Having a hard time with groceries?

A friend turned me on to Angel Food Ministries; they provide very discounted food boxes, which you order online and are shipped to a distribution point where you can pick them up. You can also pay using SNAP, though that requires a phone call to your local distribution point. They offer several different packages, including specials which change seasonally; mostly healthy staples like raw meat and frozen vegetables. They also have a fresh fruit & veggies pack, and a shelf-stable pack with rice, beans, pasta, and canned goods. I haven't tried them yet, but my friend says the quality is just fine.

http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

I bought you a fish, but then I eated it.

One of the things I love about living in the Pacific Northwest is that occasionally, one of the major grocery chains will have whole fresh wild Pacific salmon for $5.99/lb. They'll even fillet it for you in the store.

WE EAT LIKE KINGS TONIGHT, CHILDREN!

What do I do with an entire 7-lb salmon? That's a lot of fish. If I roast the whole thing we'll be eating nothing but salmon for a week. So, I have them fillet it (and make sure to ask for the trimmings!) and then I go home and cut the fillets into approximately one-pound sections, and freeze all but one pound. Now I'm all set for about a month of salmon if we eat it once a week.

Put the trimmings in about 3 quarts of water in a deep pot along with:
one onion, quartered
one celery stalk, chopped
and one carrot, chopped

Simmer for 4-5 hours, strain, and discard the carcass and vegetables, reserving the broth.

Add to the broth:

Two cloves of garlic, minced
Two medium red potatoes, cubed
Two chopped carrots
4-6 chopped Roma tomatoes (or a can of diced tomatoes)
One bunch of kale, de-ribbed and chopped finely
A pinch of sage
A pinch of thyme
A pinch (add more if you like it spicy) of red chili flakes
Salt and pepper to taste

Simmer, covered, over medium heat for about 40 minutes.

In the meantime, season about a pound of salmon with salt, pepper, lemon juice if desired, and a pinch of dill. Bake skin-side up at 350° for about 20 minutes. Remove skin and use forks to pull the meat into bite-sized pieces, removing any bones. Add the fish to the soup right before serving.

Black bean soup with pork stock

So, if you were still wondering why you saved the bones from the short ribs, this is what you're going to do with them. Well, at least, this is what I do with them; you can do whatever you want!

Put the bones in a 3-quart saucepan with:

one whole onion, cut in quarters
one stalk of celery, coarsely chopped
one carrot, coarsely chopped
one teaspoon of salt
1 tsp Herbs de Provence

Add enough water to cover it all. Put a lid on and simmer for at least 4-6 hours to extract all the flavorful goodness. Since I know good and well you're not home all day, I recommend either getting a crockpot for this, or saving it for your day off. You can freeze the resulting stock, if desired.

Strain the stock (aka broth) and discard the bones and vegetables. Put stock back in the pan and add:

one clove of garlic, minced
one pound of black beans, soaked and rinsed
black pepper as desired

Top off with water to cover the beans by one inch, if necessary. Simmer on low heat for about an hour or until the beans are tender. Add salt to taste. Top with grated cheddar cheese and/or sour cream, and serve with fresh tomatoes.

Let's talk about beans.

Yesterday I promised a two-parter using the bones from the short ribs, but first I think I need to do a brief overview of cooking dry beans. It's simple, but most people don't know how to use them, so here we go:

Step 1. Cut a hole in the box Soak your beans in enough water to cover them by an inch, for no less than 8 and no more than 24 hours. I like to soak them overnight and cook them the next afternoon/evening.

Step 2. Drain and rinse the beans, and place them in a pot with enough water or broth to cover them by an inch. Do not add anything acidic to the beans, it prevents them from softening. You can add tomatoes, vinegar, etc. at the end after they are tender.

Step 3. Add any seasonings you like (that are not acidic) and simmer over medium-low heat for 1-3 hours, or until the beans are tender. Cooking time depends tremendously on your altitude and what type of beans you use, so allow ample time. Don't be afraid of overcooking them; most beans hold up very well to long cooktimes.

If you live at a very high altitude, you may not be able to cook most types of dry beans without a pressure cooker.

The many uses of pork shoulder

This is a two-parter. Today I'm making smoked pork short ribs, AKA "country ribs", which are usually (but not always) shoulder cuts, which means they are fatty and absolutely delicious when slow-cooked. They're also REALLY cheap. Since I'm not parboiling these, and I'm slow-cooking them in my grill (you can use an oven if you don't have a grill) I'm brining them not only to season them, but also to keep them from getting dried out.

