by Sam Tackeff | Oct 29, 2014 | Fitness, Indian
I cooked tonight! I know, I know, I cook most nights. But I’ve been revisiting some of my favorite pantry and freezer meals for the past few days, and this one made me proud of myself – long on flavor, short on effort. My friend AA is moving back to Colorado, and thus I managed to inherit a large haul of freezer and pantry items. Bittersweet, but getting the spoils of a sad situation is enough to perk me up a little bit. Plus, these friends are food lovers, so we’re talking homemade frozen Momofuku buns, honeymead, a black truffle, a full jar of maple syrup…
Before we get to dinner, here are a few of the things I ate today. In the morning, I made myself an aeropress of a wonderful coffee – espresso from Karma Roasters. It was a splurge at Whole Foods, and I don’t regret it one bit. It’s a stellar coffee.
For lunch, I cracked open some of the home made liverwurst from my Walden Local Meat share. I’m always looking to add a little offal to my diet – it’s highly nutrient dense, and delicious! Given that I prefer my food as would best be presented to a five year old, I opted for little cucumber boats.
In the afternoon I was hungry, so I roasted a delicata squash from Volante Farms. Delicata are by far my favorite of the fall squashes! They are super sweet, and I personally have no problem eating the skin.
In the late afternoon, I headed to the gym for Olympic Lifting class. It was the previously mentioned AA’s very last Wednesday Oly class before she moves away, and I didn’t want to miss it. Plus I’ve been out of the gym for so long with marathon training, that I was itching to get my hands on a barbell and lift something heavy! I hopped on the rower to warm up, and we ended up having a lot of fun in class – practicing clean complexes and working to some max heavy cleans. I was pretty sure that I was going to have to drop some serious weight from my usual bar, but things actually didn’t go so badly, all things considered. I worked up and got in multiple lifts at 95, but couldn’t for the life of me break the mental hurdle to get past 100. The worst part is that my lack of being able to make this lift is 100% in my head. I can lift the bar easily. I can high pull and just hold it there. I can’t for the life of me drop under the bar. Despite my frustration, I left thrilled to have gotten sweaty, and it felt so good to be back in the gym.
At home, I set to work cleaning my kitchen, as it was needing a little love. I cleaned and seasoned a cast iron, and the wok (see the top picture) that I inherited, which was looking a little rusty. Dinner needed to be something easy, and I always love some basic Indian spices in my cabinet for making something warm and comforting. I opted to do a really simple kheema – ground beef and peas – which requires little more attention than browning the beef, stirring in the rest of the ingredients, and letting things simmer.
Simplest Kheema (Ground Beef with Peas)
1 pound ground beef (highest quality you can get)
1 tablespoon fat (olive oil, ghee, or coconut oil)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons curry powder (I used Trader Joe’s Curry Powder)
a knob of ginger, minced
1 15 oz.can diced tomatoes, and their juice
pinch of sugar (optional, but helps reduce acidity of tomatoes)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup low sodium chicken stock (homemade, preferable)
In a large skillet, heat the fat, and brown the ground beef with a big pinch of salt and pepper. When beef is almost browned, add the curry powder, and ginger, and cook for two minutes. Pour on can of diced tomatoes, peas, chicken stock, and stir. Bring to a simmer, and cook, partially covered (leaving an inch or two for steam to escape), for 10 minutes. Top with a spoonful of yogurt if you’d like.
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 11, 2012 | Indian, Seafood
And like that, the weather in New England seems to have turned the corner to fall, although I’m not quite sure it’ll stick. We might have more summer yet. Or so I’m telling myself. In the mean time, last night was the first night that I’ve been alone in a long time (I nervously sent Devon off to North Carolina for a conference). It was cool out and I was craving a bowl of something warm and deeply comforting. With the last of my wild Coho salmon I was sent by Copper River/Prince William Sound Marketing Association, I decided to make a simple curry for myself, inspired by a Nigel Slater recipe.
I don’t think that most people associate fish with curries, but warming spices go wonderfully with fish strong enough to stand up to them. Or, as Tamar Adler reminds us in An Everlasting Meal, they are perfect for strongly flavored fish (like bluefish), that you may have left a little bit too long in the fridge.
I made my curry and served it with cauliflower couscous, which, is just blitzed cauliflower that I heated up for about five minutes in a pan with a little bit of coconut milk and some salt. It shares the texture of couscous, is perfect for sopping up the creamy curry, and has the added bonus of being nutrient-dense veg. (You can also make cauliflower into “rice”, which may or may not have been what I was attempting to do… until I went ahead and over did it by 20 seconds in my processor.)
The great thing about this curry, as with most every soup, or stew, is that it tastes absolutely fantastic the next day. Even cold. Which is exactly how I’m eating the last bits, gleefully as I write this.
A warming salmon curry
serves 2
If you don’t have all the spices on hand, and have a good curry blend (such as Trader Joe’s), go ahead and use a tablespoon of that instead. But, take note that these are really useful spices to have on hand, so you might as well just go and buy them.
1 wild salmon filet, 1 – 1.5 lbs.
salt and pepper
1 medium onion
1 Tbs. coconut oil
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground chiles (I used Turkish Urfa biber)
1 can (14 oz.) whole, peeled tomatoes in their juice
1/2 cup coconut milk (full-fat, don’t skimp!)
