apple | The Paleo Mom

Braised Pork Neck (or Chops)

October 8, 2012 in Meat and Poultry, Organ Meat, Stir Fries and One-Pot Meals

Neck bones? Really? Yes! Not only are they extremely cheap (some butchers/meat farmers will even give them to you for free), but when cooked low and slow, they are tender and very flavorful. What if you can’t find neck bones? This recipe would be just as good with some bone-in pork chops (4 good size chops would be a good substitute). Serves 3-4 (depending on how meaty your bones are).

Ingredients

3 lbs pork neck bones (or 4 pork bone-in pork chops)
1 medium yellow onion
6 medium carrots
2 apples (rome beauty, fuji, granny smith or mutsu/crispin)
4-5 slices of fresh ginger (about 1” diameter)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp fennel seed
½ tsp salt
1 cup dry white wine
2-4 Tbsp lard, tallow or extra virgin coconut oil

Preheat oven to 300F.
Cut carrots into large 2” chunks. Cut onion in half and then cut each half into four wedges. Peel and core apples and cut into large 1” chunks (I got a dozen pieces per apple).
Grind fennel seed in a spice grinder or Magic Bullet. Combine with nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Rub over pork to thoroughly coat.
Heat 2 Tbsp cooking fat over medium-high heat in a small stock pot or extra-large oven-safe frying pan (if you have a Le Creucet, even better!). Add ginger slices and cook 3-4 minutes until browned and fragrant. Remove ginger (unless you love big ginger chunks).
Add pork to oil and brown on all sides (you may have to do this in 2 or 3 batches), adding more cooking fat if needed. Remove browned pork from pan and set aside.
Add onion and carrots to pan and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more cooking fat if needed. Add pork back to pot (nudging pork in between carrots and onion). Add wine to pot. Add apple to the top.
Cover and place in the oven and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes (add an extra 15 minutes if you are using pork chops instead).
Enjoy!

Tags: ancestral, apple, baked, braised, chops, neck, paleo, Paleolithic, pork, primal, Recipe, Wine
4 Comments »

Apple “Oat” Muffins

October 6, 2012 in Muffins and Coffee Cakes

When our family went to pick apples at a local apple orchard this year, we made the same miscalculation we always make. Three pecks of apples doesn’t look like that many in the big open space of the orchard, but boy, does it every look like a lot of apples once you get them home! I had five fruit bowls on my dining room table until I eventually made a giant batch of applesauce for the freezer.

Apple is one of the flavors I associate with fall. And these muffins have a wonderful robust apple flavor and a texture reminiscent of oat muffins.

These muffins are best made with thick homemade applesauce, but unsweetened store-bought applesauce will do. If your applesauce is already seasoned, you may want to pull back on the spices in this recipe (the only ingredient in my homemade apple sauce is apples). Applesauce and fresh chopped apple are the only source of sweetener in this recipe!, so I suggest choosing sweeter varieties for making your homemade apple sauce (I used a mixture of mutsu and golden delicious for my apple sauce). For the fresh chopped apple, any good cooking apple will work (I used fuji). The best sweet varieties of cooking apples are fuji, mutsu (aka crispin) and rome beauty. Granny smith are also a great cooking variety but pack a bit of a tangier punch.

I have also become very fond of my silicone muffin pan and silicone muffin cups. One of the other make baking paleo muffins so much easier. These muffins hold together well enough that a greased muffin pan will also work. You could also use paper liners. Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups applesauce
4 eggs
½ cup blanched almond flour or almond meal
1/3 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
½ cup shredded coconut
2/3 cups sliced almonds
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 fresh cooking apple, cut into small ¼” pieces (you could also substitute raisins)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or line a muffin pan with silicone or paper muffin cups.
Roughly chop almond slices for smaller pieces (aiming for rolled oat size).
Mix eggs, applesauce and spices in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add chopped nuts and shredded coconut and stir to combine.
Combine almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda and salt. Stir into wet ingredients until fully incorporated. Fold in fresh apple pieces.
Spoon batter into muffin tins, rounding out the tops. Bake for 30 minutes, until tops are starting to turn golden brown.
Enjoy!

