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CORN MEAL WITH SAUSAGES (Polenta con salsicce) Cook in water one cup of yellow cornmeal making a stiff mush. Salt it well and when it is cooked spread out to cool on a bread board about half an inch thick. Then cut the mush into small squares. Put in a saucepan several whole sausages with a little water, and when they are cooked skin and crush them and add some brown stock or tomato sauce. Put the polenta (or cornmeal mush) in a fireproof receptacle, season with grated cheese, the crushed sausages and a piece of butter. Put it in the oven and serve when hot.
Gentile, Maria (2011). The Italian Cook Book The Art of Eating Well (Kindle Locations 242-246). Kindle Edition.
THis delicious recipe was out of a free cookbook from kindle, copyright 1919. I went looking for old cookbooks and I found quite a few free ones there!!!
Coddled egg-simple, quick and incredibly delicious!
Bring about 1/2 inch of water to boil in a small saucepan. Butter an 8 oz. ramekin and crack one fresh egg into it. Add 1-2 tsp. cream (preferably raw), salt and pepper, and a few bits of whatever you happen to have on hand: cheese, ham, cooked sausage or bacon, chopped scallions, even horseradish or a dash of mustard. Cover the ramekin with aluminum foil and place into boiling water; cover pan. Steam for about 5 min., or until yolk is covered by white but still runny. Enjoy!
I have three wonderful recipes for you that come from Ireland (with some minor changes such as oils used and fermentation).
The first one is a great substitute to crackers and cookies and is also incredibly kids friendly.
Fermented Oat-Cakes
1 c. organic oats
1 c. water
2 Tbsp. organic yogurt
1 egg or 1 Tbsp coconut oil
Any spices you desire
First you ferment the oats either overnight or up to 48 hours. To ferment them, stir the first three ingredients together, cover, and let sit in a warm place for the desired time. When your oats are fermented cook them as normal. Either let them cool completely and add a beaten egg or add the coconut oil while warm (not hot) and refrigerate for a few hours. (Fo me this depends on if you want it to be more like a cookie or more like a cracker. I like coconut oil for a more dessert flavour with maybe some nutmeg and I like the egg if I want a cracker for cheeses and such). Add any spices you desire. Now, after the oats have cooled it will be thick. Warm up about a tsp of either coconut oil or olive oil in a skillet and fry about a spoonful of oats on each side (too much oil will make them soggy so only use enough to coat the pan). Fry until crispy and do the same for all the oats. These make a great light lunch if you put some nice cheese and cold cuts on top (or veggies or anything).
Scotch eggs:
1lb of good quality ground sausage (or sausage links, you can cut the skin and squeeze out the meat)
1 dozen eggs – free range, organic
Breadcrumbs (make your own with some sprouted grain bread or sourdough bread in your food processor)
3 eggs, beaten
olive oil or lard
any seasonings you desire
First, hard boil the dozen eggs, allow to cool, peel off shells, rinse, and dry. Mix your sausage meat with your hands and add any spices you like. Create a ball of raw sausage meat around the hard boiled eggs (try to make them all the same size). Mix your bread crumbs with any seasonings you like. Roll your scotch eggs in the beaten egg and then roll in breadcrumbs. Do this for all your eggs. Now you can do one of two things you can fry them (but you have to deep fry and olive oil doesn’t usually work well with this, so if you have a natural oil that does then go for it); or you can coat a baking pan with olive oil and bake at 350F (180C) for about 45min to one hour. They should be crispy and the sausage fully cooked. These can be refrigerated for up to a week and reheated in the oven for about 30 min.
Traditional Irish Stew
Most Irish people have their own variations and family traditions but this is how my husband’s dear, sweet grandmother in Sligo makes it. There really aren’t any measurements for it, just add as much or as little as you please.
1 large leg or shoulder or lamb with bone
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Parsnips
Fresh Garlic
White wine
Olive Oil
Fresh Herbs
Small amount of flour
Brown your leg or shoulder of lamb in olive oil to help seal in the flavour and juices. When cool to the touch, cut the meat into bite size pieces and place in a container with white wine, olive oil, and chopped garlic. Cover and refrigerate until stock is ready. Using the bone from the leg or shoulder, create a bone stock (add a bouquet de garnis with rosemary, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf). I usually do these steps the day before because making a bone stock will take many hours. When ready, take out lamb and dry meat pieces with a paper towel. Coat in a light layer of flour – really only about a tbsp or so (you can mix spices with the flour if you like). Heat a skillet with olive oil, lard, or butter and brown the meat for a few minutes (do not fully cook). Add meat to your stock and chop up veggies and place in stock (as many of the veggies as you like, the ones above are traditional for this stew). Allow to simmer for 3 hours (or until the meat is soft and practically falls off the fork). When it is ready add more fresh herbs finely chopped: rosemary, thyme, and parsley are traditional. Add sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste and serve. Wonderful, filling, comfort food and you can control the carb content easily by using as many potatoes as you like. Note: don’t use russet potatoes use white, yellow, or red. Leave skins on potatoes and carrots (but peel the parsnips).
These recipes are testimony to the love of cooking of our forebearers, and I’m sure they taste worth the extra time in the end. It’s important to note, as you do, that the oats make a good subsitute for cookies, as they are also high in carbs.
Thanks so much for sharing!
Just had to share my new recipe for “Fajita Stew”! It’s VERY easy and delicious!
