Cooking Philosophy and Thai Wings

One of the first hallmarks I notice in a good cook is not the taste of the dish, the complexity, or the oddity of ingredients. It’s in the HOW. And a big part of that is how the cook uses recipes.

When I first started cooking, I learned from my mother and grandmother. Both are fantastic Old South cooks who mostly make everything “from scratch” and without a recipe. In fact, both of their best dishes are ones for which they’ve never even seen recipes. The balance has to be taught and made to taste and feel. This means dozens of attempts, occasional failures, and art have all occurred.

Don’t get me wrong, they used recipes occasionally. Certain desserts or rare treats had recipes carefully copied onto index cards and filed in a little box. I plan to one day take a scanner to that box and have a treasure trove of favorites from which to draw.

So how does that look in the 21^st Century? My cooking style, though Old South influenced, takes on many more modern twists and turns, most of which land me squarely in Asia. But I still love to pay homage to the recipe-free history from whence I come.

First, I actually use more recipes, instead of fewer. But the way I use them is more loose, more inspirational. I can type in “buttermilk biscuit recipe” and Google will give me nearly 300,000 options. I would then gather what the typical cooking temperatures, methods, and ingredients are and design my own biscuit from that information.

Here’s a semi-regular example of my cooking process from last week:

First, I did research. I’ve never cooked wings before, so I collected a few options. David near about begged for the Thai, so I then narrowed my search and selected the top five Google results for Thai hot wing recipes. I then took some notes:

Sweetness (honey, brown sugar)

saltiness (soy, fish sauce)

tartness (lime juice)

heat (chili)

garlic, onions, cilantro

peanut butter/peanuts

Method:

bake 400, skillet to thicken sauce

marinate, bake

fry, make sauce, coat

marinate, grill

I then chose the ingredients I had on hand, and decided to develop my own recipe based off of these elements and blended it to suit our particular tastes. I dipped mine in Ranch dressing.

Honey

Soy sauce, ginger brine (leftover from sushi ginger--I keep it on hand for Thai cooking)

Lemon zest and juice

Red pepper flakes

Fresh garlic, green onions, and cilantro

Peanut butter, coconut milk

Masti chutney (more garlic, onion, and cilantro, but in a puree)

I marinated it, baked it, then used cornstarch and a saucepan to thicken the sauce. I always make Thai and really any curry to taste (this is the secret of Thai—make it sweet, tart, spicy, creamy, and flavorful in a way that makes your taste buds beg for more).

So, now that I’ve finished, I’ll share what I learned.

1. This recipe was not spicy unless you bit straight into the pepper flakes. If you want spicy, you’ll have to use ground peppers or cayenne.

2. They were delicious! Sweet, salty, flavorful, what have you...

3. Wings are pointless. David loved the sauce/marinade and didn’t like the meat, and though I enjoyed them, I tend to agree. Making this with quarters, breasts, or drumsticks would be so much better than wasting time on silly wings. All fat and bone, no meat…nah, we can do better.

4. I think grilling would be better than baking them. They did great baked, but everything tastes better from a grill.

So…recipe, great. Premise, not so great. You live and learn…and eat tasty Thai chicken.

Eating Healthy on a Budget

I was really proud of myself yesterday. I went to two grocery stores, after having not bought anything in two weeks, and still managed to spend less than $75. I can't find one of the receipts, but it may have been right at $50.

My dear friend, ProVerbs, asked me to share how I manage to eat mostly natural and organic on a budget of $350/month for myself, my husband, and our 8 month-old baby, so here are some of the tips that help me!

A lot of the stores I use are regional, but even Walmart here sells all kinds of organic foods, as do Kroger and Bi-Lo! I also get a few things at Costco by asking my in-laws to pick up the things I want and I pay them back. I go to Earth Fare about once every month or two as I can't leave the place without spending at least $50.

I try to buy things like rice and beans in bulk, so as to save in the long run--and bulk goods and spices look really cool in mason jars on the counter!

Keep lots of fruit on hand and out on the counter where it's more convenient than ice cream (my weakness!).   I also keep organic tortilla chips and salsa on hand for the hubby's midnight snacking, since he's on night shift hours.

