from Cape Town to visit me in Florence in April we finally took things in hand and started making our own chocolate bars! It is so painlessly quick and simple that you will be wondering why you haven't done it before and soon come up with your own ways to spice up your chocolate creations. Miranda (my endlessly talented housemate) is keen to try adding coffee... 

Some of the benefits of eating dark chocolate which I got from a blog called paleo leap:

• Dark chocolate is a good source of iron, magnesium, copper and manganese.
• Dark chocolate is very low in sugar.
• It can be used effectively to fill a craving for sweet foods.
• It is a source of antioxidants and can help repair free radical damage.

I have put in some sneaky Italian vocabulary for you to learn while you cook today. Also, for those of you in Firenze I have added where I source my ingredients.

From the rooftops in Santo Spirito, Firenze
Sofia and Miranda

Recipe 

You will need:

2 pots that fit into each other to make a double boiler (pentole)
1 wooden spoon (cucchiaio)
Baking paper (carta di forno)
2 containers to pour your melted chocolate into (lunch boxes work well - square corners)

2 Lindt chocolate bars 90% cocoa  (I got mine at the Lindt shop in Piazza del Duomo)
250g roasted, skinless hazelnuts (nocciole) (Conad supermarket.... but Mercato Centrale, San Lorenzo market if you can get there)

Melt the Lindt bars in a double boilers so they don't burn.

Add the hazelnuts.

Line your containers with baking paper.

Let the chocolate cool for a few minutes. Pour into your containers. It should be about 1 nut thick.

Put your containers into the fridge for 2 hours or until hard enough for you to break into rough pieces.

Snap your chocolate into bite sized pieces and store in the fridge.

Vovo's Moqueca (cod fish in coconut milk with peri peri)

I'm back in Portugal staying with Vovo in Sintra... She's promised to teach me at least one Portuguese or Mozambican dish every few days... I can tell that all the family back in Cape Town (Michele) are licking their lips in anticipation of my return to cook them some delicious things . Almost everything has peri peri added to it at some point so it's time to stock up if you haven't already as most of the recipes I'll be posting in the next few weeks will be crying without it.

You'll have to forgive my sometimes hand-wavey recipe. This is because my grandmother insists that she never uses a recipe and it's different every time. It's almost impossible to get her to commit to what should go into the dish so basically I just watch her every move and write it down as we go. Feel free to make improvements but this is a good basic structure.

This dish is exotic enough to get you excited but simple enough that it's a pleasure to cook. Apparently moqueca originally comes from St Tome and Principe - a former Portuguese colony...Vovo says in Mozambique they eat it with rice but when I'm around she's very good about sticking to the LCHF diet (Thanks for the solidarity). You can substitute for a more LCHF alternative such as cauliflower rice (blitzed cauliflower) or something greener such as spinach pan-fried with garlic and olive oil.

Hope you like it!

Sofia

Ingredients

2 servings

4 fillets of cod fish (we used frozen, but obviously fresh if you can get it)

1 small onion, chopped finely

3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

olive oil (or coconut oil) for cooking

2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped (roughly 1-2 cm wide)

1/2 tsp peri peri powder

pinch of salt

1 tin coconut milk (or 1 tin coconut cream and then add about half a cup of water so you have enough sauce to poach the fish in)

1/2 lemon (I think limes are nicer though if you can get them)

coriander, chopped - to add right at the end (add to taste)

Fry onion, garlic in olive oil in a large deep frying pan on medium heat. Onions should be soft. Don't let the garlic burn, it will taste terrible. Add peri peri and tomatoes. Let the tomatoes fry a bit before adding the fish and coconut milk. Once the pan has come to the boil turn down the heat and let it simmer until the fish is cooked through. Add a general squeeze of lemon and the chopped coriander.

