I was inspired twice today, first by a great blogger I ran across called "Joy the Baker". Great food photography!!!
The second inspiration is my defection, or at least "temporary" defection from the gluten free and grain free movements, as an experiment, through the use of papain, the enzyme of the papaya fruit.
I have never had any gluten issues, and I really don't consume much grains; perhaps some organic oatmeal, occasional quality bread and pasta. But, I do think it is best to eat as little grains as possible, or at least learn to soak your grains. But I must admit, I can't fully let them go, and I don't believe in forcing anything, or worse yet trying to enjoy bland food. What's the point?
I am convinced, however, that papaya enzymes can properly break down grains in the digestive system. That should allow me to enjoy a few occasional healthy grains, until I get to the point of mastering baking my own grain free and gluten free bread, which won't be soon. It's funny because I eat very little bread, but I still love the taste of fresh baked bread and biscuits for breakfast. Something about that steam rising from an newly opened biscuit dipped in real honey!!!!!
Anyhoo, enough science, lets get to some eatin', here is the recipe for Joy the Baker's Tomato Cobbler with Blue Cheese biscuits, I'm gonna run over to Whole Foods, get what I need and see how it turns out for breakfast tomorrow.
Tomato Cobbler with Blue Cheese Biscuits
serves 6 (My version of a recipe inspired by Joy the Baker)
For the Biscuits:
2 cups organic all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 cup Ultimate Sweetener Birch Tree Xylitol (instead of sugar in the original recipe)
1/2 teaspoon Pink Himalayan Salt
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
3 tablespoon unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
3 tablespoons coconut oil (in stead of the vegetable shortening, I don't cook with any oil except coconut oil, we'll see how this turns out, coconut oil placed in refrigerator will solidify in a few minutes, should have same effect as vegetable shortening)
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
3/4 cup cold organic buttermilk
For the Filling:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted grass fed butter
2 large organic onions, sliced
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 pounds organic cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup coarsely chopped organic basil
3 tablespoons all-purpose organic flour
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt and coarsely ground organic black pepper
To make the Biscuits:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, xylitol, and salt. Add cold butter and coconut oil (the original recipe uses shortening which I don't use, but coconut oil from the refrigerator will solidify for the same effect as the shortening). With your fingers, quickly break up the fat into the dry ingredients. Rub the fats into the dry ingredients until well incorporated. Some butter pieces will be the size of small peas, other will be the size of oat flakes. Toss in blue cheese crumbles. Stir to incorporate. Create a small well in the center of the flour mixture. Add buttermilk all at once. With a fork, quickly bring together the wet and dry ingredients. The dough will be rather shaggy. Dump dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead dough about 10 times, bringing it together into a disk. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until the filling is assembled.
To make the tomato Filling:
Add olive oil and butter to a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add sliced onions and season with salt and pepper. Cook and brown onions, stirring occasionally, until caramelized, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add balsamic vinegar and set aside. In a large bowl, toss together clean cherry tomatoes (no need to cut them), chopped basil, flour, and red pepper flakes. Add caramelized onions and toss together until everything is lightly and evenly coated in flour. Season with salt and pepper. Place rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Pour the tomato and onion filling into a square 8×8-inch baking dish. Place in the oven and bake tomatoes filling for 25 minutes.
Remove the biscuit dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out biscuit dough into a 3/4 or 1-inch thickness. Use a 1 1/2 to 2-inch round biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits. Dip the cutter in flour should it get sticky. Remove the partially cooked filling from the oven and carefully place 6 biscuits atop the tomato filling in the pan. Brush biscuit tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reshape and reroll excess biscuit dough to make extra biscuits at another time. (The shaped biscuit dough freezes very well.) Return warm filling and biscuit dough to oven and bake for 17-20 minutes, until the biscuits are golden brown and cooked through, and the tomato mixture is bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before serving. Tomato Cobbler is best served warm
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The Healthy Chef's Corner
Tomatoes contain lycopene, which has gained a lot of attention lately as possibly an effective fighter of prostate and other forms of cancer. Strange enough, the amount of lycopene available in the tomato increases in cooked tomatoes as opposed to raw.
Pink Himalayan Salt is a totally different animal that table salt in that it contains 84 minerals in perfect balance whereas table salt is 96% sodium, 3% iodine and 1% processing chemicals. Himalayan salt helps restore essential nutrients and balance the body's PH.
I swallow one of my home made papaya enzyme capsules after consuming grains or meat, or alternately eat some fresh papaya, the less ripe the better since the papaya enzyme is more active in unripe papaya. Papaya enzymes has been working wonders with gas and bloating and helps with breaking down meat, grains, and gluten.
Not just a great tasting herb, basil has many health benefits.
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