Ikan Bakar is a popular grilled fish dish (say that 3x fast) in Indonesia and Malaysia, usually sold by street vendors. The fish is marinated in sambal – a Southeast Asian chili-based condiment – and grilled over banana leaves. Popular fishes used for the dish include tilapia, skate, snapper, sea bass, or stingray.

While this is a very exotic-sounding dish, it’s surprising that all of the ingredients can be easily found during a trip to your local Asian market. Banana leaves are commonly sold frozen in large sheets for very cheap – usually a dollar will get you as many as 20 leaves. Bear in mind that frozen banana leaves are more brittle than fresh, and don’t hold up to heat as well – so you’ll want to get plenty of them, at least five leaves per fish.

Serves two

2 whole fish (tilapia, skate, snapper, etc), cleaned, approx. 1.5 lbs each
6 large red chiles, deseeded
4 medium shallots
1″ fresh ginger
2 stalks lemongrass (mostly the white part)
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp water
1 tsp each shrimp paste, salt, ground turmeric
2 tbsp coconut oil
10 banana leaves, about 1 ft wide each

When it comes to peppers, the common red peppers used in Southeast Asia are just called “red peppers”, and they are long and skinny. I used red jalapeños because I can’t find the Asian ones near me. If you want a very spicy sambal, add a few bird’s eye chiles as well.

To create your sambal, blend or process the chiles, shallots, ginger, lemongrass, lime juice, water, shrimp paste, salt, and turmeric until smooth.

In a pan, heat up the coconut oil on med/low heat for a couple minutes, then add the sambal.

Saute until aromatic, about six minutes, stirring often. Set the sambal aside to cool for about 20 minutes.

Once your sambal has cooled, you’re ready to put it on your fish. Make large cross-section scores across the fish, like three big letter Xs, to help the marinade penetrate the fish.

Spoon some of the sambal over the fish, flip it over, and spoon more over it. Be sure to put a nice big spoonful inside the fish’s chest cavity as well. Cover and marinate for at least one hour in the fridge, but up to eight hours.

Heat up your grill, then turn the burners on one side down to low. Place the banana leaves on the cooler side of the grill (five leaves per fish), then place the fish on top. The reason you want to keep some heat under the fish is to help the banana leaves char, which is part of this dish’s signature aroma.

Cover and grill for eight minutes, then carefully flip the fish, and grill for eight more minutes. The meat should be firm, flaky, and should easily come off the bone.

Garnish with fried shallots and chopped cilantro.

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Earlier this month I was contacted by Austin-based Beetnik Foods to try a sampling of their foods. While I’m not one to turn down a free meal, it’s not often that I’m impressed enough to share products on my website (if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m a little obsessive about what makes it on my front page). I was happy to see that their food philosophy lines up with mine – start with great ingredients, then make great food – and the food was delicious and easy to make. So I thought I would take a second and share my experience.

Beetnik creates and packages meals using pastured/grass-fed meats, sustainably caught seafood, veggies, and gluten-free pastas and sides, and delivers them across the US. Everything is prepared in their home kitchen, which is 100% gluten-free, under the supervision of an on-staff Nutritionist. The meals came to me frozen in individual packages, with instructions on how to cook each item on the package. A couple items didn’t have instructions (their sauces), but it was pretty easy to figure out what to do with them (i.e. heat them up!).

The items were made with minimal ingredients, and were very fresh. The pastas are gluten-free but not Paleo friendly in that they contain rice flour, and some items (like their ravioli and alfredo sauce) contain dairy. Some menu items clash a bit with my views on nutrition (egg white omelets? why no yolks?) but overall I can get behind most of their products.

Cooking the meal you see in the first picture took about 30 minutes, not counting the fact that I thawed out the beef tenderloins ahead of time. To prepare the pastas, I boiled them in water for a few minutes, strained and tossed them with olive oil. For the (pre-cooked) chicken and sauces, I dropped them in boiling water until they were heated through. The veggies I steamed in the microwave. I then tossed the pastas, sauces, and meats together in a skillet before plating each one. I was a little creative in that I mixed in spinach with my alfredo sauce, but other than that I kept everything as-is. The tenderloins I threw on the grill for a few minutes and seasoned with salt and pepper.

It was much easier to prepare and faster than a typical meal, but it definitely wasn’t a TV-dinner-style experience. But still, I could see Beetnik products being a healthy, fairly-priced alternative to grabbing take out on those nights when you don’t have the time or energy to make a big meal. Some items were a real treat – the tenderloins were out of this world, and the pasta was nice and firm.

