Paleo & Primal Swedish Meatballs in Mushroom Gravy

Update 1/3/2018: I refreshed this recipe with new photography, and have also updated the recipe a tiny bit to give you the option of making dairy-free gravy or gravy made with milk/cream. It is fabulous with cream, though the original recipe called for almond milk.

After a couple of thunder and hail storms, it has finally cooled off here. We escaped to Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday, and I found myself wishing for a sweater and a mug of hot coffee. We were lucky enough to get up close and personal with an Elk! But, these cooler temperatures mean that I am finally in the mood to talk about warm food again. So here we go: Paleo Swedish Meatballs.

When you Google the origins of Swedish Meatballs, you don't find much in the way of answers. What you do find is a lot of people talking about IKEA, and how they've discovered the furniture store's famous recipe. In truth, I've never stepped foot into an IKEA, and so when I hear this I furrow my brow and wonder how a furniture store ended up so famous for beef and gravy. Anyone with me? (Update, 6/28/2017: I have now visited IKEA once. I love it and hate it at the same time. I hate it because I hate shopping. I love it because there are so many solutions in once place!)

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Since I haven't tried IKEA's meatballs, I can't weigh in on their flavor. My own memories of Swedish Meatballs don't make much more sense, anyways: they include a lot of Costco and have nothing to do with Sweden. This is why I found myself searching for answers. Why are they Swedish? While I consider myself a perfectly competent Google-maneuverer, I can't say I came back with many answers. It does seem that in some parts of Sweden, some meatballs are served in gravy. Unlike French Fries, maybe Swedish Meatballs do have an origin-appropriate name. I never really got to the bottom of the issue, because at that point I just gave in and decided it was time to eat. Maybe that's what French Fries and Swedish Meatballs have in common: they're just too dang delicious for anyone to really care what they're named. 

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Serve them over a pile of spaghetti squash or on toothpicks as an appetizer. Swedish or not, there's something about gravy that just hits the spot.  

Paleo Swedish Meatballs in Mushroom Gravy

Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free   |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Better than IKEA.

Yields: 25 meatballs   |    Total Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients:

For the meatballs:
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/4 white onion, chopped fine
• 2 tablespoon parsley, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil

For the gravy:
• 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup bone broth
• 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder (corn starch will also work)
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 cup almond milk, coconut milk, OR whole milk (Pro tip: for extra creamy gravy, try 1/2 cup half-and-half, 1/2 cup whole milk)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parsley for garnish

Directions:

1. Place the ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl, aside from the coconut oil. Thoroughly mix the meat until all of the ingredients are combined.
2. Heat the coconut oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Form 1-inch balls with the meat mixture, and when the oil is hot, placing the meatballs in the skillet. (I did this in two batches). Cook the meatballs until they are a deep brown on the bottom, and turn them, cooking the opposite side until brown. Remove cooked meatballs from skillet and set aside.
3. For gravy: Using the same skillet that had the meatballs (the meatball drippings should still be in the skillet), sauteé the mushrooms, stirring occassionally.
4. Once the mushroom have a nice sear, turn the heat to medium and pour the broth into the pan. Scrape the pan to get the flavor of the meatballs incorporated into the gravy. The broth should begin to simmer.
5. In a small bowl, whisk the arrowroot powder into 1 tablespoon cold water. Add the mixture to the skillet. Pour in milk or choice, and add the salt and pepper. Allow the gravy to simmer for at least 5 more minutes, until it begins to thicken. Add the meatballs back in. Cook for 1-2 more minutes, coaking each meatball in gravy.
6. Sprinkle with parsley and serve hot. Great on their own as an appetizer but a good main dish when served also good over spaghetti squash.

Salmon, Shiitakes & Chard in Parchment with Sriracha Aioli (Paleo)

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When life hands you a bag full of organic locally-grown shiitake mushrooms, you don't just throw them into any old dish. Oh no. 

First, you brainstorm all of the ways you could use the mushrooms. Surely you've filed  away something with potential in that brain of yours. 

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When the brainstorming slows down, you whip out your tablet or computer (whichever is closer) and you search all of your previous pins for the words "shiitake," and "mushroom". You open every potential recipe in a separate tab to read later. Then you expand your search: you browse everyone else's pins for the words "shiitake," and "mushroom". You open more tabs. 

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Once you've exhausted Pinterest, you make your way around the web. Foodgawker. Tastespotting. Stalkerville. Google image searches. The word Shiitake can now be found in the last 500 pages of your browser history. That's when you start pinning like a lunatic. All of your followers probably know now that your fridge is full of shiitake mushrooms. 

It's okay. They understand, because that's how everyone does it, right? ;) 

At some point, something just feels good. All of that pinning and you've got one shot. Finally you get to cook. 

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This recipe is part of the Real Food Fat Tuesday round up. Find more real food recipes on the Real Food Forager's round up post! 

