Olive Focaccia

This is a bread I've been baking for years, and it is absolutely epic. Doesnt even need butter, but if you're feeling particularly decadent, go for it and dip a chunk of that bad boy in some seasoned olive oil or slather on that butter. You won't die, I promise... not right now anyways!

So here ya go.... the ULTRA SEKRIT RECIPE!

3 cups bread flour
1tsp salt
1 sachet yeast
2 T olive oil
9 oz warm water
a whole mess of Kalamata olives, pitted and halved

(for topping)
More friggin olives
2 T olive oil
Sea salt
Thyme or rosemary or whatever

Method

Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in salt followed by the yeast. Pour in the olive oil and water and mix it all together to form a dough.

Turn out the dough on a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes.

Place the dough in an olive oil greased bowl and cover for about 1.5 hours until it has doubled in size. Knock back the dough by kneading it again for a minute or 2.

Knead half the olives (the ones you wont be using for topping) into the dough. Drop some in, fold it over, drop some more in, fold it over, rinse, repeat... you get the idea.

Divide the dough into quarters and then shape them into rounds. Place them onto a nonstick or greased cookie sheet and push little dimples into the tops with your fingers. Drizzle oil all over the tops then sprinkle with salt and herbs. Stick the remaining olives wherever you think they look nice, I usually stick'em in those dimples, they seem to stay put there.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden.

Transfer to a wire rack and let them cool.... This step doesnt usually work too well for me and I play hot potato while trying to tear a chunk off to munch down while its still burning hot!

They only last a couple of days so eat'em quick or give them to people you like. :)

Chicken Stock

Chicken Stock.  I make this at least once a week, freezing it into 1 cup portions and using it as needed for soups, sauces, gravies, you name it.

It is true that it is magic... no.... seriously.

The MOST important part of the stock is without a doubt the wondrously healing bones and cartilage. If cooked properly, they release a healthy dose of chondroitin and glucosamine in the form of gelatin.  Those with joint problems will recognize those two big fancy words right away, they treat joint pain.... ironic that the source for relief and prevention of such horrible things as arthritis is actually consuming, well, bones and joints!

Gelatin also is magic in and unto itself.  It acts as an aid to digestion and has been used successfully in the treatment of many intestinal disorders.

And besides just the magic from the chicken, just look at all the vitmains and minerals those veggies are ready to offer up.

It is so easy, there really is no reason NOT to do this at home.  ALL of this is lost when you use boxed, canned, and worst of all, bouillon.  At that point it simply becomes a flavoring.

What you see in the picture up there is exactly what I put in the pot.  Varying a bit with the parsley, sometimes I'll add cilantro instead for a different flavor, sometimes a sprig of thyme, sometimes nothing at all.

ALWAYS KEEP YOU CHICKEN CARCASS!!

So this is the list-
Chicken carcass, cooked or uncooked, this can be just parts like legs and wings, sometimes I'll even go to the butcher and just ask for 4 chicken backs and / or a lb of chicken feet, which are very rich in cartilage.

2 carrots, broken in half
2 celery sticks, broken in half
1 half onion, skin on (dont worry, you're gonna strain everything)
3 cloves garlic, crushed to release the oils, skins removed
2 bay leaves
2 T whole peppercorns

Please note I do not salt my stock. I do that when I am using it for whatever dish I am using it as an ingredient for. :)

So throw all that shit into a big ol' pot, and fill with water until it just covers everything.  Set on the stove at low.... THIS IS IMPORTANT!  Boiling your stock with break down the gelatin into nothingness.... defeating the entire purpose.  So keep it at a nice gentle simmer.  And I mean.... hot enough that there is just a bubble coming up every now and then. Let it bubble away for 4-6 hours to properly break down the bones and good bits.

Check this video at about 1:20 to see how the boil should look.

Once the stock is ready, I place a large mesh strainer over a large metal bowl, and just dump all that brothy goodness straight in.  I usually let it sit for about 10 minutes to let any remaining liquid to drip into the stock bowl.  From there I allow it to sit and cool, sometimes putting it into a sink full of ice, but thats only if I am rushing, and usually, I am not :)  Once cooled, divide into individual containers and voila!

