Primal Prawn Patties with Asian Slaw

I made these babies for dinner last night, and Jake and I were both really impressed with them.

I adapted the recipe from The Primal Blueprint Cookbook.

 Primal Prawn Patties with Asian Slaw

Ingredients

Prawn Patties:
1/2kg of Green Prawns (Tails removed)
1 handful of Coriander (Roughly chopped)
1 Shallot or 1/2 a Red Onion
1-2 Cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)
1 Egg White
A good pinch of salt

Asian Slaw: (Be sure to make the Slaw before cooking your Patties)
1/4 Cabbage (Very finely sliced - You can use white, red or wombok)
1 Baby Cos Lettuce (Very finely sliced)
1/2 Red Onion (Finely sliced)
1/2 Cucumber (Sliced into half moons)
2 Carrots (Cut into Matchsticks)
Herbs - I used Coriander, Vietnamese Mint, Mint, and Perilla

Dressing:
Primal Approved Mayonnaise:
1 Egg
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1Tbs Apple Cider Vinegar (Unfiltered)
Cold Pressed Light Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Juice of 1 Lemon
Juice of 1 Lime
Dash of Fish sauce (optional)

Dressing Method:
- Place egg, mustard and vinegar in food processor and blend for 30 secs, with the motor still running slowly drizzle in olive oil, when you have your desired thickness stop adding oil (Make it a little thicker, because your lemon and lime juice will thin it down more)
- Add lemon jucie, lime juice and fish sauce, blend once again to combine.

Patties Method:
- In a food processor but 3/4 of your Prawns, Red Onion (or Shallot), Garlic, Coriander, and Egg white, and Salt.
(If you don't have a food processor, just chop all ingredients as small as you can, and Mix)

- Now Pulse or Blend your mixture, depending how fine you want your mix.

- With the remaining Prawns I chopped by hand so I have different texture of Prawns in my patties. You don't have to do this, you can blend all of your prawns if you want a smoother texture patty.

- Then stir chopped Prawns through your mixture

- Wet your hands (this will stop the mixture from sticking) and make Patties. I went for larger patties, but you could also make smaller ones for an entree or appetiser.

- Heat a non-stick pan on high (Non-stick is pretty important, for these delicate patties). Now being Primal, we aren't meant to use Canola or vegetable oils. So I used Coconut oil and and dash of olive oil in my pan. The Patties should only take a couple of minutes each side depending on thickness.

- Place all your salad ingredients into a bowl

- Don't forget your beautiful herbs, add enough dressing just to coat your salad (not drown it). If you have left over dressing, using it as a dipping sauce for your Patties, that's what I did. Yummo!!

- Arrange on the plate, and gobble up while still warm :)

Primal Pulled Pork Salad

Just made this for lunch, showed it off on Instagram and now I've got recipe requests.

First and foremost I must give credit where it is due, I grabbed the Pulled Pork recipe and the BBQ Sauce recipe from the Primal Blueprint Cookbook, by Mark Sisson and Jennifer Meier. You can find a copy here.

Pulled Pork Recipe:
1 Tbs of Olive Oil
1.5-2kg Pork Shoulder (Bone in or out)
1 small onion
1/2 cup Tomato Sauce (I used the homemade Paleo Ketchup)
1 cup of Water
1/3 cup of Vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Celery seed (I used Celery Salt)
1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
1 Bay Leaf

- Honestly I think you could play around with the spices, to your taste

1) Brown meat on all sides in olive oil over Medium-Med High heat.

2) While meat is browning,combine remaining ingredients and stir to mix well.

3) Remove from heat and put everything into a dutch oven or casserole dish that has a lid

4) Cover with lid and bake at 160c for at least 2.5 hours, 3 if your shoulder has a bone.

5) Check halfway through to make sure there is plenty of liquid. I turned my shoulder over with an hour to go.

6) Remove from oven, grab to forks and start shredding the meat off, if this is not happening easily then put it back in the oven for at least another 30 mins.

Shred all the meat and put it in a bowl

Now for the Slaw (Salad)

I used:

1/4 of a Cabbage (Sliced very thinly - You could use Red cabbage which would look really pretty)

1/2 Red onion ( Sliced thinly)

1/2 Cucumber ( Half moons)

1 Tomato (Cut into thin wedges)

1 Avocado (Peeled and sliced thinly)

1 handful of Coriander

Dressing:

Primal approved Mayonnaise

Juice from 1 Lemon

Juice from 1 Lime

- Mix together

1) Toss salad with just enough dressing to coat, not to drown the slaw

2) Place Salad on plate, top with shredded Pork, then top with a lovely BBQ Sauce, Preferably Primal friendly. You can find the recipe HERE

A Change of Pace

In my blogging absence I have been busy, busy with school, work, planning my wedding and..... turning Primal!!!

