The James Beard Foundation will be announcing the winners for this year’s slate of awards next Monday. So throughout the month of May, Sauce will be cooking from recently published cookbooks written by individuals who have been honored this year by the Beard Foundation. This week, we take a look at How to Cook Everything: The Basics, the newest work by Mark Bittman, one of the 2012 James Beard Foundation Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America inductees.

To say that I am a fan of Bittman is an understatement. For more than a decade, I have clipped recipes from the now-defunct The Minimalist column that he penned for The New York Times. Many are yellowed with age, but I still pull them from my makeshift recipe holder (a worn Keds shoe box) because they are truly solid dishes. In 2010, when Bittman visited St. Louis, I had the privilege of chatting with him about food policy and his longtime advocacy for home cooking.

How to Cook Everything: The Basics covers everything from apps and snacks to sides, grains and mains. With nearly 200 dishes to choose from, I figured I’d just ask The Man himself what his favorite recipe was and prepare that. “I love all of them and am confident any will please you,” he responded via email. Not so helpful, but what else could I expect from a man known for creating surefire recipes time and time again? With warm weather upon us, I decided to make what looked like a quick and easy picnic or potluck dish: Curried Chickpea Salad.

The recipe is quintessential Bittman: minimal ingredients, stock pantry items, fresh produce and basic technique. The first step was to make a quick dressing of Indian flavors: lime juice, coconut milk, curry powder, scallions, and a dash of salt and pepper. Bittman offers “or to taste” quantities for the lime juice, curry powder and coconut milk, which enables seasoned cooks to follow their taste buds (I added an additional teaspoon of curry powder and doubled the amount of coconut milk.), while beginners can use the step-by-step color photos as a guide.

Bittman offers helpful tips throughout How to Cook Everything: The Basics. For this recipe, he points out that chickpeas that you cook yourself are superior to the canned variety. Not only do the former have a more intense flavor, but, he notes, when preparing them at home, you can control the texture and make them as firm or tender as you like. I would add that preparing beans at home also lets you control the salt, which I find to be off the charts for canned beans. Plus, you can keep the cooking liquid. So for Step 2, I added my home cooked chickpeas, along with the chopped bell pepper and peas, to the bowl and coated them with the dressing. Can it get much easier?

Once the salad has been refrigerated for 30 minutes, the final step is to stir in the cilantro and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Here, Bittman again lets home cooks leave the measuring spoon behind and go with their senses. In my case, I wanted more moisture and curry flavor, so I tossed in another tablespoon each of curry powder and coconut milk as well as a generous splash of lime juice. That’s it. Done. Moving on. Great food really is that simple – and anyone can do it. Bittman’s unfussy, practical approach is the reason why many home cooks, including me, have the confidence to maneuver in the kitchen.

Curried Chickpea Salad
6 to 8 servings

1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice, or more to taste (Note: I used a total of 2 tablespoons.)
1½ tsp. curry powder, or more to taste (Note: I used a total of 3½ teaspoons.)
2 scallions, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup coconut milk, or more to taste (Note: I used a total of ½ cup.)
4 cups cooked or drained canned chickpeas
1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
½ cup fresh or thawed frozen peas
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

• Combine the lime juice, curry powder, scallions and a sprinkle of salt and pepper in a large bowl. Stir in the coconut milk.
• Add the chickpeas, bell pepper and peas to the bowl and toss gently until everything is coated with dressing, adding more coconut milk 1 tablespoon at a time if the salad seems dry.
• Let the salad sit for at least 30 minutes, stirring once or twice to distribute the dressing. (Or refrigerate for up to 5 days.) When you’re ready to eat, stir in the cilantro. Taste and adjust the seasoning and moisture, adding more lime juice, coconut milk or curry powder if you like. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Variations
• Curried Chickpea Salad with Rice or Grains: Add up to 1 cup cooked rice or other grain in Step 2.
• Curried Chickpea Salad with Greens: Toss the chickpeas with 1 to 2 cups lettuce, arugula or spinach just before serving.
• Southwestern Black Bean Salad: Some easy switches yield a totally different result: Substitute chili powder for the curry powder, olive oil for the coconut milk, black beans for the chickpeas and corn kernels for the peas.

Reprinted with permission from HOW TO COOK EVERYTHING THE BASICS by Mark Bittman (Wiley; $35; March 19, 2012)

Tell us about which food writer has given you confidence in the kitchen in the comments section below for a chance to win a copy of How to Cook Everything: The Basics.

And now, we’d like to congratulate Colleen, whose comments on last week’s By the Book has won her a copy of In My Kitchen: 100 Recipes and Discoveries for Passionate Cooks. Colleen, keep an eye out for an email from the Sauce crew.

By Ligaya Figueras

Tags: By the Book, Cooking, Mark Bittman, recipes, vegetarian

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 at 11:39 am and is filed under By the Book, Cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.