A food/cooking/eating thread

[erika]

If anyone has any super-duper-tight-budget recipes and can post them that would be awesome. I'm feeling a little poor and am having trouble being creative with super cheap meals.

I already eat a lot of chili and beans and rice and things like that.

[emma]

Are you a vegetarian? I like doing a roast chicken 'cause even if a chicken's not super-extra cheap in the short term, there are always leftovers so you can make a sandwich or a salad or what have you later on. It's the meal that keeps on...meal-ing...for a few days. Plus it is the easiest thing ever to make.

[erika]

I love roast chicken! They're on sale this week

Sometimes I stuff lemons up their butts and roast 'em.

[Martin]

I just cooked up a big pot of chili using one kilo of wild boar as the main meaty ingredient. Stayed on the stove for a good three hours until the meat fell apart. Lovely stuff.

[yesno]

baked ziti can be cheap, lasts all week, is better when reheated.

[Gilly]

If anyone has any super-duper-tight-budget recipes and can post them that would be awesome. I'm feeling a little poor and am having trouble being creative with super cheap meals.

I already eat a lot of chili and beans and rice and things like that.

I made a group on Facebook along the same lines- trying to get people to post cheap and easy recipes called amateur cooks on a budget: it bombed big time!

[Sarah]

Stir-fries are pretty cheap, as long as your larder is already stocked with the basic condiments, that is (sesame oil is pretty dear). 

[Gilly]

How long do oils and spices last? I have a few essential cooking oils that I use a ton for fried rice and stir fry but I kind of want to stock a full cupboard so I always have the recipes. I think it might be wasteful though because I see some reports that oils last up to a year and some say only a couple months... and I have no clue about spices and herbs.

[Bryan]

Spices and herbs will gradually lose their potency. It's best to buy them in amounts that you can use in a few months. Much older than that and they'll lose their flavour. Whole spices last longer. You can grind them yourself with a mortar and pestle, or coffee grinder. (It sounds like a pain in the ass, but is actually very easy.)

Most cooking oils will last quite a while. If you've got less refined, organic oils, it's good to keep them in the fridge. The less refined oils can go rancid at room temperature. Most standard cooking oils that you'd buy at the supermarket will last a good long time, though.

[Fido]

Well, where I live in Manhattan, we don't have any of yer fancy yuppie ingredients, no sirree.  Last night I shot a coyote on 11th Avenue and fried it up back in my apartment.  Whooee, that's what I call some good eatin.

[Gilly]

Most standard cooking oils that you'd buy at the supermarket will last a good long time, though.

What's a good long time?

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Stir-fries are great.  I also recommend brining roast poultry, and I like to stuff them with oranges and rosemary.

A coupla other tips:

I save all of my vegetable waste (broccoli stalks, onion skins, carrot tops, wilty celery, etc etc) and make them into vegetable stock, and use it for all of my cooking (you have to add a potato or two and some garlic cloves, and salt, but it's pretty awesome).

This isn't such a huge bargain, but I made homemade cherry limeade tonight and it's really really good - I muddled 7 cherries, made a cup of simple syrup (1/2 sugar, 1/2 water, boiled), and juiced a dozen limes, filled the rest of the pitcher with water.  I also sometimes home-brew iced tea this way, using mangos, raspberries, plums, peaches, kiwi, or strawberries for flavoring.

Homemade salad dressing: I like to infuse olive oil with garlic and rosemary, and balsamic vinegar with fruit - I've tried peaches, plums, oranges, various berries.  It's also pretty easy to make salad dressing out of lemon juice, olive oil, salt, & pepper.

[Phantom Hugger]

This sunday I will be making my pop beer butt chicken. It will be tasty. I'm debating if I should brine the chicken. I'm leaning towards yes. Maybe a citrus brine would be nice.

This photo could have been taken at my house last weekend. I support this type of animal eating.

I'm not sure what your brine means but I usually just dice up some dried chipolte peppers and throw them into the can and keep marinating with butter (and the remnants of the pepper slicing) for a good two hours on steady coals.

Also: reading these posts with a slight lateral lisp is fun.

[Sarah]

Jasong, that cherry limeade sounds absolutely delicious.

Phantom Hugger, brining a chicken involves dumping it in a solution of water, salt, sugar, and (sometimes) other seasonings and letting it sit for a while.  It makes the meat juicier and tastier.  You can find all kinds of guidance online.

Gilly, oil will last around year, longer if refrigerated.  As for spices, sure they lose flavor the longer they sit around, but I have some five-spice powder that's about thirty-five years old that still has some life in it after all this time.  Herbs, I find, are less forgiving, but even they will be okay for a year.  Not as good as they could be, but usable.  In general, the best thing you can do is use your nose and chuck what doesn't seem up to par.

My basic vinaigrette:

1 garlic clove, minced
shallot, onion (red is best), or scallions, minced (anywhere up to a tablespoon)
half a teaspoon of dijon mustard
salt
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
any minced herbs you want to throw in

Stir together till salt is dissolved then beat in up to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.  Add pepper to taste.

The measurements might not be quite right, since I just estimate and then correct using my nose, but this is approximately okay.

[Bryan]

Most standard cooking oils that you'd buy at the supermarket will last a good long time, though.

What's a good long time?

I was being vague because I don't really know. I think Sarah's probably right that a year is a good ballpark. I've only ever had one bottle of canola oil go rancid - and that was because we lost track of it, and it sat on our shelf for a long long time. I'd say that if you cook on a regular basis you probably don't need to worry about your oil.