Have you seen boyhood? If not, you must. It's so incredible. The film was made over 10? years and you'd think it would be choppy or broken into periods and it's not. It's so seamless and the acting is wonderful!
And now to dinner... I'm trying to follow the motto "cook what you have" I had chicken thighs and cauliflower. I went through different ideas curry or grilled chicken and roasted cauliflower but neither sounded good. Then I remembered the celery root I had in the fridge and that I had seen on some amazing blog to use that in a cauli purée and the meal started to take shape.
Enter...Spicy Chicken Thigh Ragu over Cauli-Celery Root Purée
This purée or mash or whatever you want to call it was the best one yet. The celery root tastes like all the best features of celery, crisp and fresh. I don't really like celery too much. It gets to mushy in soup and I've never really liked it in stir frys but the root is a whole different game. And I used way less water to steam the cauli and celery root so the purée wasn't as wet as it usually is.
The chicken thigh ragu was rich, spicy and savory. It was perfect of top of the kind of sweet purée. Made great leftovers and would be great with an egg on top for breakfast. (What isn't good with an egg on top?)
Cauliflower Celery Root Purée
1 medium head of cauliflower broken in florets
1 celery root or celeriac bulb peeled and chopped in 1 in cubes
1/3 cup of full fat Coconut Milk
3 tablespoons Kerrygold butter (Use Ghee for Whole 30)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt to taste (I used salted butter so I didn't add any salt...mmmmm....salted butter)
In a large pot, combine celery root, cauliflower and about an inch of water. bring to a boil and cover. Cook until tender. Keep an eye on it as you don't want the pan to burn but you do want the water to dry out completely once the food is tender enough. (You can always drain it but this method made the puree really thick. Next, place the veggies in you blender or food processor. Add the butter, coconut milk and spices. Puree until creamy. Add more coconut milk if needed. Add salt if needed.
Spicy Chicken Thigh Ragu
Avocado Oil
1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 carrots, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
1 red or yellow bell pepper , diced (I used half of each because that's what I had)
5 cloves garlic, minced
8 green olives, chopped
1/4 cup red wine (Use broth if you'd like)
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp red chilie flakes
Salt and Pepper
1. Heat a skillet over Med-High (more high than medium). Add some oil to the pan. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Brown the chicken on the outside. It doesn't need to be cooked through just browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. If needed, add more oil to the pan. Saute the carrots, onion, peppers for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook for another minute.
3. Deglaze the pan with wine or broth scraping up all of the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.
4. Add the tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, Italian seasoning and red chilie flakes. I added way more chilie because we like it hot. Don't overdo it though, you can always add more later.
5. Add the chicken back to the pan with all of the juices that are on the plate.
6. Let this simmer for 30 minutes until it thickens. Taste it and add more spices if needed.
7. Serve the ragu over the puree and smile because its going to be good!
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