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Quickie Cooking: Turkey Pastrami on Ciabatta

As promised, here is the recipe for using the NewZealand Cheddar I wrote about yesterday in a quick sandwich. To be honest, the sandwich is so quick and easy to put together that it hardly qualifies as a recipe – but then again, that is what sandwiches are intended to be, aren’t they? A quick and easy meal to put together, especially for lunch on a weekend when you’ve already had a heavy breakfast and need just a small snack to hold you over till dinner.

I am also a firm believer that if you use good quality ingredients, you don’t need a whole lot more to gussy up your meals, especially something that involves no cooking and just merely assembling the ingredients, like sandwiches. For this sandwich, I used organic ciabatta bread from Whole Foods, turkey pastrami from my local deli, and the cheddar – that’s it. A few slices of the pastrami, topped with a couple of slivers of the cheese , thrown into the toaster over for a few mins to warm up and melt the cheese, and viola, my light lunch was ready! The fresh bread crisped up beautifully, and as you can see from the picture, the slices were nice and airy enough to ensure the base didn’t overwhelm the fillings. The cheese added a nice tangy undertaste to the meaty pastrami while allowing the smokiness of the turkey meat to shine through.

If you have your ciabatta sliced thin like I did, you can use this to serve up some nice open-faced sandwiches for a crowd; with football playoff season upon us, this can be your take on home-made panini to serve up! The turkey pastrami offers a nice change from the traditional red meats, and you can throw in a few veggies (I like cucumber slices) to hearten up the sandwiches.

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Filed under American, Lunch, Quick and Easy

Posted on January 20th, 2010 |

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Quickie Cooking: Pan Fried Flounder

Fish is one of the healthiest foods around, as long as it is fresh, lightly seasoned, and not coated in ton’s of breading (Long John’s Silver – I’m looking at you). I used to fear any fish other than Salmon or Tuna, but one of my resolution’s for this year was to each more fish, so I figured I’d begin by trying some fresh fish fillet’s from my local seafood mart to begin with.

This week, they said the flounder was fresh (and usually, fresh fish from local sources is pretty cheap also) – so I bought a pound! If you’re in the market and see something fresh but worry about not knowing what to cook with them – don’t fret! In this day of plentiful internet recipes, within minutes of coming home you can find a quick and easy recipe That’s exactly what I did – looked up a few recipes, picked up some easy tips from them, and proceeded to do a quick pan fry of the fillets for a wonderful, crispy coating with minimal effort and minimal fat.

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Filed under American, Dinner, Quick and Easy

Posted on January 12th, 2010 |

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I’m a Complan (cookie) boy!

Anyone who grew up in India knows that the phrase ‘I am a Complan boy’ relates to the nutritional drink mix popularized in the last few decades back home; we spent a large part of our childhoods drinking steaming hot mugs of Complan as part of our breakfasts before we headed to school in the morning. The highly successful ad, featuring a growing boy helping his mom by reaching up for some hard-to-get-to kitchen shelves, with the proud mom admiring the height of the boy, had a whole generation of India kids wanting to be Complan boys and Complan girls. (I’m 6 feet tall, considered tall for a regular Indian, so i’m probably one of the few that Complan did work on :p).

I always loved the taste of Complan even when eaten just as a powder; the original flavor, slightly malty and with with a subtle vanilla flavor. It was even chalky at times, dissolving into a sweet paste that coated the arch of the mouth. They introduced new flavors like Chocolate and Mango, but the original was always the best. Ofcourse, my mom would always chide me for just eating the powder, insisting that I drink it with milk.

I forgot about Complan for a while till I stumbled upon Complan cookies in our local Indian grocery store a few weeks ago. Could it be? The sweet taste of Complan sandwiched between a biscuit (the Indian kind, not the Paula Deen southern kind)? It seemed too good to be true, especially when I spied not just the natural Complan flavor but an orange flavor too. I just had to give them a try!

How did they taste? Meh. Like any other cream-filled biscuit, with the iconic Complan taste barely coming through at all. This seemed like one of those attempts at cross-marketing by the conglomerate that owned the Complan brand- “Hmm, we have a popular beverage mix, and we also make cream cookies – why not just slap the Complan name on the cream cookies and call them a healthy snack?”! Don’t get me wrong – cream cookies by themselves are fine. Just not Complan worthy, I thought. But now I was left with a couple of packets to get rid of – so I got creative and decided to dip them in Chocolate Sauce and freeze them. Yummy! The cold, half-chocolate-dipped frozen cookies were a delicious mid-afternoon weekend dessert, with the Vanilla and Orange flavors complementing the chocolate. I even convinced myself that maybe I’ll get a nice energy boost from the Complan in the cookies You can try this with any cream cookie ofcourse; bonus points if you pick up the Indian variety at your local ethnic grocer.

