Low-Carb Chicken Paprikash

Chicken Paprikash is pretty low in carbs already, but I generally like mine with pasta, so this one is just getting some low-carb pasta instead.

Ingredients:

• Three chicken thighs
• 8 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms
• One small onion
• About a tablespoon of almond flour
• About five tablespoons of sour cream
• One pouch of Skinny Pasta fettuccini
• Enough chicken stock to deglaze (maybe 1/2 a cup)
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste

Method:

1. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs.
2. Brown the chicken thighs using medium-high heat in a deep pan in some olive oil, about 5 mins on each side.
3. Remove the chicken thighs.
4. Soften the onions in the pan.
5. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft and brown.
6. Deglaze the pan with chicken stock.
7. Take out about a quarter cup of pan stock. Mix it with almond flower. Return to the pan and stir.
8. Add the chicken back to the pan.
9. Simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked (160°F on an internal temp probe).
10. Stir in sour cream.
11. Stir in pasta.

Lemon-Caper-Dill Chicken w/ Fried Zucchini

This chicken dish gets an awkward but literal name.

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (thought the package would have 4, but one was extra large)
• juice of one lemon
• about a teaspoon of capers
• about a tablespoon of fresh dill
• about half a cup of dry white wine
• salt & pepper
• avocado oil

Method:

1. Salt and pepper the chicken.
2. Brown the chicken on both sides in avocado oil.
3. Deglaze the pan with wine.
4. Add lemon, capers, and dill.
5. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

I spent my 20-30 minutes making fried zucchini.

• 2 zucchini, cut into thin strips (I used a mandolin slicer)
• salt & pepper
• a cup or two of almond flower
• two beaten eggs
• corn oil

Method 2:

1. Dip the zucchini strips in egg wash.
2. Coat them in a mix of salt, pepper, and almond flower.
3. Fry until golden brown.
4. Season with an extra sprinkle of salt.

The low-carb zucchini turned out be a really good idea.

Gaza

Until now, I haven't said anything about Gaza. I really don't know what's to be done there. The Hamas attack on Israel was horrific. The ongoing Israeli response is horrific and tragic.

As an American, I think it would be hypocritical to criticize Israel. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda's attack killed at least 3000 Americans. I can't even calculate the hundreds of thousands of deaths that America's response caused. I don't think a lot of those deaths could be justified, but they can't be undone.

I believe one thing, though. All this death and destruction is exactly what Hamas wants. When they attacked, they knew Israel would feel compelled to strike back hard. They wanted a disproportionate body count. They wanted tens of thousands of Palestinians to die. They have never cared about the Palestinian people. They only care about weakening and destroying Israel, and the media coverage of all that carnage is causing an international backlash in public opinion against Israel.

I would love to see the killing stop, but I don't see the path. Even if Israel can be convinced to stop its campaign, Hamas will just do something to incite them to renew it. I don't know how this cycle of hate can be brought to a halt. 

Fårikål

Middle Tennessee got a pretty heavy snow recently, and I wanted something warm and comforting for this weather, so I returned to an old favorite: Fårikål -- Norwegian lamb and cabbage stew.

This involved:

• Three lamb shanks
• A smallish head of cabbage
• A quart of beef stock
• About a tablespoon of peppercorns, ground (see below)
• A few dashes of Maggi Würze seasoning
• Salt to taste (I now use Redmond Sea Salt)

And the procedure:

1. Chop the cabbage very coarsely.
2. Wash and dry the cabbage in a salad spinner.
3. Add the cabbage to a pot.
4. Salt and pepper the lamb shanks, then add them to the pot.
5. Add beef stock.
6. Add the remaining pepper, Maggi seasoning, and some salt.
7. Bring to a low boil, then cover and simmer for an hour or more.
8. Remove the lamb shanks and cut the meat from the bones.
9. Return the meat to the stew.
10. Check seasoning and then serve.

Fårikål does not normally call for grinding the pepper, but I wanted to grind it so I could rub it into the lamb shanks. The side effect is that this recipe speaks black pepper in a very loud voice; whether that's good or bad depends on how much you like black pepper.

Fish Puttanesca

This is definitely not an authentic Italian recipe. As usual, I found a recipe on Pinterest and worked around any ingredients I didn't have on hand.

 

This recipe called for capers, but it turned out that I had no capers. No real substitution, here; I just figured that the olives would carry the dish in this case.

Ingredients:

• About half a stick of butter
• Six cloves of garlic, minced
• Three anchovies
• A generous pinch of Gina's Italian Seasoning (the recipe wanted rosemary, thyme, and basil, and this contains them all)
• White wine (Chloe Pinot Grigio)
• A can of whole tomatoes
• Roughly a cup of pitted Castrelvetrano olives
• White fish fillets (Greenwise Pacific Whiting from Publix, in this case)
• Salt and pepper
• Zucchini "noodles"

My method:

1. Melt about half a stick of butter in an oven safe pot.
2. Add the anchovies and garlic and sauté briefly.
3. Add a good glug of wine before the garlic burns.
4. Add tomatoes and herbs. Break up the tomatoes with a wood spoon while stirring everything together.
5. Simmer about ten minutes
6. Add the olives and stir everything together.
7. Add the fish and place the pot uncovered in a 400°F oven (204°C) for about eight minutes.
8. Sauté some zoodles in a small pot with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
9. Take the pot out of the oven, add the zoodles to the pot, and stir.

This is the actually the first time I've really liked zoodles in anything (these came from the Publix produce department).

Please be smarter than me and remember that the pot just came out of a hot oven; don't grab the handle with your bare hand.