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Recipes

Cheap Eats: Cold cucumber soup

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I have an inordinate fondness for cold soups, especially in the summertime. This one is addictive. It’s a Middle Eastern concoction called xergis:

You need:
3 cucumbers
3 scallions or 1/2 small onion
1 clove garlic
5 cups good-quality plain yogurt
1 tsp. olive oil (optional)
4 tsp dill weed
1 tsp salt
pepper
blender
large bowl

Mix the ingredients together in a large bowl, and then purée about 1/3 cup at a time in the blender until smooth. Chill. Serve in soup bowls with a sprig of mint or a sprinkling of chopped dill, parsley, or coriander. You also can serve it in glasses as a drink.

The stuff is utterly delicious. As a side benefit, it delivers an enormous thwack of calcium, about 386 mg. per cup. You can cheerfully drink two cups without feeling at all put upon.

A Gourmet Cooking Party: Fun, frugal, and delicious

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Pasta! Make Pasta!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at La Maya’s house experimenting with a friend’s pasta machine. We had the idea that we wanted to actually make our own pasta (having been told that it’s much better than the dried stuff you get at the supermarket) and decorate it up with made-from-scratch sauce.

Even with everyone helping in the kitchen (or maybe especially with everyone helping!), we expected this to be a huge honking project. But it turns out that pasta is extremely easy to make, and you don’t actually need a machine to make simple shapes-a rolling pin and a sharp knife or pizza cutter will do the job. However, pasta machines are pretty inexpensive. Amazon.com has one for as little as $19. We think our friend’s cost around $150-it appears to be the $95 Atlas shown at Amazon-but on that same site the Imperia looks similar (except it doesn’t clamp to the countertop) looks very similar and sells for $64. If you like pasta and love to play with your food, one of these could be worth the investment.

La Maya found semolina flour in bulk at Sprouts. I scored some fresh tomatoes from M’Hijito’s backyard garden, and SDXB brought a creditable bottle of cheap red from Trader Joe’s.

Plain, unembellished pasta consists of nothing more than eggs and flour with (sometimes) a little water added. Following instructions that came with the machine, we made ours by mounding up about a cup of flour, making a little well in the middle, and breaking a couple of whole eggs into the crater. Mix it together with a fork until it holds together and then gently knead it between the palms of your hands until it’s no longer sticky. If it sticks to your hands, add a little more flour and massage the stuff until it holds together like good Play-Doh.

If you’re going to run it through a pasta machine, you don’t want it to be gooey, ’cause it’ll stick to the machine’s little blades just as it sticks to your fingers. It should be fairly firm.

The machine has a roller that flattens the dough out. You can adjust a setting to make it come out quite thin or fairly thick. Not having a clue what we were doing, we went for a medium setting, so we had pieces of dough about 1/16 of an inch thick. These we put through a blade that disgorged fettucini-shaped strips. Once we figured out how to do it, the process was incredibly easy.

After we saw how this worked, we realized that you could just roll out the pasta on your countertop or breadboard to whatever thickness you like and then slice it into long, thin pieces with a sharp knife.

Tomatoes cook down into a wonderful, light sauce in a matter of minutes. La Maya had basil growing in the backyard; we could have used some Italian parsley instead of or in addition to fresh basil. We diced several tomatoes, cut up a small fistful of basil, and minced some garlic.

I started the sauce by stirring the minced garlic around in a little hot olive oil, briefly-don’t let it brown. Then added the tomato and basil and let them cook gently until they simmered into a nice sauce. While the tomatoes were cooking down, I added a splash of wine, and at the last minute we poured in a small amount of heavy cream. If you wanted, you could use orange juice, or you could combine a little grated orange or lemon zest with the tomatoes.

On the side, I sauteed some excellent prawns that I found at Costco, adding a little cumin for extra flavor.

Meanwhile, SDXB made a very fine tossed green salad.

