Chicken for 77 Cents per Pound…nostalgia and inspiration!

Chicken at Safeway this week is 77 cents per pound – seems like Safeway changes the chicken price to this level from time to time. I remembered that long, long, LONG ago, I bought a whole chicken and froze it. I figured that I should use it…nearly a year later?

So I defrosted it overnight, and then brined it. Didn’t follow a recipe for the brine – just threw everything (for just a few hours, with salt, sugar, and apple cider) into a large stockpot, stuck it in the fridge for about 4 hours. I figured the apple cider vinegar would help liven up the taste if the chicken had fallen victim to freezer burn.

Someone had given me many bags of veggies, including a wealth of root veggies: fingerling and purple potatoes, as well as carrots. I decided that they would form a bed for a roast chicken. While the chicken marinated, I soaked the root veggies which were a tad dried out.

After quickly rubbing it with some chilic powder I got for $1.00 at the dollar store, I put the 4 lb chicken on a bed of root veggies into the 450 degree oven. About 75 minutes later, it was all quite roasted. The feedback on the chicken? No one knew it was previously frozen!!! I could have roasted a (previously frozen) woolly mammoth if I brined it first!!! Brining is truly magical.

Roasted chicken was part of one day’s meal (yesterday’s). And what about the second day of roasted chicken? Why not make lettuce cups? That’s right, slather that chicken with kim chee and roll it up in some lettuce. And call it a day. So so easy.

I can see doing something similar with cold, drained, firm tofu. Hm…maybe I’ll have to try that.

Thanks for still reading my blog, despite my inattention! Here’s a totally gratuitous photo of some California goodness.

My Mom’s Kohi Kanten – Coffee Pudding (Vegan – and about $.10 per serving!)

Kanten…so many reasons I love it:

1. it’s a naturally ZERO calorie food. That’s right. I said, ZERO!
2. it’s filling and yet not wiggly-jiggly (unlike gelatin);
3. even the laziest prep yields yummilicious results; and
4. I grew up eating it!

Below is a picture of agar agar in stick form.

At any Asian market you can find premixed packets of almond kanten for less than 2 or 3 dollars – really tasty with even the least interesting fruit cocktail. Growing up, we had that all the time. Perfect summertime dessert. Nice and cool! But avoid buying agar agar at Whole Foods. I have seen the Eden versions for almost 6 dollars!!! You should be able to buy the stick agar agar for $2.00 or less per 10 grams (.35 oz). the urban vegan recommends buying the stick format and sticking the sticks into the food processor to make flakes.* I’m used to the stick forms, but, I think this is a great tip for people accustomed to the flake format. Also, people can get quite glamorous with agar agar (also known as kanten in Japanese). I am stockpiling ideas for what do with it. And coffee kanten is a classic (kohi = coffee in Japanese). So here it is!

Mom’s Kohi Kanten

• 2 cups of boiling coffee – sweeten to taste (pennies);
• 5 grams of powdered agar agar (about 1/2 of a stick of agar agar – about $.50 worth); and
• coconut milk – this is optional (about 10 teaspoons – roughly 1/4th of a 13 oz can – $1.59 = $.40 cents worth).

Dissolve the agar agar in the boiling hot coffee in a saucepot. Mix mix mix. Add your sweetener. Mix. Pour the piping hot mixture into a pie plate. Alright, just cover and chill it for about 2 hours. Done. It’s traditional to cut it into squares (as you see above). Splash on a teaspoon of coconut milk per serving. If you have them around, put a roasted coffee bean on top. Makes eight~ ten servings, depending on the size (less than $.10 per serving – half of that if you do not use the coconut milk of course). Be sure to have this with some lovely tea!

(you can also cool it into cute little cups for individual servings)

* the urban vegan’s post is actually VERY helpful for gaining a good understanding of agar agar. Read it and let the erudition flow!

P.S. I don’t really follow diet news, so, maybe someone can tell me if there are any standards for what is “low-carb”? My very casual research shows me that the FDA hasn’t made a decision yet, but, I’m guessing that might not be the latest info.

Update: VegCookingBlog, thanks for linking to this post! My stats are blowing up !!!! I’ve also written a post on making Mango Kanten.

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Housekeeping notes:

(1) I’ve added a “Tips” page to the blog to park handy things I learn about (and/or blog about). For example, last week, limes went on sale – 10 for a dollar. So…I’m not going to use ten in a given week…and they don’t last forever…but they can last longer if you slice them and freeze them. Like so:

Might be better to peel skin off – haven’t tried it that way yet. Works grrrrreat in iced tea. (This is a tip contributed by my mom.)

(2) Not sure why, but Feedburner sent off an old post (from April ’07) on May 10. It wasn’t my doing! I’ll try to find out why that happened.

Canned Fish is a Superstar I: Jack Mackerel (Capellini and Fishcakes)

Please, there is no reason to pretend. I know what you are thinking…I’m in love with canned fish too…

First in a series of posts about the wonders of canned fish.

Each can of jack mackerel (costing $1.29 ~ $1.79) yields a lot of protein (and omega-3‘s). I have no idea why they are so inexpensive but I definitely appreciate it. Scroll down for inexpensive preps of this fine fish: Jack Mackerel Cappellini (extremely fast), and Jack Mackerel Cakes (not as fast, but very nice!).

Jack Mackerel Cappellini

• 2 oz. of dry, whole wheat cappellini (angelhair); (1 lb of Full Circle = $1.59 / 8 = $.20);
• 3 or 4 frozen brussel sprouts (12 ~ 14 oz for $.87 / 6 = = $.15) ;
• 1/2 of canned jack mackerel filet ($1.29/6 = = $.22);
• olive oil (pennies);
• sea salt (I used Whole Foods 365 brand…can’t remember now what it costs, but, it was such a steal!);
• and pepper (pennies).

Boil and drain the pasta. Flake the mackerel, and mix it with the hot pasta, olive oil, pepper. Salt to taste – the fish is not salty, but contains salt. Microwave the Brussels sprouts for 2 or 3 min, halve them, and toss with everything else. It’ll be very nice (and about $.60 for this serving). I promise!

Jack Mackerel Cakes

Heritage Recipes has a simple, simple, simple recipe for Jack Mackerel Cakes. Three ingredients: 1 can of jack mackerel ($1.79 for the BumbleBee brand), cornmeal (I mixed polenta and cornmeal in my version because…the polenta was there…about $1.00/lb, and I used less than 1 cup…about $.50 worth), and 1 egg (I think I used a jumbo, probably $0.16). Makes seven huge cakes, as the recipe says (about $.35 apiece) . Took pictures of my process. Enjoy! I served this with a ketchup/Worcestershire sauce (to approximate a tonkatsu sauce). My dines were very very happy. The recipe works so great – this was my first time trying it, and I got rave reviews!

Update (03/20/08): I’m just adding a link I found in askmetafilter, about eating fish more frugally.