Chimichurri

Next weekend is the last big holiday weekend of summer and lots of us will plan get-togethers with friends to make the most of it. If your plans include a backyard barbecue and you want to wow the neighbors, consider giving your food a little South American flare.

Chimichurri is an aromatic Brazilian meat marinade that enhances the flavors of meats and smells amazing on the grill. It has the look and consistency of pesto – chunky and green – with rich flavors of fresh herbs and spices.

Here is a basic chimichurri recipe but you can play around with the proportions to suite your personal preferences:

• 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed and coarsely chopped
• ¼ c. oregano leaves, chopped
• ¾ c. olive oil
• 3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp. sea salt or smoked sea salt if available
• Black pepper to taste
• Red pepper flakes to taste

Mix ingredients and use immediately as a sauce or refrigerate and use as marinade for up to 24 hours.

Chimichurri can be used as a marinade and as a sauce to serve with grilled steak. Of course, you want to be sure to separate the batches if you are using chimichurri as both. You never want to use remaining marinade as a sauce. If you have extra, it can even be used as pesto and served with pasta.

Have a great holiday and enjoy time with family and friends!

The Basics of Thai Curry

Last time, we talked about two of the most common curry powders from India. Today, we are going to discuss a completely different take on curry. We are doing it Southeast-Asian style. The Pacific Rim has its own unique culinary style, with number local and colonial influences. Trade between the Indian subcontinent and China encouraged the spread of Buddhism, silks and cooking with blends of spices. As with religion and fashion, Pacific Rim countries wove Indian influences into the rich tapestry of their own beliefs, style and taste.

Curry Pastes

One major difference between Indian and Thai curry is the consistency. Indian spices are powders, but Thai curries are a dense paste. Both are added to food in much the same way but Thai curries tend, by their nature, to be fresher and of course, don’t keep as long.

Note: It is difficult to state outright that one curry is more or less spicy or hot than another. Because these spice blends are created from fresh herbs and spices, it really depends on the batch of ingredients used and the palette of the cook. If you are ordering these curries in a restaurant, be sure to ask which one will suit your spice tolerance best.

Red Curry

Composed of dried long red chilies, cilantro root, coriander, cumin, garlic, shallots, kaffir lime rind, white peppercorn, lemongrass, shrimp paste, sea salt and galangal (a rhizome similar to ginger), it is the most versatile of the Thai curries. Cooks add this paste to coconut milk and use it as a sauce for all sorts of meat and some seafood.

Green Curry

Probably the most popular in Thailand, this blend is derived from fresh green chilies, shallots, lemongrass, white pepper, coriander root, garlic, kaffir lime rind, shrimp paste and sea salt. The addition of sweet basil leaves, and kaffir lime leaves lend the exceptional bright green color. Again, this paste is added to coconut milk to create a creamy sauce that is used with beef or chicken as well as fish dumplings. Green curry is considered the most uniquely Thai in its flavor profile and the spiciest, but the red can be spicy as well.

Yellow Curry

This curry borrows the most from its Indian neighbors with a Pacific Rim spin. Ingredients include coriander, cumin, lemongrass, galangal, shrimp paste, dried red chilies, sea salt, ginger, garlic and shallots. Generally you will find this in fish dishes although it is also used to make a yellow chicken curry. Yellow curry is also mixed with coconut milk to create a sauce and is usually the mildest of the three.

 

Heating Things Up with Curry

There has been quite a bit of buzz lately about the health benefits of spices. Cinnamon is credited with increased circulation and improved memory.  Turmeric has a compound called curcumin that may improve memory and help prevent Alzheimers. Then too, there is an emerging trend in America to re-examine our grandparents simple herbal remedies.

So it looks like a good time to talk about curry. The word comes from the Tamil (Indian) word Kari, or sauce and simply refers to the combination of spices used to cook meat and vegetables. There are numerous kinds of curry from regions throughout India and surrounding countries where we are familiar with curry powders and Southeastern Asia, where we are familiar with several very spicy pastes. However you prefer it, seasoning meat and vegetables with a little curry can perk it up and reap valuable health rewards.

