Discoveries In Food

I have no pictures for this blog post, so here's my current computer background. Discovery?

It's been a while since I've blogged. That's because I haven't done a whole lot that's blog worthy this past month. Oh I went and hiked up Mount Hood with George a few weeks ago, but other than that I've been largely holed up in my room trying to get a ton of work done, putting in 10+ hour work days to offset the relative lack of time I'll have for Skritter work in October.

But work isn't strictly all I've been doing. I do manage to set aside time to put together proper meals and eat well. And so I've been having all sorts of fun learning how to put together single person meals better, and generally improvising and trying out new things. Here are a few of the things I've picked up on.

Trader Joe's: Liking It More And More

Now, some of you have already heard me fanboy out over Trader Joe's. You know who you are, so go ahead and skip this section. You've heard it all before. This is the last time, I swear.

So until recently I've never really done a lot of shopping at Trader Joe's. Back in Oberlin, they were not walking distance, and I was thrown off by the general impression I got that they were expensive. My Dad's a big fan though, and he told me their prices are actually pretty good, because they sell everything with their own brand. The prices are not bargain basement but not above average either. Even so, I was not keen on regularly commuting by car to my source of food so I usually went to our local IGA. And I also didn't like having to go to a separate store to purchase certain basics that Trader Joe's lacked. It was more a specialty store than a general grocery, at least the one in that particular shopping center.

When I was in Oakland, though, Trader Joe's was the closest thing there was. And for three weeks I had the place to myself (I was staying with Ralph, and he was off elsewhere). So I went to Trader Joe's and got myself just enough food to cover me for that time, during which I became thoroughly hooked. The food quality is generally pretty good, lots of interesting specialty items, and some of their one person meals work pretty well (though it's often hit or miss). And more surprisingly, the cost was very low. I managed to live off two dollars a meal for those three weeks. That's good. I later compared some of the prices between that and the nearby Safeway, and even with Ralph's discount card the items were on average 20% more expensive there than Trader Joe's.

The last concern was that they didn't have the full selection, that you couldn't get things like certain spices or basic ingredients that you needed, That it was mostly specialty items. But I think that's changing. I've been going to more and more Trader Joe's while I've been traveling, and they seem to be getting bigger and more complete. There may be a few odds and ends for particular recipes you still can't get there, but if you find one of the larger ones it's pretty much a one stop shop.

Anyways, regarding improving the food I eat, Trader Joe's does fine at providing healthy ingredients, but it really shines when I want to easily expand my meal with extra goodies that take little to no time to prepare. Their pre-prepared foods, mostly sides and desserts and beverages, make fine supplements.

Mixing and Matching

Up until recently I've largely stuck to recipes. This has been a good way to get the lay of the cooking land, but you can only learn so much. So lately I've been trying to strike out and try new things, and also making my own variations of recipes I'm well familiar with.

Probably the best example of variations on a theme is boxed Mac n Cheese. Oh, before I would occasionally add diced ham and maybe some special salt but nothing too out of the ordinary. I was first introduced to the idea of really messing with the formula in Tim Ferriss' book, the 4 hour body, where he gives the following recipe:

Make the pasta as normal
Instead of cheese and butter and milk, add in just a third of the cheese packet, and then a can of chili and a can of drained tuna. Heat.

Honestly, it doesn't look good. Tim says so, and so did my parents and grandmother when I went ahead and had some right in front of them. But it does taste pretty good. And it's got a good amount of calories and protein for those who are trying to put on muscle. So I tried it out and generally liked it, more for the fish than the chili though.

So I threw out the chili part and started messing with the fish. I discovered just adding in drained tuna doesn't work well; it comes out too dry, which the chili had kept from happening in the Ferriss version. So, while the pasta is cooking, I lightly pan fry the tuna fish in a good heaping of butter, letting it soak in. As we all know, butter makes everything better. I went easy on the butter that typically goes in with the rest of the meal, so it kind of evened out health wise (not that mac n cheese is ever very good for you, even with fish added). Throw in some seasoning on the tuna while it's cooking (Trader Joe's 21 seasoning salute, anyone?), mix it in once the mac n cheese is done, and you've got a solid and easy variation.

