Frugal Cooking

I’ll get right to the point.  My wife hates fish but she ate these salmon patties that I came up with.  I was shocked.  I need this recipe immortalized here so I can make it again.  They’re low carb too and really cheap to make!

Salmon Patties

• 1 can of salmon, drained
• 1T chopped parsley (fresh or dried)
• 2t herbs de provence
• 1t onion powder
• 3T mayonnaise
• 2 eggs
• salt and pepper
• oil

Mix everything together.  It’s going to seem a little too wet.  Just let it sit for 15min to thicken up.  I measured these out and dropped into a nonstick skillet using a standard ice cream scoop.  It made 7 patties.  I bought the salmon on sale for under $3 for the can.  That probably made these about 50 cents each.  Yikes!  What a bargain!

Now, there’s a ton you could do with this recipe.  I’d keep the salmon and eggs but you could go crazy with the rest.  For a more traditional, crab cake-style recipe you could go with Old Bay instead of the herbs de provence.  If you don’t have Old Bay, it’s mainly celery salt with a few other minor seasonings.  I bet a Jamaican jerk seasoning would also be really tasty in this.

I served this with a sauce that didn’t really go that well, but was super tasty.  It was kind of  like a chipotle mayo but with a more subtle and refined flavor from the use of Spanish smoked paprika instead of chipotle.  It would probably be better with something else- not sure what, though.  Maybe someone can figure out what to serve it with:

Pimenton dip

• 3T mayo
• 2T sour cream
• 2T cream
• 1t Spanish smoked paprika
• 1t onion powder
• salt and pepper

Mix it up and let sit for 30min for flavors to mingle.  Add more or less cream to change the thickness.

You could make this with ground or canned chipotle and it would be really tasty.  Adjusting ratios of mayo, sour cream and cream to suit the purpose.  More or less cream will make it thicker or thinner.  You could actually use water too.  I just used cream because I had it handy.  This would be awesome with some plain potato chips.

Have fun and let me know if you do something delicious with this.

If you’re a fan of the Food Network show Good Eats, you’ve probably heard Alton Brown say that he only owns one multitasker- a fire extinguisher.  Everything else he puts in his kitchen has at least more than one function.  I love that philosophy and try to keep my kitchen stocked the same way because I truly believe “less is more” in almost all cases.  Today my cast iron skillet does double duty as a baking pan for a low carb meatloaf.

Meatloaf is one of the classic frugal main dishes of all time.  You take the most inexpensive cuts of meat you can get and then add inexpensive fillers to make it go even further.  In addition, you add finely minced vegetables so your kids won’t notice.  Whoever invented meatloaf was either exceptionally lucky or pure genius.  Below is my latest meatloaf recipe that I baked in a cast iron skillet.  So to answer the question above, I’d say “one”.  But the real question is what pans do you need to make a meatloaf, a roast, cornbread, a cake, fried eggs, bacon, hamburgers, etc…   My answer is “just my one cast iron skillet”.

Super Meaty Meatloaf

• 1lb ground beef
• 1lb ground pork
• 2 eggs
• 1T all purpose seasoning
• 1 onion, finely minced
• 2t thyme, dried
• 1T sage, rubbed
• 1t red chile flakes
• 1T parsley, dried (or 3T fresh, chopped)
• 4T ketchup (or catsup)
• salt and pepper (depending on how much salt is in the all purpose seasoning)

Mix all ingredients well and shape into a cylinder.  Place into a lighly oiled cast iron skillet and put into a 350F oven for 1 hour.  After about 40min coat with the ketchup.

You’ve probably noticed that this meatloaf is pretty much all meat.  I’m still doing the low carb thing and its working (down 15lbs so far!)  so I left out the bread/crackers in this one.  You could add in a few slices of bread torn into pieces with some milk to wet the bread.  Crackers would also work.  I’d probably not use more than a cup of crushed crackers or two cups of bread for this amount of meat.  The thyme and sage in this give a little hint of breakfast sausage flavor.  You could also leave those out and use breakfast sausage instead.

