Coconut Curry Chicken Stew

I’m having a whirlwind romance with chicken thighs, you guys. I’ve always loved them but very rarely bought them for home consumption. I saw them as a special moist treat for when I visited a fried chicken joint. But no more! I’ve been using them for the past few months in most every chicken recipe I can find and I have no regrets. This savory and filling stew especially needs the darker meat to keep up with the other strong flavors. Makes about a week’s worth of leftovers for one, or several days worth of very large helpings for two. Talk about a budget meal! And it tastes better and better the longer it sits.

Note: you can easily make this paleo-friendly by subbing out the peas and corn for other veggies like eggplant, carrots, or cauliflower. Win!

Ingredients

• 5-6 cloves fresh garlic, peeled
• 1 small Vidalia onion, roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp fresh ginger root, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp curry powder (this is my 100% favorite kind)
• red chili flakes to taste
• 2lbs chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1 can baby corn, cut into manageable pieces
• 2 cups peas (or the veggie of your choice), can be fresh or frozen
• 2 cans coconut milk
• 2 tsp cornstarch

In a food processor if you have one (the blender will do otherwise), puree the garlic, onion, and ginger. Inhale deeply and feel it cleansing your pores from the inside out. In a heavy-bottomed pot (see, e.g. a Le Creuset), heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the puree and cook until extra fragrant (just a few minutes). Stir in your spices and cook for a few minutes more.

Add the chicken to the pot and bring the heat up just a bit. Mix it all up and keep moving the chicken around so it’s all evenly cooking. You’ll want to at least sear the chicken on all sides before you add the liquid.

Once the chicken is mostly cooked, pour in the coconut milk, reserving a bit of the thick cream on top. This will be how you will incorporate the cornstarch later… Also add your veggies of choice and let it simmer away until the chicken is completely cooked through. Whisk the cornstarch into the reserved coconut cream and add to the pot at the end. If you like a thinner soup, just skip that part! I wanted something more stick-to-your-ribs, so I went with it. You can serve this over rice if you’d  like, but it’s pretty perfect just on its own. Enjoy in the cooling night air with good company and a glass of white wine.

Warm and satisfying!

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin Sammiches

You guys. I just had the best sandwich of my entire life. And, I mean, I’ve had a lot of great sandwiches. But this one was BANANAS. It all started with a take on Ina Garten’s fennel and onion stuffed pork tenderloin… *film blur*

Ingredients

• 3lb pork tenderloin, butterflied all the way out
• 1 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb
• 1 cup thinly sliced Vidalia onion
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tbsp each butter and olive oil
• 2 tbsp pastis (Ricard is best, Pernod is acceptable)
• salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 425*. Melt the butter and olive oil together in a pan over medium heat, then saute the fennel and onions until they are soft and browned. Add the garlic, thyme, pastis, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss with the breadcrumbs, sprinkle your unrolled pork with more salt and pepper, then pack in the stuffing. Roll the tenderloin up and tie it together with some kitchen twine., and salt and pepper the outside. Place on a baking rack over a sheet pan and roast for 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350* and cook for 20 more minutes. Let it rest and slice it up!

This is my cat receiving his share of pork, moments before he nearly took my hand off for it.

It is phenomenally delicious as it is, especially when paired with the orange, fennel, and pomegranate salad I made, but DUDES. This is the epitome of leftover nirvana and was suggested by someone who is clearly a freakin’ genius. Slice up some of your leftover pork. This is what it looks like cold, fyi:

JEAH!!

Heat up a bit of butter in the pan and lightly grill a sandwich roll. Remove the buns and toast up the pork rounds until they get a nice crispy outside. Remove, add a bit more butter and your favorite bbq sauce to the pan to thicken quickly. I was recently turned on to Montgomery Inn, a Cincinnati-style sauce that is AWESOME with this sandwich. My knees go weak at the thought of it now. Hmmmmm. *blush*

Anyway…

Place pork on bun, pour sauce on pork, top with other bun like so:

Stop it, you tease.

Devour mightily. I know it looks insanely simple but this is just mind-blowingly good.

See, e.g., the carnage.

Eggplant Curry Stew

The inaugural post! Hurrah! Much like my blog, this recipe may not be the prettiest thing anyone’s ever made but it’s tasty, healthy, and made with love.

I love stews, curries, and non-traditional chilies with a passion. They’re comforting and excellent for keeping as leftovers, since they continue to develop their flavors as they hang out in the fridge. Now, I’m not following the paleo diet by any stretch of the imagination (I desperately love cheese), but I have a lot of friends who do. I also know a lot of them struggle to find new and creative ways to keep paleo while maintaining taste. The only thing un-paleo about this recipe is the olive oil, which you can easy sub out for your paleo cooking fat of choice (ghee, perhaps?).

Ingredients

• 2 decently sized eggplants (or 4-5 small ones)
• 4 oz. white mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 scallions, sliced thin
• 1 tsp. red chili flakes
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 1/2-1 tsp. cumin (it’s a strong flavor, so use at your discretion – I used the full teaspoon but I adore cumin)
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper (not essential, but quite tasty)
• 4 very ripe and juicy tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400*, wrap your eggplants in foil, and throw them in the oven for about an hour (or until they feel quite soft if you’ve got the small ones). While you’re waiting, prep the rest of your ingredients.

Ready for action!

Once the eggplant has cooked, pull it out of the foil and wait for it to cool before halving and scooping out the guts. Mash up the eggplant in a bowl and put it on stand-by for the end of the cooking.

In your (at least it was my) biggest skillet, heat up the olive oil/paleofat over medium heat and soften the garlic for a few minutes. Add the mushrooms, scallions, and chili flakes and cook until the mushrooms have browned slightly and softened.

Sizzle sizzle.

Sprinkle all the powdered spices over the mushrooms and mix them up, then keep cooking for a few more minutes. Because the spices have stuck to the mushrooms, they’ll mix in to the final stew much more evenly than if you just bunged them in with the rest. Once your kitchen smells sufficiently awesome, add the chopped tomatoes with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and simmer them until the liquid is bubbling and delicious. Finally, add the eggplant and coconut milk and let it all come together for about 10 minutes. Serve the tasty result by itself or over rice, quinoa, or even pasta. Mmmm, leftovers!!

Stew-pendous! (told you I liked puns…)