Frugal Cooking

It sometimes seems like everything that tastes good has sugar in it.  If you’re concerned about how much sugar your family is eating but don’t like the idea of using artificial sugar substitutes, you will definitely be interested in agave.  Agave syrup is made from the same Agave plant used to make tequila.  Don’t get scared off because it doesn’t taste anything like tequila!  Juice from the agave plant is cooked to turn its carbohydrates into mostly fructose and some glucose.

Agave from Trader Joes

So why is agave better than just plain table sugar?  It has to do with the balance of sugars it contains.  Agave contains mostly fructose, which is also the main sugar in most fruits.  Fructose is much slower to raise blood sugar than sucrose (white table sugar) so doesn’t cause the sugar highs and lows associated with most sugary foods.  This is measured using the glycemic index.  Agave is very low on the glycemic index (15) compared with table sugar (70) or corn syrup (110).  Foods low on the glycemic index keep your blood sugar more even which results in less of the sugar converted to fat.  It’s a good idea, in general, to eat more foods low on the glycemic index.

Use agave in most recipes where you would use regular sugar.  It’s sweeter than sugar by 3x so use 1/3cup per 1cup of regular sugar.  You might need to reduce the amount of liquid in your recipe a bit since agave is a liquid itself.  It dissolves easier than sugar in cold drinks so is great in iced tea.  It is a great substitute for sugar in cereal and oatmeal.  Once of my favorite places to use agave is in homemade granola:

Agave granola

• 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
• 1 cup of any kind of chopped nuts
• 2T flax seeds
• 2T almond flour
• 2T shelled sunflower seeds
• 1/2t salt
• 1/3 cup agave syrup
• 1/3 cup canola or safflower oil
• 1 cup raisins or other dried fruit

Mix up the dry stuff and add the wet stuff, except for the raisins.  Bake at 300F for about 30min, stirring every 5-10min.  It should pick up a light brown color.  Make sure it doesn’t burn.  Take it out and mix in the raisins and cool completely.  I eat this with plain yogurt.  YUM!

Ok, you’re probably wondering how frugal agave really is.  Well, it definitely costs more than regular sugar.  The health benefits of avoiding regular sugar are so high that I feel the extra price is worth it.  I wouldn’t use agave to make up items for a bake sale, but when it comes to my family, they’re worth it.

I hope you try agave some time.  If you end up using agave in a favorite recipe, post a comment and share it with us!

I sometimes shop at a local Chinese market in Gardena, CA called 99 Ranch.  I go rather infrequently, usually when I want some specific items I can’t find at the regular supermarket.  There are always great deals there, like Shitake mushrooms (the Chinese call them “Black mushrooms”) for $2.99/lb or less.  These are often $12.99/lb at the regular grocery!  There are lots of great deals there but for some reason I haven’t worked this into my regular shopping routine.

Last night I was waiting to get into a restaurant in the Little Saigon area of Westminster/Garden Grove and wandered into a Vietnamese supermarket.  They had the best looking ribeye steaks I think I’ve ever seen for $2.99/lb.  I was blown away.  This must not be a very popular cut of meat among the regulars.  Even the beef short ribs (sawed across the bone for Korean galbi) were $3.49/lb.

If you’ve never been to your local Asian market, you should definitely give it a try.  It’s certainly different from most American markets but you’ll be rewarded with some great deals and special items you can’t find elsewhere.

Here are some great deals I’ve come across at my local 99 Ranch:

• The freshest ginger you’ve ever seen for dirt cheap.  I didn’t know ginger could be this good.  Great produce, in general, although I don’t know what to do with many of the items.  I usually pick up the various bok choy varieties and stir fry them.  I also pick up green onions, fresh chiles, black mushrooms, melons and sometimes jack fruit.
• Seafood is fresh and cheap.  Much of it is alive.  This is the only place to pick up crab and lobster.  I can’t remember seeing live lobsters for more than $9.99/lb- not that I buy lobster that often.  Many fish counters will also clean and deep fry a fish for you.  They usually have a big chart above the back wall showing what they can do.
• Meat in all sorts of cuts, some I don’t even know what to do with.  I’m definitely going back for some ribeyes!
• Sauces and spice mixes are cheap and better than what the American market carries.  Check out how many different types (not brands) of soy sauce there are.  My favorite is the dark superior- it’s much less salty and as dark as kitchen bouquet.  It has a much better flavor for stirfrying than Kikkoman.  Many spice packets have directions in English so try something new!
• A butane burner for $13.  I love Sichuan hot pot and you need one of these burners.  I also got three large butane canisters for $5.  I’ve made hot pot quite a few times and haven’t even gotten through one.  They also have all the ingredients for hot pot.  I’ll post about my hot pot experience some time soon.

