WordPress informs me, that it is our 6 year anniversary! What better occasion for such a divine little cardamom plum and berry tart such as this. I’ve really only been actively blogging for closer to 6 months, but the intention has always been there, I was just too shy all those years. Now here I am, baring it all, showing the world my gluten-free delights and stories about baby poo. They say the magic happens right outside your comfort zone, which strikes a chord on my heart strings. My imagination has doubled in size since I started Naked Cuisine, I’m always dreaming up the next best recipe to make your tastebuds smile. So thanks for reading, it makes me really happy 🙂
Today’s recipe is inspired by my friend Irene who I got to see today for the first time in years, it was really fun catching up, life changes so quickly but reconnecting with old friends always feels like no times passed at all. I remembered her love for cardamom, a spice which I don’t use much anymore because of J’s distaste for it. However, he is mad. Cardamom is a little green gem of deliciousness, the worlds third most expensive spice by weight only outdone by vanilla and saffron. The most amazing spices always have such brilliant flowers. You’d almost think this delicious tart was inspired by the cardamom flower, a striking resemblance. Some sort of subliminal affair.
“Flower of cardamom” by Reji Jacob
If you don’t have access to saskatoon berries you can substitute blueberry and even just use all plums. I really like a silky smooth, almost jam like filling so I strained the plums in a cheesecloth, feel free to skip this step if you like the tart peel and seeds of the berries.
1 C fresh or frozen berries (saskatoon, blueberry or blackberry)
3 Tbs coconut sugar
8 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed OR 1 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ C toasted coconut (optional)
Instructions
Add plums and berries to a saucepan and cover on low for about 5 minutes.
Add coconut sugar,vanilla and cardamom and leave to simmer for another 5 minutes.
In a food processor or high-powered blender add almonds, raisins,salt and coconut oil. Blend until mixture is thick and uniform.
Press crust evenly in a springform pan ideally or a pie dish, coming up about an inch on the side of the pan. Set aside.
In your blender or using a hand blender puree the plums and berries. Push through a cheese cloth and combine the strained liquid with 2 Tbs coconut oil.
Spread the plum sauce evenly on your crust and place in the fridge to set for at least an hour.
Top with toasted coconut flakes.
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Happy to be a member of the rebel score over at fight back fridays on the food renegade, check it out!
This Balsamic Roast Chicken recipe is pretty enough to serve at a gathering of friends, with a nice glass of wine, but easy enough to throw together in a pinch. It’s one of my favourite ways to eat roast chicken, especially served alongside roasted fingerling potatoes and tomatoes.
Lately I’ve had a crush on balsamic, that lush black liquid mixture of sweet and tart all at the same time. I made a balsamic reduction, and the simplicity amazed me. I’ve always bought the pre made stuff and assumed it was difficult to make at home but it’s totally easy and you save a bit of coin. If you aren’t familiar with balsamic reduction, also known as balsamic glaze or syrup, it is the essence of the vinegar in sultry gooey form. It’s much sweeter than regular old balsamic, though Nigella Lawson adds additional sugar in her recipe for balsamic syrup (for use with desserts). A word of caution when making balsamic glaze, if you aren’t paying attention it can turn into one of those pots you have to throw away because whatever you burned in it is there for life. Eek. Yeah so just keep a watchful eye and it’ll be fine. The same goes for coconut oil and raspberry sauce, which I once forgot about and burnt down half of the bake shack at the restaurant I worked in. After I made this balsamic reduction we went for a little drive, for some reason I thought I’d left the burner on and we turned the car around, speeding home and praying for the house not to be on fire. Thankfully I was just being overly cautious, pretty sure balsamic would be nearly explosive in terms of fire starting foods. You can smell it strongly as it reduces, a saving grace, and if you have an overhead fan, you are lucky, my whole house infused with balsamic.
How to make Balsamic Reduction
Ingredients
-4 C balsamic vinegar
Firstly, you can make a large amount or small, double the recipe or halve it. The original amount of balsamic vinegar will reduce by about half if you desire a thin reduction or reduce it down to 1/4 if you’d like a thicker glaze like consistency. This is the basic formula, all you need to do is bring the vinegar to a simmer and stir it every now and again until it thickens up to coat the spoon and pan to your liking. Just keep a hawks eye on it, you wouldn’t want this black gold to burn.
