Short and Sweet and Free

There's a local, family-owned market that has the reputation for having the best meat around. For the sake of our story, let's just call it Marty's. Ask anyone in a 25 mile radius and they'll tell you that Marty has good meat. That's not all Marty has. He has free bananas! Yep, right by the checkout there's a big box of yellow and black, overripe, almost funky bananas... and they're free for the taking. Free is good when you're on a budget, in fact, it's great. Free bananas are like an economic stimulus package in a peel. I take a few bunches and freeze them. Just thaw, peel and use them in the recipe. We'll be visiting Marty's meat later.

By the way, if you can't get free overripe bananas, ask the grocer to save you some. They usually sell for about 25 cents a pound.

Quick and Easy Banana Cake

4 overripe bananas

1 cup sugar

1 stick butter, melted

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat over to 350 degrees. In a bowl add bananas (peel them first) and sugar. Mix really well. The banana and sugar mixture should be very mushy, almost runny. Add butter and stir to combine. Add egg and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and fold together using a rubber spatula. Do not over-mix. Scrape batter into a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Bake until until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean.

All Praise the Braise

I have to confess - I didn’t think too much about braising until the task master at the restaurant suggested that we have one or two stews on the menu. Sure, my mom made beef stew or, on occasion, goulash, but I was never really impressed. So, when I needed to come up with some ideas for the menu, I went back to my culinary school textbook and Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking for inspiration and education. The more I experimented, the better my stews became. The other chef got excited about braising, too. Soon we were making Moroccan lamb stew, boeuf bourguinon (beef braised in burgundy), braised short ribs, Yankee pot roast, chicken stew with biscuits, heck, we were even braising greens! I was ready to retire the sauté pan and dedicate myself to the Dutch oven!

So what is this miracle method that can transform tough, inexpensive cuts of meat (game included) into fork-tender, delectable morsels of goodness? Briefly, it involves slowly cooking seared meat with aromatic vegetables in some liquid. A stew is like a braise, but the meat is cut into bite-sized pieces before they’re seared.

I’ll be talking about several braised dishes and stews as we develop our menu, but first I want to introduce an indispensable piece of cookware, the Dutch oven. Dutch ovens are heavy cast-iron pots with tight-fitting lids. Usually, in contemporary kitchens, Dutch ovens are enameled. The most expensive examples are the “French ovens” made by LeCreuset where a 7.5-quart oven sells for about $250.00, hardly a pot for the budget conscious! The Lodge company sells American-made Dutch ovens starting at $39.00. I’d recommend getting a 7-quart size. Check yard sales and thrift shops and grab a couple if you find them at a good price.

Dutch ovens are great for braises and stews, no doubt, but they’re also great for chili, red sauce, breads, biscuits, and desserts. People love the Dutch oven so much, there’s even an International Dutch Oven Society! It’s the most used pot in my kitchen.

Goulash

1.5 pounds chuck cut into 1 ½ inch cubes
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, sliced (about 1 pound)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons Hungarian Paprika
2 Tablespoons flour
1 cup tomato juice
3 cups beef stock (may need an extra cup to adjust thickness of gravy)
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, optional

Heat oil in Dutch oven and brown meat thoroughly. Add onions and garlic and cook until onions become soft. Stir in paprika and cook for a minute or two. Add flour and stir to make a roux. Gradually add tomato juice and beef stock, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Cover and transfer to a 325 degree oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Skim away excess fat before serving.

Serve with buttered egg noodles and garnish with lemon zest and sour cream, if desired.

It’s a Long Way to Tupperwar-ee

In 1918 America was in the thick of World War I. In those days, mustard was a gas, prohibition was being discussed as a war measure, and a new bureaucracy, the Food Administration, was established to promote food conservation. Folks fighting on the home-front planted “War Gardens” to contribute to the war effort and to provide extra fruit and vegetables. Anti-German sentiment even led people to rename sauerkraut as “Liberty Cabbage!” (and you thought “Freedom Fries” was original) That year also saw the publication of the book, Foods That Will Win the War and How to Cook Them, or what I like to call it, The Original Guide to Cheap Eats.

One look through the aforementioned book and you’ll see that not much has changed. Some sage advice about food includes:

1. Buy it with thought
2. Cook it with care
3. Serve just enough
4. Save what will keep
5. Eat what would spoil
6. Homegrown is best

Good, solid advice for any home economist, and in the case of number six, any Grateful Dead fan. (Seriously though, the growth of community gardens and SPIN farming has taken the concept of backyard gardening to a whole new, and sometimes profitable, level.) Here you can find patriotic homemakers drying scraps of bread, rendering fat and saving drippings, even making vegetable stock from trimmings. Just knowing that Mom could feed the family and fight the Huns while making such exotic dishes as Venetian Spaghetti or the ever-popular Hindu Salad was enough to make a doughboy proud.

The homemaker was told to be so thrifty that the only things to go in the garbage were:

• Egg shells—after being used to clear coffee.


