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Quarantine Cooking: Recipes & Techniques to Stretch Your Food Budget (1 Viewer)

heckmanm said:
You may already know this tip, but just in case:

a. leave the pasta a little undercooked

b. save off some of the pasta water before you drain it

c. add some pasta water to the sauce, and finish cooking the pasta there.  The starchy water will thicken the sauce and the pasta will absorb some flavor as it finishes cooking.
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Yes, do all of those. 

 
General Malaise said:
Borrowing my buddy's panini maker tonight.  Putting the little kids to bed early and then having paninis with the wife and older boys.  Never used one of these before.  Strange how excited I am about this.  :bag:

Thinking the best bread would be a dense Ciabatta or something similar.  Was going to buy some pastrami, saliami, turkey at the deli counter (gloved and masked) along with some provolone.  My wife doesn't eat meat, so was thinking gruyere and roasted peppers for her.

Any panini suggestions for a first timer?
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Why yes, folks, it IS possible to screw up a panini!  

You know what's not an easy thing to clean?  A friend's panini maker with loads of goopy cheese and pepper smush caked in all the crevices.  :hot:

 
General Malaise said:
Why yes, folks, it IS possible to screw up a panini!  

You know what's not an easy thing to clean?  A friend's panini maker with loads of goopy cheese and pepper smush caked in all the crevices.  :hot:
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love ciabatta, but it typically has a lot of holes throughout for all the cheese to escape

 
Brown a pound of ground turkey with onion. Drain and add a can of tomatoes with habaneros, and a can of black beans. Shake out the broken chips from the bottom of a bag of tostitos. Drink half a Guinness and grudgingly pour the rest in. Season with a month and a half without chips or beer because you gave them up for lent before a pandemic erupted.  Salt to taste. Simmer until liquid mostly boils off, stirring to avoid scorching. Add a large pinch of shredded Mexican cheese before serving. 

 
Mister CIA said:
From my  ***Official*** Rice and Beans thread, which was accidentally posted in the PSF, and there it stayed.

General purpose bean recipe (adjust generously to suit your tastes):

  • 1 pound bag o' beans (red, black or pintos, and many other types I'm sure - again, this is just a GP recipe)
  • Bacon - 1 thick slice of Wright's bacon, typically.
  • Garlic, minced - 1 or 2 cloves (let sit for 15 minutes after mincing)
  • Onions, medium chop - about 200 g.  White or purple
  • Tomato - one or two small tomatoes, chopped (Campari cocktail tomatoes from Sam's Club are my choice here)
  • Crushed Dried Peppers - 2 serranos, 2 sweet chiles, as a for instance (more to say about this below)
  • 1 tsp Deep Undertones spice blend (see below)
  • 1 tsp salt
Rinse and soak beans.  6 hours is probably fine, but I typically soak them overnight.  After soaking, rinse again and return to water (cover with water, plus 2").  Bring to roiling boil and let go for about 15 minutes while stirring occasionally, then heat way down (about 4/10)

Add remaining ingredients, stir, cover and simmer for a couple of hours.  Cook until the bean texture is correct, and simmer with lid off if you want to reduce the liquid content.

Deep Undertones Spice Blend

This is not earth-shattering stuff here, but it's a great blend that works with many dishes.  Consider halving the cumin if it suits your tastes 

Red Hot Dried Chile Peppers (greatest thing ever)

Actually this works with sweet peppers too.  Simply put the fresh chiles on a rack and toss into an oven on very low heat - about 190 degrees F - and let go overnight, for about 9 hours.  Once they are thoroghly dried, remove from oven and let cool.  Toss them into a ziploc and refrigerate (not sure if this is necessary, but it's what I do).  Next time you cook something - anything - just crush a dried chile or two over the dish - while it's cooking.

