A Foul Ball and a Home Run

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This weekend I decided to try and cook a bit more frugally than I normally do. We have a grocery store here in the Dayton area called Dorothy Lane Markets, and they are wonderful. They have the best produce, great meats, wine, cheese…you name it, they have it, and good quality, too. Problem is, their prices are pretty exorbitant as well. I spent almost $100 a couple of weekends ago on three dinners. So, this weekend, I decided to try and cook Saturday, Sunday, and Monday dinners (with leftovers) for $50. I knew that in order to do so would require less expensive cuts of meat, and no expensive ingredients. So, no $20 a pound prosciutto or pancetta or Parmagiano Reggiano, no leg of lamb, and definitely no exotic ingredients like walnut oil (which is fantastic drizzled over greens with a fried egg, but I digress).

So, whilst in the shower Saturday after my bike ride, I started coming up with good but inexpensive food. I didn’t have a load of time to cook, so it couldn’t be slow food, either. For Saturday, I came up with a completely grilled dinner. This turned out quite nice. I butterflied a whole chicken, rubbed him all over with olive oil and salt and pepper, and threw him on the grill. Next, I did the same treatment to some red onion sliced thickly, cored and halved tomatoes, and a bunch asparagus (olive oil and salt and pepper is a fantastic, simple preparation for almost anything grilled). I timed everything so that the chicken came off first and rested for a bit, and then grabbed all the veggies off the grill. I diced the onions, and threw them and the tomatoes into a bowl with 6 oz of goat cheese and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese (the cheapo Kraft kind), and then threw in hot farfalle pasta, and mixed it up. I served the asparagus alongside the chicken. It all worked out better than I thought it would, with the pasta being wonderfully creamy and tangy with all of the goat cheese.

For Sunday, I decided to try my hand at some fish, something I don’t cook very often. Fish is tricky, for me anyway, and I’m almost never totally happy with the results. But I knew we could get some inexpensive cuts of fish, maybe some nice white filets such as catfish (my wife ended up buying some very nice Tilapia), so I figured that would be on tap for Sunday. I figured I would throw some pecans that I had in the freezer into my Cuisinart, chop them fine, and then mix them with some cornmeal and some chile powder to spice things up a bit. I also wanted a side different from potatoes or pasta or rice. So, I settled on sweet potatoes; I’ve never cooked with them before, and they just sounded good and different.

I threw a handful of pecans in the Cuisinart, and kept pulsing until they were minced very fine…almost like pecan flour. I put them in a bowl, and threw in about 2 tablespoons of cornmeal. To that I added 2 teaspoons of Penzey’s Ancho Chile powder. I didn’t want to get too nutty with the spices, and overwhelm my nice Tilapia filets. I whipped 3 eggs together, and dunked my first filet into the pecan mixture. It turned out great, a nice even coating of pecan mixture on the filet. The next filet, though, was problematic…the egg from the first filet had dripped into to the pecan mixture, so the second filet got coated in big chunks instead of a nice, even coating. That wasn’t the worst of my woes, though. After filet number two, I had nothing left for the third filet. Luckily, Susan suggested we use some bread crumbs, and I jumped at the idea…it would be perfect for my son Nick, and I didn’t have time to make more of the pecan mixture.

For the sweet potatoes, I decided that instead of just baking them, I wanted to go for a sweet/salty/spicy thing. So, I took my two sweet potatoes, peeled them, and sliced them into quarter inch rounds. Then I took about 4 tablespoons of butter, and melted that over medium-low heat in a large sauté pan. When the butter was melted, I threw in about 1 ½ tablespoons of brown sugar, ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and 1 teaspoon of coarse sea salt. I let that all cook for a bit, and then threw in the sweet potatoes, and tossed to cover with the butter mixture. I left that on medium and let that cook as I tended to the fish. I melted 1 tablespoon of butter in a large cast-iron fry-pan, and popped the fish in.

The actual cooking did not work out as planned. My sweet potatoes got done a lot faster than I thought they would, so I had to take them off the heat and cover them so that they didn’t get too squooshy (that’s a technical cooking term). The fish were taking far too long just pan-frying, so I took my wife up on her suggestion to pop them under the broiler to speed things up. That worked like a champ, and got the fish done quickly.

To make a long story short, the fish was just OK….more like a foul ball than an actual hit. The pecan coating was far too bland…I hadn’t put enough of the chile powder in to get past the pecan flavor. If I had to do it over again, I would put in at least a tablespoon of the ancho chile powder, some cayenne, and some sea salt.

On the other hand, the sweet potatoes were fabulous. They had exactly the sweet/salty/spicy kick I hoped they would have. Those were an absolute home run. Some of the rounds developed this awesome brown/buttery exterior with a soft interior, and had some of the sea salt stuck to them for a very nice salty crunch. While I could have gone for a bit more heat and salt, my wife Susan loved them just the way they were.

So there you have it…one foul tip and one out of the park. One of these days I’m going to try that fish again, only this time, I’ll make more of the pecan mixture, put in more spice, and also put into a rimmed baking sheet so that the egg from one filet doesn’t goober up the next filet.