1. Remove the skin, and chop your salmon filet into large pieces (about 2-inch cubes), and season with salt and pepper, and set aside. Put together your spices in a small bowl, and set aside. Chop up a medium onion, and warm it in a large skillet on medium heat in a tablespoon or so of coconut oil. Stir about until it softens, being careful not to let it burn.
2. Add the spices to the onions, and stir gently for about 30 seconds, until the aromas start wafting up to you. Add your can of tomatoes, with the juice, and break the whole tomatoes up with your spoon. Stir, and let the mixture bubble and the flavors meld for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste your sauce, and add a little bit more salt if need be.
3. Add your salmon, nesting it gently between the tomatoes. Let the salmon cook for five minutes on one side, and carefully turn over, letting it cook for another five minutes. Pour in your coconut milk, and simmer for about five more minutes. Serve warm, over rice, or cauliflower rice.
by Sam Tackeff | Jan 14, 2011 | Indian, Pantry Staples
Last week, I had a mini-tragedy.
I was eating my way through half-filled jars in the fridge, and finally came to the end of an excellent tomato chutney that I had acquired from Trader Joe’s. I really liked the stuff, and I decided that it was well worth getting a replacement jar. When I went back to the store to do so, I was shocked – SHOCKED! – to find out that they had discontinued it. “We loved it here, but our tastes in the Bay Area don’t always translate to the rest of the country,” the manager said, shaking his head.
I’ve seen people wither into depression after TJ’s sends their favorite product to the graveyard. I was on the verge of a chutney-less meltdown. I assure you that this was a great tomato chutney. A little sweet, a little spicy, a little tangy. I used it to stir fry greens, to serve with curries, and as a chicken marinade. It was good with toast, topped with melted cheese. It was also a great complement to roasted cauliflower. What was I going to do without it?
And then I remembered that I spent the past year working on my friend Karen’s mostly-condiment cookbook, and I could probably make my own version at home. I knew the ingredients (I wrote them down off the back of the jar), and all I had to do with fiddle with the proportions. It couldn’t hurt to try?
After an hour of tinkering, I present to you:
(Not Quite) Trader Joe’s Tomato Chutney
makes about 1.5 cups
time: 40 minutes
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes (no salt added), with juice
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon cumin
1 large pinch Maldon salt (or kosher salt)
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
In a small saucepan, add all the ingredients and stir well. [I used an immersion blender in the saucepan before cooking to break it down into a chunky paste, but you could wait until after cooking to process in a food processor or blender.]
Bring to a boil (it will bubble and splatter, so be careful!) then turn the heat down to low, and cover. Simmer for thirty minutes, making sure to stir every five to ten minutes, so that the chutney does not stick to the bottom.
Spoon into a glass jar. This is a fresh chutney and should be stored in the refrigerator for up to two months. You could probably can it, but I find that it’s so quick to put together, that it’s probably easier to just make a fresh batch when you want it.
by Sam Tackeff | Mar 3, 2010 | Books, Indian, Pantry Staples
For the past few weeks I’ve been cooking up an South Asian storm. I love the flavors and spices in all types of South Asian food – and use many traditional ingredients in my everyday cooking – a lot of ginger, turmeric, cumin, and coconut milk to name a few.
I just wrote my first review up at The Good Taste Review for Ruta Kahate’s book ‘5 Spices, 50 Dishes’. Head on over and let me know what you think!
I didn’t want to leave you all hanging, so this chickpea recipe is one of my favorites that I tried from the book. I love chickpeas in any permutation, but this recipe was particularly fresh and light. It could either make a nice side dish, or a good vegetarian meal if served over rice. When I first made it, I ate it as my dinner, and was quite satisfied. Although the recipe called for canned chickpeas, I made this with Rancho Gordo chickpeas that I had soaked overnight and cooked.
Chickpea Curry with Fresh Dill Leaves
from ‘5 Spices, 50 Dishes’, page 42
Serves 4
This recipe traditionally uses a split and skinned Indian chickpea called chana dal, but I’ve found that canned chickpeas work just as well – which makes it possible to create this dish in minutes. The other interesting thing is that it uses dill leaves in the typical Indian style – as a vegetable, rather than as an herb. Serve with Marathi Yellow Fried Rice (page 103), and Roasted Onion Raita (page 98) for a hearty vegetarian meal.
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2 tablespoons canola oil
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1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
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1 teaspoon cayenne (or less)
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1 teaspoon coriander seeds, finely ground
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1 teaspoon finely grated garlic (about 2 large cloves)
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1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger (about 2-inch piece)
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1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
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1 medium tomato, finely chopped (about 1 cup)
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3 cups finely chopped dill leaves and tender stalks (about 2 bunches)
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One 15.5 ounce can low-sodium chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
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1/4 cup water
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1 teaspoon salt
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and sauté the onion over medium heat until it has softened, about 5 minutes. Add the cayenne, coriander, garlic, ginger, and turmeric and stir for 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in the tomato and cook until it is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the dill, chickpeas, water, and salt, and simmer until the dill is soft and tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Serve warm.
