NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2008
Go "Fusion" To Spice Up A Day, On A Budget
"Chef On A Shoestring" Akhtar Nawab Has Indian Roots, Grew Up In Kentucky, And Has Manhattan Eatery!
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Cooking Fabulous Fusion
Chef Akhtar Nawab shows Chris Wragge how to make a spicy and eclectic meal with a $40 budget.
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"Chef on a Shoestring" Akhtar Nawab prepares Roasted Chicken and Brussels Sprouts with Curry Spice Rub with Chris Wragge. (CBS)
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He was raised in Kentucky, enjoying his mom's native Indian meals.
He draws on the two distinct culinary backgrounds in his New York City restaurant, Elettaria, where he creates spice combinations using seasonal American ingredients and the Indian spices he grew up with.
Naway accepted our challenge of adding some spicy zest to a three-course meal for four, on our tiny $40 budget.
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FOOD FACTS
CUMIN: An aromatic spice with a distinctive bitter flavor and strong, warm aroma due to its abundant oil content. Cumin "seeds" are actually the small, dried fruit of an annual plant in the parsley family. Native to the Mediterranean, cumin is hotter to the taste, lighter in color, and larger than caraway, another spice it's sometimes confused with. Cumin is a popular ingredient in Middle Eastern, Asian, Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines, and is one of the main ingredients in curry powder.
CURRY: Curry powder is a blend of up to 20 different herbs and spices, including the commonly used cardamom, chiles, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, mace, nutmeg, pepper, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, saffron, tamarind and tumeric (which gives curry its characteristic golden color). In Indian cooking, curry is freshly ground each day (making it far more flavorful and pungent than the mixes sold in the store), and comes in "standard" and "Madras" (hot) versions.
CARDAMOM: Cardamom is the ground seed of a tropical fruit in the ginger family known as Elettaria cardamomum. The seeds are found in oval-shaped fruit pods that are between a-quarter and an inch long. Cardamom has an intense, pungent, sweet flavor. In India, Cardamom is traditionally used in curry blends, and in Scandinavian countries, it is commonly added to breads; however, most of the world's Cardamom crop is used in Arabic countries as a flavoring for coffee.
TAKE HOME TIPS:
RECIPES
Beet Salad with Toasted Pistachios and Cumin Vinaigrette
INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds of mixed, colored beets
1 cup red vinegar
½ cup sugar
4 cups water
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 sprigs thyme
2 garlic cloves
METHOD:
Combine the vinegar, sugar, water, peppercorns, thyme, and garlic.
Add the beets and simmer until fork tender, about 45 minutes.
Cool them in the liquid. Peel the beets. Slice beets into wedges.
Cumin Vinaigrette:
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons cumin seeds toasted and ground
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoon Dijon
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup toasted pistachios
METHOD:
Add the ground cumin, Dijon, honey, and both vinegars to a bowl. Slowly whisk in the oil.
Toss vinaigrette with the beets in a bowl. Sprinkle toasted pistachios on top.
FOR MORE RECIPES, GO TO PAGE 2.
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