09/19/2011 
The San Francisco Chronicle has a piece today about making pan sauces out of the leftover tasty bits left in the pan after sautéing a hunk of meat. Two of the recipes there contain flour, though I suspect the first one with cod could be subbed out for coconut or almond flour. But it’s the technique that matters here.
We’re having an unseasonably warm September, so I haven’t quite registered the Fall recipes just yet. The slow cooker is still safely packed away and the grill cover is still off. But this article reminded me of one of my favorite tricks for a quick and deceptively glamorous meal.
Here it is, in a nutshell: Sear some meat, add liquid to pan after, pour sauce over meat, and serve.
A simple, and purely Paleo, treatment is to sauté chicken thighs on medium-high heat until done, making sure to get some nice browning. Remove them from the pan. Add a bit of chicken broth, juice and zest of one lemon, some garlic, and some rosemary. Let simmer until reduced a little and add S&P to taste. Pour over chicken and serve.
I’ll be sharing more pan sauce recipes with you as Fall and Winter get going in earnest here.
Coconut flour is terrible for thickening sauces, but almond meal can work.
I think the flour is for dredging the fish in, not as a thickener. Would that make a difference? It seems like it would be a less grainy choice, but maybe not?
For thickening, I’ve been using arrowroot powder. Just a Tbsp. stirred into a cold or room temp liquid before adding to the sauce.
Yea, I think you are right. It is for dusting the fish. I’m not sure how that would translate. Anyone know?