While the sauce was cooking, we brought a large kettle of water to a rolling boil. To cook the pasta, all you have to do is drop the fresh noodles into boiling water and let’em cook for just a few minutes. As soon as they seemed to be getting just al dente (which is very fast), we lifted them out of the water and into the pan of hot sauce. Tossed them into the pan of sauce to finish cooking and to coat them with the delicious tomato mixture and then served them up.

The result was incredibly delicious! Also, to our surprise, even though we ate ourselves stupid none of us felt uncomfortably stuffed. The noodles expand while cooking and kind of “puff up” in a way that dried store-bought pasta does not. The result is an unexpectedly light dish, compared to what we normally expect of pasta.

The whole adventure was a lot of fun-good company, good eats-for not a lot of expense. This is a great way to enjoy yourself and stay frugal: have a cooking party with good friends.

Cheap Eats: Easy, yummy cabbage

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A couple of months ago, a commenter on one of the many PF blogs I read-believe it was The Simple Dollar-asked how you make cabbage. This elicited several recipes for boiled cabbage and hot dishes. All of these are delicious. But I didn’t see any that resembled my favorite. Here it is.

To make a side dish of two to four servings, you need:
1/2 head of cabbage (I happen to like red, but green is just as good)
1 apple
1/2 onion
about a tablespoon dill weed or dill seed
about 2 teaspoons fennel seed, or more, to taste
a little cumin, about ¼ to ½ teaspoon, to taste (optional)
a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg, if desired (highly optional)
a little dried or fresh thyme, if desired (optional)
small amount beef broth or water
splash of red or white wine, if available
dash of vinegar (add to taste)
Tabasco sauce (add to taste; very optional)
|salt and pepper to taste.
olive oil or butter
frying pan

Cut a head of cabbage in half. Put one half back in the refrigerator for future use. Take the other half and slice it thinly, crosswise, to create a “shredded” effect. Chop the onion coarsely. Cut the apple in quarters; cut out and discard the core. Chop the apple coarsely (no need to peel it, but you can if desired).

Skim the bottom of the pan with olive oil or melt a pat of butter in the pan. Place the chopped onion in the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium-high heat. Cook the onion until softened. Personally, I like to turn the heat down to medium and allow the onion to cook until it’s slightly caramelized — this makes the onions nice and sweet.

When the onions are cooked to your taste, add the sliced-up cabbage. Stir this around to start softening it. Add the cut-up apple and the spices of your choice. Stir to mix well. As the cabbage gets to the point where it’s softening, add a little water or beef broth; if you have it, splash in a little wine. Turn the heat to low, cover the pan, and allow the cabbage to simmer gently until it is cooked to your taste. I prefer not to overcook mine; this takes about 20 minutes, but it can sit on the stove for a fair time without harm.

I like to grind the fennel, dill, and cumin seeds in a molcajete –– a mortar & pestle — but this is not necessary. You can use ground cumin that comes in a jar or whole cumin seeds, if you choose to add cumin at all. As you can see by all the optional ingredients, this is a very forgiving dish. You can pretty much combine anything that makes you happy and still come out with a tasty product.

Last time I cooked cabbage — and took this picture right after adding the cabbage to the pan — I sliced the onions instead of chopping them. Onion rings are a little unwieldy for this dish. I think cutting the onion into chunks is better.

Just before serving, adjust the seasoning by adding a light splash of vinegar and a little salt and pepper. Taste it. Add more vinegar and, if desired, a few drops of hot sauce for zing.

Serve this with a mess of grilled sausages and some crispy French or Italian bread for a great summer meal. It’s also really good with roast, grilled, or fried chicken; awesome with roast pork or with grilled or fried pork chops; and good to eat on its own.

Cheap Eats: Dine in, not out! Shoulda had shrimp

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M’hijito came by the other day to eyeball the house I was thinking about buying. Feeling flush over the $150 his current attempt to kick the nicotine addiction is saving him this month, he invited me out to dinner.

I’d just bought a mess of gorgeous shrimp at Costco and offered to cook that. He said no, he’d rather go out to eat.

