by Sam Tackeff | Jan 1, 2013 | chicken, Pantry Staples, Turkish
Why, hello! Has the first day of this new year treated you well?
Our celebrations were quite low key last night because we’ve both been a little under the weather. We started out with the movie Haywire, but despite my serious strong-girl crush on Gina Carano, the film committed the cardinal sin of bad action films: it was boring. So boring, in fact, that I turned it off after twenty minutes. We salvaged the evening with pizza, ice cream and several episodes of MI-5, and made it (reluctantly) until midnight.
Once we realized that the world wasn’t ending, we passed out and slept in until 10. Glorious!
Today we gathered ourselves and ventured out into the world. Devon needed snow boots, and I hadn’t left the house for a while. We drove to the L.L. Bean outlet, ate lunch at the salad bar at Whole Foods, and came back to work on a few new projects, draft some more resolutions, and think about my word of the year. For dinner, I thought I’d set us straight with some salads and roast chicken.
This is one of my favorite meals because it’s simple, light, and relatively foolproof. Which of course means that I had my first kitchen failure of the year – I started my chicken skin side down in my greased pan, but the skin decided to stick nearly entirely to the pan when I flipped it over. Alas! Good thing that rosemary and oregano infused chicken minus the skin still tastes good!
I topped my salad with some tomatoes, a few baby mozzarella balls, good black olives, and some rolled up slices of pastırma, a Turkish cured meat. I made a dressing with some of the pan drippings, some of the olive oil that I keep my black olives in, and a little bit of sherry vinegar. It was a solid start to the year!
After dinner, I grabbed all of our bones and put them in my little workhorse Crockpot to make a light stock overnight. I’ll probably use it for some soup lunches through the week. Nothing fancy, but you can never have enough chicken-water in the house. Meat tea!
To top it off, we had kazandibi, a sweet Turkish dessert which means “bottom of the pot” and features a lovely layer of caramelization over a rich thickened milk pudding. In Turkey, pudding is by far one of the most popular forms of dessert, and pudding shops are more ubiquitous than pastry shops.
I picked up a few of these at Sevan in Watertown, and since they aren’t the easiest to make well at home, they were a real treat. Traditionally you’d top them with a dusting of cinnamon and maybe some ground pistachios, but since I’m impatient, I ate it cold from the fridge with nothing on it.
After dinner, I set to work making one of my favorite kitchen resolutions happen: wash all dishes and wipe down counters before going to bed each night. Nothing like waking up in the morning to a clean kitchen and feeling ready to start the day on the right note!
Here’s to a wonderful new year ahead of us!
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 27, 2012 | Books
Usually my reading pace is a book (or two or three) a week, but I’ve been starting too many lately and putting them down before I can make headway. I picked up nearly a dozen like this, until I finally found myself with food writer Peter Kaminsky‘s Culinary Intelligence: The Art of Eating Healthy (and Really Well) and I felt compelled to read it straight through. It wasn’t until I got half way through that I realized that it might be considered a “diet book”– I hadn’t actually read the subtitle – but this isn’t what I’d call it. I’d shelve it next to my copy of say, Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal, or Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin’s What We Eat When We Eat Alone. It’s a book about eating style.
Kaminsky’s sell is “FPC” or “flavor per calorie” emphasizing that when food tastes great – and isn’t made of white flour or sugar, or processed – you will enjoy it more and eat less. He re-iterates simplicity. He suggests varying your meals, and planning. For convenience, he proposes an 11-day week of at-home meals supplemented by lots of vegetables: meat one night, poultry another, fish, pasta, whole-grain risotto, beans made with vegetables, sausage or bacon, salad, an omelet or fritatta, soup, or leftovers (touched-up). These are not groundbreaking ideas, but I found the book to be a nice reminder. I also quite enjoyed the moments of memoir – hobnobbing with Francis Mallmann (with whom he co-wrote Seven Fires), or being served fish by Laurent Gras. (The recipe is in the book.)
I really enjoy reading about how people eat on a regular basis, particularly those who work in the industry in some way. When your life revolves around food, it’s all too easy to talk about the grand meals, rather than the small ones that sustain us. Maybe I just like reading about little habits that justify my own odd ones– such as my bi-weekly sardine fixes.
This morning we both woke up a little bit under the weather. (Devon had it bad, I was just sleep deprived.) So I set about doing what I know works to ward off the sickness:
1. Nutrient dense foods. It helps that this might be one of my favorite foods on the planet: a roasted lamb’s liver with roasted parsnip, topped with a parsley sherry vinaigrette.
