SWEET POTATO BACON BISCUITS

First, let me say anything that pretends to mimic bread never does it for me.  I have to get out of my head that this is a biscuit.  It's not.  It is it's own Paleo thing.  I'm coming to terms with that.   But I'm always interested in the food on the blog  Running to the Kitchen, so I tried her recipe.

Now, do I like it?  Yes.  No.  Not sure.  I guess.   It has a lot of possibilities, but I have to wait to see how these fit into a real meal.

They're tasty but a touch over-powering.  Lots of strong flavors:  roasted garlic, fresh rosemary and bacon fat.   Now with an egg in the morning, maybe it'll all fit in; but alone, something has to be cut back.

SWEET POTATO BACON BISCUITS

They have a crispy outside but a softer middle.  I would also like to consider this as a baked side dish.  Not separated into "biscuits" but as a casserole-style side dish.

Ingredients

• 1 medium sweet potato
• 4 cloves roasted garlic
• 1 tablespoon bacon fat
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 slice cooked bacon, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wrap garlic cloves and sweet potato in aluminum foil (separately) and roast for 45 minutes for the garlic and about an hour for the potato (or until it’s fork tender). Alternatively, you can microwave the potato to cook it faster, but since you need to roast the garlic, you may as well roast the potato too.
3. Remove from oven, let cool and then transfer 1 cup of the potato and roasted garlic to a medium bowl.
4. Fry the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat. Remove the bacon and let cool and pour 1 tablespoon of the remaining bacon fat into the bowl with the sweet potato.
5. Add the egg, rosemary, salt & pepper and mix to combine.
6. Add the coconut flour and baking powder and stir until thoroughly incorporated.
7. Lastly, add the bacon and fold into the mixture.
8. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
9. Spoon the batter onto the baking sheet. The biscuits won’t really change shape while cooking.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the edges start to turn golden brown.
11. Remove from oven and let cool for a couple of minutes.
12. Best served warm.

Next time I'll cut the garlic and make 12 small biscuits not six larger ones.   The original blogger says they're best served warm, but they're a lot of work for breakfast.  

UPDATE:  I woke up the next morning and not only were these biscuits soggy, but they were green.  Yes, green, as though the rosemary which I had chopped up (perhaps too finely in a grinder) had taken them over.  So disappointing.

Better Butter Chicken and Curried Vegetable Hash

I love Indian food. When I see Indian people, I crave Indian food. Clearly, I want it every day. The unfortunate truth is that it's always better in the restaurant. And, this recipe is no different.

I substituted Madras Curry Powder for the all the spices, because it seemed to have most of them in there, and it was far cheaper than purchasing them separately. I also had to use more coconut milk, because I didn't think there was enough to simmer my chicken in. The Better Butter Chicken recipe is here and pasted below.

I have made Butter Chicken before, and it was pretty close to paleo. You can find that recipe, here. If you can bargain on the cream, it can be paleo-ish. It uses Garam Masala, so maybe using that in the paleo recipe would make it better.

Curried Vegetable hash was very tasty, though. I ended up using an extra egg, because my sweet potatoes were quite large. It was a great compliment to the chicken, and actually brought the chicken up a bit, I thought. Couldn't find recipe online. Let me know if it's not in your huge-teeth lady book.  No pictures. Sorry. :)

Better Butter Chicken

2 1/2 lbs boneless chicken thighs

1 red onion diced

3 tbsp coconut oil

6 oz can tomato paste

½ can coconut milk

½ tbsp crushed garlic

½ tsp cardamom powder

½ tsp coriander powder

1 tsp fenugreek powder

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp sea salt

4 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

Cut the chicken thighs into bite size pieces and set aside. In a large skillet or soup pot, heat the coconut oil over medium heat and add the diced onion and saute until translucent.  Turn your heat down to low and to the onion and oil mixture, add the crushed garlic, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek, and chili powder and stir well to make a paste.  Add the tomato paste to the onions and spices and stir, this mixture will be very thick.  Turn your heat back up to medium and add the coconut milk and salt.  Use a whisk to blend the tomato paste spice mixture and coconut milk together into a thick sauce.  Bring the sauce to a simmer and add the chicken.  Return the sauce and chicken to a simmer, turn down to medium low, cover and cook for approximately 15 minutes or until the chicken is done all the way through – make sure you stir occasionally during the cooking process. After the chicken is cooked, add the ghee and mix into the sauce until melted.  Serve the chicken over steamed red chard or any other green of your choice.