O.K. So we went to a neighborhood restaurant, where the menu was loaded with yup-sounding items ranging in price from $10 for appetizers to $20 and up. He said the food was all right but not as great as the menu sounded. We each ordered a beer; he asked for the seared tuna and I got a pork quesadilla.

For fourteen bucks, the pork quesadilla consisted of a wheat tortilla (about 2 cents worth), a small handful of pulled pork (available in bulk at Costco, probably around 50 cents or a dollar’s worth), some melted cheddar cheese (maybe 5 cents worth?), and a sprinkling of barbecue sauce (negligible). Unless it’s annealed onto spareribs, I’m not fond of barbecue sauce (which wasn’t mentioned on the menu), so I found this creation unappetizing. Beer was good, though.

M’hijito said the tuna was less than top quality (I tasted it: indeed, it was a bit strong) and not seared but scorched.

Neither of us came anywhere close to eating everything on our plates. He took the leftover quesadilla to eat at home, but since he left for New York City at 5:30 the next morning, the stuff presumably will go to waste. The tab, plus tip: $60!

For a fifth of that (or less), the two of us could have had the following:

Shoulda Had Shrimp

  • 4 to 6 large shrimp per diner
  • one juicy lime
  • 1 or 2 fresh tomatoes, depending on number of servings
  • spaghetti (enough to serve all diners)
  • dried herbes de provence or fines herbes, if you have it; or a little dried basil or marjoram
  • fresh basil, if you have it
  • fresh parsley, if you have it.
  • 1 or 2 cloves garlic (to taste, and depending on number of servings)
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • shredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese

Peel the shrimp and, if necessary, devein them. Lay them in a single layer on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Squeeze the lime over them, being sure each shrimp gets lime juice all over it. Allow to stand for 20 minutes or more. If you leave them to marinate longer than a half-hour, put them in the refrigerator.

Dice the tomatoes and sprinkle a little salt and pepper over them; mix in any dried herbs you decide to use. If you have basil, chop it up. Chop a little parsley. Peel and mince the garlic.

Bring a kettleful of water to a boil. Cook the spaghetti al dente.

While the spaghetti is boiling, skim the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil; heat over a medium-high flame. When the oil is hot, add the shrimp. Toss around until they turn bright pink; do not overcook. Add the garlic while you’re stirring the shrimp. When the shrimp appear to be almost cooked, pour any lime juice left in the marinating dish into the pan, and then add the tomatoes. Stir quickly. Add the basil (if you’re using it) and parsley at the last minute.

Apportion the cooked spaghetti among the diners’ plates and top with the shrimp mixture. Garnish with cheese, as desired.

You could serve the shrimp with rice instead of spaghetti. Or hold the starch and simply stir-fry or grill a combination of your favorite veggies (maybe some sliced zucchini, a few pieces of onion, and some sliced bell pepper?) to go with.

Cheap Eats: Six meals in one

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Last week I made a pork roast—mighty good—and still am enjoying meals from it. Videlicet:

Pork Roast

  • a pork roast
  • onion, cut up
  • 1 or 2 cloves garlic, slivered
  • 1 to 3 Tbsp fennel seed
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 1 carrot, cleaned and cut up
  • ½ bottle dry white wine
  • 1 large can tomatoes
  • beef or chicken broth
  • 1 portabella mushroom, washed and sliced, or a handful white button mushrooms, washed and cut in quarters
  • olive oil
  • butter

Peel the garlic cloves and cut them lengthwise to make slivers. With a sharp knife, poke holes in the meat and push the garlic slivers into the holes.

Skim the bottom of a Dutch oven with olive oil and heat the pan over a medium-high flame. Brown the meat on all sides in hot olive oil. As you turn the meat to the last side, add the onion and carrot. Stir around to sauté the vegetables while the meat finishes browning. Add the wine, fennel seed, thyme, and canned tomatoes with juice. Break up the tomatoes a bit. Add enough beef broth to about cover the meat.

Bring to a slow boil and immediately turn down the heat to a simmer. Cover the pan and allow to cook until done, two or three hours.

When the meat is almost cooked, heat a couple of tablespoons of butter in a frying pan and cook the mushrooms over medium-high heat. When nicely done, set aside.

