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This blog started as a way for me to share my recipes + culinary adventures, tips for vibrant health + happiness, thoughts on the latest developments in nutritional medicine + the low down on the Sydney wholefoods scene and beyond...

Filtering by Category: My Recipes

3-ingredient Hollandaise sauce

Becca Crawford

I have been wanting to make Hollandaise sauce for years and years but somehow I resisted it because I thought it was going to be tricky and complicated. I avoid it at restaurants because they usually use canola oil or some other industrial seed oil nowadays. When I got talking to my assistant Zoe about it the other day she showed me how easy it is to make using only nutrient-dense ingredients.

I then tweaked her recipe by using lemon juice instead of apple cider vinegar (as the taste of lemon juice is less sharp) and using a small saucepan instead of the double boiler method (as I’m all about simplicity).

The main ingredients are only egg yolks, butter and lemon juice (plus salt and pepper but as they are added to almost all recipes I don’t really count them as ingredients).  So incredibly nutrient-dense!! This is a great way to get nutrient-dense pastured egg yolks and pastured butter into your kids if they otherwise struggle to eat these vital foods.

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks (from pastured hens)

80g pastured butter (cold or room temperature)

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/8 tsp unrefined salt

cracked pepper

Directions:

If the butter is cold (i.e. refrigerated, dice it up into small pieces). Place egg yolks in a very small saucepan or a traditional Greek coffee pot called a briki. Add salt, cracked pepper and lemon juice and whisk on very low heat until combined. Add a small amount (eg 1 teaspoon, or 1 diced part) of butter and whisk until butter has melted and is mixed through. Continue adding and whisking the butter, piece by piece, until all the butter is added and whisked through.

The reason you add the butter piecemeal is to ensure that the mixture maintains an even low temperature and does not overheat otherwise you will end up with scrambled eggs! The mixture should thicken and be smooth, rich and creamy. If it is not thick enough for your liking, add more butter. If it is not salty enough for you, add salt to taste. This recipe was made with unsalted butter.

If the mixture turns lumpy you have overheated it and started to make scrambled eggs! If you end up with lumpy sauce (which I have done on one occasion from overheating it) then don’t throw it out- simply smear on quality sourdough or sprouted bread or toast with scatterings of chopped parsley. I can’t stand the thought of throwing out nutritious food.

I make my Hollandaise sauce in a small Greek coffee pot on my stove’s smallest burner on the lowest heat setting. If you are not Greek or Cypriot I’m tipping that you don’t own a small Greek coffee pot (and if you are Greek or Cypriot and still don’t own a briki then what sort of a wog are you?!?)…. in which case use the smallest saucepan you own. I have made the sauce using a small saucepan a couple of times and can confirm that it has turned out fine. If your saucepan is not small enough for the ingredients to gain a critical mass to whisk them, then use the double boiler method which involves inserting a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water and allowing the steam to gently heat and melt the ingredients in the bowl. Makes sure that there is a gap between the simmering water in the pot and the bottom of the bowl.

Serve Hollandaise sauce on eggs or steamed asparagus (or any other vegetable of your choice!). We served the sauce on semi-hard boiled eggs with a pinch of paprika as pictured above. I have also drizzled it over lambs fry as shown below.

Leftovers can be refrigerated in a small bowl and consumed as a dip with carrot or celery sticks. Hollandaise keeps about 3 days refrigerated. Otherwise to serve again as a warm sauce, reheat gently on stovetop or submerge the heat-proof container in a saucepan of simmering water .

Serves 3-4

Your guide to buying seafood in Australia: farmed versus wild….Plus recipe for salt and pepper squid!

Becca Crawford

I am often asked about seafood – where do I buy it from and what do I buy.

First things first. Like all food, not all seafood is created equal. Some seafood is wild (as nature intended) and some are farmed (in man-made hatcheries). And there is a WORLD of difference between the two!

Farmed fish are farmed in unnaturally crowded conditions which in and of itself breeds illness and disease. Farmed fish are commonly dubbed the battery hens of the ocean. In addition to their unnatural environment, farmed fish are fed an unnatural diet of soy pellets (which are often genetically modified), fire retardants (WTF?), wheat byproducts, antibiotics (due to rife disease epidemics in crowded conditions), feather meal, and a heap of other unnatural ingredients. In addition colour dyes are injected into farmed salmon to give them that pink colour. Unsurprisingly the micronutrient content of farmed fish pales in comparison to wild fish especially in relation to the omega 3 /6 balance (farmed fish are low in the anti-inflammatory omega 3s and too high in the omega 6. This imbalance promotes inflammation which is the root cause of all modern disease). Unhealthy diet and conditions makes for unhealthy fish which in turn makes for unhealthy humans who then consume the fish.  

