Poke a spoon through the delicate, quivering surface of these savory Japanese steamed egg custards, and you’ll find a treasure trove of ingredients inside: diced seafood, poultry, and veggies. With just a few adjustments, I’ve come up with a flavor-packed Paleo version of chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し) that you can steam on the stove, bake in a water bath, or pop into a sous vide cooker.

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I was recently asked to participate in JC100, a national campaign involving restaurants, chefs, bookstores, and bloggers, all celebrating Julia Child and her legacy. Each week from May 7th through August 15th (Julia’s 100th birthday), we’ll receive a recipe of Julia’s to cook (or adapt) and share. I couldn’t wait to participate. After all, Julia has been one of my culinary idols ever since I spied her on my parents’ grainy television screen three decades ago. 

She fascinated me: A towering, warbly-voiced, grandmotherly figure who could quickly and casually whip up dishes that I’d never seen before in my mother’s Chinese kitchen. Julia was so relaxed in the kitchen — dropping food and picking it up, tasting dishes-in-progress with her fingers, adding butter when in doubt. She was so real (something I can’t say about most television chefs these days), and made even the most difficult recipes look effortless and goofily fun.

Julia inspires me to lighten up (not literally — fat rules!), chill out, and have a blast in the kitchen — regardless of the results. It’s just food, and if you make it with love, it’ll turn out wonderfully.

The inaugural JC100 recipe is Omelette Roulée or rolled omelet from Julia’s classic “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Because I’ve been crushing on Thai omelets (Kai Jeow) as of late, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to combine Julia’s omelet technique and my own Asian pantry ingredients — and ghee instead of butter to make it perfectly Whole30®-friendly. Win-win!

Here’s what to gather to feed one person:

• 2 large pastured eggs
• ½ teaspoon Red Boat Fish Sauce
• 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon chopped scallions
• ⅛ of a lime
• 1 tablespoon ghee

Here’s what to do:

Grab a couple of pastured eggs… 

…and crack ‘em in a bowl.

Then, measure out the fish sauce…

…and add it to your eggs.

Chop the cilantro…

…scallions…

…and lime wedge. Look! There’s your mise en place!

Puncture the yolks with a pair of chopsticks (or a plain old fork if you’re not down with the Asian theme)…

…before whisking the eggs and fish sauce thoroughly.

Add the herbs…

…squeeze the juice from the lime wedge…

….and mix until blended.

Heat the ghee in a seasoned 8-inch cast iron skillet over high heat.

Swirl it around to cover the sides of the pan, and add the eggs.

Let the eggs sit undisturbed for a few seconds…

…and then start jerking the pan back towards you at a 20 degree angle so the omelet begins to roll over itself at the bottom of the pan.

Once it’s mostly cooked through, grab a plate…

…and tip the omelet out of the pan.

Garnish with additional cilantro and scallions, and dig in!

Thank you, Julia!

Scrambled eggs are so fast and easy to fry up, it never occurred to me to cook them in my SousVide Supreme. Who wants to wait twenty minutes for eggs to cook – not to mention the additional time it takes for the water oven to preheat? Not this lazy ass!

I finally made a batch today to test out our new reusable silicone cooking bag and I have to tell you, scrambled eggs cooked sous vide are fantastic! The eggs are a revelation – so tender, creamy, and custardy. Patience does pay off!

Here’s what I gathered to feed 2 people:

• 4 large eggs
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• Aleppo pepper (optional)

Here’s how I made enough eggs for 2 people:

I filled the water oven with hot water and preheated it to 165 F. In a medium-sized bowl, I beat the eggs with a large pinch of salt and four grinds of black pepper.

I poured the beaten eggs and butter into the silicone bag.

Using the water displacement method, I removed the air from the bag and sealed it tight.

Once the water oven reached 165 F, I dropped in the sealed bag…

…and set the timer for 10 minutes. After the buzzer went off, I removed the bag from the water and squished it around so the eggs wouldn’t form a brick.

I put the bag back in the water and let it cook for 12 more minutes. (In many recipes using plastic bags, the cooking time is only 10 minutes + 6 minutes but since the silicone is thicker, I soaked the eggs for five more minutes).

I removed the eggs from the SousVide Supreme…

…spooned it on a plate, and sprinkled on Aleppo pepper flakes.

My mind is bursting with ideas on how to incorporate these silky eggs into different recipes!

The default emergency protein in my fridge? Hard-boiled eggs. They’re tasty, portable, and packed with great nutrition — what’s not to love?

