A couple of weekends ago the fella and I went to visit some friends in Milwaukee to catch up, meet their newest bull mastiff and go bulk food shopping. As a result much fun was had and we came home with a gallon of marinated artichoke hearts, a barrel of kalamata olives and 5 pounds of paneer to list only a few items of bulk insanity. Artichokes and olives have therefor been making a lot of appearances in our cooking as of late. Being the curry freaks we are I figured that paneer would be gone in no time. Turns out finding interesting dishes other than saag paneer is more difficult than one would think. Fortunately we are resourceful and the Internet is on our side.

When I put the fella in charge of finding something delicious to make involving paneer he stumbled upon the rather interesting site of Indian Food Forever. Any Indian dish youve ever wanted to make is there and easy to find but the recipes are like a scavengers hunt of randomness. The ingredient lists are not in any logical order and the instructions call for the already mangled ingredient list willy nilly. So its a good Indian cooking research with recipes that need to be translated into something usable before cooking, youve been warned.

At first green pea and paneer curry sounded a little dubious. But as the chef and I sat on the couch writing and let the fella do the cooking we started to smell the awesome that was emanating from the kitchen. It was about then I stopped doubting dinner would be delicious and started wishing dinner was ready.

It was a nice change to eat something this fabulous without having to be involved in its creation, the chef and I both agreed. The fella had a huge dinner success and got to carry around the smug look of someone who made the two resident foodies coo over a perfectly spicy Indian dinner. Though we have now officially started to play with the somewhat scary precedent of trying to one up one another in making spicy food. I made a kidney bean curry with three jalapenos, the fella paneer with 4 serranos and I can only imagine what the chef will do with 5 chilies when its his turn to cook. Im sure it will be wonderful if dangerously spicy

Mattar Paneer

2 medium onions, chopped (divided use)
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 cup ghee or coconut oil
1 pound Paneer

1 tablespoon ginger, grated
4 bay leaves

1 tablespoon turmeric powder

1pound shelled green peas
3 green chilies, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1cup plain yogurt

1 cups water


In the food processor make a paste out of one of the onions, the garlic and the coriander.

Heat the ghee or coconut oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Cut the paneer into 2 inch cubes. Fry the paneer to light brown then remove to a plate.

Add the remaining onion, ginger and bay leaves to the oil in the pan and fry until the onion is golden brown. Then add the turmeric and the onion paste mixture and fry about another 5 minutes.

Add the paneer, peas, yogurt, chili, tomato and salt to taste. Stir for 5-6 minutes over low heat until well combined.

Pour in the water and simmer gently for 20 minutes or until the sauce thickens a bit. Serve the matar paneer sprinkled with garam masala and coriander if you like.

Original recipe from IndianFoodForever.

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The fella has been missing pizza just a teeny bit.

It used to be his Tuesday night ritual to buy the cheapest most unspeakable frozen pizza to eat while doing the geeky things he does on Tuesdays with his friends while I work. Apparently its called gaming or something. Everyone has their flaws so I try to pretend this one doesnt exist by refusing to understand it.

Some people juggle geese. Some people sit around pretending to be demons and necromancers while playing with tiny painted figures. Some people decide to cook highly complicated meals 7 days a week and then freak out at random intervals about it being too difficult. If the person is worth it you grin and bear their silly hobbies and soldier on. Really Im more concerned about his ability to have eaten those cardboard pizzas for so long.

After several months of being unable to slather gluttony rounds of dough with mounds of cheese hes been getting punchy. We drive by pizza places and he starts to drool. At night he would mumble the name of his lost mistress, pizza. Any mention of the word would cause him to go wide in the eyes and tap his veins begging for a fix.

Okay so it wasnt quite that bad. There were times that he looked at me however and I couldnt tell whether he was imaging that I was a pizza he was about to eat or if he was wondering how he could back out of this diet before losing his cheese loving mind. It was time to find a way to make this man a pizza.

Enter almond flour and all the wonderful things that can be made out of it. Weve been on a bit of a kick with it lately, satisfying cravings all over the place by using it. So it was only natural that about this time I stumbled upon a nut flour pizza crust recipe. And lo the heavens opened and the fella said “woo flipping hoo” when I sent him the link letting him know pizza was imminent.

When the faithful night of pizza making arrived we were both bouncing with excitement. Then we started making the crust mixture and got a bit concerned. It was really runny and didnt look like any crust Id ever made before. It didnt seem like it was thick enough to not run all over the pan. And how was this wet mess going to solidify enough to put toppings on it in just 5 minutes of baking? We were seconds away from thawing something from the freezer as we watched the crust do a whole lot of nothing in the oven.



Miraculously I pulled it from the oven and it was a nice firm crust like texture. We let it cool to firm up a bit more and started throwing toppings on it. It withstood being covered in sauce and veggies so things were looking good. I pre-sauted the vegetables assuming the vegetables wouldnt have enough time to cook on such a delicate crust and was right. Unless you like raw veggies on your pizza, cook them to your preferred level of doneness before this goes back in for round two. Topped with some sundried tomatoes and Havarti and we were drooling as hard as the dog does while we cook.