Lastly, they are currently offering a nation-wide online Living Social deal for a week’s worth of gluten-free meals for $75 (usually $169), so if you’re interested in trying them out, now’s a good time. Based on some reviews I found online from earlier this year, Beetnik recently had a Groupon deal that was so popular they had issues fulfilling all orders on time – so I would order sooner than later if you’re worried about getting your product very quickly.

Their website also offers strictly Paleo-friendly sampling menus if you’re inclined. If you do try them out, be sure to come back here and let me know how your experience was.

I don’t know about you guys, but after our longer-than-expected winter I’ve been in on a month-long grilling bender. And though I love to come up with tasty marinades for my grilling adventures (Exhibit A: Izgara Bonfile), sometimes I just want a tasty creation that’s also quick to make. The solution is pretty easy, really: you just throw a salsa on top of an otherwise basic grilled steak!

This salsa is inspired by Insalata Caprese, a fresh salad originating from the island of Capri in the early 20th century. It’s traditionally made with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, oregano, and arugula, but over time most people have substituted the oregano and arugula with fresh basil. We Americans are even weirder in that we also like to add balsamic vinegar as well. For my salsa I decided to keep a little balsamic vinegar and also add a bit of lemon juice to provide some acidity and sourness without an overpowering vinegar taste.

Serves two

2 ribeye steaks
4 cloves garlic, minced
kosher salt and ground pepper to taste (I used 1/2 tsp each)

1/2 lb tomatoes, coarsely chopped (about 20 grape tomatoes)
1/4c fresh basil leaves, chopped into strips (about 12 leaves)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp each olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Rub the steaks with garlic, then sprinkle a generous amount of kosher salt and black pepper on top. Allow them to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

To make the salsa, combine all of the remaining ingredients, cover and put in the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to develop.

Grill your steaks using direct, high heat, until cooked to your liking. I cooked mine three minutes per side and it came out medium rare. Allow the steak to rest for five minutes somewhere that retains heat (I like to use an unused oven or microwave).

Lastly, drain your salsa of most of its liquid and spoon it over your steak. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the salsa liquid, mind you, but a wet steak is not very appealing.

* Note: you could also add 4oz of chopped fresh mozzarella to the salsa right before spooning it onto the steaks, if you’re dairly-inclined.

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I have a feeling that if you asked a child what sweetbreads are, and then asked a chef, you’d get wildly varying answers. The word “sweetbread” first popped up in the 1500s, and it’s hard to tell what part of the animal they were referring to: historians generally agree that it’s likely the thymus gland or pancreas. Today, the word is often used for many small organs, from the sublingual gland to (gasp!) the testicle. Common sense assumes that these glands were eaten regularly throughout history, and was probably highly sought after due to their rarity (in relation to the rest of the food you get from an animal) and delicacy.

When my friends at US Wellness Meats offered to send me some of their lamb sweetbreads to try, I jumped at the opportunity; I hadn’t made them at home before, and I was up for a challenge. It turns out that they are relatively simple to make, they just take a little finesse and patience. To fill out the dish, I wanted to add something hearty and filling (cauliflower purée), something sweet (a pear reduction sauce), and a firm texture to make sure the dish didn’t turn out to “mushy” and to add a sharper taste to everything (spring greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette). It all turned out beautifully.

Serves four

for the sweetbreads:
1 lb lamb sweetbreads
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp each salt, pepper, paprika
4 tbsp duck fat, lard, or ghee

for the apple/pear reduction sauce:
1 cup apple cider
2 golden pears, diced (seeds removed)
1 dash each ground cinnamon and nutmeg

for everything else:
1 batch cauliflower purée
2 large handfuls spring greens
1 tsp balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper

Gently rinse the sweetbreads, then soak in cold water for an hour, changing the water after 30 minutes.

As the sweetbreads soak, let’s get your apple/pear sauce ready. Dice your pears and remove the seeds, then combine the cider, pear, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small pot.

Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low, and simmer for one hour.

After an hour, the pears will be pretty soft and mushy. Using a whisk or an immersion blender, blend the sauce until it’s smooth. Near the end of this recipe you’ll want to increase the heat to medium to reduce and thicken the sauce, but I’ll remind you about it when the time is right.

Meanwhile, your sweetbreads are ready for some action. Fill a pot with water (about 2 quarts), add the vinegar, and bring to a boil. Add the sweetbreads, then immediately reduce the heat to low – let the sweetbreads sit in the hot water for six minutes (it probably won’t start simmering in that amount of time), then drain.

Immediately drop the sweetbreads in ice water and let them cool for five minutes.

