I Spy With My Third Eye

Our Pledge

We, the Representatives of Dirty Yoga, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People Who Pay Us Money, do solemnly publish and declare that WE WILL:

Deliver Dirty Yoga to anyone who wants it no matter what their gender or race, or religious, political, or sexual preferences, so long as their credit cards are valid.
 
Not take ourselves more seriously than absolutely required to produce the best online yoga we're capable of producing.
 
Never make claims of miraculous weight loss.

Never try to ruin your appreciation of good food, nice wine, vodka drinks, and bacon. And bacon. We like bacon.

Never act like recent graduates of a cheerleading school. Yeah.
 
Keep our shirts on and never wear tight, bright, lycra shorts on camera.

Never pretend we live in a state of zen when we live in New York City.
 
Never pretend that our yoga isn’t exercise, that exercise isn’t hard work, and that hard work isn’t necessary to stay in shape, especially after a certain age. Say, twelve.
 
Not get exercise and religion confused.
 
Wherever possible, bring more swearing to yoga.

How to Make a Big Mac

On the way to work last week we passed a McDonalds, and stopped at a red light long enough to read the offer "2 Big Macs for $4". We laughed about how ridiculously cheap that was, then admitted that looking at a picture of a Big Mac made us want to eat a Big Mac, like we did in the old days before they started making documentaries about food. We did not eat a Big Mac, at least not then, as then was 10 am and we'd just come from the gym. Our virtue and goodness were too strong for a promotional poster to overcome.

We're enthusiastic omnivores at Dirty Yoga Co., but we've long since given up eating at places like McDonalds for all the usual reasons. We don't think that food should be faster than a speeding locomotive, we think the meat we eat should be humanely treated and hugged to death, we don't want the ingredients of our meals (unless they are exotic and expensive enough to warrant it) to have more frequent flyer miles than we do, and we like our food not to be high-fructose-corn-syrup putty made into food shapes, and we strongly believe our meals ought to contain, well, food.

No fast food except in cases of dire emergency. A dire emergency for people of our demographic group is, say, being stuck in an airport with nothing else to eat and no one you know to see what you do eat. Or late night at a party you don't want to leave where you've had too much to drink and not enough to eat and, lo and behold, someone you'll forever think well of turns up with a bucket of fried chicken.

So that was that. Except it wasn't. We really wanted a Big Mac. Several days later, we still did. An elaborate plan formed in our little minds. We knew exactly what went into a Big Mac thanks to that old advertising jingle. Surely, if we made a Big Mac ourselves, out of cuddled grassfed beef, locally raised organic lettuce and onion, it wouldn't be so bad. There was nothing we could do about the hamburger buns (artisanal bread does not a Big Mac make), the Kraft Thousand Island Dressing, or the soft, orange, sliced cheese categorized as "American", but surely, these things on their own, when purchased ironically from a gourmet supermarket, were not egregious.

Next thing we knew we were barbecuing patties, toasting sesame seed buns, slicing pickles, smearing "special sauce", and shamelessly tucking into our homemade "Big Macs" on the deck, in the bright, unseasonal sunshine, and enjoying it more than we've enjoyed more deserving meals.

If you'd like to make a Big Mac too, we documented the process for you:

How to Make a Big Mac: A Step-by-Step Guide (Seriously)

If you just want to eat a Big Mac, and you can live with the first-world guilt, buying one is far cheaper and quicker (though not nearly as much fun, depending, of course, on your idea of fun).

Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings with Bay Leaves & Garlic

These chicken wings are to easy to whip up, and people (at least, our people) gobble them up. Some people even throw parties so that they can ask us to bring these wings.

You could make this a meal for two piggy people with a green salad, or serve it as an appetizer for 4 – 6.

We once served it as an appetizer for four people and had almost doubled the recipe so that there'd be leftovers, thinking our friends (hello, Matt & Joh) would stop eating after a a normal amount but they proceeded to polish off the lot. In their defense, they thought it was the main course. Although, it must be pointed out, that didn't stop them from eating the main course. The moral of the story is, if you expect leftovers, expect disappointment.

Ingredients:

20-24 buffalo chicken wing pieces

 

a large lemon

8-10 fresh bay leaves

1 - 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns (depending on how hot you want your wings)

2 tablespoons olive oil

two teaspoons sea salt flakes (e.g. Maldon Sea Salt)

6 – 8 garlic cloves, left whole and unpeeled

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Place the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle, and break them up into smaller pieces. The result should be gritty, not fine. Juice the lemon and cut up the lemon peel into small pieces.

Add the pepper, lemon juice, salt and olive oil to a bowl. Mix, then add the chicken wings and toss until well coated. Place the wings and mixture in a baking dish. 

Tuck the bay leaves, lemon peel, and garlic cloves between the chicken pieces.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove dish from oven and turn over chicken pieces. Bake for a further 15 to 30 minutes (depending on your oven) until the wings look well-roasted and sticky and the lemon and garlic is black on the edges. These wings are better overcooked. You’ll wanna roast the crap outta them. Eat 'em hot, with paper towels on standby

Watch the video:

 

 

 

Lunch

We love our vegetarian friends, and admire our vegan friends, but, when the sun is shining after a long winter, the barbecue beckons and ...

