The Paleo Diet

Holiday Turkey Brine: Part 3 – Roasting the Turkey

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Over the last several days, in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday, I have done a trial run of brining and roasting a turkey.  In the first post, Holiday Turkey Brine, I provided a recipe for a brine that makes enough for a twenty pound turkey.  The second installment was Holiday Turkey Brine: Part Two – Brining the Turkey. Today I want to show exactly how I prepared and roasted this brined turkey.

My bird was on the smaller side – a mere 13-14 pounds. Here’s a general guide for how much you will need:

12-15 lb turkey for 10-12 people
15-18 lb turkey for 14-16 people
18-22 lb turkey for 20-22 people

In a perfect world we would all have an organic heritage turkey that we hand fed and raised in our backyards and slaughtered ourselves. Just joking there. But seriously, it is nice to have a fresh turkey that has not been injected with lots of antibiotics and gluten-containing saline solutions. When I purchased what I thought was a “fresh” turkey I did not understand the meaning of “Kosher”. Turns out it means, among other things, the poultry has been soaked in unsalted water for half an hour and then packed in salt for about an hour. This means it has been partially brined. I ended up letting this kosher bird brine for about 18 hours but it probably could have gone for less time and been fine. That’s one of the nice things about brining, it is not an exact science.

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Holiday Turkey Brine

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turkey brine

turkey brineRecently, my boys and I took a trip to Williams-Sonoma to purchase a pan for the Paleo Pecan Pie Tart.  While perusing the store, trying not to buy more than was absolutely necessary – a difficult task, I might add- I happened upon a large jar of Turkey Brine. Just last Fall I purchased a honey-brined turkey breast from a local grocery store and was surprised at the difference the process made in the taste.  So when I saw the Williams-Sonoma turkey brine I was all set to buy it, until…..I looked at the price.  It was $18 for what is mostly sea salt!

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Paleo Pecan Pie / Tart

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paleo pecan pie tart

paleo pecan pie tartTexas has a robust pecan industry and, not surprisingly, pecan pie is very popular there. Not far from my hometown is the famous Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. They have been using Texas pecans since 1896 in their fruitcakes, pecan cakes and pecan pies that ship all over the world. When I was growing up there, pecan trees, which are native to Texas, were in my front yard. I still remember the little old man coming over and using a “pecan picker upper” to harvest some from under our trees.  A few days later he would show up at our doorstep with a homemade pecan pie just for us!  It was his way of saying thanks and the gesture was much appreciated.

Unfortunately, celiac disease or gluten intolerance means having to avoid gluten in a pecan pie even if it comes from a famous bakery, a nice neighbor or a well-meaning host at a party. If you want a standard pecan pie there are about a zillion recipes in cookbooks and online. But almost every one of them will have a wheat flour crust or, minimally, will be chock full of sugar, sugar and more sugar.  “Low carb” recipes often have tons of artificial ingredients that make me think “why bother?”  This recipe is different.  It is not only gluten-free but also takes into account my desire to stay as close to paleo as possible. So gone is the corn syrup, brown sugar and processed white sugar. The filling is sweetened only by dates, applesauce, pure maple syrup and a little molasses. Oh and there’s a bit of rum too. But that’s optional. Sort of.

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Paleo and the City: Momofuku’s Má Pêche

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NYC skyline at night
NYC skyline at night
NYC skyline at night - Instagram

Paleo dining in New York City is possible. Some of the restaurants that make paleo eating easier are ones that focus on using the whole animal and local ingredients. David Chang’s Momofuku (lucky peach) restaurants are among them. I first heard of Momofuku (comprised of Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar, Ko and Má Pêche) through a Google search on “paleo” and “New York City restaurants” that led me to Melissa McEwen’s blog “Hunt Gather Love“. One of her posts extoled the virtues of this proudly vegetarian-unfriendly group of restaurants. In fact, a notice at Ssäm Bar announces, much to the consternation of the ubiquitous vegetarians in the City,

“We do not serve vegetarian-friendly items.”