Remove the cooked roast from the cooking liquids and set on a plate. Pour the liquids through a strainer into a bowl. With the back of a spoon, squeeze the liquids out of the vegetables. Discard the spent vegetables and return the broth to the Dutch oven.

Take two tablespoons of room-temperature butter and two tablespoons white flour and mash them together.

Cook the broth over medium-high heat until it boils about a third- to a half-way down. Then, while the broth is still seething, stir the flour-butter mixture (this is called beurre manié) in the liquid, a little at a time. Allow to cook for a few minutes to blend and thicken.

Turn down the temperature and add the mushrooms to the sauce. Allow a few minutes to blend flavors.

Then slice the meat and serve with the sauce. Excellent with potatoes, noodles, or rice.

Leftover Pork

Cook some noodles or polenta. Slice or shred some of the leftover pork roast and heat it in leftover pork sauce. Add some frozen peas or fresh broccoli and heat with the meat and sauce. Serve with a salad on the side for a complete meal.

Pork Sandwiches

Slice some good bread, the leftover pork, and a decent cheese. Generously slather one side of a bread slice with room-temperature butter. Rub the pork slices with mustard or horseradish sauce.

Heat a frying pan over medium to medium-high heat.

Place one slice of bread, butter-side down, in the pan. Place a piece of cheese on it, then place a pork slice on that. Cover with the another slice of bread, butter-side up. Allow to cook until the bottom slice of bread browns and the cheese is starting to melt. Turn and brown on the other side. Serve with a small salad or fruit.

Spaghetti with Pork Sauce

Dice a fresh tomato. Chop one or two cloves of garlic. Chop some parsley.

Cook some spaghetti al dente. Drain the spaghetti in a colander; reserve.

Skim the pan with a small amount of olive oil. Add the chopped garlic and stir around over medium-high heat for a minute or two. Place some of the leftover pork sauce in the pan and allow to heat. Then add tomato; stir to soften and blend, but don’t overcook.

Dish up the spaghetti and serve the pork-tomato sauce over it. Top with chopped parsley.

Pork Tacos

Shred some pork. Cut up some little green onions. Chop some cilantro or parsley. If you can get a decent avocado, peel that and chop it; sprinkle some lemon or lime juice over it to prevent browning in the air. Slice up some lettuce. Heat a can of pinto beans or refried beans. Get a bottle or deli package of good salsa.

If you still have some of the pork sauce, spoon a little over the shredded pork. Cover and heat in the microwave. If you don’t have the sauce, that’s OK-just heat the shredded meat in the micro.

Prepare some corn tortillas by heating a frying pan or a pancake griddle and flipping each tortilla back and forth on the hot surface until warmed through. Stack on a plate and cover.

Serve the meat, the beans, and the tortillas at table, with the chopped onions, lettuce, cilantro (or parsley), avocado, and salsa as condiments.

Diners make their own tacos by placing a little meat on a tortilla and doctoring it as desired with the condiments. Wrap and eat. Beans can be added to the taco or eaten on the side, according to individual preference.

Pork Provençal

Cut up leftover pork into ¼-inch or ½-inch cubes.

Get some packaged bread crumbs or (preferably!) zap a slice or two of bread in the blender to make crumbs.

Chop some parsley and garlic.

Raid the pantry or garden for spices and herbs, such as thyme, marjoram, tarragon, cumin, chili powder-whatever comes to hand. Get some leftover cheap white wine.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Stir the pork, spices or herbs, and garlic over high heat until the meat is nicely browned. Add bread crumbs; stir some more to brown those. Stir in the chopped parsley.

Moisten with white wine and place, uncovered, in the oven for 20 minutes or half an hour.

