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| Complete Guide to Cheap and Healthy Cooking - Part 1 http://forums.absurdminds.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2863 |
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| Author: | Traviesaurus [ 09 Dec 2014 16:03 ] |
| Post subject: | Complete Guide to Cheap and Healthy Cooking - Part 1 |
I recommend this subreddit for those trying to save a few pennies on their food budget. This is copy/paste with formatting from this link: http://www.reddit.com/r/EatCheapAndHeal ... d_healthy/ A few days ago I posted here asking what you guys wanted me to write about, this first post is very basic but should lay the foundations for anyone to start cooking, I'll be writing up more detailed ones focused on what you actually asked for during the next couple of days/weeks. Who I am/my situation: Keeping it brief, I’m born and raised in a very Italian part of Brazil, so that means food is a huge part of our culture. My mom can cook a few things but it’s mostly my dad who does (well, did) the really fancy and tasty stuff. In September I moved to Germany to study in university and have been living in the student residences since then. I won’t go into details about my monthly or weekly budget but suffice to say that I’ve been spending on average less than 2,00€/day (usually around 1,50€) on food. That’s including tea, coffee or whatever else I feel like making (I’ve recently started making hot cocoa and baking a variety of things quite often). In the kitchen, which is shared among 7 people, we have one small cupboard and one fridge shelf each. Besides that there’s an oven, a stove and a microwave. Really, the basic stuff (although I know many people don’t have access to ovens), keep that in mind as you read further. If you don’t have an oven, I’d suggest buying a mini oven but that’s just because I’m a sucker for baking. They’re not really necessary. Also worth mentioning I keep quite a lot of food in my room for lack of space in the kitchen, my selection of teas, potatoes and fruits are all there. Alright, let’s get started with the basics. I already mentioned in the first post that Brothers Green Eats is a very good resource, so check their beginner’s guide if you have any questions about chopping, how to handle a knife and whatnot. Those are things I can’t explain via text. Don’t worry about being too precise or quick, those things come with time. Also important before we start: I won’t give you exact measures for spices, that will vary widely from person to person. My hometown (and my dad, hi dad) is infamous for salting everything way too much and I’ve been trying to use just enough since I moved out. The basic shopping list (with approximate prices based on my location):
Potatoes: There are hundreds of ways to prepare potatoes and it’s very hard to go wrong with any of them. The easiest one is to boil. If you have more patience than I, you will also peel the potatoes. It’s as simple as cutting them in half (or desired size), throwing them in water (make sure the water covers all of the potatoes), bringing it up to a boil and waiting. Poke it with a fork or any type of skewer to check for doneness. If you have an oven you can also cut them in any way you want, cover them in olive oil and throw them in the oven. The cooking time here will vary widely depending on the thickness. I can’t give you anything exact. Important: Potatoes need more salt than other foods and it’s very hard to use too much, keep that in mind and go a little crazy here, chances are you’ll be fine. Pasta: Get the biggest pan you have. Fill it with water almost to the top. Add about a teaspoon of salt. Bring it up to a boil and throw the pasta in the water, follow the package directions for cooking times and you should be good to go. Don’t forget to stir the pasta a bit, else it will all clump together. Try it for doneness one minute before, what you’re going for is a bit of a bite to it but it should be cooked all the way through. That’s what “aldente” means, “to the teeth”, literally translated. It’s important to drain the pasta immediately, else it will keep cooking in the warm water even if you turn the heat off. Bread: I love bread and eat sandwiches every day for dinner (I usually eat something warm for lunch, cultural thing) but I don’t have time (or I just don’t want) to knead the dough for so much time and bake bread every couple of days or so, the solution to that is no-knead bread. It’s important that you follow these measurements this time, the total time it will take you of actual work is maybe five minutes, but you’ll have to let it rest and rise for a longer time than usual so plan in advance! * 1/4 tsp dry active yeast * 1 1/2 cups water (325 grams) * 1 3/4 tsp salt * 18 oz by weight all-purpose flour (500 grams), about 4 cups It’s as simple as mixing everything, letting it rise for 12 hours and baking at 200˚C until somewhat brown. Quick and easy recipes to get you started: Pasta Carbonara: Need to cook something in less than 15 minutes? Follow the instructions for the pasta, as it cooks throw some diced bacon in a frying pan on medium heat (no oil required, the bacon already has a lot of fat) until it browns just a little bit, beat an egg (with a lot of ground black pepper, as it should be made) and once the pasta is done, put it in a serving platter (can be the same pan you used to cook it), add the bacon and as you’re moving the pasta, add the egg (slowly). The heat from the pasta should cook the egg enough that you’ll have a creamy mixture. Eat immediately. I personally don’t like reheated pasta so I avoid making more than one serving. No-named potatoes: Peel them, boil them until cooked through, drain them. As they’re cooking, chop up some