Friday, 28 October 2011

"Pink Fish" (As the Ebsworth's Call it): Teriyaki Salmon with Stir Fried Vegetables and Vinegar Rice





I recently watched the documentary Food Matters (You can watch the entire thing here). Despite some dubious claims that huge amounts of vitamin C could cure cancer, it raised some valid points. Apparently, the Western diet is hugely lacking in vitamins and minerals. We walk around every day tired as shit, just waiting to get cancer. So in response, I cooked this dish which contains not one, but TWO *gasp* super-foods - wild salmon and broccoli. This dish is quick and easy, serves two and costs around $4 a head. It would be drastically cheaper if I used farmed salmon, but fuck it. This time I'm doing luxury.


Go Get:
Half a pound of salmon fillet
Soy Sauce
Sake/ white wine.
Mirin (if you don't have any, just use sugar)
3 Cloves of Garlic.
2 Inches of Ginger
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2 Carrots
Broccoli
3-4 Mushrooms
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175 g (1 Cup) White rice
Red wine/ white wine vinegar
1 tsp of sugar.


The Action
1. We need to create a marinade for the fish. Cut up three cloves of garlic and grate an inch of ginger root. Take the Sake (or white wine) and soy sauce and pour into a ziploc bag in equal amounts with the garlic and ginger. Put your fish in the bag, and leave in your fridge for at least 2 hours.

2. When it gets close to dinner time, put the rice in salted boiling water and simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, peel the carrots and then strip them using a potato peeler. Chop up your broccoli and crumble your mushrooms. Set Aside.

3. Heat up a saucepan until very hot. Put 3 tbsp of oil in the pan (I used sesame seed oil) . Place the fish skin side down and cook for approx 3 minutes. At the same time heat a second pan and throw in your vegetables. Add a spash of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar to the veggies as you cook 'em.

4. Flip your fish and cook for a further 3 minutes and remove from pan.

5. Combine 5 tbsp of vinegar (you can use white or rice) with a tbsp of sugar in a small bowl. Microwave, and add to your fully cooked rice.

Plate up and enjoy!

Sunday, 23 October 2011

Chef Boyardee it Aint: Squash, Spinach & Bacon Ravioli


Hello Cheapskates,


It's been a while since my last update. No, I haven't given up on the project and no, I certainly haven't stopped cooking. This week I bring you something that I haven't tried before- a Ravioli made entirely from scratch.

What's great about this recipe is that what you put inside of the ravioli is entirely up to you. I came up with this one through rustling through the vegetable crisper, and pulling some unused bacon stuck to the back of the fridge (let's be honest, we've all been there).

If you can't find Yellow Squash, you could just as easily use butternut squash. This recipe takes roughly 30 mins to make, serves 3, and costs around $2 a head.

It Took me 10 minutes to take this photo. This is not a joke.


Go Get:
1 Yellow Squash
1 Bag of Spinach
2-3 Rashers of Bacon (The ball of cheap cooking bacon available at most UK supermarkets works just fine)
2 Handfuls of grated cheese, preferably Parmesan.
4 White Mushrooms
3 Cloves of Garlic
3 Eggs
300-400g Flour
Olive Oil,
Salt & Pepper

The Action:
1. Put some water on to boil. Shred the squash using a cheese grater, finely cut the garlic and combine in a bowl. Crumble the mushrooms with your hands into rough piece mix with the squash and garlic.

2. Roughly chop the bacon and fry using a small amount of oil. After the bacon bits have started to turn crispy, throw in the garlic squash & mushroom. Fry for a further few minutes, drain the excess fat & water and put back into the bowl.

3. Roughly chop your spinach and combine with the bacon, mushroom and squash. Throw in the cheese and season the mixture with a large pinch of salt and pepper. It should look something like this:


4. Time to make the pasta sheets. If you have a blender, crack three eggs and combine with the flour in the mixing bowl. Add 3/4th tsp of salt and 1tsp of olive oil. Blend until mixed. Keep adding flour until the mixture has lost it's stickiness. If you don't have a blender, pour the flour onto a counter-top, create a well in the middle and crack your eggs into it. Get your hands dirty and mix.

5. Kneed the dough for around 8 minutes. Cut the dough-ball in half and either run it through a pasta maker (I don't have one), or roll it out using a rolling pin covered in flour.

6. Place your fillings on one of the pasta sheets 2 inches apart from each other. Take the yolk of one egg, beat it, and spread around the fillings. This will be the glue that holds the ravioli together.

7. Cover with the second sheet of pasta, and cut out the individual ravioli pieces. Press down to get out all of the air inside the ravioli and make sure to seal the sides and edges. Boil for 15 minutes and serve with a dash of olive oil and pepper.


Tuesday, 4 October 2011

Super Quick and Fresh Burmese Fish Curry


Whilst my fish fillets sat defrosting on my counter top I pondered what to do with them. As much as I liked how my beer battered fish tacos came out last time round (recipe will follow at a later date), I had already eaten fried food TWICE that very day -damn you America!- so I wanted something slightly less greasy.

I wanted to do some sort of curry but couldn't be bothered to go and buy curry paste and coconut milk (which is both terrible for you and expensive - fuck coconuts). Luckily, I managed to find this awesome video in which you make your own curry paste from scratch out of readily available ingredients- onions, garlic, coriander and dried chili. Unlike the video I used chili flakes and didn't bother soaking them in water to save time. I also lacked tumeric, so I combined 3/4ths of a tsp of paprika with 4/ths of cumin and a dash of cinnamon to coat the fish.



This dish took 20 minutes to prepare and cook, serves three and is probably the freshest tasting curry recipe I've used. And at around $2 a serving, you can continue to use what little money you have on getting hammered. This is how it turned out: