Pistachio's on a budget

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Category: Blog

Published on Thursday, 05 July 2012 18:26

Written by Grant

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I like to share my tips on saving money when I can and recently I was working on a Pistachio Cream sauce (in a word - heavenly) and in my research I found that on average I'm only getting 5 ounces of nuts from one pound of Pistachios. At my favorite discount stores (Trader Joe's and Winco) I paid $5.99 for a 1 pound bag. After shelling them I had just over 5 ounces. Quick math shows I paid $19/lb. Pistachios without shells usually sell for $10-11/lb. Yes that's right, buying them with the shells removed costs LESS than shelling them yourself. 

This brings up a couple of points related to my upcoming Pistachio Cream recipe

1. The flavor of pistachios is directly related to the quality/age of the nuts
2. In theory, nuts in shells will be higher quality because they're more protected
3. It's hard to determine the quality of nuts in shells because they're more protected
4. Half of all commercial Pistachios are not fresh enough to use in my sauce
5. Nuts without shells cost HALF as much per pound so it's easier to toss the ones that are old

So... I'm finding that in theory shells in nuts SHOULD be higher quality but in practice they're a lot like breaded shrimp, the lowest quality shrimp can hide under breading. So far after sampling 4 brands I haven't seen any quality difference between shelled and unshelled Pistachios. Also if they don't have shells you can better eyeball the nuts themselves, something that's very difficult to do with the shells on. 

In conclusion, I've found that eyeballing pistachios without shells is fairly easy and since they cost half as much I can toss out the brown ones. The attached photo shows that half the nuts in a bag are old (brown) and half are fresh. The end result is the remaining pistachios are stong flavored and bright green for exactly the same price I would have paid for nuts with shells.

My last tip for having great flavored pistachios is to blanch for a couple of minutes and peel them, then dry them in the oven at low temperature. The skins are bitter and from 5 oz's of nuts the skins make up half an ounce. Why eat the skins if they don't taste good. Naturally if you're just enjoying a quick snack you aren't going to do this but for anything that needs a nice pure pistachio flavor and a bright green color this step is a necessity.

Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Chicken

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Category: Blog

Published on Tuesday, 28 February 2012 04:20

Written by Grant

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Chicken is probably the most boring tasting animal on the planet, that's why when we don't know what something tastes like we say it tastes like chicken (meaning it has no strong flavor). However, chicken doesn't have to be boring at all and with a little work we can pick a good chicken, keep the flavor by cooking it right and even add to it using some specially selected herbs and vegetables.

This recipe's purpose is to molest the chicken as little as possible and add subtle other flavors. The chicken also contributes by giving up a certain amount of it's juices and the runoff from the garlic and rosemary paste which drizzles down into the potatoes and shallots making for a very nice accompaniment.

This time around I waited about 20 minutes into the roasting and added sliced Sweet Potatoes which was very nice. Also instead of using just Yukon Golds I found a bag of mixed tiny potatoes at the store comprising of Yukon Golds, Purple and Red Bliss. The best tasting out of these three in this recipe is the Yukon Golds so this mix doesn't add to the quality of the meal however it does make it pretty. Yukon Golds just have the right amount of waxy texture and the right amount of starch to soak up the chicken's juices and yet hold themselves together.

Try out the recipe and let me know what you think.

Recipe: Garlic and Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Yukon Golds

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Fesenjan - a rich stew poor people can afford

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Published on Friday, 27 April 2012 17:47

Written by Grant

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I love rich food and I've come to love the mix of a rich sauce with meat over rice. You get this a lot with Thai curries, Indian Curries, Persian Korescht, and Afghan Quormas. This seems to be a very good format and economical too. Spices cost a lot but you don't need many and rice is cheap. Add meat of some sort and you have a great meal for a decent price. Living in the Pacific Northwest means that we have very limited selection of Persian restaurants and even when you do find one it's probably overpriced and low on quality. When I'm in Orange County I always eat at the Caspian Restaurant in Irvine not only for the environment but for the Fesanjoon. 

Fesenjoon (slang for Khoresht-e Fesenjan) is a "stew" made up of a sauce from walnuts and pomegranate syrup/juice. It's wonderfully tart and deep. You add chicken and serve over Basmati rice. Not everyone likes it but it's one of my favorite things to eat.