Farm Fresh Breakfast

This mornings breakfast! I scored big time at the farmers market! Found a local farmer who has pasture raised cattle and sells all sorts of grass fed beef -Deep Roots Meats. I also found someone selling raw dairy and fresh eggs. So for breakfast was bread I baked this morning with raw butter smeared all over, farm fresh eggs, and beef bacon! Who'da thunk! Beef bacon! Nice alternative for folks who can't eat pork! And it was gooood.Beef bacon comes from the belly, or "navel", of the cow, just like pork bacon does. :) It was salt cured... really awesome.. at first you get the salt and fat and it seems like bacon, then you're suddenly hit with this intense beef flavor. Its like steak & eggs meets bacon & eggs! Epic breakfast for sure.

Turtle Soup

Living in Florida opens up some great adventerous seafood eating opportunities, and we just happen to live very close to an awesome little fish market that specializes in local catches. Every visit there are different offerings from the waters of Florida. From the big prize fish like tuna and swordfish, to less known local river fish and fresh specialties like alligator and frog.

I've seen turtle at this particular market before, but only frozen, and I am hesitant to buy frozen seafood with the sea at my doorstep. However today they had fresh soft shell turtle, and I didn't hesitate to grab some!

Now before anyone freaks out and says, ZOMG cute turtle! Or ONOES they are protected! First, they're not. And trust me, these guys aren't any cuter than an alligator -and living right beside them, they have to hold their own- and are definitely not sweet little gentle slow pokey creatures, they can actually be quite aggressive. Combine that with their great abundance in just about every single pond and river you can find (which is a lot), they are perfectly legal to hunt in Florida, during their season of course.

Turtle isn't as wild and exotic as you might think. The flavor is quite nondescript, and quickly picks up the flavors of what it is being cooked with. Which is probably why the most popular recipe for turtle soup is very robust with ingredients like cayenne, tomato, lemon and Worcestershire Sauce.

Ingredients
For the Stock:
1 lb turtle (soft shell, or snapping turtle), bone in
4 cups water
1 onion, quartered
2 Tablespoons whole peppercorns

For the Soup
Meat separated from the stock, bones removed and cut into small pieces
Stock
1 quarter onion
2 Tablespoons tomato puree
1 half lemon
1 Tablespoon Cayenne
2 Tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
2 Tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 Tablespoon Flour
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Ground pepper and salt to taste

In a pot bring water to a boil and add cleaned turtle meat, 3/4 onion and peppercorns.
Let simmer slowly until the meat begins falling off the bones, approx 2 hours.
Strain Stock and return it to the pot. Remove turtle meat from the bones and cut into small pieces, then return the meat to the stock, keeping on a low simmer.

Dice remaining quarter onion and sautee in olive oil in a pan until translucent. Add flour and stir until thickened into a roux. Add a ladle of the turtle stock and stir until thickened. Stir in tomato paste. Pour contents of pan into the stock pot and stir until well blended. Add parsley, cilantro, cayenne, juice from the lemon, Worcestershire Sauce, pepper and salt to taste.

Serve and enjoy what was once a delicacy to Presidents and across Victorian England. Now its simply a local pleasure.

Braised Short Ribs

This flavor is so sweet and tangy its almost BBQ-y.  I've always had an aversion to adding tomato to anything but chili, because I don't know why.  I think this recipe has changed my tune on that.


I served this up with some parboiled brussel sprouts, finished in a pan with crispy bacon.


Ingredients
1 lb short ribs
2 carrots, minced
1 stalk celery minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1/4 sweet onion, minced
1 small can tomato paste
2 cups red wine
2 strips bacon, chopped


Method
Fry bacon in a deep pot, preferably a French oven. Add veggies and saute until onions become transluscent. Add tomato paste and let it sweat for a few minutes, then fold into the veggies.  Add a bit of wine to deglaze, stirring often, then add the rest of the wine.  Add the short ribs, coating in the mixture, reduce heat and let simmer gently for approx 4 hours, turning the ribs now and then.  Enjoy!

Mojo Grilled Pork Chops

Every now and then our grocery store sells the most GINORMOUS pork chops ever, and I just cant ignore the cavegirl inside me.


And when it comes to grilling one of these bad boys, nothing will do but a mojo marinade.  This marinade is equally awesome on pork or chicken.


Just mix up the marinade below, get stab happy with a piece of pork and pierce it thoroughly, and let it marinade for 4+ hours or even overnight.


Throw it on the grill until its cooked through.  I served this up with some fresh guac and some cherry tomatoes sauteed with garlic, olive oil and green onions.