Well, I’m sure there are many more deals there.  I’ll try to get some specifics on my next trip and post some photos too.  If you shop at your local Asian market let us know what you buy by posting a comment!

When was the last time you had a boiled steak?  Probably never- well, hopefully never.  There’s a good reason too!  It just wouldn’t taste good.  A ton of the characteristic flavor from a steak comes from the caramelization, or browning, that comes from cooking over high, dry heat.

Caramelization, that results in that luscious brown color, is the oxidation of sugars in the meat by applying high heat.  This is the same process that causes other foods to turn brown by applying heat, such as cooking table sugar into caramel.  While meat doesn’t have a lot of sugar, it has more than enough to caramelize.

Not every food benefits from caramelization, but for those that do, more is better!  So, now how do we get as much caramelization as possible.  Here are the secrets:

• Start with a dry piece of meat.  Nothing ruins the potential for caramelization like water.  Use a paper towel to make sure anything you want to brown is as dry as possible.
• Use high heat.  Whether you’re using a skillet, broiler or grill, you want the heat up high.  Preheat your pan or grill and make sure it’s hot before putting the meat in.  Then, keep the heat high enough so any moisture that comes out of the meat evaporates immediately.  If the heat is too low, moisture will collect in the pan and you’ll end up steaming.
• Use a heavy skillet.  The heavier the better.  This helps the pan keep its heat when you drop in the meat.  Cast iron or heavy stainless steel is a good choice.
• Bring the meat to room temperature.  This will keep the pan from cooling down too much when you first put in the meat.  Don’t leave it sit out all day- just let it warm up a bit.
• Balance the heat and time.  You’ll also need to adjust the heat based on the total cooking time.  Balance the heat and time so that the meat has the perfect amount of caramelization when it’s just done inside.  One easy way to do this is to start something in a pan or on the grill on high heat and then finish it in the oven (maybe 350F).
• More surface area.  The larger the surface area, the more room there is for caramelization.  Butterflying cuts like chicken breasts or pork loin creates a larger area to brown.  In the case of chicken, this also creates a flatter surface so browns more completely in a skillet.
• Add some sugar.  A little sugar added to your rub or brine will promote better caramelization.  Rubs can go on meat just before cooking, while brines typically take 1-3 days to do their job.  Heck, do both!

You can apply these techniques to anything that benefits from caramelization.  Now that you know those secrets, I’m going to leave you with two tips and one recipe.

The first tip is to NEVER discard the brown bits left in the pan after caramelizing meat.  The French call this “fond” and it’s worth more than gold.  I’ll write a future post up on this.  If you’re not sure what to do with this stuff now, add a little water while the pan is hot and scrap the bits until they dissolve.  Put it in a container and freeze it until I get around to writing that blog post- trust me on this one.  You’ll thank me later. 

The second tip is to NEVER put meat into the crock pot without first browning.  This can make the difference between something blah and something really spectacular.  It’s definitely worth the effort.

Now for the recipe.  I like putting beef chuck roast into the crock pot because it’s easy, inexpensive and is big enough to make a dish that will last us for several meals.  I pack it up in portion sizes and freeze them for lunch or a day I don’t feel like cooking.  I usually just throw in whatever I happen to have and in the mood for.  Here is a simple recipe I decided to make today:

Simple crock pot chuck roast

• 1 - 3-4lb beef chuck roast
• 1 14oz can of whole tomatoes
• 2 small onions, diced
• 2t dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper

Use the first four caramelization tips above to get that roast good and brown.  Don’t even think about skipping this step!!! While that’s going on, put the rest of the ingredients into the crock pot and set it to low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours.  Put in the very brown meat, put on the lid and go kill a few hours.  I also deglazed the skilled used to brown the roast with about a cup of water and added it to the crock pot.  When it’s done, skim off any excess fat and season with salt and pepper before serving.  The end result will have a very thin and light sauce.  You can thicken this up with some flour mixed with milk or water and then bringing to a simmer for a minute or two.

