Stovetop Thanksgiving
How to cook a thanksgiving dinner on the stovetop. This year I celebrated the American thanksgiving with the Extreme family. Maya, our architect and Zach, our trainer are both from the states. Since Monica and I didn’t get around to baking a feast of our own this October, we decided it was only appropriate to bake a feast for all of us. For a number of reasons, this Thanksgiving feast was going to be a unique challenge. Other than the fact that our ingredients were going to be slightly different due to the fact that we’re in the Dominican, Monica is doing the Wild Rose cleanse which prohibited her from eating certain foods and I am going through my own allergy discoveries that has forced me to cut out some basic food groups. So between the two of us, we had to cut out: Vinegar Gluten Added sugar Lactose Fermented products As you can imagine, this makes cooking a thanksgiving meal slightly more difficult. Oh, and did I mention that our oven didn’t work so that we had to make everything on the stovetop? Yah, that’s right. But in true Amazon fashion (Monica and I are known as Amazons) we saw these restrictions purely as fun challenges. Maya on the other hand, could eat anything and was surely not letting our food limitations stop her from having the true American Thanksgiving she’s grown to love and cherish. She still made a point to buy stuffing, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Because the oven didn’t work, I made a roast chicken and veggies in a soup pot, and pumpkin pie in a pan. I have to admit that I was little worried about how everything was going to turn out. Cooking a pumpkin pie without sugar, eggs or an oven sounded like a waste of ingredients. It was going to taste like poop. But I figured if Martha Stewart can make apple crumple in microwave while locked up in the slammer, I can make this pie turn out half decent. I started by searing the chicken before filling the pot with big chunks of veggies and chicken broth. I let it sit on the stove at a low temperature for at least two and half hours. When it was almost don’t, I started on the pie. The first step for the pie was pressing and cooking the pie crust mixture in a pan on the stove. Then I added the pumpkin pie mixture, put a pot lid on it and let it warm up for as long as I could without burning the bottom. When the chicken was finally ready, it was fall-off-the-bone-perfect! Because it was cooked in a broth, it was incredibly succulent and delicious. The vegetables were soft and flavourful, and after we finished eating the food on our plates, we all started eating out of the pot like a group of domesticated (starved) cats. When it came to dessert I cheated a little. I knew for fact that this pie was going to taste like a science experiment gone wrong, so I decided to flambé some apples in some Brugal rum to throw on top. I was amazed to see that the crust was crispy! The pumpkin part wasn’t quite as solid as if it had been whisked with eggs and baked… but it was warm. Success? I was quite surprised when it didn’t taste like pumpkin ass, but simply a diabetic version of pumpkin puree with a nice toasty crust. Since only Monica wasn’t allowed to have any added sugar, we all added some maple syrup to our pie… or liquid gold as I like to call it. All in all, I think it was a total success. So much so that I’ve made three more chicken this way since Thanksgiving! Here are my recipes, enjoy: Stovetop Chicken: 2pd whole chicken with skin Carrots Onions Handful or garlic Potatoes Peppers 500ml to a liter of chicken stock 3 Tblp of coconut or olive oil to sear chicken Roughly cut up all veggies. Turn on stove to medium-high. In a large soup pot, put in oil and half the onions and garlic. Put in chicken and sear on all side: this means allow the chicken to get crispy on all sides. Add veggies and broth. Put a lid on top, turn to low and let sit for at least 2 hours. Periodically base the chicken with the broth. When chicken is nearly done, take off the lid and let the broth evaporate a little. Test chicken by seeing if the drumstick bone pulls off the chicken easily. Pumpkin Pie Crust 1 ½ cup of coconut flour 1 ½ cup of sunflower flour 1 Tblsp of vanilla ½ tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 2 Tblsp coconut oil ¼ cup of warm water Mix all ingredients together and firmly push into pan. On low-medium heat cook pie crust. Move pan around to make sure all sides are evenly cooked. Pumpkin Filling One large can of sugar-less pumpkin puree 1 ½ tsp of cinnamon 1-2 tsp vanilla ¼ tsp salt 1. Whisk all ingredients together and place in pie. Smooth out top and sprinkle raisins or nuts if you’d like. 2. Turn to low, place lid on top and leave until pumpkin filling is hot..warm..decent. Drunken Apples 1-2 apples 1/3 cup of rum Place apples with a bit of water in small pot on the stove and turn to medium. Let them boil a little bit. Add rum, then slightly tilt pot to the side and light with a lighter. Be careful not to put too much rum and burn your eyebrows. Serve pie while hot and add drunken apples on top, add maple syrup of honey as you wish. Bon appetite! A reminder: Cooking is very different than baking. Baking involves chemistry, while I follow my taste buds when I’m cooking. The measurements I use are estimates. Taste as you go along, and
