Twixt and Tween Weather, Perfect For Rabbit Stew

I’m just cleaning out old websites, wounds, worries. Have been for a month before Sunday. Mother’s Day, btw, I was gifted an hour of crockery smashing at the Break Room here in Melbourne. Seriously works up an appetite!
Serenity (daughter) was laughing her guts out, watching from behind bullet-proof glass. I didn’t miss one hit bcause, lovelies, I tell you, I had some stress to work out of this old body!

Courtney and Caitlyn joined us back at my house, and I cooked a kangaroo bol with zucchini spaghetti. That’s not this. I’ll do that again for you soon. Part of the clearout of wankery, warts and wannabees, however, is even myself; the sad deluded thinking that my YouTube site was okay. Not if I’m gong to do some live work with you soon! Found this. This twixt and tween weather is just fabulous for wild game. Old video. Taste is the same

Bon apetit!
Lore x

AGE SHAMING

Gosh, what to say. I’ve had a recent run-in with a guy who thought to shame me for being in ‘his’ gym… his final bastion of bloke-sweatiness. Despite having been in one or other of them since 1991. I’ve written an article for a mag about it (ARCHER). What I will say, is that if you’re a woman over 50 years old don’t carry goats uphill, or walk three miles with a staff on their shoulders carrying a bucket of water at both ends, you’ll get osteoporosis. And it is NOT a thing. It comes from sedentary living. If you’re a man (in the understood parlance of an outdated dualist modality) tell me it’s different. I’m really interested.

Nila Chandra, there on the incline bench, is in her forties, is fabulous and now living in Bisbee, Arizona. That’s me on camera. Those are pectorals on my torso, not cleavage.

In the meantime, chicken, walnuts, raw yogurt, broccoli and cauliflower puree. More meals and snacks to come. I’m simply overwhelmingly busy.

Image L to R: Caitlyn and Ly, sweaty, 2019, Coburg Anytime Fitness.

And grab yourself a copy of the eBook HERE for just $3.00!

Age duuna count

AGE DUNNA COUNT

Kindness is so easy.

Visiting Dear Daughts in hospital today for a routine gall bladder procedure. A woman, I’ll call her Jane Doe, is in the other bed in the ward, suffering from a really intense gastric infection. She’s seriously obese. She’s gorgeous. She’s sad. She’s alone for ages and not talking to anyone. Eating the crappy whatever-it-is that passes for a sandwich.

Daughts is so lovely and made Jane smile. Laugh. When I came to visit, daughter and I clowned around a bit, drank coffee, chatted and included Jane. She an I got talking. She has Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and some kind of helplessness I don’t know about. She has a husband, and her two 30-something year old daughters just moved back home. They expect mom to cook and clean and go back to the way things were before they moved out, and had husbands.

We asked why, when they’re grown-ups? Jane shrugged. She was APOLOGETIC like what could she do, it must be her fault.

Jane said she couldn’t stomach food (hospital food, DISGUSTING) and could not shift the weight of years. I chatted on a bit about giving up grains and sugar. What they do to us. How they harm us.

I asked how old she was. “I’m 64,” she said, embarrassed, like it is a thing to be ashamed of.

“Hey,” I smiled, “I’m 66.”

Her mouth fell open.

“Darling,” I said, “You can get better… a bit… Are you feeding the others?”

“Yes,” she said, “but I can’t just have one Tim Tam. I have to eat the lot. I don’t know how to stop.  don’t want to be like this.”

“How long you think you’ll be in hospital?” I asked.

“I’m here for a week, I think. This is like a hotel to me. How do you look the way you do?”

I explained.

And then her husband came. He was supposed to bring her the roast veggies her daughters had cooked. He forgot. He complained about the traffic, the weather, their kids, his job, having to come and visit. She tried to placate him. SHE’S THE ONE WHO’S SICK!!!

So. Back to Dear Daughts for a moment. Gall bladder. Forget the fats. Got to make light. Her housemate brought her their homemade, chicken and ginger soup. I made soup also, chestnut pumpkin with rosemary and Himalayan pink salt. I dry roasted some of it with dukkah.