Once the sweetbreads are cool, you’ll want to trim them of any fat, peel off any membrane you find, and slice into smaller pieces. In general, I recommend slicing them into pieces that are no larger than two bites – anything bigger than that is somewhat unappealing.

Lastly, mix your coconut flour with the salt, pepper, and paprika, then dust the sweetbreads with the flour. Sauté in your fat of choice (I used duck fat) until golden brown and crispy, about three minutes per side. Be sure to sauté them in batches, and put the cooked sweetbreads on some paper towels to drain, and keep them somewhere warm (an unused oven will do the trick).

While sautéing the sweetbreads, it’s also a good time to start reducing your apple/pear sauce – to do so, simply increase the heat to medium and keep an eye on it – you want it to reduce by about half, and get to the consistency of applesauce. Should only take a few minutes. Once it’s there, turn the heat back down to low.

Once the sweetbreads are ready, toss your spring greens with the vinaigrette and crushed black pepper and set aside.

To serve, spoon some warm cauliflower purée onto a plate, add some greens, then the sweetbreads, and finally spoon some apple/pear sauce on top. Serve immediately.

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With spring upon us, I’ve been looking to expand my grilling options. The idea of cooking and eating a cactus might sound intimidating, but the reality is much simpler than you’d think. All you have to do is scrape off their thorns, and grill them – it’s that easy.

Nopales are the paddles of oputina (prickly pear) cactus, commonly found in Mexico. They are a common vegetable in Mexico, and taste a little like green beans, but slightly more acidic. They are a great addition to grilled meat dishes, or tasty just on their own. They are also often sliced/diced and served with eggs or in salads.

Serves four

6-8 nopales
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper

Using a sharp knife, hold the nopales by its stem and scrape off its thorns. Then hold it on the other side and scrape down its stem until you get to the soft part. Rinse and pat dry.

Brush the oil onto the nopales, and sprinkle on the salt and pepper. Grill on direct, medium heat, and flip once it is slightly charred, about two minutes. Grill for another two minutes – you’ll know they’re ready when they are soft and dark green. Slice and serve.

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Hey folks, I’m starting to get quite a collection of cookbooks (although it pales in comparison to this stash!), so I’m going to review some Paleo-minded cookbooks as I receive them, and give a copy away as well. If you have a book coming out soon, I’d be happy to have a look and run it through its paces.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Molly D. from Houston, TX, who won the giveaway. Thanks to everyone for participating!

I’m really excited about Gather: The Art of Paleo Entertaining, which releases next week. Personally, I think it is a huge step forward in the Paleo cooking world. Not only have Bill Staley and Hayley Mason created some really tasty recipes, they’ve upped the bar in terms of presentation and thoughtfulness. This is the first Paleo cookbook I’ve seen that I think can stand toe-to-toe with the best non-Paleo cookbooks coming out this year.

My son Oliver searching frantically for a picture of his face in the book – it’s on page 11!

The book is divided into several sections based on seasons and events, covering everything from a backyard picnic to Thanksgiving feast. We were on hand for their Halloween-themed dinner and photoshoot (“Spooky Supper”), and Bill and Hayley were total pros both in the kitchen and in arranging and shooting the delicious meal. Each meal set has a “shopping and preparation” section that allows the host to better prepare for the big event; one of my favorite things about this book is that it makes it easy for people to show off the Paleo diet to loved ones, and with style.

The photography is downright beautiful – bright, vibrant, and perfectly attuned to each setting.

We’ve tried a couple of the recipes now, and I’ve been very impressed by how much their cooking has matured since Make it Paleo, their last book. The recipes are balanced, comprehensive, and simple – but there are still some dishes in there that are perfect for Paleo readers that are up for the occasional challenge.

One dish in particular that we liked (and has been getting a lot of buzz) is their General Tso’s Chicken, which is part of the “Takeout Fake-out” meal. They nailed an authentic-tasting sauce using everyday ingredients – a feat in and of itself. We forgot to buy spring onions for the recipe, so they’re “invisible” in the picture above.

So, to celebrate the release of this book, I’m giving away a copy of it!

Here’s how to enter the giveaway:

Sign up for my newsletter (on the right sidebar of this page), follow my RSS feed, or follow the social media site of your choice (facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram, google+). You can follow as many (or as little) as you’d like – you decide how you want to receive your Domestic Man updates! Be sure to leave a comment on this post letting me know what you did, so I can record your entry.

The giveaway ends midnight Saturday, April 27th (EST), and I will select a winner using a random number generator on Sunday, and mail the book out on Monday. Good luck!

Giveaway restricted to US and Canadian residents.

