Butternut Squash Homefries

Why not actual potato homefries? Come on now... if you don't know the answer, then I can't help you. Sweet potato homefries would be okay but you can't beat the nutrients in this disguised winter squash. It also has a little sweetness to it.  It's the sweet/savory balance that makes it a perfect breakfast side.

Ingredients
1 large organic butternut squash
2 tbsp pastured lard, bacon grease or butter (Kerrygold)
1/2 organic white onion chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp organic parsley
1/2 tsp organic garlic powder
1 tsp organic mixed seasoning
1/4 cup homemade bone broth (chicken, beef, pork or whatever you have)
2 pieces of bacon (optional)

Directions
Skin, de-seed and cube your butternut squash to about the size of potato homefries. If you are using the bacon, you will want to chop it up into small pieces and start it cooking in a large skillet with the lard, grease or butter. I didn't have bacon to spare, so I left it out of this batch. 
Once the skillet is hot, add the cubed butternut squash and cook it until you get a nice browning on as much of it as possible. Add the chopped onion about halfway through.

After the squash has a good amount of color on it, add the dry seasonings and mix everything together. By this time the squash should almost be cooked through. Pour the broth in the skillet, mix it around and put a lid on it to steam. In about 5 minutes take the lid off and let the excess liquid cook off. 
Serve hot and enjoy!
If you want to spice it up a little, you can add some chopped pickled jalapenos or a pinch or two of cayenne.

Squash cake

This is a variation of zucchini bread that I decided to make because we bought some organic yellow squash at a farm stand. I had a hard time choosing between this recipe and a more traditional spiced zucchini bread. It was the fennel that caught my interest. The original recipe came from the Martha Stewart site where they have around 75 different ways to use zucchini.

Ingredients
1/2 cup lard, butter or coconut oil (or combination)
2 cups almond flour

1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder (grain-free)
2 medium organic yellow squashes
2 medium organic green zucchini
1 cup shelled, unsalted pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cups xylitol

1/4 tsp stevia extract
3 large organic pastured eggs
1 tsp organic pure vanilla extract
3/4 tsp organic ground fennel

Directions

Melt your oil, lard or butter in the baking dish with the oven preheating at 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients except for the xylitol in a mixing bowl. Then take the xylitol, eggs, vanilla, and your melted oil and blend those in a blender or bullet. Mix the liquids with the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl to which you will add the squash once you have grated it with a box grater or shredded it in a food processor. Lastly, you will add the pistachios and pour into your dish to bake for about 45 minutes to an hour until the top is golden brown. If you have two loaf pans, it might be better to make 2 shallow loaves instead of one big casserole loaf, as I have done.

By the way, it is amazing! Considering that it is 75% veggie and egg, how can you go wrong eating a ton of this? The fennel flavor reminds me of the traditional italian pitzelles which use anise. I think next time I bake this I will add a hint of lemon in there too.

Chocolate Mousse tart

This is a chocolate lover's delight! Another experiment gone perfect led me to this mousse on a crunchy crust. My husband keeps saying I should do it without the crust, but I prefer the texture. Plus, the cacao nibs are awesome.

Oh, and... did I mention you can eat this for breakfast? It won't hurt you one bit and is packed with protein.

Crust
1 Tbsp Lard, Butter or Coconut Oil
1 Cup raw organic cashews
1/4 Cup organic cacao nibs
1 Cup organic almonds
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 Cup organic cocoa powder
1/2 Cup xylitol
1/8 tsp stevia extract
1 Tbsp coffee grounds


Filling
6 Whole pastured eggs
1/2 Cup xylitol
1/4 tsp stevia extract
1/2 Cup organic cocoa powder
1 tsp brewed coffee
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 Cup organic orange juice


Directions
For the crust: Put all of the ingredients, except the cacao nibs, in a food processor and chop until the nuts have broken down, but maintain a chunky texture. Mix in the cacao nibs with a mixing spoon, not with the processor blade. Pour the crumbles into a square baking dish and push into the sides. Place in a preheated oven (about 375 or 400 if you live at altitude) and let bake while you make the filling.