Use spices to make the same veggies into completely different dishes. My veggie staples are carrots, onions, bell peppers, potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, avocados, spinach, mixed salad greens, squash, and tomatoes. With those, I can make Italian pasta/veggie dishes, Indian curry, Thai curry, stir fry, roasted veggies, sauteed veggies, grilled veggies, baked veggies, raw veggies with dip, Dutch/German pasties, or Mexican fajitas. Who can get bored with that?

To save money, I get the sales papers and compare who has the best sale on the stuff I need that week and completely skip over the frozen and canned sections and stick to fresh produce, meat, and dairy. That way I'm not tempted! If I don't buy it, it's not in the house staring at me. Sadly, coupons don't help me much, since I don't often buy the things they have coupons for. Using coupons tempted me to buy stuff I didn't need, so I stopped.

The grocery stores I use have a "main" branch and a "ghetto" branch. This may sound awful, but I use the ghetto branches because the fresh produce there doesn't usually sell on time. Thus, they put a lot of their salad, spinach, and organic dairy products on half off to get rid of them! I also get my meat this way. There have been times I've gone to the store and ONLY bought things that were on sale or discounted. The main branches never have that much on discount.

I super rarely buy pork or beef. Most of the meat we eat is chicken, turkey, or fish. My stomach just isn't a red meat fan anymore. I love the occasional sausage and cheese balls and steak or ribs a couple times a year, but otherwise we use venison if we can get our hands on it, and not an awful lot of red meat. Ground turkey is great as a replacement for ground beef, turkey bacon is not at all like pork bacon, but it's still good and doesn't kill my stomach later.

Olive oil and real butter!!!!! I get the massive bulk first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil that sets me back a pretty penny, but it lasts for nearly a year. I buy really good butter and a little goes a long way. I use these as substitutes for Crisco, canola oil, margarine, and any other fat. And boy do they taste yummy!

Biggest thing I've noticed this way: It starts off expensive because I was used to eating a lot of food to get the nutrition my body needed. When you eat low-nutrient foods, it takes a lot more food to get your body what it needs, and in the meantime you're loading up on all sorts of things your body doesn't need. After a while, though, your body realizes "umm, that was all I needed. Thank you, no more, please." And you start having to make less, buy less, and the cost starts going back down.

Have fun learning to make things yourself? What is your favorite dish at your favorite restaurants? Look it up online! Make it at home! You'd be surprised at what tastes BETTER at home with your own spin on it, and look at the cost difference! Usually, I can make enough for 6 people on what it would have cost me to go out to eat the same dish!

Try new things! I love spinach and artichoke dip, but don't want to buy canned artichoke hearts...so when I saw artichokes on sale 2/$5...I snagged me a couple and looked up how to cook them. It was super easy, I had PLENTY to make a recipe and eat off of them a couple days, and they were AMAZING! I couldn't stop eating them! I've discovered that asparagus, though disgusting when canned or boiled, is wonderful grilled or roasted in the oven with a little olive oil, sea salt, and fresh cracked black pepper. Kale, a green leafy thing like collards or turnip greens, is really tasty roasted in the oven to make a crunchy, salty "kale chip" that makes me think I'm eating junk food...when in reality, it's loaded with vitamins! Brussels sprouts, though pretty good roasted, just didn't hit our fancy as much. But it was worth the shot! Make your own french fries and potato chips one day. Make a lasagna and make your own noodles (it's just flour and eggs rolled out and boiled).

I also love gardening. We live in an apartment and don't have garden space, but our porch is covered with plants and our little 8 square feet of flowerbed is loaded to the brim! I blanch and freeze any extra veggies and looove popping those bad boys into a pot of soup or a lasagna to fill it up with goodness!

Another thing I'm a fan of is making a bunch of something (chili and curry especially) and freezing part of it so you can just thaw it out and go with it. It's awesome to have homemade chili to thaw out when you grill hot dogs.

And now, with all this talk of food, I'm getting hungry. :) Enjoy the amazing variety God has put on this Earth to fuel us and for us to enjoy and praise Him about! Get with it! :)