What’s In a Name?

The California scorpionfish.  Sounds quite menacing.. and it should be.  Related to the infamous stonefish, which is deadly to humans, living off our sun drenched coast is its cousin that does indeed pack a doozy of a sting.  I have seen people put their hands down on these well concealed fish, only to scream, or whatever you call it when you exhale massive amounts of bubbles underwater, as the venom surges through their body.  While our scorpionfish is not as worrisome, it is not something I care to experience.  So yesterday while out fishing on the Monte Carlo, I hauled in a few keepers that made their way into my burlap sack.  I have heard wondrful things about the flavor of these fish and was excited to give them a try.

On the boat I had the deckhand filet them for me, except for one that I did myself when I returned home, so the spines were not an issue as I jostled around the kitchen tonight.  Supplies were getting a bit thin on the $5 per day diet, and luckily I had a few things that made this meal just downright lip smacking.  The fish… I kept simple… just some salt and pepper.  But I had a can of white beans and some bacon, so I sort of came up with an idea to serve the fish simply over a bed of white beans, bacon and onion… all things I had in the pantry and fridge.

I fried up the bacon in a cast iron pan and when crispy, put it into another skillet with some of the grease and added half of a diced red onion and sautéed till the onion was turning golden.  I tossed in some garlic and a can of white beans and let that all suck up the bacon grease love!  With the rest of the bacon fat and a bit of butter, I fried the scorpionfish filets till they took on a golden color, which was only a moment in the pan.  The beans needed some tang so I squeezed some lemon juice in and wow.  The fish just popped.

There is something special about catching your own food.  I used to hunt with my father as a boy, and when I lived in Alaska I ate more things from the wild than I did from a feed lot, but as of late I have drifted away from that side of me.  So I had some great satisfaction eating a tasty meal that is as fresh as it gets and caught with my own effort.  Many people shy away from hunting.  Maybe it is because they cant pull ther trigger when bambi is giving them the sad eyes, but a fish is different.  It has a cold stare that never seems to make a personal connection with those people who yank them from the water.  But being a fish biologist I know they are some of the most amazing animals on the planet and they do indeed have a personality that is unique to each and every fish… just in their own cold blooded special way.  So tonight as I reveled in my primeval manliness at being able to provide for my family, food-wise, I paid homage to the last wild food that is commonly plied for our great planet.  Fish!  Thank you ocean!

p.s. as i was baiting up my hook i did kick a burlap sack and sunk two scorpionfish spines into my big toe.  I stood there , semi-freaking out about the explosive pain that was sure to come… sure to come… sure to come.  What?  Nothing but some blood dripping onto the deck.  Well I guess when these guys die they lose their ability to inject poison…or… I am just super tough.  Probably not.

Pounding the Pistou

So the eating on the cheap plan is still in full effect.  Actually I spent far less on food last week than I thought I would.  But I spent the extra cash on an evening out sipping Dales Pale Ale… so lets just say I am still on track.  After last weeks never ending curry, I decided to try something that was a bit more unique.  I have a wall of cookbooks, most of which are full of tasty pictures of food and shots of quaint European fishing villages, yet I have only scraped the surface of their intended content.  So I thought that this was the time to do them justice and give some random recipes a try.  So, what happened to match the ingredients I had on hand was a Zucchini Fritter with Pistou.  Pistou, meaning to pound in provincial french, is a beautiful sauce made from garlic, basil, parmesan and olive oil.  So after a long day, I realized the Pistou was fast, prepping the fritters was a bit more lengthy.  Some grated zucchini, that had to be heavily salted and left to sit for an hour to extract the moisture, was not what I noticed when I read the recipe the first time.  Anyway I cheated.  After waiting about 45 min my stomach got the best of me and I ended up squeezing the misture out like I was strangleing a small animal.  Combine it with some flour, egg yolk and water and I had a nice dough.  After folding in some beaten egg whites, the fritters went into a hot pan with oil.  This was the quick part.  They took just two seconds and they were crispy and golden.  Pair them with some yummy fresh beans steamed in the zucchini juice and spoon over some of the pistou, and dinner was ready.