Tags: ancestral, apple, applesauce, Baking, Dairy-free, Gluten-Free, Grain-free, muffins, oat, paleo, Paleolithic, primal, Recipe, refined sugar free
19 Comments »

Cinnamon Butternut Squash and Plantain with Apple

September 17, 2012 in Side Dishes, Starchy Staples

This simple vegetable dish is so versatile. I find myself making a version of this often (I especially enjoy it beside pork!), in part because it’s quick to put together and bakes relatively quickly (especially compared to other root vegetables). I also love that I can throw it in the oven at whatever temperature my meat is cooking and it seems to always work out. And what better way to ring in the fall than with these iconic fall flavors!

I’m on a plantain kick these days. If you can’t find green plantains (or can’t handle how starchy they are), simply omit them (you can add a little more squash and/or a little more apple). I also love butternut squash, but you could use acorn squash, fresh pumpkin or any other winter squash you can get your hands on (or a mix of a couple of varieties). Good apple varieties for cooking are granny smith, rome beauty, mutsu/crispin and fuji. Serves 5-6.

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds butternut squash
1 large green plantain
1 large (or 2 medium) apple
2 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil (this is also delicious with red palm oil or bacon fat)
½ tsp cinnamon

Peel and seed squash. Cut into slightly smaller than 1” cubes.
Cut plantain lengthwise in half and remove peel. Cut into ½” thick semi-circles.
Peel and core apple and cut into ½” cubes.
Toss squash, plantain and apple with melted coconut oil and cinnamon. Place in a 9×9” baking dish.
Bake in the oven until tender. At 350F, it takes 30 minutes to cook. At 375F, it takes 20 minutes to cook. At 425F, it takes 10 minutes to cook. Enjoy!

Tags: acorn, apple, autumn, baked, butternut, cinnamon, easy, fall, plantain, pork, pumpkin, Recipe, squash, winter
6 Comments »

TPM Tidbit: Are There Other (Non-Nightshade) Food Sources of Solanine?

August 29, 2012 in FAQ, The WHYs of the AIP, TPM Tidbits

Last week, Paleo Parentsand I released Episode 2 of The Paleo View, the topic of which was the Autoimmune Protocol. In conjunction with this, I posted my explanation of why nightshades can be problematic for those with autoimmune disease (and also why it is a common food sensitivity). I received a fascinating comment from Tina that launched me into several hours of research. Here is what Tina wrote:

“I’ve used Balanced Bites’ Nightshades Guide as my info source for what is a nightshade and what is not. She indicates blueberries, huckleberries, okra, and artichokes have properties similar to nightshades, but you and Stacy both mentioned blueberries as a great snack. Do you feel these foods should be removed initially with the autoimmune protocol with the nightshades?”

This is a great question! I found dozens of websites (in addition to Balanced Bites) that list blueberries, huckleberries, okra, and artichokes as sources of the glycoalkaloid solanine (which is found in potatoes and eggplants). I also found many websites that listed apples and sugar beets as sources of solanine (some websites also list cherries but this is confusion with ground cherries, which are a member of the nightshade family). If solanine is indeed found in these fruits and vegetables, this is cause for concern for those sensitive to nightshades.

I could not find a single website with a citation for blueberries, huckleberries, okra or artichokes containing solanine. All of the websites cite each other and simply provide this list as fact. I also could not find a single scientific paper that discussed the presence of solanine in these fruits and vegetables. I did however find a handful of scientific articles that listed apples and sugar beets as sources of solanine. These articles all reference back to a single paper published in the magazine Food Technology in 1991. My wonderful husband was able to track down this original article for me (yay for university libraries). The original article has nothing to do with apples, sugar beets, OR solanine (although it does measure amylase inhibitors in beans, which is interesting). After my exhaustive research, I feel comfortable making the following statement: there is NO scientific evidence that solanine (or any other glycoalkaloid) is present in any fruit or vegetable that is not a member of the nightshade family.

This is good news for those with reasons to avoid nightshades. No, there are not any additional fruits or vegetables that need to be avoided.

Tags: AIP, apple, apples, artichoke, autoimmune, beet, blueberries, debunk, disease, glycoalkaloids, huckleberries, nightshades, protocol, solanine, Sugar
No Comments »