2. Tea. When I’m not feeling well, I usually drink plain hot water, or use one tea bag and re-steep it all day long until it’s hot water that tastes a little bit like something. This was one of my special bags of Turkish black tea that I’m very fond of. The brand is called Çaykur, and the tea is labeled “Altın Süzen Poşet Çay” the gold variety of black tea.
3. Stock. Two days ago I made chicken stock after roasting a plump bird. Today, it’s some beef stock with marrow bones. I added in some vinegar, salt, bay leaves and the top of a parsnip for good measure.
In the early evening, I headed to the gym for some non-cardio-based exercise, which always seems more prudent when I’m worried that I’m coming down with something but still want to get a workout in. Unlike my normal routine, I swung by the local Y to check it out during their open house week. The weight room, to my disappointment was crawling with teenage boys. This became much more entertaining when I started warming up with heavier weights than they were working towards. Snicker.
Afterwards, I headed downtown to meet a friend at Trident. Iced tea!
While at Trident, I found myself at the Back Bay Trader Joe’s for the first time ever. It’s a hidden Trader Joe’s down an escalator! I picked up a few necessities (Devon requested orange juice) and headed home.
Yesterday I roasted this chicken with lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme :
And today I used some of the meat to make my dinner.
I’m a big fan of these pre-cooked beets. They taste much better than canned beets, but provide significant convenience if you are the only beet eater in the house and want to put together a quick meal.
I popped the beets in a bowl and dressed them with cumin, salt, some sherry vinegar and chile powder. Then I tossed in some chopped chicken breast. And topped it all with salsa and guacamole. This makes total sense in my mind, but looking back, it may be one of the odder combinations you’ve seen here.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 30, 2012 | Uncategorized
Saturdays are usually errand days around our house. My plan was to wake up and head into CrossFit, but I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and had my doubts. At 7:15 I contemplated making coffee but lay staring at the ceiling. At 7:45 it was pouring out and grey, and by 8:00 I had already covered my head with the pillow and that was the end of that.
Instead, I woke up late, and reluctantly walked the two miles to the bank with a podcast in order to make my gym-pact for the week. It was overcast but no longer raining, and the trees were bright enough to perk me right up.
Devon met me at the bank, and we proceeded to do some semi-complicated banking while learning about how the teller was the accidental fourth child, even though her mother had been about to tie her tubes. For some reason, we inspire complete strangers to tell us the most amazing stories.
My favorite of these tell-all’s was when the 20-something teller in San Francisco mentioned to us that she had recently gotten the dinosaur tattoo on her cleavage, and was excited to have a child in the future so that it would be wallpaper when he breastfeeds.
When we got home, I put together a lunch of leftover roast cauliflower with lemon, and some Za’atar chicken thighs.
Za’atar is a wonderful spice blend from the Middle East. There is no one za’atar recipe, each family has their own special mixes, and the herbs and spices vary widely in different regions and cultures. Most za’atar blends I like have a lot of thyme and oregano, some cumin, and sesame seeds. You’ll also see it with lemony red sumac, sage or mint.
I love sprinkling it on eggs, in salad dressing, baked onto pita, or liberally coating chicken thighs with the stuff before frying them up. While I’ve made my own in the past, I picked up this particular za’atar blend at Sofra, Ana Sortun’s wonderful Middle Eastern cafe in Watertown. They sell it for $4, which, frankly is a little steep for something I can make myself, but I really do enjoy the blend.
In the late afternoon, I was hungry again, and made myself a bowl of pumpkin eggs with pumpkin pie spice, topped with almond and coconut butter. This is one of my favorite fall treats, but admittedly tastes a heck of a lot better with a large dose of maple syrup in it. (Soon!)
By eight, we were both hungry for dinner, but I hadn’t quite gotten my act together. Leftovers to the rescue! I cooked up some fresh chorizo, with cumin, cinnamon, and a good dose of chile from M.F. Dulock, added the last bit of meaty tomato sauce and carrots from our beef stew, served it all over a bowl of steamed cauliflower, and pretended that we were in Spain.
After dinner, we turned on the tv and watched the most amazing show on television – Jackson Galaxy: The Cat Daddy. You might be skeptical, but this guy is a genius.