We both fed a bit to Jane, who had never tasted anything as good. She left the hospital sandwich untouched on her tray. Between yesterday and tonight she had totally perked up. Laughed with strangers. Known delicious food.

Moral?

Be kind. Make kind and caring food. Love one another. Make chestnut pumpkin soup and hug your children but don’t clean up their crap. Age dunna count, we can always turn life around.

No matter what our species.

Bon apetit,

Lore x

Depression, Choice & PCOS

PCOS

What is PCOS? It’s polycystic ovary syndrome. The problem affects one in five women. That’s a lot. What causes it? Not my job to talk about that. This is a food blog. But. Someone I love is putting up with PCOS and, no, the contraceptive pill, for her, is not an option.

WEIGHT

Someone I love is 90 kilo. That should not be a problem because she is beautiful and very fit. But it is. Not because she might not be able to have babies. She either does or does not. It’s a woman’s choice. And I have a little more to say about that before I’m done today.

DEPRESSION

No the problem is that she feels so overwhelmed by the weight of her breasts and the back pain that comes with it that some days she’s depressed. Other days when she’s down is when the folks at the gym stare. I think they stare because she’s big and beautiful and is benchpressing HUGE weights. She thinks they’re judging her. I don’t know. She’s super fit.

More. Doctors judge her. She has been told she is borderline diabetic by one doctor only to be told by a sports physician that she is nowhere near that. Doctors, by the way, do 40 hours nutritional studies throughout their entire training. 40! Her hormones need fixing but nobody seems to know how to do that. On a side note why are women prescribed such weird and potentially carcinogenic medication as birth control? They tried it on men… Hardly anyone ever got breast or ovarian cancer when I was young. People dies of strokes and heart attacks and… well… death. Cancer is BIG business.

FITNESS

She is also overwhelmed by her own lack of self-esteem. She was my weight before this happened. She thinks of herself as lean but then she looks in the mirror.

She runs HIIT for overweight people and advises them on nutrition. They vomit. They lose weight. She cannot. How did it start? She took the pill. The second time she has done this. This is the second time the weight piled on and is immoveable.

SHAME

Why do I write this today? For those of you who have experienced bigotry for your size and those of you who have done it. For definitions of fat shaming. And because NOT ENOUGH research is being demanded by women to get this shit fixed.

Today is not about recipes. I’ll get back to that and I know I’ve been slack but, hey, I’ve just released another book and am writing yet another (2016/17) so bite me.

MOTHERHOOD

The other thing I want to mention (because so many mothers out there are also unloving of your bodies) is that nobody warned you, did they? That you have to forget sleep, that you will turn into the person giving orders, washing, missing meals and picking in between, that they’ll want your money, they’ll take your youth and then they’ll leave, or they won’t leave and SOME of you are still cooking for them. Before we get pregnant, and when we give birth, it’s all about the child, the divine little person we are bringing into this world. What a powerful thing it is. No. I love my kids but I know what happened to me when I had them. Can you please put your toys away? Can you put that back in the fridge? Have you got your lunch? Can you please be home by ten? Can we talk about this?

No. You will be called a nag. You will feel like your own mother. You will come to understand that you were lied to and will continue to be lied to. You will be stereotyped in advertising. It will be YOU cleaning the bathroom with that fucking grateful smile on your face.

THEN, when you want to get wild and sultry and back into the prowl what do they say? Hmm?

WOMEN

So, later today, or during the week, or right now, take another woman in your arms and tell her how wickedly interesting she is. Admire each other. Take a walk with each other and open up.

Oh, and have a read of The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Bon apetit,

Lore x

Berry Breakfast

So I have eaten eggs every morning for almost 2 years. Today I have changed that.

Ingredients:

A cup each of organic blueberries, blackberries (bought) and strawberries from the garden.

5 California walnuts (get local if you can as long as they have not been treated with pesticide)

A slathering of Meridith Vale organic sheep yoghurt

 

Now. I almost wrote sheeps youghurt. Sheep, like fish, are both singular and plural.

 

Why the change? Craving. Berries are super paleo and chockablock full of antioxidants and other awesome lovelies.

That’s it for now. Eggs for dinner instead.

Bon appetit!

