Category Archives: paleo-cuisine

Almond Flour Flatbreads

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Baking, Food, paleo-cuisine, Recipe

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Please note, this recipe is based heavily on this bread recipe from Maria Emmerich. 

Ingredients

175g Almond Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Sea Salt
2 TBS Powdered Psyllium Husk
3 TBS Powdered Egg Whites
2 TBS Olive Oil
6 TBS Water
1 cup Boiling Water

Instructions

Heat a griddle to 400 degrees. This is easiest to accomplish with a non-stick electric griddle.

Cut a heavy duty quart plastic bag such that it has three of the four sides open (making it effectively a hinged pair of plastic sheets).

Combine the dry ingredients, and mix well. Add the olive oil and the non-boiling water, and mix well. Add the boiling water, and mix well.

Form a ball of dough roughly the size of a golf ball. Put it between the plastic sheets you made earlier, and use a tortilla press to flatten it. Cook the flatbread on the griddle until it is lightly browned on each side. Once you are comfortable with this, you can cook multiple flatbreads simultaneously.  This recipe should make roughly 18.

Chocolate Cake (in just a few minutes)

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by in Baking, Food, paleo-cuisine

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Please note, this is an adaptation of Barbara Kafka’s brownie recipe from her book Microwave Gourmet, modified to be free of gluten and refined sugar (other than that in the chocolate). The result is more of a cake than a fudgey brownie, but getting a soft cake in a few minutes is a win.

Have 5-10 minutes? Want Chocolate Cake?

You’ll need the following cookware:

  • A 3 cup Pyrex Baking Pan (7.6″ x 5.6″)
  • A 2 cup Pyrex Measuring Cup
  • A Microwave Oven
  • A Spatula
  • Two mixing bowls
  • General measuring devices and flatware

And the following ingredients:

  • 2 Large Eggs
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp Liquid Stevia extract OR 1/2 cup Splenda
  • 57 grams unsalted quality butter or ghee (i.e. Kerrygold, or a good grass fed Ghee if you are avoiding milk solids)
  • 85 grams of good quality Dark Chocolate (in chips, or splintered if it was whole)
  • 100 grams of Almond Flour
  • 1/4 tsp of Baking Powder
  • A pinch of Kosher Salt

First, combine the almond flour, baking powder and kosher salt in a mixing bowl.

Second, if you are using Liquid Stevia, break the eggs into a mixing bowl and add the stevia and vanilla. Beat the eggs well.

Next, combine the chocolate and butter/ghee in the measuring cup, cover, and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Remove the measuring cup (be careful, it will be hot), and blend the chocolate and butter together until the chocolate has dissolved.

If you are using the Liquid Stevia, slowly pour the chocolate mixture into egg mixture, blending constantly. If you are using the Splenda (and thus have no egg mixture), first add the Splenda to the measuring cup and mix well. Then add the eggs (one at a time) and likewise mix well, before adding the vanilla extract. Either way, the result at the end should be a chocolate mixture with a puddinglike consistency.

Add the chocolate mixture to the almond flour/salt/baking powder and fold it in with the spatula until fully blended. Then pour the resulting batter into the Pyrex pan, smooth and even it with the spatula, and cover tightly with plastic wrap (i.e. press it down onto the surface of the batter).

Cook in the Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap, and the cake is ready to serve. Refrigerate any uneaten cake.

Additional Notes:

The pan is very specifically chosen here. Pan sizes and shapes drastically affect Microwave cooking. If you want to increase the amount, make multiple batches.

You can also use this same recipe to make chocolate Biscotti. Double the amount of fat (you can also use coconut butter) to 114 grams, and cook first covered on high for 4 minutes, and then uncovered on high for 2 minutes more. When the pan is removed from the Microwave, you will see it foaming with cooking fats. As soon as the fat subsides, take a knife or offset spatula and cut thin slices across the pan (i.e. the slices should be the width of the 5.6″ side, and less than an inch thick). The cooked batter is going to harden quickly, and you want to cut it while it is soft. Leave it in the pan until it cools, and then refrigerate.