Catie's Cheesecake Recipe

  

I am only on my seventh day of the Paleo diet, but from day one I have been plotting and planning how to cater for my infamously sweet tooth. On paging through the Real Meal Revolution cookbook I noticed that certain “sweeteners” are not prohibited. A substance called “xylitol” caught my eye in particular, which though tastes like sugar, looks like sugar and walks like sugar, is not in fact sugar. It is a plant extract which actually helps prevent tooth decay in humans (but be warned, is very poisonous for dogs).

I found a recipe for a cheesecake on “Low-Carb is Lekker.” But either the woman who writes the blog cannot do maths, or is just a terrible cook, because following her instructions resulted in an overly runny mixture drowning in egg. So I made some alterations. See below my recipe, which was completely delicious!

The Crust:

1 Cup almond flour

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons xylitol

Combine all the ingredients, and press into the bottom of a springform pan (this kind of pan is preferable because it makes extracting the cheesecake much easier). Bake for 8-10 minutes at 200 degrees until fragrant and beginning to brown.

Cheesecake filling:

2 Packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese

2 Cups Sour Cream

4 Eggs

1 ½ Tablespoons Vanilla Extract

7-8 Tablespoons xylitol (depending on how sweet you want it – I suggest tasting the mixture)

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees

2. In a mixer or processor fluff the cream cheese (Philadelphia is thick so this can seem tricky – particularly because I only had a stick blender)

3. Add eggs one at a time while mixing

4. Add the sour cream, vanilla and xylitol (don’t overwork the mixture)

5. Pour over the crust and bake at 200 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes. Then set to bake at 180 degrees for the rest of the baking time (this should take about an hour, but you will know the cake is ready when the top begins to brown and crack slightly. I suggest doing the knife test though to be sure – stick it in the cake and if it comes out clean its ready)

6. Allow to cool before serving

Note: It is even better the next day after a night in the fridge!

Berry Topping:

1 Cup Mixed Berries (frozen work well)

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Xylitol            

1 Teaspoon Psyllium Husks (as thickener)

In a saucepan stir all the ingredients together on a medium heat, except the husks. Stir in the husks as soon as a syrup has formed.

Almond Flour Blueberry Crumpets

Okay, so when I first discovered sweet potato crumpets as a dedicated LCHF observer, my feelings about them were somewhat akin to infatuation. Plus, they were huge success with my Florence housemates proving that being deprived of carbs has not led me to accept just anything trying label itself a crumpet. But, fidelity aside, these almond flour blueberry crumpets are even better. Yes, it appears my obsession with crumpets has reached new heights - thanks to all the talk from Cape Town (via family Skype calls) about the Prof. Tim Noakes and co. cookbook Real Meal Revolution... 

We have a copy at home in South Africa but as it's a rather hefty tomb it didn't make it into my almost overweight suitcase to Florence... So when it came to making them I ended up making up most of the recipe with a bit of help from the video that was posted on the Real Meal Revolution blog - which you can watch here.

The recipe is super simple. Use you own discretion in deciding if the batter is too thick or running and add more of the relevant ingredients. This batter is extremely resistant to messing it up, so fear not! I hope these crumpets transform your lazy Sunday mornings as they did mine.

Much love from Florence,

Sofia

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups almond flour (you can substitute some of it for coconut flour)
roughly 400g ricotta/2 small tubs (add according to preference... )
1 small box of blueberries

Beat the eggs in a large bowl and then add the almond flour, ricotta and baking soda. Using a whisk works wonderfully to get a non-lumpy batter (I don't have access to a food processor but you could use that instead). Then, fold in the blueberries. It should look something like this (see picture below). Not super appealing, but things will be looking a lot more inviting in about two minutes...

Get a large frying pan and add a generous tablespoon of coconut oil. This adds extra flavour and doesn't turn brown and burnt unlike butter. Using a tablespoon/soup spoon, put about three dollops of the batter into the pan on medium heat. The key to successfully turning them later on is not to make them too big.

Serving suggestions:

Butter (lots!)

Mascarpone

Strawberries 

Cinnamon

Here is a taste of Florence for you to gaze at as you happily munch your blueberry crumpets... The Palazzo Vecchio.

