Paleo Comfort Foods
I've had Julie and Charles Mayfield’s “Paleo Comfort Foods” cookbook for some time. Despite reading it from cover to cover, I had not actually got round to cooking from it, until earlier this week.
I was limited for time, but wanted to make a Paleo friendly appetizer/ hors d'œuvre to take along to a Primal dinner I was going. The bacon wrapped dates recipe looked perfect. I usually try to steer away from dried fruit as it is so high in sugar, but in serving something like this before dinner each person only has two or three, so the sugar impact is minimised.
These are so many different variants of this meat wrapped dish – angels on horseback (oysters wrapped in bacon), devils on horseback (prunes of figs wrapped in bacon) and even the British favourite pigs in blankets – cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon. The version in Paleo Comfort Foods is very simple, using just dates, bacon and almonds inside.
I quite simply pitted the dates, replacing the stone with a couple of raw almonds. I then cut some organic bacon to size and wrapped it around the date, holding it in place with a cocktail stick (actually, several cocktail sticks!). I put these in the oven to crisp the bacon, turning a couple of times.
I find Australian bacon seems to contain a lot less fat than American bacon (I'm always surprised American’s get enough bacon grease left over to be able to use it for other things). This makes it harder to mould the bacon around the date, but using more cocktail sticks did the job!
I also made the Carrot & Fennel salad (again!) from the Everyday Paleo Cookbook, which is fast becoming a favourite! Why have a boring salad, when you can have something a bit different?
I love to take time cooking, but sometimes it’s nice to have Paleo dishes that can be made quickly and simply.
My Paleo Comfort Foods book is full of paper markers on all of the recipes I intend to try – hopefully I'll get a chance to try some of the sauces – Mayonnaise, Ketchup, Gravy and Barbecue sauce this weekend – handy recipes to have up my sleeve as they can go with so many meals. I'm also interested in the Paleo bread recipe – I wonder whether this would be a good alternative to offer to those friends who find bread to hard to give up?
Have you tried any of the recipes from Paleo Comfort Foods yet? Which is your favourite cookbook?