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Filed under Dessert, Quick and Easy

Posted on January 6th, 2010 |

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Christmas cheater Pumpkin Pie

Christmas is the last true time in the year when we all get to cheat on our little personal food promises, before the week of the Resolutions is upon us. These can be little promises like “I will eat only one slice of pie for dessert”, or “I will not drink an alcoholic beverage before 5pm”, or “I will limit myself to just a little of that delicious, artery clogging stuffing that Aunt Edna prepared”. Or they can be bigger ones like “I will never use ready-made pie filling”.

Confession time – I broke that last one because I really wanted pumpkin pie for Christmas, and since we were only cooking for a small, intimate gathering of exactly 3 and already had 6 dishes lined up – I just didnt think whipping up a pie from scratch was worth it; and in the end, since I got an extra hour to join in a game of Monopoly with the wifey and the little brother (the other guests at this cozy little celebration) it definitely was the right decision I would say!

Since I had the oven cranked up to prepare some of the other items, it didn’t take much time to throw in this pie (actually got TWO pies from the one can) at the beginning of the evening – allowing for the couple of hours needed to fully cool ensure we had a perfectly set, delicious dessert at the end of gorging on the other items. A couple of homemade touches ensured the pie did not taste like it just came out of a can!

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Filed under American, Dessert, Quick and Easy

Posted on December 28th, 2009 |

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Quickie Cooking: Chicken Kolhapuri

Chicken Kolhapur

Growing up in a typical South Indian Telugu household, most of the day-to-day foods we ate were mostly the bread-and-butter pappu’s (lentils) and southern curries. North Indian preparations, like their excellent Chicken curries, were reserved for special occasions when my mom wanted to try something new, or for when we went out to eat. I looked forward to those meals and always promised myself that when I grew up and became an adult myself, I would have such food every day.

As an adult, however, I quickly realized that it was wasn’t healthy for either my body or my wallet to eat restaurant-made North Indian curries very often, and the best way to meet my cravings for these curries was to prepare them at home. However, given the complexity involved in cooking some of these items, we usually resort to pre-made (the horror!) masala mixes to whip up a quick curry whenever we want to.

Now, while this may seem like blasphemy to the usual Indian canon of healthy cooking from scratch, I distinctly remember that even my mom sometimes resorted to using spice mixes just to avoid having to put together and grind each of the dozen or so spices that give each curry a distinctive flavor. Modern mix packets just take this step a bit further by also included oil and salt in the mix; advanced science allowing for vaccum-packing of such mixes without using much, if any, preservatives or additional junk. The preparation just calls for adding the mix, along with some water or milk, along with the meat or vegetables of your choice to a saucepan, heating for the recommended time and getting a piping hot curry onto the table within 15-20 mins. Quickie Cooking at its finest!

So seek out these packets as your local Indian grocer; Parampara and Sanjeev Kapoor make some of the best tasting mixes which don’t contain too much unneccessary filling. Given the simplicity involved in putting these curries together, I decided to put in a tiny bit of extra effort and upping the health-quotient of these dishes by adding in some fresh or frozen vegetables – this helps counter any extra sodium in the mix, while also adding some texture and freshness to the curry. This week we tried the Chicken Kolhapur – a Maharashtrian dish with a spicy, dark sauce.

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Filed under Dinner, Indian - North, Lunch, Quick and Easy

Posted on December 27th, 2009 |

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Evaporated Chocolate Ganache

As I wrote about a couple of posts back, the past month I discovered the joys of making chocolate ganache and using it top a toasted slice of bread ala La Maison Du Chocolat. While Ganache might seem like a scary French word, I write this to reassure all the young cooks out there that its just a fancy word for chocolate sauce – and is just as easy to make.

All you need to know about ganache, which is a little thicker than your generic Hershey’s syrup and has a lot more depth of flavor to it, is that it is a combination of chocolate and cream, and you can tinker around with the varieties of said ingredients to suit any occasions. By the same token, you can also be reassured that the recipe is fool-proof – if the sauce turns out thicker than you intended, it will harden into a nice, soft truffle. Much thinner than you wanted? Well, say hello to a nice chocolate glaze for a cake or muffin!

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Filed under Dessert, French, Quick and Easy

Posted on December 22nd, 2009 |

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Ridiculously easy Goat Cheese-filled Puff Pastry

Puff pastry is one of the most delicious things in this world – crispy, flaky, buttery, and filled with goodness. At times when we crave the puffs but are too lazy to pull out the pastry sheets and roll them out, etc., we turn to the Pepperidge Farm puff pastry shells. And at times when we are too lazy to even whip up a quick filling for the shells, be it savory or sweet, we stick a hunk of whatever soft cheese we have on hand and end up with a deliciously decadent, ridiculously easy-to-make appetizer.

