Roasted spicy nuts

My lapse in posting is being lifted by my need to save this Ottolenghi recipe!! These are delicious, and seem perfect for holiday gifting or snacking. The honey in there is very subtle, they don't taste sweet. The nigella seeds (aka black cumin seeds) and rosemary combo, with the heat from the cayenne, is delicious. Nigella seeds have lots of medicinal properties, good for treating inflammation and lung stuff, so are an extra bonus. I wonder about even adding a little turmeric too, which I'll try next time. 

*I actually was out of cayenne, so I used Ethiopian mitmita spice, which was great.

Ingredients

• 100g cashew nuts
• 100g macadamia nuts
• 120g pecan nuts
• 60g whole almonds (skin on)
• 80g pumpkin seeds
• 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 2 tbsp nigella seeds 
• 3 tbsp sunflower oil (I used avocado oil)
  
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 2 sprigs rosemary, leaves picked
• 2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 tsp cayenne

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Scatter all the ingredients except the pepper and cayenne in a roasting tray. Roast for 15-17 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the nuts turn dark brown. Remove, stir in the pepper and cayenne, and taste. Add salt if you like. Leave to cool in the tray, stirring from time to time. Once cool, transfer to an air-tight container.
   

Cranberry Orange Olive Oil Bread (GF)

I have some more days off now, and it was with great anticipation and joy for some unscheduled time that I made this bread, to have with my morning coffee and ponder the new year ahead. It felt like a lovely treat this morning after shoveling, that I ate while gazing out at the snowy world. I am calling it bread, though the original recipe from Mark's Daily Apple calls it cake. It definitely seems more (sweet) bread-like to me. And is SO GOOD, perhaps one of the best almond flour recipes I've had. It is moist and has a really nice crumb. I want to add more cranberries next time, because the tart bites are really lovely. It isn't overly sweet, and the coconut butter drizzle on top is genius. I feel really happy to have this waiting for me these coming mornings as we approach the new year! Yay!

• 2 cups almond flour
• ½ cup coconut sugar, Swerve or granular monk fruit sweetener
• ¼ cup ground flaxseed
• ¼ cup tapioca starch
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• ½ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup coconut milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbsp. orange juice
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• Zest from ½ orange
• ½ cup fresh cranberries (or more!)
  
• Drizzle (optional): melted coconut butter + coconut milk to thin

1. 
   Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, sweetener, flaxseed, tapioca starch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the olive oil, coconut milk, eggs and vanilla extract. Combine the ingredients and whisk until well mixed. Add in the orange juice, orange zest and cranberries.
   
2. Pour the batter into a parchment-lined loaf pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean or the internal temperature on a food thermometer reads about 190 degrees Fahrenheit. Allow the bread to cool.
3. If you are making a glaze, combine coconut butter with a small amount of coconut milk or milk of choice until it reaches your desired thickness. You can also add a squeeze of orange juice. Drizzle the glaze on top before slicing and serving. 

My notes to self for next time I make this: walnuts might be a nice addition along with increased cranberries. Also, because I lately love cointreau, the coconut manna thinned with cointreau might be the perfect touch. 😁

(Paleo) Chicken Bastila

Fresh out of the oven!

My personal tradition of these days we call Christmas and Christmas Eve revolve around making some good food. This year I spent several weeks considering what to make, including some rumination of different seafood options. But then I read Melissa's (Clothes Makes the Girl) recipe for Paleo Chicken Bastila, and decided to give it a go. I found the lengthy cooking time and celebratory nature of the dish fitting. Traditionally this is served as an appetizer on special occasions, and is a pie of chicken, cinnamon & sugar, and almonds all in layered pastry dough with a dusting of confectioners sugar on top. Here is a nice article and recipe about traditional Bastila with photos.

My Charming Companion has particularly strong memories of Bastila from eating at Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant in Philadelphia. He ate there about 3 times over 20 years ago, but has thought of the sweet chicken pie ever since. (He told me last night while eating dinner that he had become inordinately excited at the prospect of my making a paleo bastila, but was playing it cool.) It was great that he had eaten it before because there could be some comparison between his memory of bastila and the one on the plate before us. We ate it as they served it in the restaurant: in the dark and with our hands.