This was fabulous! It looked and smelled and had the texture of pizza. It doesnt taste like the real thing exactly but its a great fake out. The only problem is you really need to oil whatever surface youre baking this on or it will never let go of the pan. We spent a lot of time dislodging our pizza before being able to eat it.

Im sure this will become a regular fixture on our menus. That sound you hear is the fella sighing with relief. His favorite food is a possibility again.

Flourless Pizza Crust

3 eggs
3 tablespoons yogurt
1 tablespoon oil
1/ 2 teaspoon baking soda
1/ 2 salt
6 ounces ground almonds
1 teaspoon vinegar

Preheat the oven to 360. Line a round pizza pan with baking parchment, make on a silcone tray or oil your pan VERY well. This crust will stick like crazy.

Whisk the first five ingredients together in a bowl until frothy and starting to thicken slightly.

Beat in the ground nuts and vinegar and spread onto the baking parchment in an even, thin layer. It will be like thick batter, not a sticky dough. It doesnt look anything like pizza crust at this point but dont worry.

Bake for 5 minutes until just firm but not colored. Leave crust to cool a little before spreading your chosen toppings on and re-baking until the edge of the pizza base is golden brown and the cheese melted. Youll want to pre-cook any vegetables you plan on putting on this pizza in order to soften them, they wont have much time to cook before the crust is ready to be removed from the oven.

Original recipe from Straight Into Bed Cakefree and Dried blog.

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This is literally the easiest bread recipe in existence.  The hardest part about it is finding the coconut flour to cook it with.  Coconut flour I must warn you is not cheap.  I think a pound was $12 at my local grocery store.  But it is worth it for the experience and to try a totally new flour.  Coconut flour is ridiculously high in fiber and about a 45 on the glycemic index so it is perfect for this diet.  I really enjoyed having a bread that was different than anything else Ive ever baked, its naturally sweet and has a crisp outside and tender chewy middle that makes it have the mouth feel of toast without actually requiring a toaster.

Actually a word of warning on that issue, unless you have a very narrow toaster, because this makes such a tiny loaf the bread, it will just fall in the toaster never to be heard from again.   So if you want it warm just stick it in a warm frying pan for a minute or so to get warm.  Another thing, grinding up unsweetened coconut you already have at home will not make coconut flour no matter how finely you grind it.  Believe me Ive tried and I havent figured out how to fake it with out lumpy horrible results so this is one case where Im going to have to advise you to suck it up an pay full price at the store for it.  You wont be sorry you did. 

Coconut Flour Bread

6 eggs

1/2 cup melted coconut oil 

1 tablespoons agave nectar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup coconut flour 

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a small buttered loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. 

From the Nourishing Days blog.

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At this point chicken piccata is probably like a gin and tonic, no one really needs a recipe for it, at some point it just became a part of the collective conscious. Just to be a brat not only am I going to post about it even though everyone and their dog knows how to make it, Im going to go ahead and post two recipes for it.

This is all Giada De Laurentiis fault. I just dont get the big deal about her, she doesnt cook anything super special it is all head slappingly easy and involves way too much butter. And this is coming from someone on the cream and butter diet, as so many of my friends have dubbed it. This is how most people probably feel about Rachel Ray, I realize. Which is fine. More thirty minute meals for me and more needlessly butter clogged arteries for them.

I was willing to give her a try though so on a low maintenance cooking night I pulled up her version of chicken piccata and followed it to the letter. The fella made pea pods with sesame seeds. We then sat and looked at the lake of butter on our plates for a while. Six tablespoons of butter and five tablespoons oil for two chicken breasts? It was ridiculous and didnt add anything to the dish. We certainly couldnt taste the lemon or capers, not to mention the peas pods as everything was overwhelmed by the barrage of butter. The leftover were not good. It was a chicken breast in butter sludge, I wasnt impressed.

This didnt make me want to try any more of Giada De Laurentiis recipes. What it did make me want to do is make my own version of the same recipe which is much lower in fat and higher in flavor. Its something that came out of a cookbook of my mothers that Ive played with over the years to the point that I have the portions down to the way that the flavors seem perfect to me. Obviously Id suggest making my lemony slightly salty version if the chicken piccata mood strikes you so thats the one Im posting here. Hunt for Giada De Laurentiis recipe at your own risk or if youre looking for an excuse to eat a stick of butter but feel guilty just chewing on it straight out of the fridge.

My Chicken Piccata

4 chicken breasts, pounded flat
2 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup white wine
1 glove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons capers
2 tablespoons butter
fresh lemon slices

Pound chicken breasts flat then season with salt and pepper. Over medium heat add oil to a skillet. Saute the chicken for 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and pour excess fat from pan.

Deglaze pan with wine, then add garlic, cooking until slightly brown and the liquid is reduced to half. Add broth, lemon juice, and capers.

Return chicken to the pan and cook for one minute on each side or until cooked through. Transfer the chicken to plates for serving.

Finish liquid in pan by adding butter and lemon slices. Warm until butter is melted and sauce is creamy then pour over chicken breasts.

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