While spending a few days in Austin last month, I basically dove head-first into Texas barbecue: the pickles, the vinegar-based cole slaw, and man, the brisket! I loved how a dry, blackened crust over their barbecued meats isn’t a bad thing, and how sauce is added according to individual taste, after plating. Even better, the barbecued meats are sold by the quarter pound, so each person gets to choose how much they want to eat. If that’s not the most American way of eating ever, I don’t know what is! These are all concepts that are relatively uncommon in our neck of the woods here in Maryland, so I decided to try my hand at some Texas-style barbecued beef the other day.

When choosing a meat to try, I decided to go the easy route with some boneless short ribs: they are a great size, and fatty enough that I was sure I didn’t need to worry about them drying out while cooking. Turns out I made a great choice – the short ribs were perfectly moist and tasty, and a great change of pace from our typical method of cooking short ribs (braising).

Author’s note: boneless short ribs, like the one in this recipe which came from US Wellness Meats, often come in 1lb. packages; each package will serve two people, and the rub ingredient amounts below are enough for two pounds of meat.

for the rub:
1/2 tbsp each kosher salt and paprika
1 tsp each black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
1/2 tsp each celery seed, dried oregano, chipotle powder

for the rest:
1 lb boneless beef short ribs
1 handful hickory wood chips
barbecue sauce

The rub in this recipe has become my go-to barbecue beef rub. It’s slightly zesty and has a twinge of spice, perfectly complementing the mellow, meaty flavor that comes with barbecuing beef.

Liberally sprinkle the rub all over the ribs, then let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

At the same time, soak your hickory wood chips in water for 30 minutes as well.

We’re going to cook the ribs using a low-and-slow, indirect heating method at 225 degrees. If you are using a gas grill, turn on a burner at one end of your grill and adjust the heat as needed until you are at 225 degrees. If you’re using charcoal, I’m going to go ahead and assume you know how to put the charcoal on one side of the grill!

Put your wood chips in a smoker box (or make a “box” out of heavy duty tin foil) and place it on the hot side of the grill. Place the ribs on the cool side of the grill. To get ribs like in the picture at the top of this recipe, you’ll want to smoke it until it reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees. Should take about four hours. Alternatively, you can pull the ribs off the grill when they reach 150 degrees (should take about two hours), and serve them like a steak.

Once you have the ribs cooked to your liking, wrap them in tin foil and put them somewhere that retains heat well – an empty oven, microwave, or cooler will do fine – for 20 minutes while it rests.

Next, simply slice the ribs and serve with barbecue sauce. Couldn’t be easier!

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Oh man, can you believe it’s been a whole year since my last gardening post? Last year’s garden was basically left to its own devices due to our busy summer schedule, and what’s worse, our even busier fall schedule prevented us from properly preparing our garden for winter! So this past weekend I did my best to get everything back in order.

Last year, in the backyard I basically planted a ton of potatoes (red and russet), which I pulled out on an as-needed basis for the rest of the year. It was a lot of fun, and super easy. This year, I have a 4×4 raised bed that I plan on using for potatoes, in a “square foot gardening” method – I’m going to remove most of the soil from the box and plant the potatoes, then add dirt as the plants grow up. This will let me get a ton of potatoes in a smaller area. Here is a neat video about square food potatoes. I haven’t done it yet, therefore I don’t have any pictures to share!

So what am I doing in the three 4×4 beds that I used for potatoes last year? We basically just went down to our local garden store and bought plants for some of our favorite veggies, basing our purchase on how likely we are to want to eat them (and therefore be motivated enough to water and care for them!). So in the first box we have pickling cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and swiss chard; the middle box has swiss chard, broccoli, and yellow squash; and the last box is full of cauliflower. We also planted some marigolds because they were on sale and I’ve heard that they can deter pests (although a quick internet search leads me to think that this might be a myth!). I have no idea if any of these plants are complementary, but we liked the idea of spending $10 for random plants and seeing what comes out of it.

In the front, our hyacinths are doing well (and the mini daffodils came and went).

In the front, all sorts of chaos broke loose. The herbs mostly went untrimmed all year, except for when I would run outside in my pajama pants to chop off random sprigs while cooking. We have, from left to right – sage, rosemary, marigolds (because I had extras, so why not?), oregano, and thyme.

On a related note, we bought a fire pit and have been having fun with it. I also plan on using it for some cooking in the near future. Right now it’s mostly been used to roast hot dogs and s’mores!

We use graham crackers from Kinnikinnick, dark chocolate, and Elyon marshmellows. Definitely not Paleo, but great for those rare family-time treats, and with clean enough ingredients that I can still sleep at night!