Here’s how to make perfectly-cooked hard-boiled eggs that are never overcooked (I hate the gray-green sulfur ring around overdone yolks) and are easily peeled:

Grab a bunch of large, pastured eggs, and use a pin or thumbtack to poke a hole in the fat “bottom” end of each of the eggs.

(By the way, you may have heard that super-fresh eggs aren’t the best for hard-boiling ‘cause they’re more difficult to peel; from my experience, that’s true. Try to use eggs that are at least a week old. But if you’re “stuck” with really fresh eggs — poor you! — the techniques I use will still help maximize the peel-ability of your oeufs.)

Make sure the needle goes just far enough to piece the shell. (Quick tip: It’s easiest to keep the eggs upright by leaving them in the carton while you poke ‘em.)

Gently place the eggs in a deep, medium saucepan and fill it with cold water. Make sure the eggs are in a single layer, and at least 1 inch below the surface of the water.

For every 3 cups of water or so, add ½ teaspoon of baking soda. (The sodium bicarbonate’ll help the eggs separate from their shells, making them easier to peel.)

Place the uncovered pot on the stove and crank the heat to high. Once the water comes to a roiling boil, set a kitchen timer for 1 minute.

When the minute’s up, take the pot off the heat, cover it with a lid, and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 10 minutes. Set a timer — we want to be precise about this!

While you’re waiting, fill a large bowl with ice and water.

Then, once the timer goes off, remove the eggs from the pot and transfer them to the bowl of ice water.Completely submerge the eggs in the ice water for 5 minutes.

Then, fish the eggs out of the icy water, gently rap them against a hard surface to crack the shells, and peel each egg starting from the bottom end (where you poked the pinhole). Don’t wait until the eggs are completely cool — they should still be warm to the touch.

The shells should come right off, with no fuss or muss.

The result: Perfectly cooked eggs, with no ugly gray-green rings around the yolks, no foul odor, and no telltale divots in the whites. 

If you aren’t eating these eggs right away, store them in the fridge in a sealed container for about a week.

What are you waiting for? Boil some eggs!

After gobbling up Fitbomb’s quick and easy savory coconut pancakes yesterday, I was inspired to come up with a version filled with veggies and meat. After eating one of my portable egg-y pucks, hubby exclaimed that they tasted like Egg Foo Young.

Melissa Joulwan’s awesome site has a great recipe for Paleo Egg Foo Young but, to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what this is supposed to taste like. No self-respecting Chinese person EVER orders this dish at an authentic Chinese restaurant. (In hubby’s defense, his parents opened an Americanized Chinese joint in the late 1960s and served Egg Foo Young to the masses). But maybe I shouldn’t have been such a food snob because these pancakes were delicious.

Check out the recipe after the jump!

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Hubby was experimenting in the kitchen and he came up with a recipe for super simple savory coconut flour and egg pancakes. I have to admit that I was pretty dubious when he started throwing everything together, but the pancakes ended up tender and tasty!

Here’s what he gathered to make two 8-inch pancakes:

• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of coconut flour (amount varies by brand & how dense you want the pancake)
• Kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon of butter

Here’s how he made them:

He grabbed three pastured eggs out of the fridge…

…measured out the flour…

…and beat them together with a pinch of salt.

Then, he melted ½ tablespoon of butter over medium heat and poured in half the batter.

After about 2 minutes, he flipped it over…

…and cooked it for another minute or so to finish it off.

He repeated the same steps with the rest of the batter to make another flapjack.

The pancakes tasted pretty good plain, with a springy texture and just a hint of coconut…

…but he opted to top it with leftover slow cooker pork pot roast and sliced avocado.

Super-simple and tasty. Next time, I might add a little baking powder to lighten them up a bit more, but they were yummy without it.

It’s no secret that I love frittatas. They’re even better in mini form ‘cause you can serve them as finger food at a party or store them in the fridge for a quick snack or breakfast on the go. I threw this recipe together this morning for the inaugural CrossFit Palo Alto Whole9 Nutrition Guide Orientation. Luckily, they turned out okay or I would’ve had egg on my face. (Ha!)

Mini frittata muffins can be made with whatever you have lying around, just like regular sized frittatas. Just fill up the muffin tins with filling and you can estimate the amount of eggs you need to make the batter with this ratio: for every two muffins, you need one egg in the batter (e.g. 12 muffins = 6 eggs). If you don’t want your mini frittatas to be too moist (i.e. soggy), add a few tablespoons of coconut flour. (For 15 muffins, I’ll put in 3 level tablespoons of coconut flour).

