Sitting in my garden this morning I thought about the Westin A. Price Pasadena Chapter meeting tonight and wondered what to bring. I knew I had a huge cocozelle zucchini squash that I needed to pick from my garden. It was over 20" long and weighted over 10 lbs. I could stuff it, but what with. A number of the people who attend these meetings are doing the GAPS Diet, so I wanted it to be GAPS "friendly", so to speak. This ruled out cheese and bread crumbs.
Then it occurred to me that I could make almond meal muffins and use the muffins as breadcrumbs for both the top and in the stuffing itself. I came straight from the garden into the house to make the savory muffins seasoning them with fresh picked rosemary. One of these muffins made a delicious breakfast spread with homemade raw butter.I shared one with my house mate and that left 3 for the stuffing and topping.
A little after 4:00 I picked the cocozelle split it in half scooped out the harder seeds (putting them aside to dry cause I want to raise more of these squash. I chopped up the softer insides. Half of it I stuffed with the almond muffin bread crumbs mixture (see below), putting the breadcrumbs on top as well. To the other half of the stuffing, I added parmesean cheese, and used some TJ's Quattro Formaggio (shredded mixture of four Italian cheeses) on top.
To me an empty dish tells the story. Just so you know, I have taken dishes to this meeting and brought most of it home again, at least once. Tonight I brought home a dish with only two little end pieces (one from each half) left in it. All the stuffing has mysteriously disappeared even from these pieces. I promised that the recipes for the muffins and the stuffed cocozelle would be up by morning. So, here I sit at 10:30 in the evening, making sure I keep that promise.
Rosemary Almond Meal Muffins
1 1/2 cups unblanched almond meal
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon raw honey
1 TBL ground up fresh rosemary
Note: I used Almond Meal because I wanted them to be crumbly and textured. If I'd used blanched almond flour, then the texture would have been much finer.
I used fine ground Celtic Sea Salt, because it is rich with minerals
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, combine the almond meal, salt and rosemary. In my mixer using the wire whisk (your can do this by hand) I cracked 3 eggs and whipped them on high for a few minutes until they were foamy and almost getting stiff (this is how I avoided using baking soda). I added the olive oil, and honey and gave it about 30 seconds more. Changing to the batter attachment, I began to slowly add the dry ingredients until it was well mixed.
I use paper cupcake holders in my muffin pan -- it just seems to make things easier. Because I'm not using baking soda (not gaps friendly) I fill the muffin cups almost to the top. Once they bake they will rise above the top and you'll never know that the only thing that made them rise was the eggs. I find that this recipe makes about 6 small muffins when you fill the cups almost full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool further on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature alone or with keifer cheese, homemade butter or yogurt cheese.
Coczelle Stuffing
1 lb. Dey Dey's Ground Beef (grass fed all year round)
1 onion chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 heirloom tomato, chopped
2 TBL beef tallow
3 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 small anaheim chiles chopped (optional - I happened to have them growing in the garden)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon course ground black pepper
1 teaspoon taco seasoning
1 teaspoon Course Celtic Sea Salt
2 Almond Meal Muffins -- ground up in a chopper or food processor -- or with your fingers
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 400.
1. Saute the onions, bell pepper, anaheim chilles & garlic in beef tallow.
2. Add the cumin, pepper, taco seasoning. Mix well.
3. Add the tomato and cook for a minute longer.
4. Transfer from the pan to the mixing bowl you'll use to mix the stuffing.
5. Saute the beef lightly. It's okay if some of it is rare, you'll be cooking it anyway.
6. Add that to the mixing bowl.
7. Crumble one of the muffins into the mixture and mix well.
8. Stuff the cocozelle, put it in a pyrex (glass casserole)
9. Spread the muffin crumbs from the 2nd muffin over the top.
10. Surround the coczelle with water and cook in the oven for about 40-50 minutes or till the squash is at the level of tenderness you like. I like mine a bit al dente.
For the Cheese Version
Make the Stuffing through Step 7.
To this add 1/2 cup Parmesean cheese and then continue to step 8.
Spread your shredded cheese over the top.
All the rest is the same.
If the top begins to brown, and the squash is not tender to your liking, remember you can put parchment paper or foil over the top to keep it from browning further.
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