 I've eaten Fesenjoon at many restaurants and tried making it on many occasions. I've been somewhat successful but my Fesenjoon doesn't taste like the Caspians which is wonderfully smooth without being too sweet. Last week I ran across kshar.net, a site run by man determined to bring Persian culture to the masses. What brought me to his site was a three part series on Fesenjoon. His cooking style is a bit loose so you have to pay close attention to what he's doing to get similar results. He also doesn't argue about what SHOULD be, it's your food make it how you like it. He seems to be intent on letting a few ingredients talk as apposed to having many ingredients fighting for attention - I agree with this philosophy. 

With that in mind I made Fesenjoon the other day. Following is the pseudo recipe.

•  2.5 c of walnuts

• 1 c of water

• 2 c of pomegranate syrup or 1/4 c pomegranate molasses and 1/4 cup sugar*

• saffron 

• turmeric

• one onion diced

• 2 lbs of chicken thighs

• 2 cups of basmati rice

• salt 

• oil

   

1. For the sauce place a portion of the walnuts in the blender with a little water and blend. If they're too dry to blend add more water. Keep adding water and nuts until they're coursely ground. You don't want a smooth paste here or you won't taste walnuts.

2. Once their ground place them in a pot on the stove and cook them on medium-high while stirring to keep from burning

3. Add pomegranate syrup and sugar - see my note below and turn to medium-low and simmer for 1.5 hours minimum. The sauce will get darker the longer you simmer it

4. Heat oil in saute pan until hot, add onion and saute until browned. Dark sauces want browned onions, not just golden

5. Add perhaps a teaspoon of turmeric, then add chicken thighs, brown on both sides and set aside

6. When the sauce has been simmering for 1.5 - 2 hrs add it to the chicken and simmer again for another 60 minutes. Turn the chicken over on occasion to baste in the sauce

7. The oils from the walnuts will rise to the top (and be green colored like olive oil) and the chicken will get a bit of a crust from the sauce on it

8. Let cool and put in the refrigerator - this is a second day dish

9. The next day put the saute pan back on the heat and warm gently on medium-low for about an hour

10. Serve over basmati rice

* Note on syrup vs molasses. I bought a large jar of pomegranate syrup made in Slovenia. This looks like a jar of cranberry juice but you can tell the liquid is definitely thicker. It was already sweetened with sugar and two cups seemed about right. Adding sugar made the sauce overly sweet. If you have pomegranate molasses (common) you'll want to put in 1/4 cup and add 1/4 cup of granulated sugar as well. Adjust flavors accordingly.

A lot of times Fesenjan cooked at home and sometimes in restaurants is pasty and/or so tart you can't eat it. The pastiness seems to be from people undercooking it. Don't get impatient and eat it too soon, you'll be sorry. This dish can be eaten same day but it's much nicer the next day.

A couple of things that seem to make a difference 

1. Put the pomegranate syrup in with the walnuts from the beginning
2. Don't grind the walnuts too fine so the sauce still has a walnut taste 
3. Cook the sauce for a long time. It will get darker and richer as time goes on
4. Add Pomegranate syrup/sugar according to your taste
5. Don't get crazy with ingredients - you don't need cardemon, coriander or any of that other stuff.

Easy Flatbread for 4 cents each

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Category: Blog

Published on Sunday, 26 February 2012 06:51

Written by Grant

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We just had a discussion on Google+ about eating on a budget. Seems I need to write that book afterall. One of the strategies I've always employed is food subsidies. That just means that a cheap food subsidizes an expensive one. Restaurants do this all the time, that's why you have starches (potatoes, rice, bread) with your meats. The price of a starch is a fraction of the price of herbs, spices, aged cheese, wine and meats. Next on the ladder is most vegetables. It's a rare occasion for vegetables to cost more than $1 per lb. When was the last time you bought meat for $1/lb?

So with that in mind I'd like to focus on breads. Now if you buy the budget American white bread you may be able to get it for a dollar for a 24 oz loaf. You can make it cheaper but it's really the yeast that costs so you have to commit to buying a block of yeast to make it worth the trouble. Then there's the rising time etc.. Usually these hurdles are too much and people avoid saving money by buying bread and understandably so. However, flatbread can be easy to make and dirt cheap. Pita usually costs about $3 in the store for 10 ounces. That's a starch for the price of a meat. Pita is fairly easy to make too and I have a Wheat Pita recipe that I like a lot here at The Man, The Myth, The Legend.

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