This is a simple, straightforward recipe for days when you want to just pop a couple of these in the toaster oven for a quick snack, or for when you have the oven cranked up for a day of baking and want a bonus appetizer without any extra effort. This can also stand in as a deceptively sophisticated-looking Hors d’oeuvre, and you could easily kick it up a notch by just mixing a few spices, herbs or veggies in with the cheese. Over the weekend, the wife and I just wanted to snuggle in and not do too much cooking, so we kept it simple and used up a dollop of some flavored goat-cheese that we had on hand to enjoy a hot snack on a cold Sunday night.

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Filed under American, Appetizers, Quick and Easy

Posted on December 21st, 2009 |

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Toasted bread with Bitter-sweet Gananche

On days when you want a quick and easy dessert, but something a bit more sophisticated than just a scoop of the Haagen-Dazs from your freezer - well, nothing beats a hot toasted slice of crusty bread draped with warm chocolate ganache. It’s not a traditional combination, but one that really works because of the splendid contrast in textures and flavors of the bread and chocolate.

A few weeks ago, the La Maison Du Chocolat store near my workplace had a ganache tasting. The wife and I first fell in love with Maison chocolates during our trip to Paris last year, and I was elated when a branch opened up right on Wall Street soon after - I never miss any of their tasting events. At the ganache event, I was greeted with two chocolatiers (that word exists, right?) melting thick ganache in sparkling white ceramic bowl. The surprise was that instead of a plate of strawberries or marshmallows to dip in the ganache, they put out plates covered with small pieces of various bread – the regular savory breads, mind you, not any sweetened ones. The ganache was slowly drizzled over the piece of bread and handed over to the guests.

When I admitted that I’d never encountered this combination before, the lady reassured me that this was the best way to enjoy the flavors of the rich ganache. One bite and I understood exactly why – the hearty flavor of the bread stood up quite well to the richness of the chocolate, acting as the foundation for the deep flavor of the cocoa to shine through. The rough and crumbly texture of the toasted bread melded well with the velvety creaminess of the ganache, providing a little crunch at the end of the luscious chocolate. ♥ Continue reading Toasted bread with Bitter-sweet Gananche

Filed under American, Dessert, Quick and Easy

Posted on December 18th, 2009 |

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Light and Buttery Waffles

Waffles were made for cold, wintry Sunday morning breakfasts. Nothing beats the crispy, golden brown warmth of a home-made waffle on such mornings; yes, I said homemade – not those ice-puck eggo’s from the freezer. Who wants to open up the freezer when it’s chilly enough anyways?! Plus, making waffles at home is such a snap that all you need is 4-5 pantry essentials, a simple waffle maker and some maple syrup to top them off.

The recipe below is the waffle batter in its simplest form - it will produce some very nice, light buttery waffles with just a hint of sweetness. You can use this as the base to flavor them up as you like – some chopped nuts, a little vanilla, some berries to top it perhaps? We use buttermilk in our waffle batter at times, and there are some very fancy things you can do like folding in whipped egg whites separately - I will experiment with these over the next few months and see how they turn out. For now, a simple recipe to start off with will show you that making waffles at home is not much more difficult than popping a frozen one into the toaster oven. (Heck, you can just make a bunch and create your own frozen waffles for the week if you prefer)!

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Filed under American, Breakfast, Quick and Easy

Posted on December 14th, 2009 |

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Teriyaki Salmon

A co-worker of mine has been pestering me for a couple of years now to try this Japanese restaurant for lunch; she raved about the mixed ‘boxes’ that offered a sampling of all their yummy seafood delicacies – a different sampler being offered every single day. Given that raw seafood is one of the only foods I don’t eat (more a matter of allergies than taste) I’ve steadfastly refused to go despite her constant reassurance that they offered ‘cooked’ items too. I finally relented today, on her last week at work for her going-away lunch, and boy did I realize what I was missing!

We ordered a couple of different samplers, filled with goodies like shrimp tempura, candied ginger, ginger fish with baby mushrooms, a fried pork pocket wrapped around asparagus and a japanese take on green beans. The star of the show was a fresh fillet of salmon bathed in sumptuous sweet and spicy asian barbecue sauce. I felt like ate for an hour but because everything was just light fresh seafood, I didnt feel weighed down – but didnt get hungry for quite a while after either. I realized why fresh fish is constantly pushed as a superstar health food - forget all those healthy omega 3 oils, this is just tasty food that really nourishes without filling you up completely.

Now, it will take me some time to learn some of the more intricate preparations we ate today (challenge accepted – Shrimp Tempura, here I come!) but over the summer I learn to make a simple and easy teriyaki salmon dish that, while not as painstakingly made as the restaurant dish, still yielded a deliciously flavored salmon that harldy took any time to put together. Starting off with pre-made teriyaki sauce (Kikkomans - the horror!) cut down some of the time, but adding a few additional touches helps punch up the flavor. The best part? You can make this in the toaster oven - so in a few mins you can have a tasty and healthy fish dish ready for your weeknight dinner! This makes a great protein dish to serve with rice and boiled vegetables.

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Filed under Dinner, Japanese, Quick and Easy

Posted on December 8th, 2009 |

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