Roasted Pork Ribs

There was a sale on pork ribs the other day at the grocery store and so I took the opportunity and bought myself a package.  I think the last time I had ribs was two months ago.  They were… okay.  The meat didn’t fall off the bone.  I don’t think it was cooked long enough for it to do so.  I didn’t cook em so I’m only guessing.  It may have been for a birthday party now that I think about it.

I judge how good a rib is by how easy it is for me to tear the meat off.  If all I need are my hands and my teeth then I’m good.  I also don’t like a lot of sauce on my rib.  I tend to wipe it off.  Dry rubs are okay, but I’ve come across ribs that have too much salt.  I didn’t want to taste salt.  I wanted to taste the meat.  Picky picky picky.

Anyhoo… I don’t have a grill at my place so I had to settle for roasting it in the oven.  I seasoned the ribs with Montreal Seasoning and Lawry’s Seasoning Salt.  That’s about it.  Simple.  Here’s how to do it…

 

ROASTED PORK RIBS

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Season your meat.

3.  Place in roasting pan.

4.Put in oven and cook for 1 hour.

5.  After an hour flip and cook for one more hour.

6.  DONE!!  Take the meat out of the oven and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

7.  Cut and serve!

 

Since it was slow cooked, the meat was tender and came off the bone easily.  The only time I needed a knife was to cut off my portion for dinner.  If you are a BBQ sauce lover then I suggest putting the sauce on the meat at least 5-10 minutes prior to the end of cook time.  Slather it on both sides and it should have a nice glaze by the time it’s done.  I don’t have a recipe for Paleo friendly BBQ sauce at the moment, but now that I’m thinking about it I want to make one.  Stay tuned for a future post!  🙂

BBBBRRRRAAAAIIIINNNNSSSSS!

 

Well, PaleoJoe and I are officially zombies.  Yesterday for our post-workout meal we had pork brains with a side of our home made kimchi and watermelon juice.  I had posted last week, a picture of the different organs that we had purchased and for today’s recipe we are going to be working with the brain.

This brain was kinda weird.  As it is our first time working with this type of meat I don’t know if we handled it correctly, or if we did everything perfectly.  We looked online at various websites on how to prepare and cook the brain.  Apparently they’re not so uncommon in the southern states and will come canned with some kind of gravy.  Didn’t look very appetizing at all. Oh and tell me why I kept thinking of this guy the entire time I was looking up recipes:

HA!!

Anyhoo…  Since it was too hot to make a stew and we didn’t have enough vegetables for a stir-fry, we ended up using seasoned coconut flour to bread it and fried it in leftover bacon fat from an earlier breakfast.  Here’s the recipe…

 

BREADED PORK BRAIN

Ingredients:

1lb pork brain

1/4 cup of coconut flour

Seasoning (Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder, Fresh chopped basil)

Bacon Fat or Oil (EVOO or Coconut Oil.  Whichever you like to cook with.  Butter will work as well.)

 

Directions:

1.  Soak brain in cold water for 1-2 hours.

2.  In a large enough pot, put the brain in with enough water to cover it and put it on the stove on high heat.  Bring it to a boil and when it does, turn the heat down to simmer.  Let simmer for 3-5 minutes.

3.  Drain water and cut to however large pieces you want.  (To be honest, I think since ours was frozen it kind of fell apart.  We didn’t have to do much cutting, but just in case yours stays together, then cut it.)

4.  Preheat frying pan on medium high heat with your cooking oil/butter.

5.  I’m going to assume that you know to let your meat cool down before handling.  Carefully take your pieces of brain and roll them in the flour.

6.  Place pieces on the pan and cook for about 5-7 minutes, or until it’s a golden brown.  (PaleoJoe says that the pieces were soft and flimsy so he had to use a fork to carefully flip them.)

7.  Plate and SERVE!!

 

Again, we had them with a side of our homemade kimchi and fresh watermelon juice.  (PaleoJoe tossed a couple of pieces in a blender and hit puree.)  I’m not sure if the brain is supposed to be soft, but that’s what it was.  Soft.  The breading on the outside gave it the teeniest of crunch, but the brain itself was very soft.  What did it taste like?  I don’t know if I can explain it.  It wasn’t iron-y, it didn’t taste like pork, but there definitely was a taste to it.  I just can’t quite describe it.  I’ll ask PaleoJoe and see what his take on it was.

We’re going to try another brain recipe, preferably with a fresh brain, and see if there is any difference in texture and taste.  All in all, it wasn’t a bad experience.  We tried something new, and we will definitely try it again.  ENJOY!

Pork Heart

I am very excited about the upcoming dishes.  Last week I picked up a bunch of different organs at my local market.  Not the mainstream market of course, but a market nonetheless.  As you can see from the picture I have a bunch of different organs to experiment with.

