Quick Griddle Breakfast

Crappy Phone Picture of Delicious Thing

Why am I posting consistently about cravings now? Shall I make this a theme?* What a lame theme. Anyhow, I went to bed wanting to make something quick and soft with coconut flour, so I got up and made some little pancakes. My mom likes this kind of stuff, so this is for you, mom. Primal pancakes are usually overly eggy or overly crumbly, but I had a grand idea.

I'm honestly not that impressed with So Delicious coconut products. They fill a niche, I'll give them that, but it seems to be kind of a desperate least-bad-thing-when-you-need-something-milky. I like the coconut kefir when I want something yogurty and don't feel like dairy (or making my own yogurt or kefir), but it just has way too many ingredients in it. They can't even make yogurt without heaps of additives, so I just don't buy it. Anyhow, I do continue to purchase the kefir and had some in my fridge, so I put that in the batter. My recipe was roughly as follows:

1 Egg
1 TB coconut flour
1 tsp almond flour
1/8 cup coconut kefir
a dash of: Salt, cinnamon, almond flavoring, vanilla flavoring

Thats it. They came out super soft! Then I mixed some coconut kefir with coconut butter and frozen blueberries and warmed it up, pouring it over the top. I had originally intended on putting some nuts and blueberries IN the pancakes, but forgot. It'd be good. Have at it.

Happy eating!

*OK, I added a 'skewampus' tag for "breads" and makeshift, ridiculous "replacement" foods.

Ode 001: Coconut

I begin The Odes with what I believe to be the single most giving, sustainable, nutrient dense offering of the earth: The Humble Coconut.

The coconut (Hawaiian: "niu"), in all its many forms, is something that I view as being capable of singlehandedly being able to support the lives of other creatures. We can take from it water, food, fuel, and protection. We can build from its shell-- tools, weapons, and drinking vessels. Its fibery husk ('aha) provides kindling, filtration, nets, cords, and ropes; the palm's fronds can be woven into mats, tied into brooms, or used with kukui nuts to make candles. The trunk can be built into musical instruments, furniture, and canoes.

The coconut itself, though, holds the real magic. As a young fruit, the flesh is soft, sweet, and jelly-like. It matures into a crisp, juicy nut, which can be eaten, dried, grated, pressed for oil, or boiled into milk. It is full of nutrients and medium chain fatty acids, one of which is Lauric acid, which is converted in the body to Monolaurin, which is anti-bacterial and supports the body's ability to fight lipid-based nasties (like herpes, HIV, influenza, etc). Another of it's medium chain fatty acids is Capric acid, which transforms into mono-caprin, which is then anti-microbial. The oil itself, as we know, is massively stable and is dissimilar to all other vegetable oils in that it doesn't oxidize in cooking. It is nourishing for the skin when applied topically and, as a sunscreen, blocks many of the 'cancer causing rays' while allowing your body to continue producing Vitamin D from the sun! I'll mention that I've always heard that coconut water-- which is truly hydrating and naturally potassium rich (thats an electrolyte, you know)-- can be used in place of plasma during emergency blood transfusions.

In one canded photo of my kitchen, once, I spotted no less than four coconut products. Some that I can think of off-hand:

Coconut Oil
Coconut Water
Coconut kefir
Coconut Milk
Coconut Flour
Unsweetened Dried Flakes/Shreds
Young Coconut Flesh
Old Coconut Flesh
Coconut Vinegar
Coconut Aminos
Coconut Butter
Coconut Cream
& Creamed Coconut
(That may have been less annoying had I cut the word 'coconut' from every item)

For my commemorative first Ode (as well as my primal birthday celebration), I will post three recipes: A traditional Hawaiian dessert, Haupia; Coconut Sour Cream; and Coconut Stir-Fry.

ODE TO THE COCONUT! First comment gets A PRIZE-- just list 5 (real, primal) uses for coconut that I didn't mention.

Cold Coconut Chicken Tamales

This is a primal recipe-- no grain (masa) used! The texture of coconut flour lends itself perfectly to cornmeal/masa recipes. I needed a car/finger food for my 20 hour drive to Georgia and tamales sounded so, so good. I worked hard to develop this recipe. They're GREAT cold and the texture is just dreamy. However, the process is VERY involved, as tamales are famous for. So, set aside a few days and get the big kitchenware out. Be prepared to be amazed.