So here’s a potted summary of what you should know and to this end I would like to pay special thanks to my favourite fisher fellow MK for all his invaluable advice:

- All ocean trout sold in Australia is farmed. Avoid it. Sad, I know.

- All non-tinned salmon sold in Australia is farmed other than the 100% wild sockeye salmon from The Canadian Way. The Canadian Way also sells wild tuna, halibut, and wild black cod, lobster, prawns, scollops, salmon roe and smoked salmon (all 100% wild). And all with an unparalleled omega 3 to 6 ratio (I have the independent lab tests if anyone is interested. Basically their salmon has a omega 3 to 6 ratio of 10:1 and the tuna has a ratio that’s even better of 11:1 – so very anti-inflammatory!! Nowadays most people eating a typical Western world conventional diet would consume foods that have an omega 3:6 ratio of 1:20 which is very pro-inflammatory. If you aim for a diet of 1:1 or even 1:2 then you’re doing well). 

The Canadian Way products are sold at various stockists AND they also home deliver! Please sure to tell the owner David I referred you. Note- I don’t get any commissions or kick backs at all from promoting this company. I only advocate businesses whose products or services I personally use and trust.

There are a plethora of certified organic salmon on the market. Don’t be fooled by the certified organic label. They are STILL farmed fish. And a farmed fish is never going to be as nutritional as a wild fish. A certified organic label doesn’t avail you of an obligation to do your due diligence. Read more here about my views on organic certification.

 -  Tinned salmon sold at the supermarket is wild if it says wild or wild caught. Make sure your purchase tinned salmon that is in brine as opposed to industrial seed oils like canola oil or vegetable oil which are highly processed, high in inflammation-promoting omega 6s and basically toxic to the human body (but that’s a whole other discussion).

- Some King prawns and Tiger prawns (Australia only) are farmed. So you will need to ask if they are wild versus farmed! Farmed prawns also taste vastly different and this is reflective in their cheaper price.  Crystal bay and Vannamei prawns are two examples of farmed prawns so avoid those. You'll very rarely see a farmed prawn sold raw.

-  Oysters and mussels are filter feeders so even though they are technically farmed they are literally as good as being wild. There is literally no truly wild oysters sold in Australia. NZ mussels are best as the colder clean water lends itself better to their needs and high dissolved oxygen. 

- Fresh tuna sold in fish shops is mostly wild caught then kept in floating pens and fed a mixture of pellets and fresh pilchards. So it's tantamount to being farmed. The exception is the tuna from The Canadian Way as discussed above. Tinned tuna sold in supermarkets is wild. 

- Most barramundi in Australia is now farmed. So you will need to ask if they are wild versus farmed! All farmed barramundi are harvested at the same size (40-45cm) so if they're larger than that it’s typically ok to assume that they are wild. They aren't typically the freshest fish to eat anyway. The netting process and remoteness of where they live means they could be weeks old by the time they even get to the fish monger. Plus you'll always pay a 'name tax' for this national fishing icon.

- Herring, pilchards, whitebait, sardines and anchovies are all wild and will never be farmed. They're cheap and the equivalent of a briny superfood. Head and stomach can be eaten easily. 

- There is a plethora of other farmed seafood on the market. If you're not sure, always ask! By law they must answer you truthfully if you ask them outright. I always gauge their level of honesty by asking them about their salmon and ocean trout because I know for a fact that they will be farmed so if they answer that they are wild, I politely smile then bolt out the door.

- Try to buy the whole fish as opposed to fillets. It gives you a better indication of freshness. Inspect eyes and moistness of the skin. If the lips and face look even a little dehydrated then opt for something else. Buying whole fish means that you can ask the fishmonger to fillet it for you and ask them to put the head and frame in a separate bag for you to take home to make a stock (say tuned for my upcoming round of bone broth classes so you learn how to make a stock easily and most deliciously!).

And what about sustainability?
 

This has become a pressing issue for many people. Line caught fish are by far the most sustainable type to buy as opposed to net caught fish (although anchovies school together so when they're netted there is zero bycatch).