Ingredients for Marinade 
 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped 
.5 C minced yellow onion 
1 C freshly squeezed orange juice 
.5 C freshly squeezed lime juice 
.5 t ground cumin 
1 t dried oregano flakes 
.5 t lemon-pepper seasoning 
.5 t black pepper 
1 t kosher salt 
.25 cup chopped cilantro 
1 t hot pepper sauce 
1 cup olive oil 


 Method 
 Throw the garlic and onion in a food processor and pulse until very finely chopped. Pour in orange juice, lime juice, cumin, oregano, black pepper, salt, cilantro, and hot pepper sauce. Blend until thoroughly incorporated. Pour in the olive oil, and Continue until smooth.

Chicken Bits!

What to do with a whole bunch of trimmings from chicken?

GRIND THAT SHIT UP!!!

yea, nothing you can do to pretty up raw ground chicken.

Having found myself in a position of trimming rib meat and fat from a metric ass-ton of chicken breasts to feed a couple hundred people, I couldn't help but feel that little pit of guilt growing deeper and deeper exponentially as the "waste" pile also grew in size.


"What are we doing with this" - says I, pointing at the sad little tray of chicken bits.


"Tossing it?" - says She Who Was In Charge Of Kitchen


"I can has?" - eyeing the ziplocks and already concocting aforementioned chickenbits destiny.


See this is why I could never work in a professional kitchen, I am sure there are like a zillion health / weird kitchen laws I am breaking here somehow.  Plus I think I would get all neurotic over saving bones and bits and become some sort of freak animal part hoarder with one of those mystery "extra freezers" in the garage.  Because lets face it, I am already too close to that now.


And now that I have scared you all from wanting to eat at my house, ever.  Let us continue.




Ingredients:


1 lb pilfered chicken bits
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
a dozen or so shittake shrooms
2 T sesame oil
1 T Chinese 5 Spice Powder (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, Sichuan pepper, & fennel)


1 T coconut oil (or whatever cooking fat blows yer skirt up)


1 T ground ginger
1/4 C oyster sauce


Some lettuce for serving.


Method:
Throw the first 6 items into a food processor and let it go crazy til the chicken looks like something you would find online labeled "mechanically separated chicken"... which technically, I guess it is... but I do it at home... so that makes it ok.


Heat your oil in a skillet or wok and add the ginger, heating briefly. Then add the chicken and stir fry, til its all cooked through, adding the oyster sauce just at the end, blending it together completely.


Serve with lettuce, or use for some other foodventure. (which I will be doing with the other half we didn't eat last night!)

14th Century Veal Stew

 This recipe comes from the 14th century English book, "Fourme of Curye". The original recipe is as follows. 

  
Mounchelet

Take veel other motoun and smyte hit to gobettes, seeth hit in gode broth, cast therto erbes yhewe, gode wyne & a quantite  of oynouns y mynced, poudour fort & safroun, & alye it with ayroun & verjous, but lat it not seeth after.

But because I don't hate you all, here is a modern interpretation! :D

Heavily modified from the book Pleyn Delit, to suit my quantity and quality needs and personal flavor.

Ingredients:

1 lb veal, cut into

1 inch pieces

1 C almond flour

1 onion, diced

1 T fresh parsley, minced

1 tsp fresh thyme1 tsp rosemary

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp fresh cilantro

2 cups good veal stock

1 C white wine

Pinch of saffron strands

1 T raw butter

salt to taste

1 egg

juice from 1 lemon

Method

Dredge veal in almond flour and set aside. Melt butter in a heavy pot, once it begins to bubble (but not burn) place the veal in one piece at a time, allowing it to brown on all sides. Add wine and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pot and stir, adding the onions and all of the herbs and seasonings. Add the stock, stirring everything together, and allow to simmer for about an hour, stirring now and then.

In a small bowl, break and egg into a small bowl and whisk in the lemon juice. Just before serving, remove the stew from the heat and add the egg mixture, stirring quickly. this should thicken the stew a but and add a lucious golden color ( if the saffron hadn't already). Take care not to add it back into a too hot pot, or else the egg will begin to clump into unattractive eggdrop soup looking thingies.

We served this with a delish stinky blue cheese and this totally kickass fig cake that contained ONLY figs, almonds, cinnamon and anise. Also making it not only period but also paleo.

Win win all the way around! :D I'd definitely recommend making this if you want to experiment in historical foods.

Chinese Eggplant with Pork

One of my favorite combinations is pork and eggplant. And this dish hits the spot. So healthy and so filling.

