Indian Chicken Curry & Rice

Love the exotic taste of Indian food? Who doesn’t! Fortunately it’s not hard to make at all, it, like all my other meals just takes a little bit of time. 

You’ll need chicken (naturally), chick peas, stewed tomatoes, an onion, curry, cumin, chili powder, green chilies, garlic, and healthy brown rice.
 

To start, in a large pan, brown the (chopped) onion on slow heat… in the meantime cut up the chicken. What I find really helps is that the chicken is slightly frozen for easier cutting.

 
– Side note: Take a look at the new knife! It’s a premium Wusthof 7 Inch Santoku Chef’s Knife. This baby is sharp, and solid, you can tell the construction is superb. Now back to our story – 

Not solid frozen but still cold. Think of about a day or day and a half in the refrigerator after being in the freezer. Next step, chop the chicken into small ¼ inch or so size pieces and drop them into the pan as you chop them up. Remember to keep the temperature on medium or below.

Simmer the onion and chicken together for about 10 minutes, then take the can of stewed tomatoes, drain it, and chop up the tomatoes, then add that to the pan, along with the entire can of chick peas. 

Now it’s SPICE time, add in about a spoon full of the curry, cumin, chili powder, green chilies (if you have them) and garlic. On a side burner you can start the brown rice… simmer the ingredients and stir frequently. 
 

On the first photo you can see the fine results and it goes great paired with a pinot noir.

Easy Chicken Soup

It’s hard to think that anyone can catch a cold during our ‘cold’ season, but this past week, my fiancé was sick so soon enough I was too. And that’s where “Jewish Penicillin” comes in – Chicken soup.

Chicken soup by itself is a rather boring affair especially when it’s from a can. Apart from the Andy Warhol art that came out of it, the world is not better off for it. The good news is that while we still can’t eliminate the common cold, we can still fight it with chicken soup.

So here is how to take your can of soup and make it into a meal that your grandmother would be proud of. First we’re going to take the can of soup as a base. The best can for this is the ‘double pasta’ can; alternatively you could use any pasta and cook it in. Next, you can get a roasted chicken at the supermarket for even less than the cost of an uncooked whole chicken. Cut about a quarter of it into very small pieces.

Next, open a small can of carrots (the half size can) and a (small) can of mushrooms; you can pour in the liquids directly. You could also have a chopped onion and celery mixed in.

The spices I use for this are rosemary, cumin, curry, and just a small amount of salt. I also use enough garlic to scare away any vampires.

If you want to take this recipe to the next step, skip the can and use fresh chicken and you can cook the chicken and pasta at the same time.

An important “ingredient” in this mix is time… let the soup simmer for at least 30 minutes if not more, it’s essential that flavors blend with each other. You may also have to add water from time to time so that your soup does not dry out while on the stove. Enjoy and feel better.

A Clean Food – Chicken Chili



Yummy Chili Goodness!

Clean food is the idea (movement) that food should have the least amount of fat and calories possible. It’s simple and clean cooking. Of course simple and plain does mean your food has to taste quick and easy.

One of my favorite big dish cooking projects is what I like to call Chicken Chili. It’s not actually chili, which would have ground beef or at least ground chicken but it does carry the same concept.

The recipe for this is simple and rather inexpensive. Take a pack of boneless chicken breast meat or boneless thighs, and boil them for about 10-15 minutes. Be sure not to overcook them and even undercooking them is fine as they will be cooked again. The next ingredient is brown rice, save the water from the boiled chicken (now you have chicken broth) and use it to cook the rice. A good ratio is 1 or 1 ½ cups.  Next I add diced tomatoes, canned spinach, and Chickpeas.

After that put the rice in, followed by the (cut up) chicken and add the rest of the ingredients. From the spice rack I put in chili powder, cumin, curry, and chopped garlic. Then simmer, the longer the simmer the better the flavors get integrated.

This typically makes about 4 good size servings which could come out to be about $3-4 per meal… Enjoy!

At Home – Sizzle Steak

I love my future wife 100% but she does not like to eat any 4 legged animals. So, out of respect I don’t eat any of that around her. Tonight however she is out and it’s time for Steak.  A steak dinner in a nice restaurant could set you back $20-$30 or more, but cooking it at home is not only more relaxing, it’s a lot cheaper.

12 Ounces of Goodness & Veggies!

Sure you could and should go out, but when it’s just you, you could do it better on your own. My steak recipe is rather simple and can be summed up on in just one word… “Broiler.” OK, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

You need a few ingredients to make it extra special, my go-to add on's for steak would include an onion (yellow), a small can of mushrooms, and a small can of carrots. Then there is the steak itself, a T-Bone or a NY Strip Steak are my best recommendations for you.

While your oven is reaching operational temperature, make sure you have your top shelf about 5 inches away from the burning element (being that you are broiling the top element will be lit), and then the bottom one should be 5 inches below that. Yes there is a reason for this. What I do is “sear” it, not actually but it works the same way, by getting the outside very slightly charred (time about 12 mins or so) then I transfer the steak to the lower level to finish the cooking process (time about 12-15 mins or so).

Preparation is easy… at the bottom of the baking dish pour about 2 spoons of oil, and shake pepper on top of the oil, then put the steak on top, make sure it gets covered by the oil and pepper, and then reverse on the other side. You could also add a touch of cyan or other red spice to perk it up. But don’t go overboard. Steak should taste good on its own without extra spices.

i cut up one whole onion into 8 pieces, and drop the carrots and mushrooms. You want to situate those on the sides of the steak, not on top. Try not to use Salt as that will dry out the steak, you can add salt after you are done or even better try putting on some garlic. You could also add brown rice, they have easy packs that you can put in the microwave for just under a minute. If you’re more traditional try some baked potatoes.

Since each oven is slightly different you will have to learn your times, so you can pick your degree of rare to well done. Enjoy! And yes it will look like that!

At Home

Yes I can cook on my own, the fact that I can makes me enjoy all the restaurants that I find myself and my soon to be wife in. Not only is cooking at home typically much cheaper, it’s also much healthier.

Stopping by our local Safeway, I was on a mission for dinner. After all, I have to feed the wife. Grouper Steak was on sale, and who can say no to one of South Florida’s healthiest fishes. Two steaks ran me just over seven dollars. With pasta and chopped tomatoes back at the house my mission would be easy.

So, here are the secrets. You’ll want to broil the fish, (by selecting broil on your oven) for about 6 minutes on EACH SIDE. You should always baste the fish in something; I used a mixture of butter, rosemary, and dill weed, plus a little cyan just to add an extra touch. At the same time, I boiled the spaghetti, and then, a mark of my cooking, double cooked it, first simmering the tomatoes, then adding the spaghetti in a medium sauce pan on medium. Double cooking takes your pasta from flat and boring to spectacular.

Finally as you can see, the finished product is ready after about 25-min or so cooking time. I added avocado slices on the side, just because I could. Total meal cost for 2 is under $10.