 

Aubergine Surprise

Was almost finished this meal when I realised it was one of the yummiest dishes EVER. And it was an accident.

So what is it? Left-over kofta mix from last night (just the meat mix) in a kind of bolognaise/shepherds pie/mousaka hybrid – a North Africa meets Mediterranean style excitement.

Adjust ingredients for number of people.

EQUIPMENT

Chopping block, peeler, skillet, roasting tray, small cassoulet dish, paper towels, pot, sharp knife, grater, other stuff.

INGREDIENTS

Left-over lamb kofta mix,
Golden sweet potato,
1 leek,
2 cloves garlic
1 carrot,
1 stick celery,
1 aubergine,
1 large brown mushroom,
Handful of very ripe cherry tomatoes,
1 zucchini,
small bunch flat leaf parsley,
Tablespoon tomato paste,
buffalo mozzarella,
sheep yoghurt,
fresh ground black pepper,
olive oil,
nob of butter.
Also, hummus is optional on the side of the plated dish.

METHOD

1. Peel and cube the sweet potato, pop on the stove to boil till soft.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
3. Into the baking tray drizzle olive oil
4. Drizzle olive oil and the nob of butter into the pan on stove top.
5. Slice aubergine lengthways, lay on paper towel, cover each slice with salt to lift the bitterness. Leave for 10 minutes then wash the salt off and dry the slices with paper towel. Lay the slices in the baking tray, drizzle more olive oil over them and add a generous amount of ground black pepper to each. Pop in oven till soft and golden (about 20/30 minutes).
6. Finely chop and dice celery, leek and garlic. Grate the carrot. Add all to the pan on very low heat.
7. Roughly chop mushrooms and zucchini. Add to pan when the other ingredients are softened.
8. Cut cherry tommies into quarters, add them.
9. Add tomato paste and stir all well in together.
10. Add left-over lamb and chopped parsley.
Simmer the lot.

By now the sweet potato is cooked. Drain and mash.
By now, also, the aubergine slices are done.

Assemble time!

In the bottom of the cassoulet dish drizzle a small amount of olive oil, lay a couple of slices of aubergine in the bottom.
Spoon most, if not all the lamb mixture on top of that.
Lay the remainder of the aubergine on top of that.
Spoon lumps of sweet potato on top of that.
Add slices of the mozzarella and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
Turn oven up to 280 and put cassoulet dish inside.
Cook till cheese is bubbly.

Serve and add a goodly dollop of yoghurt on top.

Bon apetit! x

 

What to do with Biodynamic Lamb Mince? Koftaaaaa!!!

Hi for March!

Kofta. Sure, it’s been done a million times but not today and not (I don’t think) my own exclusive twist. But. That’s irrelevant. This is so delicious!

Today is the lead up to the final battle between summer and autumn. The four seasons always do this. One last push by the intense heat to ripen the last growth.

This is the end of the tomatoes here in Melbourne. And aubergines, chillies, basil. Lettuce and rocquette are long gone but parsley, sage, thyme and rosemary live on. The zucchini are on their last stems, desperately trying to push out that final penile delight… and the onions are sweet.

Some of the bounty –
   

We had a surprise this summer… purslane turned up in our garden. Wild. I tried to grow it in a pot using organic seed. Nothing. It had to want to come, you see. Now it’s all over Nth Fitzroy. You know about purslane? Feed it to the chickens. It won’t be their eggs that fuck with your heart, that’s for sure! And it’s considered a weed! Please! You can eat every part of it raw, steamed, have a bath in the stuff. The tiny black seeds are the good juju, too. It’s a major power pack of Omega-3s.

There! You probably pulled it out, didn’t you? Never again! Okay…

EQUIPMENT

Baking tray, skillet, chopping blocks, sharp knives, two bowls for sauces, spoons to serve such, grater, peeler

INGREDIENTS

Kofta –

Between 250 and 400 gm bio-dynamic lamb mince,
Olive oil
1 finely diced red onion,
Half a cup toasted, crushed pine nuts,
Half a preserved lemon (just the skin),
2 grated garlic cloves,
Small handful of flat leaf parsley,
Goodly sprinkle each of Ras El Hanout, cumin, crushed chilli flakes, turmeric, dukkah, sumac, salt (optional), black pepper.