Don’t forget that I am a finalist in the Saveur 2013 Food Blog Awards! Please take a moment to vote if you haven’t already. Thank you! Voting closes tomorrow at midnight!

Kalops is a traditional Swedish stew, first recorded in the 18th century. The word kalops itself is a cognate with the English word collops, which simply means “a slice of meat” – there’s actually some dispute as to whether the Swedish or English word came first. Either way, this stew is very similar to many English stews, but with a few Scandinavian twists: its signature flavor comes from a healthy amount of allspice, and it is commonly served with pickled beets. When carrots are added, the dish is called Skånsk Kalops, referring to the Skåne region (which is in Southern Sweden – perhaps carrots grow most abundantly there?).

Kalops is most often prepared with chunks of beef, but reindeer or elk are used as well. Personally, I thought it would be neat to make it with bison chuck roast, which US Wellness Meats recently sent me to try. It was pretty awesome. Overall, I loved this stew, and its characteristic allspice-heavy flavor gave it a warm, hearty, and very distinct taste.

Serves six

2 lbs chuck roast (beef, bison, reindeer), sliced into 1″ chunks
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
2 tbsp ghee or coconut oil
2 yellow onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 tsp ground allspice (~10 whole berries, ground)
3 bay leaves
4 cups beef broth

4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1″ pieces
4 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2″ chunks
1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
pickled beets as accompaniment

I don’t have a pickled beets recipe posted (yet!), but it doesn’t take much: some beets, salt, and water left in a jar for a few days will work perfectly. Here is a quick and easy recipe, or you could make them according to my Kabees El Lift recipe. You can often find jars of fermented beets in health food stores that are either sugar-free or low in sugar.

To prepare your meat, slice it into 1″ chunks, and season it with the little salt and pepper.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Warm a dutch oven on medium/high heat with ghee/oil added, about three minutes. Add the roast and brown, in batches (it took me three batches total), being careful not to overcrowd the dutch oven. Should take about six minutes per batch. Remove and set the browned meat aside.

Add the diced onion, and lower the heat to medium – sauté until softened and translucent, about five minutes.

This is what the onions will look like when ready. At this point, add the garlic and sauté for another minute, then return the meat (and its juices) to the dutch oven. Add the allspice, bay leaves, and stir in enough beef broth to mostly cover the meat, about four cups.

Cover the dutch oven and put it in the oven for 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is soft. After an hour, add the carrots.

While the meat is cooking, peel and slice the potatoes, then put them in a pot with cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer until easily pierced with a fork, about eight minutes. Technically you could do this at any point in the process, but I preferred to do it right before the meat was ready, so they were still warm when I plated everything.

This is what your stew will look like after 1 1/2 hours. Now let’s finish it off.

Remove the meat and carrots and put them somewhere that retains heat (I like to stick them in the microwave). Also remove and discard the bay leaves.

Put the dutch oven on the stove and reduce the liquid on med/high heat, until about half of it has reduced – should take about five minutes. Next, chop up a couple of your cooked potato pieces (I used about half a potato) and add it to the liquid. Lastly, using an immersion blender, blend the liquid/onions/potatoes. Wah-lah! Instant thick stew, without having to use anything silly like flour (which is usually used).

Return the meat and carrots to the stew, and stir in the fresh chopped parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with potatoes and pickled beets.

Special shout-out to my buddy Peter at strictlypaleoish.com for providing me with some tips, and digging up some history on the dish!

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Folks, I basically flipped out when I found out that this tiny blog was chosen as a finalist for the Saveur 2013 Best Food Blog Awards, under the Special Diet category! SAVEUR is an incredible magazine and online resource, and one of my favorite places on the internet – so you can imagine my surprise when they gave a nod to little ol’ me! I’m speechless.

Okay, I’m not totally speechless, because I have a little more talking to do. I need your help. Although the Saveur editors whittled thousands of nominations down to us finalists, the winner is chosen by tallying votes, and it’s still anybody’s game: so please vote for me so I can win the whole thing!! I’m not joking when I refer to this blog as “tiny”, because I am tiny in comparison to some of my competitors, and every vote counts.

So please, rally the troops, grab your friends, and guilt-trip your families into voting for The Domestic Man on Saveur’s page. Please note that you have to register with Saveur.com first before voting. I realize that it’s an inconvenient extra step, but I really, really appreciate it. Voting ends at midnight, Friday, April 19th, so please hurry!

To vote, click here and then hover over one of the blog name and select “Register”, and fill out the form. Then return to the voting page and cast your vote.

Finally, I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone that reads this little nook of the web, and I hope you’ve enjoyed my recipes so far. I have a lot more to share, so stick around!