Wrap up thoughts:

  • Invest $20 in a spice mill, aka a coffee bean grinder
  • Patronize your local Asian grocery stores and Mexican bodegas when it comes to buying spices.  They're better, and vastly cheaper, than your typical grocery store fare
  • Intead of rice, grab some corn tortillas from the refrigerated section at that Mexican bodega.  Bake them at 350 for about 10-ish minutes, and top with guacamole.  I can pull up a solid guac recipe if you want.
  • I've got a super basic basmati go-to as well, if anyone wants it.
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I don't like to toot my own horn, but has anyone tried the Deep Undertones spice blend.  It's ####ing killer with a pot of beans, especially red beans as I've recently discovered. It's so good, I won't even add bacon to the pot (but I will serve a sausage link on the side).  It's a vegan miracle, is what I'm trying to say.  To be sure, double up on the blend.

Just did the math: Quadruple the spice blend - 4 tsp per 1 pound of dry beans. 

 
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Mister CIA said:
I don't like to toot my own horn, but has anyone tried the Deep Undertones spice blend.  It's ####ing killer with a pot of beans, especially red beans as I've recently discovered. It's so good, I won't even add bacon to the pot (but I will serve a sausage link on the side).  It's a vegan miracle, is what I'm trying to say.  To be sure, double up on the blend.

Just did the math: Quadruple the spice blend - 4 tsp per 1 pound of dry beans. 
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I bought a giant bag of red beans a month ago and have been meaning to try this, vegan style.  

Might have to modify the spice blend a bit as I don't have cumin seeds but do have cumin.  Can I use regular ground dark roast coffee? 

And you cook the rice separately, right?  

I make what I refer to as Cuban black beans all the time, but canned beans that I drain.  I add beer to mine because I can.  Lotta of your same spices, garlic, onions, red pepper...great and easy and goes with so many of our meals.

 
heckmanm said:
Your spice blend didn't show any details
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Deep Undertones (mix all in a spice mill)

1 T cumin seeds

2 t course salt

1.75 t instant coffee 

1.5 t dried basil (prefereably Thai basil)

1.25 t dry mustard

1 t whole black peppercorns

0.75 t dried sage

0.5 t paprika

0.25 t coriander seeds

 
General Malaise said:
I bought a giant bag of red beans a month ago and have been meaning to try this, vegan style.  

Might have to modify the spice blend a bit as I don't have cumin seeds but do have cumin.  Can I use regular ground dark roast coffee? 

And you cook the rice separately, right?  

I make what I refer to as Cuban black beans all the time, but canned beans that I drain.  I add beer to mine because I can.  Lotta of your same spices, garlic, onions, red pepper...great and easy and goes with so many of our meals.
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Hmm.  I think 1 to 1.5 tsp of cumin powder will work, but personally I alway prefer cumin seed to powder, even when not grinding it up.  Don't know for sure about the coffee grounds, but I lean towards that might not be a good idea.  Not sure if it will break down and dissolve when cooking.  Might be extra gritty.

I do cook the rice separately.  I prefer crumbling/smashing up some mushrooms into the rice; just plain ol'white shrooms.

It's been a while, but I've had good results with beer and beans.  Last I did it, I think I used the beer for the soak, but not the cook.  I might by an extra six-pack this weekend and try it with the cook (Narrator:  There's no such thing as an extra six-pack).

Canned beans are great too because they can be served up quickly.  I usually start with a little bit of oil and llightly brown up the onion, garlic, and serranos before adding beans, seasoning, and tomatoes.  Damn, I'm hungry now.

 
My weekend project is to try a couple of new spice blends.  I've posted links to my favorite YouTube chef before, CookingInRussia, and I also have his collection of cookbooks youtube channel companion books.  Between the four books there are about 40 or so blends to try.  I'll post links later.  There a couple of Mexican blends that sound fantastic.  They are complicated.  One involves drying out green apples in the oven, and another involves the same with salted lime slices. 

FYI, the CiR youtube channel I llinked too is jacked up.  He made liberal use of annotations to say things like, now put in oven at 350 for 30 minutes, etc.  YouTube disabled annotations, so now there are lots of blank spots in the videos.  I do have the XML source so I can sift through the text and figure it out.  One of my many backburner projects is to figure out how to overlay the XML onto the videos to restore them to their original state (I think it's possible, but not totally sure).

 
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Holy mother of cabbage god! 