 

(Eurasian Rotisserie Chicken)

 

Honey Ginger Chicken Tenders

 
These are easy, tasty, and pretty enough to serve if you have to whip up dinner for someone you want to impress. If you do cook this before putting the moves on that person, and you're successful, the chicken is at least partially responsible.

You can find chicken breast tenders already prepared at most supermarkets these days. As always, buy the best chicken you can afford.

We usually eat this with steamed jasmine rice and green beans cooked in a pan with garlic and dried chilli flakes.

This serves 2, and if you’re not too hungry (or trying to impress someone with your birdlike appetite) you'll have leftovers so that one of you can have it for lunch the next day. 

Ingredients:

12 ounces – 1 lb chicken breast tenders

1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated (use a microplane grater if you can, it craps all over those old-fashioned porcelain ginger graters)

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce, sometimes called “sweet soy sauce”)

2 teaspoons soy sauce (light)

small knob of butter (about ½ - 1 tablespoon)

olive or vegetable oil (about half a tablespoon)

sea salt

freshly ground pepper

 

Directions:

(See video below.) Season the chicken tenders with the salt and pepper. Add the grated ginger and mix well.

Chop the garlic.

Mix the honey, kecap manis, and soy sauce in a small bowl. 

Heat a little oil and butter in a (preferably non-stick) pan. We’re using a mix of oil and butter as the oil keeps the butter from burning. Add the chicken tenders to the pan. Add the garlic to the pan. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes until the tenders are nicely browned on one side.

Turn the chicken over. Cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes. Add the sauce mixture. Turn chicken tenders over to coat with sauce. Cook for one minute. Turn over again. Serve hot.

Tips:

When you measure out honey, half of it tends to get left in the spoon. It’s sticky stuff. To prevent this from happening, fill your clean measuring spoon with a flavorless oil (vegetable or canola), then tip that oil back into the oil bottle, leaving only a thin coating of oil on the spoon. Now measure out your honey. You’ll find it slides out of the spoon without leaving a trace. Measure the kecap manis in the same spoon. It is sticky too.

Notes:

You can buy kecap manis in Asian grocers or in the Asian section of  a well-stocked supermarket. It shouldn’t cost more than $3 - $5. The spelling of ketcap manis may vary as it’s translated phonetically, e.g. ketjap manis. Kecap is pronounced “ketchup”. It’s also identified as Indonesian soy sauce or sweet soy sauce and is a thick, black, sweet sauce that has a similar consistency to honey. A bottle lasts forever (well, we’ve never had one go bad on us) and makes a bunch of delicious things, so it’s a worthwhile addition to your pantry.

 

Salmon with Cherry Tomatoes, Olives, & Basil, Baked in a Foil Packet

We’re particularly fond of food that comes in packets and parcels. It's healthy, flavors seem to go further, and you get to unwrap lunch like it’s a Christmas present. Best of all, there are no pots and pans to wash.

This quick, easy, Mediterranean-ish salmon is one of those recipes that allow the flavors of the produce to shine through, except it tastes so much better than those recipes usually do. It tastes light and bright, and feels like pure energy going in—while that statement makes us sound like crazy yoga people who've stood on their heads one too many times, it's actually true of this salmon.

We usually eat this (or rather, inhale it) with a green salad and a cheesy, runny polenta, but we’ve served it with garlic, mashed potatoes, and other sides, too.

This recipe makes two packets/parcels, feeding two people.

 

Ingredients:

2 salmon fillets, each portioned for one person (skin can be on or removed, according to preference)

24 cherry tomatoes, halved

12 pitted Kalamata olives, halved

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

10-12 large basil leaves, shredded (more if the leaves are little)

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup dry white wine (chicken stock or water may be substituted but wine is better)

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Place the cherry tomatoes, olives, garlic, and basil in a bowl. (Keep a little basil aside to tuck under the salmon.) Season the mixture well with salt and pepper. Add the olive oil and white wine. Mix well. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes to allow the ingredients to get to know each other.

Place each salmon fillet, skin side down, on a piece of aluminum foil (the piece of foil should be large enough to fold over itself to make a parcel). Season the salmon well with salt and pepper. Tuck the reserved basil under the fillet. Add half the cherry tomato/olive/basil mixture, along with the accumulated liquid, to each salmon portion.

Make up the packets by folding the foil over itself, sealing the edges, making a pillow shape. Don’t crumple the foil around the contents. The salmon needs room to steam inside the parcel.

Place the packets on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until salmon is cooked through.

Unwrap the parcels (with care), and serve hot.

 

 

Grilled Chicken with Ginger & Cumin

This isn't the prettiest looking grilled chicken but it's so good we need to eat it every couple of weeks. What we like best about it (besides eating it) is that it requires no marination period. We used to marinate it for at least 30 minutes, until a day came when we were too hungry to wait longer than it took to heat the barbecue. That day we made the happy discovery that it was just as good without the marination period.