Hummnn, tasty? yes.  loaded with deep fried fatty, oily goodness… for sure.  Good thing I had the beans or I think it would of been too much.  But I am still within my budget.  There are two fritters left but I do believe they will be a perfect mid day snack to get me through the afternoon.  So I better pick something for tomorrow that has a little less oil in it.

Lentil Potato Curry Crazy

Curry.  Maybe it is my English roots, or the fact that I have a sick addiction to Indian food… ohhh how I love a lamb vindaloo, but tonight was a big batch of vegetarian curry.  Many people have the wrong idea about Indian food.  Its going to be too spicy.  It is going to be fatty and unhealthy.  Sure I have ventured into some “authentic” Indian eateries and walked out pissed off about a bunch of mushy crap.  But good Indian food, and I mean from people that know what they are doing, can make some fantastic dishes with not 10, not 5, but 0ne or two spices and some great healthy and fresh ingredients.  Indian food to me is an art in blending spices and layering of flavors.  My father, now retired, has all the time in the world to let a good Indian curry simmer and develop.  For myself, time is a little harder to come by which is why I have not experimented too much with this line of food.  But on occasion, I will set into the kitchen with a goal of spice and aroma that leads me to some sort of curry dish.

So in the theme of the month, eating on the cheap, curry is a super way to add tons of flavor to legumes and starches, without breaking the bank.  I poked around at some recipes and stuck my head in the pantry and found some things that worked quite well if I do say so myself.

I sort of went at tonight’s dinner with a blank notepad and a bunch of stuff I had on hand.

1 cup green lentils

4 potatoes (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)

3 tablespoons of curry powder

2 dried habanero peppers (from last years crop)

32 oz of diced tomatoes

one red onion

4 cloves of garlic

3 cups water

salt and pepper

-Bring the water to a boil in a big stew pot and put in the lentils with one tablespoon of the curry powder to cook for 15-20 min.  Add the potatoes and tomatoes to the lentils and simmer.  Heat up a pan and add oil and the sliced onion and saute till soft, then add the minced garlic till aromatic (maybe a minute or two more).  Add this to the big pot and add the rest of the curry powder and some more water to cover the potatoes.  Crush the dried habanero’s and stir in.  Let simmer as low as possible for 45 minutes.  Taste and season.  Done.  Wait, what was I saying about simmering all day!  I had some long grain rice on hand, so I served the curry over the top.

The whole house smelt amazing.  Curry will do that, and of course I made myself a extra large helping that caught me off guard, but the food region of my brain was doing all the talking.  Lentils, potatoes and rice are very filling.  So I have a good amount left, which will come with me for lunch that I will serve over the veggi cutlet I have left over from two nights ago ( I love leftovers.  Sometimes they are even better than when you make it fresh!)  I do believe that this whole curry set me back about $3.50.  This was dinner for two and at least another 4 or 5 servings.  Man, at this rate I can retire in a few months.  Come to think of it.  How come every high school does not offer a “eating at college on a budget” cooking class?  I mean when it come to push comes to shove (please read: when it comes to food or booze), we all know what a college student chooses… freshman and sophomore year anyway.  Maybe I am onto something.

Day One: Veggi Cutlets

So here we go.  30 days, $5 a day, what will come of it?  Will I be sick of beans or will I find new, and inexpensive ways to feed the family while putting money aside for all of the other things a new home owner needs to deal with (and there are many).  So after a super weekend of helping friends join in heavenly matrimony up in Sonoma, sipping great wines and apparently gorging myself on lamb, wild salmon and fresh from the farm produce, I sat down last night to write out a list for the week.  As far as I can tell, I have always been that guy who wanders the aisles looking to see what strikes my fancy or what beautifully marbled piece of meat there is to work with.  So entering the store with a list of items that I had to stick with was something of an oddity.  But I did it.  I did not find everything I needed, but then again, the week is young.  I spent a total of $44, but this included enough lentils to get me through 30 days as well as some spices and oil that I was in need of, that will last far longer than my 30 day experiment.  So right off the bat I realized that as much as a solid spice rack is fun to play with, it is a necessity for the manipulations of the legumes I hope to create.