While the meat dish is finishing, prepare some vegetables, rice or potatoes (if desired), and a small salad.
3 Comments left at iWeb site:

Joanna

hey!I found you on the MIFS carnival this morning!great idea, I stretch my meals too.I do it mostly with chicken though.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 – 07:48 AM

Stephanie

I love stretching meat like this! I use leftover meat in stir fry frequently!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 – 08:21 AM

Tia

Found you on the MIFS carnival.These are wonderful ideas!I can’t wait to try several of your recipes.Thank you so much!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 – 05:39 PM

Trees and the frugalist

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The orange harvest is about consumed. I think two more oranges are left, out of my reach-tomorrow morning I’ll have to drag the step stool into the back yard and retrieve those. Arizona sweets, the two trees each bore at least a couple hundred fruits this winter, ripe in February and sweet as candy. For the past three months, I’ve been eating a half-dozen a day.

What a wonderful bounty!
apr19olives

I can’t imagine ever having a house without at least one fruit tree. My last shack had two Arizona sweets, a grapefruit, and a fig tree. This one, in addition to the two orange trees, has an amazing Mexican lime (pictured at right) that just now is covered in fruit and two young Meyer lemons, both of which blossomed in gay profusion this spring.

Manny, the current owner of SDXB’s former abode, has added plums and peaches to the existing grapefruit, orange, and tangerine trees. He insists he can get these to thrive here, and indeed, one of my colleagues has managed to grow edible peaches, apricots and plums in our scorching Valley of the Sun.

How frugal is a backyard fruit tree? I don’t know. The fig certainly was frugal enough: nothing much had to be done to it to make it bear. Citrus, though it’s fairly drought-hardy, needs plenty of deep watering and three doses of fertilizer each year to produce juicy, sweet fruit. If the tree bears a lot of fruit in a season, probably it’s a savings over buying that many oranges or grapefruit. And at 99 cents apiece, a lemon tree doesn’t have to make many lemons to be pay for itself. Lemon trees are notoriously fecund. At the grocery store, 99 cents a Meyer lemon does not purchase!

My water bill last month was $102. The lowest bill of the year, when hardly any water runs on the landscaping, is $70. The base rate is around $60. So all of the landscaping, including flowers and the pool, is costing around $32. Let’s guess the trees cost about $20 of that. Say the oranges bore 200 fruits this year. That’s a conservative guess; in fact, 6 oranges consumed per day x 3 months = 540 oranges, and I gave a bunch of them to friends in addition to the half-dozen I ate every day. But for the sake of easy math, let’s figure $20 ÷ 200 oranges = 10 cents apiece, roughly, per month, over about six months: 60 cents apiece.

That doesn’t figure in the fact that the water also goes on the lemons, the lime, the tomatoes, and the herbs. Still, the savings is probably not great…unless you figure that each orange tree actually bore about 270 oranges…. I was too busy picking and eating to count.

Tree-ripened fruit is so wonderful and so much better than grocery store produce, I’m actually dreading having to fall back on cardboard strawberries and barely ripe watermelons. Clearly, though, if the fruit falls on the ground and spoils or gets eaten by birds, it’s no bargain, neither water nor fertilizer being free. You have to have a way to preserve them.

Some people preserve citrus juice by freezing it in ice cube trays and storing the solid cubes in plastic freezer bags. You can make marmalade out of just about any citrus, and lemons lend themselves to lemon butter. Soft-skinned fruit can be canned or turned into jam, jelly, or butters. It’s a lot of work and I’m not sure I’d want to do it. That’s why I’m glad I live where citrus grows.

SDXB discovered that if you have a certain number of fruit trees on your lot-say, your house was built in an old grapefruit orchard, as many now centrally located 1950s Phoenix tract houses were-and you sell some of the produce, your lot qualifies as a farm and you qualify for an agricultural subsidy. You not only get a bunch of not-quite-free fruit, but you get a break on your taxes. Now that’s frugal!

Figs in Brandy

Wash a bunch of fresh, ripe figs. Prick them in a few places with a fork. Place them in a French canning jar with its rubber gasket in place. Cover with inexpensive brandy. If desired, add a little cinnamon or nutmeg. Store in the refrigerator.

Serve over ice cream.