Every time we serve this at a working lunch (usually with steamed jasmine rice and a frisee salad tossed in our French dressing), we scarf down almost twice our usual amount of food and don’t feel the slightest bit guilty.

This recipe is for one pound of chicken (we usually make more than that). That should feed two to three of you depending on how big you are and how much you like it.

 

Ingredients:

1 lb of the best boneless, skinless chicken thighs you can afford, trimmed of fat and cut to your desired grilling size (we like ‘em small so that we get lots of charred edges but be warned, that does make them a little fiddly on the grill)

 

2 cloves garlic, peeled, chopped and mashed, or grated

1 – 2 teaspoons ginger, peeled and very finely grated

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

1 teaspoon roasted ground cumin seeds*

¾ - 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

¾ - 1 teaspoon raw sugar

freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon dill, finely chopped

 

Directions:

Put the garlic, ginger, dill, cumin, cayenne, salt, sugar, pepper, vinegar and oil in a large bowl to make the marinade. Mix well.

This part is very important: Prod the pieces of chicken with a fork to allow marinade to penetrate. When well prodded, add chicken to the marinade and mix well

Heat barbecue. When hot, cook chicken for about 3 minutes each side (depending on size) or until browned and little charred on the edges.

Serve hot with rice and salad.

 

Notes:

*Ground cumin can be substituted for roasted ground cumin, or you can make roasted ground cumin by dry roasting whole cumin seeds, then grinding in a coffee or spice grinder.

Chicken could also be cooked in a well-oiled grill pan.

(If you, like us, eat too much of this chicken, go to Dirty Yoga Co. to work it off.)

Grilled Pork Chops

Tuesday lunch at the office: grilled pork chops, marinated in thyme, lemon zest, lemon juice & garlic, served with a home-made basil and macadamia nut pesto, garlic mashed potato, and a green salad.

Recipe for Marinade:

zest of one lemon

juice of one lemon

4 cloves of garlic

a good sprig of thyme (leaves picked)

1 tablespoon of olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pound or finely chop thyme leaves, garlic, a teaspoon of sea salt, black pepper to taste, in a mortar & pestle, in the small bowl of a food processor, or with a knife. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, and oil. Rub marinade on pork chops and leave for 30 minutes. (Makes enough for 4 pork chops or 3 big pork chops.)

Another Shrimp on the Barbie

Being able to grill in winter in New York City makes a normal work day feel like a vacation, at least for the 8 minutes it takes to grill the shrimp.

Indian Grilled Shrimp

This is our default lunch at Dirty Yoga Co. when there's no time to cook. We came up with one day when we were desperate and hungry. It takes about 2 minutes to prep. We eat it with rice, homemade garlic mayonnaise and french-dressed green salad for lunch but it also works as an appetizer with a minty, cilantro, yoghurt dipping sauce (or the same mayonnaise).

 

Serves 2 - 3 for lunch, 4 - 6 as an appetizer.

Ingredients:

1 pound medium to large shrimp, peeled and deveined, with tails left on
1 teaspoon store bought garam marsala
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste (about 3/4 to 1 teaspoon)
olive oil (about a tablespoon or two)

To Make:

Mix the garam marsala, tumeric, cayenne, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the shrimp and few glugs of olive oil and toss until shrimp is well coated with spices. Cook on the BBQ (or in a cast iron pan as a second choice) until done, with some nice charred bits.

Cheesy Toast

Today, it was raining heavily, and we all came into work soggy and limp, in need of comforting food for lunch. We went for a basic boy-favorite, tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches, but our versions of each, which are quite gussied up. Rich, hearty, meaty, corny, tomato soup which we call 'student soup', as it was a soup I made a lot as a student (recipe to come in another post) and the best ever cheesy toast, which is a sandwich filled with a cheesy mixture then fried in a pan. Here 'tis:

Best Ever Toasted Cheese Sandwiches

makes 4 sandwiches

This may not be the best cheese sandwich in the entire world (we haven’t tasted them all), but we think it’s the bees knees (that’s a good thing). We usually have this with soup as a meal, but you could also top it with a fried egg and bacon for brunch, or slip some ham into the sandwich for an almost Croque Monsieur. By the way, when we say cheddar, we mean good, sharp, aged cheddar not the bright orange cheese-product.

You will need:

1⅓ cups grated cheddar cheese

⅓ cup sour cream

2½ teaspoons Dijon mustard

sea salt

cracked black pepper

butter (for spreading)

8 slices of bread

To make:

1. Combine the cheese, sour cream and Dijon mustard in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and mix well.
2. Divide the mixture between four slices of bread, and spread well. Top with the remaining four slices—you know, to make sandwiches. Spread a little butter on the outside of the sandwiches.
3. Toast the sandwiches in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat for a minute on each side, pressing down firmly, until cheese mixture is melted and bread is browned and crispy—you know, like toast.
4. Gobble them up.