Chicken with Indian Spices and Corn, Squash and Beans with Jalapeno Butter

I am no stranger to a cocked eyebrow. You cook where? Really?


Most people have practical questions regarding my kitchen-less situation such as, where do you do your dishes or what do you cook with? But then there is the question of cleanliness. And for those skeptics out there, you have a good point. I would be apprehensive about eating something that came out of someone else's john too. But for what its worth, let me just say I would never cook something that I wouldn't feel okay serving to my mother. New York City is dirty and chaotic enough, I like to keep a clean house. 


But let me ask a question back, if I may, and it's one I've also been asking myself. Before your food gets to the grocery store and then home to your presumably tidy kitchen, do you know where it's been?


The more I read about food the more it resembles a bad Broadway show, a lot of smoke and mirrors. I dog-eared a few pages from books like Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Micahel Pollan, and Real Food by Nina Planck, debating whether or not to post some of the horrifying research about the lack of cleanliness, abundant use of synthetic fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics, bleach, radiation, wax, preservatives and food dyes, to name a few, commonly found in food production in the United States, but I think I won't. This is a food blog after all with the aim to get people cooking not puking.


But it might be worth our time and health as a country to approach a factory farmed chicken or bunch of spinach with the same scrutiny we apply to a person who says they cook in their bathroom. All you need to do is open a newspaper or turn on the TV to be reminded of the latest food recall or e coli break out. Or do a little digging to uncover dirty little secrets like the fact that factory farmed salmon is actually white and they use pink dye to give it that familiar salmon glow. Or that scientists have known for years that the hydrogenated oils in margarine and processed foods cause heart disease, but were silenced so as not to jeopardize profits. 


There is some scary shit going on and I think it would be good if we all got into the habit of asking a lot of questions and cocking a lot of eyebrows when it comes to what's for dinner. The above books are an excellent place to start.


Some food for thought, and now some food for you:

Chicken with Indian Spices (adapted from the David Tanis recipe in A Platter of Figs)

1/2 tsp. cumin seeds

1/2 tsp. coriander seeds

1/2 tsp. fennel seeds

3 cloves

1/4 tsp. turmeric

1/8 tsp. cayenne

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

salt + pepper

1 tbs. olive oil

Toast the cumin, coriander and fennel seeds in your toaster oven on medium, and then grind to a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. Split the chicken breasts in half and cut into two in square pieces. Place into a bowl along with the yogurt and spices and let marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for at least half an hour. When you are ready to cook them, heat the olive oil in a skillet on medium heat and when it's hot, but don't let it smoke, add the chicken with all the yogurt to the pan. Arrange the chicken pieces so they are all laying flat, let them brown on one side and the flip them over to brown on the other. Cook about eight minutes until they are no longer pink inside but still tender and juicy.

Corn, Squash and Beans with Jalapeno Butter (adapted from the David Tanis recipe in A Platter of Figs)

1 tbs. olive oil

2 shallots, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

kernels from 2 ears of corn

1 zucchini, medium dice

1 summer squash, medium dice

1/2 lb. green beans topped and tailed, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 jalapeno, seeded and minced

1/2 stick butter

1/2 lime, zest and juice 

1 tbs. cilantro leaves

salt + pepper

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat, saute the shallots until clear. Then add the garlic, corn zucchini, squash and green beans. Toss around, add 1/4 cup water, cover and steam about 5 minutes until veggies are tender but still retain their bright colors. Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, combine the butter, lime juice and zest and jalapeno with a little salt and pepper. When the vegetables are cooked through. Turn off the heat and add the jalapeno butter, gently tossing. Serve hot garnished with some cilantro leaves.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Potatoes and Peas

Last night I finished eating, went into the bathroom for a glass of water and when I came out, Chris was licking my plate. "What?" he asked per my expression, "haven't you ever seen a person lick a plate before?" "Yes", I replied, "just never my plate." I must say though, I'm flattered.

A few months ago I was on the hunt for passion fruit puree and came across a spice shop called Kalustyans in the East 20's. I was able to check their stock online and they didn't have what I was looking for but I made a point of going anyway. They're supposed to be one of the best spice shops in NYC and having just purchased Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East : Vegetarian Cooking, I knew it would be a worthwhile trip.

Put simply, they have everything. Most of their inventory is geared towards Indian, Middle Eastern and Asian cooking but you can also find English, Australian, Turkish and French goods, among many others. When you walk in you are welcomed by large barrels of nuts (salted, unsalted and roasted) along the floor, glazed apricots, rose water Turkish paste, dried figs and crystallized ginger in bins above and Middle Eastern pastries, tea, chutneys and orange flower water along the walls. Towards the back are oils, vinegars and sauces, and to the left, in a rather large room are shelves and shelves of spices both whole and ground, galangal, curry leaves, garam masala, peppercorns of every variety, curries, star anise, amchoor and kaffir lime leaves to name a few. They have lentils and beans, rice noodles and dried mushrooms, frozen fruit purees and honey. And the best thing about them is they ship. So if you live in a town with no access to spices like these you can place an order and have them in a few days.

