Japan Primal: 2012

2012-12-25

Chicken Soup

A full chicken, ginger, ginseng, garlic, onions, carrots, sticky rice, salt, and water. Put the ingredients inside the chicken (stuffing). Cover and boil on low heat for a few hours. Remove the bones after cooking for easy eating.

2012-12-22

Sanchu & Egg Breakfast

2012-12-21

Super Simple Nabé

Napa, strips of pork, Welsh onions, and salt.

2012-12-18

Homemade Cheese

It's easier than you think. Good on it's own, or with a side of vegetables or meat.

Indoor BBQ

Fatty pork, sanchu, kimchi, and a few bright colored vegetables.

2012-12-06

Not Hungry AM

As the post title says, I'm usually not hungry in the morning. If I do eat, I'll usually have something like this, then later (sometimes before) I'll have coffee brewed in a moka pot. This is a simple breakfast of lettuce, cucumbers, bacon, and half of a persimmon. (PS I always store the leftover bacon fat in a container and use it for cooking and flavoring of other pan-fried foods.)

2012-12-05

Seafood & Fall Vegetable Yellow Coconut Curry

Coconut is delicious and one of the easiest way of adding medium chain fatty acids to your diet. This probably wasn't the most healthy meal ever (cheap supermarket shrimp are practically toxic these days, the ones used here were a product of Thailand and almost certainly harvested from a cesspool of shrimp waste and antibiotics) but it was the most delicious thing I've cooked in ages.

Ingredients: Coconut milk (2 cans), Yellow curry paste (available from any foreign foods store), fresh cod (chopped into chunks, skin and bones included), large banana shrimp, pumpkin, okra, white onion, carrot, oyster mushrooms, eringi mushrooms, salt/pepper, and dried parsley (garnish).

Step one is to add the vegetables to large heated pot, hardest first softest last. As the veggies cook pour the coconut milk into a large frying pan on medium high heat. Stir the coconut milk continuously as you add the yellow (or green? or red?) curry paste. The paste will dissolve into the bubbling milk and change its thickness and colour. Be careful not to add more paste than your spice tolerance can deal with. I used 80% of the small plastic envelope for two full cans of coconut milk. When the paste is fully dissolved and the coconut milk is bubbling pour it over the cooking vegetables in the pot. Simmer until vegetables are 9/10 cooked. Finally add raw fish and shrimp to the curry mixture and cook for an additional five minutes (fish & shrimp will cook through rapidly, don't overdo it). Add salt & pepper to taste. BAM, you're done in about 25 min. In retrospect both eggplant and spinach would have been solid additions.

2012-12-01

Bell Pepper Omelet

Some people are shocked when I tell them I don't eat wheat, nor grains (safe occasional white rice). I'm quite satisfied without them. I'm healthier BECAUSE I don't eat them. How about some bell peppers stir-fried in coconut oil, and 4 eggs to make an omelet? Yum!

How did you break your fast today?

2012-11-29

Grilled Chicken Salad

I chose dark thigh meat this time for its higher fat content and taste. Grilled it in the George Foreman Grill with olive oil and then added salt, pepper and basil to the cooked meat. Dressing was olive oil/balsamic vinegar.

2012-11-22

Sweet & Sour Pork Liver

2012-11-20

Kimchi for Healthy Gut Bacteria

1. I brined some daikon cubes for a few hours, then I rinsed them well to remove excess salt.

2. For my kimchi base I puréed ginger, garlic, and persimmons instead of sugar.

3. I julienned Welsh onions, and carrots, then mixed them with fish sauce, sesame seeds, and red pepper powder.

4. Coat the rinsed daikon with the rest of the ingredients.

5. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for 1 night.

6. Refrigerate it the next day.

2012-11-19

Bok Choy & Spicy Pork

Bok choy's the bomb. The three keys to cooking it are as follows: Cook it in a hot oiled pan, keep it moving, and leave some crunch in it. Bok choy really only needs a couple minutes or else it'll lose its awesome texture. I usually cook it with sesame oil, garlic paste, salt and pepper. This time I used it as a landing base for spicy pork and eggplant.

2012-11-16

Pork Roast with Garlic Tomato Puree

Today a had three overripe tomatoes I didn't know what to do with, this was how I used them. First, I chopped them up and threw them in a hot pan with some olive oil. Next I added an entire bulb of garlic, crushed. I let it cook into a thick mush and finally added basil, salt, and pepper. After simmering for another 5 min. I transferred the sauce into a small blender, added a stick of butter and gave it a twirl. The sauce ended up on a pan seared pork roast. Delicious.

2012-11-12

Quick Lunch: Beef with Garlic Shoots

Pretty self explanatory: Thinly sliced fatty cut off beef mixed with garlic shoots, seasoned with a touch of soy and ginger paste, topped with sesame seeds. Salad is just yellow pepper, tomato, avocado and a sprinkling of dried basil for flavour. Less than ten minutes from nothing to eating. Delicious too.

2012-11-11

Canned Sardine Topping

I use this topping to serve on a bit of rice, but it's also good on its own. I emptied a can of miso coated sardines into a bowl, and mixed it with finely cut carrots, welsh onions, and mitsuba. Mix it well, and add a bit of salt. That's it.

The miso soup on the left was made with dashi, mitsuba leaves, onions, and wakamé.

2012-11-08

Pork Donburi

With avocado green salad and miso soup. Yes, there was some rice in the bowl. 2 eggs in my donburi, please.

2012-11-05

Quick Pork & Veggie Dish

Salt & pepper pork, cooked on a George Foreman Grill. Lettuce and cucumber for salad (the only veggies I had). The red pepper paste is for dipping the pork into.

2012-11-04

Primal Lunch in a Pinch

This is the lunch I came up with today in Meshiya, a chain of Japanese cafeteria-style restaurants. They offer lots of fresh and primal side dishes that can be combined for a delicious and inexpensive meal. All this food came in at just under 900￥. This particular location was in Sakae, across from the Sony store not far from Loft.

2012-11-03

Primal Mayonnaise

As a lifelong condiment super fan mayonnaise was one of the few foods I've missed since going primal. I would probably rank it a close second in the overall condiment rankings to fresh guacamole. I was therefore pretty excited to find a primal mayonnaise recipe. It only called for a few basic ingredients: lemon juice, egg yolks, salt, olive oil, ghee and mustard. Here's the before pic (I did in fact melt the better first and let it solidify):

I went a little heavy on the mustard, which gave the mayo an ominous yellow hue. I'm gonna throw some on my eggs tomorrow morning, it should keep in the fridge for at least a few days. Pretty tasty overall, but not the mayonnaise you grew up with.

2012-11-02

Egg Salad

Not the kind you were thinking?

Nabé Season

Nabé is ubiquitous during the colder months in Japan. Add vegetables, meat or fish, and a soup base. I love the simplicity and easy clean up. Eating from this hot pot together is said to help people bond and deepen relationships. It makes sense if you're all sitting next to each other eating from the same pot. You have to get along if you want to eat. Now that's primal!