Fifty shades of brown

Cat and I held our second offal cooking course in the local hotel kitchen (Tallhöjden).
Heart, liver and tongue were on the menu for five excited students.

Obligatory welfie ahead of course

 We started with a bit of background information about offal:

• Offal is not just organ meat such as liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach... It also includes other odd bits such as tongue, cheek, tail, feet. The kind of stuff that your grandma used to eat but you no longer find in the supermarket shelves.
• Offal is cheap! When we switched to better quality meat - primarily freerange and grassfed - we needed to widen our repertoire of cuts to keep the bills down.
• Offal is the multivitamin of the animal - liver and heart are two of the most nutritious foods you can eat. CoQ10, iron, vitamins A and B, trace minerals, to name a few...
• Throwing away large parts of the animal is no longer an option for us! It isn't just about the waste of resources, it is simply unethical to kill an animal and not use as much as possible of it. (See note on "cat jar" below - we try to make use of EVERYTHING.)

Slicing liver - note the "cat jar" for the leftovers to the right

The aim of the course was to give the participants a few simple dishes to start their journey into "offal land" with.

• Beef liver pâté with butter, onion, garlic and various spices - very creamy and delicious if we may say so ourselves! 
• Fried lamb heart, thinly sliced and marinated in garlic, ginger and chili - my favourite every time. 
• Tongue - boiled as well as fried.

We added salad to the final dish to avoid too much of a meat overload.

The tasting session last time around was a bit too heavy on the meat, so we added in a bit of salad, sauerkraut and lingonberries to break up the brown on the plates.

To wash it all down, we made our students a shot of bone broth. Beige on brown is such an attractive combination...

Mr K with a plate full of brown (tongue, liver pâté, flash fried marinated heart, served up with a glass of beige (bone broth)

We'll see if we get around to developing the next level offal course sometime later in the year. Kidneys, brain and lungs, anyone?

A Year at Kannesten

I can't believe it has been a whole year since we moved to Kannesten, but at the same time working and living in London seems ridiculously distant. What an amazing year it has been! Here are some of my highlights.

We started our journey towards self-sufficiency in early spring and for a long time it didn't look like we were getting anywhere. Spring was really cold and things just weren't growing too fast.

Cabbage, tomatoes and strawberries in our veg patch.

Eventually, and much later than we expected, we were able to enjoy some homegrown vegetables. They weren't always the prettiest looking, but we soon got over that, as they were amazingly tasty. We ate the last of our root vegetables in January and we are now planning for the 2016 harvest - fingers crossed, it will be bigger and better. We also spent a fair share of the summer/autumn foraging for blueberries, lingonberries and mushrooms, filling freezers and jam jars for use in the winter. The berries will last us until the next berry season - pure luxury.

They come in all shapes and sizes.

Vegetable patch in all its glory.

The chickens were the first animals on the farm, soon followed by ducks, sheep and cats. Vera had some fluffy chicks in May, then Stina and Sara… and then Vera again. She was a busy girl. We didn't get many eggs though. Turns out that we need a few more hens to sustain our egg-eating habits.

First fuzzy chicks in May.

Our sheep have been an amazing addition to the farm, they are so friendly now. They love a good cuddle and keep us both busy and entertained.

Animal love.

We kicked off our course activities with a few sauerkraut courses and an offal course. It's so inspiring and fun to share our passion for nutritious food with like-minded people.

Everyone getting stuck in at our very first fermentation course.

The year involved some incredibly hard work, but also opportunities for play. And best of all loads of fresh air.

Hard work.

Play.

In such a short time, we have been fortunate to get to know many of our lovely neighbours. They are friendly, hospitable and generous with sharing knowledge and even surplus from their harvests. Loving our village!

Us at the Autumn Market in Simlångsdalen and our contribution to the annual October Fest.

Yoga teacher training kept me busy during the latter part of the year. I certainly improved my physical yoga, but the training also opened my eyes to the philosophical side of yoga. I am encompassing both in my yoga classes in Simlångsdalen and Halmstad.

Us yogis spend a bit of time upside down.

I am grateful for everything I have experienced this year and I bet 2016 has some pretty amazing stuff in store for us all.

Born To Run Workshop

Last weekend I attended the aptly named 'Bulletproof Runner Workshop' organised by Born To Run, in Gothenburg. The course is designed to help improve your running technique, performance and injury prevention and is a stepping stone to Lee Saxby's legendary coaching course.

Those that have read the book Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall will know of the barefoot phenomenon. This influenced the popularity of minimalist running shoes, essentially stripping away your big fat-cushioned, inflexible jogging shoes to something which allows your 200,000 + nerve endings in your feet feel the ground again. I read the book and bought the minimalist shoes, but have always been conscious that I may need to improve and change my running technique to suit. This was the weekend!

