by Sam Tackeff | Mar 9, 2009 | Pantry Staples, Salads, Soups
I’m a big fan of cooking a batch of basic grains at the beginning of week to have on hand for quick meals or sides. With some simple additions, these staples allow you easily prepare something tasty at all times without having to spend forty minutes cooking every meal. I try to mix up which I cook each week: sometimes it’s a pot of brown rice, other times bulgur wheat, or farro, or a combination mixture with beans.
This week I cooked bulgur wheat and chickpeas and used it as the basis for a few different dishes. (I made one batch: in a small saucepan, cover a cup of dry bulgur (I use a larger coarse grain bulgur) with two cups of boiling water and a tablespoon of olive oil. Bring back to a boil, add a can of chickpeas, turn down and simmer covered for thirty minutes or so until tender, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.)
Not Quite Tabbouleh Salad. (pictured above) Take a cup of the cold bulgur and chickpea mix, add a few tablespoons of fresh parsley, some chopped cherry tomatoes, a few teaspoons of sweet onion if you have it (I didn’t), a hint of cumin, and a few teaspoons of lemon juice to taste. Season with salt and pepper, and enjoy!
Middle Eastern Yogurt Soup: Heat a clove of minced garlic in some chili oil, or (olive oil with a bit of chili powder), add a cup and a half of yogurt, and stir until hot. Add this to a half a cup of warm bulgur and chickpeas. If desired serve with some mini meatballs. (I used Ikea swedish meatballs and it tasted just delicious.)
Just plain, thanks: served simply with a side of grilled lemon chicken and some garlicky sauteed broccolini.
Take a trip around the world: I try to come up with my permutations for these grains by picking a flavor “destination”. If I want Moroccan, I’d add some cumin, cinnamon, smoked paprika and maybe some chopped dried apricots. For France, I might add some Herbes de Provence, and some roasted fennel, and top with a lemon vinaigrette. For Greek, I might do the “not quite tabbouleh” and add some feta cheese, and cucumber. For Italian, I might add some toasted pine nuts, sage, and cubed butternut squash. I find the possibilities doing this endless, and it’s a great way to mix things up without getting bored!
The bottom line… Having these grains on hand make meals simple, make economic sense, provide a healthy alternative when hungry for a snack, and are tasty and delicious. Just make a pot!
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 5, 2009 | Italian, Sandwich
Sometimes in the afternoon I get really hungry and need something to tide me over for dinner. When this happens, one of my favorite things to put together is a simple open faced sandwich. I really try to mix it up, sometimes it’s [nutella and banana], sometimes [cucumber, cream cheese and turkey], sometimes [peanut butter, banana and honey]. (Only one slice of bread makes it healthier, right?)
An Italian Version: Simply toast a slice of bread (I used a multigrain, whole wheat slice), slather with some really good ricotta cheese, top with a warm balsamic roasted red pepper (I simply take a roasted red pepper out of a jar, put it in a little pan to heat with a couple of teaspoons of balsamic), a dollop of home made pesto, and a dash of black pepper. It’s delicious.
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 4, 2009 | Quick and Easy, Soups
I like warm, comforting, delicious stews. I think they are particularly perfect for when it is raining and cold (apparently most of the time here in San Francisco) and you just want something really easy and hearty to tuck into. I’m always looking for good recipes, and so when I saw Nigella Lawson make this chicken cacciatore for her children on ‘Nigella Express’, I went directly to the store to purchase the ingredients to start cooking. Nigella is truly one of my favorite chefs, and cooks really beautiful, easy and well.. sexy food. Her book “How to be a Domestic Goddess” is one I frequently cook from, with much success, and I just can’t get enough of her. She also has a very pretty product line with really cute stuff that I would love to fill my kitchen with.
Bay leaves: These ones that I used for the stew were part of my reserve collection that I smuggled back from Istanbul, where they grow copiously on trees on the island of Büyükada. One afternoon, my mom and I picked about a hundred of them and laid them out all over a table to dry so we could take them home with us. They are an invaluable part of my spice collection! Bay leaves can be expensive, but they are wonderfully fragrant, and shouldn’t be left out of dishes that call for them. I used three for this stew, and it was well worth it.