Filling: Whip all ingredients in a blender, food processor or bullet and pour into the crust.
Bake the tart until the top gets a little color and the center is not jiggling. It will probably inflate like a brownie when it's almost done, but it will deflate when it cools. It tastes great at room temperature or chilled.

Primal Apple Crumble

Tis the season... of apples! Apples baking makes me not just think of, but feel like fall, Halloween; leaves rustling in the wind and bundling up next to a window with something sweet. Just to have that warm smell in the house, I came up with this recipe and was extremely thankful for the whim.

Primal Apple Crumble
6 organic apples cored and sliced (you can use any variety)
1 tbsp xylitol
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp lard, butter or coconut oil


Directions
Heat the oven to your usual baking temp (mine is about 400 degrees) and put a casserole dish in with the tablespoon of lard, butter, or coconut oil until it melts and you can coat the dish. Throw in the apple slices tossed with the cinnamon and sweetener. This gives the apples a head start while you put together the crumble topping.


Crumble Topping
1 2/3 cups almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp arrowroot powder
1/4 tsp baking powder (Grain Free)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground clove
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup xylitol
1/8 tsp pure stevia extract
1 pinch of sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp lard, butter or coconut oil
1 pastured egg


Directions
Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl making sure to break up any clumps of coconut flour or other ingredients. Use a pastry dough blender to mix in the wet ingredients until you have a crumble that is the same consistency of our quiche crust. This means it is a loose crumble but still sticks together when pressed. Take the apples out of the oven and with a spatula flatten them or move them around until you have a reasonably flat surface for the topping. Pour the crumble on and move it around to cover the entire apple filling, pressing just enough to have it stick together. Put it back in the oven until the topping becomes a little browned (at least 20 minutes). I know when stuff is just about done the good-ol'-fashioned way... when I can smell it. When apple cinnamon starts wafting through the house, it probably only has another 5 minutes or so.

Serve it hot or cold, with ice-cream or custard, whip cream or créme fraiche. You could even add some whole walnuts in with the apples or chopped into the topping. It is an addictive way to use the abundant fruit this season. I will probably make this for my non-primal family for Thanksgiving (win them over with sweets that aren't bad for you).  Enjoy!

Tools: Pastry Blender

This is one of my favorite tools and will be needed for the next recipe post.  Since I bake so much and am constantly creating bread alternatives, this is the only thing I need to make quiche, tart, pizza crusts and crumble topping for my primal apple crumble. I highly recommend you add one to your primal pantry tools.
It is used to mash the butter or lard into your dry mixed ingredients and create that crumbly texture needed for crusts. It distributes the wet ingredients very thoroughly. Just make sure you have already mixed your dry ingredients.

I have the one pictured above right. It is nice that the blades go all the way up the sides to the handle but sometimes the nut that holds it all together comes loose and parts go flying. I would probably prefer one that was a little more sturdy like the one on the left. Either way, you probably won't spend more than $15 for even the top-of-the-line dough blender.

Quiche

This recipe is mainly for the crust.  Once you have this part down you can make any kind of quiche imaginable.  In fact, you can take all of the savory elements out of the crust recipe and replace them with sweet ones to make the perfect crust for a tart!

*UPDATE - I have made this crust many times for sweet and savory dishes having omitted the ground flax seed. It works just as well with 3 cups of almond flour or 2 cups almond flour and 1 of coconut flour. This should simplify things a bit on the supply end of things. I also use this for pies and anything that needs a crust.

Quiche crust

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1 1/2 cups fresh ground golden flax seed 

10 or more roasted garlic cloves (I roast my own)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup cold water

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp of seasoning of your choice (I used a little cayenne, onion powder, and an organic mixed seasoning)

1/2 tsp arrowroot or tapioca starch

*If you eat dairy, definitely throw some parmesan cheese in there!

**If you are making tart crust use 2 to 1 ratio almond to coconut flour.  Use lard or coconut oil instead of olive oil; sweeten with stevia extract or xylitol (both is better); cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and vanilla extract to season; lower the amount of salt to a pinch or two.

