The Great Coconut Milk Experiment

Coconut.  One of the (many) beautiful things about eating Paleo!  The only difficulty is finding unadulterated coconut products, especially coconut milk.  So, I decided to make my own.

With Bruce's help, we husked two of the three coconuts given to me by my friend and co-worker, Gina.  It has been difficult to find mature coconuts because everyone wants the water these days.  After several false starts, her and her husband provided us with THESE beauties.

We have worked out a trade deal - they give us coconuts, we give them avocados.  I like it!  The picture above shows one coconut with the husk still on, and two without.  Once you husk them you need to use them - they can leak or rot quickly.

These we just perfect - plenty of milky white flesh.

It's not easy getting the meat out of the shell.  If this was a Top Chef quickfire, I would have lost.  I've got to research to find an easier way to do this.

Here is the meat - don't worry about the dark peel - it doesn't impact the taste of the milk.

Put it all in the VitaMix and blend with enough hot water to make a slurry.

The slurry going into the nut milk bag.

Squeeze out all of the milk - use a nut milk bag instead of cheesecloth.  They work great!

The finished product!  It is delicious to drink just by itself over ice, blended into a smoothie, or used for many Paleo recipes that call for coconut milk.

I'm spoiled now, and only want fresh.  The trick will be to maintain a 1-2 per week supply of mature coconuts.  You'd think they'd be all over the place on an island, but apparently they are one of Maui's best kept secrets.

Smoothie Friday: Kiwi Green

It's Smoothie Friday!


Each Friday (for as long as I can keep it going), I'm going to post a recipe for a new Paleo smoothie creation.


Today is "Kiwi Green."


Ingredients:


1C water
1/4 of an avocado
1 small banana
1 orange, peeled
1 kiwi, peeled
2T flaxseed meal
1 scoop egg white protein powder
1C raw spinach
1C ice


Blend on high for 1 minute in your blender.


A couple of notes:

• If you do an sort of cooking, are following a Paleo nutrition plan, like to make smoothies, soups or blended cocktails, do yourself a favor and go buy a Vitamix!  I can't tell you how many cheap blenders I've burned up over the years, and you probably have done the same.  Add them up and you could have bought a Vitamix!  They are a little pricey, but worth every penny AND MORE.  I wish I had discovered them years ago.  Use a Vitamix and say goodbye to chunky, unpleasant smoothies.

• Do you peel your kiwi when you eat it?  I have a friend who eats hers skin and all.  I can't seem to wrap my head around that, but if there's a benefit, I'll do it.  After all, I will throw flaxseed, nuts and other fibrous stuff in a smoothie, but kiwi skin?

Paleo Osso Buco

Yesterday was a huge cooking day in my kitchen.  I got my copy of Paleo Comfort Foods earlier in the week, but I needed a day to myself to fully appreciate it!


There were so many dishes I wanted to make, but I had to limit myself and not get too carried away.  I still made several dishes, though.


The first was the Osso Buco with beautiful beef shanks from Whole Foods.  I was thrilled to find the grass-fed, LOCAL beef from Maui Cattle Company at only $3.99/lb!   I love WF's meat counter.


The meat seared beautifully in my favorite Le Creuset pot.  Then, in went the medley of vegetables - mostly from a couple of different farmers markets.  (Can you tell I like orange kitchen items?).

I finished up the sauce and popped it in the oven to simmer for a couple of hours.  The meat came out tender and the sauce was outstanding.  A very successful first attempt at this dish!


We had the carrot timbales and mashed cauliflower to go along with this colorful and super tasty dish.  Both recipes are from the book as well.  I was going to saute some chard for some extra green, but was too tired from all the other prep, so it didn't get done.


The carrot timbales were a hit - smooth, light and fluffy.  I made the recipe as printed, then read the variations AFTER it was cooked.  Although they were delicious I, personally, would like a little extra kick from ginger or curry next time.

The long cooking time makes this dish more appropriate for the weekend, but you could probably easily throw everything into a crockpot (after searing the meat and cooking the veg) and let it simmer all day for the same results.


Bon Appetit!


P.S. I'm going to write a review for the cookbook, but want to try a few more recipes first.

October Plans and Paleo Comfort Foods!

It's October 1st, and I made a promise to myself to blog every day this month.

One of the things I'm MOST excited about is a new cookbook, "Paleo Comfort Foods," by Julie and Charles Mayfield.  It's FABULOUS!

But I'm too tired to provide details right now - it's late at night and my kitchen is a disaster.  More on what was cooked during my all day "Cooking Fandango" tomorrow!

Paleo "Spaghetti"

Earlier this year I read about Psuedo Paleo "Spaghetti" on Nell Stephenson's blog.  As a lover of zucchini and an owner of a mandolin, this has been a favorite go-to side dish for several months, simply prepared as in her post.

I told some visiting family that we were having "zucchini spaghetti" for dinner last night with our grilled beef filet and purple sweet potatoes and left it at that.  I had fully intended on making the plain version, but decided something a little more special was in order for company so I made this:

Here's the recipe:

1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 Tsp red chili flakes
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 medium zucchini, julienned in long strips (I used one green and one yellow)
Freshly ground black pepper

Warm olive oil in large skillet.  Saute onion and bell pepper until soft.  Add garlic and chili flakes and cook for 2 minutes.  Add cherry tomatoes and cook for approximately 5 minutes, until tomatoes are soft.  Add zucchini and cook until "al dente" - don't cook too long or it will get soggy.  Serve hot.  Finish with fresh cracked pepper.  Makes approximately 6 servings.

FYI, the measurements are approximate - you can add more or less to taste.

It came out so pretty, here's the serving pic:

Bon appetit!