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Nov 17 2011
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Food, recipe

Recipe: Chickpea and Potato Curry

Curry is like chili. There are so many variations, that it can be difficult to master. In fact, one could argue that curry is even more difficult due to the sheer number of variations – from the “traditional” Indian curry, to the coconut-infused Thai curries, to Chicken Tikka Masala, England’s most popular dish. And of course, within those broad categories are many, many styles and techniques.

I had trouble with chili for a while, but I eventually came across a recipe that I really like. It’s not traditional in any way, but it’s the recipe I turn to when I’m looking for a hearty bowl of spicy comfort.

Curry has consistently eluded me, though. I’ve come close several times – Cooks’ Illustrated recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala is excellent, albeit a bit of work.

This recipe was definitely a winner, though. Perfect? Not quite yet. But like my go-to chili recipe, it hit all the right notes. This recipe was the inspiration, but I made a lot of changes. For example, I toast the chickpeas along with the spices first, to help develop their flavor more. I also add whole garlic, and expand the spice palette. I apologize if this recipe sounds like an advertisement for Penzey’s – it is my favorite place for purchasing spices, and their curry mixes are top notch. If you follow the links, you can see what each blend contains. Enjoy!

IngredientsChickpea and Potato Curry
2 tbsp olive oil
2 15 oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp Penzey’s Hot Curry Powder
1/2 tbsp Penzey’s Tandoori Seasoning
1 yellow onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
salt

6-10 small white new potatoes, quartered
4 cups unsalted chicken stock (I use one 32oz container of Kitchen Basics)
1 15 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 tbsp Penzey’s Hot Curry Powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions
1. Heat oil over medium-high heat until hot. Add chickpeas, curry powder and tandoori seasoning. Stir to coat, then let the chickpeas and spices toast in the oil. Stir occasionally to prevent burning and to make sure all the spice and all the chickpeas get a nice crisp to them. (This develops the flavors of both the chickpeas and the spices. In fact, if you can use some whole spices for this step, it may be even better.) When they look about ready, add the onion, garlic and salt, and stir to coat. Cook until onions are slightly softened.

2. In a large pot, add the chicken stock, potatoes and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to a simmer, and add the spices, as well as the chickpea mixture when it’s done.

3. Simmer vigorously for at least 30 minutes – but 45 minutes to an hour would be better. The potatoes should be soft, and the cooking liquid should have reduced so it’s a bit thicker. Turn down the heat if the liquid is reducing too quickly.

4. Season with salt and/or pepper to taste. Serve with basmati rice.

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Nov 13 2011
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Food, Opinion, review

Burger King Delivery: Review

About a month ago, we (me and @ndoto) passed a Burger King that had a large banner out front: Now Hiring Delivery Drivers. Delivery drivers? Local restaurants have had a type of local delivery before, using a service called “Waiter on the Way” – but delivery direct from Burger King? This was new, and something I had never heard about previously. Then, last week we received the following postcard in the mail:

Photo Nov 13, 7 45 10 PM

Needless to say, we were curious. So, we decided to give it a try Saturday night.

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Aug 26 2011
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Food, Opinion

Portion Control

A recent HuffPost Food article said the following:

And since we are at it , why do we have the "small" soft drinks at the soda fountain look like large pitchers who could serve 3 very thirsty giants? Why are we always served more than we need? Extra butter, more potatoes, super size me.[…] Time to portion control our appetite it’ll do us better than diet pills and miracle diets. I’m for one ready to take the challenge. Are you with me? Let’s portion control, America!

There is definitely a valid point here. Portions in America – and, increasingly, the rest of the Western world – are much too large. But have you ever noticed that the things that come in large portions are also the things that are most damaging in large quantities? Soda, bread, pasta, potatoes, ground meats – stuff that’s processed, and thus cheap. Perhaps one notable exception is the salad bar, but even that isn’t as cheap as the processed alternatives (if it’s a good salad bar, anyway).

In other words, no one would be complaining about portion control if we had a plate full of vegetables, providing us a wealth of vitamins, minerals and fiber relative to the calories we’d be taking in. But instead, our meals are so skewed toward empty calories that we have to take vitamin supplements.

Portion control is important, sure, and it’s a good first step. But portion balance is also key – or we may end up getting even less of the nutrients we need to stay healthy.

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Jul 18 2011
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Food, Opinion

An English Pub Burger

In certain parts of the United States (the parts that don’t know what “English” means, apparently), McDonalds is testing a new burger called the English Pub Burger. As could probably be surmised, the sandwich is anything but English.