Sofia's Florentine salad

Being in Florence surrounded by delicious food in all the restaurants, osterias and alimentari has got me inspired to start cooking in the kitchen that I share with my four flatmates. Every new cheese I taste has me proclaiming it better than the last, and don't even get me started on the hams and salamis. I'm sure it would take me a week to name all the different varieties. Despite what most people tend to think about Italy, it is not just about pizza and pasta. For those of us giving carbs the cold shoulder, Italy is a veritable paradise of local, tasty produce. Many people and restaurants are adopting the principles of the slow food movement and the so-called 'zero kilometre' food. 

I learned all this from Granny’s friend Michael who lives in Florence and invited me for tea at a beautiful cafe near the Duomo called Chiaroscuro. Though we had never met before, tea with him turned out to be really entertaining. He’s wonderful to talk to and just from our brief walk around I could tell he is practically the encyclopaedia of this city and all its stories. He pointed out lots of buildings, motifs and churches I’ve passed but haven’t really looked at. He also showed me a great place to buy Italian produce (Eataly - it's just down the street from the Duomo...  http://www.firenze.eataly.it/) and I got some delicious pesto, parmesan and spinach.  

Here is a salad I made last night for dinner. 

Ingredients:

Ruccola (it's not really rocket, which is what I initially thought. Much more peppery)

Tomatoes (chopped)

Mozzarella (sliced)

Tallegio cheese (cut into small pieces) 

Basil pesto

Salami spiced with rosemary

Parmesan (shaved)
Walnuts (crushed)

Olive oil 

Squeeze of lemon

With love from Florence,

Sofia

I'm not the only one whose been inspired lately... My industrious aunt Michele sent me this from Cape Town...

"Here's the breakfast story - these tomato plants seed themselves in the garden because of our worm farm through which we recycle all our vegetable waste. This year we put ten on trellises and they are doing really well. Every day there's a handful of freshly ripe baby tomatoes that we eat straight off the bush or put in our breakfast omelet (our staple meal), flash fried with thyme from the garden, wrapped into the omelet with cheese and served with bacon. Yumm!"

Eggs and bacon is a staple for all us LCHF folks, so here are her pictures to get you in the kitchen tomorrow morning cooking a big healthy fry-up!

Vovo's Portuguese Fish Soup

I'm sitting in my grandmother's kitchen in Sintra, Portugal. On Saturday we went to a tiny village on the coast called Azanhas do Mar - which translates poetically to "Windmills by the sea". There are no more windmills and most of the houses are in need of a good paint or are literally disintegrating. Vovo has her eye on a ruin right on the cliff that she'd like to lovingly restore... but jokes about being the first to end up in the sea in the next Lisbon earthquake. Frankly, the restaurant on the edge of the water is so amazing that it might almost quell any neurotic thoughts about an apocalyptic-style end. 

At the restaurant, where the waves crash against the salt-encrusted walls and window panes, we spent the afternoon safe and warm next to a blazing fire. The seafood soup was so delicious and coupled with Portuguese wine is close to perfection, really. It arrived with the usual pre-lunch array of olives, a fantastic soft sheep's cheese (from the Serra Estrela region - it's incredible. You cut of the top with a knife and then scoop out the gooey centre) and a basket of bread (which I had to stoically ignore). Vovo said that everybody makes it slightly differently but I have no doubt that her's is excellent. On my dad's side of the family (the slightly more exotic lot with Portuguese passports) everybody knows that Vovo is the best cook by far. 

I wrote down the recipe as we made it because I had a feeling she'd just wave her hands later as we were eating it and tell me she doesn't use a recipe. I was right. Still, as she says, everybody makes it slightly differently so this is really more of a rough guide for anyone to adapt should they get the urge. Leave comments if you find interesting ways to improve the recipe.

Bom ano!

