Cheap Ass Cooking

At the LA fair last year, I had a chicken sandwich. Instead of bread they used jelly doughnuts, and it came with a side of honey.

It was disgusting.

I made okonomiyaki the other day.

1213572069547046_file.jpg


Recipe here.
 
That video of JimmyMac making Mac and cheese made me crave it. I made it and am eating it right now :cool:.
 
[quote name='ighosty']That video of JimmyMac making Mac and cheese made me crave it. I made it and am eating it right now :cool:.[/QUOTE]

Yea me too. I thought it was really good, anything else you got thats easy to make jimmie?
 
[quote name='Dee_Lucky']Yea me too. I thought it was really good, anything else you got thats easy to make jimmie?[/quote]
Agree, the clip was concise and easy to follow. I didn't make it (yet) but I'm sure it's good. Clips like this are great.
 
[quote name='kainzero']At the LA fair last year, I had a chicken sandwich. Instead of bread they used jelly doughnuts, and it came with a side of honey.

It was disgusting.

I made okonomiyaki the other day.

1213572069547046_file.jpg


Recipe here.[/quote]


looks good!
 
I was going to take video of tonights dish but the camera battery was dead and I had already started getting pans hot and what not, so you'll have to deal with snap shots and descriptions.

Total time of this, start to eating: 22 mins.
Cost: $8.63 for 2 with left overs



The start:

Couscous, A can of whole peeled tomato, 2 zuchinni, 2 yellow squash, two pork chops.

Keep the pork simple. You don't need sauces and marinades with a good cut of pork like this. Oil (not olive oil, olive oil burns at temps over 425) the pork, little salt and pepper and that's in. Make sure you salt and pepper both sides, put it in a bowl or a plastic container like I got in the pic up there and really mix it all around. Get it covered.

This is where I would have liked the video camera, to some of us cutting the squashes in half and cutting half circles isn't hard, for others it is. But you want to cut both ends off the 4 squashes total and then cut them in half circles, big enough so they won't fall apart and then make sure you cut them all the same size so they cook evenly: The yellow ones are on the bottom but this is all of them cut up:


Salt them all in the bowl and you'll see the water starts purging out of them. I tried to get it so you could see the water bead up on it as the salt pulls the liquid from the cells.


This top pan is where we put some olive oil and a little bit of smashed up garlic, it's all going to be mixed in with the toms and the squashes so it doesn't matter what it looks like: This is like 4 cloves from that head in the first pic. The pan at the bottom of the pic below is the water, butter and seasoning packet for the couscous, pretty much ready to go, just need to boil that and add the couscous and cook for 5 mins. I'm not going to show you that again because the box has directions that's impossible to fuck up.


I drained the can of toms and reserved the liquid, in case it started to look dry but I think we'll be ok. I ended up not needing it so I put it in a baggie and dropped it in the freezer. I'll use it when I make a sauce or some shit some day.



So you had the oil, had the garlic, added in the toms, got it all hot and then put in the zucchinis and yellow squash. You're gonna cover this and let it get hot and steam in it's own water.


But before you lid it add some dried herbs or red pepper flakes, I added both. Keep in mind these are going to rehydrate and really add a bunch of flavor so you're looking at NO MORE than half a tablespoon or else it's going to ruin the freshness of the veggies.


Lid it up


Time for the chops. The first side always cooks slightly longer than the 2nd. And only flip once. So here, I got this pan on mid-high heat seared the pork for 4 mins and then flipped. Nice color.


So now that we flipped the chops we're going to take the lid off the "ratatouille" and turn the heat down to warm. This will keep it at temp and let it dry out a bit. It's only going to be like this for 6 or so minutes more.


So 3 mins on the second side, I had some Madeira so I shot a dash of that in and added in a bit of butter.Also had some thyme I made use of and dropped that in before it went in the oven. If you don't have wine of any time, just shoot in the butter and slide the pan into the oven. Have it set to 350-ish or so, you want to do this another 3 mins in the oven just to give it some all over heat and not have to flip it and keep moving it around. Just flip it that first time, put in the butter and slide the chop up the side of the pan, if you can. This will help crisp up that fat along the outer edge and give some color on the sides.


The couscous can be made when you first sear the pork, it takes 5 mins to boil the water, 5 mins to cook and 5 mins to sit covered. Fluff it up with a fork, make your base, spoon the squash tom stew into the center and balance the chop up on top of it all.