According to marketing materials, the burger consists of “1/3 lb of 100 percent Angus beef, hickory-smoked bacon, white cheddar and American cheese, grilled onions, tangy steak sauce and smokey Dijon mustard sauce all housed on an artisan roll.”
– Huffington Post Food

At least the beef is from a Scottish breed of cow, and Scotland is part of Great Britain. But American cheese? Dijon (french) mustard?

Okay, I probably shouldn’t pick on McDonalds. They’re not exactly known for upholding high culinary art. I’m sure this sandwich is very tasty, if you ignore the name. But I thought I’d take the opportunity to brainstorm a true English pub burger.

Coming up with a burger, or any dish that sums up a country, is difficult. Every country has different regions, which possess different culinary styles, and different local ingredients at their disposal. So lets narrow down the field a bit, and consider a burger with McDonalds’ original framework.
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Mar 10 2011
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Food, recipe

How-To: Chili Fries with Beer Cheese Sauce

It probably sounds strange to have chili fries for dinner, but that’s only because restaurant culture says that chili fries are an appetizer or side dish. But really, a hearty chili paired with a side of fries is a satisfying meal in itself.

This is more of a how-to, because the components of this meal are pretty straightforward. I just had never thought of putting them together quite like this. The chili here is my usual go-to chili: Rachael Ray’s Turkey Chipotle Chili with Pepper Jack Cheese Corn Cake Toppers (without the corn cakes). It’s a relatively fancy chili, not something you’d use to top fries with. I also like that it’s a turkey-based chili – it’s slightly less fatty than beef, so it gives that extra wiggle room on the cheese sauce. The only change I made to the recipe was making the sauce slightly thicker – I used only a cup of the chicken stock. I figured this would work better when combined with the fries and cheese sauce.

Because I made the cheese sauce from scratch, I decided to take a shortcut on the fries, by just using frozen fries from the supermarket. (I also had a couple of half-bags leftover, so this was an excuse to use them up.) If you had the time, though, I think it would be excellent to oven-roast your own potato wedges for this.

And that leaves the cheese sauce. Normally for chili-cheese fries you get an over-processed, Velveeta-style cheese sauce that oozes over the chili like a fatty, yellow lava flow. Instead of that, I decided to make a cheese sauce from scratch, pulling elements from both chili (cumin, chili powder) and fondue (beer). The recipe for the sauce is after the break.

In assembling this, I put some fries on the bottom, drizzled a bit of the cheese sauce on top, then a healthy serving of the chili, and then a bit more cheese sauce on top of that. Eat with a knife and fork. It was awesome.

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Feb 21 2011
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computers, programming, ProjectNom

Introducing Project Nom

A long time ago, back when the internet was still assembling itself, there was a service called Prodigy. I used Prodigy more than I’d like to admit, usually for things that weren’t especially productive. One of the few exceptions to this was when I wanted to find a new recipe for an appetizer.

There were distinct silos of information on the Prodigy service, similar to AOL’s keywords. If I remember correctly, the food section had a small selection of recipes, but nothing terribly impressive. The main draw were the message boards, where people were actively swapping their favorite appetizers, entrees and desserts.

After creating a new topic on the board, someone replied with a recipe that sounded perfect, so I printed it out. There was no other way to save it, really — besides, it was the only practical way to cook the recipe. I didn’t want to run between the kitchen and study whenever I needed to refer to the instructions.

Many years later, technology has improved considerably. Message boards are no longer the focus, but, if you have the time, you can find just about any recipe you want. But one thing remains the same: if you want to preserve your recipe, the best method is to print it out.

Oh, sure, there are websites that let you bookmark your favorite recipes in a virtual recipe box. Food Network has one. Epicurious has one. I’m sure there are others, too. But since when was it a good idea to have three recipe boxes in your kitchen, with recipes randomly distributed between them?

And what about cooking them? Are you supposed to drag your laptop into the kitchen while you cook? I’ve tried that, and it’s not practical — if for no other reason than it takes up a lot of counter space.

There have been some software solutions over the years. The best right now are locked onto Apple’s OS X/iOS platforms. That’s fine and dandy if you’ve bought into that ecosystem, but most people haven’t.

No, the best solution for an omnipresent need ("what do I want to eat?") is an omnipresent platform. All that time ago, Prodigy had the right idea. But now that technology has evolved, it’s time to evolve those original ideas.

That is the goal of Project Nom.

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Sep 04 2010
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Food, recipe

Recipe: Swordfish with Spicy Tomato Salsa

When trying to be more healthy, the rolodex in my mind instantly turns to fish. Vegetarian is always goswordfishod, of course, but fish has additional nutritional benefits that always end up winning out.