Where do I buy wild seafood?


From any old fish shop that I happen to pass by on my travels and simply walk in and say “Hey! What’s wild and what’s farmed?” I have 2 shops that are local to me that I typically go to: Bondi Road Seafood and the seafood counter at DJs at Bondi Junction. I’ve built up a good relationship with them over the past decade and I trust what the managers tell me. They don’t bother pushing any type of farmed fish on me and will offer me the freshest wild fish. I typically buy snapper, ling, deep sea perch, oysters, mussels and sardines.  I always avoid salmon and ocean trout at fish shops (and at restaurants). If you live close to the fish markets or better yet catch your own fish then I want to marry you!

I always have a stash of frozen salmon fillets (esp. the tails as they are much cheaper!) and frozen smoked salmon from The Canadian Way which I pull out if I don’t get a chance to make it to a fish shop. And my fridge has a stash of salmon roe which we eat as a condiment to our eggs most mornings and sometimes as pre-dinner appertiser on cucumber rounds with home-made mayo or cream cheese. Kids LOVE this! Easy way to get some nutrient-density into them.


How often do I eat seafood?
 

I recommend eating quality seafood at least twice a week.

One of the many mistakes I made when I transitioned to a traditional wholefoods diet (from a macrobiotic vegetarian one) is to forget about seafood. I was so hell-bent on getting my iron levels up and building back nutrient stores that all I bought was red meat, red meat, and even more red meat.  And I see many of my clients in my health coaching sessions also not eating anywhere near enough seafood when I look at their typical meals. There is nothing wrong with grass fed and finished read meat. I eat it about 3-4 times a week. But we need a BALANCE of land and sea animals as there are nutrients in sea foods that are not as abundant in land animals eg omega 3 and iodine. Broth and organ meats are also required to balance out our mussel meat intake. To read more about some of the other common pitfalls I made when I first started on a paleo / ancestral / traditional wholefoods diet (pick whatever name floats you boat!) click here.

But even when I started making a conscious effort to eat more seafood I STILL keep forgetting about it and when I reflected back over what I had eaten I realised I only ended up eating it very sporadically. So what I now do is to assign 2 nights of the week as my seafood nights. So I always know that on Tuesdays and Fridays its seafood night so I better get to a fish shop or defrost some frozen fish. I need idiot-proofing sometimes! I do the same with organ meats (every Wednesday) and that way it’s all sweet. Many of my clients also adopt this method. Having a routine is like wearing a uniform. It takes the stress out of wondering what to cook.

 I always have a stash of tinned wild fish in my pantry for school lunches or emergencies that I buy from the supermarket. Eg anchovies, salmon, mackerel, sardines.  These are in brine or extra virgin olive oil as opposed to industrialised seed oils. These are great to take camping, on picnics or day trips. Along with Westgold butter I think these are the only food items I buy from the supermarket nowadays! 

And what about the issue of mercury, dioxins and PCBs? 
 

Chris Kresser has written a couple of excellent articles on these issues which you can read here and here.

His bottom line is that it is more dangerous to avoid eating wild fish than to eat it due to any mercury or other toxins it might contain. This is because selenium found in fish protects against mercury toxicity. When I spoke to Sally Fallon (author of Nourishing Traditions and head of the Weston A Price Foundation) about this issue in 2007 she too seemed very relaxed about the mercury issue. I personally avoid the larger fish (eg swordfish) and opt for the smaller ones and try to buy from local Australian or NZ waters rather than from overseas with the exception of seafood from The Canadian Way which of course comes from pristine cold Canadian waters. Cold water seafood is always going to be healthier than warm water seafood.


I thought I would ALSO share my recipe for
salt and pepper squid!
 

Salt and pepper squid



Ingredients:

Freshly caught wild squid

Lemon wedges for serving

Butter

Garlic powder

Chilli flakes

White wine

Unrefined salt

Cracked pepper

Directions:

Clean the squid by:

  • Cutting the stomach lengthwise and removing the intestines including the ink sac intact

  • Cutting above and below the eyes and discarding them but keeping the tentacles

  • Running under filtered water


Pat the squid dry and liberally coat with butter, garlic powder, salt, pepper and chilli flakes.

Heat a large frying pan until very hot.

Add a splosh of white wine to the frying pan and immediately add the squid. Fry the squid on either side for approximately 15-20 seconds (no longer!).

