Archive for the ‘Cooking The Books’ Category

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Summertime is chili time: Cook’s Illustrated Beef Chili with Bacon and Black Beans


2010
06.23

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Posted in American, Cook's Illustrated, Cooking The Books, Home Cookin', Tex-Mex, chili, one-pot meals | No Comments »

Some will argue that winter is the best time for chili, and as someone who formerly lived in the Great White North, I would certainly agree that chili is delicious as a bone-warming wintertime meal.

That being said, chili is effin’ wicked in the summertime, too. As some Old Wives will tell ya, eating or drinking hot stuff actually cools you off. Dunno if I necessarily believe in this concept, but it sure is nice to stuff your gob with spicy deliciousness and then drink down a gallon or two of water. Pair it up with an ice-cold beer and some might even say you’ve got a little slice of heaven there, pardner.

As any good Texan knows, there are many different kinds of chili, not the least of which is “Texas style” chili—i.e. the no-bean variety that uses chuck roast rather than ground beef for the meat. Having done some time in Cincinnati, I’ve also come to appreciate the joys of a good Cincinnati chili, complete with cocoa powder and cinnamon, thin “gravy” style sauce, and fixin’s 2 (spaghetti + chili), 3 (add cheddar cheese), 4 (add diced onions or beans) or 5-ways (add diced onions and beans). And perhaps it’s the New Yorker buried deep down inside that says you’d better serve that chili on a Coney Island hot dog or it’s not worth bothering with.

As you can see, I love me some chili, in all its glorious incarnations.

The recipe I currently use, however, comes from Cook’s Illustrated and maximizes the spices combined to form this chili in the least amount of time possible, though it grows more tasty over time. I submit to you that this is actually The World’s Finest Chili recipe, in that it is infinitely customizable. Ingredients are kept basic, but fixin’s can range from a simple sprig of cilantro to the kitchen sink version of the dish, including everything from fresh tomatoes, diced avocado, sliced scallions, chopped red onion, sour cream, shredded cheese, up to extra shots of Tabasco or your preferred hot sauce. Yum!

Now, at this point in the game, I would typically type up a copy of the recipe for you to put to the test, but since it’s from Cook’s Illustrated and they absolutely deserve the credit from anyone who should find it here—not to mention the fact that I firmly believe that stealing someone’s intellectual property is the King of No-No’s and will earn you a one-way ticket to Bad Ju-Ju City—I must regretfully omit the specifics on this page.

However, if you want to check out the original recipe, which goes under the name “Beef Chili with Bacon and Black Beans,” I highly encourage you to sign up for a free trial membership at the Cook’s Illustrated website to get the straight dope right from the horse’s mouth. It’s a 14-day free trial of all the recipes on the site, and it’s really worth it if you like to cook. I realize this sounds like some kind of sneaky way for me to get you sign you up for the Cook’s Illustrated website with a concealed profit from said sign-up cha-ching!-ing somewhere for me, but I can assure you that this benefits me in no way. Heck, they don’t even have an affiliate program, which sucks cus, frankly, I would LOVE to be an affiliate of theirs!

Anyway, my point is that I admire the way they are all about maximizing the awesome factor of classic American recipes by making them tasty, foolproof, standardized and far less time consuming than their dusty, crusty ancestors. To be fair, yes, I am all about Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen, where their recipes are tasted, tested and released into the wild, but there’s absolutely nothing in it for me.

Unless, of course, you count delicious chili like this:

Cook's Illustrated Beef Chili with Bacon and Black Beans recipe burbling on the stove

Seriously, make some tonight and tell me you didn’t fall in love!

Oh, and here are the ingredients, in case you’d like to play detective on your own to figure out the golden copyrighted ratio:

  • bacon
  • onions (preferably red, but that’s my opinion, not theirs)
  • red bell pepper
  • garlic
  • chili powder
  • ground cumin
  • ground coriander
  • red pepper flakes
  • dried oregano
  • cayenne pepper
  • ground beef
  • black beans
  • diced tomatoes
  • tomato puree
  • salt

It may not quite be elementary, Watson, but it’s darn close.