This week we will look at curry powders.

Just about every curry will have a few common ingredients – turmeric, cumin, coriander and fenugreek.  These ingredients are typically combined with various other spices to make different taste and color combinations. If you are shopping for Indian curry powder, the most common one available has a yellowish color and is some form of Madras curry. Typical ingredients include: cloves, nutmeg, cayenne, black pepper, coriander seeds, turmeric, chillies, salt, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, garlic, ginger, fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves, anise, and mustard but ingredients vary between brands so pay attention to labels.

Garam Masala is another spice powder that is available in specialty stores in America. It is more orange in color and its spices are heat-sensitive so typically they would be added at the end of cooking. Garam Masala tends to be less hot and more pungent than Madras curry. It also contains more ingredients common to Americans – cinnamon, nutmeg and star anise among them. Traditional dishes often combine the spices with coconut milk to create a flavorful sauce.

An easy way to use these curry powders is to put them in salt shakers and sprinkle them over food to experiment. When you get a sense of how much or how little you like in a dish you can really experiment with using them in soups, on rice or as a rub for grilling. It doesn’t take much of these amazing spices to bring out the flavor in food. Just one teaspoon added to a dish for a family qualifies that dish as “a curry.”

But what about green curry, or red or yellow? These curries are Southeast Asian pastes with their own unique properties and benefits and we will discuss those next time. So stay tuned!

Horseradish

The winner of the International Herb Association’s 2011 Herb of the Year went to our good friend, horseradish. This gem puts the bite in the cocktail sauce that we love for fried shrimp and raw oysters. It also dresses up prime rib and adds zing to sandwiches when added to mayonnaise.

Here are some things you may not already know about horseradish.

The plant comes to us from Central and Eastern Europe and the name comes from a misunderstanding of a form of mer or sea for a form of mare or horse. Horseradish is very nutrient dense, containing vitamin C, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. It is also anti-microbial and has been used to preserve meat. Medicinally it is attributed with powers as a digestive and emotional stimulant, and possibly even an anti-cancer agent. However, used to excess it can also cause diarrhea, night sweats, and in one case heart-attack.

In addition to its zesty culinary uses, it also has an affinity for some fruit, particularly apples and pears. The International Herb Association web site offers a recipe for apple pie with horseradish for those daring enough to give it a try.

How are you going to celebrate horseradish? If you have a delicious and unusual use for horseradish, share it here with the foodie community.

A Cajun Primer – Part II

In the last post we described meat specific to Cajun cuisine. This time we will introduce some of the most essential Cajun/Creole dishes and what distinguishes them from each other. Any of these dishes can be made with single shellfish, a combination of seafood or with sausage and/or chicken.

Creole – Creole cooking comes from African-American tradition and credited with being more subtle and refined than its Acadian cousin. The truth is that each influences the other. The dish Creole (Shrimp Creole, for example), slow cooks tomatoes and “the holy trinity” (celery, onions and bell pepper) in butter, making a spicy tomato sauce combined with shrimp stock.  The entire dish is served over rice.

Etouffée – This dish is made using a light roux, as compared to a dark roux for Gumbo. When the butter and flour come together to make a light brown sauce, it’s time to sauté the holy trinity in it and add crawfish (or other shellfish). When it’s ready, this dish as a lighter, more delicate, buttery flavor and is served over rice.

Gumbo – This standard Cajun/Creole stew has a number of variations but is traditionally made using a dark butter and flour roux, holy trinity, seafood and sausage and okra. It typically does not contain tomatoes and locals tend to be very suspicious of gumbo that does. It may also contain filé (powdered sassafras leaves) as a thickening agent. It is generally considered poor form to use both filé and okra as the flavors do not complement each other.

Jambalaya – Creole Jambalaya is a tomato-based stew, Cajun jambalaya has no tomatoes. Both are comfort food. It is an everyday dish that allows for using whatever happens to be on hand. It employs some kind of stock, tomato sauce (if Creole), holy trinity, meat and rice. It is a very flexible dish that is different every time it’s made – it can be very spicy or very mild depending on the cook.