Paleo Almond Coconut Pie
I wanted to make a paleo ice cream pie, so in true Paleo fashion, Monica and I spent an afternoon playing around with the idea of making a wheat and dairy free frozen-raw pie…froraw, a rafro, a zenraw? How would this amazing creation of goodness be created you ask? Well the masterpiece would be created in two parts. First, we would make the crust and freeze it. Next we would put in the filling and freeze it a second time. The glorious thing about making frozen pies is that you can pretty much say goodbye to unnecessary added fats, flours and fillers. Let’s start with what I mean by unnecessary fats. Butters and oil in any form generally contribute to the desserts flavour and moisture content. They make the brownies goowie and the whipped cream fluffy. Fats are generally used to cream with sugar to aerate the batter. If you check most of your recipes you’ll notice that they normally call for you to cream sugar with butter until fluffy. This, in addition to the chemical reaction you get from baking soda or whipping eggs will help rise your cakes or cookies. To return to our frozen pie, nothing needed to rise or bake, so very little fat was needed. Contrary to popular belief, you can make a delicious pie without flour. This is true even if you do decide to make a hot, baked pie. Because of the oil content in the nuts and seeds, after pressing the ground mixture into the pan and freezing it, we noticed that it was unnecessary to add any additional coconut flour for structure. *If I had decided to bake it in the oven, I would have mixed in an egg or two to get the solid effect we achieved from freezing. Finally no fillers!! The beauty of making your own food is knowing exactly what goes in it. I don’t know about you, but when I got shopping I read the ingredients on the side of the box to see what I’m potentially putting into my system. When I make a choice between two identical products, I always pick the one with the least amount of ingredients. Another trick: if you can’t pronounce it, don’t fucking eat it! Try that next time you buy canned coconut milk. I try to apply this philosophy when I bake or cook. If I can make something amazing with the least amount of ingredients, the happier I am. Baking with whole foods is the best thing for you and the planet. I’m not saying that baking soda or peppermint flavouring is bad for you, but it can be the gateway drug to other fillers. Like sinister-table-salt, back-fat-butter or mucus-making-milk. It is completely possible to make amazing goodies without any of those products. Ok, now for la piece de resistance: Frozen Coconut Pie in an Almond-Sunflower Crust. As life changing as this recipe will be for most of you, I mostly hope that you can use this recipe as a blueprint for some of your own dessert brainstorming creations. The crust can be made with other nuts and seeds like walnuts or macadamias. If you don’t have any coconut meat handy, puree some peaches, berries or bananas. For those of you who aren’t paleo followers, make a filling with thick Greek yogurt or ice cream. As a challenge, try to keep you ingredient to a minimum. Frozen Coconut Pie in an Almond-Sunflower Crust Ingredients Crust 1 cup of almonds ¼ cup of sunflower seeds 1 ½ Tbsp coconut oil Toast almonds and seeds on medium heat for 15 to 20 mins. You want the almond skin to flake off. *You want to cook the almonds first to dry out any moisture. If you were to puree the almonds without cooking them, you’d make almond butter. Not a total loss, but not the objective. Stay focused young Jeti. Let cool for 30mins then puree in food processor until you reach the texture of cornmeal. Add in coconut oil, mix well then press into pie pan (create an even, flat surface so that there are no open holes/ pores for the filling to seep into). Place in freezer for an hour. *if you prefer a thicker crust, feel free to boost up the ingredients. Filling 1 ½ cup of pureed coconut meat from a fresh coconut 1 cup of almond milk 1/3 cup of coconut cream 1 cup of cut up papaya Puree coconut meat in the food processor. Then add almond milk and coconut cream. Pour into crust filling and papaya cubes. Place in freezer for at least two hours. By the time your forehead sweat makes you squint like a pirate, your pie should be ready. Cut yourself a nice big piece and appreciate how your body temperature starts drop. Yours truly, Genevieve