It was delicious. When I make this again, I will do the filling prep the day before. It will save time because you don't need to wait out the cooling, and will make assembly much easier. I also would love to actually serve this as an appetizer to a main meal of something less sweet. We ate it as the entree here, but the sweetness of it lends to a more secondary dish than a main one. Not thinking about the sweetness, I made a carrot and beet salad to serve with the bastila, but that was too many sweet things. Bastila would be better with a tart, olive-y salad with tomatoes and cucumber, or lemony greens or something. It wants a companion that is salty and tart.

Sprinkling the "almond dust" over the egg layer

2nd chicken layer

Final "almond dust" layer topping

Yum!

My thoughts for the recipe (which was lovely):

• I will use one additional egg next time in the egg custard part (plus a little more liquid to cook down from the chicken) to add to overall moistness.
• I want to pour some ghee over the chicken layers to get more of the buttery pastry taste. 
• Sprinkle cinnamon directly on top of the whole thing to really up the initial cinnamon sensory flavor.
• I'll simplify the bottom pastry crust to food process all ingredients and press them into the pie pan. I've made crusts this way before (with cold or melted ghee/coconut oil) and had them turn out great. This will save a little fussiness.

So - there was the holiday dinner. I did get my fancy seafood in last weekend by making scallops and shrimp on pea puree, and I made gravlox to bring to a family dinner today. I tasted it last night and it turned out amazing! I'll be posting both of those recipes later this week!

Thanksgiving Day Turkey and Veggies

I made my very first turkey!  It was definitely a proud moment when I pulled that beautiful golden brown turkey out of the oven.  I asked around to get advice from others about how to make the best turkey.  Many people mentioned a roasting bag.  Normally I would be against using a plastic bag in cooking; I'm frankly worried about ingesting toxins from the plastic.  But, people told me it was the best turkey they ever made when they used the roasting bag, so I figured I would give it a try.  It was brilliant.  I put herbs and garlic inside the turkey and covered it with coconut oil (might use butter next time), then put it in the bag inside a roasting pan and away it went.  The end result was beautiful, flavorful and perfectly done.  I even have lots of wonderful leftovers, and extra pan drippings, to heat up all week.

I also made a few sides to go with my turkey.  I am doing a pretty strict version of paleo, so I couldn't get very fancy with anything.  I did do an extra twist on butternut squash that I found on theclothesmakethegirl.com.  Instead of just roasting the squash I also pureed it in the food processor with coconut oil, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and one egg.  Then, I put it into a casserole dish and baked it at 350 for 30 minutes.  I think I was suppose to have the oven hotter than that, but it turned out really well.  The recipe called for pecans, which I would've loved to have added, but I can't eat nuts.  I highly recommend adding them if you make this version.  It was very good, but the pecans would really add a lot to the dish.  The butternut squash was so sweet, rich and creamy.  I really felt like I was having a dessert instead of a vegetable. Yum!

My other veggie was carrots.  I got the most beautiful and delicious carrots at the Midtown Winter Farmer's Market a couple weekends ago.  They are literally the best carrots I have ever had.  I pretty much couldn't screw up cooking them.  I decided to do them two ways.  I roasted some of the carrots with a little coconut oil, salt, and pepper in the oven for an hour.  I selected the most delicate of the carrots to cook on the stovetop in a little water and butter.  The recipe calls for honey, which of course I can't have, but these carrots were so sweet and tender, the honey would've been too much sweetness I think.  They were spectacular.  What a way to celebrate the harvest.

I was so proud of my turkey and all of the food I was able to make today.  It was a small gathering, just me and my parents, but we had a nice time sharing a meal and spending time together.

I have loved exploring different foods and recipes this fall.  Thank you Megan for inviting me to this blog and for sharing all of your food adventures.  You continue to inspire me.  Everything you post I want to try.  Pressing apple cider sounds pretty exciting.  I've got that on my list for next fall.

Happy Thanksgiving!