Eggplant is a beautiful thing, as it is is loaded with vitamins and minerals, but its health benefits extend beyond just adding vital nutrientsl. Eggplant contains other compounds that promote good health, even to the point of helping to prevent cancer and lowering cholesterol. Once you realize how beneficial eggplant is to your health, you may want to give more consideration to it becoming a regular part of your diet. Packed full of chlorogeninc acid, and nasunun. Eggplant is also an excellent source of dietary fiber, which can help protect against colon cancer and keeps the digestive system regular. The vitamins in eggplant consist primarily of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), B vitamins, folate and vitamin C. Eggplant is also rich in minerals, boasting a large quantity of potassium, magnesium, calcium and phosphorous. (see http://www.livestrong.com/article/19046-nutritional-benefits-eggplant/)

So on to the good stuff.

Recipe:

2 Chinese eggplants, cut into rings

1 lb ground pork

2 T organic oyster sauce

2 T chinese 5 spice powder

1 T sesame oil

1 T coconut oil

1 C chicken broth

1 wholoe clove, minced

thumb sized piece ginger, minced

2 green onions, diced

sesame seeds for garnish

Method:

Soak your eggplant in salted water for about 20 minutes, I'm not sure why but this cuts back on the bitterness.

In a wok or iron skillet heat the stock to a rolling boil and cooked the eggplant briefly.

Meanwhile combine pork. 5 spice powder, garlic, ginger and sesame oil to the pork.

Strain liquid from the skillet.

Heat the coconut oil in the skillet and add the pork mixture, stirring to brown evenly. Add eggplant and oyster sauce, and stir until heated through.

Serve with sliced green onions and sesame seeds as garnish.

Enjoy!

Duck with Gai Lan

Gai lan is without a doubt my favorite vegetable. Why it is near impossible to find in American groceries store is a complete enigma to me. The closest thing that it could possibly be compared to is rapini.... which can not even begin to hold a candle to the sweet tenderness that is gai lan.

Highly nutritious with powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. It is also very high in beta carotene, vitamin K, C, lutein, zeaxathin and is reasonably rich in calcium.

I tend to stir fry it on its own with a bit of oyster sauce and chicken stock, but sometimes I will have leftovers from some of my favorite Chinese joints and will bring home loots like peking duck and crispy skin pork.

Tonight was one such night.

Recipe:

1 large bunch gai lan, chopped

1 cup sliced mushrooms (optional, we just happened to have them)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 nob raw butter

.25 C chicken stock

2 T Oyster Sauce

Leftover cooked meat such as duck or pork

Method:

Quickly cook and soften the gai lan in the stock until the stalks are tender. This shouldnt take long, as gai lan has a pleasant sweet flavor even when still crisp tender.

Add butter, garlic and meat and stir fry until everything is nice and hot and yummy looking, finish with oyster sauce stirring in completely! :D

Enjoy!

Sweetbreads in Butter with Mushrooms

Contrary to popular belief, sweetbreads are not brains. Though, for some form of strange entertainment, we could pretend they are brains anyways at the coming of the zombie Apocalypse.

Sweetbreads is the thymus gland is located at the throat, gullet or neck. Or the pancreas (heart belly or stomach). And, most famously, "Rocky Mountain Oysters", are also the same gland that in the food world we call sweetbreads.

The etymology of the word "sweetbread", considering it is not a bread, nor is it sweet is attested to the idea that it is sweet in comparison to savory muscle based meats. And "bread" most likely comes from the Old English word "brǣde", meaning roast meat.

Sweetbreads are a significant source of B12 which plays a key role in proper functioning of the brain and nervous system, as well as being a very high quality protein source.

yes, it is fugly

Unfortunately sweetbreads, like most offal, has a bad wrap... and of the offal kingdom, I will even admit it is one of the saddest most ugly bits out of the lot. But its velvety texture and mild sweet flavor more than make up for it. I promise!

Ingredients:

1 lb sweetbreads

1/4 diced red onion

12 button mushrooms, sliced

1 C chopped parsley

knob of raw butter

1 T olive oil

Enough water to submerge the sweetbreads

A splash of white wine

thyme and parsley

Method:

Rinse your sweetbreads thoroughly in cold, gently running water.

Bring your pot of water with the wine, herbs, and spices to a boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer. Add your sweetbreads into the pot. Poach for 2½ minutes so they firm up slightly.