Sweet paprika, purslane and mixed mesclun lettuce with rocquette and olive oil for garnish.

Tahina –

2 tablespoons of organic tahini (sesame paste),
1 clove grated garlic,
Juice of half a medium-sized lemon,
Dollop of olive oil,
Filtered water,
Cracked black pepper,
Pinch of salt (optional).

Tzatziki –

Half a delicate cucumber,
Mint,
Half a cup sheep milk yoghurt.

KOFTA METHOD

Place all the kofta ingredients in a biggish bowl and mix really well. Cover and refrigerate for a while (an hour, overnight, till the sauces are done). Pre-heat oven to 200 and place the baking tray inside.

kofta in the pan.

When the mix has sat for a while pop the skillet on the stove, add olive oil, light and warm oil over a low heat.
Form the mince mix into hand-length cigar-shape sausages. Brown in the skillet. When golden pop them in the oven for 2 to 5 minutes. Rest.

a few other ingredients (I’ve already put the spices away).

TAHINA METHOD

Dead easy…
Grated garlic, squeeze of lemon, tablespoons of tahini, few drops of olive oil, all in a bowl, start mixing madly.
When it comes together, ever-so-gently drizzle in filtered water until it is all the goopy consistency of mayonnaise.
Drizzle it onto the serving plate.

TZATZIKI METHOD

Dead easy as well.
Peel and finely dice the cucumber
Add it to the bowl of yoghurt
Finely chop mint, ditto.
Mix.
Pop it onto the plate as well.

Delicately sprinkle this lot with sweet paprika

Add a bed of lettuce to the side of the plate, and, if you have it, left over roasted sweet potato cubes.  Optional are freshly plucked cherry tomatoes.

Yummm!

Bon apetit! x

 

Travel food

Today I’m winging it back to Byron Bay to read Tarot for the people there and thereabouts. It’s 11:30 am. For breakfast this morning I had left-over sweet potato, Warrigal greens, chilli flakes, sage and thyme mixed in with cracked eggs. I don’t need to be at the airport till 2 but I’ll ride the public transport system to the airport so leaving home at 1. I arrive at the Gold Coast after 2 hours in the air. I’m being picked up by my son’s partner and there’s a 30 minute drive to Mullumbimby, the shops, my friends’ house where I’ll stay.

Do the time math!

Being paleo means buying most of my food in consideration.

Being paleo also means planning the fuck out of the trip. Hence this post.

I’ve got time to eat a pulled pork salad before I leave. I’ll drag that out till 12:30.

I’ve just ground the seed and nut mix after removing the dried fruit

You can add macadamia’s and walnuts to this to round it out.

I’ve sufficient to last me all week but for today I mix about 3 or 4 tablespoons of this with enough raw sheep yoghurt to make a loose paste. That goes in the handbag.

I’ll be hungry between lunch and arrival at the house. Ravenous!

On the plane I’ll have a black tea (don’t EVER drink their coffee) but that’s it.

Fly high and keep well fed,

Lore x

The Supreme Quiet (possibly the best recipe ever)

Last Friday I panicked – almost. I am quite deaf in my left ear and have worn an aid for a decade or else I can’t hear birds or any high octave sounds. I won’t go that far into it but it’s a terrible thing to hear one moment and not the next. So this recipe was created in that silence.

But that’s not why I’m calling it what it is. Four of us for dinner that night. No one spoke. Every now and then eyes would meet and we would laugh or shake our heads because… how can anything taste this good, right? Unless you can’t stand the flavours of North Africa or the Mediterranean. But! We forgot to take piccies! You’ll just have to trust me. Besides, when you read the ingredients your psychic smells and tastebuds will do the math.

(for 4 people)

EQUIPMENT

Bamboo skewers, two griddles, sharp knife, helpers (if possible :)), chopping blocks, several bowls, soup ladle, blender, couple large pots, stirring spoons, baking tray.