Joseph and Gourgen were brilliant hosts and taught us loads over the two days. The first morning we ran through various drills to compare our technique against a 'Bulletproof Runner', these consisted of squatting, hoping, bouncing, uni-ped stances and running drills on a treadmill. These tested our ability of the 3 fundamental skills of Posture,  Rhythm and Relaxation which are all important to improve your running efficiency and reduce injury risk. These 3 skills were the catch-words of the weekend!

Watching yourself in slow-motion.

We were filmed both on the treadmill and outside, running at various speeds so that we could watch back at slow motion and discuss how we could improve our running techniques. It was fascinating to see how you move, break it down to the fundamentals and then rebuild a more efficient style. At the same time we were discussing the theory behind why the drills are so important to build strength through the elasticity and reactive ability of the neuromuscular system.

On day 2, we started early with a group recovery run. I am particularly bad at these and find it hard to go out for low-intensity runs and always end up pushing myself too hard. So, to prevent this happening Joseph gave us all a piece of tape and told us to stick it over our mouths! This essentially makes you solely breathe through your nose, which ensures you only run at a pace which suits your nasal inhalation. If you run too fast you will want to rip the tape off and gasp air in and out through your mouth….fail! The theory behind this is that your body requires a certain amount of CO2 to allow O2 to pass from your red blood cells to your muscle tissue, so by breathing through your nose limits the amount of CO2 you exhale thus allowing O2 to pass to your muscle tissue and aid with recovery. It worked a treat and although you look slightly odd with your mouth taped shut, it does make you concentrate about your breathing and running pace.

Tape makes for a quiet run!

All in all it was a great weekend and I learnt a lot about how to improve my running technique and the theory behind introducing some drills into my daily workouts to help build strength and prevent injury. After meeting so many interesting and inspirational runners during the weekend and in a moment of madness after the event, I signed up for the Hallands Ultra 50km race next June! That should be a good test of my running efficiency!

11th June 2016!

Visit the BTR website for more information on this course and Lee Saxby.

Do You Eat Offal?

When we moved to Sweden, our food bills went through the roof. We had to do something about the meat... Eating grassfed meat is expensive, even if you only buy the cheap cuts.

So we started exploring offal. Not only is offal relatively cheap, it is a fantastic source of vitamins and minerals not otherwise found in muscle meat. Also, as conscientious meat eaters we were feeling increasingly uncomfortable NOT eating the "other bits" of the animal. Today we eat liver, heart and tongue on a weekly basis and make bone broth daily. 

We recently shared our passion for offal in a course at our local hotel Tallhöjden. Five gentlemen showed up, eager to learn a few tricks. Imagine our surprise when all of them confessed to already eating offal. And to being hunters. That sure put a bit of pressure on the teachers...

Liver, heart and tongue! And a few other bits and bobs. 

It all went down a treat, though! We made liver pâté, flash fried marinated heart and boiled (and fried) tongue, served with seed crackers, carrot sticks and sauerkraut. I admit that the condiments were lacking a bit, given just how much meat ended up on the plate...

We had so much fun that we forgot to take photos until after dinner...

The one "complaint" that our participants voiced was that we could have gone a bit more advanced. Brain, lungs, you know, the PROPER icky stuff. Next time, next time. We need to do a bit more product development first! :-)

First PaulssonPaleo Fermenting Course Done - Boom!

We organised our first ever fermenting course yesterday afternoon. Eight lovely ladies joined us at PaulssonPaleo HQ for three hours of discussion and cabbage stomping. It was absolutely glorious to impart some of our enthusiasm for fermenting on such willing participants. Cecilia talked about the chemistry behind lacto-fermenation, some history and health benefits. At times the chat drifted off to some of our other favourite topics, like healthy fats, soaking nuts and the evils of sugar.

After some uplifting 'fika' (Cecilia's paleo balls made another appreciated appearance, recipe here), I walked everyone through the practicalities: how to actually make the sauerkraut.

Our kitchen got pretty messy with all the kraut juices flying around, but it was great watching everyone get stuck in, chopping, squishing and stomping away. The ladies filled a jar each to ferment for a week or two and then we sent them on their merry way with their very own sauerkraut-to-be.

Success and high fives all round!

Read more about our courses here - there are spaces left on the 19th of September and more dates added in October.

Double, Double Toil and Trouble. Fire Burn, and Cauldron Bubble.

There is no fire involved in what we are making, but there are loads of jars of vegetables bubbling away in our kitchen and we are bubbling with excitement!

We are currently planning our courses for this fall and first off is a foundation course in fermenting. We are chopping, stomping and researching, ready for the 6th and 19th of September. Check it out on our website here.