Lets Rewind a bit first. Over the last couple of years I haven't felt myself, I haven't felt that healthy, I was becoming more and more stressed and anxious. I was getting rashes, dry skin, acne, dandruff, cramping stomach, bloating and hay fever off the charts, plus I gained like 20kgs in a year and a half.
I had had enough, and needed some help! A family friend put me onto a wonderful lady named Suzy who practised Tapping or EFT (Emotional Freedom Therapy/Techniques). Its a wonderful therapy that helped me at my breaking point of anxiety, body image issues and anything else I needed to nut out.
At the same time I went had my allergies tested by a Vega system, a non invasive way of checking for allergies, intolerances and sensitivities. I was given a print out of all the foods, preservatives, chemicals, dusts etc I should avoid. They also found that I had a high Candida count.
Candida is a yeast in your body, everyone has it, but when it gets out of hand it can cause a huge list of problems which you can read up more here and here. I was put on a Candida diet, for 2 months, basically no Caffiene, alcohol, foods containing mould (that in turn would add to the fungus already growing inside me) So mushrooms, blue cheese, packaged nuts. No sugar, no junk, preservatives etc etc. By the 3rd day I had such a headache, I was used to drinking at least 3 good cups of coffee a day (I was working as a Barista, so not much fun) but after that I just started to feel better, I started to drop a lot of weight, apparently the yeast has a biproduct it gives off making it very hard for you to lose weight. Lose the yeast, lose the weight. I started feeling marvelous and by the end of the 2 months, I was hay fever free...no bull. This was a hallelujah moment.
After the 2 months on the candida diet, I was to basically avoid all the foods that I was sensitive/Intolerant. The list includes; Wheat, Preservatives especially those in the 620's (MSG being 621) Preservative 220 (Found in Wine, and basically any foods that have a shelf life, 220 prevents mould growth) Chemicals especially Sodium Laurel Sulfate which you find in your Shampoo and other things, Cows milk and a few others. So I went on search for a diet that didn't involve my no-no foods.

And so I stumbled across the Paleo or Caveman diet. Basically eating as our cave man ancestors would have, before we learnt to grown and process wheat and other grains. I jumped in full throttle, dropped about 6kgs and felt awesome, but slowly slowly I started to incorporate no-no foods, til before I knew it I was eating out, drinking, snacking on preservative laden foods. Then Bam!!! Hay fever symptoms started again, rashes on my face, Candida was back, and a couple of kilos crept back on. Booooooo!!

Fast Forward to now, I have studied Naturopathy a year at the Southern School of Natural Therapies, and love it. I'm getting married and thinking about starting a family next year. So I want to get healthy, I want both myself and my fiance to be healthy. I'm now starting to listen to my body, and know which foods it really doesn't like, Wheat and grains being the number 1 no-no.

My friend referred me to a wonderful website www.marksdailyapple.com. Mark Sisson is the creator of the website and is an amazingly knowledgeable man. The lifestyle is the Primal Blueprint, like Paleo, but does allow a little bit of dairy and he even includes the types of exercise we should be doing, and this will shock you but its not an hour a day at the gym running your arse off on the treadmill (Shocking I know)

I'm now on day 4, I have cooked 4 recipes from his cookbook, they are all delish and easy to do. More importantly it's the best I have felt in ages. A couple of months ago I would of written half of this post and nodded off on the couch, now I cant keep up with my typing fingers.

I feel great, and life is good x x x x

M.I.A

This blog is beginning to remind me of my failed attempts to keep a diary every year. Start off strong and then peter off to nothingness. I do though, have a very valid excuse. I've gone back to school!
At the end of last year, I'd had enough of my job and thought long and hard at my career.... If i'm not going to start up my own cafe then i'm not going to work for anyone else's. It's the same story at pretty much all the places I have worked over the years, work hard, very hard, for not a lot of money and not a lot of thanks, and crappy hours (yes weekends, I'm talking about you!).
Look it wasn't all bad, I've met a lot of great people, learned some awesome skills and had a lot of fun along the way. But when the bad times out weigh the good........ well, you know the rest from here.
So I enrolled in The Southern School of Natural Therapies in Fitzroy and have started my journey to become a Naturopath! Hurrah!!
I wanted to do this course straight out of high school, but back then you had to pay everything up front, so being 18 with only a little part time job, coughing up $10,000 a year wasn't gonna happen.
Its funny how things happen though, I feel I am right where I need to be, I've had more life experience and am more ready to undertake 4-6 years of study. This year I am only studying part time, and will go full time as of next year when I'll be married and have a hubby to sponge off... he he.
Thats the other reason I've been M.I.A I'm planning a wedding.... and if anyone has done it before you know what time it can take...
So be patient and I hope to soon post more regularly

Courts xxx 

Parmarama Night - Revisited

I thought  would give honourable mentions to my friends Danny and Tony who took up the Parmarama challenge.