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My Texas Life free H-E-B magazine’s outlandish letters


2010
05.30

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Posted in Across Austin, Frugal Fun, Home Cookin', My Texas Life magazine | No Comments »

Friends, I love me some free magazines. Especially the type that come with coupons, to indulge my Shoestring lifestyle. And I’ve got nothing against H-E-B; they have great low prices, and lots of excellent items like my favorite Butter Chicken sauce (not to mention delicious Central Market wares). But I’ve gotta say, I’m not sure what’s going on in their My Texas Life letters section.

Seriously, I haven’t seen such indulgent, over-the-top fantasies since Penthouse Forum.

Exhibit A:

From the May 2010 issue of H-E-B's My Texas Life magazine

The text of the top letter reads as follows:

Dear My H-E-B Texas Life Staff,

My boyfriend and I have talked about an engagement and marriage for over a year. However, a ring hadn’t been in our budget, much less a wedding! Thanks to the in-store savings and the coupons in your magazine, I am finally engaged and have a ring to show off! The night that my fiancé proposed, I prepared the Moroccan Roasted Chicken Dinner. The evening turned out perfect! Thank you for everything! Especially the super savings and delicious recipes!

Brittni, Cherokee

While I, too, appreciate the magazine’s savings and delicious recipes, I question the idea that shopping at H-E-B and reading this magazine magically created enough money for a wedding ring. How much did this wedding ring cost, 40 bucks? I mean, there are some good coupons in there, but it’s not like they are giving away groceries for free! A dollar off here and a two-for-one there doesn’t really add up to that much cash, and if the coupons are for things you wouldn’t normally buy, it’s not really saving you money, is it?

But maybe I’m missing the point, which is actually in the left-hand sidebar on the same page:

Aha! Brittni received a $25 H-E-B gift card for writing in, plus an unspecified “small gift”! Maybe the gift was an H-E-B wedding ring?

I’m gonna have to write a letter to My Texas Life myself and see what crops up!

So, Brittni, if you’re out there, please share your secrets with the rest of the class. And if you’re imaginary (as I suspect you may be), well… at least there’s still plenty of dollar-off coupons for H-E-B brand products in the mag to keep my hopes of one day affording the honeymoon my husband and I never had alive.

P.S. The letter from “George and Alice” is pretty fantastical too. Her husband learned how to cook from reading the H-E-B magazine?! I suspect he just never put forth the effort in the first place, to avoid a domestic chore, but maybe I’m just being cynical.

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Cooking apps: How To Cook Everything On The Go


2010
05.02

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Posted in American, Cooking The Books, Home Cookin', iPod/iPhone apps | 1 Comment »

Here at Shoestring Austin, we like to blend deliciousness with cheapness. In our quest for delicious, cheap food, we have naturally downloaded many a free cooking app from the iTunes store. Unfortunately, as with many things in life, when it comes to free cooking apps, you get what you pay for.

Enter Mark Bittman, aka “The Minimalist.” New York Times food writer Bittman is all about cooking inexpensive, minimally time-consuming recipes with good, fresh ingredients, and has written several excellent books on the subject, including the brashly titled How To Cook Everything. And now, there’s an app for that: How To Cook Everything On The Go. (Click on the link or image below to download from the iTunes store for the iPhone or iPod Touch.)

For just a buck ninety-nine ($1.99), Bitty will literally teach you how to cook everything, without having to connect to the Internet. It’s a great self-contained app that offers easy access to a wide variety of recipes, kitchen basics, ideas for quick dinners and even lists compiled by Bittman like “Top 102 Essential Recipes,” “10 Soups to Eat Hot or Cold,” “16 Sauces for Any Simply Cooked Tofu,” and “15 Meat Dishes That Are As Good or Better The Next Day.”