No seriously. It’s on Animal Planet, and features a tattooed gentleman who is a guitar player by night, cat behaviorist by day. He goes around with a guitar case filled with cat toys. Pretty much every episode features slightly deranged pet owners who make excuses for their pets’ bad behavior. And then Jackson comes in and does his thing, and the cats turn into well-behaved, happy animals, and their owners become slightly more likeable at the end. Enjoyable, every single episode.
(Photo via Jackson’s Instagram)
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 15, 2012 | Challenge
Weekends are a glorious thing. My perfect weekend I wake up, sip coffee in bed for hours reading, and do nothing. It doesn’t usually work out this way. After a year of fast-paced weekends, I’ve been taking things back slowly one weekend day at a time. Today, admittedly, I had planned to wake up and head to the track to meet up with folks to run. But when I woke it was raining, and I didn’t feel like driving the 20 minutes groggily avoiding angry drivers only to get soaked. I’m easing into running, I haven’t yet reached the run or die mentality. Will it come?
Instead, I made my coffee and curled up with the new issue of Edible Boston. Edible magazines are put out all over the country, and you can pick them up at fine food establishments for free!
Breakfast came in the form of this Andy Warhol-esque banana. Sweet goodness. Admittedly small, but I was planning a large brunch for myself, and this did the trick.
After leisure-ing as long as I could, I set to work on my resolution to make my house more of a home. Today I tackled a few boxes of clothes that were sitting in the corner of our room. I unpacked them, put away the ones I wanted to keep, and scheduled an appointment to consign some pieces that I don’t wear anymore.
Then I set to work clearing some clutter. The hardest thing to do was get rid of these guys: my trusty bird salt and pepper shakers, who had suffered through a few too many flight attempts off the stove. I’d been hanging on to these for some time, until I remembered one of the useful tricks from Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project – take a picture to remember the sentimental item, and then toss.
Lunch today was a simple Mexican pork stir-fry.
Devon had a burrito from Chipotle, but I decided to come home and make my own. I think it was a good choice. I did however pick up some of their guacamole, because it’s delicious, and saved me from having to pick up an avocado at the store.
I seasoned some of the freshly ground pork that I picked up at M.F. Dulock with some salt, pepper, cumin, and Rancho Gordo Chile powder. I then added some of the vegetables I had roasted yesterday, and a juicy-ripe chopped tomato. On the right there is the little piece of lamb liver I picked up, seasoned with some salt and pepper. A treat!
In the afternoon we did a bunch of errands, including two Target runs, and by the time we were home I was exhausted. I decided to put together a superbly easy dinner – Thai Red Curry Chicken Soup with Tomatoes.
This dish has four ingredients: Thai red curry paste, full fat coconut milk, homemade chicken stock, and chopped rotisserie chicken.
I cooked about two tablespoons of the curry paste in the coconut milk for just a few minutes over medium heat until well combined. I then added a few cups of chopped chicken, and about a cup and a half of chicken stock. I let the dish simmer for fifteen minutes, and then added three small chopped tomatoes and their juice. I seasoned with a bit more salt (although the curry paste is salty, so you don’t need much), and that was dinner.
Had I been slightly more prepared, I would have squeezed in some lime and added some chopped cilantro. Alas, I was out, so this is what we got.
by Sam Tackeff | Oct 13, 2011 | Dinner Parties
Isn’t Jacqueline Kennedy stunning in this photo? That fabulous dress, the pixie haircut and those perfect pearls? It just all seems so effortless.
Being social is something I have to work at. I’m not very good at it. So, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to be a better host. One of my dreams for my new home is to host calm little dinner parties for small groups of friends. The ones where you linger over glasses of wine, and stay up past your bedtime telling stories and giggling and feeling warm and cozy. I didn’t do enough of this in San Francisco – sometimes we were too busy or too tired, but too often because hosting makes me anxious.
So lately I’ve been tackling this problem the way I tackle most problems – writing up ridiculous lists in my Moleskin. This one made me chuckle when I looked back at it, so I thought I’d elaborate here. This should really be titled “8 Tips to Stop Being A Hermit, and Socialize, Mkay?” or “How to spend time with people, rather than your DVR”.
Here you go:
#1: Bring on the biscuits. A dinner party does not need to be six guests and a four course meal. A dinner party can be one guest, a meal on the floor. A dinner party can be boxes of Chinese take-out sitting cross legged. Or that ole’ standby, Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits. You know you are a sucker for those biscuits.
