by Sam Tackeff | Jun 12, 2009 | Baking, Books, Cookware, Pantry Staples
Dear world, I’d like a Le Creuset French Oven (medium or large), and a braiser. Any color will due, although, extra points are given for ‘Carribean’, ‘Cobalt’, or ‘Onyx’. Perhaps you have an extra lying around, or your dear great aunt in San Francisco has a stockpile of them in her kitchen and can’t really lift them anymore because they weigh a ton. Perhaps you are reading this from the Le Creuset or the Sur La Table corporate office, and think to yourself, today, this very lucky young lady in Noe Valley will have a package shipped to her. If you are any of these people, don’t hesitate to contact me. I can barter, trade, and provide you with tasty sustenance in return. Your generosity will be greatly, greatly appreciated.
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One difficult thing about moving across the country in a couple of suitcases – taking your kitchen with you.
The easiest to bring are the little tools, which can be boxed and arrive in no time flat: like David Lebovitz, I’m a big fan of my scissors, and I love my tongs, my Kyocera ceramic knife I picked up at Zabars, and my knife set, and my little stovetop espresso maker, my graters, my Moulinex, my Silpat, my whisk, my measuring cups, wooden spoons, silicone spatula, williams and sonoma kitchen towels, and silicone pinch pots. Along with these came my collection of bento making supplies: boxes, rice presses, tiny fish shaped soy sauce holders, mini utensils, silicone muffin cups, and box bands.
My expansive spice collection was also shipped, and I have since supplemented with a collection of spices and spice rack from Martha Stewart which was on sale at Macy’s for under twenty dollars. I couldn’t live without my spice mixes from Penzey’s, my Super Special Spice Mix from my grandmother in Istanbul, my assortment of curry powders, garam masala, five spice powders, mace, turmeric, corriander, and excess of cumin.
Fortunately, I am blessed to be living with someone who was given a very, very nice set of calphalon pots – so I didn’t have to shlep my slightly shoddy pieced together collection of pots and pans with me. He also came with a lovely red tea pot which, I’m glad to say gets significant amount of daily use.
He also gave me the very best present on earth for my birthday, a Martha Stewart Blue Kitchen Aid mixer, and in the next few months I will be saving for attachments… I think he deserves to be rewarded with the results of the Ice Cream maker attachment, and after several attempts of homemade pasta made with a rolling pin, I’m looking forward to the pasta attachment.
Bakeware is also a pain in the neck to ship, but fortunately for me, I live close enough to the Recycled Cookware store on Divisadero that I managed to pick up things like bundt pans, baking sheets, and loaf pans, and even a gently used coffee grinder for a few dollars a piece. My mother this weekend was a very kind soul to donate two Madeleine pans from her cupboards to my “cause”, because after six months of searching for “affordable” Madeleine pans, I had determined it a failed quest.
I’ve been a fan of Cook’s Boulevard, which, being right in the neighborhood, is useful, when, say, I’m in desperate need of ceramic bakeware for my herb baked eggs, or last minute meat thermometers, silicone popsicle makers, or, really great three dollar peelers.
Ikea has been a savior for a new mortar and pestle, a digital kitchen scale, and glass jars in which I keep all of my bulk supplies – dried beans (currently I have Christmas Limas, flageolet, yellow indian woman, and popping corn, all from Rancho Gordo) rices (jasmine, arborio, sticky, and plenty of brown), whole grains (wheatberries, farro, bulgur), nuts (almonds, walnuts), chocolate chips, flours (white, wheat, cake, wheat bread flour, wheat bran, corn meal), and sugars (white and dark brown).
And of course, rounding everything out is my collection of cookbooks – most every Jamie Oliver tome, and an ever growing collection of signed books from the weekly talks at Omnivore Books on Food, the only cook book and food book store in San Francisco, and currently my favorite bookstore in the world.
by Sam Tackeff | May 31, 2009 | Pantry Staples, Seafood, Soups
Can you see it there in the dark light? It’s some delicious Salsa Salmon with Brown Rice and a very quick Black Bean Soup, (I promise you). For some reason, the three (3) cameras in my home managed to fail last week all at once. I was cooking in the mid evening, and watching the sun slowly descend as I tried painstakingly to compose the shot and take some photos – oh, no battery – gah, wrong lens – wait! why won’t you take photo without flash – sometimes these are the things you have to deal with.
But let me tell you a bit about this stuff. It was goooood. Really, really, completely satisfyingly good. I might end up making it every week good. It’s something you can put together without much effort and most of it is hands off, if you have a little time to wait and let the flavors marinate.
The secret? Store bought salsa. About an hour before eating, I take my pieces of salmon out into a dish, and coat them with about a cup of salsa – I used Mrs. Renfro’s Habanero Mango Salsa- and shove it back into the refrigerator. This can sit here for an hour or more (more is better) and if you want, you can check it halfway or so and turn the fish over.
Then I get started on the brown rice. Brown rice is fickle. I’d give you an exact time of how long it takes to cook, but it seems to depend on a thousand variables that I can’t quite pin down. Usually I check Mark Bittman’s ‘How to Cook Everything’ to check up on grain cooking times. It usually takes me about an hour. When the brown rice is done, I turn off the heat, cover it with a cloth, put the lid back on, and get a start on the rest of the meal. I get the black bean soup started, and once it’s going, then take the salmon out and cook it- usually it takes about five minutes on each side on medium heat for how I like it (a little rare).
When everything is done, you can plate it, and serve it with the rest of the salsa from the jar.
Really Quick Black Bean Soup
serves 2 or 3 as a generous side
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 heart of leek, chopped (or small onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon chile powder
1 large heirloom tomato, chopped
1 can black beans, undrained
salt and pepper
Method:
1. In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat, and add leek (or onion) and garlic, and cook for about five minutes, stirring so they don’t brown.
2. Add the spices, and give a stir. Then add in your tomato and your beans, and let cook for ten minutes or so on medium heat, and season to taste.
It’s almost as easy as opening a red can of pre-made Goya black bean soup mix, except you know, it’s better for you.
by Sam Tackeff | May 11, 2009 | Pantry Staples
I fell in love with green flageolet bean over ten years ago when I lived for the summer in a small village in France. Yes, thats right, I fell in love with a bean. I was so smitten that I insisted that my mother purchase a box to return to the states with… a box which tragically has been sitting in our pantry for the past ten years.
This was a terrible oversight. The green flageolet, the “caviar of beans”, is a prized bean in French cooking, and tastes really brilliant. I was so excited to find is being cultivated here in California by my favorite bean source, Rancho Gordo (just a few weeks ago given nod to in the NYTimes)!
Today’s lunch was a simple bowl of rice and beans. I soaked a cup of beautiful green Rancho Gordo flageolet beans overnight, and sauteed them with a half an onion for fifteen minutes before covering them with some chicken stock and simmering for an hour and a half, adding water whenever the liquid decreased too much. The beans become soft, meaty, and unlike any other beans, and you can serve them simply with rice, or, as I had planned originally, with lamb. (I, upon taking the lamb out of the freezer today after half way cooking my beans, realized that I had failed to remember the directions for the Trader Joe’s frozen lamb rack which specifically states to defrost overnight before cooking. Yes, I should start getting lamb racks at the butcher store, but the frozen ones are so convenient to have in case you want to eat well without leaving your house for two days. God, that’s a bad excuse.)
They also taste delicious as a cold salad with lemon oil dressing, freshly cracked pepper, and some parsley.
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!
