by Sam Tackeff | Nov 1, 2013 | Books, Lists, Meal Planning
I’m curled up in bed tonight flipping through my new Nigel Slater: “Eat: The Little Book of Fast Food” – there really isn’t anything better than that. November is here, and although I love my winter kitchen, I’m not quite ready to brave the great outdoors in the most frigid months to come. Boots? Winter running gear? A warm jacket? All of these seem too daunting to think about. Fortunately today reached nearly 70 in Boston, proving, along with a World Series win this week, that anything is possible around here.
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Here’s a list that I’ve been mulling over. I started writing it just for myself, and then realized that it might actually be useful to share here.
Let’s be honest, life is not a Pinterest board. Life as a devoted food lover is difficult. Sometimes, you want to cook an entire meal out of Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc cookbook. And sometimes, you want to cook a box of Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese and call it a night. Here’s the secret: most nights I want to cook a box of Annie’s and call it a night. In my quest to find a mid-point between the two, I have a list of meals on standby – a backup plan for my weekly meal plan. Not all of these are 20-minute meals (though many of them are), but they are all things I like and make on a regular basis. Most of them are base recipes – ideas that allow for a hundred permutations to keep things from getting boring. When I have a craving, and need a little more guidance, I’ll identify the basic combination I’d like, and I’ll flip through one of my many cookbooks to find inspired variations – maybe a spice combination, or an ingredient I hadn’t thought about. These are largely meat meals, although you can just as easily make most of them meatless.
In no particular order, things that I like to eat for dinner:
lamb chops (or chicken, or pork tenderloin, or butter beans) with salsa verde – sometimes when I’m at a loss, I’ll start first with a sauce – with the knowledge that I’ll always be able to find something to cook with it. Salsa verde is one of my favorites – herby, with a little bit of vinegar to make you pucker. You can also spoon it over roasted vegetables, potatoes, fish, you name it.
crispy chicken thighs with baked baby potatoes and tomatoes – I like tray bakes where you can just squash everything in a pan, and roast it at around 400 for just under an hour. (Usually I’ll steam the potatoes in the microwave first, so that they are soft and quicker cooking.) I’ll also make this with italian sausages, or kielbasa.
meatballs of any kind – in Turkey, meatballs are called kofte, and they are ubiquitous. I have a special kofte spice from the spice bazaar in Istanbul that I use a lot of. Or, I’ll use a different type of seasoning based on my global mood. I’ll fry these on the stove top, and eat them on salad, or with a Turkish shepherd’s salad of tomato, cucumber and parsley.
citrus mustard chicken – I’ve been doing permutations of this one for a while – there’s a good recipe for apricot-mustard baked chicken in “Dinner, a Love Story”.
tex-mex soup – sometimes it’s chicken tortilla, sometimes I go for a spicy bean soup. Back in the early 90’s, we used to take a can of refried beans, some chicken stock, and a can of Rotel, simmer it for 30 minutes and call it dinner – I think that it was probably a Weight Watchers special, but variations on this are still pretty darn good. I also make a lot of no-tortilla soup – usually with leftover rotisserie chicken.
baked fish, potatoes, and green things of choice – on Sunday, I’ll head to the market to see what I can find. Sunday is one night that I can commit to buying fish and eating it fresh. Sometimes it’s salmon, sweet potato, and brussels sprouts. Other days scallops, new potatoes, and asparagus.
dinner salad – chopped salads, “BLAT” – bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato salad, or crabmeat salad with lemon, avocado, and tomatoes – are some of the usuals. I have a few salad-specific cookbooks that I poke through for inspiration, and quite honestly salad ideas are the first things I turn to when I get a new cookbook.
yogurt marinated grilled chicken – the nice thing about marinating chicken and then grilling it (or roasting it), is that you get a flavor packed meal, and it makes it’s own sauce. I’ll marinate in yogurt and Indian spices, or Moroccan spices, or Israeli spices. Then I cook it! This goes well with green salad.
baked chicken (or eggs) in tomato sauce – sometimes it’s a creamy tomato sauce, sometimes it’s Marcella’s quick tomato sauce, sometimes it’s a jar of Rao’s. When I want it slightly more exciting, I’ll add a tablespoon of curry powder and finish with a little cream.