Another nice addition to this would be any root vegetables like carrots, parsnips, rutabegas, etc…  Celery and/or leeks would also be nice.  Fresh chopped parsley added in just before serving would be wonderful.  This is also a great opportunity to clean out anything getting old in the fridge.

If you have a good variation to this or decide to make this recipe, post a comment!

Most frugal cooks save steak for a special occasion- especially the expensive cuts like NY strip or rib eye.  There is a cut of beef that’s every bit as tender and flavorful as those expensive cuts but often half the price.  I’m referring to the flatiron steak.

If you’ve never heard of a flatiron steak, sometimes called top blade steak, don’t be surprised.  Up until the last few years, the flatiron cut was often ground into hamburger!  The flatiron steak is the outcome of a 2002 University of Florida research study that analyzed hundreds of different pieces of beef looking for underappreciated parts.  The researchers discovered the tender flatiron cut near the shoulder from where the chuck roast is cut.  It’s fairly lean but has a rich flavor similar to sirloin or skirt steak.

Restaurants started serving flatiron cuts first and it’s become more popular than t-bone and porterhouse steaks combined.  The increased demand for flatiron steaks is helping them find their way into supermarket meat departments everywhere.  While you’re not going to find a flatiron cheaper than chuck or hamburger, at around $5-$6/lb it’s definitely well under the high end steaks that could go for well above $10/lb at the local market.

I recently picked up a couple of flatirons at my local market for $5.99/lb.  Their very uniform shape and even thickness make them incredibly easy to grill.  I created a smokey, peppery rub and grilled them to a nice medium rare and served them with sauteed brussels sprouts.  Here’s the recipe:

Smokey, peppery flatiron steak

• 1 - 1lb flatiron steak
• 1T liquid smoke, mesquite or hickory
• 1-2T black pepper, already ground
• 1T paprika
• 1T soy sauce
• 1T olive oil

I first marinated the steak in the liquid smoke (for smokiness) and soy sauce (for saltiness).  I sometimes like to use the preground black pepper because it has a different flavor than fresh ground that sometimes just works (like for making homemade jerky).  After shaking off the excess liquid, I laid a hefty coating of pepper and paprika.  I think coated with olive oil to keep it sticking on the grill.  WIth the grill fired up to high, the flatiron spent about 5-7 min on each side until the largest end started to firm up when poked with a finger.  Let rest for a few minutes and then slice at an angle to make the slices look larger.  YUM!

Sauteed brussels sprouts

Brussels sprouts have a bad reputation for tasting icky.  Well, that’s because they do taste icky when boiled until dead as do other vegetables.  The problem is they are fairly tough and take a while to cook.  They’re too thick to sautee from raw, so I steam them first until just tender.  I then sautee them in some olive oil until they pick up a little color on the outside.  A little salt and pepper and they’re finished.  A little drizzle of truffle oil also goes incredibly well.

You could also cut them in half before sauteeing to add some extra surface area.  Another nice treatment would be to take them out of the steamer, cut in half lengthwise, toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and then roast in the oven face down on a nonstick baking sheet or some nonstick foil.

If you have any additional ideas for what to do with a flatiron steak, post a comment!

To recap from part 1, I cited three sources that helped me discover how to make the best bread ever:

• The My Favorite Pain au Levain recipe
• Jim Varasano’s NY pizza recipe page
• The NY Times article on the Sullivan Street bakery

The methods in these articles break away from the traditional bread making techniques that seem to fill nearly every cookbook published.  It wasn’t obvious to me first, but these recipes have three main things in common that really make them special.  These three common items are the keys to good bread baking.

The first secret is a very wet dough.  By wet dough, I mean a dough that has a lot more water than most recipes.  The first pain au levain recipe calls for making a “levain” starter that is very loose and then combining with more flour and water.  The other two recipes call for making a base dough with a lot more water than normal.  The wet dough allows for the gluten in the flour to be more mobile in the dough.  This mobility allows the gluten to develop more fully, which is otherwise done by kneading for a long time.  A wet dough eliminates the need for the long kneading time but still yielding an even better structure.

