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you could also use an induction single cooker to further cut energy usage for longer cooks
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Dec 9, 2016 07:08
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Anne Whateley posted:You should really do the math. Almost all of my electricity & gas bill is for infrastructure and fees, and has nothing to do with the amount I actually use. Even if you want to cut down your power bill, like you say, stuff like heat, lights, and big appliances are much lower-hanging fruit that also take a ton more energy. Like you say, the amounts you're talking about are like two cents. If you save that much at every meal for an entire month, you've saved $1.80.  Residential usage habits are one of the most impenetrable portions of energy conservation and it's not because you can't save energy there in huge amounts - but rather than each household's usage is shockingly different, and most of those folks are simply not willing to change their personal usage habits.. So just learning to close windows and shut off lights and not leave the skillet heating for an hour before you use it, can actually have a very measurable difference in how much money it costs you to live at your otherwise normal living conditions.. But it's hard to convince someone of that until they either see how much less their peer group (neighborhood) uses in comparison, or because they started itemizing costs. It's a lot of work but really interesting. Sorry for the derail, PM me if you're interested I can point you to threads or personally respond if anybody cares. coyo7e fucked around with this message at 08:21 on Dec 9, 2016 |
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Dec 9, 2016 08:15
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coyo7e posted:I apologize but I am not going to take this as truth until I've done my own calculations. A lot of heat-transfer math is still beyond me and I will have to learn it over the next couple months for my new field however it's frankly shocking to see just how much juice it requires to perform cooking and heating tasks - to that point that once you replace most of your lights (especially the 4-6 bulb vanity in your bathroom that runs at likely 200+W per hour), you can literally assess the energy usage in your home and it comes down to pretty much three or four things: water heater, cooking, and HVAC.. And clothes dryer if you have one. With a pressure cooker you often go from "simmer for 6 hours" to keeping the pot on the stove on low for 1 hour.
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Dec 9, 2016 14:10
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coyo7e posted:
And it's just stupid stuff like leaving TVs and computers on 24/7, or over air-conditioning or heating. Or just having a shittily insulated house. Or being deaf to the fact that your toilet is constantly running or watering your lawn during a rainstorm and you're wasting thousands of gallons of water and aggghhh. You know what's cool? Biogas digesters. Harvest cow poo poo and turn it into cooking gas. https://completebiogas.com/B_Under.html
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Dec 9, 2016 16:06
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That Works posted:Hell yeah. So for you is gumbo basically brown roux - > holy trinity + okra + whatever meat? Or is there anything else that you consider intrinsic? (I guess that brown roux -> holy trinity + okra + menonite sausage and chicken sounds loving awesome enough, with or without shrimp and stuff....)
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Dec 9, 2016 22:02
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coyo7e posted:I apologize but I am not going to take this as truth until I've done my own calculations. A lot of heat-transfer math is still beyond me and I will have to learn it over the next couple months for my new field however it's frankly shocking to see just how much juice it requires to perform cooking and heating tasks - to that point that once you replace most of your lights (especially the 4-6 bulb vanity in your bathroom that runs at likely 200+W per hour), you can literally assess the energy usage in your home and it comes down to pretty much three or four things: water heater, cooking, and HVAC.. And clothes dryer if you have one. coyo7e posted:It's begun to change my cooking habits from "put it on simmer and leave it going for 6 hours" to actually giving a poo poo about how long I cook stuff, and my power bills have gone down a lot - even though I'm in the middle of a freezing rainstorm with the ceiling heat in every room running right now. coyo7e posted:I was simply trying to emphasize that if you're poor there are a lot of low-hanging fruit to pick, in terms of saving money. I used to think I saved a lot of money by unpluggnig my microwave after every use - now I realize that because I had to plug it in before every use I simply stopped using it almost entirely, which did drop my power bills by a couple bucks a month.
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Dec 9, 2016 22:03
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CommonShore posted:So for you is gumbo basically brown roux - > holy trinity + okra + whatever meat? Or is there anything else that you consider intrinsic? Well I am not a gumbo expert, but as a guy from California who has cooked it two or three times, I think the key flavor is the roux, followed by the trinity. Smoked sausage sure does go nicely with chicken, but I don't know that it's absolutely required. Same with okra and file. When you're cooking gumbo, it's not the sausage or the okra that makes your kitchen smell amazing.