I feel like a mad scientist when I say that.  😛

I am especially excited about the brain which is on the bottom left.

HA!  I couldn’t help myself.  I really couldn’t!

So for this dish, I prepared the pork heart.  I guess you can call it a stir-fry, but you can easily turn it into a stew if you had a couple of hours and a crock-pot.   More on that later.

 

PORK HEART STIR-FRY

Ingredients:

2 pig hearts (About 1.5 to 2 pounds. Trimmed of nerves, sinew, and cut into large cubes.)

1 carrot (peeled and diced)

1/2 small onion (diced)

2 strips of bacon (diced)

2-3 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 large tomato (I used an heirloom tomato and diced it up)

Salt and Pepper

2-3 tablespoons of butter

Directions:

1.  Heat up your skillet/frying pan on medium-medium high heat and add bacon.  Cook bacon for about 3 minutes and add all veggies but the tomato.  Cook for another 5 minutes.

2.  Add tomato and stir.  Season with salt and pepper and turn heat to low.  Cook for another 5 minutes.

I know, I didn’t quote finish dicing up the tomatoes in this pic, but you get the idea.

3.  In another pan, heat on medium high and add heart and butter.  Saute’ until golden brown on the outside and slightly pink in the middle.  You want it to be medium rare.  If you overcook it, it will be tough and kind of rubbery.

4.  Once everything is cooked, serve it in a dish and ENJOY!

 

I’m sure if you dice up the heart and cook it in a crock pot for a couple of hours it will come out just as delicious.  Just make the sauce separate since it’ll only take about 10-15 minutes to make.  Last minute I added fresh basil and it was delicious.  You can also opt out of cooking the tomatoes and just leaving them fresh for added flavor and texture.

Pulled Pork Lettuce Wraps

Can I tell you how much I love the crock pot/slow cooker?  It’s an amazing invention.  You just throw all of the ingredients in, set the heat to what you want and then leave for work.  When you get home dinner is ready!  That’s a whole lotta time saved from meal prepping and it can now be used to do other things.

PaleoJoe and I were at Whole Foods the other day and we were just perusing the meat section and I saw that pork shoulder butt was on sale.  What a deal!  I got one and this is the recipe:

 

PULLED PORK LETTUCE WRAPS

Ingredients:

1 – Pork Shoulder Butt (bone in or boneless.  Doesn’t matter.  Also, get one that will fit the size crock pot that you have, or for how many people you are going to feed.)

1 onion (sliced in 1/8’s)

4-5 whole cloves of garlic (smashed)

1 small can of tomato paste (I was going to used diced tomatoes, but was out.  This works just as well.  You know what you can also use to give it a kick? Canned green chiles or even fresh chiles diced.  ooohhh!!!)

Seasoning (Use whatever you like!  The ones pictured are what I used.  What’s not pictured: Tamari and Chardonnay/White Wine)

Lettuce (Not sure what kind we used, but you can use any kind.)

Optional:

1 tomato (Seeded and Diced)

1 whole onion sliced into rings

3-4 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 red bell pepper (seeded and sliced into strips)

2-3 tablespoons of Ghee/Coconut Oil/Butter/Olive Oil

 

 

Directions:

1.  Season the meat all over and put in crock pot.

2.  If your veggies aren’t prepped then prep them now.  Put them in crock pot with meat.

3.  If you’re using wine or and other liquid, put them in crock pot.  (Too be honest, you don’t need to put much liquid to the pot.  The condensation plus the fat from the pork will keep it moist.)

4.  Put lid on crock pot and set it on low for 8-10 hours.  Or high for 4-6 hours.

5.  When the meat is cooked, take it out and put it in a bowl.

6.  Using two forks, pull/shred the pork.  It will be nice and tender so you shouldn’t have any trouble at all.  (Optional:  Pour some of the liquid from the crock pot into the bowl with the meat.  This way the meat has more flavor and there will also be more moisture.)

7.  Now for the options.  The tomatoes we kept fresh and were put in a bowl.  The rest were sauteed with Ghee in a frying pan on medium high heat.  Onions first (5 mins or until caramelized), Bell pepper next (3-5 minutes), and then garlic (2 minutes).  If you want to top your lettuce wrap with cheese, sour cream, etc. that’s all on you buddy.  🙂

8.  Wash and separate your lettuce leaves.

9.  Set everything on the table.

10.  Make your lettuce wrap how you like it.  Want more meat than veggies?  GO FOR IT!!  Go ahead and chow on down!!

 

Note:  They’re going to get kind of messy, so I would suggest napkins or paper towels.  Again, you can use any seasoning that you like.  Just have the Montreal Seasoning?  Use that!!  Don’t like or have wine?  Then opt out of it!  Well what about Tamari?  Use soy sauce or even worcestershire sauce instead.  Those last two aren’t very Paleo friendly though.  Use whatever you like if you know that you’re going to like it.  Just make sure to taste it in the end to make sure it’s what you wanted.  ENJOY!

