Spice

Thanks for everyone’s awesome feedback on Kala’s guest post last week to kick off the Paleo Challenge. The Challenge is heating up — the food logs are inspiring with all sorts of meat, healthy fats and veggies galore. The Week 1 retention rate is high and so is morale. Using my tips and guidelines, doing independent research to learn more, and planning meals seem to be proving themselves as a solid approach. I’ve gotten some awesome questions and discussion over the last week and can’t wait to see how the next five pan out. Here’s a post that’s been in high demand – the topic of cooking with herbs and spices.

For many of you cooking is no big deal – you have a handful of solid recipes that taste great that you cook efficiently. For others, if it so happened that you might have to cook for yourself, your Mac & Cheese (meat & veggies now that you’ve wised up) needed only the help of Mrs. Dash or Spike. Those doing the Challenge from the latter group face an additional set of challenges. In addition to the cooking learning curve, conditioning your tastebuds to actually taste spices and herbs presents another challenge if you’re used to eating out. The high levels of salts and sugars in their many formats in packaged foods and in most restaurant seasonings make it more challenging to adjust to eating foods seasoned mostly with herbs and spices.

What follows is a crash course in meal planning and cooking paleo for flavor.  Also, check out the grocery shopping spreadsheet I made to help.

At the store

1. At the meat department or the Gourmet On Wheels Cart or Lindner Bison tents at the farmer’s market:

Eyeball an amount of one type of meat that you’d eat in one meal and multiply by two so you can have leftovers for lunch the next day. Multiply that by the number of people you’re feeding. There’s dinner and the next day’s lunch. Do it again for another type of meat for as many days of this as you plan to cook for in a time where the meat won’t go bad in the fridge.

1 Dinner + 1 Lunch Protein = (2 meals’-worth meat) x (# people feeding)

If you’re cooking for yourself only, this will come out to 8-16oz meat depending on your size.

Staple meats: grassfed whole variety cuts (fatty and lean) of meat/organs, eggs, fish/seafood

2. Stroll over to the veggie section:

You’re going to want to pick at least one DLG, a starchy vegetable, and some helper veggies and herbs. DLGs have the largest spectrum of vitamins & minerals; starchy vegs you want to have on hand for your post workout meal. Helper veggies and herbs make it all taste good and complete the vitamin/mineral spectrum. One small bunch of DLGs will last you about two meals. Keep squash, sweet potato, zucchini, carrots, or parsnips on hand and bake/cook in bulk to have for post-workout carbohydrate.

Staple DLGs: kale, bok choy, chard, spinach, collards, broccoli rabe/rapini, broccoli, brussel sprouts

Other greens that are quite flavorful: mustard greens, dandelion greens, watercress (best fresh), arugula, sprouts

Staple fat-sources: Avocado – we are lucky to live in a place that these are perfect and abundant for most of the year – eat up! Coconut (see #3)

Staple helper veggies: onions, green onions, chives, garlic, mushrooms, fennel, lemon/lime

Staple fresh herbs and spices: basil, cilantro, Italian/flat-leaf parsley, ginger root, dill

3. A brief trip to the aisles once in a while

Somewhere among the 15+ rows of incarnations of processed corn, soy, grain, peanut, and sugar, you’ll find an aisle or two that contain a few items of use to someone not interested in diabetes, autoimmune or heart diseases.  In most grocery stores, crammed between the sugar and the flour you’ll find the dried herb and spice section, and somewhere else probably an Asian section where you’ll find coconut milk in a can that has not been de-fatted like the So Delicious brand in the cartons. At Whole Foods or Sprouts, you’ll find coconut and grapeseed oil in the oil section, but not at most other grocery stores. If you find yourself overwhelmed, get these staples and then, another time soon, pay a visit to Penzey’s on Hawthorne & Torrance (see #4). If you want to try these first without paying for entire bottles, visit Sprouts (PCH & Anza) where you can pick the amount you buy from their bulk bins spice section.

Dried spices and herb staples: oregano, basil, cumin, thyme, rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg, curry; if you didn’t buy them fresh: garlic, ginger, parsley, dill.