The second secret is time.  All three recipes require much longer than most recipes.  This extra time could be one day in the case of the Sullivan Street recipe or up to six days in the case of Jim Varasano’s pizza recipe.  This extra time or “aging” helps the flour develop a much richer and more complex flavor.  This is largely responsible for the elimination of the common “homebaked” taste that most recipes yield.  If you want to make great bread, it’s going to take at least a day.

The third secret is less yeast.  This is largely possible due to secret #2 above.  With this aging period the yeast will have more time to multiply and create CO2 so you won’t need nearly as much.  You’ll also get some naturally occurring yeast from the air which will add additional complex flavors and structure.  The resulting loaf tastes more like store-bought bread and less like yeasty homemade bread.

So now that you know the secrets, how do we use them to make the best bread ever?  There are a few tricks to apply these techniques into your breadmaking.

The first trick is to adjust rise temperature so you can age the dough as long as you like without the yeast burning out.  For aging a day or less, I’d let the dough sit at cool room temperature.  For aging longer than a day, I’d keep the dough in the refrigerator and take it out at least a couple of hours before baking.  After some experimentation, you’ll learn how much yeast you need and how long to age the dough to get the results you want.  It’s going to be different depending on whether you’re trying to make a sandwith loaf, ciabatta, french loaf, etc… I often make small batches of dough and keep them aging in the fridge so I can make a small loaf any time I feel like it.

The next trick is to knead in enough flour near the end to make a dough of the right consistency for baking.  The wet dough is great for aging but doesn’t always bake well.  Ideally, you want to very lightly knead in some flour and then let the dough rest for 20-30 min before baking.

Finally, the baking technique is the last trick.  I’d usually go hotter than your recipe calls for.  Baking at 400F yields a nicer color and crust than you’ll get at a lower temperature.  The baking technique described in the Sullivan Street recipe yields a loaf with an amazing crust.  You should definitely try it!  Sometimes I will even bake flatbreads on the grill.  You can also try baking in a pre-heated cast iron skillet.

All of these techniques require a little practice, but once you get the hang of them, you can turn any recipe into something better than any bakery.

You’re going to want to have some flour and yeast on hand for the next installment because it’s time to bake some bread!  I’ll provide a general formula recipe you can use right away to make your best loaf ever.  I’ll go into exactly what your wet dough should look like and how to get it ready for the oven.  I’ll also provide some hints for how to modify an existing recipe to use these techniques.

If you’d like to be notified when part 3 is posted, take a look at the Why Subscribe? page for a list of all the ways you can sign up for notification of new posts.

Brown Rice

I’m sure you’ve heard that brown rice is better for you than white rice.  There are many web pages that go into all the specifics of exactly why.  I don’t need to repeat that.  I’m just going to give you the basic reasons brown rice is better and then give you some suggestions for what to do with it so your family won’t freak out when you switch them over.  If some of these reasons sound oversimplified, it’s because they are- just trust me on this.

White rice starts as brown rice but then has all the “good stuff” stripped off.  Here is the result of this:

• Brown rice is higher in fiber which makes you feel full and helps keep your insides moving
• Brown rice is higher in vitamins and minerals which are (duh) good for you
• Brown rice is lower glycemic, which (very roughly) translates into “it doesn’t make you fat”

Ok, so how do you use brown rice?  First, it takes longer to cook and needs more water since it still has it’s outer bran coating.  You’ll need to cook it for about 50min with 2x as much water as rice- so for 1 cup of brown rice use 2 cups of water.  If you have a rice cooker, it will work just fine- just adjust the water and the rice cooker will automatically cook for the right time.  If you’re making a recipe that calls for uncooked white rice, you can parboil brown rice for 30 min and then add to the recipe.

To get your family used to brown rice, try making separate half batches of white and brown rice and then mix them together when cooked.  You can vary the size of the batches until they’re eating mostly or all brown rice.  Brown rice also makes great fried rice- they may not even notice the difference.  Also use brown rice in receipes by either fully cooking or parboiling as mentioned in the paragraph above.

If you come up with a good way to get your family on the brown rice bandwagon, post a comment to let us all know.