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Havana Roast Pork paleo dinner lunch recipe-min

Recipe: Havana Roast Pork

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One of the tastiest roast pork dishes I know, this recipe makes a wonderful centre piece when entertaining guests. It does require a little more attention than a normal pork joint, but I can guarantee it is more than worth the effort.

As always, especially with Pork, make sure you use the best quality you can find. Ideally you want to use pasture fed Pork, your butcher should be able to help you. If not, perhaps it's time to find a new butcher…

Ingredients (Serves 8):

  • 1.5 – 2kg of high quality pork shoulder
  • 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  • ½ tbsp black peppercorns
  • 6 cloves, whole
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 1 tbsp dried thyme
  • 6 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tbsp raw honey
  • Juice of 1 orange
  • Juice of 2 limes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil

Roast Pork How To:

1)     Heat a pan to a medium heat. Add the cumin and peppercorns and toast for 2 minutes, taking great care not to burn. In a mortar and pestle, crush the spices with the cloves, oregano, thyme and a little sea salt, then add the crushed garlic to form a paste.

2)     Transfer the spice mixture to a small bowl, and stir in the citrus juices, honey and the olive oil. With a sharp knife, pierce the pork all over then place into a large resealable plastic bag. Pour over the marinade and shake well, ensuring all the meat is well coated, then leave in the refrigerator overnight.

3)     When ready to cook, heat the oven to 200C / 400F / gas mark 6. Put the pork in a roasting dish, keeping the marinade to one side, then cook for half an hour.

4)     Lower the oven temperature to 160C / 325F / gas mark 3. Baste the pork, then cover with foil, and roast for another 2  – 2 and a half hours until cooked through. Be sure to keep basting the meat in the juices from the dish whenever you can to maximise the flavour.

5)     Transfer the meat to a carving board and cover with foil, leaving to stand for 10 minutes. Pour any leftover juices into a saucepan, and skim the fat off the top. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Carve the pork, and serve with the reduced juices. Works great with sweet potatoes or cauliflower rice!

Do you often make a roast? I'd love to hear how you make yours in the comments below!

Havana Roast Pork paleo dinner lunch recipe-min

Paleo recipe how to make perfect roast chicken bake-min

Recipe: How To Make A Perfect Roast Chicken

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Roast Chicken, done right is delicious and tender, but with a crispy skin. Far too often though, the meat is dry, tough and stringy, and the skin soft.

With rotisserie chickens available just about everywhere, the art of roasting a chicken seems to be disappearing – which is a shame because it is so easy!

The most important thing with roasting a chicken – is the chicken! Getting a really good quality organic, free-range chicken will put you on the path to success. A good quality chicken is also the best bet if you want to make use of the carcass for making a chicken stock.

My method couldn’t be a any simpler, so next time you go to get a rotisserie chicken, why not try this instead?

Roast Chicken Ingredients

  • Chicken (ideally organic, free-range and pasture raised)
  • A lemon
  • Fresh thyme
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 50ml (2 fl oz) olive oil
  • Sea salt & fresh ground black pepper

How To Make Roast Chicken

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F)

Rinse the chicken and remove the giblets. Dry the chicken using kitchen paper.

Cut the lemon in half and sandwich a sprig of the thyme in the middle. Put the lemon inside the chicken cavity.

Skin and crush the garlic cloves and add to a food processor with the leaves of the remaining thyme and the olive oil and blend together.

Massage the olive oil mixture into the chicken thoroughly, ensuring it is completely covered.

Put the bird into a roasting tray, and top with any remaining oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover the chicken loosely with foil and roast for 30 minutes.

Reduce the temperature to 170C (330F) and remove the foil and roast for a further 20 minutes, or until the juices run clear when the bird is pierced with a skewer.

Turn off the oven, but allow the chicken to rest in the hot oven for ten minutes, before removing from the oven to carve.

Pour the juices from the roasting tray over the sliced chicken to serve, or set aside to make a gravy. The carcass can be used to make a chicken stock.

Enjoy – and please share your roasting tips and tricks in the comments below!

Paleo recipe how to make perfect roast chicken bake-min

Finding a Paleo Lunch in the City food court ideas diet healthy

Finding a Paleo Lunch in the City

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I always have good intentions of bringing a Paleo Lunch in to work with me.  When I do, lunch is great.  I take in leftovers from the previous evening, and reheat them at work.  Or I take in slices of meat that I roasted at home and eat it with vegetables.  But, there are often times when I don’t get round to making my lunch – or even more annoying, leave my lunch at home!  I often catch up with friends over lunch – another occasion when I venture away from home cooking and towards the food courts.

I work in Sydney CBD, so there are literally hundreds of food outlets within minutes of my office.  The choices however, often leave a lot to be desired, sadly they're are many that are not what I would class a Paleo Lunch!  There are the usual fast food joints like McDonalds , Hungry Jacks (Burger King to the rest of the world), Oportos (Australia fast food chain specialising in chicken burgers) & KFC.  Then there are Mexican chains like Mad Mex and Guzman y Gomez.  There are pancake outlets, salad outlets, fruit juice outlets, Thai, Chinese, Japanese… the list goes on.  There is a wholefoods chain, Iku, in Sydney, which should be amazing, but sadly they seem to have a vegan agenda – most of their foods contain grains and legumes – and soy seems to be commonly used.

Finding a Paleo Lunch in the City food court ideas diet healthy

Most of these options are strictly off limits for me, as they just aren't Paleo!  Whilst the Mexican chains seem to use wonderful fresh ingredients, most options also include tortilla, beans, cheese and rice (grains, legumes and dairy!).  Most lunch options in the city seem to serve grains, legumes and dairy.  I'm also very mindful of the fact that these outlets don’t care about our health – they just want maximum profits, so are likely to use ingredients that I won’t – to improve the taste of their products to keep us going back.  I can’t imagine a single outlet uses coconut oil or grass fed, organic meat!  Whilst salads are a safe option, I find they tend to bulk them out with lettuce and meat is often in very small quantities; not good value for money and certainly not satiating.

The best option I've found so far, is from one of the many outlets offering roast dinner.  I often have roast beef (or pork or chicken) with a serving of seasonal roasted vegetables.

Finding a paleo lunch in the city-min

I've also found a few good places that will let me get creative and go “off menu”.  For example, last week I met a friend for lunch and found an organic burger joint, who were able to arrange a burger with no bun, sauces or fries.  Instead they served the burger with bacon and an egg – result!

Recently I've been trying to have brunch instead of lunch.  This means I can get bacon, eggs and avocado; a much better option!

Finding a paleo lunch in the city brunch-min

Until there’s a Paleo food outlet in every major city, I’d love to hear what your Paleo choices are for a city lunch?