Remove the sweetbreads from the pot, and scatter the sweetbreads across a cutting board to cool and dry off.

Once the sweetbreads are cool enough to handle,slice them into several uniform pieces.

Heat your pan. Add a splash of oil and a knob of butter. Add your mushrooms and onions and let them cook until they are nice and golden. Remove them and set aside. Add a bit more oil and butter if needed and season the sweetbreads with salt and pepper and then add to the pan. Careful not to let the butter burn, and cook the sweetbreads until they are golden brown, careful not to overcook. At this point they are ready to serve. Plate the sweetbreads and return the mushrooms and onions to the pan as well as the parsley in the last minute to heat, and drizzle the butter and mushroom mixture over the sweetbreads,

Nom.

Spicy Fried Chicken Livers

Chicken livers, right behind fried chicken, it probably my favorite comfort food. I like them battered and fried, simply pan fried in butter with only a bit of salt and pepper, and even roasted in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil. Lets not forget the multitude of pates from which they can be made, but personally, I like them in their most natural state.

Chicken livers are packed with vitamin B-12, which prevent anemia, vitamin-A in the form of retinol, alpha and beta-carotene including lycopene for your eyes, along with folate, riboflavin, selenium, iron, niacin, and phosphorus. For years they have been used by nutrition wise doctors to aid in the recovery of anemia and iron deficiencies.

For this recipe, I use a paleo friendly Southern fried variant. One of my favorites.

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken livers, cleaned.

1 T cayenne

1T onion powder

1 T garlic powder

1 C coconut flour

2-3 T coconut oil

Salt to taste

Method:

Combine the seasonings, and liberally coat the chicken livers in the mixture. Cover and place in the fridge for a few hours.

Heat the coconut oil in a cast iron skillet until hot enough to fry a tiny piece of bread.

Dredge the livers in the coconut flour one by one and place into the hot oil. Do not overcrowd the skillet, it is ok if you must do more than one batch.

Fry on each side until both sides are crisp and golden.

Allow to drain on a paper towel and salt to taste.

Serve with a veg of your choice, we like collard greens. ENJOY!

Book: Nourishing Traditions

I only thought it appropriate that I should share a few of my absolute favorite books for recipes, information, and wisdom.

And Nourishing Traditions must be by far one of my absolute favorites for traditional, whole food eating. It follows closely the wisdom and food rules set out by Westin A. Price and the Westin Price Foundation created in his honor.

The basic thought is something that is shared across all cultures. The simple fact that food in and of itself is healing, and can prevent, and even treat most any ailment. That the modern diet is obviously what is killing us, and modern medicines are only there to treat us once we are already sick, when we could be eating the foods that could prevent all this in the first place.

Simply by eating the foods our ancestors ate. And that includes the oh so forbidden animal fats. The idea that our ancestors had such shorter lifespans BECAUSE of these high fat diets is a complete misnomer. If you look at the facts, those people were dying from tragic accidents, diseases which we couldn't identify and therefor could not treat, childbirth, the list goes on. And of those that did die of natural causes, disease caused by obesity was probably few and far between.

I myself can look back at the records of my ancestors dating well back to the early 1700s and see family who lived well into their 80s and 90s. Even my great grandmother lived to see 102, still walking on her own 2 feet and still sharp as a needle. And I guarantee these people ate animal fats aplenty, cooking in lard, saving the rendered fats for use later, whole unpasteurized dairies, things that modern health tells us would shorten our lives drastically.

Instead they have us eating "low fat", chemically created and unnaturally occurring oils. But do you see us getting any healthier than our ancestors who regularly ate those things we now call poison?

I sure don't.

Of course they also ate a multitude of vegetables as well, with less meat. Meat being more expensive as it was in the past, as it should be. Meat producing factories have made meat an easily accessible commodity, and indeed we are eating more of it, and less vegetables than we aught to be. It is not the meats fault, but our own for eating too much, and too little of the mineral rich foods that comes in the form of veg.

So let me step off my soap box for this episode, and get back to my point.

This book is so chock full of wonderful, wholesome traditional foods, as well as uses for bits that are otherwise ignored or have been taught to us are "gross" (i.e offal). And along with it is information about just about every ingredients health benefits, healing properties and vitamins and minerals contained within.

I couldnt imagine my bookshelf without it.

Marinated Chicken with Sun-dried Tomatoes

This chicken recipe is rapidly becoming my favorite way to grill chicken.