I decided to try something that had its roots in some traditional flavors, but mixed up just enough to create something unique.

The recipe is very simple too.  It’s a swordfish steak, marinated in lime juice.  If you don’t like swordfish, you could probably use any firm, white fish such as haddock. If you don’t like fish, chicken would be your best alternative, but that also makes it a completely different dish. :) On a second run through of the recipe, I tried swapping the lime juice marinade for balsamic vinegar. The result was pretty good, but the lime juice imparted a better flavor.

Which makes sense, because the salsa on top of the fish has lime juice. I’m not sure if “salsa” is the best name for it – it carries implications that don’t match what this is. “Salad” doesn’t work either, for the same reason.  But, “salsa” was the closest, so I’m sticking with that.

It has both cooked red onion, and raw – cooked for sweetness, raw for the relatively mild but pungent onion flavor. I also used both a red and a green jalapeno – one with the seeds for spiciness, one with no seeds just for the flavor.

All of this is served on a bed of green beans. I picked up a bag of frozen haricots verts, dropped them in a saute pan with 1/4 cup water, let them steam for 4 minutes or so, then let the water evaporate.  Drizzling on some olive oil, I let the outsides crisp up and caramelize a bit, before sprinkling with salt and pepper.

The detailed recipe for the swordfish follows.

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Aug 24 2010
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Food, random

The Trendy Food Cycle

Have you ever noticed how popular foods move in a predictable cycle?

It starts with a wonderful, tasty flash of inspiration from a chef. Experimenting in the kitchen, they come up with a new combination of flavors that works phenomenally well together. At this stage, the ingredients are fresh, sometimes hand picked by the chef. Each part of the dish is lovingly crafted to the artist’s strict specifications, using knowledge gained from preparing the same ingredients before.

Guests to the chef’s restaurant try the new dish on the specials menu, and immediately recognize the skill and effort that went into the innovative creation.  It seems so obvious, they’ll say. But they never thought to do it, and now that they’ve tasted it, it’s all they can think about! They tell their friends, and their friends tell their friends.

If this is sustained long enough, then it usually catches the attention of one of those food channel specials.  You know the ones.  The programs titled, “Amazing Foods that You’ll Never Get to Have” or “The Best Restaurants in the World that are too Exclusive for You”.  But, as a result of being on one of these shows, and exposed to mass amounts of people, there is at least one other cook who realizes the potential, and takes it a step further.

Now it moves into the next stage. Brave home cooks will seek out the ingredients needed to recreate the dish, given the information that they have.  It may not be a faithful representation, but they’ll either settle for what they’ve been able to cook, or keep iterating the recipe until it gets as close as possible.  At this point, higher end restaurants might catch on, and also add it to their specials menu, and will usually get pretty close to recreating the dish.

This stage is a gradual progression downward to respected, but not quite as high-end restaurants. This usually consists of smaller chain restaurants, where some of the quality of the original recipe is lost, but the integrity is still solid enough that the flavors, textures and sensations continue to amaze the diners.

But then, inevitably, it all falls apart.

Everyone realizes how popular and amazing this flavor sensation is, and folks trying to make a quick buck dumb it down to the simplest elements to attract the lowest common denominator.

Low cost, chain restaurants take whatever ingredients they have on hand that approximate the original idea, and add it to their menu.

Multinational companies create processed foods based on the original idea, but usually end up being only a salty approximation. In the case of potato chips, it usually ends up tasting like Sour Cream and Onion, Salt and Vinegar or Barbeque – regardless of what it actually says on the package.

At this point, it would probably be good to list some examples of once-great ideas dumbed down to oblivion. Do any of these sound familiar?

  • Anything with Roasted Garlic
  • Something Tex-Mex with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
  • Italian food that has either Pesto, Sun-Dried Tomatoes or a specialty Mozzerella – often simply referred to as “Tuscan Style”
  • Buffalo-style flavoring, which strangely does not always involve chicken.
  • Chipotle-marinated meats, or Chipotle mayo.
  • Balsamic reduction over fruit or ice cream.
  • Loaded Baked Potato flavored anything
  • Anything on small buns, commonly referred to as “sliders”.

A lot of these are great if done right. But they’ve been iterated and overdone so much that they’re tired and exhausted, and it takes something truly unique and lovingly crafted for these ideas and flavors to make your mouth water again.

And that’s when a strange thing starts to happen – in an act of desperation, chefs will “re-discover” one of these overused flavor tropes, and reinvent it back to its original glory. Usually it’s too late to change any of the mass-market crap derivatives.  But if you’re lucky, you’ll find a chef who truly cares, and reminds us all what made the dish so popular in the first place.

And the cycle begins anew…

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