Now that the menu makes sense, by all means go explore. There’s nothing like the cuisine in this part of the country. Visitors here who don’t take advantage of the outstanding French, Spanish and African flavors of Creole and Cajun cooking are really missing out.

A Cajun Primer

If you are new to the area or just visiting and you would like to have a greater understanding of the great Cajun and Creole cuisine, here are a few important tidbits to start you on your journey.

Meats

Seasoned, processed meats figure prominently in Cajun cooking, especially pork. Born out of necessity, preserved meats lasted longer and could be used sparingly to add flavor and protein to rice-based meals. What sets Cajun meats apart is the use of complex, spicy seasonings  – cayenne pepper, sassafras, bay leaves and other locally-available spices.

Tasso – a spicy, smoked pork shoulder ham, similar in texture to prosciutto.

Andouille sausage – a coarsely ground, spicy pork sausage. It is often used to add heat and flavor to rice dishes such as gumbo and red beans and rice.

Boudin sausage – a regional speciality, this sausage contains rice and a variety of game meats, it can be eaten by itself or as an addition to creole specialities.

Turducken – a Thanksgiving favorite, a boned chicken is stuffed inside a boned duck which is then placed inside a turkey and roasted. Each layer is fully coated in Cajun seasonings for extra kick.

Crawfish – Cajun cooking makes good use of any and all available game meat and seafood, but most famously crawfish which are small crustaceans that are plentiful in the swampy areas of south Louisiana. Roughly the size of large shrimp but with a texture closer to lobster, crawfish are most often boiled whole by the pound with loads of spicy crab boil. Some folks suck the heads to get an extra dose of the crab boil seasonings.

Next time – dishes – Gumbo, Etouffee, Jambalaya, Creole….

Adding Salt

Still using plain old iodized table salt when you cook? Well, take a look around the next time you are in the grocery store. Sea salts from around the world add flavor and subtle variation to food and offer a healthier alternative to salt-conscious diets.

Sea Salt

Basic sea salt typically comes from the Mediterranean, although it’s made all over the world,  and is derived by drying ocean water. It is unprocessed and includes a variety of minerals that offer variation in color and flavor.

• French Sea Salt – sometimes called sel gris (grey salt), it is a cream to khaki color and is high in mineral content. Because it is only about 85 percent sodium chloride, it makes a healthier alternative to table salt. Try using French sea salt on salads and grilled meat.
• Fleur de Sel – the “caviar of salts” – it is produced according to ancient Celtic methods, can only be produced once a year in the Champagne region of France to carry the name. The salt crystals are very fine and it has a unique flavor highly prized by chefs.
• Italian Sea Salt - Naturally rich in minerals, such as iodine, fluorine, magnesium and potassium, it has only a slightly lower percentage of sodium chloride than regular table salt.  The delicate flavor of Italian sea salt makes it a great choice for finishing meats.
• Kala Namak – Indian black salt, high in sulphur content, this salt is prized by vegans for its ability to add an “eggy” flavor to food. Despite its name, this salt is actually a pink-grey color.
• Hawaiian Sea Salt – dark reddish-brown, this salt is produced with clay and therefore has a high iron content that is responsible for its color. This salt has a milder, more earthy flavor.
• Smoked Sea Salt – a developing trend, true smoked sea salt is allowed to slow smoke for several days to take on the flavor of the smoke. This salt is amazing as a grilling rub or in cases where you will not be grilling but would like to add a smokey flavor to your food.

Himalayan Pink Salt – acclaimed as having the highest mineral content of any salt in the world, this salt is mined rather than dried and has been protected from the effects of pollution for millions of years. The pink color of this salt makes it a conversation starter and it is great for bringing out the flavor in food. Use it in dry rubs and soups.

Kosher Salt – typically this is a flaky salt that dissolves easily and works well in soups and sauces. It can also mean any salt that is processed according to Jewish law.