Tag Archive for 'cumin'

Recipes: Chicken Tacos

Published by Hal on January 12, 2008 in recipes. 7 Comments

My wife and I don’t really plan a menu when we’re going to the grocery. I guess we do this because it allows for some spontaneity, but there comes a problem when we want to actually make something because we don’t always have the ingredients on hand.

On the flip side, this also means that we buy ingredients that we don’t have any clear plan for. By example, this week we bought a pound of chicken breast–no idea how we were going to use it, it just sounded good to me when we were at the market. Fortunately, it was mostly frozen when we got it home, and I don’t thaw things on the counter, so I had a few days to figure it out or refreeze the meat.

Last night, my wife suggested chicken alfredo. An alfredo sauce isn’t that hard to make, but I was tired (I had a great Thursday night!) so we were going to just buy a sauce in a jar and grill the chicken. On the way to store, I bagged out and we went to Fazoli’s instead. So, we still had this chicken that we needed to do something with.

Today, I’m downstairs, paying the bills, when my wife brings up the chicken. “We can make pasta for lunch,” she says (or something like it). I protested that pasta was too heavy, maybe we could make a grilled chicken caesar salad instead. She wasn’t thrilled about that, so I secretly planned to make the pasta and just serve a salad with it. But when we got to the store, something changed in the produce section:

“What about tacos?” she asked.

“What?” That came out of left field! She happened to see some diced onions and had the idea. So, away we went. I didn’t want to buy a packet of taco seasoning, so I took a quick gander to see if I could be inspired, and I was.

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/3 teaspoon tumeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 pound chicken breast
  • 7 ounces tomato sauce

Procedure:

Combine the spices in a small cup and set aside. Season the chicken breasts on both sides (I used a liberal amount of seasoned salt–you could use just pepper and salt, and that would be just fine). Heat about two tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the chicken.

Cook the chicken until it’s done, turning once. Don’t move it, or it will stick! Turn it once–I’m serious! You’ll be rewarded with some nice, tasty carmelization! This should take about 10-15 minutes (5-7 minutes on each side), depending on how thick the breasts are.

Remove the chicken from the heat and allow it to cool. If you into them right away, the juices will run everywhere (drying out the meat) and you’ll get burned :). In the meantime, go make some rice, tea, wash some dishes, whatever–just don’t touch the chicken. I used the time to make some spanish rice and to prepare some pico de gallo

Once the chicken has cooled enough to handle, tear it into chunks. I used the help of a serrated knife, and chuck the chicken into chunks about 1/4 inch square. After the chicken has been shredded, add it back to a sauce pan, over medium heat. Add the tomato sauce and the spices and stir. Allow the mixture to get hot, and cook for about five minutes to allow the spices to cook and release their flavor.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture per taco. Serve with fresh pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, or your other favorite condiment! Makes about 12 tacos.

As a side note, this could be another use for a rotisserie chicken! The cooking is done for you, you just need to shred.

Another view (clockwise, from the top, Rice-a-Roni Spanish Style Rice, tortilla chips, and the main event, a chicken taco):

Frugal Friday: London Broil/Flank Steak

Published by Hal on January 11, 2008 in Frugal Friday and recipes. 3 Comments

I must be getting popular or generating some better hits on Google, because I’m started to get some spam comments! I guess that’s good, but I love real comments, too, so if you’re reading, let me know, and share some good ideas with me!

When I was at home last week and my in-laws wanted to see the potato ricer at work, I needed a dish to serve with my Roasted Red Pepper Mashed Potatoes. The last time I made smashed potatoes, I served a marinaded flank steak over them and it was really tasty. The great thing about flank steak is it’s a very inexpensive cut of meat, and it’s not hard to prepare at all.

At it’s basic level, you get a flank steak, season it liberally and place it under a broiler (about 4 inches from the element) for 4-5 minutes per side. When it’s done, let it rest for 5-10 minutes, then cut it against the grain and serve it in strips with your favorite side. This ensures the meat will be served rare/medium rare, and will stay tender. Because of this particular cut, if you don’t prepare it this way it will be tough and chewy–so don’t over cook it, and don’t cut it with the grain or straight! (photo courtesy of viamarisol)

Alternatively, you could also marinade your flank steak to impart more flavor. I came across this recipe at Kalyn’s Kitchen blog, and gave it a try:

Ingredients:

  • 1 large piece of flank steak, 2-3 pounds
  • Marinade:
    • 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
    • 1/4 cup olive oil
    • 1 tsp. ground cumin
    • 1 tsp. dried oregano
    • 1 tsp. onion powder
    • 1 tsp. garlic powder
    • 1 T soy sauce
    • 1/2 tsp. ground chipotle chile powder (or use your favorite hot sauce)
    • 2 tsp. lime zest (optional)

Procedure:

Combine marinade ingredients. Put flank steak into a ziploc bag and pour marinade in, seal bag, and marinate all day in refrigerator. (You can marinate up to 24 hours if desired.)