Tonight turned out well.  Veggie cutlets were the springboard into the cheap eats program (if anyone has a better name for this next 30 days… please offer it up).  I pieced together a vegan recipe, that turned out to be super filling, very healthy, tasty and only cost $2.50 for dinner for two and lunch for us both tomorrow.  Yes $2.50!  Where the hell have I been dropping my hard earned paycheck up to this point?  So I amassed the following items on my counter and got to work.

2 cups garbanzo beans

1 cup of oatmeal (spin through the food processor till a bread crumb consistency)

4 tbs olive oil

1/2 cup vegetable broth

4 tbs soy sauce

6 garlic cloves (minced)

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried sage

I mashed the garbonzo beans and oil in a bowl with a spoon,  combined the oatmeal, thyme, paprika and sage in a second bowl and mixed.  I added the beans and the dried ingredients together and blended then added the veggi broth and soy sauce and worked it in together. I let the moisture get absorbed into the mix for a little while and then made 6 patties.  In an oiled pan I fried them for 12 minutes a side till they were golden brown and aromatic.  I placed them with a simple spinach, onion and vinaigrette salad on a plate and gave them a try.

Yummy.  But they could of used an aoli or yoghurt sauce on top to give it an added dimension and a bit more moisture.  But for a first attempt they were pretty damn good and way below my budget.  So these will be kept in the rotation for sure, and with some kind of sauce, these will be a real hit.

Five Bucks

Five bucks, dollars, clams, whatever…money is money.  I absorb enough news and current events to know that we are not in the roaring 40’s, or reveling in the 80’s boom right now.  I feel that the first thing to get slashed when things get tight is ones food budget.  With the endless aisles of cheap, overly processed crap that swamp the center hole of our supermarkets, many people turn to a cheap, salt and fat laden diet that will eventually give you a heart attack as well as enough natural insulation to brave the arctic sea with a narwhale…in your undies.

Well I have decided to challenge myself, and by default my lovely wife, with the five dollar-a-day food challenge.  For 30 days I will allow myself $35 dollars a week to feed myself.  For you math wizards out there its $70 for the two of us.  Will I end up hating beans?  Will the thought of another tofu dish make me want to puke?  We shall see.  Our food budget is always large and in charge, and is a place where we can either save or splurge (our default is “splurge”)

I am a firm believer that good, tasty, healthy food is not something that has to break the bank.  I mean I can pretty much guarantee that there will not be sushi nights of yellowtail belly, or fine French cheeses crossing these lips for the next 30 days.  But what I am hoping for is some creativity and ingenuity in the kitchen, and the market, for things that are going to fill the belly, but not drain the bank.

While I have a few days before I kick off the challenge ( I am going to Sonoma for a food and wine filled weekend… hey might as well go out with a bang…right?), there are some things I will have to come to grips with.  One, wine and beer are out.  I did think bout the “supermodel diet”, as my wife and sister call it, of just drinking till the hunger goes away.  While that may last a short while, the thought of a 30 day boozefest seems a wee bit counter productive.  Two, meat will be a treat.  I have cut down on the animal as of late, and found some really tasty veggie dishes, but meat is not what the global south sustains itself upon.  It is out (mostly).  Three, this guy is buying some legumes in bulk and going to sort out some new spice combinations… in a hurry.

Beyond that I have a few recipes that will get me through a week or two, but what then??  That is where some learning on my behalf will occur.  I like to try new things and I am always happy to get a new spice into the mix, but 30 days is 30 days. That is 90 meals for a total of $150.  That comes to a solid $1.67 per meal.  Can it be done.  I say YES!  But stay tuned and see what happens.  I may wither away and slip between the floor boards never to be heard of again.  I may have a massive freak out and find myself laying in the refrigerated meat section of the nearest Ralphs going for the osmotic effect, or I may find wonderful and creative dishes that will give me boundless energy and prove that America can eat well, and on the cheap.

I hope for the latter.