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.

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!

Sofia's take on 'Sweet Potato and Cinnamon Crumpets'

(Photo taken by Sofia)

This is really great breakfast option when you're need a brief reprieve from the usual paleo eggs and bacon. It's not strictly LCHF (because of the sweet potato) but at our house my mum and I have decided it's a once a week Sunday morning special. I also took left overs to university (I'm an honours economics student) - sprinkled some more cinnamon and packed it into my lunch box with some chopped strawberries. Delicious but they will always be best hot out of the frying pan. Check out the list of ideas for LCHF toppings at the end of this recipe and come up with your own to post on our site!

This recipe could not be simpler. I found it on a great website: Low Carb Diet News but have altered it a bit to make it more LCHF friendly.

Total Time to Make: 30 minutes

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 1 small sweet potato
• 2 large eggs
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• Coconut oil
• Dash of salt

Optional:

• Dash of ginger
• Dash of nutmeg (recommended)

Directions

1. Wash sweet potato and peel it. Cut it into small cubes.
2. Steam sweet potato until very soft. You can do this on the stove in a pot with some hot water (this is more time consuming). Or you can do this in the microwave (with a little bit of water, and covered tightly) for about 5 minutes.
3. Using a fork, mash the sweet potato well.
4. In a bowl, whisk eggs with a fork until frothy.
5. Add in the mashed sweet potato and mix well.
6. Add baking soda, cinnamon, salt and any of the optional ingredients. Incorporate all the ingredients into a smooth, well-mixed batter.
7. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat.
8. Add just enough coconut oil to cover the bottom. (if you pan is a good non-stick you won't need this much)
9. Drop batter in spoonfuls into the skillet, making a crumpet shape.
10. Cook 2-3 minutes or until cooked. Flip and cook on other side 2-3 minutes.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 for the entire batch.
12. Top with almond butter, fruits or nuts. (be sure to avoid honey & maple syrup)

LCHF ideas for toppings

1. Butter (lots!)
2. Bacon (yes!)
3. Chopped fresh strawberries (or cooked from frozen)
4. Cream (double thick obviously)
5. Fried eggs
6. Peanut butter 

Raspberries, Lightly Toasted Hazelnuts and Crème Fraîche: breakfast (quick and perfect for on the go)

When I was working in an office for years I struggled with a breakfast that I could take with me to eat after going to the gym. Soggy fried eggs and bacon in a tupperware does not appeal to me! This is great for a tupperware and I also regularly eat this at home if I want a break from the daily fried eggs and bacon.

Ingredients:
6 -8 raspberries
15 raw hazelnuts (skin on)
2 big dollops of creme fraiche
1 teaspoon of desiccated coconut

Recipe:
Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees C and scatter your hazelnuts on to a baking tray. I usually do far more than needed here as you can store them for all your breakfasts that week and even freeze them. Put them in the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes or until the skins have darkened and are flaking away from the nuts. You do not want to cook them too much, this is why I prefer to do it myself as opposed to buying ready-roasted hazelnuts.

Once the nuts have been removed from the oven place them in a tea-towel and rub them firmly to remove most of the skins. Then allow them to cool before adding them to a bowl (or tupperware) of the fresh washed raspberries and creme fraiche, sprinkle your desiccated coconut on top.

Creme fraiche is very high fat is a more suitable in this recipe than yogurt. You can replace the raspberries with strawberries or other berries.