Directions

Mix all of your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl with a whisk to make sure it is evenly distributed.  Crush or chop the garlic cloves and add to the dry mix with the olive oil and water.  Use a pastry dough blender (a food processor works just as well) to mix the ingredients until you have an evenly moist pile of crumbles.  Dump the crumbles into a pre-greased baking dish and begin kneading them down into an even layer all the way up the sides.  I usually bake it for about 5 minutes before I fill it.

And there is your crust!

Now for filling the quiche.  I use bacon almost every time because I can sauté all of my veggies in the bacon grease to really get the flavor in everything.  I did this with red onion, spinach and fresh parsley this time and if I were eating dairy right now you can bet there would be cheese!

Once all of your veggies and extras are spread evenly around in the crust, you can pour an egg mixture over the entire thing almost up to the top of the sides. For this size quiche I used 1 1/2 dozen eggs, however, if I were eating dairy I would have used a dozen eggs, a cup or so of organic heavy cream and 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.  Cream cheese or goat cheese is definitely a wise choice. 

Don't forget to season this egg mixture too!  Use about 1/2 tsp or more of sea salt and maybe a pinch of some of the seasonings you used in your crust.

Once the egg mixture is poured over everything it will go in the oven until everything has a little brown color on it and a toothpick comes out clean.  I usually bake on or around 400 degrees because I have no patience.  Just remember, I am baking at 10,000 feet and I am constantly checking the progress of what I am cooking.  Generally, when you start to smell what you are baking, it is time for it to come out of the oven or pretty close to it.

Homemade Lard

Animal fats such as pork lard, beef/bison tallow and poultry fat are excellent forms of cooking oil.  They are great for baking and sauteing.  Generally, you can substitute them for butter in baking recipes.  Lard was once a common staple in most American homes. These days it is rare to find someone with a jar of lard in their pantry.  Well, take a look in my pantry.  I have two jars in there (in the fridge, actually).  

I don't use just any lard.  It is important, not only where your lard comes from, but how it was processed.  The next time you're in the grocery store, take a look at the lard on the shelf.  It's most likely hydrogenated and comes from factory farmed pigs.  I am not interested in cooking with oils like that.  So, I make my own lard.  I would also make tallow and poultry "lard" if I had a good source of fat from those animals but I do not.  So, we're sticking with lard for now.

The first step is sourcing your pig fat.  We get our pig fat from a local farm that raises organic, pastured pigs.  Their pigs are a Yorkshire cross breed that are pastured and have lots of room to roam.  They eat lots of farm fresh vegetables and fruit.   

It is important that your pig fat is pastured, as well as organic.  Organic pigs can still be fed a diet corn and soy.  That fat is not Omega 3 rich.  It is rich in Omega 6.  That's not what you're looking for in a cooking oil.  Look for pastured pork from a local farm. Pigs are omnivorous, like us. They need to be able to roam around and eat grubs, fruit, tubers, etc... The factory farmed pigs don't get this.

Once you have a good source of pig fat, you're ready to make lard.

Lard

Cut your pig fat into small pieces.  

Load the pieces into your slow cooker.  Turn it on low and let the slow cooker do its thing for a few hours.  It should take about 5 hours, give or take, to render your lard. It is a good idea to keep an eye on it after a few hours.  If you let it go too long it can burn, although it does take a while.  I have done that once before.  

Once there is mostly liquid in your pot and your fat pieces are starting to crisp up, it is time to jar your lard. You will need to strain the liquid.  

I store mine in mason jars but any jar will do.  

Pour the liquid through the strainer and close your jar.    

Let it cool for several hours until it is at room temperature.  The liquid will turn white and become solid at this point.

Store it in the refrigerator and you're all done.

What's left in the slow cooker are the crispy pieces of fat.  These can be stored and used as a sort of "pork crackling."  They can be salted and used as "bacon bits" for salads or a number of other things.  This is where you need to get creative.