INGREDIENTS (this requires 4 parts, but it’s ultimately still easy)

1: DIP 1

1 aubergine
2 rinds of preserved lemon
2 shallots
1 tsp each of tumeric, chili flakes, ground coriander, ground cumin, smoked and sweet paprika
half a cup olive oil
1 tspoon tahini
dukkah
quarter lemon (juice)

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180.
Halve the aubergine and score criss-cross into the pulp (don’t cut the skin)
Discard the pulp in the preserves lemon and finely chop the rind, pop it into one of the bowls
Finely dice the shallots and add to the bowl along with the tumeric, chili, coriander, cumin and both paprikas
Add the olive oil and mix all up
Dash of olive oil onto the baking tray
Massage the mix into the top side of each half aubergine and pop onto the baking tray, skin side down, and into the oven for 40 to 60 minutes (or until the flesh is goopy)
When cooked, allow to cool then scoop pulp into a bowl (discard skin)
Add a teaspoon of tahini and a sprinkle of dukkah (salt if you need it) and the squeeze of lemon
Put into the middle of the table and cover it in case the cat decides it like weird un-cat stuff like this.

DIP 2
Just a full bowl of sheep’s yogurt (Meredith Vale here in Melbourne is the best). Put in the centre of the table

About now also grab a large bowl per person, soup spoon, a bamboo skewer for each, salt(Himalayan pink) and fresh ground pepper and plop them all in the middle of the table.

2: SOUP

med/large organic butternut squash or local pumpkin
half handful of rosemary and a few springs of thyme
4 cloves garlic
tblspoon Ras el Hanout

METHOD

Peel, de-seed and cube the squash (pumpkin)
Pop into a pot and just cover with water
Boil till soft
Finely chop the rosemary and thyme
Crush the garlic
Once the squash is ready empty just a little of the water
Add the herbs and the Ras el Hanout to the blender and scoop in in half a blender full of squash with some of the water
Whip it up and pour into a large bowl
Continue to blend the remainder of the squash and add to the rest
Put it all back in the pot now and over a very low heat with the lid on (it’s going to plop vigorously, warning!)

3. SALAD

INGREDIENTS

Handful each coriander, parsley, mint
A dozen pitted and chopped green olives
2 or 3 cherry tomatoes
2 spring onions finely chopped
Quarter cup each of pistachios, slivered almonds, pine nuts
6 or 8 macadamia nuts
Juice of half a lime
Organic olive oil

METHOD

Dry fry the almonds and pine nuts till golden, put aside
Into the mortar and pestle go the maccas and pistachios and pound till crumbly
Finely chop all other ingredients and add to the salad bowl along with the nuts
Give the almonds and pine nuts a light grind and add them as well
Splosh in the olive oil and mix it all about
Put into the middle of the table.

4. LAMB (or chicken… whatever, not a heavy meat like kangaroo, or fall-apart fish)

INGREDIENTS
500 grams diced lamb
4 red chilies
Marinade:
goodly splosh of olive oil, tsp each sumac, ground cumin and coriander, dukkah

METHOD
Mix lamb (or chicken or whatever) and marinade in a bowl, put aside
Split the chilies with a small slit to stop them exploding
Oh, for goodness sake turn off the heat under the soup!
I use both my enamel pan and my cast iron griddle so get em both good and hot
Chuck on the chilies because they take the longest (you want them charred)
Now chuck on the meat. Toss it, turn it. It’s only going to take a minute cause you don’t want it tough.

Get everyone seated.
Ladle a goodly bowl of soup each complete with a dollop of yogurt. Share around.
Take the chilies off the griddle, deseed and warn people they are hot, hot, hot.
Turn off the heat and pour the meat into a large bowl, place in the middle of the table.

Now to eat this you’ll place some salad in the soup, a large dollop of the aubergine and skewer meat. Dip the meat iin the soup and keep adding everything till no one can eat any more.

Bon apetit! x

BLAT without bread

It worked! And it filled me! What a thrill. After all, there are just some things one still occasionally regrets.
Bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado and mayo.

That’s it really. Forget a recipe. Grill the bacon, wash and stack a pile of mixed lettuce form your garden, add slices of organic tomatoes (cause they’re not in season here in Melbourne yet), slice an avo and add that, a few dollops of organic mayo and top it all with the bacon.

Huzzah! x