Grapefruit Curd

Actually, it's the same like lemon curd except that this is made with grapefruit. 

I've got a few kilograms of grapefruit last week and was told that they are really sour, so not good for eating but for jam or similar. 
We have tasted and found it all right. They taste just like grapefruit. Sour. 
People nowadays don't like sour fruits, do they? I'm from Hungary and we LOVE sour cherries. Here, in Australia, fresh sour cherry is not available. At all. There is no demand for them. Even dried sour cherries are sweetened! How pity. 
Sour fruits are good, I think.
Anyway, I had these beautiful grapefruit and although my first thought was to make jam, I changed my mind and made some grapefruit curd. It's so delicious that in the end I saved all the juice and freeze them to make more curd in the future. 
Christmas is coming in the end and this will be a great present as well :)

Ingredients
4 eggs
1/2 cup (100 g) Natvia or other paleo sweetener
1/2 cup (~70 ml) fresh grapefruit juice (about half a grapefruit)
1/2 cup (~70 ml) ghee

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil over medium-high heat.
Decrease the heat to low.
Whisk the eggs, Natvia, grapefruit juice in a medium stainless steel or glass bowl to blend.
Place the bowl over the hot water and whisk in the butter.
Continue to whisk for about 3 minutes or until the curd has become thick and creamy.
Remove from the heat and whisk until most of the heat from the curd dissipates.
Store covered in the refrigerator until serving.

Variations for wellbeing

Dairy intolerance: enjoy as is.
Gluten intolerance: enjoy as is.
Paleo: enjoy as is. Ghee is not recommended for people with autoimmune disease.

German Type Multi Grain Bread

As Paleo movement is spreading, there are more and more amazing recipes. For example, this bread.

When I started Paleo, there was no bread. I  mean, good bread. So I didn't bake it or just very-very rarely.
And while I don't have a demand for bread and can live without it, my husband cannot. After a few weeks without it, he comes home with lots of rice crackers because 'he needs something because my wife never cooks the meals on time', he says  'and when she does, she spends half an hour photographing it'.
Now that I found this recipe, I have baked it three times already. The last portion is sitting in the freezer, so whenever my husband wants a slice of bread, he can toast and eat it. It's much better than rice crackers.
Actually, it's really good. It has a very similar flavour like the classical German pumpernickel bread.

Ingredients
300 g flax meal
400 g seed and nut mixture, eg. sesame seed, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, etc.
5 tbsp psyllium husks
1 tbsp paleo sweetener of your choice
450 ml water
3 tbsp oil or fat
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 250 C. If you use fan bake, 220 C is enough. 
Lay baking paper into a loaf pan (mine is 23x13x6 cm)
Mix the dry ingredients very well than add the water & oil mixture to it.
Pour the dough into the loaf pan, make sure that it's pressed well and smooth out the top.  
Bake it on 250 C for about 30 minutes. Remove it from the loaf pan to a baking sheet and place it back upside down on the rack. Bake for another 30-40 minutes. 
It's done when it sounds hollow when tapped. 
Let cool completely before slicing. 

If you freeze it, slice it up, place baking sheet between slices and store it in freezer in a tightly sealed container. 

Note that I do not recommend to eat more than 1-2 slices at once. Flax meal and psyllium husk make you quite regular. 

Variations for wellbeing

Dairy intolerance: enjoy as is.
Gluten intolerance: enjoy as is.
Paleo: enjoy as is.

Paleo Tiramisu

I love Tiramisu. It is one of my favourite dessert but it is not really Paleo, is it? 

There is the obvious choice to replace the Mascarpone to a custard made from coconut cream but I wanted to try something else. Something which is creamy and sweet itself like custard: the custard apple. 

It is a winter fruit - sorry, my Australian readers - and unless you have your own tree, it is quite expensive. However, you need one only. 

The best thing in this Tiramisu is that there is no added sugar in it. Not even a gram. 

Worth to try :)

Ingredients for the sponge cake

2 eggs

8 tbsp almond flour (almond meal from blanched almond)

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

zest of a lemon

Preheat the oven to 180 C.  Prepare a 20x20cm baking tin with baking paper.
Separate the eggs and whip the whites and the apple cider vinegar with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes. Mix the egg yolks and add them to the hard egg whites gently so you don't deflate the egg white mixture. Mix the almond flour, the zest of a lemon and bicarbonate soda, then add gently to the egg white mixture. 
Pour the mixture to the prepared tin and bake it for about 15 minutes or until it is golden brown. 

Ingredients for the cream

1 custard apple (approx. 350ml mashed custard apple without the seeds)
1 egg white
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp gelatin dissolved in 50ml hot water

Cut the custard apple in half and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. Discard the seeds then make a puree of the flesh by a food processor. Pour the mash into a colander lined with cheese cloth and let it drain above a bowl while beating the egg whites.
Whip the egg white with the apple cider vinegar with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes. While beating, slowly add the dissolve gelatin to it. With a wooden spoon, mix the custard apple gently to the hard egg white.

