Whole30, day 6: Bone marrow, beef & vegetable soup

I woke up today at 06:30, refreshed, awake and feeling just fine. I slept like a baby for 8 hours straight. Last night I was really tired, so I had planned on sleeping in today, but I guess my body had other plans. Could this be the diet, or is it just coincidence?

For breakfast I had a big mug of peppermint tea, tomato and avocado salad and two scrambled eggs. After that I took a quick shower and went to the market. I bought a bunch of fresh vegetables, smoked mackerel and a few pounds of haddock that was on sale. After that I went to a plain old supermarket to buy meat (that's hardly ever sold on Dutch markets). I whipped up a salad for lunch with daikon, a bit of fennel, kohlrabi, a bit of paleo mayonnaise and smoked mackerel.

(over)stuffed eggplant

There was a time when I didn't really like eggplant. Then I found out that you have to use salt first to get the slightly bitter taste out, and that changed my mind about this vegetable. This recipe takes a little time to make, because the eggplants have to soak in salt water first. Then you fry them, which also takes some time. The good news is, that you can easily prepare the eggplants ahead, and then finish the dish quick and easy when you want it for dinner on a busy workday.

Spiced Scotch egg

For some people, the lack of starchy foods on their plates seems a little boring. I can't say I mind having just a big piece of fish or meat, with a big salad, but sometimes it's nice to spice up the ordinary daily plate. This is such a recipe. Ordinary meat transferred into spicy meat with a surprise inside.

How to cook the perfect steak

Every meat eater loves a good steak. But I bet most people find it hard to cook steaks to perfection. I know I did. If you're not a skilled chef, how do you know whether your steak is rare, medium rare or medium without cutting into the meat? There are probably not a lot of people who want their steaks well done. Overcooked steaks, to me, are a waste. If I want meat to be well done, I'll buy a cheap stewing cut. But how do you make sure you don't overcook your expensive grass fed steak?

One method of determining this, is using your hand, like described over here. That's great, but the problem with it, is that by the time I figured out if the firmness of the steak is indeed the same as the firmness of the muscle at the base of my thumb, the steak is usually overcooked. Maybe I'm an idiot, but this method never worked for me.

Pork chops with brie & mustard

A few years ago, I thought pork chops were a boring cut of meat. That was a time when the only pork chops I knew, were the tiny, ready marinated chunks of meat our supermarkets sell. They were too salty and whatever I tried, however I baked or fried them, the always seem to be tough, salty and just plain nasty.

A few months ago my butcher had some huge organic chops on sale and they looked quite different from what I was used to, so I gave it a try and it completely changed my mind about pork chops! This recipe is a surprise version of the plain chop. It's easy to make and uses only a few ingredients. 

They are stuffed with mustard, herbs and brie. You can't really see that they're stuffed, but once you cut them open, there's that lovely melted brie, which tastes so good with the mustard.