Curry Pork Chops with a Yam Noodle Vegetable Stir Fry

I had made this the other night hoping that my boyfriend would like it because he had mentioned to me before that he wasn’t a fan of pork chops.  I personally find it super tasty so I made them.

There’s a store next to where I live called Manila Oriental Market, or I like to call it MOM’s.  It doesn’t have the best customer service, but if you’re looking for Asian food that’s where I go.  The meat selection is huge and so is the seafood.  I couldn’t tell you if they had grass-fed or wild caught items there and believe me I’ve asked, but I don’t think they understand what I’m asking.  I’ve given up trying to find out and just smile, point, and raise my fingers to indicate how many pounds of that particular protein that I want.  the trick is to know what you want so that when they come to you there’s no attitude.  Oh and it always helps to smile and say thank you.

On this shopping trip I picked up some pork chops and a pack of yam noodles.

Pork Chops

Yam Noodles

Since I’ve changed my eating ways to that of the caveman I’ve been exploring alternatives to eating grains.  These noodles made of yam made an excellent substitute to the rice noodle.  There ‘s also shirataki noodles (Though make sure you check the ingredients on the bag because sometimes they sneak a little sugar or even soy into it) or even, my personal favorite, Konjac Glucomannan (The first noodle alternative I’ve tried and it’s purely the ground konjac root and water.  Nothing else.) which can be found HERE.  The Konjac noodles come in all different shapes and sizes so if you’re feening for some spaghetti, ravioli, or even rice they have em.  Plus, they’re inexpensive.

Anyhoo…  back to the recipe.  Please note that I don’t really measure when I’m cooking.  I pretty much eyeball everything so all measurements listed are guesstimates.  Please add a little bit of seasoning at a time and taste taste TASTE!

CURRY PORK CHOPS

Ingredients:

1 pound of pork chops

1-8.5 fl. oz. box of coconut milk (AROY-D is awesome because it’s 100% Coconut Milk, no preservatives and lasts for a year after purchase)

2-3 tablespoons of coconut oil

1-2 tsp of curry powder

Salt and Pepper or any other seasoning that you like to use.

Instructions:

1. Preheat your pan to medium high to high heat with your coconut oil in it.

2. Season your pork chops with the ingredients.

3.  Place pork chops on the pan.  Sear each side for 2 minutes.  Turn heat to medium.

4.  Pour coconut milk into pan.  Let cook for about 5-7 minutes.

5. Take pork chops out of the pan and put them aside to rest.  (Or if you’re hungry and want em now ENJOY!)

For this next recipe I pretty much used the same pan.  So if you want, you can use the same pan or you can use a different pan.  Entirely up to you.  I figure I’m going to use the same seasonings on my stir-fry anyway, so why not?  Less mess for me to clean up in the end.

YAM NOODLE VEGETABLE STIR-FRY

Ingredients:

1 bag of Yam Noodles (Some noodles, like the shirataki and Konjac sometimes have a fishy smell to them.  That’s natural and it comes from the root.  Just give it a quick rinse and you’re good to go.)

2 Tomatoes (You can take out the seeds if you wish.)

7 sticks (are they called sticks? Meh whatever…) of Asparagus

3-4 garlic cloves

Handful of Baby Bok Choy

1/2 a yellow onion

Instructions:

1.  Make sure the pan you are using is on medium to medium high heat and you have some coconut oil in there.

2.  Just do a rough chop of all of your vegetables.

3.  Throw in the onions and asparagus.  When the onions are nice and caramelized (3-4 minutes) you can add the garlic and tomato.

4.  Add Yam Noodles.

5.  Add baby bok choy and cover pan.  Cook with lid on for about 3-5 minutes.

POW!  Veggie Stir-fry COMPLETE!!

Note:  I didn’t add seasoning to this recipe because I had re-used the pan and it was plenty seasoned with the coconut milk, the curry powder, and the salt and pepper.  If you decide to make it on your own feel free to add whatever you like.  If I hadn’t made the pork chops I probably would have added some freshly minced ginger, low sodium soy sauce,and perhaps some mirin.

Dinner COMPLETE!!

I prepared the leftovers for my boyfriend to eat for lunch the next day and he texted me with “Lunch was amazing love!!” 🙂

YAY!!

Hope this meal was amazing for you.  ENJOY!