But tuna isn't the only canned fish, is it? Just the other day I tried out putting in some canned sardines in tomato sauce instead of the tuna, and that gave it a rich burst of fishy flavor too. Bonus: I didn't need to add the extra butter to make sure the fish was moist. The tomato worked well with the cheese sauce, reminiscent of having chili added to the meal but it wasn't so overpowering. Next will be herring, and then perhaps anchovies after that?

And that's just variations on one part of the meal. Two other favorite things I like to try adding are real shredded cheeses, which take more time than the packet but can really lend more flavor, and various spices, like throwing in some hot sauce, mustard, and herbs in general as well as seasoning salts. Point is, if I'm in the mood for somewhere between easy mac and a full blown made from scratch mac n cheese casserole (the epitome of the meal, in my mind), this is a great way to be somewhere in the middle.

Now I'm hungry. But there's so much more.

Pan Frying

I never really understood the difference between pans. I just kind of went with non-stick for everything, except for the occasional stir fry when I'd try using my wok. And when cooking meats and not following a specific recipe, I would improvise, cooking on either side and flipping however many times until it was cooked all the way through.

But now I know better. Thank you Gordon Ramsay!

Click to Watch Video Because They Won't Let Me Embed It

I tried this pretty much right after I found it. It didn't come out quite as well as the one in the video, but I'll keep working on it. In particular, I like learning that you can press on the meat to test doneness, that meat should be brought to room temperature before cooking, and that it's really easy to make a butter sauce right afterward. Again, butter, so tasty. Watch more of those videos for further cooking tips.

Now, that video has a lot of general advice packed into one quick video, where he just fires of nuggets of helpful data at a rapid staccato. For more in depth and slower information about pan frying, I found this site via reddit:

Pan Frying Lessons

This really brought home the importance of the fond. Since seeing this, I've cooked all my chicken, pork and beef on my cast iron (I think) pan, and in such a way that it doesn't stick. Every time it tastes so good. Thanks, Dad, for giving me that particular pan; it's made all the difference.

Balanced Meals

I've also been working on being more healthy in general. Vegetables or greens of some sort or another are included in pretty much all my dinners now. I've become a big fan of asparagus (only wrapped up in prosciutto sometimes, I swear), and have played around with kale as well. I'm trying to cut down the percentage of the sugary carbs like cereals and toast for breakfast, which tend to upset my stomach anyway, so I lean more on things like yogurt, grapefruit, and eggs. And who needs white pasta, white rice, or white bread? I don't know what my weight is (my jeans still fit well at least), but in general I feel better, and the various signs of digestive health have improved. Such is getting older I suppose; I have to be more careful. Progress is being made, though.

Putting It All Together

So here is the kind of meal all this experimenting has lead me to make. I had this last night, and not drawn from any particular recipe.

• Pan Frying Meat: salted and peppered skinless boneless chicken breast, pan fried in the iron skillet with grapeseed oil which had been brought to the right temperature first. Flipped only after the sides could easily come off the pan and were deliciously crispy.
• A Good Dose of Health, With Flavor: Chopped up some onions and asparagus and cooked in olive oil in the non-stick pan, moving them around occasionally. Added a handful of canned chickpeas and freshly minced garlic at the end for extra nutrients and flavor, respectively.
• Trader Joe's Supplements: I also had one spring roll heated in the oven and a small glass of wine on the side, and finished it all of with a couple chocolate covered orange sticks for dessert. Dead simple additions, but they really take the meal from good to awesome.

A healthy, full, tasty, freshly cooked and varied single person meal that took about twenty minutes to make, and wasn't too expensive.

I realize now I should have taken a picture.

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Photo Ref: 28 Hi-Def Calvin and Hobbes Wallpapers