Thursday, September 04, 2008

3 simple steps to better eating

When I was in Nova Scotia I stayed at the Glenora Distillery for a night.

While the highlight of this stay was purchasing a bottle of 18 year old whiskey that was bottled from their very first barrels, another highlight was the creative cooking in their restaurant.

In fact, it was the bread they served before the meal that impressed me the most.

The bread was infused with cumin...delicious and remarkably different. I've had olive bread and honey oat bread even cranberry bread, but never cumin bread.

This act of kitchen creativity gave me the idea for this post - 3 ways you can start eating better today.

Of course, by eating better I mean eating less and enjoying the foods you eat while emphasizing fruits and vegetables and herbs and spices.

1 - Purchase 3 spices that you have never used before. They don't have to be spices you have never tasted before, just ones that you have not used in your kitchen in the last 3 months.

2- Create a meal using foods you commonly eat

3- use the new spices to add a unique twist to foods you typically eat.

I bought medium curry powder, cumin and paprika and combined it with chicken and sweet potatoes to create curry and cumin chicken with mashed sweet potatoes flavored with curry and ginger.



It turned out really well and helped me broaden my cooking abilities to include some new flavors.

Give it a try and let me know what you came up with.

BP


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brad:

I've been on a cumin craze, lately, and usually use it in combo with paprika. Try it on grilled burgers, either sprinkled on top or mixed in (onion and garlic added are great, too.

Here's one I did last night that's perhaps the most exotic tasting thing I've ever made. I set out to make a regular pot roast in the pressure cooker, basic chuck, onion, and carrots.

Then, I went wild. First was a good tablespoon of coconut oil to brown the meat, then the onions separately. Back in the pot, I chopped finely one small jalapeno pepper, with seeds, and a single roma tomato. Then a decent amount of paprika, cumin, and some salt & black pepper. About 1/4 cup red wine and dash of apple cider vinegar.

Up to pressure for 15 minutes, open 'er up, add the carrots and about 3 cloves of garlic, and back under pressure for 15 minutes.

Then I remove everything, and I take the drippings, put to boil, and add a big tablespoon of coconut milk, 1/3 cup heavy cream, and a couple tablespoons of almond flour to thicken.

I ended up with a sweet, spicy hot, nutty tasting dish with a Thai flare. Highly recommended.

Brad Pilon said...

That is some GREAT experimental cooking..Awesome job!

BP

Anonymous said...

Today I made oven-roasted cauliflower with olive- and sesami oil and sesami seeds (and a little chili-salt for some heat and seasoning. I combined that with poached chicken breast with a sauce made from the vegetable broth I used to poach the chicken, with dragon and mustard. (bound with a little potato starch)

I used all these ingredients before but came up with something I've never even thought of before.

How's that for a low carb diner :-)

Anonymous said...

oops... dragon .. hehehe, that's just the Dutch word for tarragon. Sorry 'bout that.

Anonymous said...

I made an amazing vegetable chili last night.

I cut up a bunch of onions, red pepper, cauliflower and zuchini. I sauteed them in olive oil with cumin, chili powder, oregano, and sea salt - all to to taste. Once they were very tender I took a hand blender to them to create a thick puree.

I then added this to browned ground beef and tomato (some fresh chopped and some crushed from a can). I added some more chili, oregano, sea salt and cumin and let simmer. YUM! and what a great way to get alot of veggies!