Full disclosure: Not cheap unless you have some vermouth and white wine and Gruyere on hand already.  Also, these dishes are a PAIN IN THE ### to make.  I devoted my entire Monday making this stuff.  On the bright side, cabbage is cheap.

I used one cabbage for both these recipes, purple cabbage in this instance.

Swiss Cabbage Stew: cabbage and bacon, what could go right?  I used large chopped purple onion in lieu of pearl onions and bypassed the whole broil'em in the oven bit.

ETA: I spooned out excess rendered bacon fat before adding cabbage into the pan.  Too rich for me otherwise.

Cabbage Dumplings - indescribibly wonderful.

 
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Mister CIA said:
I don't like to toot my own horn, but has anyone tried the Deep Undertones spice blend.  It's ####ing killer with a pot of beans, especially red beans as I've recently discovered. It's so good, I won't even add bacon to the pot (but I will serve a sausage link on the side).  It's a vegan miracle, is what I'm trying to say.  To be sure, double up on the blend.

Just did the math: Quadruple the spice blend - 4 tsp per 1 pound of dry beans. 
Click to expand...
6 sweet peppers and two serranos heading into the oven now.  1lb red beans soaking now.  Ready to roll for tonight!  

We don't have instant coffee (is that like folgers?) so I'm gambling on ground dark roast.  Wish me luck! 

Red rockfish 5.99/lb so we're doing a fish fry tonight with rice and beans.  

 
Mister CIA said:
Deep Undertones (mix all in a spice mill)

1 T cumin seeds

2 t course salt

1.75 t instant coffee 

1.5 t dried basil (prefereably Thai basil)

1.25 t dry mustard

1 t whole black peppercorns

0.75 t dried sage

0.5 t paprika

0.25 t coriander seeds
Click to expand...
Just did this with my pistil and mortar.  Ground coffee worked perfectly. :thumbup:

 
Mister CIA said:
I don't like to toot my own horn, but has anyone tried the Deep Undertones spice blend.  It's ####ing killer with a pot of beans, especially red beans as I've recently discovered. It's so good, I won't even add bacon to the pot (but I will serve a sausage link on the side).  It's a vegan miracle, is what I'm trying to say.  To be sure, double up on the blend.

Just did the math: Quadruple the spice blend - 4 tsp per 1 pound of dry beans. 
Click to expand...
Last question:  do you include the seeds of the dried peppers or strip them out?  Kids are eating these so a bit concerned on the heat of the serranos. 

And you don't saute the onions/garlic first?  Just drop into the pot? 

 
General Malaise said:
Last question:  do you include the seeds of the dried peppers or strip them out?  Kids are eating these so a bit concerned on the heat of the serranos. 

And you don't saute the onions/garlic first?  Just drop into the pot? 
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I always leave seeds in, but it's fine to strip them out.

 
General Malaise said:
Last question:  do you include the seeds of the dried peppers or strip them out?  Kids are eating these so a bit concerned on the heat of the serranos. 

And you don't saute the onions/garlic first?  Just drop into the pot? 
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Missed the other question.  Usually I'm lazy and just toss the onion and garlic straight in, but yeah a saute would probably be better.

 
Hope the coffee grounds work out fine.  Just don't know how well they will dissolve into the pot.

 
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Buy a meat grinder.  I started with a cheap $20 hand crank grinder off Amazon. I've since upgrade to an inexpensive electric.  There are also attachments for stand mixers if you have one of those. I've been grinding my own meat for burgers, meatballs, sausage, etc. for years.  It's economical, and you know EXACTLY what's in the meat you're eating. Fresh ground burgers are the best and you can play around with the mixture. Pork butt is possibly the most economical meat on the planet. We ground one up this morning for breakfast sausage and ground pork and tonight we are smoking stuffed pork meatballs. For .99 a pound and a few items from the garden. Crazy.

Butt Grinding

Breakfast Sausage Spice Mix

I'll post the spice blend for breakfast sausage if anyone's interested.

Smoked meatballs will be over in the Grilling and Smoking thread.

