Tag Archives: cumin

Tomato Kale Skillet with Poached Eggs and Chickpeas

Sometimes, I need to get my veggies on–and in chewable form, not just that green glass of juice I’ve been throwing back for breakfast. And one blog I can count on to deliver veggie-licious recipes is Joanne’s. I also love one-skillet meals because they’re so perfect for weeknights, so when I saw this recipe I made it within about 5 days of first setting eyes on it.

I LOVE it–and I don’t break out the caps for just any recipe. It is so satisfying, so healthy, so full of good stuff, I could eat it every day. Forever.

I modified the recipe, using kale instead of swiss chard. I really love kale. I liken it to spinach with a little more vim. It doesn’t wilt quite as much but retains its shape better, and has a little crunch to it if you know what I mean, instead of feeling slightly soggy in your mouth like spinach can do if overcooked.

Adapted from Joanne’s post (who in turn adapted it from Bon Appetit December 2011), you guys should seriously consider making this for about 10 minutes–and then you should make it.

My husband dubbed it “Popeye’s Disappointment” for reasons unclear to me. Perhaps because it looks like spinach–but isn’t? Who knows. But I don’t care what he calls it as long as we can put it on the menu time and again.

Ingredients

 (Serves 4)

1 TBS olive oil
1 onion
6 cloves garlic
2 jalapeños
2 bunches kale
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1-28 oz can whole peeled tomatoes
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
4 large eggs
1 TBS chopped flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Chop up the onion, de-seed and mince the chilies, and mince the garlic.

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a large (12’’) oven-proof skillet (such as cast iron) and sauté the onion, garlic, and chilies until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I like to toss in a little salt and pepper as they fry. Maybe it’s just my imagination, but seasoning the ingredients in stages, as they go into the dish, seems to build the flavor.

Wash and chop the kale leaves, discarding the tough stems.

Rinse the chickpeas too–the liquid in the can is slimy and gross.

Add the kale to the skillet and cook for about 3 minutes, allowing it to wilt.

I added it in two batches, and don’t worry–it cooks waaaay down, much like spinach.

Add the chickpeas, cumin, and paprika to the skillet and cook for 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes to the skillet, stir them in and break them apart with a wooden spatula.

You can also crush them with your bare hands beforehand, but I chose not to.

Bring the sauce to a boil; turn down the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes, letting the sauce thicken.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. I added a goodly amount of both.

At this point, I felt moved to crack the eggs into individual little containers. I don’t know why, but the urge was irresistible.

They look so . . . cute.

Sprinkle the feta cheese evenly over the sauce and crack the eggs on top, evenly spaced.

Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 7-10 minutes, until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny.

Since my husband is entirely averse to runny yolks, I let mine go for more like 15 minutes, and cranked the heat up a little higher. The poor guy doesn’t know what he’s missing, but what can you do with a drunken sailor, what can you do with a drunken sailor, what can you do with a drunken sailooooor eeeearly in the mooorniiiiing?

That musical question was purely rhetorical, since my husband is neither a sailor nor drunk.

And I have to concede that even with hard yolks, it was still 1000% delicious.

Garnish with parsley and serve over rice!

Guys, it’s so good I can’t even believe it. The smoky paprika lends it a flavor that brought back so many good childhood feelings for me, since it’s a spice Spaniards use frequently (pimentón).

Plus, it’s such a beautiful dish with the white eggs and cheese, red sauce, and green kale and parsley.

I could look at it for hours. And eat it for hours. And commune with the happiness it produces in my stomach for hours.

Until the urge for a big, juicy rib-eye with a pile of thick, greasy fries hits me . . . and then beware.

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Slow Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala

Yes, yes, I know I recently posted a tikka masala recipe. But this is different! See, it involves a slow cooker. And the slow cooker is something that I tend to forget about most of the time . . . until I remember it. And realize that fall and winter are the perfect seasons to put it to use. Make it work for its room and board, type of thing. Justify the space it’s taking up on the shelf, type of thing.

After reading about this recipe’s delights on a Tasty Kitchen blog post (courtesy of the lovely Rebecca), one chilly Saturday morning in late October, I threw it together. Hours later, as the evening started to fall, it was ripe for the eating. Comforting, hot, and perfect for an evening in, reading on the couch and snuggling for warmth.