parsley and rosemary and leave it aside. Once they’re drained throw in some olive oil or butter and stir them around until they’re evenly coated. Serve it and call it a day, it’s a great way to try different herbs too. Student omelet: Each person has their own way of making omelets and mine is not the “standard” way. Beat up and season three eggs (more/less depending on hunger), Pick a few veggies out of your fridge (carrots, a small onion, cherry or regular tomatoes, you name it) and chop them. Add some oil to a frying pan and put it on medium heat until the pan is warm. Add the eggs, make sure they’re evenly spread and add your vegetable selection to one half of it. As soon as the eggs have condensed a bit fold it onto itself and flip it every couple of minutes until it’s cooked through. Breakfast oatmeal: This will be faster with a microwave but you can also cook it on a stovetop. Go for 1:1,5 oatmeal/liquid (milk or water), I usually make mine 1:1:0,5 oatmeal:water:milk. Throw it in a pan with sugar (optional, I don’t usually add sugar), cinnamon and a chopped or mashed banana. Stir it until the oats have absorbed enough water and have the consistency you’re going for, my microwave takes two 2-minute sections on medium-high heat stirring in between the two. You can add whatever you want to it too. Frozen berries are great, so is honey, I've heard peanut butter is also good but I have yet to try it (tomorrow) My chili-thing recipe Fake Okonomiyaki: It's fake because you won't have the real ingredients if you're on a student budget, if you're interested in making the real thing check out this website (I literally just googled okonomiyaki and found this out, gotta say I'm a bit scared now, moving on). For the one we're making, you'll need an egg, water, flour and soy sauce (not completely necessary). Mix everything until they're a bit less consistent than a pancake batter (pancake batters are usually 1:1:1 egg:flour:milk which in our case is water), I think a good proportion is about 1:0.75:1. Don't stress too much about being exact here, this is as free-form as cooking gets. Get a few veggies and meat from your fridge, I usually use potatoes, carrots, cabbage (the one ingredient you technically need on the vegetables side), onions and whatever else I have lying around, grate or chop everything (grate carrots and potatoes, the rest can be chopped) and throw it in the batter until it's all coated. Put a frying pan on medium heat with a dollop of olive oil or butter (about 1tbsp) and let it warm up. Throw the mixture in and cover. Flip it once it browns or the batter seems almost cooked through, cook the other side for about half the time, serve. The meat should be precooked as it won't have time to cook in the frying pan. Happy cooking! I'll be back in a few days! |
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| Author: | Rugg [ 09 Dec 2014 18:01 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Complete Guide to Cheap and Healthy Cooking - Part 1 |
My girlfriend and I really love cooking and want to learn to cook more. The only problem is that it is always so expensive to follow recipes we find online that call for random spices and ingredients that we don't have. I'll have to give this some of this stuff a try! |
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| Author: | serialp0rt [ 24 Dec 2014 13:30 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Complete Guide to Cheap and Healthy Cooking - Part 1 |
spices can also be bought at any places like whole foods, earth market, fresh market, or any of those upper end grocery stores. They usually have dispensers for spices and you can get any amount you want. This is almost always cheaper than buying spices any other way including store brands. |
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| Author: | PHOBIA1UP [ 24 Dec 2014 13:44 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Complete Guide to Cheap and Healthy Cooking - Part 1 |
ive heard that the upfront cost of just buying bulk spices is worth the following months of cheap eating |
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| Author: | serialp0rt [ 24 Dec 2014 21:22 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Complete Guide to Cheap and Healthy Cooking - Part 1 |
No don't buy them in bulk. If you are not a restaurant or cooking for a large group on a regular basis you are wasting shit tons of money. If you find the bulk places that sell from the drop down dispensers, then you are doing ok. You can buy any size you want but its at bulk price. So by 1 OZ of something and you won't have spices going bad on you, plus they will cost next to nothing. |
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| Author: | Traviesaurus [ 25 Dec 2014 14:16 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Complete Guide to Cheap and Healthy Cooking - Part 1 |
Quote: No don't buy them in bulk. If you are not a restaurant or cooking for a large group on a regular basis you are wasting shit tons of money. If you find the bulk places that sell from the drop down dispensers, then you are doing ok. You can buy any size you want but its at bulk price. So by 1 OZ of something and you won't have spices going bad on you, plus they will cost next to nothing.
Yeah, we have Bulk Barn here. Think of a spice? They have it. Put it in a baggie, as much as you want. Think of a candy? They have that too. Basically anything to do with baking in any way, they have it there. It's fantastic.
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| Author: | serialp0rt [ 25 Dec 2014 14:18 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Complete Guide to Cheap and Healthy Cooking - Part 1 |
exactly what travis said. |
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