Layering

150-200ml fresh espresso coffee or nescafé, cooled
splash of almond liqueur
sugar free cocoa powder, eg. Dutch cocoa

Cut the sponge cake to 15x100mm stripes. Lay half of them to a 12x12cm glass or ceramic dish.
Combine the coffee with the liqueur. With a spoon, pour some from the coffee mixture to the sponge cake.
Cover the sponge cake with half of the custard apple mixture. Repeat the layers one more, ending with the cream. Dust generously with cocoa then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Alternatively, you can use agar-agar or psyllium husk instead of gelatin. This case you have to add them to the custard apple instead of the egg whites.

Enjoy :)

Variations for wellbeing
Dairy intolerance: enjoy as is.
Gluten intolerance: enjoy as is.
Paleo: enjoy as is.

Homemade Margarine

... for people who believe that margarine can have a healthy version.

Yes, I am serious :)
There are people who have dairy intolerance, so cannot eat butter. 
It is easy to make at home and works just as the store bought version. 

Ingredients

40g coconut oil, melted
2 tbs olive oil or macadamia oil
4 tbs grapeseed oil
1 egg yolk
salt

Put all ingredients in a bowl. Blend them until they are well incorporated.
Place the bowl in the fridge for 5 minutes then blend the mixture again. It should be creamy, just like butter. 

You can keep it in the freezer for up to a month. 

Enjoy :)

Variations for wellbeing
Dairy intolerance: enjoy as is.
Gluten intolerance: enjoy as is.
Paleo: enjoy as is.

Chai Tea Spice Mix

Chai tea was new for me a few years ago despite of being quite known in Australia. 
You can find many variations in the shops (as many brands as many mixtures) but if you do it yourself, even better. It's very easy, actually. 
I'm already preparing the Christmas presents - almost all of them from the kitchen - and one of them will be the Chai Tea.

Ingredients for spice
2 part ground cinnamon
2 part ground ginger
2 part ground cardamom
1 part ground star anise
1 part ground clove
1/2 part vanilla powder (you can leave it out, if it's hard to get)

Those spices which are not ground, grind in a coffee grinder, then measure the quantity you need.
Mix all the spices thoroughly.

What can you do with it?
It's already a perfect gift as it is but you also can do a tea mixture.

Ingredients for the tea
80g black tea leaves (not infused)
3 tsp Chai Spice above

Place the tea in a seal-able container or jar, add the spice, close it and shake it. Shake it like you mean it :)
Keep it in a dark place for a week at least, so the tea leaves can infuse the fragrance from the spice. 

Instead of tea, you can use the spice mix also in cakes, biscuits, granola or hot milk. 

Enjoy :)

Variations for wellbeing
Dairy intolerance: enjoy as is.
Gluten intolerance: enjoy as is.
Paleo: enjoy as is.

Pork Stew in Brasso Style (Hungarian dish)

This is one of my favourite Hungarian dishes which I cook quite often. It is not just simple but also quick 'slow' stew :) Much quicker than a beef stew, actually.

As every national dish, there is no one and only recipe for this stew either. As many house in Hungary, as many recipes.

I cook it the same way as my mother: with onion because that makes the juice thick.

Ingredients

1 kg diced, stewing pork*

2 brown onion, peeled and finely chopped

few cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

2-3 tbsp duck fat / lard

salt & pepper

Do not trim the fatty bits from the pork! Without them the meat will dry out. 

Sauté the onion in the fat and add garlic and meat, stirring continuously. 

Season with pepper. Cover and simmer slowly in its own juice for an hour. 

Stir it occasionally and replace any of the juices that evaporate with a little warm water if necessary. This pork stew should be cooked in small amount of liquid.

When it is ready, remove the lid, season with salt and on high heat make the juice thick. 

Traditionally cooked-fried potato is the typical side dish for it but we eat paleo way.

Some side dish tips:

• mashed carrot
• mashed cauliflower
• mashed parsnip
• cooked-fried celery
• chokes cubes shallow fried in oil

* Do not buy lean meat.

Tips

- Always buy the meat at the butcher. The prepacked meat in supermarkets usually does not have enough fat which is so important in this dish.

- You can buy lard in big supermarkets. I prefer duck fat which I get at Coles or at the butcher.

Enjoy :)

With mashed carrot

 With mashed parsnip and herbs

With mashed cauliflower 

With celery 

Variations for wellbeing
Dairy intolerance: enjoy as is.
Gluten intolerance: enjoy as is.
Paleo: enjoy as is.

Stracciatella Ice Cream

The easiest and quickest ice cream on the Earth! If you have a banana in your freezer :)

As we had a very hot day today, I put some peeled and sliced bananas in the freezer early in the morning. 
When we finished our lunch, I just mixed them with coconut cream and diced chocolate and voilà! the ice cream was ready. 

Ingredients

3 bananas
270 ml coconut cream (I love Ayam)
30 g dark chocolate, min. 85 %, diced
1 tsp vanilla paste

Put all the ingredients to a blender and mixed them well.
That's it.

Enjoy :)

Variations for wellbeing

Dairy intolerance: make sure to use dairy free chocolate.
Gluten intolerance: make sure to use gluten free chocolate.
Paleo: make sure to use dairy, gluten and soy free chocolate with high cocoa mass content.