To keep this low carb, another nice addition would be some finely chopped mushrooms.  I’ve done that before and it comes out really great.  Just chop the mushrooms into small bits and then fry to remove most of the moisture.  Then just add them to the meatloaf.  You could also add italian seasoning mix (1T) and parmesan cheese (1/2 to 1 cup) to make the meatloaf taste like a giant meatball.  I could probably come up with an infinite number of possibilities.

I served this meatloaf with a Broccoli gratin, which I guess I should include:

Broccoli Gratin

• 3 cups broccoli, steamed until just tender
• 2T butter
• 1/2 medium onion, finely minced
• 1T whole grain mustard
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup gruyere, or other cheese, grated
• salt and pepper

Saute the onion in butter until soft, about 10min.  Add in the rest of the ingredients, except broccoli, and simmer over low heat until the cheese melts and you have a nice sauce.  Turn off the heat, add the broccoli and toss well.  Put into a baking pan (or another cast iron skillet!) and bake uncovered for about 30min on 350F.  Serve with meatloaf.

I’m not sure why I think this recipe is French.  Maybe it’s the combination of beef and thyme.  It could be the great sauce that results.   It could be how simple yet delicious it is.  Anyway, this came out really well, so maybe I should just rename it Delicious braised short ribs.

One of the reasons this came out so well is that I cooked the short ribs long enough to kill the toughness but short enough to leave a really nice chewy texture.  So instead of the meat falling apart like eating pot roast or beef stew, it was like eating tender steak.  There was enough time for the flavors to come together and make a really nice sauce.

French Braised Short Ribs

• 2lbs short ribs cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 1T oil
• 1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
• 1T tomato paste
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 5 green olives, chopped
• 2t thyme
• 2t beef bouillon (or two cubes)
• 1 cup of water
• 10 mushrooms, sliced thickly
• salt and pepper

Brown the beef in the oil.  Let it get brown!  Add the onion half way through.  Add everything except the mushrooms and turn to low, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes.  Is the sauce is watery when you add the mushrooms, turn up the heat and leave the lid off.

Serve with a starch like mashed potatoes or over some noodles.  I ended up just eating it straight.  YUM!

I often get a random taste for something that I just can’t shake. This was the case earlier this week when I decided that I HAVE To have spinach-artichoke dip. Of course, I didn’t even have any artichokes and the frugal streak in me wouldn’t let me go to the store and buy the ingredients. If I was going to satisfy this craving, I was going to have to do it with what was in the house.

So, as with most of my recipes, this recipe should really be titled (Here’s What You Do When You Don’t Have The Right Ingredients To Make) Spinach-Artichoke Dip.  The key was finding the “magic” with the standard recipe and making sure I, at least, had the right ingredients to recreate that magic.  It turns out the special flavor in spinach-artichoke dip doesn’t come from the  spinach or artichokes- its the cheeses and raw garlic!  I know this because I tasted along the way and it was pretty blah until there was this big bang of flavor as soon as those items came together.

The actual recipe below is for a pretty spinachy dip.  It turned out to be more flexible this way and I used it as a dip, sandwich spread, inside a hamburger (Jucy Lucy), in an omelete, and as a small, low-carb side dish.  In fact, it’s been almost a week and I still have some left that I’m working through slowly.  I was thinking about stuffing the rest into mushroom caps and baking.  YUM!

Quick Hot Spinach Dip

• 1 bag frozen spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out
• 8oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup mozzarella, grated
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper

Mix up the ingredients and microwave for a few minutes.  Stop and stir about every 30 seconds until it’s mixed well.  It doesn’t really need to be baked like many recipes but it would be nice placed in a ceramic dish, topped with some extra cheese and then broiled for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

I really think the key ingredients are the cream cheese, mayo and garlic.  The recipe above gives the classic taste minus the artichokes.   If you wanted to turn this into the real thing, I would either use half the spinach and add a can of artichoke hearts, coarsly chopped.  I think as long as you have cream cheese, mayo and garlic you can really spin off on some delicious and wild variations.  I was thinking about adding some smoked paprika and chorizo for a Spanish flavor.  Some raw vegetables like onions and celery might add a nice crunch as long as you don’t cook it too long.  It would be tasty cold but you would probably want to add in some sour cream and cut back on cream cheese or else it would be too stiff.

