Pulled Pork recipe:

1 pork shoulder butt roast
put in the crock pot on low temp for 7-8 hours, with one large onion, filled with water.

Make sure to take time before and after cooking the roast to cut off as much fat as possible.

Green Papaya and Pulled Pork curry:

Sautee diced papaya in canola oil until browned on each side
add water, cover and allow to cook for another 5 minutes or until soft all the way through.
Add pulled pork, coconut milk, thyme, yellow curry powder, salt & pepper.
Simmer for 2-3 minutes
Sprinkle in ground almonds
Serve on top of steamed broccoli, or sauteed zucchini, or some other vegetable of your choice.

Lamb Burgers with Mango salsa

Recipe: 

• 1lb lean ground lamb
• any spice combination you like. I used:
• Cumin
• Coriander 
• Chilli Powder
• Tumeric
• Garam Masala
• Onion Powder
• salt

• Finely diced 1/4 onion, 2 garlic cloves
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup ground almonds

This makes 4 normal sized burger patties

Mango Salsa:

diced mango

finely chopped rosemary

dash of salt

(diced avocado would be highly recommended to add to this salsa.)

Coconut Shrimp

Afternoon BBQ

In between training sessions with our brilliant visiting coach, Randy Stoklos, we're cooking up a bunch of meat and vegetables, really whatever we could find in the fridge (and on our papaya tree). really, the point here is that you can take almost any sort of vegetable, throw it in some tin foil with some coconut or canola oil, some salt and pepper and whatever spices you might like, and make a great, simple lunch.

Paleo Pancakes

So some special guests are in a few of the next videos, they stayed with us for 2 weeks leading up to the NORCECA 2011 beach volleyball tournament's first stop for this season's circuit in which we all competed. A lot of these videos consist of what we were eating before/between training sessions, so definitely performance food.

We're up early this morning, on our way to the beach for a workout, and need a good breakfast to carry us through, so, as well as the avocado yogurt, we're making some almond/banana/blueberry pancakes. This is a recipe that can be put together in just a couple of minutes, and, after 3 minutes of cooking, they're ready to eat!

The recipe is:

1 cup ground almonds
2 extra large eggs
1 banana
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 tbsp cinnamon
dash salt

fry in coconut or canola oil for a 1.5 minutes on each side, so that they stay nice and moist inside. If you like dry pancakes, cook them longer.

Avocado Yogurt

Today, finally, I bring you the first of many videos for the Paleo Recipe of the Day! We have some special guests sitting by, Martin Reader and Chaim Schalk, Canada's top professional beach volleyball team, and they will be the first to try out this recipe, straight from the source.

To make this recipe you will need:

1 large green avocado, or 2 hass avocados
1 anjou pear
1 banana
1/2 can of coconut milk
water
cinnamon (optional, I think I forgot this part in the video)
2 scoops pure natural whey protein isolate or egg white protein

Blend everything together, sprinkle on some ground flax seed and enjoy!

Homemade Beef jerky, or, The beauty of a dehydrator

A dehydrator is one of the handiest tools I ever spent $60 on. Jerky is really the main thing that I use it for, but I put plenty of fruit (pineapple especially) in it, let it dry, then mix with some nuts and seeds for a good little trail mix.
   Any of these snacks are great for just keeping around when needing something to take on the go.

Jerky is pretty simple to make, I prefer beef, so that's what is in the photos. Flank steak is a good, lean meat works really well. For a nice, softer jerky, cut slices against the grain, so that it will pull apart more easily later. If you are a real jerky afficionado, you know that jerky is supposed to be chewy, so cut the flank steak along the grain.

As for spices, use whatever you've got that you think will go well together. This is a little photo of spices that i use, some smoked paprika, cayenne, coriander, cumin, garam masala, tumeric (though just a pinch...turmeric will add bitterness if too much is used!), add a bit of balsamic vinegar....mix all the spices with about a cup of water, then add the beef strips, marinate for a couple of hours at least, or else overnight.
The strips should need anywhere between 2.5 and 5 hours in the defydrator, depending on how thickly you decide you want to slice the beef, and your own preference on moisture left in the meat.
.
I like my jerky soft, thick and still slightly moist, so i cut about 1 inch thick slices against the grain, and dehydrate for about 3.5 hours.

More to come about other dried foods in the dehydrator....

Rapini (what??)

One of my favourite vegetable groups are greens like Swiss char, collard greens, and of course, rapini. Rapini belongs to the broccoli family, and is a great source of vitamins, potassium, iron and calcium.

the Portuguese use this vegetable in traditional dishes like grilled salted cod on sauteed rapini, so I use this basis to make one of my favourite dinner meals:

Seared fresh Atlantic Cod on steamed Rapini

1 fillet of fresh Atlantic Cod.
Salt & Pepper

Pat both sides of the fish with a paper towel (this will help it not stick in the frying pan). season with salt & pepper, sear on medium-high heat in canola oil, covered, for about 4-6 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of the cut.