Take meat out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before grilling. Preheat gas or charcoal barbecue grill to medium high (you can only keep your hand there for a few seconds.)

Grill meat to desired doneness, approximately 4-5 minutes per side for rare to medium rare or 6-7 minutes for medium to medium-well. Time will depend on the thickness of your flank steak, the best way to judge the doneness is to use an instant-read meat thermometer.

Remove meat from grill and let rest about 5 minutes. (You can cover with foil to keep it warm if needed.) Slice across the grain and serve warm.

This was the final, plated product, which my family thoroughly enjoyed! Best of all, this dish uses many pantry staples, so my only real cost was that of the meat–3 pounds for about $7, a true frugal buy.

Wholesome Wednesday: 127 Foods That Fight Fat

Published by Hal on December 19, 2007 in Wholesome Wednesday. 5 Comments

Greetings! You’ll notice I changed the title of the Wednesday segment. Since this blog is about food, and this segment is about how food interacts with your body, I thought it was more appropriate that the segment title deal direction with food. Thus, Wholesome Wednesday was born.

Yahoo Health has a great article on 127 foods that fight fat. Problem is, they don’t really break it down in an easy to read format. Plus, if you want to learn math, this isn’t the article for you: I only count 54 foods, or food types.

I’ll cover these foods and my thoughts on them over the course of the next two weeks in a multi-part Wholesome Wednesday segment. Today, we’ll begin with the first 4 sections of the “Any Time List.”

Fruits and vegetables
All fruits and vegetables—raw, cooked, fresh, frozen, canned—belong on the Picture Perfect Anytime List. Avoid any packaged fruits that have added sugar. Otherwise, the more fruits and vegetables you eat, the better.

I think this is very sound advice. Fruit has countless benefits: it provides fiber for your body, provides antioxidants that fight aging and cancer, and generally fills you up without making you uncomfortable. I heard on the radio the other day–and I’ve heard this more than once–that those folks who eat an apple before each meal ate something like 300 calories less, on average, than those who didn’t. And, it had to be an apple–apple sauce, apple juice didn’t work.

Soups
You’ve heard of value for your money. Soups give you very good value for the calories. They are filling; a bowl of soup can be an entire meal. They are satisfying. For many people, they are more satisfying than raw vegetables, while many give you all the benefits of veggies (if you choose the soups chock full of vegetables). They are inexpensive, convenient, easy, and quick to make. Soups don’t make you feel like you’re on a diet. Above all, soups are versatile. They can serve as a snack, as part of a meal, or as a cooking ingredient.

The idea here is to fill yourself up on food that’s got high volume but low calories. This works in most soups because they are broth based and broth is mostly water. However, you need to be careful not to mistake this advice for cream based soups. While tasty, and a delicious occasional treat, cream based soups are loaded with fat and calories–and I think they defeat the purpose of eating a soup before a meal. Incidentally, I’ve heard the same thing about eating a broth-based soup before a meal as I have about eating an apple before a meal. Maybe we should all try it–we’ll be healthier as a result, at least!

Sauces, Condiments, and Marinades
Put the following items at the very top of your shopping list. They’re invaluable for adding flavor, moisture, texture, and versatility to every food and every meal.

  1. Salad dressings: oil-free or low-calorie (light or lite)
  2. Mayonnaise: fat-free or light
  3. Sour cream and yogurt: fat-free, plain, or with NutraSweet (or low-fat nondairy substitutes)
  4. Mustards: Dijon, Pommery, and others
  5. Tomato puree, tomato paste, and tomato sauce
  6. Clam juice, tomato juice, V8 juice, and lemon or lime juice
  7. Butter Buds or Molly McButter
  8. Cooking sprays (such as Pam) in butter, olive oil, garlic, or lemon flavors
  9. Vinegars: balsamic, cider, wine, tarragon, and others
  10. Horseradish: red and white
  11. Sauces: salsa, cocktail sauce, tamari, soy sauce, A1, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, duck sauce, chutney, relish, and others
  12. Onion: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
  13. Garlic: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
  14. Herbs: any and all, including basil, oregano, tarragon, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, dill, chives, sage, and bay leaves
  15. Spices: any and all, including cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cumin, nutmeg, coriander, curry, paprika, and allspice
  16. Extracts: vanilla, almond, peppermint, maple, coconut, cocoa powder, and others

