Chermoula Chicken Boulettes AKA Paleo Chicken Balls on Sticks with Magic Sauce

Chermoula sauce is like fairy dust of the kitchen, it turns all it touches into magic food. Chermoula is a North African blend of warm spices, citrus and herbs in oil which is drizzled on everything from fish to meat and veggies. It can be used as a marinade, or a dressing. And I always wish I made a double batch, so I can drizzle its magical powers on everything. 

The chicken meatballs are so simple it is almost primitive cooking, two ingredients. Without the chermoula sauce they are almost unremarkable. Organic turkey or chicken is a good choice for all the reasons we know, environmental, health,  antibiotics, nutrition and animal rights. But also know that the flavors of the poultry are highlighted here, and it is a good time to choose the most happy organic chicken. 

This is a great dish if you are feeding friends who may or may not be gluten free, egg free or dairy free, or paleo! Obviously not a dish for vegetarians, but if you were doing a big party, I would stick some mushrooms or tofu on other skewers and let the vegetarians get some chermoula loving too.

Ground turkey is easy to find where I live, ground chicken less so. Both work. A butcher will often grind it for you, or in a pinch use a food processor to mince larger pieces of meat.

Anyway, now you have your ground or minced chicken. Mix it with the salt and form compact 1.5 inch balls of the chicken mixture. Thread them on metal or soaked wooden skewers. Place them to rest on a foil lined baking tray to rest while the chermoula sauce is made.

Place garlic, cilantro or parsley, lemon zest, paprika, chili powder, cumin, and olive oil into a blender. A blender really does a better job here than a food processor. If you live an electronics free life, do it old school with a mortar and pestle, adding oil in bit by bit as the herbs get bashed up. The sauce is not an emulsion, spices and herbs will settle out to the bottom giving it a chunky look. The flavors will blossom over time.

Drizzle just a bit of the chermoula on the uncooked meatballs. 

If your outdoor grill is covered in a snowy glacier, cook them under the broiler in your stove. With the broiler on high, line up the chicken skewers. Turning as they brown, keep a close eye on them. If your wooden skewers begin to char, cover them with some foil. 

The balls take about 10 to 12 minutes to cook through. Baste them occasionally with more sauce, or scoop up the pan drippings and use that. A thermometer at the interior should read 170° when the balls are throughly cooked.  

Remove to a plate and drizzle that chermoula sauce over them like crazy. 

Note: For individual appetizers, these can be cooked under a broiler in the same manner without the skewers. After the balls are cooked, plate up with some toothpicks. 

Chermoula Chicken Boulettes

16 medium meatballs, 4-5 servings

For the chermoula sauce:

4 cloves garlic

1/2 cup cilantro or parsley

zest of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon chili powder

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 cup olive oil

pinch of salt

For the chicken balls:

1 pound ground or minced chicken

1 teaspoon salt

4-5 skewers (soak if wooden)

Find this and 101 other meatball recipes in my new book Global Meatballs! I know, that is seriously a lot of meatballs. 

I embark on a Freezer & Pantry Challenge - no grocery shopping allowed!

A confluence of events has lead me to challenge myself to a Freezer & Pantry Challenge. How long can I cook meals in my kitchen without going food shopping?

Thinking of ditching my grocery shopping habit this is what I feel:

But then I thought: 

So this is the question: how creative can I be with all the things in my pantry and freezer? I also include the contents of the fridge, but that is currently pretty empty. 

Why, you wonder. For one, I am tired of all the "fresh" food I purchase going bad in days. Potatoes grow sprouts or shrivel up, lettuce melts into slime overnight. Food in Massachusetts is bleak in February. If I had all the time in the world, I would recommend shopping more often during the week. But for many people, including myself, that is not a reality. Work schedules, car sharing, snow related parking bans, all make grocery shopping less than simple. 

I normally food shop once a week. I went a week ago and decided to skip this weekend's shop in light of challenging myself. 

Two other reasons.
1) My husband rolls his eyes at the amount of food I have in the kitchen and still feel the need to go out an buy more. I like having a good selection and I have this feeling I like to be prepared, like if the zombie apocalypse ever happens. I will be able to barricade myself in my kitchen eating gourmet meals for weeks. If that happens, and you are really nice, I'll share with you.

2) Lets be honest, February was a rough month here for those of us not on salary.  All those snow days don't pay the bills.