 

Paleo Brioche

14 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Baking, Food, paleo-cuisine, Recipe

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I’m quite fond of crumpets.

Well, to be more precise, I was quite fond of crumpets, now they are more of an unrequited love.

Unfortunately, while part of the rise of a crumpet is due to chemical leavening (the only real option if you are avoiding grains), part is also due to a traditional yeast rise. So, no crumpets.

But you can get something in the same gastronomic niche using a good pan, eggs, and almond flour. What you get is richer than a crumpet, because of the necessary addition of the eggs.

In a traditional wheat flour crumpet, the flour serves three purposes. It is obviously the bulk of the material of the crumpet, but it also serves as the food for the yeasts, and the gluten in it provides the structure. We don’t have flour, we need to replace all three of those purposes with alternatives.

In this recipe, the almond flour serves as the bulk material. Any nut-flour could be substituted here, but almond flour gives a nice neutral flavor. The double-acting baking powder (make sure to get aluminum free) serves as the leavening agent, and the eggs form the structure that will expand and hold the whole thing together.

Note also that I’m using good butter here (Kerrygold, salted). If you are avoiding milk solids, you could substitute a good grass fed Ghee. If you are avoiding anything dairy, substitute another oil. With that, the recipe.

Ingredients

160g Almond Flour
1 TBS Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Yeast (optional) or to taste
2 large eggs
120g Almond Milk (Unsweetened, unflavored)
56g Butter (melted)

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray olive oil on the inside of the muffin pan.

Combine the dry ingredients, and mix well. Add the eggs, and mix them thoroughly into the dry ingredients. Add the almond milk, and continue to mix thoroughly. You should have a thick but liquid batter. Add the melted butter, and again blend it thoroughly into the batter.

Using a spatula, divide the batter equally into the six chambers of the muffin pan, and spread it smoothly and evenly in each.

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the edges are becoming a dark brown. The top will likely stay a light brown. The brioche should be soft to the touch on the top, but cooked through, and browned on the sides and bottoms.

As with all nut-flour breads, refrigerate what you do not eat immediately.

 

Bo Xa Dam

09 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in paleo-cuisine, Recipe, Vietnamese

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A few years back, we encountered Bo Xa Dam at a Vietnamese restaurant outside of Denver. As it happens, the dish is very paleo-friendly, and while rice is no longer a staple, it goes very well on top of fresh greens to make a warm salad.

Bo Xa Dam

  • 8-10 oz lean beef
  • 2 medium onions
  • 1-2 large tomatoes or equivalent
  • Salt
  • Pepper

  • 1 TBS Ghee
  • 2 TBS Fish Sauce (Ingredients should be anchovies, water, and salt only)
  • 2 TBS Aged Balsamic Vinegar
  • 2 TBS White Wine

Directions

Salt and pepper the beef, and put aside for the moment.

Sliver the onions, and place in a bowl. Add the ghee, fish sauce, balsamic vinegar, and white wine to the onions.

Slice the tomatoes, and place on a serving dish.

Heat a fry pan (do not use a non-stick surface for this, although you may for the onions) over a medium-high heat. Add your high temperature oil of choice (for this I would use Lard) when the pan is hot. Sear the beef once on each side (the cooking time will vary based on your stove, but should be approximately one or two minutes on each side).

Remove the beef from the heat, and let rest before slicing it.

While the beef is resting, reduce the onion and sauce mixture over a medium heat. The goal is not to carmelize the onions (the water we’ve added would make that impossible), but cook the sauce into the onions. The sauce is ready when the onions are cooked to your preferences (some prefer them fairly firm, others softer, I tend to like them cooked soft).

Taste the resulting sauce. If you want more acid or more sweet, add additional aged balsamic vinegar. If you want more salt, or more of the savory mouth feel (umami), add more fish sauce.

Slice the beef, and then toss the sliced beef with the onions and sauce for 30 seconds, and then remove from the heat. Serve over the tomatoes, or with the tomatoes over a bed of fresh greens.