Best Cooking Tips I

There are cooking tips, and then there are cooking tips. The best ones can literally transform your cooking. Others may not change your cooking, but maybe they take an otherwise odious task and make it easier. Herewith are just a few of my favorites, in no particular order:

1. Brown your meat in batches. For years I would read recipes that said to “brown” or sear the meat, so I would heat some oil and then dump all of my meat into the pan. Of course, the crowded meat would touch and release steam or something, and it would all turn a nasty grey color with absolutely no browning. This mystified me until I read that to really brown your meat, you need to make sure its not touching. This works like a champ. I don’t know why, it just does. It takes a bit longer, but the meat will develop a nice brown crust, and you will develop a nice fond on the bottom of your pan, just dying to be deglazed to add to the flavor. So, carefully place your meat in the pan about ½ to 1 inch apart, take your time, and brown in batches…it will make all the difference, I promise.

2. Smash the garlic clove before you try to peel it. For years I hated trying to peel garlic…inevitably I would get cloves that absolutely defied my attempts to peel them, with my fingernails digging small divots into the garlic as I attempted to remove the skin. Then I read about taking the flat of your knife and smashing the garlic, which loosens the skin and makes it easier to peel. I gave it a try and eureka! It was so much easier. Now I no longer dread having to peel even droves of garlic cloves.

3. Use coarse corn meal to dust your pizza peel. This is what makes the difference between sliding your dough effortlessly onto your hot stone, or watching helplessly as the dough sticks and your toppings slide on the hot stone, erupting in dense smoke. The first time I tried to make pizza, that is exactly what happened. I had no idea that you had to put something on your peel to make the dough slide. Today I use coarse ground corn meal like polenta, and it works awesome. Plus it gives your pizza crust a nice, crunchy, nutty flavor.

4. Fond is your friend (with two corollaries; go easy with the heat, and deglaze that pan!). When you cook something nice and easy, say a bunch of diced or sliced onions and minced garlic in a bit of olive oil, you get a nice, deep brown coating on the bottom of your pan. This coating, called a fond, contains wonderful flavors. Now, if you jack the heat up, it will scorch and turn black and taste, well, burnt, but if you keep sautéing on a nice medium heat, it will develop very nicely. Of course, unless you deglaze your pan, there it will stay, so at some point you need to add some moisture to your pan, and then scrape with the flat edge of a wooden utensil. This will dislodge all the nice bits from your pan and add them to whatever you are cooking. Needless to say, the more ingredients you carefully sauté, the more complex flavors you will build.

Those are just the first four I can think of off the top of my noggin…at a later date I’ll post more. But I’ll bet there are a lot of folks with some great tips out there. So, what are your favorite cooking tips? Send them in, either via e-mail or comment, and I’ll cut and paste them into another column.

Pandas and Dreams of Noodles

OK, I’m not ashamed to admit that I got my inspiration for two of my more successful dishes from the movie, “Kung Fu Panda.” You have to love a movie with the quote, “There is no charge for awesomeness…..or attractiveness.” Anyway, I’ve always wanted to cook some asiany (I just made that word up…maybe asianish?) noodles, and so after watching Po the Panda and his father (a goose for some reason…this never gets explained in the movie) cook and serve noodles, I really, really wanted to make some noodles. Much like why a panda might have a goose father, I can’t explain why. Just watching computer-generated noodles made me want to make some…I can’t explain it. There is a scene early in the movie when the goose father asks Po, “You had the noodle dream?” after Po lies about dreaming about noodles, when in reality he had dreamed about Kung Fu. I, however, did have the noodle dream, and I was determined to make some tasty noodles.

I took my dreams about noodles to my cookbook shelf, and started perusing my book, “365 Ways to Cook Chinese.” I wasn’t looking for a recipe per se….just some ideas for what ingredients might go well with each other. I often find it helpful to look at recipes, and just see various combinations. Hmmm…yes, yes….ginger, carrots maybe, perhaps some chili garlic sauce. I wanted my noodles to be spicy, and I wanted them to have some protein, so I knew I wanted there to be some meat in there, too. Eventually, I took my vague noodle ideas, and just went to the store.

At the market, I meandered up and down the aisles, looking for inspiration. Knowing that the asian equivalent of mirepoix is ginger, garlic, and scallions (GGS), I grabbed a nice hunk of fresh ginger, a head of garlic, and a couple bunches of scallions. Some very nice organic carrots caught my eye, and so I grabbed those, too, unsure of what I would do with them. At the meat cooler I spied some nice ground pork…yes, that would do nicely…no prepping! I headed home with my haul, and set to work.

I peeled and cut the carrots into lengths, and then shredded them in my Cuisinart. I took the ginger, peeled it, and minced it, then did the same with the garlic. I also sliced the scallions small, and well up into the green (screw that “light green parts” bit…there’s a lot of good flavor with even the dark green parts). After I had prepped, I pulled out a stock pot and got some water heating for the noodles.

I pulled out the wok my mother-in-law Dianne had bought me for Christmas, and got to work…I heated some oil, and then on a whim threw in a dash of red pepper flakes, since I really love spicy asian food. When the oil and red pepper flakes looked ready, I threw in the GGS, and sautéed that for a bit. Next came the carrots, which I cooked until I deemed them tender, and then threw in the pork. I let the pork cook until it was mostly done…maybe some pink left, but not much.