#2: Being Social Good, Being Hermit Bad. It’s a little pathetic that I have to remind myself of this. In college, I liked to take advantage of every opportunity to share a bite to eat with friends. 5pm was cocktail hour with Lizzy, house council meetings had fresh focaccia, and there were always late-night ice cream runs. You’d never head to dining hall to eat a meal alone – the more the merrier.
#3: Channel a Host-Master. My current one is Chez Panisse chef David Tanis – with his underground Paris supper club “aux chiens lunatiques”. If he can invite total strangers over for a meal, I can invite a friend over without stress.
On this note, a few weeks ago, Tara Austen Weaver posted the beginning of a series on how to be a consummate host, in which she shares her ”hosting anxieties”, and interviews those who feel comfortable inviting in the masses. I’m looking forward to reading more of these.
#4: You are not alone, horrified host. My fears and anxieties are shared. There was a study a while back written up in the Telegraph that found that “57 per cent of people found entertaining friends for a meal more nerve-racking than commuting to work, while a quarter said it was more testing than a job interview.” Isn’t that ridiculous? This actually makes me feel a little relieved because I never feel that badly about hosting.
#5: Put away the Alinea Cookbook . I have a terrible habit of spending almost all of my time in the kitchen in experimentation mode. This means that most meals we eat at dinner are only at 75 – 85% of perfection because I’m always trying to fiddle. While it may be tempting for the masochist to pull out the professional cookbook for entertaining, there is no shame in having a good chili recipe that works every time.
#6: Just because your mother uses a set from Shreve’s, your silverware need not match. I’m currently boasting a set of five bowls from Crate and Barrel, white with aubergine inside. My set of “dinner” plates are ones I stole from our house in Maine, vintage green stoneware “snack” plates from the 1950’s with rimmed depressions for the cups that go with them. Literally, plates designed for sitting and eating in front of the television. In the future, I’d love to have a set of beautiful tableware, but as long as the plate is functional, it’ll be just fine.
#7: Put away the bleach, your house need not be sparkling clean. It will never be as clean as it needs to be. Just suck it up, and hope that your friends aren’t jerks.
#8: Stop being boring. See those blank spaces on your iCal? Fill them. You out there, fellow anxious hosts – I implore you, invite someone over next week. Even if it is just for tea, takeout, or a box of Annie’s Shells and Cheddar (although you can do better). The only thing you need to do to have a dinner party is invite someone, just one, and there you go. It is incredibly gratifying to feed people.
After writing out my little list, I felt comfortable enough to invite over my first house guest. Despite the fact that we have no table, one chair, and we are still in the process of painting the kitchen. I made this warm chicken stew, a salad, and strawberries macerated with a little liquor, and some fresh whipped cream. I think it worked out pretty well.
Chicken Cacciatore
serves 4 modestly
with a green salad and some crusty bread
This is one of my favorite recipes adapted from Nigella Lawson for Chicken Cacciatore – she’s a fabulous hostess herself. I’ve actually written about it before, here, but I’ve perked it up a bit. Her addition of beans gives the recipe a little bit more substance. It’s flexible too – you can do it with most pieces of chicken, whatever beans you have on hand, bacon or pancetta or even cubed ham. And, this is one of those nice dishes that you can cook in one pot, and even make in advance of your evening, as it almost always tastes better reheated the next day.
2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 whole clove of garlic
1 white onion, sliced
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary (or 1/4 teaspoon dried)
2 thick strips of smoked applewood bacon, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
4 whole chicken legs, bone in, with skin (about 2 pounds) or just thighs are fine
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 cup white wine (or sherry)
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
1 (14 ounce) can of chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 (14 ounce) can of cannellini beans
1. Season the chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper. (Preferably a few hours before if you can). Heat a heavy bottomed pot (I use my Le Creuset) on medium heat.
2. When hot, pour in the olive oil, swirl to coat the bottom of the pot, and place the chicken legs skin side down to brown, about 10 minutes. Turn and cook the other side for about 3 more minutes. Remove, and set aside.
3. Add the bacon and onion and stir until the onion is translucent, about five minutes. Add the whole clove of garlic, the rosemary and bay leaves, and cook for a minute or two, until fragrant.
4. Pour in the white wine, scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pan (where your flavor is!) Add the can of tomatoes, chicken stock, cannelini beans, sugar, and celery salt. Put the chicken back into the pan, skin side up, cover, and braise for 45 minutes. Remove your bay leaves before serving, as so your guests don’t choke.