Lemon Cream

Grate the zest of three lemons and then squeeze and collect the lemon juice. Next, beat five eggs plus five egg yolks until they are light and fluffy; then slowly beat in a cup of sugar, beating until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. In a large mixing bowl, whip four cups of heavy cream. In the top of a double boiler, pour the lemon juice over one tablespoon of gelatin. Allow the gelatin to soften and then stir over hot water until the gelatin dissolves. Stir the lemon-gelatin into the eggs, and then fold in the heavy cream. Chill in individual glasses or dishes and serve with whipped cream.

Lemon Curd

  • 2 yolks of extra large eggs
  • 2 extra large whole eggs
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 ½ Tablespoons minced lemon zest
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 2 ½ Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

In a saucepan (about a quart size), whisk the ingredients together. Stir over medium low heat until the mixture coats a metal spoon, about 8 minutes. Pour the lemon curd into a bowl or French canning jar, cover, and store in the refrigerator. This can be spread on good bread or coffee cake, or served over ice cream.

This recipe can be doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled. Larger amounts require somewhat longer cooking, up to about 20 minutes. Of course, it can be made (to excellent effect) with Meyer lemons.

Meyer Lemon Marmalade

Thinly slice about six Meyer lemons, discarding the seeds and ends. You should have about three cups of sliced lemon. Place these in a bowl and cover with water. Let stand overnight.

Then bring the lemons and water to a boil and boil them uncovered for 10 minutes. Again allow to stand overnight.

Measure the lemon-water mixture and add an equal amount of sugar. Bring this mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Then lower the heat but cook rapidly for about 45 minutes, until the marmalade sheets off a spoon. Pour the hot marmalade into hot, sterilized canning jars and seal the lids. This makes about six cups.

Drunken Orange Slices

Peel one or more ripe, fine oranges. Slice horizontally into quarter-inch-thick slices. Layer in a wide stoneware serving bowl or enameled pan, and cover the fruit slices with Grand Marnier or brandy. Chill for several hours, or let stand at room temperature for an hour or so and serve. Makes a great dessert as it is or served over ice cream.

Amber Marmalade

Take three oranges, three lemons, and one grapefruit. Halve these and seed them; then slice them very thinly. Measure the amount of fruit this produces, and place the fruit in a large nonreactive bowl or pan. Add three cups of water for each cup of fruit, and let soak for 12 hours.

Then place the fruit and its water into an enameled pot. Boil it for 20 minutes, and again let it set for 12 hours.

Sterilize some canning jars and lids.

Again measure what you have. For each cup of fruit and juice, add three-quarters cup sugar. Cook this combination in small batches, no more than five cupfuls at a time, until the fruit is clear and the syrup falls off a spoon in a sheet. Remove it from the pot, let it cool a few minutes, stirring. Pack the marmalade in the sterilized canning jars, seal them, and store them in a cool place.

Lime Marmalade

Thinly slice limes to make about one quart. Add 1 ½ quarts water and let stand overnight. In a nonreactive pot, cook the limes slowly for 2 or 2 ½ hours, until they are tender.

Measure the lime and juice. Add 2/3 as much sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil; turn down the heat and cook rapidly until the marmalade sheets off a spoon, 30 to 60 minutes. Pack the marmalade in hot sterilized jars, seal them, and store in a cool place.

Ceviche

Cut about five pounds of white-fleshed fish filets, such as halibut or sole, into small pieces. Place in a glass or stoneware bowl. Add three minced onions, 2 cups lime juice, and 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Stir together; be sure the fish is covered with lime juice at all times. Add some minced hot peppers. Cover tightly and marinate in the refrigerator for one to three days.

Jicama con limas

Chill a jicama in the refrigerator. Wash it, peel it, quarter it, and cut it into quarter- or eighth-inch-thick slices, or into slender sticks. Squeeze fresh lime juice all over it. Sprinkle with salt and eat as a snack.

Quite Possibly the Highest and Best Use of Limes

Quarter a Mexican or key lime. Open a bottle of pale beer, preferably Triple-X or Corona. Squeeze the lime into the open bottle and then push the lime quarter down the neck into the beer. Consume. Repeat.