Next, I did something that I thought would be good, but wasn’t sure…I cracked 3 eggs and threw them in, and then stirred the whole mess while the egg cooked in the hot food. I then threw in some of Asian ingredients I had lying around… chili garlic sauce, sesame oil (not much…that stuff is powerful), some soy sauce, and some sherry cooking wine. I stirred that up, and things were looking good. By this time, my noodles were done, so I drained those, and then sprayed them with cold water to keep them from sticking together. I threw the noodles into the wok, and then tried cutting them with a knife to make them more manageable. My wife saw me struggling, and suggested using scissors…this was pure brilliance, and worked like a champ. Things looked a bit dry, so I threw in a bit of chicken broth, and let things heat for a while, and then served. It was, if I may so, fantastic. My wife absolutely loved it, and insisted I cook it for anyone who came to the house.

Since then, I’ve made that dish a number of times. I like to put on “Kung Fu Panda,” cook my Noodle Dream, and then watch the movie while eating dinner in the family room. I have recently been dreaming about noodles, though, and had noodles on the brain when I talked with my wife about our dinner plans for last Sunday. Susan wanted a roasted chicken and potatoes. She likes the way I do it, with fresh sage leaves shoved under the skin, surrounded by cubed red potatoes and quartered onions tossed in olive oil, and with fresh rosemary branches scattered on top, and salt and fresh ground pepper over all. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Po and those noodles. I wanted to experiment again. So once more I checked out the same little cookbook, went to the store, and came up with something similar, yet different. I used a very inexpensive cut of beef and sliced it thin (you can either use a really, really sharp knife to do this, or slightly freeze the meat). I marinated the thin slices of beef in some cornstarch, some vinegar, sherry cooking wine, and Sriracha sauce, while I sautéed the fresh asparagus. I then cooked the beef in some hot peanut oil that had been flavored with some minced garlic, ginger, and scallions. It turned out very nicely as well, although I should have used more asparagus…it cooked down farther than I thought it would, and it ended up a bit more “beefy” than I had intended, but still pretty darn good.

My beverage of choice with either dish (as it is with anything fairly spicy) is usually a cold beer, such as a Blue Moon wheat with a hunk of orange or an IPA, or if I feel like wine instead, perhaps a nice, chilled Sauvignon Blanc.

Here are the two recipes (both are quick and easy):

“Noodle Dream”

Canola or peanut oil
Pinch red pepper flakes
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1” piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
10-12 scallions, chopped
4-5 small, organic carrots, peeled and shredded
1 lb ground pork
3 eggs
1 ½ tbsp chile garlic sauce
½ tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sherry cooking wine
1/3 cup chicken broth
¾ lb fettucine or linguini

- Cook noodles in salted water, drain and rinse well in cold water; cut into 1” to 2” pieces with scissors
- Heat ¼ cup oil in a wok or large sauté pan
- Add first 4 ingredients; sauté for 3-5 minutes
- Add carrots; sauté for 4-5 minutes
- Add ground pork; break up with cooking utensil and cook until pink is nearly gone
- Add 3 eggs; stir to cook and combine
- Add next four ingredients; stir to combine
- Add cooked noodles, pour on chicken broth
- Stir well and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes or until noodles heated through

George’s Spicy Shredded Beef and Asparagus Noodles

1 ¾ lb London Broil or similar inexpensive, lean beef
2 tbsp cornstarch
1-2 tbsp Sriracha sauce
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp sherry cooking wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp canola oil
2 bundles asparagus (about a pound or so); cut into 2” pieces with a diagonal cut
Pinch red pepper flakes
3 tbsp peanut oil
2” piece fresh ginger; peeled and minced
4-5 medium to large garlic cloves; minced
3 bundles scallions (about 15 or so); chopped
2 tbsp black bean garlic sauce
2 tbsp chili garlic sauce
1-2 tbsp Sriracha sauce
1 lb fettucine or linguini

- Cook noodles in salted water, drain and rinse well in cold water; cut into 1” to 2” pieces with scissors
- Slice the beef very thinly (about 5mm; you will need a very sharp knife), and then halve the slices and cut them so that the beef is about ¼” x 2”
- Combine the cornstarch, Sriracha sauce, red wine vinegar, sherry cooking wine, and soy sauce, and toss with the beef; set aside
- Heat the canola oil in a wok or large sauté pan, and toss in the red pepper flakes
- Add the asparagus; sauté for about 5-7 minutes
- Remove the asparagus and the oil (I simply poured the contents of the wok into a wire basket set over a metal bowl).
- Add the peanut oil to the wok and heat
- Add the ginger, garlic, and scallions; sauté for 3-5 minutes
- Add the beef; sauté for about 5 minutes
- Add next 3 ingredients; sauté for 5 minutes
- Add noodles, toss, and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until noodles heated through

Note: My cooking times are really approximations, as I normally cook until it looks right to me. By all means, adjust your cooking times as necessary for how you like your food!