*snort*

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How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock in Five Minutes

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Homemade Chicken Stock

Homemade Chicken StockIna Garten‘s “Barefoot Contessa” is one of my favorite cooking shows. She often references using homemade chicken stock in her recipes.  And even though Ina qualifies it by saying you can substitute store-bought stock or broth, the mere mention of homemade chicken stock only served to make me feel inadequate. At least it did until very recently when I finally figured out if you have five minutes, a few key ingredients and a crock pot you can make homemade chicken stock.*

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Sauteed Broccoli Rabe with Garlic and Pepper

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paleo sauteed rapini with garlic, pepper and lemon

paleo sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic, pepper and lemon

Broccoli Rabe sautéed in olive oil and garlic is my all time favorite vegetable side dish. It was not something I ate growing up in Texas. In fact, even though it is quite popular in Italy (known as rapini), I do not recall eating it when I lived and worked there either. It was not until I moved to the Northeast U.S. that I discovered the deliciousness that is broccoli rabe.  At home my husband G and I sometimes fight over who gets more of this dish.  (“I think you got more than I did!”) And our two boys are starting to enjoy broccoli rabe too which means there will either be more fighting or I will have to remember to make bigger batches in the future.

For the Love of Bitter Greens

Broccoli rabe (aka rapini) is a highly nutritious, bitter green.  My taste for bitter greens may have started when I was about eleven years old and my mother had me and my siblings help her gather, cook and eat dandelion greens for a graduate school class project.  

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Paleo and the City: Lululemon and The Central Park Zoo

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Over the summer I took my boys into New York City a few times. It was the first summer since going paleo so our jaunts included efforts to find paleo eats wherever we went. We were fairly successful. You can find most anything in New York so it stands to reason one could find plenty of paleo-friendly food. Afterall, paleo means eating meat, vegetables, some fruit and nuts and good fats – not really that hard. Of course, New York has its share of food temptations. We had to avoid the street vendors with dessert crêpes and falafel. We did not indulge in black & white cookies and cannoli. And we stayed away from Italian restaurants – with one exception, Mario Batali’s La Lupa. That was tough because, let me tell you, there are REALLY good Italian restaurants in New York City. Sigh.

Lululemon Athletica

I lugged my camera every time we went in and managed to get some fun shots. You can see a few of them in a previous post about our trip to Madison Square Park – Paleo and the City: Madison Square Park. That particular trip was during a week when my oldest son, Big Boy, was away at church camp and Sweet Pea and I were on our own. We took a second trip into “The City” that same week which included a stop at Lululemon Athletica (quite the yoga-wear Mecca). My husband G has gotten into yoga over the last year. He enjoys practicing when he has the time and appreciates the multiple benefits. Lululemon has a fantastic men’s line of yoga clothing. But even though G is quite comfortable in his manhood he simply cannot abide the name. He can’t bring himself to buy clothes from a store with “lulu” in the name. Maybe if they changed it to “Stevestevelemon” or “BobBoblemon” or simply “Lulemon”?? Next time I shop there I may buy him something but disguise it to look like it came from a more manly sounding athletic store. In spite of the unusual name, Lululemon sells terrific products. Everything I have purchased there has been great quality and has worn and washed well. The yoga top you see in the photo below came from Lululemon. Come to think of it, so did the hat.20111027-044307.jpg

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Broccoflower with Spicy Italian Sausage

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The paleo diet has been the catalyst for eating an incredible amount of vegetables.  I would venture to say I eat more vegetables than most vegetarians I know.  In fact, the paleo diet has led me to eat veggies I had purposely avoided, (kale), ones I simply ignored, (beet greens), and others I did not know even existed, (pink banana squash). The following recipe includes a food I was never motivated to try until now: Broccoflower.

Broccoflower is in the same family as cauliflower and broccoli. Because the two are so closely related they are easily cross-pollinated. The result is something that looks like green cauliflower. Romanesco broccoli is very similar to broccoflower but looks a little different due to an interesting pattern displayed by the floret.  I found the broccoflower to be truly a cross between broccoli and cauliflower in both appearance and taste.  It was milder than cauliflower and the texture, especially of the stalk parts, was very similar to broccoli.  In the following easy recipe I employed the same “ricing” technique I have used with cauliflower. But the green color of the broccoflower really added to the aesthetics of the dish.

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