 
Mister CIA said:
I don't like to toot my own horn, but has anyone tried the Deep Undertones spice blend.  It's ####ing killer with a pot of beans, especially red beans as I've recently discovered. It's so good, I won't even add bacon to the pot (but I will serve a sausage link on the side).  It's a vegan miracle, is what I'm trying to say.  To be sure, double up on the blend.

Just did the math: Quadruple the spice blend - 4 tsp per 1 pound of dry beans. 
Click to expand...
Excellent!  What a great taste.  The serrano was really hot for me but the flavor profile was outstanding.  I mixed the fish with rice and beans and it was sooooooo tasty.  I used a potato masher with the beans as they tasted a little "earthy" but when smashed became a blended taste sensation.  That spice blend is $$$$$$

 
General Malaise said:
Excellent!  What a great taste.  The serrano was really hot for me but the flavor profile was outstanding.  I mixed the fish with rice and beans and it was sooooooo tasty.  I used a potato masher with the beans as they tasted a little "earthy" but when smashed became a blended taste sensation.  That spice blend is $$$$$$
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Glad to hear. Yeah, I think it's quite the multi-purpose blend, with the caveat you may have to dial down the cumin to suit your taste.

 
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Made green chile chicken enchiladas last night. That isn't unusual for us, as it is one of my "go to" meals.

But the one thing that was new and different is the method I used for cooking the chicken. I used a simple Instant Pot recipe to turn a few simple ingredients into incredibly moist chicken stuffing for the enchiladas in about half an hour:

Instant Pot Salsa Verde Chicken

The only changes I made were adding some diced onion and a can of diced green chiles to the recipe. And instead of using salsa verde, I just used a single can of green enchilada sauce.

It came out great. I shredded the chicken right there in the liquid, then drained the excess liquid off.

This would be an easy and great way to start all sorts of green chile chicken dishes, like burritos, or stews, or whatever.

 
Wingnut said:
Made some chicken tinga yesterday, it's cheap and goes a long way. I use a recipe similar to THIS and usually use thigh/leg quarters. Once made, you can make tacos, nachos, wraps, etc.

Tinga almost done

Finished taco (topped with refried beans, guacamole, onion, tomato, black olives, jalapeno, cilantro, and queso fresca)
Click to expand...
Looks great. Used to make this regularly years ago but haven't in a long time - will make soon.

 
RedmondLonghorn said:
Made green chile chicken enchiladas last night. That isn't unusual for us, as it is one of my "go to" meals.

But the one thing that was new and different is the method I used for cooking the chicken. I used a simple Instant Pot recipe to turn a few simple ingredients into incredibly moist chicken stuffing for the enchiladas in about half an hour:

Instant Pot Salsa Verde Chicken

The only changes I made were adding some diced onion and a can of diced green chiles to the recipe. And instead of using salsa verde, I just used a single can of green enchilada sauce.

It came out great. I shredded the chicken right there in the liquid, then drained the excess liquid off.

This would be an easy and great way to start all sorts of green chile chicken dishes, like burritos, or stews, or whatever.
Click to expand...
I've been doing this once a week or so, in a small crock pot as I don't have an Instant Pot.  

I don't even add spices.  I just add the amount of chicken we need, and cover it with my favorite salsa.  3-4 hours on low and it's done.  The key is that like in the linked recipe, shred the meat in the crock with the cooked/reduced salsa so that it becomes a seasoned shredded chicken mix.  

Use it in burritos, bowls, tacos, enchiladas, nachos...  whatever you want. 

 
Poke_4_Life said:
I've been doing this once a week or so, in a small crock pot as I don't have an Instant Pot.  

I don't even add spices.  I just add the amount of chicken we need, and cover it with my favorite salsa.  3-4 hours on low and it's done.  The key is that like in the linked recipe, shred the meat in the crock with the cooked/reduced salsa so that it becomes a seasoned shredded chicken mix.  