Canned/jarred staples: coconut milk (avoid those with several additives; best and cheapest is Chakoh @ Fresh & Easy), coconut and grapeseed oil (for cooking), olive oil (not for cooking), sardines (packed in olive oil), kalamata olives, lemon juice (or buy fresh), balsamic vinegar, tomato paste, vanilla extract (read the ingredients to make sure it’s not just vanilla flavoring + alcohol)

Here are some really great groupings I use often in cooking meat and veggies:

• Italian: Oregano + basil + rosemary or sage or thyme + lemon juice/zest – good for chicken, veggie stirfry for egg scramble
• Middle eastern: parsley + garlic + cinnamon + nutmeg + sumac (optional) – great for beef and lamb
• Thai: ginger + garlic + basil + cilantro + mint + lime (add coconut milk) <– these are also great fresh mixed into a spinach salad
• Indian: Garam masala + garlic + curry powder + ground cardamom
• Tex Mex: Cumin + chili powder + oregano + basil + garlic (add tomato paste)
• Mediterranean: Dill + mint + tarragon + garlic

Other ideas from the aisles:

• Glassware (plastic ware if you rather)
• Water bottle
• Ice cube tray for making coconut milk ice cubes (coffee creamer; use for a coconut/cinnamon/vanilla shake)

4. Penzey’s wonderland

Pay a visit to Penzey’s on the SW corner of Hawthorne & Torrance, a store dedicated to seasonings where you can sniff every herb, spice and seasoning mix before buying. While there are a few loaded with sugar and salt, there are some truly exquisite herb mixes that will teach you a great deal about cooking just by using them. Their selection of cinnamon varieties will blow your mind. The first time I went I took paper and pad and wrote down the ingredients of some of the mixes that smelled best and created a cheaper version. For most mixes, it’s cheaper and tastier to use fresh versions of the ingredients. Now for these mixes, I buy the dried herbs and spices in bulk from Smart & Final and Costco. For other mixes with more rare spices and herbs, it’s cheaper and easier to buy Penzey’s mix.

Penzey’s mixes I recommend: Garam Masala, Tuscan Sunset, Sate, Turkish

At Home

1. Pick your herbs and meat – tips:

• Google searches: meat + recipe or meat + bake or meat + grill or meat + flavoring (Greek/Indian, etc.)
• Marinating is always better; use something acidic (lemon, apple cider vinegar, balsamic, lime) in the marinade to help penetrate the meat
• Cut slits in the meat to insert fresh/dried herbs; stuff poultry skin with garlic, veggies, herbs
• Don’t throw out broth after cooking! That’s where many minerals go – drink up or save for a soup stock or to pour over steamed veggies.

2. Pick your herbs and veggies — formula and rules of thumb:

• Sautee the tougher veggies in oil for 5 mins (e.g. onions, mushrooms, peppers or broccoli), add dried herbs/spices for 1-2 mins, add softer veggies and fresh herbs (e.g. kale, garlic and basil), cover and let wilt for 1-3 mins. If you’re cooking larger batches you might need a little water to create steam to wilt a lot of DLGs. In addition to the leftovers you’ll have for lunch, try to make a little extra to add to your scramble in the morning, or make some extra herb/spice mix to set aside for your omelet and bacon.
• For squash and sweet potatoes, bake at 400 for 50+ mins until very soft and mushy.
• For fresh veggie recipes, make a salad with fresh or dried herbs, pepper, balsamic and enjoy with a can of sardines packed in olive oil or alone with some olive oil and avocado.
• A good estimate for amount of dried spice for a 2-serving amount of meat or vegetables is that it shouldn’t be more than about 2 Tbsp total depending on the spice (powder vs leaves). You can experiment with ratios as you go or google recipes that have these combos or a couple ingredients that you have (ex: meat + DLG + mint + garlic + dill + recipe). This blog has plenty of recipes and links, too.
• Another good rule of thumb is don’t add more than 3-4 spices/herbs to a dish (exception are Indian, Thai dishes).
• Don’t throw out broth! That’s where many minerals go – drink up or save for a soup stock.

3. Pack your lunch then and there for the next day and prep breakfast so you don’t have to in the morning.

Other resources:

Multilingual herb index in case you’re shopping at an ethnic store http://www.apinchof.com/herbindex1071.html

I love APinchOf.com’s What is this? Q&A series

Finally, I can’t imagine what you’d think I did to poor Tonto in the banner picture if you hadn’t seen the move Dune (spice). Sorry if I scare anyone

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Workout of the Day 8/25/2010

A. Power Clean 5-5-5