Blog Archives
Spices 101: What is curry powder? Garam masala? Curry leaf?
Over the past couple of years I’ve really become a hardcore fan of curries. The flavors that come out from combining the amazing blends of spices they employ are out of this world. Best of all, they’re easy. Throw a bunch of shit into a pan and 40 minutes later, there’s a complete meal which smells like upper class India. Unfortunately there’s this odd misconception people seem to have about curry in general. For most of my adult life, my mother has expressed her distaste of Indian food because she “can’t stand all the curry they use in their food!” She’s somewhat come around from that perspective from eating my cooking, but alas there are still a lot of people out there who believe ‘curry’ is some sort of single mystical spice from a far-off land. If you’re not aware, curry seasonings actually encompass a great deal of different spices such as cumin, chili powder, turmeric, etc… But there isn’t actually one single spice called “curry”.
Son of a bitch!
Tea Time: Garlic Green Tea
One handy feature on the behind the scenes aspect of this blog is that we can see what kind of search terms people used to find our blog. Sometimes though, people find our blog through search terms for something that we don’t actually have directly on our site. It always makes me a little sad when this happens, thinking about someone coming here and then leaving disappointed. So whenever possible I want to try and remedy that. One search that’s come up a few times is “garlic green tea” or some variation on that. And while we have our regular garlic tea (and also garlic lemonade) recipe, I want to give the people what they’re looking for! So I came up with a garlic green tea recipe as well.
Food 101: How To Make Tomato Sauce (or “Red Sauce” if you will…)
Tomato sauce, it’s everywhere. For Italians, it’s on and in everything, to the point that there probably isn’t a single human being in Italy over the age of 7 who doesn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge on how to prepare a pot of sauce. The majority of my family’s heritage is Italian. I grew up in a household where it got tossed on everything from pork to pasta to pizza. Every Sunday was time for everyone to head on over to my aunt’s house for a big-ass Italian dinner with pasta and antipasti and bread and etc… You get the picture. And yet, I have a confession to make, I actually don’t really like tomato sauce all that much.
DUN-DUN!!
Yes I know, I know, blasphemy. But in all honesty I felt like the fact tomato sauce had to be thrown onto every edible item on planet Earth kind of made me sick of it by the time I hit my teen years. Now, I don’t necessarily hate it, but it just feels overused and homogenous to me. That may not be a popular opinion, but I feel like many in Italian-American families simply don’t have the guts to actually come forth and say that, for fear of ridicule and mafioso style ” ‘ey, come on.” half-slaps on the cheek.
That all being said, I ironically am a staunch opponent of jar sauces, both because I’m pro-from-scratch on the food front and also because despite my relative lack of enthusiasm for it, I know what a good tomato sauce tastes like. And jar sauce tastes like shit, frankly. Rather, I will admit objectively that having a good tomato sauce technique in the back of your head is a vital skill for most cooks, if for at very least making pizzas.
Because, well, pizza.
Pizza Lab #27: Irish Flag Pizza
Let’s talk St. Patrick’s Day. We wanted to do some sort of Irish-themed pizza for Pizza Lab this month. And yes, I guess I have to ask ‘what foods do you think of when it’s St. Patrick’s Day?’ Yeah, yeah, everyone’s gonna say corned beef and cabbage to which I reply, if I can conjure my best 90s teen-girl, a whole-hearted “What-everrrrr.” Aside from not actually being a traditional Irish dish, corned beef just plain sucks. Sure I’m a little biased on account of my not eating red meats, but how good can a meal be if 99% of the people in the country it’s most popular in only eat it for about two weeks out of the year? Yeah, screw that. Not to mention native Ireland essentially makes fun of Americans for their obsessive and erroneous association with it to Irish cuisine.
Instead Meg and I decided to put together something a bit more whimsical, trying our best to create a pizza inspired by the colors of the Irish flag. This presented an interesting concept since generally foods don’t get grouped together by color, as colors don’t generally represent flavor. It also was a unique challenge since it required some careful brainstorming on what foods work well together, while keeping in the color theme.
Quick Recipe: Tzatziki Sauce
If you’ve had a gyro, you know the magical sauce known as tzatziki. This yogurt based sauce is common in Greek cuisine, often being served with grilled meats. It can also be used as a dip. Tzatziki sauce is one of my favorite condiments, and not just because it was a topic of conversation during me and Erik’s second date. I just find it super yummy. Luckily it is super easy to make at home. This is good news, since, while delicious, Greek food does tend to be on the more expensive side.
It may not photograph well, but it certainly tastes good.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
You must be logged in to post a comment.