I love Indian food (and so does Chris) and having the right spices on hand means I can cook it at home. In addition to spicy foods being a pleasant break from the norm, they also have wonderful healing properties. A Costa Rican woman I know told me that making tea from dried curry leaves is a powerful tonic for high blood pressure. At night boil a cup of water and place a curry leaf in it. Cover and drink in the morning. I also find that when I cook with a lot of spices I don't need to use as much salt. Another benefit.

Last night I made Madhur Jaffrey's stuffed tomatoes and they are delicious. They're like a samosa but much lighter because instead of  being wrapped in pastry, the potatoes and peas are stuffed into a tomato and baked. I made a complete mess of the tomatoes because I didn't have a grapefruit spoon to remove the insides with but after discovering my hands were the next best thing, the scooping went just fine. It's like carving a tiny and very delicate pumpkin.

I made up a yogurt sauce of cumin, plain yogurt and salt to be drizzled on top which added a nice creaminess to the dish and served it with a salad of red leaf lettuce, lemon juice and olive oil. And because I was pressed for time I made a lot of shortcuts, errors and omissions which you can find in parentheses in the recipe below. Be sure to read the entire recipe before you plunge in and don't forget to lick your plate.

Here is Madhur Jaffrey's:

Tomatoes Stuffed with Potatoes and Peas
Shells

6 firm, flat-bottomed, medium-large tomatoes

1/4 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground pepper

Filling

4 medium sized potatoes, boiled unpeeled and cooled

4 tbs. vegetable oil

1 medium sized-onion, peeled and minced

1 cup shelled or defrosted frozen peas

1 tbs. peeled and grated fresh ginger (use a ginger grater, see photo below)

1 fresh hot green chili minced

3 tbs. finely minced chinese parsley (cilantro)

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon ground roasted cumin seeds

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 tbs. lemon juice or 1 tbs. lemon juice and 1 tbs. amchoor

1 teaspoon anardana (dried pomegranite seeds)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and wipe the tomatoes. With a sharp, pointed knife, cut a cone-shaped cap at the stem end of the tomato, pull it out, and discard it. Keep this opening in the tomato as small as possible, just allowing yourself enough room to be able to go inside the tomato with a grapefruit spoon to scoop out all the pulp and seeds (I used my hands). As you do this, be careful not to pierce or otherwise damage the shell of the tomato (I did this many times). Sprinkle the inside of the tomato shells with a little salt and pepper and drain the tomatoes by turning them upside down for ten minute (I did not do any of this).

Peel the potatoes and dice them into roughly 1/4 inch pieces (I peeled them, then boiled them and while still hot diced them). Heat the four tablespoons oil in a 10-12 inch skillet over a medium flame (I used coconut oil and my electric skillet at 300 degrees). Put in the onion, stirring and frying until it turns a light brown color. Add the peas, the ginger the green chili, Chinese parsley (I used regular curly leaf parsley), and three tablespoons water. Cover, lower heat and simmer very gently until peas are cooked. Stir every now and then and add additional water, a tablespoon at a time, if the skillet seems to dry out. Now put in the diced potato, salt, coriander, garam masala, roasted ground cumin (I toasted it in my toaster oven with and extra tsp. of cumin for the yogurt), cayenne pepper, lemon juice (or lemon juice and amchoor), and anardana (I didn't have any). Keep heat on low and mix the spices with the potatoes. Continue cooking gently, stirring frequently, for 3 to 4 minutes. Check salt and lemon juice. Turn off heat and leave potato mixture to cool (I did not give time to cool).

Stuff the tomatoes with the potato-pea-mixture. Do not overstuff or the tomatoes will crack open. Let the stuffing protrude a little from the opening in the tomatoes and cover with small caps made out of aluminum foil. Place tomatoes on a baking tray and bake in oven 10-15 minutes or until they are just cooked through. Serve immediately.

Erica's Yogurt Sauce

1 cup plain yogurt, goat milk is good

1 tsp ground, roasted cumin

1/4 tsp. sea salt

Combine all the ingredients and stir until smooth. Serve in a bowl to be spooned on top of the tomatoes or your salad.

*a note

make sure the cumin seeds don't burn when you roast them. I put them in my toaster oven and used the medium/light toast setting. And use a ginger grater, you can find them in kitchen supply stores. They work best when you grate fast and hard and trim the stringy fibers with a knife as you go.