Use it in burritos, bowls, tacos, enchiladas, nachos...  whatever you want. 
Click to expand...
The Instant Pot is a good investment man

 
urbanhack said:
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/regrow-food-water/

Has anyone done this before?  I saved the bottom of some bok choy and have started to re-grow it in water.  
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I do it frequently with pineapples.  I've got 6-8 adults scattered around our place now and at any given time one of them is growing a new pineapple. I have them mostly in pots so they don't get quite as big as store bought but they are just as tasty. Sometimes sweeter if I can get them to the perfect golden yellow before harvest. A recent harvest:

La Pina

 
Ron Swanson said:
I do it frequently with pineapples.  I've got 6-8 adults scattered around our place now and at any given time one of them is growing a new pineapple. I have them mostly in pots so they don't get quite as big as store bought but they are just as tasty. Sometimes sweeter if I can get them to the perfect golden yellow before harvest. A recent harvest:

La Pina
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Amazing.

 
Pretty simple one

Chop up 2 decent size chicken breasts , season and saute to your taste

Make 2 boxes of Stove Top stuffing

Spread the chicken in a glass  11 x 14 pan

Pour 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup and the stuffing in (cream of chicken can be used for one of the cans)

Stir a bit then bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes

This dish can be made for about 6-7 bucks and will easily feed 6 people

 
Ron Swanson said:
I do it frequently with pineapples.  I've got 6-8 adults scattered around our place now and at any given time one of them is growing a new pineapple. I have them mostly in pots so they don't get quite as big as store bought but they are just as tasty. Sometimes sweeter if I can get them to the perfect golden yellow before harvest. A recent harvest:

La Pina
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NICE!  Would that work in a climate like Oregon or do you need warmer temps?  

 
Ron Swanson said:
I do it frequently with pineapples.  I've got 6-8 adults scattered around our place now and at any given time one of them is growing a new pineapple. I have them mostly in pots so they don't get quite as big as store bought but they are just as tasty. Sometimes sweeter if I can get them to the perfect golden yellow before harvest. A recent harvest:

La Pina
Click to expand...
We currently have 2 pineapple plants that we started last year, so itll be another year before they produce fruit, but I cant wait til they do. I used to have a couple in the yard at my old place, I should have dug them up and brought em with me when I moved, I live fresh picked pineapple.

 
I like reusing ingredients because it helps me keep my portion sizes down if I know that the chicken i use for dinner impacts tomorrow's lunch.  Here's an ingredients list

Eggs

Chicken breasts

Tortillas

Rice 

Guacamole

Black beans

Salsa

Shredded cheese 

Potatoes

Butter

Peppers and onions

Tortilla chips

Can of peas and carrots 

Soy sauce and other flavors (e.g fish sauce)

Put that together and you can get a couple days of meals - something like

Meal 1 - juevos rancheros with shredded potatoes 

Meal 2 - burritos with diced potatoes, rice, black beans, salsa guacamole and chicken

Meal 3 - quesadillas with chicken fried rice

Meal 4 - fajita nachos, chicken and mixed vegetables

 
Yeah, that's a good way to go, BF.  I grilled up 6 lbs of boneless/skinless chicken breasts Monday and that will be used in meal all throughout the week.  Fried rice on Monday, taco salad last night, burritos tonight.  

I made sausage, chicken thighs and shrimp jambalaya on Sunday night.  That's been my lunch all week (enough left for tomorrow).  As an added bonus, I used up the rest of the dried out peppers I made Saturday, thanks to Mister CIA.  What a great idea that was!  Might dry out the rest of my sweet peppers overnight.  

 
Ron Swanson said:
Pretty sure it needs a warmer climate. Maybe indoors?
Click to expand...
We kept one alive for a couple years in northern Indiana - indoors in winter, outside in summer.  But never got fruit on it, and eventually it outgrew the pot (and anything bigger would have been impractical to move in/out of the house.

 
Ron Swanson said:
I do it frequently with pineapples.  I've got 6-8 adults scattered around our place now and at any given time one of them is growing a new pineapple. I have them mostly in pots so they don't get quite as big as store bought but they are just as tasty. Sometimes sweeter if I can get them to the perfect golden yellow before harvest. A recent harvest:

La Pina
Click to expand...
You're really Ron Swanson, aren't you?

 
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