SCD Strawberries with Coconut Whipped Cream

The grand finale of our Valentine's Day dinner was this great SCD dessert. It couldn't be easier and tastes really sinful and decadent without being all that bad for you. Strawberries and whipped cream are the quintessential romantic dessert and this version does not disappoint.

20 fresh or frozen strawberries
1 can coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp honey
2 tsp cinnamon
Small handful slivered almonds

Put the can of coconut milk in the refrigerator overnight. It is important that you use full fat coconut milk (I doubt that the light variety is SCD-friendly anyway, as it probably has illegal thickeners). Open the cold can of coconut milk - you'll notice that it has separated into a thick cream at the top and a watery liquid at the bottom.  Scoop the cream off the top and save the water for something else, if desired. Add the vanilla, honey and cinnamon to the coconut cream and whisk until it is smooth and thick. Spoon over the strawberries, sprinkle slivered almonds over the top and serve. You can make this ahead and refrigerate until it is time to eat.

SCD Roasted Duckling with Cherry Merlot Sauce

This was the star of our Valentine's day dinner. I decided to make this because, on our honeymoon, we had something similar at Terra in St. Helena and my husband always says it was the best meal of his life (fact: ducks have about twice as much fat per serving as chicken. So it's no wonder they are delicious.). People might be intimidated by cooking ducks if they haven't done it before.  I'm here to tell you how easy it is - because they have so much fat, they're hard to overcook. It takes a little bit of time, but most of that is unattended so you can do other things - in our case, that was drinking most of a bottle of Prosecco.

1 duck, about 6 pounds
Kosher salt

For the sauce:
1/2 pound cherries (frozen work fine in the winter)
2 Tbsp minced onion
1 tsp honey
1/2 cup duck broth (made by simmering the duck giblets during roasting)
1/2 cup Merlot or other red wine of your choice
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Rinse and dry the duck and put it on a rack in a roasting pan, breast up. Sprinkle salt all over the bird and then take a sharp, pointed knife and poke the skin all over, about an inch apart. Don't pierce the meat underneath - the goal is to let the layer of fat between the skin and meat drain out during cooking. This will give the duck a nice crispy skin and keep your finished product from being greasy. Now put it in the oven and set the timer for 2 hours and 15 minutes. You'll want to check it periodically and use a baster to remove some of the grease from the pan. Toward the end, you might want to baste it once or twice. For the last 20 minutes, flip the duck over to let the back brown. When it's done cooking, take it out and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving.

When you take the bird out of the oven, start the cherry sauce. Put about 2 Tbsp of the duck fat into a pan and saute the onions in it until they are soft. Add the cherries and cook for another few minutes until they soften and you can smash them up with a spoon. Then add in the wine and deglaze the pan. Add the duck broth and honey and turn down to simmer until the sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper and serve over the duck. My husband said that this was now the best meal he's ever eaten in his life - and my kitchen doesn't even have a Michelin star!

SCD Lemon Sage Green Beans

For Valentine's Day, I made a special dinner for my honey and me. This was the vegetable dish that I made and you'll see the rest of the menu in the next two posts. I make this green bean dish all the time and I never get tired of eating it. I've made it for years and it just happens to be SCD-friendly without any extra effort.

1/2 pound green beans, ends snapped off
1/4 cup onion, minced
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 Tbsp dried sage
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 Tbsp olive oil or other fat
Salt to taste

Since I made this to accompany roasted duck, I actually used the duck fat instead of olive oil this time and it was really, really good. Sometimes I use bacon grease and other times I stick with olive oil. Saute the onion in the fat until it is soft and translucent. Add the almonds and let them brown a little bit. Blanch the beans for about 3 minutes in boiling water, drain and add to the onions. Then just add the lemon juice, sage and salt. How easy and delicious is that?

SCD Bloody Mary

Once upon a time, a friend and I decided to write a guide book to the best Bloody Marys in Seattle. We tasted them at every bar we went to and took notes. We had a five-olive rating system (for the record, Mulleady's Irish Pub in Magnolia is the place to go if you're ever in Seattle, looking for a Bloody Mary). Sadly, my friend moved away several years ago, before we wrote our book. But our love of a good brunch beverage hasn't gone away and so my quest to make a Bloody Mary without Worcestershire sauce has been my new boozy breakfast project.

