Paleo Bruchetta

A coworker of mine, who I shall simply refer to as M'Lady to protect her identity, has embarked with her family on the Paleo Diet adventure. After reading up on what the Paleo Diet is, I thought it would be fun to invent a Paleo recipe just for her. It took two tries to get it right. So here you go M'Lady!

Recipe as written makes 6, scale up as appropriate.

• 1 medium vine ripened tomato cut in ¼” dice
• 2 TBLS of  1/8” diced red onion
• 1 small clove of garlic finely minced
• 1/4 lemon juiced
• 2 large or 4-5 small fresh basil leaves chiffonade cut
• ¼ tsp of red chili pepper flakes
• ½ TBLS of EVOO
• Small pinch of salt
• 6 ¼” slices of English Cucumber, sliced with a heavy bias (steep angle)

Combine all of the ingredients (except the cucumber) in a glass bowl, cover and allow about 1 hour for the flavors to meld.

 

Spoon a heaping TBLS of the topping onto each cucumber slice.

 

Non-Paleo addition - sprinkle a little grated parmesan on top :).

 

And there you have it - So simple even a caveman can do it!

 

 

 

Stir Fry Sauce

My daughter bought me a really awesome wok for Christmas, along with a notice that she was coming home shortly after Christmas and expected to see what I could do with it. This posed a bit of a problem because with the exception of rice, I had never cooked any Asian food before. Mom gave me a hint on the direction to go - Thai food.

My first order of business was to Google Thai food recipes and one of the first things I noticed was that the majority of the dish recipes call of Stir Fry Sauce, and many simply list it as an ingredient for the main dish with a notation to "See Stir Fry Sauce recipe below."

 

After reviewing several different Stir Fry Sauce recipes, I determined that while there are differences, most have two things in common.  They are made up of equal parts of all listed ingredients and include at least the following:

• Soy Sauce
• Fish Sauce
• Lime Juice
• Sugar (usually light brown)

I started my Thai adventures using this basic Stir Fry Sauce recipe to make a simple dish of stir fried shrimp, onions, peppers, and cherry tomatoes. It actually turned out good!

TIN CHEF TIP: I had never touched Fish Sauce before but I remembered a question from the most recent season of Master Chef - "What is Fish Sauce and why does it smell like death?"  I can confirm that it smells like death! While preparing your Stir Fry Sauce - DO NOT hold the Fish Sauce bottle up to your nose and smell it! If you do, your craving for Stir Fry will be instantly quashed and replaced with a craving for Hamburger Helper.

With one stir fry success under my belt, it was time to step it up a notch so for my next attempt I decided to do Thai Spring Rolls and Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy. The surprising thing about the two recipes I used was that they were from the same author, but each contained a different Stir Fry Sauce recipe. Both recipes also contained a chef's tip - make extra and store in a glass container for later use. That sounded like a great tip, but having my refrigerator full of glass containers containing different Stir Fry Sauces did not seem practical so I decided to review several recipes, pick a list of ingredients, and come up with one of my own.


This recipe will make approximately 1 cup of Stir Fry which is enough for 3 or 4 woks of stir fry.

• 4 TBLS of Soy Sauce
• 4 TBLS of Fish Sauce
• 4 TBLS of Oyster Sauce
• 4 TBLS of Thai Chili Sauce
• 4 TBLS of Fresh Lime Juice (2-3 limes)
• 4 TBLS of Light Brown Sugar
• 4 Cloves of Minced Garlic

 

 

I used this recipe for both the Spring Roll filling and Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy, and both turned out great! I have enough left over for at least one, maybe two dishes, which sets me up perfectly for Thai food on Fast Food Monday!