Pictures of my pantry before I start. As I was taking these pictures I began to feel that I was really exposing something to you here. Is there such thing as a food hoarder? Do I have that problem? My large upright freezer certainly seems to. Disclaimer: I did not include a photo of my chocolate bin.

Ok, so there are loads delicious summery things in my freezer that totally should be eaten up. I deserve to take on this challenge.

To begin the Pantry Challenge, I had a nice lunch yesterday, Mushrooms, Green Peas & Black Beans. Easy as pie and it took only minutes. For one portion, sauté about 1/2 cup frozen green peas and the same amount of frozen cooked mushrooms in some olive oil. Once they are hot and sizzling add 1/2 a can of organic black beans. Add a pinch of cumin, salt and simmer until hot and steamy. 

The mushrooms give the dish a meaty element. The beans are full of fiber and protein, the peas are green and nutritious. Of course it could be made using fresh ingredients. It is just so fast and easy this way. And a good stand by for those days when you feel like "there is no food in the house." 

Because if your freezer looks like mine...there is. Stay tuned I have a busy week ahead there will be some slow cooker and pressure cooker meals comin' up!

Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies (egg free & nut free)

Paleo chocolate chip cookies that taste like soft Chips Ahoy? Made from plantains? You bet!

For all of you trying to stick to your healthy January plans, getting back to those good habits we gleefully forgot about over the holidays, this is what you should make when you are craving sweets and cookies. Because they taste sinful but are made of fruit!

For this recipe you want ripe yellow plantains. The ones I used are yellow but were not fully ripe. Its up to you, for a sweeter cookie, but more sugars, go for really ripe ones that are almost black. 

Peel the plantains, chop the fruit into smaller chunks and put 7 ounces into your food processor. (I started with a blender but it didn't work well with my semi-ripe plantains. So you will see I scooped it all into my food processor.) A vitamix would be awesome here. 

Measure various flours and sugars and baking things on top of the plantains. We have arrowroot, coconut flour, vanilla, cinnamon (optional), baking soda, coconut oil and coconut sugar. And chocolate chips, seriously. 

 

If you dont have arrowroot powder, tapioca powder or cornstarch will work in a similar way. 

Coconut sugar is one of those things, so delicious and good for you as sugars go. I love to bake with it and these days you can find it at most grocery stores. Maple syrup, honey, or cane sugar can all be substituted in the event you have eaten all the coconut sugar in your kitchen. It happens!

I love to use the mini chocolate chips I feel you get more chocolate in each bite that way. These vegan Enjoy Life ones are tasty. When I don't have those I use a bar of really dark chocolate, one that is so minimally processed, like 80% cocoa solids. The bar can be chopped up easily with a knife to get the 3 tablespoons of chips.  (Wait to add the chocolate until after all the blending, ok!

So there is the big mess of baking stuff.

(it got too messy to show in the middle here, so it was moved to the food processor.)

Now we are happily blending the life out of everything. We want it smooth. 

*Note: if it looks really dry during blending add some almond milk or something like that. start at 1 Tablespoon and add no more than a 1/4 cup. 

We are looking good! It is thick but without chunks. 

Sprinkle and fold in the glorious chocolate. (Seriously, what did humans live for before we got our hands on chocolate?) I wont tell if you put in even more chocolate. 

Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat. 

A small ice cream scooper for cookies is perfect here! This one scoops 1 and a half tablespoons. Use one of these or two spoons to make dollops of cookie dough on the paper. Keep them a consistent size so they cook at the same rate, I think 1 to 1.5 tablespoons if perfect. 

Press down the scoops to flatten the cookies. They don't melt much in the oven.

Dampen two fingers with water, to avoid cookie dough sticking, and press on the top of each cookie to flatten it, somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of an inch. So it is short. 

Bake at 375° for 10 - 12 minutes. 

The cookies with soften, puff and then sink. They have pretty cracks and the centers will set. 

Let cool on the hot pans for some minutes. When the cookies are warm you can sort of taste the plantain flavor. Once they cool, the same plantain flavor is all gone.

Soft Paleo Plantain Chocolate Chip Cookies

makes 14 cookies

7 oz peeled ripe plantain

2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder

2 Tablespoons coconut flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

3 Tablespoons coconut sugar

3 Tablespoons coconut oil

3 Tablespoons chocolate chips (or more!)

(up to 1/4 cup milk if necessary for mixing)

Note: I always regret it if I don't make a double batch of these!