Here’s what I assembled to make 36 muffins:

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 heaping tablespoon of coconut oil
• 1 pound of mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 bag of broccoli slaw from Trader Joe’s
• 1 pound of grass fed ground beef
• 1 heaping tablespoon of curry powder 
• coconut oil spray
• ½ cup coconut milk
• 20 large eggs
• 5-6 tablespoons of coconut flour (optional, see note above)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Here’s how I made them:

I preheated the oven to 375 F and I started chopping and slicing my veggies.

I heated up the coconut oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once the pan was hot, I threw in the onions with some salt and pepper and sauteed them until they were soft and translucent.

Next, I added the mushrooms (with some more S&P) and cooked them until the liquid had evaporated.

I tossed in the ground beef and cooked it until it was no longer pink. I seasoned the meat mixture with the curry powder and added more salt and pepper to taste. Then, I added the bag of broccoli slaw…

…and stirred that around until the slaw was softened.

In the meantime, I had my two boys help me put cupcake liners in my cupcake tins.

Once the liners were in the tins, I sprayed them with coconut oil spray. If you coat the liners with oil, the muffins won’t stick as much to the paper. (Or you can skip this part and use silicone baking cups.)

Next, I divided the filling into each muffin liner.

I cracked the eggs into a large bowl and whisked in the coconut milk and a healthy sprinkle of salt and pepper.

I know this might sound gross, but I tasted the raw egg mixture to make sure there was enough seasoning. Yes, CrossFit Palo Alto members, I risked salmonella poisoning for you guys.

I ladled the egg mixture into the muffin tins, making sure the liquid only reached 3/4 of the way to the top. The muffins puff up during cooking so you don’t want to fill them to the brim.

I popped the trays into the oven for 15 minutes and then I rotated the trays and baked them for 6 additional minutes. You know the muffins are done when they rise up to the top and they are springy to the touch when you pat the surface. I let the muffins sit in the pan for a few minutes and then I cooled them on a wire rack.

These muffins can be served warm, room temperature, or cold right out of the fridge. I know I’m beating a dead horse, but frittatas really are awesome.

[UPDATED: I’ve since made these frittatas using silicone baking cups, and it’s a GAME-CHANGER — I’m not going back to paper cupcake liners!]

Today was insanely busy, and I’m glad I had some hearty Paleo eats to power me through to the end.

The first activity on my morning docket was the women’s class at CrossFit Palo Alto, so about an hour before my workout, I made myself a quick and easy scramble with three eggs and leftover stir-fried kale and bacon.

See? I don’t always make myself a frittata. Scrambles are a lot quicker when I’m short on time.

After class, I came home and snacked on macadamia nuts and coconut flakes. Then, I accompanied my mother-in-law to her pre-op anesthesia appointment at the hospital. On our way home, we stopped by Calafia and picked up a rotisserie free-range chicken, which I shredded up to make salads with greens, carrots, and sugar snap peas. I dressed our salads with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

At dinnertime, I stir-fried some ground pork with a diced onion, four minced garlic cloves, ½ a pound of sliced cremini mushrooms, Arizona Dreaming seasoning, salt, and pepper.

I served the seasoned swine with roasted bell peppers and roasted curried cauliflower.

That’s all, folks! I gotta catch some zzz’s so I’ll be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the Whole9 Nutrition Seminar at CrossFit Palo Alto tomorrow morning. Can’t wait to meet more members of the gym and share some Paleo treats!

In the past 24 hours, I’ve slept only two hours. It’s normal for me to be sleep-deprived every other Wednesday (the day I flip back to being diurnal), but today was worse than usual. I had a post-shift meeting to attend — and then Big-O had a medical emergency this morning (he’s fine now, by the way), so I ended up staying at the hospital for fifteen hours straight (10 hours of work + 1-hour meeting + 4 hours in the ED) instead of my regular ten. It therefore goes without saying that this post will be short and sweet. Well, maybe a bit sour, too, due to lack of sleep.

At work (pre-medical drama), I ate a ton of packed grub. First up was a box of leftover sous vide pork chops wrapped in bacon, nuked frozen green beans, and sautéed baby chard with shiitake mushrooms and bacon.

As a snack, I threw down some berries with chilled coconut milk…

…and a handful of macadamia nuts and coconut flakes.

My last meal at work was a container of Asian ground beef and cauliflower fried “rice.”

After the ordeal in the ED was over, I groggily drove home with Big-O. I was starving, so I devoured some melted coconut butter and macadamia nuts before knocking out for an all-too-brief two-hour nap.