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Dec 10, 2016 12:03
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CommonShore posted:So for you is gumbo basically brown roux - > holy trinity + okra + whatever meat? Or is there anything else that you consider intrinsic? Pretty much. Also either okra or file and some rice as well.
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Dec 10, 2016 14:42
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Where do you guys get your File? I haven't been able to find any in Canada at a non gently caress you price.
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Dec 11, 2016 16:56
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The Spice Trader: Gumbo Filé Powder They are in Toronto. I've never ordered from them.
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Dec 13, 2016 10:32
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CommonShore posted:Where do you guys get your File? I haven't been able to find any in Canada at a non gently caress you price. Not sure about Amazon in Canada but https://smile.amazon.com/Zatarains-...mbo%2Bfile&th=1
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Dec 13, 2016 13:31
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CommonShore posted:Where do you guys get your File? I haven't been able to find any in Canada at a non gently caress you price. Mountain Rose Herbs sells sassafras leaves, which you can grind up in a mortar or food processor to make file. It grinds up incredibly quickly; you can almost just do it by rubbing the dried leaves between your hands.
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Dec 13, 2016 17:45
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That Works posted:With a pressure cooker you often go from "simmer for 6 hours" to keeping the pot on the stove on low for 1 hour. Pre-soaked beans are almost all done in less than ten minutes at pressure. And using a natural release rather than quick whenever possible also helps cut cooking times. My stove and heat are propane so anything to trim that massive bill is okay by me.
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Dec 13, 2016 18:06
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Not taking energy costs into account (my gas bill is part of my rent anyways), the ability to cook beans in less than an hour is worth it for me. I have an instant pot and after using it a few times and adjusting to not being able to check in on stuff as it cooks, I actually love it now. My biggest complaint is, at 5'3", I have to stand on a stool during the sauté mode to see what's going on inside. This is barely a complaint though, since I do that while using any sort of big soup pot or kneading bread.
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Dec 13, 2016 19:05
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One of the biggest upsides of cooking dried beans is the bean broth you're left with after they're done. I've used black, kidney, garbanzo (which I cook the most of, by far), northern, and adzuki broth for a variety of uses. Mostly bases for soups. The adzuki broth was so gelatinous that it was barely a broth, and we turned it into red bean pudding after just chilling it for a while. It was tasty as hell! Then we used the adzuki beans to make brownies. Highly recommended.
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Dec 13, 2016 21:04
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SymmetryrtemmyS posted:Mountain Rose Herbs sells sassafras leaves, which you can grind up in a mortar or food processor to make file. It grinds up incredibly quickly; you can almost just do it by rubbing the dried leaves between your hands.
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Dec 13, 2016 23:20
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That Works posted:Not sure about Amazon in Canada but https://smile.amazon.com/Zatarains-...mbo%2Bfile&th=1 Yeah that exact same jar is $57 on amazon.ca (rather, $5 + $52 shipping).
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Dec 13, 2016 23:23
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Butch Cassidy posted:Pre-soaked beans are almost all done in less than ten minutes at pressure. And using a natural release rather than quick whenever possible also helps cut cooking times. Ah yup, I was more thinking about stock or beef stew etc. Beans are super quick. New pressure cooker users should be sure they know how to use one with beans. Beans can froth up a bit more so you don't want to try to overload a pressure cooker with beans (or any other material that will generate a fair bit of froth / gunk). That said I can do 2-3 lbs of lentils in my very standard size pressure cooker without worry, so its not exactly size limited.
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Dec 14, 2016 00:00
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I've been wanting to make a big pot of soup or something lately and with the semester done, I have time to kill. I was dying for potato-leek soup but I'd have to go pretty far to get good leeks at a reasonable price, and it's pretty damned cold so I don't want to be bus hopping. Stone soup 2-3 potatoes, peeled+diced bigly 1 small head of cabbage (or half a medium to large one), sliced into strips 2 old yellow onions that were dry and wilty but not moldy - diced bigly 1 stalk celery - cut it up if you want, or leave it whole and throw it out. your choice 3 carrots peeled and chopped 1 fist-sized chunk of ham, diced and browned in a skillet 12 oz beer 1 can of low-sodium chicken/vegetable/beef broth (I had some homemade broth in the freezer, and it's low salt which you want because ham) 1 sprig rosemary, intact (rosemary isn't very toothsome when stripped or chopped, imho) couple cloves of diced garlic, or garlic powder 1 teaspoon herbs de provence a little pepper. I just threw a beer and the broth into a big pot, and started adding ingredients as I found them. frying up the ham helps the flavor a lot, and helps get some of the fat and salt out of the soup when you skim out the meat. You won't have anywhere near enough liquid in the pot after you're done with ingredients, so I added water until it was about 1/2" below the line of the ingredients and covered to bring to a slow boil. Don't add salt or bouillion until you've tasted it, the ham still is pretty salty. Cook until the potatoes are done, or at that point let it simmer for another hour or two so the potatoes break down and thicken everything up. Oh yeah, I also used half a kettle of tea for liquid before adding water, because the tea had gone cold and I'd need to toss it out otherwise, which seemed kinda wasteful. It worked quite nicely - but I wouldn't put a teabag in there if you don't have some cold tea lying about, that'd be way too strong.