The smells from this stew are really heavenly, and is the perfect dish to cook for guests, yet not so finicky that you couldn’t just cook it for yourself to eat while watching the television with a beer. It took me a little less than half an hour from start to finish, and would have tasted equally good the next day for lunch (although we definitely didn’t have any left, so that is just an assumption on my part).
A Hearty Chicken Cacciatore
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
serves 2-3
Ingredients
– 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
– 1 whole clove of garlic
– 1/2 white onion
– 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
– 2 thick strips of smoked applewood bacon
– 1 pound of boneless, skinless, chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
– 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
– 1/2 cup white wine
– 1 (14 ounce) can of chopped tomatoes
– 3 bay leaves
– 1/2 teaspoon sugar
– 1 (14 ounce) can cannellini beans
Method
1. Pour some olive oil in a large saute pan on low heat, add a whole clove of garlic, the onion, and the rosemary and stir until the onion is slightly translucent, but not browned, about ten minutes.
2. Add the thick cut bacon, and fry for a few minutes. Increase the heat to medium, add the chicken and celery salt and stir for a couple of minutes, until the outside of the chicken is white.
3. Pour in the white wine, and cook for a few minutes until just simmering, then add tomatoes, bay leaves and sugar. When it comes to a bubble, properly, turn it down slightly, simmer for 20 minutes, and then turn in a can of canellini beans, until they warm up, and it’s done!
Serve with a nice hunk of bread, and a little green salad. Delicious!
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 1, 2009 | Baking
After making the beautiful Meringues Chantilly for this weeks Barefoot Blogging Challenge, I had to decide what to do with the three gorgeous deep orange egg yolks that I had leftover. I was torn. A hollandaise for the asparagus that have just come in season? Some pastry cream? A sweet sabayon perhaps? I couldn’t just rush into the decision! How would I do them justice?
Ultimately I settled on some Pots de Crème, infused with the wonderful fragrance of star anise and cardamom. Two days ago was my dear friend Sara’s birthday, and together many years ago, for a miraculous little dinner party, we had made Donna Hay’s version of these star anise creams. It was the first recipe I had cooked from her most wonderful book Flavors and such a great introduction! They were so incredibly delicious. I hadn’t really used star anise before, and was just really amazed by it’s deep fragrance, and how pretty each little star was. (Devon says they look like spiders.) Because we now live on opposite coasts, and I couldn’t be home to celebrate her birthday with her, I decided to make these in her honor.
These little custards are heavenly. I’m eating one right now. What I like best about them is that you really get the taste of the spices infused into the cream. Donna Hay’s use only anise, but after a little bit of experimentation, I added the cardamom, to mimic the flavors of Indian masala chai, a spiced milky tea.
Come to think of it, you could probably do the same type of infusion with a masala chai tea bag instead of the whole spices and it would also taste delicious… perhaps that will be my next attempt.
Star Anise Pots de Creme
adapted from Donna Hay
makes 3 small custards
(can easily be doubled)
Ingredients
– 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
– 1/2 cup milk (I used skim, but you could certainly use heavier)
– 1 clove star anise
– 2 small cardamom pods
– 3 large fresh egg yolks
– 1/4 cup sugar
– for the topping: 1/4 cup honey (optional)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 300F. In a small sauce pan, heat milk, cream, star anise, and cardamom on low heat until hot, but not boiling. Allow to simmer for a few minutes, and take off the stove to allow the spices to infuse into the cream. After about fife minutes, remove the star anise and cardamom from the mixture.*
2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, until well blended. Pour about half of the (now slightly cooled) cream mixture, and mix. Stir into the rest of the cream mixture. Pour into three six ounce ramekins (I use pyrex), and place into a baking dish filled with enough water to come halfway up the side of the ramekins.
3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the center of the cream is just barely set, and remove from the baking dish and refrigerate until cool, about two hours.
4. The last step is optional. After the cremes have cooled and set, squeeze a few tablespoons of honey on top and put for a few minutes under the broiler, until the honey is just browned. [Note: because I used pyrex, I didn’t want to use the broiler, so I simply put the honey in a small sauce pan, and stirred it until it had browned, and poured it on top.]
*Instead of throwing away the cardamom and anise after they have infused the cream, you can actually save these and make yourself some delicious masala chai by heating them with some milk, tea, and a little bit of sugar! (So delicious.)