Sofia

Recipe
1 medium pot (preferably with a thick base)

2 large tomatoes (chopped)
1 large onion (chopped)
3 large cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
squeeze of lemon juice
one segment of lemon rind
1 tsp paprika (or saffron)
1/2 tsp dried peri peri powder (for a more Mozambican taste)
a pinch of black pepper and a pinch of salt to season

Cook all the above ingredients on a low heat in the pot so the onion's become soft and translucent. Stir periodically.

Next, put a combination of frozen (or fresh if you can get it!) baby calamari, prawns, baby clams (cockles) with shells and without, and cod. 

Add water and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer until all the seafood is cooked through. Keep tasting!

Prof Tim Noakes' Pork Fillet Stir-Fry with Green Chilli Paste and Coconut Milk

I was so excited to hear that Professor Tim Noakes (from the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town) had collaborated with Sally-Ann Creed, Jonno Proudfoot and David Grier to publish a cookbook. Finally, a cookbook that we don't have to quickly and regretfully skim through to find the spattering of recipes that are low carb! So I dashed out immediately to buy it from Exclusive Books. It's hard to miss really. Spot the revolutionary red cover. It's entitled "THE REAL MEAL REVOLUTION" and packed with real food, great writing and mouth watering photos for each recipe. There is also very accessible information on the reasoning behind the LCHF diet or "banting". 

I think the delicious recipes in this book will be more persuasive in terms of getting people to eschew carbs with a firm hand than any educational expose on their evils (no offense intended, Gary Taubes). I'll make an honest attempt to critically review as many of the recipes as I can. So far it looks to be a promising and invaluable resource for LCHF cooks everywhere.

This is the first recipe I tried from the cook book. It takes only about 10 minutes to cook but be sure to get all the chopping, dicing and slicing done before you so much as think of switching on the stove, or whatever you have in the pan will quickly over cook. 

Enjoy!

Sofia

Ingredients

400g pork fillet, thinly sliced 
(preferably organic, free range has become almost meaningless in terms of porcine and chicken freedom to wander)
3 tsp Thai green curry paste 
(Woolworths has a nice one but I've posted a recipe below that I got from Thailand in case you want to make your own)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 cup coriander, chopped
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 cup chicken stock
200ml coconut milk
1/2 cup carrot, shredded
1/2 cup spring onion, shredded (slice at an angle, it looks prettier)
1/2 cup mange tout, shredded (chopped finely lengthways)
1/3 cup basil leaves, thinly sliced

Recipe

1. Combine the green curry paste, garlic and coriander in a small bowl and mix well.
2. Heat the oil in a wok, swirling to coat the surface. Add the curry mixture and stir-fry until garlic is aromatic, about one minute.
3. Add the pork and stir-fry, stirring often, until meat is cooked (about 5 minutes)
4. Add the oyster sauce, fish sauce, chicken stock and coconut milk. Stir to combine and heat thoroughly.
5. Add the shredded vegetables and toss for one minute.
6. Stir in the basil leaves and serve immediately.

Serves 4

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General criticism: I got my Thai green curry paste from Woolworths at Constantia Village - but if you look at the ingredients it has 12.5g carbohydrates per 100g serving. A rule of thumb is that above 10g/100g serving is high carb. If anyone has the name of a low carb Thai green chilli paste please let me know. Otherwise the solution is to make your own.

Here is a recipe for Thai green chilli paste that I was taught in Chiang Mai, Thailand in December 2012.  It's quick to make but requires making the effort to get the more exotic ingredients.

Make your own green chilli paste...
2-3 green long chillies
1 tbsp chopped shallots
1 tsp chopped galangal (Thai ginger)
1/2 tsp chopped kaffir lime rind
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped lemongrass
1 tbsp chopped krachai (or Thai ginseng)
1/4 tsp roasted cumin seeds
1/4 tsp roasted coriander seeds
1/4 tsp salt or 1/2 tsp if you want to keep the paste longer.

Put the ingredients of the curry paste in a mortar. Pound with the pestle until everything is mixed and ground thoroughly (according to my Thai cooking teacher you can't be a good Thai wife unless the whole village can hear your pestle and mortar!). You can also use a blender.