Seared pork chops with rattatouille and couscous.


Done.
 
[quote name='JimmieMac']
Done.[/QUOTE]
:rofl:
ahahaha

The next time you have to do a video F Word style.

Peppa.

Blitz.

Vanilla.

Beef.

Done.

[MEDIA]http://youtube.com/watch?v=SHQNV_5wozg[/MEDIA]
 
I had beef pot pie last night, was really good. Used campbell's chunky beef soup for the pie filling and the premade crusts you can buy at stores.
 
[quote name='JimmieMac']Alright, I can't keep my mouth shut any more[/quote]Like you were before?

[quote name='JimmieMac']
[/quote]I had a complaint about some of Mr the Icons posts in here, but then he posted a picture from Market Basket. Which don't get me wrong, is nothing like my beloved local Kroger. But it *is* the stoah where you get moah for you dollah. And that kinda tugged at my heart.

So here's the scoop. Everyone be nice and helpful to one another.
 
[quote name='guinaevere']Like you were before?

I had a complaint about some of Mr the Icons posts in here, but then he posted a picture from Market Basket. Which don't get me wrong, is nothing like my beloved local Kroger. But it *is* the stoah where you get moah for you dollah. And that kinda tugged at my heart.

So here's the scoop. Everyone be nice and helpful to one another.[/QUOTE]

Srsly,
 
I didn't actually buy anything from Rat Basket. Shit's awful, it was just in the same plaza I had to be at to meet up with someone so I trotted in and snapped some pics.

Really, Market Basket is like a time machine to late 1970's grocery experience. It's all dimly lit, ugly brown and orange floor tiles, it just has such a nasty feel to it the only thing I could get would be a soda. Which I didn't.
 
[quote name='marten']Idiot proof cooking right there.

I think even a cup of wet dirt could figure that one out.[/QUOTE]

I'm gonna fuck it up just to prove you wrong. :nottalking:
 
[quote name='JimmieMac']I didn't actually buy anything from Rat Basket. Shit's awful, it was just in the same plaza I had to be at to meet up with someone so I trotted in and snapped some pics.

Really, Market Basket is like a time machine to late 1970's grocery experience. It's all dimly lit, ugly brown and orange floor tiles, it just has such a nasty feel to it the only thing I could get would be a soda. Which I didn't.[/QUOTE]

Not denying that, but it brings back the nostalgia of good ol' MA living.
 
[quote name='Inf^Shini']PB and J! PB and J![/quote]


You can cook Peanut Butter and Jelly?

remember the title is COOKING.
 
[quote name='blackbird3216']ahh, yeah, time to cook some fettuccine alfredo tommorow night. What's the best recipe for someone who has never cooked it before?[/quote]

It's fairly easy to make it.

I use Heavy Whipping Cream, salt, garlic and a bit of pepper if I want some kick to the sauce. I also toss some white cheese into it.

DO NOT USE Light whipping cream... it's no good to me.
 
Alright, so what I cooked for tonight. I went to the store and saw that they had a special on Trimmed Beef Brisket, only $1.89 a pound. So I got about 3 pounds of it and a bag of charcoal. Altogether that was like $11 dollars or so. But that 3 pounds would serve about 4 people and the charcoal would last for awhile too.

So I just rubbed the Brisket in Smoked Salts and a little Olive Oil and grilled it for a few hours over a indirect and low heat.

It turned out great, I made a little batch of beans with it too. So overall like $10 to feed 4 people.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']Deep fry PB&J?

would that be messy?[/quote]

I usually stay away from weird deep fried food, but I have to admit, that sounds good as hell :applause:.
 
[quote name='ighosty']I usually stay away from weird deep fried food, but I have to admit, that sounds good as hell :applause:.[/quote]

I think it is possible but you need something stronger than bread to keep the stuff from leaking out.
 
[quote name='Inf^Shini']Hey, if you can deep fry a twinkie you can deep fry anything ;)[/quote]


I want to see a video of this!
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']I want to see a video of this![/quote]
:O

Go to a carnival or fair, they almost always have a booth/stand selling this stuff! I avoid it though, I don't like clogged arteries :/
 
[quote name='JimmieMac']Really, Market Basket is like a time machine to late 1970's grocery experience. It's all dimly lit, ugly brown and orange floor tiles[/quote]Yuck.