Now this recipe involves a little more work up front before the slow cooker takes over–this is not the recipe from your grandma’s arsenal that just has you throw a couple cans of cream-of-something and some raw meat into the slow cooker and turn it on. No offense meant to cans of cream-of-something, old recipe arsenals, or grandmas. With this recipe, there’s some chopping, some frying, and general cookery that took me about 35 minutes before I could wash my hands and let the crock pot magic happen. But you can’t argue with the results–it’s so delicious that it’s worth every second of effort.

You may be asking yourselves: which tikka masala is better? The original recipe you posted or its slow cooker counterpart? Friends, I’m pretty darn sure it’s this one. Heidi, I know you didn’t have great results with the Pastor Ryan’s tikka–so this one’s for you!

Ingredients

(Serves 6)

For the chicken:

9 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 3 lbs)
1 TBS ground coriander
1 TBS ground cumin
1 tsp Kosher salt
1 cup plain yoghurt
4 TBS butter
1 large jalapeño pepper

For the sauce:

4 TBS butter
1 large onion
8 cloves garlic
1 TBS Kosher salt
3 TBS garam masala
1 piece ginger, 2-3 inches
4 cups crushed tomatoes (approx. 42 oz)
1 TBS sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 handful cilantro, chopped

Trim and cut the chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces (on the larger side, since they will eventually be so tender they’ll be falling apart).

Stir the chicken together with the coriander, cumin, salt, and yoghurt until the pieces are evenly coated.

Let it sit for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, grab some garlic. Lots of it. This is not the time to skimp. In fact, it’s never the time to skimp in matters of garlic.

Mince the garlic and chop up the onion . . .

. . . skin and mince the ginger (skinning it with a spoon is the easiest way) . . .

. . . and wash and mince the cilantro. Or you can do that later, since it won’t go in until the tikka masala is ready to be served.

Divide the first batch of butter (4 TBS) into 1 Tablespoon portions:

Melt the first tablespoon of butter in a large cast iron skillet or Dutch oven over high heat. When melted and bubbly, fry 1/4 of the chicken pieces for 2-3 minutes.

When browned, remove them and put them straight into the slow cooker.

Repeat this process with the remaining chicken (frying it in a total of 4 batches).

This is also where I insert (in an annoying voice, wagging a wooden spoon in the air): don’t try to fry everything at once to save time! It will actually slow down the process and prevent the chicken from browning properly. The brown bits add tremendous flavor, and by frying in small batches, each batch cooks really quickly.

Of course, you could always be a rebel and just dump everything into the slow cooker raw and see how it turns out. I think next time I’ll be a rebel.

Cut the stem off the jalapeño and pierce it multiple times with a knife.

Place it on top of the chicken.

Melt the remaining butter in the same skillet or Dutch oven over medium high heat. When melted, add the onion and garlic, and salt.

Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion starts to brown around the edges.

Add the garam masala and ginger to the onions . . .

. . . and stir for about 1 minute.

Add the crushed tomatoes and sugar . . .

. . . and increase the heat to high. Stir vigorously, scraping up all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, and as soon as it boils, it’s a wrap! Pour it over the chicken in the slow cooker:

Slow cook the tikka masala on low for 5 hours.

Hmmm . . . I really need to clean the front of my slow cooker. It’s looking disturbingly dirty.

Now go have fun. Take a walk, read a book, drink a coffee. Wrap a present or two, do a silly dance in your slippers, and spank your husband (or the nearest spankable person). We’ll reconvene in 5 hours.

. . . 5 hours have now passed . . .

Okay! Good to see your lovely faces again! Hope you all had a blast and half doling out spanks and drinking java. Now where were we . . . right-o!

Whisk the corn starch into the heavy cream until smooth.

Add the cream to the slow cooker and stir it in.

It will look like it doesn’t want to get friendly with the tomato sauce, but just cover the slow cooker again and let it do its thing for 10 minutes, and it will incorporate itself quite nicely. Stir in the cilantro right before serving.

Serve the curry over rice. I made regular long-grain white rice in my rice cooker with a tablespoon of butter and a bunch of frozen peas mixed in right at the end–and it was fabulous.

Serve up the rice . . .

. . . and drown it in sauce!

It’s glorious.

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