Finding Comfort…A Review of Paleo Comfort Foods

Posted on 08. Feb, 2012 by EclecticKitchenEvolved in Eclectic Kitchen Evolved, Reviews

I have a good collection of cookery books. This is not so much because I like cooking, but because I like eating. —
Louise Brown

There’s this little thing I’m involved in that’s going on in March, here in Austin some of you may have heard about called Paleo FX — Ooh…I think I hear gasps & maybe some cheers!?! Yeah, well it’s been kind of a time suck for us — okay — that’s an incredible understatement, it’s been a vortex/black hole kind of time suck for us. To give you a glimpse at how time consuming it is — Keith and I are major football fans and yet had no idea who was playing in the Super Bowl until a few days ago…how’s that for a time suck? Anyhoo, it’s been a lot of fun but truly a major undertaking of epic proportions. So, everything else in our lives has been either on hold or has been back-burnered to the point that we’re on the verge of evaporation/fumes here. So…I’ve been complaining to Dallas & Melissa of Whole 9 that I don’t have any time to write because well, they let me complain (that’s how nice they are) but then they can totally sympathize with all the distractions and obstacles that keep them from the same. So…this is my feeble attempt at getting back at it, if for only a few minutes & etching out some time to review the amazing cookbook of some other friends of ours, Julie & Charles Mayfield of Paleo Comfort Foods. I’ve finally had the chance to cook my way through most of the book, not everything yet but I’m getting there however I have read through the entire book. Not only is the book visually appealing but all the recipes are easy to read and understand with no complicated techniques to master. This truly is a book of comfort food. One of the first recipes I was drawn to was Pickled Shrimp, first, I love anything pickled but this is a recipe I’ve been carrying to parties for years, it’s a recipe you can pass down to your children and should. It reminds me of parties long ago and brings a smile to my face, thinking about it…it’s a great entertaining recipe must have, as well as the deviled eggs recipe, which in my family are a holiday tradition that cannot be skipped for any reason. So many of these recipes will become your family go-tos that you’ll keep coming back to, over & over again. I can’t say enough what wonderful family recipes they are and how easily adaptable they are for entertaining, bringing to parties, get togethers, bar-b-ques and holidays. This cookbook is a Paleo must have.

At Caveman Cuisine, we’ve played around with many of the Paleo Comfort Food recipes, including Bangers & Mash, Chicken Tomatillo Stew, Georgian Pecan-Crusted Trout and Fish-Stick-O-Liscous that we paired with fried pickles as “chips” and we used the Fried Green Tomato batter as the base recipe to go by, tweaking it, of course, for our needs. It was pretty amazing, I must say! Some other recipes we love and have played with are the brussels sprouts slaw, paleo gumbo, jambalaya and tom kha gai (chicken coconut soup) which is seriously one of my favs! I could lap that stuff up by the bowlful, I’m a total thai food freak! Anything with lemongrass, ginger & cilantro in it, I’m totally all in, no need to ask me twice.  But one of my all-time favs we did at Caveman was make a shrimp salad with these beautiful prawns and the Paleo Comfort Foods remoulade, now I didn’t make it exactly to the recipe but it was pretty darn close and it was so incredible! We were all seriously eating spoonfuls of it!

One day I was rather ambitious and decided to tackle a lot of the baking in Paleo Comfort Foods, at once so I did the biscuits, the shortbread, the basic bread loaf and the Decadent Chocolate Cake with a Kick, as well as a few other random paleo treats. Every recipe was nothing short of amazing! I had some fresh strawberries & raspberries that I macerated in a little Amaretto and served over the shortbread and truly, it was difficult to tell the difference from having the “real thing.”  The decadent chocolate cake, which in my humble opinion, to call it decadent is an extreme understatement. However, I didn’t use nearly as much chocolate as there was called for in the recipe and it was still so incredibly rich, moist and dense. This is a cake that definitely needs some bold coffee to go with it. Really beautiful, intense and luscious with just that nice bite in the back end, for a hot little surprise. Dark chocolate heaven — perfection. The biscuits and bread were a really nice treat to have after missing bread for so long. I think having all of it at once, though was overdoing it a bit. Okay, again that’s an understatement — So I’d suggest just doing one at a time. Next time, I’ll opt for Charles’ & Julie’s biscuits and gravy…yum! Biscuits are just a vehicle for the gravy anyway, right, Mayfields!?!

Paleo Cmfort Foods Biscuits & Shortbread & other Paleo Treats

Paleo Comfort Foods Basic Bread

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy of Paleo Comfort Foods, I highly recommend that you do, it’s a must have for every Paleo household. You can buy it here or you can come to Paleo FX , see Julie & Charles Mayfield cooking their Shrimp & Grits recipe with me, meet them, buy their cookbook and get your personal copy signed by them, all right there! Now that’s what I call a real Paleo trifecta!

Paleo Comfort Food's Decadent Chocolate Cake with A Kick

Bon appétit!

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