Da-amn!

Food worth a two-syllable 'damn'? Word.

A trip to the gym (Orchards Athletic Club) is not complete without a lengthy conversation about the absurdly delicious food we all make. I've taken to calling it "food porn", because really... it is...

Mashed turnips?
... why?

One of my Paleo mentors has been experimenting with different recipes to serve his infant son, with the aim of raising him completely Paleo. He's been Baby Bullet-ing away with organic foods and breast milk, making inexpensive baby food without any filler like barley (which he was disappointed to find is in soooo many different brands of baby food, even some organic ones.)

He told me a few times about making mashed turnips. I looked at him a few times like the RCA Victor dog.

But last night, after making my Paleo Num-Nums, I needed to make, you know, dinner before I could really justify eating cookies. I knew I was going to do salmon, since I had a long night of work ahead of me and wanted to get all protein-ed up, but also knew that wasn't going to be enough. While walking through the grocery store, I decided to throw caution to the wind, spend $0.50 and get a good sized turnip to try this recipe. Best freakin' 50 cents I've spent in a while!

This is my kind of meal-- grab stuff, throw it in a pan, cook it, and scarf it on down. The salmon was cooked in ghee, first soaked in an egg-wash with red curry paste, red pepper flakes, lemon and lime juices, lemon pepper, salt and pepper, and coated with a little coconut flour. I splashed some lemon juice into the pan as the ghee was heating. The turnip was peeled and cut into small cubes, boiled in a small pot of water with sea salt and turbinado sugar, and drained after the cubes were tender. I put them back into the pot to keep them hot while I added splashes of olive oil and full-fat coconut milk to get them creamy, and started smooshing, feeling a satisfying sensation as they fell apart and then congealed. For spices, I threw in a pinch of sea salt, a good amount of black pepper, and a little garlic powder since I was out of fresh garlic. I kept them in the warmed pot on the burner, even though it was turned off, to help any excess liquid evaporate off, making them stick together even better.

It was insanely good.

Curried salmon, mashed turnip, old-school plate... good damn eatin'!

The only way I could have enjoyed this more is if I'd had a glass of chianti, but as I had to head to work shortly after dinner, no wine. Ah well. Guess that means I'll have to make it again! (Twist my arm.) I may or may not experiment with adding some coconut flour to these to get them even thicker-- not on a day when I've had coconut flour with most of my food.