1 shot vodka
1/2 cup tomato juice
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 small clove garlic, crushed
A few dashes Tabasco
Salt
Black pepper
Pickled veggies such as green beans or asparagus and/or olives for garnish
Ice

Put all ingredients except pickled vegetables in a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes. Shake and strain into a tall glass of ice. Garnish with veggies or olives (as you can see from the picture, my husband really likes pickled beans - I would recommend just one or two).

SCD Jambalaya

Like many of the recipes I make, this one is mainly made SCD-friendly by leaving out the rice. With a few other small adjustments, you'll have delicious jambalaya that makes every day feel like Mardi Gras!

1 large yellow onion
1 bell pepper
1 bunch of celery
2 tomatoes
6 cloves minced garlic
1 pound boneless chicken thighs
1/2 pound pork sausage
1/2 pound peeled shrimp
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp paprika
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1 tsp black pepper
Tabasco, to taste
Salt, to taste
2 bay leaves

Pour the olive oil into a bowl and add in 3 cloves of minced garlic, red wine vinegar, paprika, oregano, thyme, pepper, a pinch of salt and a few dashes of Tabasco. Cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces and put it in the olive oil to marinate. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat and add in the chopped up onion, celery and bell pepper. Let them cook until softened, about 5 minutes and add in the chopped up tomatoes and 2 cloves of garlic. Let it cook another few minutes and add in the chicken, along with its marinade. Mix the remaining garlic and more Tabasco into the pork sausage and add it to the pot. Throw in the bay leaves and, if necessary, add in a little water. Because there is no rice to soak it up, not much extra liquid should be needed - the tomatoes and other vegetables should provide enough. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Add in the shrimp and cook until it turns pink, about 5 minutes. Taste and add more Tabasco if needed and put in salt to your liking.

SCD Albondigas Soup

I was first introduced to this soup by my dear friend, Heather. Actually, it was by way of her mother-in-law, who is from Mexico and regularly makes huge quantities of delicious Mexican food to drop off at her children's houses. Around the time when my guy was first flirting with the SCD and had been lamenting the fact that he couldn't eat much of his favorite Mexican cuisine, I was visiting my girl in LA. When her MIL walked in the front door with a huge pot of this soup, I sensed we had a winner. Albondigas is the Spanish word for meatballs. Normally, these meatballs have rice mixed into them but all you have to do is skip that step and suddenly, you have a hearty, SCD-friendly, Mexican soup. I worked out a recipe which I make all the time and it is really delicious. We had it tonight and my husband (who is on a high dose of steroids at the moment) ate three bowls of it. Buen apetito!

1 pound ground pork
2 tsp ground cumin
5 cloves crushed garlic
Leaves from 1 bunch of cilantro
2 quarts broth
3 carrots

3 stalks celery

1 onion
2 tsp oregano
salt, to taste
olive oil

Chop up the onion, carrots and celery. Heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat and add the veggies. After about five minutes, add the stock and reduce heat so that the broth simmers. Add 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp oregano to the broth.

In a bowl, mix together the pork, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp oregano and about 1/2 of the cilantro leaves. This works best if you get in there and mix it with your hands. Roll the mixture into small meatballs and add them to the simmering stock.

Let the meatballs simmer in the broth for 15 minutes or until cooked all the way through. In the last five minutes of cooking, add the remaining cilantro to the soup. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

SCD Stuffed Grape Leaves

These are eaten in many different cultures and go by multiple names. Most people probably think of Dolmades, the Greek version of stuffed grape leaves. However, the recipe I've always made was one that my mom got from a Lebanese friend. To make them SCD-appropriate, I left out the rice. Removing that step actually cuts the cooking time way down so it was a double bonus! I'm not entirely sure what Elaine Gottschall would have had to say about jarred grape leaves - I couldn't find anything on the BTVC website about them but since pickles are generally legal, as long as you read the label on the grape leaf jar carefully, you should be good to go!

1 jar brined grape leaves
1 pound ground meat (lamb is traditional but I use beef)
2 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
salt, to taste
1/2 cup golden raisins
2-3 cloves garlic
olive oil
lemon

Brown the meat over medium heat in a large skillet. Crush the garlic and add it to the meat. Add in the allspice, cinnamon, salt and raisins and mix thoroughly. Now, you are ready to roll the leaves.

Lay one leaf on a flat surface and place a spoonful of meat mixture in a line just above the stem of the leaf.

Next, fold the two bottom flaps of the leaf up over the meat.

Fold the sides in and finish rolling it like a burrito.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place the rolls, seam-down in a glass baking dish. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the dish. Put the dish into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Since there is no rice to cook, this step could be skipped but it steams the leaves and softens them up a little. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon wedges.