Uses
-drizzle over sweet fresh berries
-use as a final touch on special dishes
-mix with olive oil for dipping bread or dressing potatoes
-great with pork chops and grilled steaks dishes
-serve on grilled peaches or nectarines with a nice soft cheese
-mix with melted butter to dress steamed green beans or beets
Balsamic Roast Chicken+ How to make Balsamic Reduction
Author: Chantelle
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1 whole chicken (free run if possible)
1 lb fingerling or new potatoes
6-8 small fresh tomatoes, halved
10 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs balsamic reduction
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs dijon mustard
½ tsp sea salt
fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F.
In a roasting pan arrange chicken in the center, spread the potatoes around the chicken.
In a small bowl, mix together the balsamic vinegar, reduction, olive oil, mustard, garlic, sea salt and pepper and half the basil. Pour over the chicken and potatoes evenly. Put a lid on the roasting pan and place in the oven for about an hour and a half or until internal temperature has reached 175-180F ( cooking time depends on the size of your chicken- 1½ hours would be for a 3 lb. chicken)
Place the tomatoes on a separate roasting pan and sprinkle with sea salt, roast the tomatoes for about an hour.
Serve with extra fresh basil and balsamic reduction drizzled on top.
This is one of those 20 minute throw together meals that turn out really good. I wasn’t even expecting to post this but they were so yummy so I thought I should share with all of you lovelies. My cooking style sometimes gravitates to a hardcore fusion of many styles and ethnicities, I guess this one would be tex-mex meets italian, and for some reason, it works. These mexi bison lettuce wraps paired with a smoky paprika basil mayo really hit the spot, and they are totally healthy and easy to make too, bonus! These tasty little wraps would also make a great appetizer for a dinner with friends, or a great addition to any potluck.
I love simple food that’s healthy and delicious. Wrapping things is lettuce or chard is a handy little trick for getting a main and a salad all in one bite. The variations are endless, basically you just choose what meat/lentil/nut filling you desire and add spices and veggies to that. So in the past I’ve made these with ground chicken, thai red chillis, lime and ginger with carrots and zucchini YUM. Or you could use soaked lentils mashed with indian curry spices, red onion, mango and toasted seeds for a vegetarian lettuce wrap. These mexi ones were inspired by summers first fresh local heirloom tomatoes (yeah folks, up in Canada these take awhile) my love affair with tomatoes only started once I’d tasted a real tomato like these, not the patented won’t-soggy-your-sandwich variety. If you don’t have fresh basil for these I would definitely use some fresh cilantro. Oh and if you can’t get bison, just use ground beef, it works just as well.
This is so extravagant, I want to eat this brazil nut pesto on absolutely everything! Why haven’t I thought of this before? The magical mineral rich nut is the ideal candidate when you don’t have/want pine nuts. Sunflower seeds, yes, very yummy substitute as well as almonds, but they still don’t equate to the awesomeness of selenium rich brazil nuts. Its pesto season, my friends, and I am lapping it up and licking the spoon, I suggest you do the same.
Potato salad is quintessential summer food and the addition of pesto is bloody good. Adding in little additional greens helps to mop up extra saucy goodness, crunchy onion,kale and swiss chard were on hand and worked beautifully. New potatoes or baby potatoes work the best since they are so tender and the texture is just melt in your mouth. Check out your local farmers market for the best of the best, after all, food that grew close to home always tastes better. Today at the store I needed some garlic and there was a sale bag full of organic garlic imported from Chile for 3.50, then there was a brilliant purple hued russian heritage variety grown locally and each bulb was the same price as the entire bag from Chile. Although I go throw garlic like a mad woman, I had to get the local stuff, I know it’s a million +1 times better. Still, this discrepancy in local fare costing far more than imported needs to change. Maybe a time will come when we can barter skills and trade commodities instead of fueling this global trade economy, because lets face it, we’re not doing the environment any favours, nor ourselves. I’m not saying that it will ever be 100%, there are plenty of useful things we can only get from other countries, but when our food security is at stake, or worse, doesn’t exist at all, something has got to give.