Rapini:
Cut off the thick stems from the greens, throw them in the steamer for about 4 minutes, then add the leaves of the rapini, and steam for another 5 minutes.

While that's steaming, heat up some olive oil to medium heat, sauteed some garlic & onion for about 2 minutes.

Remove everything from the steamer, toss into frying pan with olive oil, garlic & onion, and add whatever spices you like.
I like to use chili powder, ground cumin, coriander, garam masala at the end.
At the end, toss in some diced tomato if you like.

Sautee for about 4-6 minutes on medium heat, uncovered, to allow all the flavours to come together. At this point, you could even toss in a splash of white wine to enhance flavour.

Serve the fish on top of the Rapini.

Potato pancakes go paleo!

Nothing like good ol' tradition German Potato pancakes, minus the potato...
Rutabaga, which I grew up referring to as Turnip (although turnip are actually white, rutabaga are yellow), make a delicious side to any meal, whether chopped and roasted in olive oil (delicious once they're a little burnt), or done this way:

Grate 1 whole Rutabaga
add 1- 2 eggs
salt & pepper
fresh grated nutmeg
1/3 cup ground almonds


onion and garlic can also be added to the recipe, but the rutabaga has so much flavour on its own, it's not a must.

mix all together, pan fry in coconut oil or canola oil for about 3 minutes on each side on medium-high heat.


These are great for breakfast, or a great accompaniment to a nice steak. I had one for breakfast with a leftover beef patty from our Superbowl BBQ, and a fried egg.

Enjoy.

Post-workout protein bar

So, since I still don't have a camera to film these recipes, I figured I'll just start by writing down the recipe. This one was an experiment I tried yesterday, just throwing some stuff together, and amazingly enough, it came out great. So try this one at home, it's pretty easy, and can be adapted to whatever you might have in the fridge.

Sweet Potato Protein Bar

2 sweet potatoes, slice and boil until soft, then mash and blend with:

1 banana

½ can of coconut milk

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 pinches salt

¼ cup ground almonds

4 tbsp ground flax seed

1-2 scoops protein powder (either dried egg white powder, or a natural pure whey protein isolate with no flavouring or sweeteners)

1 Grated carrot (i didn't actually use this in my version, because I didn't have any, but would have liked to try it in there)

In a separate bowl, fluff 3 egg whites with electric mixer, until they are firm to the point of forming peaks. Mix this in with the sweet potato mixture. 

Dried fruit (I used dried blueberries, but raisins or craisins will do the trick...this is optional, of course)

Pour into cake pan (greased with coconut or canola oil), bake at 375 for 30 minutes. It is good warm out of the oven, but if left in the fridge to cool, it will get firm, and hold a good consistency for a bar that you can take with you to the gym and enjoy right after yelling "time!"

Welcome to the Paleo ROD!

Hello all you primitive hunter gatherers. On this website, you will find all sorts of different recipes, experiments, amazing culinary (accidental) discoveries, and the odd disastrous flop.

I must first tell you, I have no professional culinary training. I do love to cook though. I have worked the front of the house in small, fine restaurants for 15 years, so have learned a lot from different chefs, through different styles of cooking. I have lived with Italians, who have shared with me the simplicity of mama's way of good home cooking, and my Indian mother in law has taken me under her wing for many years, putting together previously-unheard-of combinations of spices, vegetables and meats which turn into amazing, flavourful dishes.

While these are some of the best cuisines in the world, they are also laden with vegetable oil, flour, legumes, and enough complex carbs to make any hunter gatherer forget how to widdle a spear. And let's not forget how much butter a restaurant will go through in a day. Trust me. If it only tastes "ok", just sautée it in some butter, then it will be delicious. It really is like cheating.

So, being a hunter gatherer, I have taken all this experience, and adapted it to fit to the paleo guidelines, and, with a little creativity, there's nothing that can't be replicated. I constantly receive inquiries from other members of the Crossfit gyms here in the Cayman Islands about how I make the dishes I have at the gym with me for a post-workout meal.

Sure Paleo recipe books exist, but their instructions and recipes are always so complicated. (Obviously the authors never had any training from an old Italian lady.) And likelihood is, you really don't like to spend that much time in the kitchen; you'd rather do your WOD, then flop onto the couch to nurse your aching body before continuing on with your day. These videos won't only show you what to cook, but how to do it simply and quickly, brought to you from my own tiny kitchen. The RODs will be whatever I am cooking on that particular day for my and my wife's breakfast, lunch or dinner. Hopefully you'll be able to get something out of it as well...maybe this will be the last time you eat a plain chicken breast with steamed frozen vegetables!

Duncan