With Bittman’s cooking methodology, it’s all about getting good, fresh ingredients and not screwing them up. His recipes are simple (or minimalist) mainly because he will teach you how to mix and match recipe ideas with whatever you’ve got in your cupboards, how to keep the right ingredients stocked at all times, and how to quickly and easily prepare straightforward meals. Most recipes offer a “variations” tab that will show you how to change up your old favorites, to keep things interesting, and they’re often cross-linked to accompanying dishes that pair well.

Truly, a great app to invest in, and at $1.99 it’s well worth the price.

One of the recipes I’ve recently tried from the app is the Radish Salsa, which offers a unique take on an old favorite. While Bittman doesn’t include tomatoes in his recipe, Celebrity Intern saw yellow tomatoes on sale at the grocery store and couldn’t pass up a deal, so we tossed in a few for the following colorful and tasty results:

Photo (and yellow tomatoes) by Celebrity Intern

Looks great, tastes great, and can be served up solo or stuffed into the taco of your choice. Yum!

Ingredients for this salsa include: chopped radishes, English cucumber (the long skinny kind), red onion, scallions, garlic, jalapeños or serrano chiles, lemon juice cilantro and salt and pepper. Toss in a few tomatoes (red or yellow) if you like, or download the app to check out Bittman’s unique Thai-inspired variations on the theme.

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Simple pleasures: Caesar salad


2010
02.07

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Posted in By Cuisine, Cooking The Books, Food Type, Home Cookin', How to Cook Everything: The Basics, Italian/pizza, soups & salads | No Comments »

Y’know, I had never been much of a salad freak, but when my husband started making me delicious—and easy!—Caesar salads with just a rotisserie chicken, some Romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, and store-bought extra-garlicky Caesar dressing, I was hooked. I even wrote about this simple “recipe” in my previous blog. Since we’ve moved to Austin, the Caesar salad is still in regular rotation for dinners at our place, but without the dressing we’d been loving in Montreal, we’ve been sampling various American brands in a quest to re-create the deliciousness of our Canadian favorite, Renée’s Mighty Caesar.

Sad to say, so far we just haven’t found anything that measures up to that pure garlic kick we love. (Heck, I even emailed Renée’s to ask where I could find ‘em here in Austin, but so far their customer service department hasn’t bothered to reply.) We’ve tried Ken’s Creamy Caesar, Marzetti’s Supreme Caesar (they make a mean Ultimate Blue Cheese dressing that we use as a dip), Marie’s Creamy Caesar, and Safeway Select Fresh Garlic Caesar. The closest we’ve to the Holy Grail of the Renée’s Caesar is a mixture of Ken’s and Safeway’s Caesar dressings, and even that’s only okay.

What we really need to do, though, is whip up some homemade Caesar dressing, complete with anchovies!

Here’s the recipe I’ve got from Mark Bittman (the New York Times’ Minimalist) that I want to put to use, one of these days:

This recipe is from Bittman’s How to Cook Everything: The Basics, which is an excellent book (and now an iPhone app!) for anybody on a shoestring budget looking to get away from Kraft Dinner and ramen noodles on a nightly basis. It’ll teach you everything you need to know, and serves as a great Bible in the kitchen, the way some people look to Betty Crocker cookbooks or Julia Child. Since Bittman’s a lifelong minimalist, he’ll teach you how to produce big flavor from just a few good ingredients, and how to get the most of out of even the barest of kitchens (the dude actually cooks brilliant meals in a classically cramped NYC apartment with one of those miniature stoves and refrigerators, so he knows whereof he speaks).

In the meantime, I would suggest spicing up the Caesar with a turkey breast or even pork cutlets, pan-fried to perfection, if you think you’d be into it but don’t have the rotisserie chicken on hand. It’s a surprisingly versatile salad, and impresses people when you present it with real, hand-grated Parmesan cheese. I think that’s probably the key to looking good in the kitchen, in general, as a friend of mine once confided that her husband swore she was a brilliant chef solely based on her ability to buy the “good” Parmesan and grate it herself.