This is Danny's Parma. Check out his gorgeous Cheesy crust and beautiful wedges made from Kipfler potatoes. Awesome work Danny. Loves it x x x

This is Tony's Parma. Tony added ham to his Parma (which used to be quite popular in Australia) Yum!
Tony also opted for homemade creamy mashed potato and vegetables to side his gorgeous Parma.
It looks delish. Well done Tony x x x

I can still taste it...mmmmmmmmmmmmm

The main reason Jake and I are on this trip is because my friends Cecilia and Marco were getting married, and for part of their honeymoon they were going to Ibiza and asked us to meet them there. At first we laughed it off and thought 'we can't come on your honeymoon with you.... can we....?"
So a good few months later here we are... In IBIZA!!!

Ibiza was surprisingly more than to meets the eye! Yes we were there to sit on the sandy beaches and swim in the crystal blue water by day, and dance in the massively over priced clubs by night. I'm talking 12 Euros for  small bottle of water ( $15 AUS) or 17 Euros for a Vodka ($21 Aus) WOWZA!!!

Ibiza has a great history and great people who live there. Ibiza is really only operational during their summer, so the locals are all out to make as much money as they can in this period before the island pretty much shuts down during the cold winter.

We had hired a car and did a day trip to the other side of the island, apparently were the locals and the very rich and famous frequent. Apparently Australian model Elle MacPherson has a mansion somewhere on the island.

Now can I just say that Spanish Sangria is AMAZING!! I have it a few times in Melbourne but never liked it. This Sangria is fresh, sweet, zingy, spicy goodness... I should've asked for the recipe, but my spanish really isn't that great.

I ordered one of the specials, which was fresh caught grilled Sardines. These were so so fresh, easily the best fish I ever had.

Cecilia ordered the mussels, really fresh again, with a thin marinara sauce. Mine was still better :)

After our lunch we drove around to another beach, we had a sun bake we had a swim in the hope to build another appetite for dinner. We were craving Paella.

We walked up to the restaurant that overlooked the beached we had just been on. We of course ordered another jug of Sangria....when in Spain hey!!

Not a bad view huh...?

The Chef at work... check out the huge Paella pans hanging from the walls!!!

And then  it arrives... Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the massive pan that hit our table. I was far too excited. The waiter kindly served us up a plate each and we got stuck in. I can honestly say that this has been the best thing I ever ever ever eaten!! Big call I know but its the truth. It was soooo chock full of seafood, seafood that was caught that same day and just below us in the crystal blue waters we had just swam in. Pipi's, Crab, Prawns, Langostines, and Mussels. The rice was cooked to absolute perfection. I could've cried. Everyone at the table was silent.. except for the occassional oooh's and ahhh's and Mmmmmmm's.
Just about every day since we had this Paella I have craved it. I could always make a point of heading back to Ibiza one day to have it again, but I fear that it would never be as good and would ruin that lovely memory I have. I think its best to leave that wonderful tasty memory where it is.... I love food, and I love how good food can make you feel and the memory of the people that were with you when you had it. I will never ever forget you

Grand Granada

By the time we got to Granada summer was in full force. We were spoilt by the sea breeze in Barcelona and Valencia. Granada is further south, more inland and surrounded by beautiful mountains. So not so much breeze but full on beating down sun.

We had been told to come to Granada by Jakes sister Bryah for one reason, and that reason was to spend a day at The Alhambra.

The Alhambra was built in the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada in

 al-Andalus. It was built for the last Muslim Emirs in Spain and its court, of the Nasrid dynasty. After being allowed to fall into disrepair for a few centuries. After being 'rediscovered in the 19th century by European travellers and academics, restorations started and it is now on of Spain's major tourist attractions and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Jake and I spent a whole day at the Alhambra, marvelling in the amazing Islamic architecture, and gorgeous gardens. I particularly loved the the archways and the frame they set for the next room.

Amazing intricate details on every nook and cranny  

So after an amazing day at the Alhambra, we had worked ourselves into a hunger frenzy, we stopped into a restaurant purely cause I loved all the Jamon hanging from the roof.

 Unfortunately the meal wasn't worth a mention here, but hey you cant win them all :(

Although our salad was really nice, and throughout Europe we realised that if you order a salad this is the basically the same dish you get everywhere. Lettuce, tomato, carrot, corn, egg, tuna, olives sometimes beetroot and whit asparagus. You always dress it yourselves with the standard olive oil and vinegar bottles on every table.

Thanks Granada you were lovely... Now off to the party island Ibiza!!