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!

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.

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.

Olivia's "I'm already sweet enough" extra high fat Chocolate, Pecan and Coffee bites

As a 26 year old MA student much of my life revolves around sustaining study energy. These little high fat rich chocolate treats are perhaps more friendly to the non-LCHF tastebuds than 85%/90% chocolate as they are laced with delicious pecans and ground coffee. The coffee and chocolate combination gives me a second wind when trying to finish off that last chapter of art theory.

Ingredients:
180g high quality 85% chocolate (you can go as dark as you like or as low as 70% if you don't mind the sugar content)
100g unsalted butter (preferably from grass-fed cows)
1 tablespoon of raw coconut oil
15 pecan nuts (you can use more if you like it really nutty)
1-2 teaspoons of ground strong coffee (put less in if you are sensitive to coffee!)

To make the bites: Begin by snapping the pecans in pieces (approximately quarters) into a small frying pan. Place the frying pan on a medium heat and cook the pecans for about 3 minutes or until then start to go dark brown in places, tossing regularly. Once they have been cooked place to one side.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a medium saucepan with all of the butter and coconut oil. Heat these at a very low heat stirring continuously, it is important that the chocolate does not burn. Once the chocolate, butter and coconut oil have melted together turn the stove off and remove half of the mixture and set to one side.

Add the cooked pecans and the ground coffee to the remaining mixture in the saucepan and stir through. Then pour this into a small dish (one that you can use a knife on) and then top this with the other half of the chocolate, butter and coconut oil mixture. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Once you are sure they are set cut them into small pieces and remove from tray. If I'm not demolishing them on my own I usually serve them after a dinner party with fresh strawberries and raspberries to cut through the richness. Due to the high butter content they melt quickly.