When I woke up, I hopped in the car to go pick up my monthly meat CSA box. I recently upgraded to Marin Sun Farm’s package #2, so we now receive seventeen pounds of meat per month, which is kind of awesome. I filled up our new chest freezer with four T-bone steaks, two stewing hens, a boneless pork shoulder roast, pork spare ribs, three pounds of ground beef, a pound each of ground pork and lamb, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Now I just have to remember to defrost the meat in time for dinner…

Since I was tired and both of my kids were couch-ridden due to illness, we all just vegged out and stared at Scooby-Doo on the TV until my hubby came home from work. I’m telling you, watching the Mystery Inc. gang can be soul healing.

Dinner was super-quick and easy. I sautéed some tatsoi rabe in ghee with some chicken broth…

…and served it with Italian sausage and a fried egg (sprinkled with Fines Herbes).

Good night!

There’s nothing I like more than waking up in the evening to the delicious aroma of seared meat. (For all you newbies, I’m not sleeping away the day because I’m lazy or depressed — I’m a shift worker.) Today was my lucky day: not only did my hubby entertain the kids all day, he also made dinner! I’m telling you, when someone else makes dinner, the food takes on a mysterious, MSG-like, flavor-enhancing quality.

What was on the menu? Butter-lettuce wrapped grass fed New Zealand lamb burgers topped with a fried egg, homemade guacamole, sautéed mushrooms and onions — with roasted carrot fries on the side. As an added bonus, dinner was on the table in around 30 minutes, which was just enough time for me to do a quick metcon workout (lots and lots of burpees!) while the kids caught an episode of Scooby Doo on the boob tube.

Here’s what the husband assembled for dinner:

• 2 large eggs
• 2 frozen grass fed lamb patties
• 1 large avocado
• ½ pound of shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ onion, thinly sliced
• 8 leaves of butter lettuce (I like using Live Gourmet brand with the roots attached. The heads stay fresher longer and are grown pesticide-free)
• Handful of shredded carrots (optional garnish)
• 5 or 6 carrots
• Coconut oil and/or avocado oil
• Kosher Salt
• Freshly Ground Pepper

Here’s how he made the burgers:

Earlier in the day, the boys hit Whole Foods and stocked up on Atkins Ranch New Zealand frozen lamb patties (which happened to be on sale — $4.99 for each package of two patties).

When they returned from the store, Mr. Mom put a two-pack in the fridge to defrost and put the rest in the freezer. If you forget to defrost them, you can take the patties straight from the freezer and use the defrost function on the microwave to thaw them. (But be careful defrosting meat in the microwave because if you’re not watching it like a hawk, you’ll end up cooking part of it.)

About an hour before he started making dinner, he took the patties out of the fridge and seasoned them liberally with salt and pepper.

Per Thomas Keller, you should always bring your meat up to cool room temperature before cooking to get the best results. But don’t be dumb and leave it at room temp for half a day or your meat’ll become a veritable petri dish of badness.

At around 5:00 p.m., hubs prepped his veggies and popped a tray of carrot “French fries” tossed with avocado oil, salt, and pepper into the toaster oven (400 F for about 25 minutes).

Then, he made some guacamole by simply smashing up the avocado with some salt and pepper. Personally, I like to add a squirt of lemon or lime juice but I swear I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth!

Next, hubby heated a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat and sautéed the onions until they were translucent. He added the sliced shiitake mushrooms along with some salt and pepper and sautéed everything until all the liquid had evaporated.

At the end, he tossed in the minced garlic and stirred the veggies around for about 30 more seconds. If you toss the garlic in earlier, you’ll burn it — and burnt garlic adds a yucky metallic taste to everything.

Once the mushrooms and onions were finished, he rinsed and dried out the skillet, added another dollop of coconut oil and set it over medium-high heat. When the oil was shimmering, he added the lamb patties to the pan.

He seared them for about 4 minutes on each side and checked that the internal temperature was ~ 145 F with our handy-dandy meat thermometer.

Finally, he rinsed the skillet again before frying a couple of eggs in some melted coconut oil.

He plated the burgers over the butter lettuce and topped ‘em with sliced tomato, fried egg, shredded carrots, guacamole, and sautéed mushrooms and onions. By this time, the roasted carrot fries were finished…

…so we sat down and scarfed down dinner.

Bun-less burgers can be pretty messy to eat, so I ate mine with a fork and knife since I’m a cavegirl with good manners. My husband, however, didn’t seem to mind the meat juices running down his hands and forearms as he devoured his burger.

These Paleo lamb burgers were fan-effing-tastic. Cavemen, make this meal for that special someone in your life and I promise that the 30 minutes you spend will be repaid in sex. Er, I mean spades.