Serve with lemon and home-made aioli.  
 

You also might like to try some of my other seafood recipes:


Steamed mussels with garlic, ginger and parsley

3 ingredient smoked salmon soup

Asian wild salmon salad with miso dressing

How To Make Almond Butter

Becca Crawford

I am often asked about nut butters.

To be honest I am not a huge fan of them. And here’s why: It takes a lot of nuts to yield a very small amount of nut butter. eg 1.5 cups of almonds yields only a bit more than 1/2 cup of almond butter.  

So you end up consuming a heck of a lot of nuts in each spoonful of nut butter, much much more than you should typically eat if you were eating whole nuts. And what’s wrong with nuts? In small amounts, for those who don’t have digestive issues or mineral deficiencies, nuts are awesome and in fact ranked as the 3rd most nutrient-dense food on the planet behind organ meats and herbs and spices (according Harvard University Chemist Dr Mat Lalonde. Check out pages 70-71 of Chris Kresser’s book “Your Personal Paleo Code” 2014 for a list of the most nutrient-dense foods). However nuts do contain more omega 6 than omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (which has an inflammatory effect on the body).

Secondly, unactivated nuts (ie nuts that have not been properly prepared through soaking and dehydrating) contain phytic acid which leaches minerals from the body and leads to digestive issues. Without doing a full due diligence I bet all store-bought nut butter are made from nuts that have not been properly prepared or “activated” (happy to be proved wrong here).

Thirdly, nut butters are typically consumed on bread and I have spend the past decade trying to reduce the amount of gluten (and grains generally for that matter) from my and my kids’ diet. The reasons for this go beyond the scope of this post but contact me should you wish to discuss the relevance and effect of grains on the human body.  The occasional consumption of smallish amounts of gluten-free properly prepared grains is fine for those without digestive issues (eg rice, buckwheat).

So eating huge amounts of nut butters, especially when the nuts are not activated, involves taking a massive omega 6 and phytic acid hit. It’s is a bit like the orange juice analogy where you end up consuming the fructose equivalent of 5 oranges in 1 glass of orange juice even though you couldn’t possibly eat 5 oranges in one sitting.

So if you are going to consume nut butters here’s what i suggest:

1. it’s best to make them yourself at home from activated nuts; and

2. consume only small amounts eg a couple mouthfuls at a time especially for youngsters.

Here’s how to make almond butter.  It’s dead easy:

Ingredients:

2 cups of salted activated almonds
2 tablespoons of coconut oil

Directions:

Process ingredients in a food processor for 15 minutes (yes that long!) stopping the food processor every few minutes to scrap down the sides and to prevent the machine from overheating. If making larger amounts, add the nuts in batches in the food processor.

Some recipes don’t require the addition of coconut oil. I found that without the coconut oil this makes the almond butter really hard to swallow and gets stuck on the back of your throat (hardly pleasant). Because my activated nuts are salted I don’t need to add additional salt. If yours are not salted you might like to add 1/4 tsp salt to the food processor.

Serve:

Eat straight off the spoon as is for a decadent dessert or snack, or with vegetable sticks, or smeared on slices of apple or pineapple, or drizzled onto pancakes or on a slice of traditionally prepared bread (stay tuned for my future posts on various buckwheat loaves – they are still a work in progress). Some add nut butters to their smoothies.  You can add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup onto your nut butter (which I did as you can see in the above photo).

Storage:

Nut butters keep for many weeks in a sealed container or jar in the fridge. The downside is that they will go quite hard though in the fridge. They will keep a few days out of the fridge.

Variations:

You can substitute any other type of nut. Macadamias don’t require as long in the food processor presumably due to their higher oil content. You just need to keep processing until the nuts reach the consistency of a smooth, creamy, butter. This will depend on the type of nut and how powerful your food processor is. You can flavour or sweeten your nut butter by adding the following while processing such as:

  • raw cacao powder, cinnamon powder, and/or vanilla bean powder

  • raw honey or maple syrup

  • turmeric, cumin, ginger, garlic powder and/or chilli flakes (I’ve made turmeric and brazil nut butter before)

In this way you can make your own spreads and butters without resorting to expensive store bought varieties. Have you made nut butter before?  What ingredients did you use?

The photos below show you the transition from whole almonds to almond butter at 4 minute intervals over 15 minutes of processing.