Indian carrot salad with ground lamb (or) Vietnamese cucumber and carrot salad with ground beef – the idea here is to use well seasoned ground lamb or beef, to top a crunchy vegetable salad that is loaded with fresh herbs, and dressed with a bright dressing. For the Indian version I season my lamb with a homemade curry powder, and make an acidic dressing with lemon, cumin, ground coriander, and toss with plenty of fresh coriander (cilantro). For the Vietnamese version, I cook the beef with five spice powder, and make a dressing with lime and fish sauce, and top with lots of mint, cilantro, and basil.
chicken sausage and grilled pineapple – sometimes you just want a little sweetness. I’ll grab the chicken sausages with apple (or the Chardonnay ones from Trader Joe’s in a pinch), and then grill them with some pineapple wedges. When I eat this, I rarely make a vegetable, and feel a little bit like a picky three year old. But it’s good!
refried beans, eggs, and tortillas – Sometimes I’ll cook up some ground meat to mix with the beans, and usually I’ll eat mine over some greens instead of with the tortilla. This one has long been a house favorite.
I could keep going, but this list will keep me cooking for a while. What are some of your go-to easy peasy meals?
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 18, 2013 | Photography
One of my favorite places to be in the Fall is next to (not in) a body of water. Rivers, oceans, reservoirs, lakes, creeks, anything will do. I pace the Charles River to think, meander on the Harbor Walk daily before and after work, and head to the ocean when I can. I love when the sky is white-grey, the water blue-grey, and then that moment when you turn around and everything on land is vibrant in contrast – deep greens, auburn, gold and twinkly. In New England you blink and winter will cast that grey light on everything, so I’m doing my best to soak in the colors right now.
These were a few shots from New Hampshire this weekend, the little island town of New Castle, right next to Portsmouth. There have been houses here since the early 1600’s, and with a view like this, it’s not surprising why.
I’m nearly incapable of being in front of the camera without being silly.
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 9, 2013 | Fitness
Some years ago I went regularly to yoga classes in San Francisco led by this yogi Pete Guinosso. Pete was more of a coach figure than a spiritual leader, and he’d make me laugh out loud on the mat. Many people go to yoga for a calming, zen-like experience, but I have a hard time keeping it together without giggling at yoga and like being alert to work on my form – so this higher energy environment was the perfect fit for me.
Pete’s teaching style was fun, athletic, and he was an insightful guide. As someone with a lot of disconnect between brain and body (to the great consternation of my weight lifting coaches), Pete was always able to make suggestions that clicked for me, allowing me to really dig into my poses and get the most out of my practice.
Once a week, Pete led a Candlelight yoga class, about as close to zen as I could get without feeling weird about things. The studio was warm, dark, and cozy, and we’d settle into deep poses with nothing but the light of flickering candles around us. It took me years of yoga that I didn’t like all that much to find this class that I loved, and I was deeply sorry to leave it when I moved out East.
So lately – me and yoga? We’ve been having a rocky relationship. It’s easy to feel like giving up when you are forced to move on from something so comfortable and right. Since then, I’ve had a hard time finding a class that I love. I went to a dozen classes at Prana, but I don’t do so well with hot yoga, and could never find a time that stuck. And then there was the class where I had less than six inches between me and my neighbor, and he kept on flinging sweat in my direction, so by the end of the hour I had a puddle on my mat that wasn’t my own. After that delightful experience, I sanitized the mat in bleach, rolled it up, and couldn’t compel myself to go back.
But I guess times are changing, that’s what the fall does for me – opens me up to new experiences. On Monday morning I woke up before sunrise to head into town to try a new class with my coworker Elyse. Our team does a lot of extracurricular fitness in the mornings – there are the resident golfers, the 40-mile-ride-before-9 a.m. contingent, the gentlemen who do speed work on the track, the November Project stadium climbers (and Summit Ave. summiters), and I’m always up for a little peer pressure to get some early morning workouts in. Cara Gilman, a Boston yogi who happens to be married to one of my coworkers, was leading a free class at Back Bay Yoga, with my fave lunch spot sweetgreen providing breakfast, so I thought it’d be the perfect chance to ease myself back onto the mat.
Oh, this class!! We spent a lot of time opening the shoulders, working the upper body, and practicing balance. While my flexibility will take some time to return to where I once was, I felt strong and energized throughout – a world away from the last few classes where I spent a lot of time curled up in child’s pose. Afterwards there was yogurt, granola, pumpkin bread, cider, and $5 free credit to sweetgreen – so, pretty much the best reason to wake up before 7am ever. Next month? I’ll be back for sure.
That’s me on the left with Cara and Elyse, post-yoga, but pre-coffee. The matching sweatshirts? No, we didn’t plan that.
Have you found a yoga class you love?
Back Bay Yoga
364 Boylston St Boston, MA
backbayyoga.com
Sweetgreen
659 Boylston St Boston, MA
sweetgreen.com
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 8, 2013 | chicken, Meat
When I attempt to produce any sort of creative work, there’s often a lot of “what I should have produced” that holds me back from sharing the actual thing that I did produce. No clear picture of a dish? Well, then scrap the entire post. And then I have to remind myself that Nigel Slater writes these great little essays about food for the Observer, and rarely do I ever need to see a picture…to get the picture. No, I’m not comparing myself to Nigel here. Just giving myself a little pep talk. So here’s dinner, from a few days back.