• Potato skins—after having been cooked on the potato.


• Banana skins—if there are no tan shoes to be cleaned.


• Bones—after having been boiled in soup kettle.


• Coffee grounds—if there is no garden where they can be used for fertilizer, or if they are not desired as filling for pincushions.


• Tea leaves—after every tea-serving, if they are not needed for brightening carpets or rugs when swept.


• Asparagus ends—after being cooked and drained for soup.


• Spinach, etc.—decayed leaves and dirty ends of roots.

Wow, they were tough! I knew there had to be a good use for those pesky banana skins and tea leaves other than, say, compost. Still, Foods That Will Win the War, is surprisingly ahead of its time on concepts of portion sizes, balanced diets, and menu planning. The best thing is that it’s available through gutenberg.org absolutely free. In the meantime, try some wonderfully easy chicken in white wine, a favorite at Verdun.

Coq au vin blanc (Chicken in white wine)

4 ea chicken legs and thighs
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 carrots peeled and cut into oblong slices ½ inch thick
3 celery stalks cut into oblong slices ½ in thick
1 large onion peeled, cut through root and sliced into half moon slices
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup white wine mixed with one cup water
1 pint chicken stock
1 bay leaf
6 large mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
Salt and pepper


In a Dutch oven heat oil until quite hot but not smoking. Pat chicken parts dry with a paper towel and brown on all sides, about 8 minutes total. Chicken should be honey colored. Remove chicken and reserve. Add vegetables and sauté 5 minutes. They should begin to cook but not color. Add flour and stir to make a light roux. Add wine and mix to distribute flour. Add chicken stock and bay leaf. Replace chicken and add mushrooms. Stir gently. Cover and place in a 350 degree oven for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Before serving, skim any fat from the surface. Add salt, pepper. Serve with generous amount of broth and a portion of the vegetables. Serve with boiled potatoes or steamed rice.

Brother Can You Spare a Lime?

There’s certainly nothing new about the idea of eating cheaply. My grandmother, it seems, could feed an army of kids with a cabbage, some potatoes, and a chicken. There were no “foodies” in her generation. They ate for nourishment and, occasionally, fellowship. As a society, largely dominated by a leisure class, however, we have lost sight of the fundamental principle that food is nourishment, not another manifestation of conspicuous consumption. One trade magazine stated that the proportion of the food dollar spent on food away from home rose to more than 46% in 2001, up from just 25% in 1955. (Restaurants USA, March 2001) This statistic doesn’t address the dollar amount spent on prepared or convenience foods which may add additional expense to the family food budget. The goal here is to reevaluate the way we look at food and its place within the budgetary realities facing families in uncertain economic times.

The so-called “Food-Stamp Diet” has been the subject of serious inquiry, empathy activism, and political grandstanding. Politicians, in an attempt to illustrate the plight of food stamp recipients, lived on crackers, cornmeal, and Ramen noodles for a week. They complained of feeling “lousy” and “tired”. No doubt! The author of one article observes, “If a recipient makes a single poor choice at the supermarket -- breaks a single jar in the kitchen -- she may go hungry for days.” A little melodramatic, but I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. (SF Gate, The Food Stamp Diet, June 8, 2007) Kat Kerlin does a much better job of planning than the politicians (no surprise) but still paints a very dim picture of her eating experiences. (Kerlin K., The Food Stamp Diet, Life on $5.00 a Day, Newsreview.com) These experiments, and others, have been done to illustrate the plight of the working poor with an eye toward reform. Laudable goals, but they do nothing to educate people on the mechanics of shopping, cooking, and eating within their budget.

I’m neither making an attempt here to address the problems of the working poor, nor do I hope to make any political statement. The goal is to educate people about good sound culinary principles, menu planning and execution, and maybe make my grandmother proud.

Eating on Two-Packs-a-Day.

The concept of eating cheaply, I mean really cheaply, came partly out of necessity and partly out of a sense of experimentation and adventure. After my restaurant was forced to close due to the economic climate of the times,  I decided to really get serious about our budget. As with many families, there were only so many places where we could cut our expenditures. Utilities, housing, and automobile expenses didn't leave much wiggle-room so we decided to "cut our money where our mouths are," we'd cut on food. Luckily, I have a modicum of culinary expertise and a little bit of creativity so I thought that this would be an easy exercise. The only question was how cheaply could I feed us? The discussion spilled over into conversations with some friends and I wagered that I could design a menu for two people that would cost about as much as our friend spends on her two- pack-a-day cigarette habit, ten dollars. Additionally, I looked at the USDA Food Plan Cost of Food at Home chart; their Thrifty Plan for two allocates about $78.30 per week. I opted to create a plan to spend $250.00 - $275.00 per month for two people. Incidentally, if you have a more "typical" family, the USDA Thrifty Plan for a family of four allocates $130.00 per week.

I invite you to join me as I develop recipes, shop, cook, and eat. We'll examine the economic realities of low-income eating as well as the nutritional parameters to keep in mind when planning menus.