I think this is a fun list. However, I do not have a lot of these items, which goes back to the well-stocked pantry debate. Only use from this list what makes sense for you. Line-by-line:

  1. Salad dressings: Definitely, have some salad dressings on hand. However, only buy what you’re going to use and what you can’t make easily. We have ranch dressing on hand, but we can just as easily whip up a vinaigrette as we can pour processed soybean oil from a bottle.
  2. Mayonnaise: Only have mayonnaise if you’re going to use mayonnaise. We will use maybe 2 cups in a year for anything, so we only have like a 10 ounce jar.
  3. Yogurt & Sour Cream: Yogurt is a good thing to keep on hand–it’s a good snack, and there are studies that demonstrate the importance of having a low-fat source of dairy in your diet for promoting a healthful weight. We only buy sour cream when we need it, and we splurge–have you looked at the ingredients list on most sour creams? Non-fat milk and emulsifiers? No thank you. Go for Daisy, if your grocer carries it. 100% real sour cream, no additives. And, it holds up better than that emulsified crap.
  4. Mustards: Mustards are good. You can make a Dijon crusted pork chop, or use some as in emulsifier in your vinaigrette!
  5. Tomato products: Yep on tomato products. These are common in Italian style cooking, as well as Middle Eastern cuisine. You can make something delicious and tasty in no time. And, for the men–Lycopene, an compound with links to reduced rates of prostate cancer.
  6. Clam juice, tomato juice, lemon & lime juice: Hmm. This doesn’t seem like something the common cook would use very often. Buy your lemons and limes fresh if you need the juice. Unless you’re making margaritas for the Titans.
  7. Butter flavored sprinkles: I say no to butter flavored compounds. Use the real stuff, just go easy. And I’m serious–use butter, not spread, not margarine. Your tastebuds will thank me.
  8. Cooking sprays: I also say no to cooking sprays. The chemical propellant is a disaster with non-stick surfaces. Get a Misto and go to town. It’s much better, and your cookware will thank you.
  9. Vinegars: I agree whole heartedly–have a variety of vinegars on hand.
  10. Horseradish: This depends on how much you’ll use it. I’ll tell you what–American horseradish is something awful to me, but when we were in Austria over the summer, the horseradish they use with their sausages was delectable! It was sweeter and milder than American horseradish. Get some, if you like sausage.
  11. Lots ‘o sauce: I have three of these: ketchup, soy, and Worcestershire sauces. The rest you can make or buy as you need them.
  12. Onions: Definitely have some onion powder and fresh onions. You can dice them really small and grate them for their juice. Don’t waste your money.
  13. Garlic: See number 12
  14. Dried herbs: Only have as much as you’ll use, or use what you have. Herbs don’t really go bad, but they do lose their potency after a while. You can always plant fresh, too. I think this will be my spring project (but it will have to be a window garden, cause we don’t have the space!).
  15. Spices: Same as number 14. Spices do the same thing. They just taste so much better when they are fresh, anyway.
  16. Other aromatics: I have vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Vanilla is the most versatile plant, because it goes with almost everything.

Dressings and Dips
I recommend fat-free or light dressings and dips. The light category—low-fat, reduced-fat, and low-calorie—is midway between totally fat-free and regular, and it’s often more pleasing to the palate than fat-free. Dressings can be used as all-purpose condiments, dips, toppings, even cooking liquids. They already contain a mixture of ingredients, so just slather them on vegetables, seafood, and pretty much anything else. Or cook with them to make up for the lack of butter or oil. I recommend keeping several varieties of dressings and dips on hand, including at least one creamy version. Try brushing a light creamy dressing on seafood, then broiling; the dressing adds moisture and flavor.

I agree, but we also discussed this in number one above. I think a more fitting item here is to keep soup and dressing packets on hand, to mix with your sour cream and/or mayonnaise. Plus, you can use the packets for other recipes, as well. I think that’s the more frugal choice.

Check back next week when we look at the next four categories in this article. (And, of course, check back daily for other features here at the Common Culinarian!)