2 c. beef stock
1 large jar of medium salsa
1 lb grass-fed ground beef
1/2 white onion
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 large zucchini, cut into quartered chunks
1 large yellow squash, cut into quartered chunks
1 can of black beans
Your favorite cheese, shredded
On low heat, combine the beef stock and jar of salsa in a large stock pot. Stir together and heat. Meanwhile, cook the ground beef with the onions and peppers in a large pan. Season with a little salt and pepper as it cooks. Once cooked through, add to the pot and stir. Add the zucchini and squash and stir. Let the stew sit and heath for about 5 minutes. Add the black beans, stir gently, and allow to heat again. That’s it! Serve with shredded cheese on top. We also like to toast sprouted tortillas and crush them on top. Enjoy!
Wonderful, thank you for this!
Sweet and Salty Eggs:
need: butter, salt, cinnamon, dates, eggs
-take a tbsp of butter and put in pan with a dash of cinnamon (i used a lot because i love cinnamon) and some sea salt
-let the cinnamon bloom
-take on medjool date and depending on how large it is, cut it in half (or use all of it) and then dice it into small pieces and throw it into the pan and let it soften up a bit in the butter
-take 2 eggs and crack on top of the butter, cinnamon, salt, date medley and swirl the whites of the eggs (while of course keeping the yolks in tact) around so the cinnamon and dates are visible and somewhat thoroughly dispersed throughout the mix
-cook until whites are done, if you want you can add additional sea salt and cinnamon on top of the egg yolks
- enjoy either as is or with some coconut butter bread….which i will now give you the recipe for!
Coconut butter bread:
need: shredded coconut flakes or coconut butter, eggs, baking soda, sweetener, and other optional items
-to make coconut butter: take about 3.5 cups of shredded coconut flakes and throw it into either a vitamix or food processor and have it on high so the flakes turn into butter
-if you’re not making the butter, have about 1.25 cups of premade coconut butter and throw it into a vitamix or food processor
-preheat oven to 300 degrees
-to the coconut butter add 5 eggs (make sure vitamix is on a low setting)
- add 1/4 cup of butter or coconut oil
-add less than 1/4 cup of coconut nectar or honey (depends on how sweet you want it)**
-add 3/4 tsp baking soda
-add 1/2 tsp almond extract if desired for a more dessert like bread
-add 1/2 tbsp of vanilla extract if desired ” ”
-grease a 8×8 or 9×9 square baking dish, grease it well, then pour in the mixture and smooth out
-if desired you can add coconut flakes on top or chia seeds or both!
**note: more sweetener gives it a more cakey kind of sweetness, so less sweetener and this is like a breakfast bread, more sweetener and this could totally be a dessert. depends on what you want!
this is a great recipe as it’s so ridiculously simple!
homemade chocolate:
need: cocoa powder, coconut oil, shredded coconut flakes, extracts of choice, sea salt, cinnamon, optional: chia and flax seeds, sweetener
-to a bowl add: 5 tbsp of coconut oil, 5 tbsp of cocoa powder, 5 tbsp of shredded coconut flakes, a small pinch of sea salt, 1/4 tsp of vanilla, almond, and chocolate extracts, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, stevia or another sweetener for sweetness if desired, and ground flax seeds to taste.
-mix everything thoroughly with a fork
-put the mixture in molds of choice, top with chia seeds if desired, and refrigerate, then….enjoy!
really yummy bread:
need: blanched almond flour, sea salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ground nutmeg, squash of choice (excluding spaghetti sqaush), ground cloves or allspice, 2 large dates, 3 eggs
-roast squash of choice enough so it is soft when a fork goes into it
-puree squash so you have 1/2 cup of squash, set aside
-preheat oven to 350 degrees
-mix all dry ingredients first ( 1 cup blanched almond flour, 1/4 tsp of sea salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tbsp of cinnamon, 3/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves or allspice)
-in a vitamix or food processor add the squash, 2 dates, and 3 eggs and blend until uniform
-add the dry
-bake in SMALL loaf dishes…this recipe would be enough for 2-3 small loaves, these are mini. this is important because otherwise the bread doesn’t “rise”
-bake for 25-35 min depending on your oven, set 25 min at first and then add 5 minutes if needed
enjoy with a huge hunk of raw butter
Marrow Sauce/Gravy
When you are making a roast or any kind of beef dish, pop in a couple good marrow bones to cook with it. Once cooked, scoop the marrow out of the bones and melt into your gravy with a little butter, salt, pepper, and dry bread crumbs. (Sourdough is especially good.)
I adapted this recipe from a traditional Italian cookbook- ‘La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy’. This gravy/sauce is wonderful on everything! Season to your own taste.
Spinach and Poached Eggs
2 T unsalted butter
3 scallions sliced
1 clove garlic finely chopped
10 ounces fresh or frozen (de-frosted) spinach
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/3 c cream or half and half
Zest of 1 lemon
4 large eggs
Melt the butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallions and garlic, stirring for about 30 seconds. Toss in spinach. Add a little salt and pepper and cook down until most of the liquid is gone. Stir in cream or half and half and lemon zest cooking an additional 3 minutes.
Using the back of a spoon make four indentations in the spinach. Crack the eggs into them. Lower heat to medium low and cover pan for about 3 minutes or until “poached”. Carefully scoop eggs and greens onto plate.