Trader Joe’s has these boneless skinless organic free range chicken thighs, and they are my kitchen salvation, despite their only flaw – a lack of delicious chicken skin. While not the whole chickens from the farm that I’d get in San Francisco (sigh…), these chicken thighs are my favorite quick chicken option – because they have taste, they cook quickly, and they are forgiving if you forget them on the heat a little too long. Also, admittedly I do not love having to cut off the head and feet of my chickens before eating them, sorry. Also, while I very much enjoy roasting whole chickens, I do not enjoy eating whole chickens, mostly because I think that white meat is a waste of time. It’s all about the thighs, guys. All about the thighs. Because everyone seems to need another recipe for chicken in the rotation, here’s what I did this week.
This is more of a method that I use, and I’m not sure that it’s the best method, but it’s quick and easy. Basically, it’s taking a fat of some sort, browning the chicken on one side for a few minutes, then popping the lid on the pan to steam it a little bit. Then you flip them in the fat, cook a little more, add some vegetables, cover the lid, steam those, take the lid off, cook a few minutes more and by the end you get sort of crispy chicken that’s caramelized, and soft vegetables. I do this most often with pancetta, chicken and greens. But you don’t have pancetta, you could use bacon, or even salami. And you could choose whatever vegetable you’d like, providing it doesn’t take too long to cook. (Or you could pre-steam it.)
In my large All-Clad skillet, I tossed in 4 ounces of cubed Citerrio pancetta (the small container they sell at Trader Joe’s), and turned the heat to medium to cook it slowly and let the fat start rendering out, about 5 minutes. Then, I seasoned my raw chicken thighs (about 1.5 lbs.) with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (yep, the powder…), pushed the pancetta cubes to one side and put the chicken in the melted fat in the center of the skillet. I then added a few springs of fresh thyme, turned the heat to medium high, and covered the lid for five minutes. The bottom of the chicken seared to golden while the top part steamed, and then I flipped the chicken, making sure to let the oil from the pancetta coat the surface of the pan before laying the chicken down. I cooked another five minutes, added an entire 12 ounces of shredded brussels sprouts, and covered the lid again, until the sprouts were tender, about four minutes – I tossed everything together, and that was dinner. (If you eat cheese, you can add a little of that in at the end too – a bit of brie, or gorgonzola, or if you are on a Trader Joe’s binge, a few laughing cow garlic herb wedges – they have those too.)
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 2, 2013 | Books, Challenge, Italian, Pantry Staples, Quick and Easy
Marcella Hazan, the iconic Italian cookbook author died this weekend, and like so many other food lovers, I’ve done the thing that seems the most fitting – taken to the kitchen to cook recipes in her honor. Starting with her famous tomato sauce. {Here’s a link to her obit in the NYTimes, and here’s the bible: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking – an oft consulted tome from my bookshelf.}
This is a meal I come back to again and again in various incarnations: Israeli Shakshuka, or Turkish Mememen, or with Mexican flavors sort of Ranchero style, or Greek style with lots of feta – it’s such versatile and quick meal, and lends itself to all sorts playing in the kitchen. (Usually I like to cook my own sauce, like Marcella’s here, but in a pinch, I’ll use Rao’s marinara, and the meal will come together in five minutes.)
Eggs simmered in Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce
2 cups tomatoes
1 medium onion
5 tablespoons butter
a good pinch of salt
2 – 3 eggs per person
First Marcella’s sauce, which, is perhaps her most famous recipe, likely because it has only four ingredients – and some people don’t even count the salt so we’ll call it three ingredients – but also, because it’s exceedingly delicious for so little effort. Here’s what you do: take 2 cups of tomatoes, with their juices – she recommends fresh, or a 28-ounce can of imported San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes, although, admittedly this time I had a single 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes from Trader Joe’s, and it turned out fine – and you put it in a small sauce pan. Peel a medium onion, chop it in half, and add it to the tomatoes, and then put in five (yes five) tablespoons of butter, and a good pinch of salt. Gently bring to a simmer on medium heat, and cook it uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring every so often. Do a taste check – does it need more salt? Before you serve, you’ll season, and then get rid of the onion – it’s done it’s job. You can use this sauce for pasta, or over chicken, or with some sausages, or with vegetables, or simmered with eggs.
To make the eggs – put the sauce in a large, shallow pan, and cook until warm. Make a few holes in the sauce with your spoon, add the eggs – I’ll do three eggs per person, and share the entire sauce recipe between the two of us – and cover the pan until the eggs set, about 4 minutes. Serve as is, or top with a healthy grating of Parmigiano.