It’s the little things that count, one person cannot change the world, but collectively we can shift this paradigm. Our hearts know this beautiful world is possible. A new UN report says small scale organic farming is the only wayto feed the world, that’s right, not GMO’s and mono crops, humanity has always known this. Our amnesia is only temporary, as more reports like this start to come out it becomes blatantly obvious that we need to reconnect with the earth & remember, we are all connected. Thanks for reading friends.
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese, or nutritional yeast for vegan version
1/4 tsp sea salt
fresh cracked pepper
For the potato salad
1 lb new potatoes
1/4 of a red onion, thinly sliced
3 leaves swiss chard, kale or other greens, finely chopped
1/2 C mayonnaise
1/2 C pesto
Instructions
Pesto
In a blender or food processor, start by adding the garlic, brazil nuts, basil and cheese, start blending and slowly add the olive oil until mixture starts to become smooth, add salt and pepper.
Potato Salad
Boil water for the potatoes and cook until tender. Allow potatoes to cool before proceeding.
Mix the pesto and mayonnaise together, or leave the mayonnaise out for vegan
Add the cooled potatoes, kale, chard and onion to a large bowl and incorporate the pesto-mayonnaise until everything is well coated. I like to use my hand and mash the potatoes up a bit so that they absorb the most sauce.
My quota for a happy Sunday, equals, lazy sleep in, beach time, happy animal blessings- a huge frog, our resident soaring eagle and the hummingbird who says hello now and again. An afternoon spent making Kimchi (working on perfecting the recipe) 8 bountiful jars to be exact and to top it all off this melt in your mouth, even the cat licked the plate, brown butter pear & apple crisp, oh my! No oats were harmed in the making of this crisp, it’s grain-free and oh so nourishing. I really wanted that carmel brown butter effect, it goes so beautifully with pears, but you could definitely swap it out for ghee, or coconut oil and make this palesupeofied (super paleofied). If you aren’t fully into the dino-chow and you enjoy a few toasty oats, check out my blackberry rhubarb crumble and sub the berries and rhubarb for apples and pears. But I promise you won’t miss the oats, really, you don’t even need ’em to have a luscious summer crisp as this.
Getting a little fancy, a scoop of coconut ice cream ( I like larry & luna’s) is divine atop this creation! Of course its also delicious naked as it is, which is how I will be having it for breakfast tomorrow, with a nice coffee.
There’s really nothing better than dessert for breakfast. I wonder how bulletproof coffee would taste with a little brown butter?
In a small saucepan, melt butter (If using ghee or coconut you can skip this step) on medium low heat until the milk solids start to turn brown, this usually takes about 5-7 minutes. Set aside.
In a cast iron skillet add 1 Tbs of brown butter as well as the apples, pears and vanilla. Cover and allow fruit to get nice and soft before removing from heat.
Mix together the almond meal, sea salt, cinnamon, walnuts, coconut flour and the remaining brown butter to form a crumbly topping.
Sprinkle topping on the fruit mixture and put skillet in the oven for 10 minutes.
Add some extra walnuts on top and serve
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Mmmmmmm…enjoying the fruit while it’s here! Love, love, LOVE.
& a delicious quote to inspire your soul.
“As it is, we are merely bolting our lives—gulping down undigested experiences as fast as we can stuff them in—because awareness of our own existence is so superficial and so narrow that nothing seems to us more boring than simple being. If I ask you what you did, saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted yesterday, I am likely to get nothing more than the thin, sketchy outline of the few things that you noticed, and of those only what you thought worth remembering. Is it surprising that an existence so experienced seems so empty and bare that its hunger for an infinite future is insatiable? But suppose you could answer, “It would take me forever to tell you, and I am much too interested in what’s happening now.” How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god? And, when you consider that this incalculably subtle organism is inseparable from the still more marvelous patterns of its environment—from the minutest electrical designs to the whole company of the galaxies—how is it conceivable that this incarnation of all eternity can be bored with being?”
~ Alan Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Hey I'm Chantelle, my alter ego would be a mermaid if I wasn't such a terrible swimmer. I love writing authentically and cooking in my pyjamas. My favourite pastimes include eating avocados, travelling the world and hanging out with a toddler.