Salmon, Shiitakes & Chard in Parchment with Sriracha Aioli

Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free    |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Serves: 4   |    Total Time: 60 minutes

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Ingredients:

For the Salmon, Shiitakes & Chard:
• 1 pound organic shiitake mushrooms
• 1/4 white onion
• 2 tablespoon avocado oil
• 2 tablespoon organic wheat-free tamari, traditional fermented soy sauce, or coconut aminos
• 1 bunch swiss chard (or about 5 large leaves)
• 2 pound wild caught Alaskan salmon filet
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 3 small thai or vietnamese chili peppers, minced (NOTE: use less or completely eliminate this ingredient if you are spice-sensative, use more if you are a spice lover)
• Salt
• Cilantro, minced, for garnish
• Parchment paper
For the Sriracha Aioli:
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons Sriracha hot sauce (You caught me: Sriracha is not paleo).
• Pinch salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Wash and slice the mushrooms and onion. Cut the stems off of the chard leaves, setting the leaves aside for later use. Chop the stems into 1/2-inch pieces. Toss the mushrooms, onion, and chard stems in a bowl with the avocado oil and tamari, mixing until all of the vegetables are coated. Chop the chard leaves into thin ribbons, and set them aside as well.
2. Then cut your salmon filet into 8 equally sized portions. Then, prepare the parchment: cut out 8 circles with a 1-foot diameter each. Rub each piece of paper with avocado oil. A thin layer is fine, but be thorough--spread the oil all the way to the edges.
3. Working with one parchment circle at a time, place a handful of the chopped chard leaves on the paper. (TIP: You want to place the food just off from the center--not in the center. Think of the paper as the crust of a calazone. One half of it will fold over top of the food.). Add a handful of the mushroom mixture over the chard, and place one salmon filet over that, and sprinkle with salt. Top with a pinch of garlic, ginger, and a few pieces of chili pepper. Fold the parchment over the salmon. The two opposite edges of your parchment paper should now touch. Working from one side, fold the edge of the parchment paper over, creating a seem that closes the salmon into a parchment pocket. Work around the circle, folding a small amount of the edge over, until you have reached the other side of the pocket. Place on a baking pan. Repeat with the 7 other parchment circles and salmon filets.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes (15 for very thin filets of fish, 20 for thicker filets). While the fish bakes, prepare the aioli. Put all of the ingredients in a blender and turn it on. The mixture should become thick, opaque, and a light pinkish color. Add more hot sauce if you like things spicier (we do).
5. When the salmon is done baking, place each parchment packet on a plate to serve. Cut open the center of the paper pocket, revealing the salmon. Top each filet with a dollop of mayo, and sprinkle with cilantro.

Hearty, Chunky Cioppino

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One thing is true about living landlocked: good seafood is hard to come by. Sure, there are special restaurants. Sushi joints, oyster bars, and rainbow trout on most "locavore" menus, but that's about where it ends. Scallops are a freezer-isle item. If they aren't in the freezer-isle, it doesn't mean they aren't frozen, it just means they're at the butcher's counter with the other imported seafood. 

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I've heard the raving: clam chowder is great, right? I wouldn't know. It's not really something people do when the ocean is hundreds of miles away. Lobster bisque, cioppino, jambalaya? We miss out on those too. 

This means I'm sort of a seafood noob. Yup. We buy scallops on occasion and usually we're at such a loss that all we do is fry them in the skillet and add a bit of lemon and a dash of cayenne. Not this time: for once it was going to be better. It was going to be Cioppino.

As a seafood noob I'm not really qualified to review this cioppino. As an eater, I can tell you that I was not disappointed. 

What's your best seafood recipe? Do you have a fall-back seafood indulgence? 

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Hearty Chunky Cioppino

Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free   |   Caitlin Sherwood    

Serves: 4-6   |    Total Time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 medium white onion
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 large carrot
• 1 parsnip
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon red chile flakes
• 1 tablespoon sage, minced
• 1/4 cup parsley, minced
• 1/4 cup dry wine
• 2 sixteen-ounce cans diced tomatoes in juice
• 3 cups fish stock
• 1/4 pound firm white fish (I use mahi-mahi)
• 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/2 pound PEI mussels, scrubbed and debearded if not already
• 1/4 pound scallops

Directions:

1. Heat the coconut oil in the bottom of a large soup pot. Chop the onion and celery into small pieces, and brown in the pot.
2. Meanwhile, dice the carrot and parsnip into small pieces, and mince the garlic. Once onions have are translucent, add all three to the pot, stirring. Add the wine, red chile, and sage.
3. Pour in the tomatoes and broth. Add half of the parsley. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes, until soup base is fragrant and simmering. Meanwhile, prepare your seafood.
4. Chop the fish into 1-inch cubes, debeard the mussels, rinse the scallops, etc. Once the soup base is simmering, drop the shrimp, fish, and scallops into the pot, stirring once, and then covering the pot and cooking for 3-5 minutes.
5. Give the soup one final stir (over stirring with break up your fish too much), and sprinkle mussels over top. Cover the pot once more, cooking about 5 minutes, or until all of the mussels have opened.Garnish with the remaining parsley and serve hot!

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