I've never actually measured my brine recipe before, but I did this time. Just for you.

For about 4 lbs of short ribs use:

2 cups water
1-1/2 cups ice
2 TBSP salt
1 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp chipotle or cayenne powder
1/8 tsp black pepper

Mix together until the salt and sugar dissolves, add the ice and pour over the pork ribs (move them around a bit to make sure the brine solution gets in there). Refrigerate for at least an hour. I usually let mine soak for about 3 hours.

If you're using a grill, you'll want to start the coals about an hour before you're ready to put the ribs on. I use a Char-Griller without the sidecar, and have had great slow-smoked results just by getting a nice bed of coals going, then putting some green apple, cherry, or apricot branches on top of the coals, putting the meat on the top rack, and then closing and entirely damping down the grill.

If you're using an oven, preheat it to 200°. When your grill/oven is ready, put the ribs in, uncovered, and bake for about 4 hours. Serve with the condiment and side dish of your choice (I like Texas-style BBQ sauce and corn on the cob), and when you're done, collect the bones and put them in the fridge! You'll need them for tomorrow's dinner.

Speaking of which, you're going to want to get a pound of dry black beans soaking right now. I'll talk about that a little more in my next post.

Summer sandwich

This is a great way to use up leftover grilled steak... my little piranhas usually devour it, though, so I end up making a steak just for this purpose.

Top sirloin or other tender cut of steak, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled medium-rare

Slice the steak thinly and drizzle it with Caesar or Italian salad dressing

Slice and toast a baguette

Butter the baguette

Pile meat on the baguette

Top with sliced tomato

Nom!

Indian cooking

I recently realized that there are no Indian restaurants in my vicinity. Not that I can afford to eat out regularly, but every once in a while I have a craving, and this time I discovered that it could not possibly be filled in any reasonable way. In the meantime, I have a friend in Arizona who regularly brags about the power of her Chicken Vindaloo, which was making me mildly insane.

So I started looking up Indian recipes.

The amazing thing about Indian food (not actually that amazing when you think about it) is that it's incredibly economical. Unlike many other varieties of Old World cooking, the basic ingredients tend to be dirt-cheap, once you have the required panoply of spices.

I already have almost all the spices. I was Spice Queen, after all...

So here are my first two recipes. I would just link you to the online recipes I started with, but I am never content to just use a recipe untinkered-with, so I altered then significantly.

Chicken Vindaloo

2 TBSP butter
1 teaspoon turmeric seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds

2 teaspoons garam masala
1 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 TBSP fresh chopped ginger
1 whole chopped serrano pepper
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
3 TBSP flour, preferably chickpea but wheat will do

2 1/2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

4 fresh diced tomatoes (or 1 16-oz can)
6-8 skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
6 small potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces

Melt the butter in a deep saute pan over medium-high heat, and add the first 6 ingredients. Saute until the seeds crackle.
Add the next 7 ingredients and cook until onions are brown on the edges, and translucent.

Add the vinegar.

Dump everything but the chicken, potatoes, and tomatoes into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the raw chicken, stir, let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Add all the ingredients into deep saute pan, cover, simmer 40 minutes. Serve with basmati rice and naan.



Saag Aloo:

A 16-oz bag of frozen spinach (fresh is fine, just more expensive)
2 cloves chopped garlic
About 2 TBSP fresh ginger, chopped
One chopped onion
One chopped Serrano pepper (with seeds)
Four medium potatoes, cubed
1 teaspoon turmeric
4 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon plain yogurt
salt

Cube the potatoes and parboil (about 10 minutes) with the turmeric and some salt.

Melt 2 TBSP butter in a pan and add the ginger, onions, serrano, and garlic. Saute on med-hi heat until the onions start to brown. Add the spinach and heat thoroughly. Briefly process in food processor or blender (if you don't have one, chop everything really finely before you start, then dump it into a bowl to free the pan for the next step)

Melt the other 2 TBSP of butter in your pan, add cumin seeds and heat until they start to crackle, then return your spinach mixture to the pan and add the garam masala, coriander and ground cumin.

Drain the potatoes and add them to the spinach mixture. If it's too thick to simmer without scorching, add a bit of water, but not enough to make it soupy. Salt to taste and simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Stir in the yogurt and serve it with naan or basmati rice. Or both.