(Not my actual dip, but a re-enactment using paid actors)

Being frugal doesn’t mean completely cutting out any one thing- especially wine.  Wines certainly have a place in a frugal lifestyle but trying to find delicious wines at good prices can be challenging.  I’m not going to give away the ending of the video, but will say that there are a couple of deals to be had.

I’m a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, of Wine Library TV, so when I saw his review of Trader Joe’s two-buck-chuck wines I knew I would have to include that here. You might be surprised at what he finds.

If you live in or have ever lived in Chicago, you know about an Italian beef sandwichs with giardiniera.  When I’m in Chicago I make a point of stopping by Portillo’s or Al’s Beef for an unbelievable sandwich of juicy, flavorful beef covered with olive oil and spicy pickled vegetables.  I just had to have something like that for dinner so I came up with this easy and frugal recipe.

I don’t know how Italian an Italian beef sandwich really is, but the classic Chicago Italian beef sandwich has paper-thin beef soaking in a thin, heavily seasoned gravy piled HIGH on a crusty-on-the-outside/soft-on-the-inside Italian roll.  The sandwich is then, optionally, piled high with a mix of spicy pickled vegetables in olive oil called giardiniera.

As usual, I really didn’t have the right ingredients for this, which might be a beef rump or cross-rib roast.  I did have a nice, inexpensive chuck roast so decided to make that work.  Let me tell you that it did work!  This is the best creation I’ve made in a while.  I’m also doing this low-carb thing to drop a few pounds (already dropped 12lbs!)  so passed on the roll.  Any kind of roll would do.  I would heat them in the oven for 10 min at about 350F and then slice just before piling with beef.  If you did have a rump or similar roast, I would cook it to rare, slice thin and then simmer in the sauce for about 15min.

Italian Beef

• 1 chuck roast
• 2t garlic powder
• 2t onion powder
• 1/2t thyme
• 1T oregano
• 1t red chile flakes (optional)
• 1T salt
• 1t black pepper
• 2 cups (or 1 can) beef broth
• 8 cloves of garlic minced (yes, eight!)
• 2T Worstershire sauce
• 1t tabasco or other hot sauce (optional)
• Crusty rolls

Mix up the spices and sprinkle 1/3 on the roast.  Set aside 1/3 for the giardiniera.  Brown the roast on both sides well in a dutch oven or similar pot over medium heat.  Add the rest of the ingredients (except the rolls, duh!)  and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours on low heat, covered.  You want to roast easily slicable but not so tender that it falls apart.  You’ll need to check it periodically to make sure it doesn’t get too tender.  I think mine cooked in about 1 3/4 hours.  When it’s tender enough, take the roast out and let the sauce keep simmering to reduce a bit.  The sauce will be more like an au jus than a gravy.  Slice the roast as thin as you can and put it back in the sauce and turn off the heat.  Time to make the giardiniera.

Quick Giardiniera

• 1/4 of a small onion, sliced thinly
• 3T olive oil
• 10 sport peppers or hot pickled peppers, chopped coarsely
• 10 small pimento-stuffed olives,. chopped coarsley
• 1T vinegar
• 1/3 of the spice mixture above (hope you didn’t forget!)

Saute the onion in olive oil over low heat until just wilted.  Add the rest of the ingredients and turn off the heat.  Let cool and transfer to a bowl.

To assemble a sandwich, pile the beef on a hot, crusty roll and top with the giardiniera.  I put the beef into a bowl, added some sauce and topped with the giardiniera.