Rachael Ray's Indian Spiced Beef...

I don't know if other families do this, but my family has the tendency to look at each other in the morning and say, "Gosh, what are we going to have for dinner?"  We then root around in the freezer to see what kind of meat we have, and check the pantry to see what we could serve with it, and come up with something.  I can't help thinking it's terribly inefficient.  But it works for us.

This time, we pulled out sirloin steaks, and on a whim I grabbed my copy of Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book.  I'd like to, if you'll bear with me, briefly say that I really like this book.  Rachael Ray uses a variety of flavors, most of what she makes is quick and simple, and this particular book includes a selection of vegetarian and kosher foods (you have no idea how important these are until you cook for a group that includes someone on a limited/restricted diet) as well as recipes designed for 1 person (which I personally find invaluable-- I get tired of leftovers, eggs, and pasta when cooking for myself).  If you don't have time to plan out a meal, this is a great book-- it's all right there for you.

So, flipping through, I came across "Indian Spiced Beef and Warm Curry Potato Salad, Tangy 'Creamed' Spinach".  After checking that everyone was on board, we went for it.

Here's more or less how it goes, starting with the potato salad.
1) Boil the potatoes.  There are a couple ways to do this.  Personally, I like to cook them whole with the skin on (cooked potato skin slips right off), which means I'm losing almost no potato (although the loss due to peeling is probably negligible) and can give the potatoes a slightly different flavor.  The problem with this method is that it takes a long time, so it only works well for small potatoes.  It's faster and more convenient to peel and chop potatoes before boiling them, especially if using larger ones (like Rachael's recipe calls for).  And ALWAYS put salt in the water.  Potatoes love salt.

2) Saute some onions and garlic, then add chickpeas, chicken broth and curry paste to make a sauce.  [The recipe in the book also calls for bell peppers and mango chutney, but I skipped those because of taste preferences in my family.]  I let this cook down a bit before adding the potatoes.  Let it sit for a bit so those potatoes can soak up all the yummy curry flavor, add some snipped green onions, and you've got a different potato salad.

Notes: I like a bit of tang to my potato salad.  I might try adding rice wine vinegar or something next time.  The mango chutney may have provided some tangy-ness, but I really struggle with savory fruit items.  The flavors don't work for me.

Follow-up Note: I went ahead and added some vinegar to my leftover potato salad.  It definitely provided the flavor I was looking for.  Next time, I'll add maybe 1/8 cup (start with less, you can always add more) rice vinegar to the sauce.



Spinach
1) Thaw some frozen chopped spinach and wring it out.
2) Sweat some onions in a pan (basically, give them some light cooking, but don't let them brown.  You're decreasing how pungent their flavor is without introducing caramelized flavors), add the spinach and a cup of plain Greek-style yogurt.  Adjust the flavor with salt and pepper.  Warm it up, serve it up.

Notes: Rachael lost me a little on this one.  Her recipe states to "let it simmer" for 5 minutes. Simmer generally means a certain amount of liquid.  My guess is that my yogurt is way thicker than hers (because to me, Greek-style means I can eat it with a fork) or that I wrong my spinach too dry.  I thinned it a little with milk, and just kept it over low heat so it was warm.

Meat
1) Mix 1 Tbsp each of Cumin, Coriander, Turmeric, Allspice, Paprika and Grill Seasoning. Rub it on the meat and let it sit for about 15 minutes.
2) Cook the meat.  Let it rest before you slice it so that the juices stay in the meat rather than leaking all over your cutting board.
Notes:  We grilled our meat; the recipe says to use a pan.  Basically, cook it in a way that's convenient and effective.  Also, if you realize a bit late in the game that you don't have grill seasoning (oops), you can fudge it with salt, pepper, and onion and garlic powder.  (Most grill seasonings are going to have some variation of those).