[quote name='darthbudge']Alright, so what I cooked for tonight. I went to the store and saw that they had a special on Trimmed Beef Brisket, only $1.89 a pound.
It turned out great, I made a little batch of beans with it too. So overall like $10 to feed 4 people.[/quote]That's one of the reasons I hit the grocers about three or four times a week. First, I just prefer getting fresh produce, but also to see what's on special or what looks good.

...Trying to cook in my sister in laws kitchen was a bit of a task for me. She sits down on saturday and plans out their entire weeks' meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. If she's going to need 2 oz of long grain rice, that's about all she'll buy. I don't function like that. I like having everything I need, so if the craving for something comes along, I can throw it together.


I want to get a grill. Looks like a lot of fun.
smile_eager.gif
 
[quote name='guinaevere']I want to get a grill. Looks like a lot of fun.
smile_eager.gif
[/quote]
Grilling is probably the one cooking method that every guy thinks he can do but almost no one can do it right. I've seen more lighter fluid burgers and charred-on-the-outside, rare-on-the-inside meats than one man should see in his lifetime.

Best way to start a fire is to get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Weber-7416-Ra...1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1213889167&sr=8-1

Pour charcoal on the top, stuff newspaper on the bottom, light it up and wait till the coals are either grey (daytime) or fiery (night time), then pour it in. I also prefer natural charcoal to briquettes, simply because briquettes create so much ash and it's real annoying to clean up.

Heat control: Most charcoal grills are controlled by air vents. Open them all to increase temperature, close them all to put out the fire. I've seen way too many people cook wayyyy too hot or wayyyy too cold. Additionally, remember that flare-ups are bad. It creates char, a known carcinogen and generally burns your meat before cooking on the inside, slap the lid on or spray some water to stop it.

With the information I've given, you would be way more competent at grilling basic things like hot dogs and burgers and sausages and cedar-planked salmon than 95% of the men out there. For more, I'd suggest picking up a grilling cookbook (again, the Weber one is pretty good). I'm still learning a lot, like searing, indirect vs. direct, and finer heat control so I can't really comment above that level. Cooking steaks to the proper doneness is definitely something that takes a lot of time to learn and I haven't quite mastered it yet.
 
[quote name='Koggit']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnLeT2WWSHM


It's a Nintendo DS cookbook, basically.[/quote]

That. Is. Awesome.

I really want the Japanese one in English though.. I don't want one telling me how to cook something I already know how (The European one), I want one telling me how to cook Japanese Food!!! (But in English).. I Hope someone translates the Japanese version :)
 
[quote name='kainzero']With the information I've given, you would be way more competent at grilling basic things like hot dogs and burgers and sausages and cedar-planked salmon than 95% of the men out there. For more, I'd suggest picking up a grilling cookbook (again, the Weber one is pretty good). I'm still learning a lot, like searing, indirect vs. direct, and finer heat control so I can't really comment above that level. Cooking steaks to the proper doneness is definitely something that takes a lot of time to learn and I haven't quite mastered it yet.[/quote]

I'm not certain if they're the same ones but Borders/Waldenbooks, just like last summer, have two different Weber Grilling cookbooks on Clearance at most locations for $6. One is a general grilling one and one is specifically about charcoal grilling. If I remember the opening sections are filled with information about the basics of grilling and most of the recipes are quite fantastic as well.

Yup, it's:
http://www.amazon.com/Webers-Real-G...bs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213901034&sr=1-1

as well as this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Webers-Charco...=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213901034&sr=1-4
 
Deep fried Twinkies.... the perfect after dinner desert for you and your loved one.

Wonder how many calories are in that sucker after frying?
 
FACTOID 1 Twinkie = 150 calories

Batter and oil = 275 calories

Total Damage = 425 calories, about the same as a slice of apple pie a la mode

even worse

Deep fried Snickers or Mars bars - This "snack" packs over 450 calories and about 30 grams of fat, and a king size will deliver more than 700 calories and 44 grams of fat.
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']FACTOID 1 Twinkie = 150 calories

Batter and oil = 275 calories

Total Damage = 425 calories, about the same as a slice of apple pie a la mode

even worse

Deep fried Snickers or Mars bars - This "snack" packs over 450 calories and about 30 grams of fat, and a king size will deliver more than 700 calories and 44 grams of fat.[/quote]


The DFT doesn't sound too bad compared to the DFS/DFMB
 
bread's done
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