Note: I hardly ever add salt, but it was needed in certain areas of this recipe. I used fine himalayan pink salt for this one.

CHICKEN AND FILLING

Butter ... for browning

Garlic ... 4 or 5 cloves

Onion ... 1/2 of a huge one or 1 whole regular

Whole chicken ... Just one

Brown a whole chicken in a large stock pot with butter. Add Garlic and onion.

Boil the buggah for like 2 hours, maybe more. It should faaaall apart when you grab it with tongs. Let it cool right there in the stock, after you turn off the stove. When it is cool enough, put the whole thing in the fridge. Take it out the next day and skim off the fat, then remove the chicken. Shred the meat, you don't need the skin or bones anymore (but you can save them for soup and whatnot. I don't know, you have freedom to do whatever you like, I don't mind)

Put that chicken meat in a biiig mixing bowl and shred it like mad!

Coconut oil ... 1/2 Cup

Chili Powder ... 3 TB

Cumin ... 3 TB

Garlic Powder ... 3 TB

Black Pepper ... 1.5 TB

White Pepper ... 1.5 TB

----

Salt ... 2 TSP

Red Bell Pepper ... 1/2 of one, diced EXTRA tiny

Green Onions ... 2 stalks, thinly sliced (including white)

---

Unsweet Coconut Shreds 1/2 cup

Warm the first set of ingredients in a pot on the stove simply to wake up the spices with the oil and then add Red Bell Pepper and Green Onions until the green onions are JUST softening, then turn it off and add salt. Add this to the shredded chicken and knead with your hands (Uh, make sure its cool enough, dude). Knead it some more. It should be brilliantly colored and taste AWESOME. But it should be REALLY well mixed. Don't do anything with the coconut shreds yet.

DOUGH

Coconut Flour ... 2 Cups

Eggs ... 3

Paprika ... 1.5 TB

Salt ... 2 TSP

Cumin ... 1 TB

Chili Powder ... 1.5 TB

Garlic Powder ... 1.5 TB

Coconut Oil ... As Needed (I started with 3/4 cup and went from there)

Chicken Stock ... Some

Knead all together. Add chicken stock if you need to, I believe I ended up using about 1/2 a cup. Knead it like mad! Knead it more than you did the chicken. This is going to take a while, and also be kind of an organic process, by which I mean you'll add more coconut flour, more coconut oil, a bit more chicken stock, until you believe it is JUST right and enough. It should be doughey-sticky. This didn't work at ALL for me until I added my 3rd egg (I started with 2) so don't be afraid to add more eggs, either.

COMBINING

Originally, I was using Ti Leaves to wrap these guys, but my plant didn't produce enough large ones. I'm sure you'd be OK using corn husks (though, they need soaking in advance, I think) but I used FOIL and it worked just fine. I may have felt less cool, but they worked great. Just lay a little rectangle of foil down, greased (I used coconut oil spray... mmm). Then, spoon the dough down and spread it with the back of the spoon. I had never done this before, but I grew up making sushi and stuffs, so I used a sushi roller under the foil and that method. Lay a beautiful layer of chicken down (not all the way to the edges) and-- hey, remember the coconut shreds from up the page?-- Add a line of coconut shreds to the center of the chicken! Now, roll this up and peek in to make sure the dough seals all around, then fold it up and set it aside! Everyone will probably catch on to their own method of rolling these guys after 3 or 4 tamals. Thats it! I made lots of tiny ones and a couple big ones.

When you are done, steam them. They're "supposed" to all be on end in a big steamer, but I didn't have that kind of space, so I just laid mine in my chinese steamer inside of a huge pot. They were a magnificent mound. Steaming takes far longer than I thought it one-- I think it was an hour or more-- but I just kept checking the tamales. They're done when you can peel the foil away from the tamale without it crumbling.

I froze these and took them on my trip-- they worked magnificently! Eat them nice and cold (but thawed) a dipped in Greek Yogurt and Guacamole! ENJOY!