NASFAQ Cookbook

The secret to cooking is salt, acid, fat, and heat. Balance your dishes between these four elements and you will achieve harmony.

Simple Recipes

Easy One-Pot Curry

This is a relatively simple curry, similar to butter chicken, which is great for making a big batch of food and meal prepping. It makes quite a bit, scales well, and cooks all in one pan. It can have meat added or be vegan/vegetarian friendly.

Ingredients

• Coconut Oil or Butter (~2tbsp or eyeballed)
• 1 red or yellow onion (diced)
• 14 oz fresh or canned tomatoes, diced (~400g)
• salt/pepper to taste
• 1 16oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed OR protein of choice (e.g. chicken)
• 3-5 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
• 1 1/2 tablespoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 13.5oz canned coconut milk
• OPTIONAL: 2 tsp coconut flour
• 1 lime (NOT OPTIONAL)
• Rice

Equipment

• 1 deep pan or pot

Instructions

Heat oil or butter in a deep pan or pot over medium-high heat (on a standard electric stove, 5-6 is fine - if you're using non-stick pans like T-FAL, you really don't want to go above 7). Add onions and tomatoes, add a bit of salt and pepper. Stir together. Lower heat to medium (~4) and allow to cook down. You want the tomatoes to release their juices, and you want the onions to be soft, approx. 10 minutes.

Add in chickpeas (or protein; chicken should be PRE-COOKED and can use same pan, leave all juices/fat/etc. in the pan), garlic, garam masala, curry powder, and cumin. Stir to combine - this should form sort of a curry paste. This is the skip you step if you buy bricks of curry mix, but it's better when you make it yourself.

Add in the coconut milk and stir to combine again. OPTIONAL: if you are using coconut flour, add it now, this thickens the curry. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes.

Taste and season as needed with salt and pepper. Remove the curry from the heat, cut your lime in half, and squeeze both halves lightly over the curry, then stir to combine. This step is extremely important.

Serve over rice.

Egg Roll in a Bowl

Ingredients

• 1lb ground meat (beef, chicken, pork, turkey, etc.)
• 1 tbsp Olive oil (not necessary with fancy non-stick pans)
• Salt/pepper to taste
• 1 small red or yellow onion, diced
• 1 premixed coleslaw pack (14oz) (tri-color or classic or whatever you can find - this is a massive shortcut)
  • ALTERNATIVELY:
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 3 cups cabbage, thinly sliced
• OPTIONAL: 1 tsp ginger
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2tsp sesame oil
• 1/2tsp sugar or brown sugar
• chopped green onion
• OPTIONAL: 1/4 tsp roasted sesame seeds

Equipment

1 deep pan/large skillet

Instructions

Set your pan or skillset over medium-high heat and add oil (optional for fancy non-stick pans). Once heated, add ground meat and cook through - for ground beef, brown until no longer pink, approx. 5 minutes. Break up large chunks with a spatula or wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper.

Add onion and saute for ~5 minutes or until onion is tender, stir occasionally. Add carrots with the onions if you are not using a premixed bag. Add garlic and cook for ~30 seconds, stir constantly.

Add the coleslaw mix, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. Saute for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cabbage is tender. Add green onions, stir, and cook for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute. Remove from heat, garnish with sesame seeds if desired.

Simple Gyudon

Ingredients

• Neutral oil (canola, vegetable) (optional for fancy non-stick skillets)
• 2 onions, diced or sliced
• 1lb thinly sliced beef ("hot pot" stuff in asian grocery stores, or "shaved steak" or stuff that's used for philly cheesesteaks is fine)
• 2tsp sugar
• 2tbsp mirin (kotteri mirin and aji-mirin are fine if you can't find hon mirin)
• 2tbsp soy sauce
• 1 cup dashi stock (can sub beef or chicken but if you can find or make dashi, do it)
• 1 bunch chopped green onions
• OPTIONAL: toasted sesame seeds for garnish
• OPTIONAL: Eggs
• Rice

Equipment

• 1 deep pan/large skillet
• OPTIONAL: 1 small pan for frying eggs

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat (optional for fancy non-stick pans). Once the pan is hot, cook the onions for ~10-12 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the beef and the sugar, and cook until the beef is slightly browned. Add mirin, soy sauce, and stock, stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, lower the heat to medium, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the stock has reduced into a thin sauce. Taste, and add soy sauce to cut sweetness if necessary.

OPTIONAL: If you're a baller and trust your eggs, separate 1 egg yolk per bowl of this you're gonna eat, and when you place the meat over the rice, drop that egg yolk right on top, and when you mix up the bowl it'll par-cook and add a pretty insane amount of rich, umami flavor. If you don't trust your eggs, you're meal prepping, or raw eggs ick you out, then at this stage (as the beef is close to done simmering), simply fry x amount of eggs sunny side up. 1 egg per bowl!

Place the meat over a bowl of rice, garnish with green onion and sesame seeds, and serve hot. This recipe also heats up well as leftovers!

FAT FUCK Pasta

Ingredients

• Olive oil (optional for fancy non-stick pans)
• 2 shallots or small onions, diced
• 3-5 cloves garlic, diced or crushed
• 2tbsp tomato paste
• some cherry tomatoes (idk how many, go with what your heart says) (DO NOT GET GRAPE TOMATOES THEY SUCK)
• salt/pepper to taste
• 12oz rotini
• italian seasoning (or just some chopped basil)
• 3tbsp unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 container of mozzarella pearls

Equipment

• 1 deep pan
• 1 pot for boiling pasta

Instructions

Heat your oil over medium heat (optional for fancy non-stick pans). Add shallots or onions and cook until translucent, about 1-3 minutes for shallots and a little longer for onions, maybe up to 5.

Add garlic and tomato paste, cook while stirring for an additional 1-2 minutes, careful not to let the garlic burn. You want everything to get nice and orange and tasty.

Add cherry tomatoes to the pan; cook until the tomatoes start to break down and burst, help them out with the bottom of a spoon if needed. You can add a splash of water and cover the pan if they seem like they're resisting the burst. Around the time you add the tomatoes, go ahead and start boiling a pot of water - salt the water before you start boiling it.

In the boiling water, cook your pasta until it's shy of al dente - you're going to finish it in the sauce. You can drain the pasta, but RESERVE AT LEAST 1 CUP OF PASTA WATER, VERY IMPORTANT.

Once the pasta is par-cooked and the tomatoes are burst and turning into a nice, chunky sauce, add the pasta to the tomato mixture along with about 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water, stir to combine, then cover your pan and let the pasta cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until al dente. Add more pasta water if it seems like the mixture is drying out, a little bit at a time.

Kill the heat and uncover your pan; add italian seasoning, your butter, and your parmesan cheese, mix it all in, and season to taste with salt and pepper. The reason you grate the cheese (and you should get grated cheese if you can't grate it yourself, not the powdered stuff) is to ensure it mixes into the sauce, adding fat content to the acidic tomato. This is where flavor comes from!

Final step: Add the mozzarella pearls to the pasta in a cute pattern, then cover the pan and let it sit for 3-4 minutes, the residual heat from the sauce will get the pearls a little melty. Once it's melty, stir the SHIT out of the pasta to incorporate all the nice cheesy goodness, then top with more parmesan and serve hot.