Tasty & Simple: Granola

January 27th, 2009 | 2 Comments »

This edition of Tasty & Simple features a hippie classic: granola. Forget the crap you get at the supermarket (or even the health food store, for that matter), making granola at home is cheap, fully customized to your tastes, and makes a great gift.

Full disclosure: this basic concepts of this recipe comes from Mark Bittman’s New York Times column, “The Minimalist”. Since the Tasty & Simple feature is all about straightforward recipes, I fully acknowledge the influence Bittman’s column has on my everyday cooking.

For my spin on Bittman’s granola recipe, I’ve upped the nuttage, tweaked the spices, and discovered a secret ingredient that really takes it to the next level: French coconut cubes. I don’t quite know how they do it, but the French have discovered a way to distill a coconut down to sweet, chewy perfection, without any additional ingredients. In granola, it melts beautifully and forms irresistible coconutty clusters. I’ve only been able to obtain these from NYC’s Fairway Market, so I guess this one may be out of reach for many… if anyone discovers them outside of NYC, please put a note in the comments.

I highly recommend Trader Joe’s for all the raw ingredients — excellent quality and prices. The bulk food section at the health food store is also fairly economical.

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Tasty & Simple: Poached Chicken

January 8th, 2009 | 4 Comments »

Introducing Tasty And Simple, where I’ll provide easy recipes for the novice chef. My vow to you: no fancy ingredients, lots of suggestions for making it your own, and active prep time in under an hour.

Let’s start with one that is sure to come in handy: poached chicken. Poaching is a cooking method that submerges the main ingredient in a flavored liquid and simmers it until cooked through. It is usually employed for lighter flesh like chicken or fish, but can also be used for eggs, vegetables (such as artichokes), and other fragile food items. As an added bonus, poaching is (usually) a low-fat, healthy cooking technique.

Chicken — especially the breast — is an excellent candidate for poaching. Poached chicken can be applied to many dishes: sandwiches, salads, soups, pasta, tacos… you name it. Based on the ingredients in the simmering liquid, you can tweak the flavors soaked up by the chicken.

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Published in Food Culture & Recipes, Tasty & Simple |