The nice long marinade really releases into the chicken some wonderfully complex and luscious savory flavors.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, bone and skin on, with slits cut into it

3 small shallots, sliced

2 small garlic cloves, minced

1 green onion, sliced

About 6 sun-dried tomatoes, cut into thirds

1 C olive oil

1 C Red Wine Vinegar

2 T Fish Sauce

2 T coconut aminos or light soy sauce

Misc herbs such as thyme, oregano

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

Mix all ingredients (except the chicken) thoroughly. Place chicken breasts in a dish that is small enough but deep enough to cover the chicken with the marinade mostly, then pour the marinade over the chicken. Allow to marinate for 2-6 hours (or even overnight!).

Heat grill on medium-low and place chicken skin side down and cover and let cook for about 20 minutes. Turn and continue for another 20. Brushing the remaining marinade onto the chicken occasionally. Crank the heat to high, generously lathering one more layer of marinade and put the skin side down for a nice final char. About 15-20 mins.

Take the chicken out and let it rest for about 10 minutes (it will continue cooking with residual heat, and cutting too soon will dry it out as all the tasty juices rush out.)

Serve with veggies of your choice!

Chicken Salad

This is probably one of my most go-to uses for left over chicken.

I adore the crunch of the celery and crushed nuts, and the comforting flavors of the chicken and mayonnaise.

Ingredients:

1 Leftover chicken breast

1/4 green onion chopped

1/4 stalk celery chopped

a dozen macadamia nuts, crushed

1 T olive or coconut oil based mayonaise

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Simply combine all ingredients in a bowl, and voila!

Serve on top of fresh greens, or one of my personal favorites (SHOCK!) a halved avocado!

Spicy Tomatillo & Chicken Soup

You know you've seen them at the market, those mysterious little green tomato looking things, neatly wrapped in a paper like husk. You've probably passed them by, without the slightest clue of what to do with them. Well here, let me solve that problem for you!

Unlike its cousin, the tomato, tomatillo do not contain lycopene (it should also be noted that tomatillo are actually berries!). However to make up for this, it is packed with another lesser known phyto-chemical called withanolide, which has shown to be a promising anti-tumor agent. They are also good source of copper, iron, phosphorous, manganese, and other minerals.

Ingredients:

2 slices of nitrite free bacon, cut into pieces

1/5 sweet onion, chopped

2 jalapenos, choped

2 additional jalapenos with slits cut into the sides

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cubanelle pepper, chopped

1 T chili powder

1 t cumin

2 t paprika

6-8 fresh tomatillos, husks removed and quartered

1 green onion, sliced

1 bunch of cilantro, chopped

2 chicken breasts, precooked and cut into pieces

4 cups chicken broth (home made preferable)

1 avocado

Salt to taste

Method.

Brown the bacon in a deep pot until it starts to render its fat. Add onions, garlic, peppers and spices and stir until the onions begin to become translucent.

Add tomatillos and chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer gently for about an hour.

Remove the whole jalapenos, then break down the veggies in the pot with a hand emulsifier, or you can press the tomatillos against the side of the pot with a spoon to crush them.

Add the chicken pieces, half of the cilantro and allow to simmer for another hour. Add salt to taste.

Serve in bowls and garnish with cilantro and sliced avocado. ENJOY!

Guacamole

I am an absolute avocado obsessed freak.

So naturally, when it comes to my own guacamole recipe, I go minimal on additional ingredients to maximize the creamy, lusciousness that is just pure avocado. Sometimes, I wont even bother with the onion and tomato and just have the mashed avocado all on its own with a touch of salt. I will eat it straight up with a spoon, use it as a garnish on something like seared tuna, paired with chicken salad... the uses are endless and oh so yummy.

Ingredients:

1 hass avocado

1/4 small sweet onion, diced

1/4 small tomato, diced

1 small clove garlic, minced

1 T fresh cilantro (optional)

squirt of lime juice to prevent oxidation

salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Begin by cutting the avocado in half, and removing the pit. to remove the flesh, simply take a spoon and scoop it into a bowl. don't worry about getting it all out, just keep scraping any remnants that might stick to the shell. Quickly mash this up in a bowl with a fork, and add a squirt of lime juice to prevent any browning, and stir in.

Then add the diced onion, garlic and cilantro if using, mixing it in with your fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste. And finally, gently fold in the diced tomatoes.

ENJOY!