Best Chicken Ever

You will need:

• 4 chicken thighs, skin-on
• 2 large shallots, sliced
• 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 3 tablespoons avocado oil, virgin red palm oil, coconut oil, etc.
• 1 tablespoon coconut aminos
• 1 tablespoon Red Boat fish sauce
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Herbes de Provence (optional)

This is where it gets tricky: mix all of the above in a bowl and refrigerate for a few hours. Turn into a baking dish, skin side up. Roast at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Devour. You're welcome.

Adapted from Nom Nom Paleo

Pork Stew

Adapted from Adam Roberts, The Amateur Gourmet, who adapted it from Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers at Lucques.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons fennel seeds

• 3 pounds pork shoulder, cut into 1/2-to-2-inch chunks

• 6 cloves garlic, smashed

• 1 tablespoon oregano leaves, plus 3 whole sprigs

• 1 tablespoon thyme leaves

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 cup diced onion

• 1/4 cup diced carrot

• 1/4 cup diced fennel

• 2 bay leaves, fresh if possible

• 1 cup white wine

• 4 cups chicken stock

• 1 lemon

Instructions

1. Pour the fennel seeds into a small skillet. Turn up the heat to medium/low and toast, tossing occasionally, until fragrant and lightly browned. Pour into a mortar and pound with a pestle until coarsely ground.

1. Place the pork in a large bowl with the fennel seeds you just pounded plus the smashed garlic, oregano leaves and thyme. Use your hands and toss the pork and spices together. Cover and refrigerate overnight; or, if you want this same day, cover and leave at room temperature for an hour.

1. Take the meat out of the refrigerator 45 minutes before cooking. After 15 minutes, season it on all sides with 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salt and some black pepper. reserve the garlic and any excess herbs and spices.

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F.

1. Heat a large Dutch oven over high heat for 3 minutes. Pour in the olive oil and wait a minute or two (NOTE: that’s going to be a VERY hot pan, but that’s good…don’t be scared) until the pan is hot and the oil is almost smoking. Place the meat in the pan, being careful not to crowd it (best to do this in batches). Sear the meat until it’s well-browned and caramelized on all sides; it should take at least 15 minutes. Do this well and you’ll be rewarded at the end. Transfer the browned meat to a plate.

1. Turn the heat down to medium and add the onion, carrot and fennel. Stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up all the tasty crusty bits left in the pan. Stir in the bay leaves and reserved garlic and spices. Cook 6 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables start to caramelize.

1. Pour in the white wine and reduce by half, about 5 minutes. Add the stocks and bring to a boil.

1. Use a vegetable peeler to pull long strips of zest from the lemon.

1. Turn off the heat, and add the pork to the pot. Tuck the oregano sprigs and lemon zest around the meat. Cover the pan with a tightly fitting lid. Braise in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.

1. After that, carefully remove a piece of meat and test for tenderness. It should fall apart easily with no help from a knife. 

1. If you want even more flavor, pump the oven up to 400, lift the meat out on to a foil-lined cookie sheet and roast for 15 minutes to caramelize. Meanwhile, you can strain the liquid and reduce it or just reduce it with everything still in there. Taste as you do and adjust with salt.

Chowder

I love clam chowder. It's one of my favorite comfort foods. But the real deal has milk and cream, which doesn't work for we, the paleo inclined. I saw a recipe somewhere that used coconut milk, which just sounded... wrong. But I really wanted chowder and I had a pint of shucked clams in the freezer.

Just in case, I bought some ginger, scallions, lime, straw mushrooms, lemongrass and cilantro. I figured if it tasted at all coconutty, I could simply Thai the soup up.

I made homemade dashi, but you could use fish stock. Maybe 4 cups? I only measure when I bake, but that seems about right. Bring to a gentle simmer. Add a couple of cloves of minced garlic and a finely chopped yellow onion. And a bay leaf and some fresh ground pepper. Toss in as many chopped clams as you want, with the juice. I threw in some shrimp, too, and I bet scallops would be amazing. When the shrimp is done cooking - or after just a few minutes if you're being a clam puritan - add as much coconut milk as you want: a little if you like your chowder more broth, or up to a full can if you like it creamy.

I tasted my soup. No hint of coconut. The Thai accoutrements stayed in the fridge. I lapped up my chowder like a hungry Maine lobsterman. 

Gateau Tatin

Gateau Tatin

Mesdames et Messieurs, my recipe for grain-free gateau tatin. You can follow any favorite tarte tatin recipe to caramelize the apples into sweet, sweet submission with plenty of butter, sugar and a well-seasoned cast iron frying pan. I owe much to this recipe over at Smitten Kitchen for Part I.

Ingredients

• 4-5 apples; I use honeycrisp, but any firm baking apple will do
• 1/2 c. butter; I use Plugra
• 1/2 c. sugar (the recipe calls for a full cup, but that's a lot of you've cut back your sugar consumption. A quarter yielded too little caramel, but I bet 1/2 will be perfect)
• A pinch of salt

• 2 1/2 c. almond flour; don't use the well-intentioned but inadequate Bob's Red Mill brand. It's too coarse. For an almond flour primer, go here.
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. cardamom
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. almond extract

Preheat oven to 375. Peel, core and quarter apples. Melt the butter. Remove from heat, add the sugar and pinch of salt, and stir. Working in circles from the outside in, arrange apples in the pan. Place them on their sides so that they spoon each other. Keep an extra apple quarter on hand in case you need to fill a space later. Return pan to the high heat. Let boil for 10-12 minutes, or until the liquid in the pan turns dark amber. Remove from heat. Turn apples over using tongs, keeping them in their original places. If a space has opened up, deploy that extra quarter. Return to the stovetop on high heat once more. Let cook another 5 minutes and then remove from heat. Don't get all wobbly in the knees while this is happening: you don't want to burn the apples, obviously, but you do want nice, dark caramelization.

While the above gorgeousness is happening, mix the dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, making sure you break up any clumps of almond flour. In a larger bowl, whisk eggs until frothy and add liquid ingredients. Add dry to wet. The batter will be pretty thick, so spoon it over the apples and spread it with a wooden spoon. No need to go all the way to the edges - the cake will find its way there as it bakes.

Put it in the oven and bake 20-25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes, then carefully invert the cake onto a plate. Serve warm, but it's even better the second day. (It may be better still the third, but I've never had it survive that long...)

I may have occasionally doused the warm gateau with a healthy measure of good armagnac before serving. 

Bon appétit!