Rock on over London, rock on Chicago. Caesar salad in the hizzouse!

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Cooking the Books: The Frugal Gourmet Cooks With Wine


2009
12.27

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Posted in By Cuisine, Cooking The Books, Home Cookin', Spanish, The Frugal Gourmet Cooks With Wine, wine | No Comments »

I’m not entirely sure where I picked up my copy of The Frugal Gourmet Cooks With Wine, but it was probably in a bin of unwanted items that had been donated to the Concordia Co-op Bookstore, before I moved to Austin. (Check the local Half-Price Bookstores here in Austin, if you’re looking to score, as they might just have a copy.) At any rate, this pocket-sized cookbook contains 425 pages of recipes made with wine, as well as information on how to choose wines to drink or stock your cellar, and it was totally worth the 50 cents I paid for it (according to the pencil marking on the inside front cover).

I grew up watching Jeff Smith’s Frugal Gourmet program on PBS, so I knew from previous exposure that the book was going to be a good bet, but I never realized how truly awesome some of the dishes really are until I actually started cooking them at home. After all, anything can look great on TV when a professional is doing the cooking, but how will those same dishes stand up to the test in a not-so-tricked-out home kitchen?

As a home cook, I’m a big fan of recipes that involve minimal specialty ingredients, as well as anything that will have multiple servings I can freeze and reheat in the future. The recipe below for Chicken and Chickpea Stew from the “Spain” section fulfills both of my requirements, and as an added bonus it can be made on a weeknight if you make some of our quick ‘n’ easy substitutions. Check this out:

Shoestring Austin’s Simplified Chicken & Chickpea Stew
(based on a recipe from The Frugal Gourmet Cooks With Wine)

Ingredients:

  • 2 cans chickpeas, drained
  • 3 T. olive oil
  • all the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken, torn up into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 slice whole wheat bread
  • 1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced
  • 2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
  • 1 slice bacon
  • 2 c. chicken stock (preferably from a can or carton, rather than made from the bouillion cubes)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
  • 1/2 c. dry sherry

Directions:

  1. Heat a large frying pan and add the oil. Brown the chicken pieces on all sides and remove from the pan.
  2. Fry the slice of bread in the remaining oil. Remove it and set aside.
  3. In the same pan, sauté the onion, tomatoes and bacon. Cook until the onions are clear.
  4. Place these veggies into a big (6-quart) lidded Dutch oven, and add the chicken pieces and chickpeas.
  5. Deglaze the frying pan with a bit of the broth (i.e. pour in some of the broth and scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pan). Add the pan drippings and all the stock to the pot, along with bay leaf, salt and pepper.
  6. Cover and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the chicken is tender. (The original recipe required about 45 minutes, since you only browned the otherwise uncooked chicken, but since you’ve just browned pre-cooked chicken, this shouldn’t take as long; probably 10-15 minutes).
  7. In the meantime, crush the garlic into a small bowl. Break up the fried bread and add to the garlic, along with the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs. Mash the mixture with 1 T. of the sherry, creating a garlic/egg yolk paste.
  8. Chop the white of the eggs.
  9. When the chicken has been simmering for 10-15 minutes, add the garlic paste, chopped egg whites, and remaining sherry.
  10. Stir the pot carefully and simmer for another 10 minutes and you’re done!

The Frugal Gourmet recommends enjoying this dish with a light red Rioja wine on the side, which sounds great to me. I’ve made this dish the “long” way, with a full chicken, and even that doesn’t really take too much prep time. You just have to keep an eye on the simmering pot and stir it every once in a while, since it’s on the stove for 45 minutes. If you’ve got the extra time, I’d definitely give it a try that way to see how you like it, but our weeknight version with the pre-cooked chicken will shave off quite a bit of cooking time, getting your meal on the table faster, and will still give you a lot of the original recipe’s great chicken stew flavors. This is a great wintertime dish to warm you up, and if you like you can serve it over rice as well. Enjoy!