Guinea Fowl Chilli (Tomato Free)

I don't eat chicken - ever since my days (years) spent as a Food Hygiene Inspector where I saw thousands of them coming down the line....often with tumors, growths and what not. It used to be surprising to me because they were for the most part still quite young.

However, it seems they were very prone to cancers of one sort or another. I never saw this in any other animal to this extent and naturally removed them from my diet. Actually I haven't eaten them since - instead I would tend to go for their wild fowl friends.

I really have come to like guinea fowl which is not related to the chicken, but belongs to the pheasant family. It is a lovely bird and I have written about on here before. Again, like any meat, it is not something we would eat more then 3 or 4 times a year, but when we do we love it.

This past week I had a guinea fowl to do something with and decided to make a chilli with it. Just something a little different and with a lovely combination of flavours. It turned out nicely - I have made this before and everyone has enjoyed it.

To make the chilli - I proceed in steps. First of all I slow roast the guinea fowl in the slow cooker for most of a day or a night. This way it is succulent and tender. I cooked this one in plenty of onions, garlic, sage, salt and pepper.

I take the meat off of the bones and place the meat back into the pot - keeping it on a low heat setting. The guinea fowl had lots of liquid around it so I sprinkled a little spelt flour over top to make a thicker consistency.

In the meantime I soaked some red kidney beans over night to be ready to cook once the meat was done. I always cook my beans in lots of sea weeds - so they are not tough, and the sea weed gets into the meal as well.

In another pot I made a sauce - using carrots, beetroot, sweet potato, squash, sautéd onions, garlic and leek - these were cooked until tender and then blended into a puree. Then I added generous amounts of cumin, coriander, turmeric, pepper, salt and some bay leaves. 

Next I started to assemble everything - the beans went into the slow cooker with the meat and liquid, then the sauce was poured over top of everything. I left it to blend and heat through for about an hour or so and then turned it off. 

Once it had been sitting cooling for the afternoon it was ready - the kids loved it, the guinea fowl adds a rich taste to the rest of the ingredients as well.

April 

Guinea Fowl chilli

Homemade Pizza - Tomato Free Sauce

Just because we don't eat Night Shades (tomatoes, potatoes, aubergine, pepper, chillies, gogi berries) doesn't meant that we go without anything such as pizza or pasta. Yesterday, being a Saturday and shopping day as well as having come off of another 3 days of cleansing, the kids wanted a pizza, so here is what I made...

First I had to make a sauce, commercially there is a product out there called Nomato which is a tomato free sauce (too sweet for me, but not a bad effort) however, it is still made in a factory and that is off the radar for us. Of course I have been making my own sauces for quite some time as they are so easy to make so why buy it! 

Chopped veg and herbs ready to go for pizza sauce 

To get a red sauce you simply use carrots, sweet potatoes and beetroot plus any other of the usual vegetables to make it tasty - pumpkin, onion, garlic and lots of herbs. Yesterday I used fresh oregano, chives and basil from the garden. Cooked all of this into a sauce and then pureed it to make it smooth and used a tiny bit of corn starch to thicken.

Pizza sauce cooking away - tomato free of course (tomatoes are spiritual poison)

In the meantime I made a pizza base from spelt flour, soda and yogurt, this is similar to my Naan bread which is the recipe I use to make flat breads. For a pizza I just used more herbs in the recipe and then spread the dough out over the bottom of a round pizza pan.

Spreading out the dough for the pizza base

The base is cooked separately - I always think this makes the pizza taste better as the base does not get soggy with all the ingredients on it. For toppings we used ground lamb cooked with onions and garlic, sheeps cheese, goat's feta and fresh olives from the market. 

Cooked spelt and goat's yogurt pizza base 

The end result was divine and there was not a scrap left! This is such a treat for us because I only make it about once a month or so and the taste is exceptional with all of the cheeses, herbs and freshly made sauce. 

Nothing beats fresh food lovingly prepared at home...

Have a great weekend,

April

Finished pizza out of the oven - Yumm!!