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Dec 14, 2016 00:12
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What kind of tea did you use and how did it effect things? I've never thought about using tea in a soup, but I've got a few different varieties that I'm curious about now.
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Dec 14, 2016 03:27
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coyo7e posted:This is a local company for me, they treat their employees really well and they have a really hard-line stance on the quality of their products. I can't endorse them enough. Hey, me too. Have you gone to the retail location yet? It's amazing. Thousands of different herbs and spices on display. It's in a beautiful location too, right downtown.
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Dec 14, 2016 03:32
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From the coupons subforum, https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00FLYWNYQ/ref%3Dnosim/water70e-20 Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker, 6Qt/1000W is on sale for $79
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Dec 15, 2016 19:56
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I have that exact model and it's really great.
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Dec 16, 2016 06:44
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neogeo0823 posted:What kind of tea did you use and how did it effect things? I've never thought about using tea in a soup, but I've got a few different varieties that I'm curious about now. But yeah, it's just a basic chinese-ish green tea with a long-HOT heavy steep (I leave it for 24 hours+ at near-boiling because I'm lazy and it's still thinner than coffee when I drink it), but it didn't hurt a darned thing in the flavor of the recipe (if anything the ham and whatevs soup still ended up too greasy as leftovers, and the tea was nonexistent imho.. the ham was the main problem - even after frying and straingin and squeezing it left too much grease in the liquid and there wasn't enough water on top to skim off - so I got a kind of greasy-ish cabbage soup for leftovers - not bad but the potatoes are bummers at that point - soaked up too much fat). If you google around there are tons of neat recipes involving tea in different stages, from tea eggs (omg yes make a bunch of those!) to tea-based soups, to all kinda of stuff where you use a bean or rice pour-off liquid to add body.savory - so why the heck not use a bag of tea in it?! There's a ton of ideas out there - also steam your eggs to hard-cook them, they'll split less and you can boil them in the orange pekoe later (I've never once mewt a person who drank orange pekoe tea - it seems to only be used for tea eggs lol) 
coyo7e fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Dec 17, 2016 |
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Dec 17, 2016 07:50
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The Midniter posted:One of the biggest upsides of cooking dried beans is the bean broth you're left with after they're done. I've used black, kidney, garbanzo (which I cook the most of, by far), northern, and adzuki broth for a variety of uses. Mostly bases for soups. The adzuki broth was so gelatinous that it was barely a broth, and we turned it into red bean pudding after just chilling it for a while. It was tasty as hell! Then we used the adzuki beans to make brownies. Highly recommended. Any recommendations for garbanzo bean based recipes? I just got an instant pot and making these from scratch is #1 on my agenda. I will of course do hummus but am looking for others' favorite recipes.
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Dec 17, 2016 09:24
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Booyah- posted:Any recommendations for garbanzo bean based recipes? I just got an instant pot and making these from scratch is #1 on my agenda. I will of course do hummus but am looking for others' favorite recipes. I'm a big fan of both of these http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/10/chickpea-salad-bacon-roasted-poblano-chili-recipe.html https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/03/spinach-and-chickpeas
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Dec 17, 2016 22:51
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Somewhat similar, an Indian favorite - http://minimalistbaker.com/easy-chana-masala/
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Dec 17, 2016 23:18
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Booyah- posted:Any recommendations for garbanzo bean based recipes? I just got an instant pot and making these from scratch is #1 on my agenda. I will of course do hummus but am looking for others' favorite recipes. I cook a huge batch of chick peas and make a chick pea salad to eat for lunch during the week. I cook about 1060 grams of dried chick peas, which provides enough for the salad as well as one full quart container to use for the week in other applications. I dice four stalks of celery, a bunch of radishes, a whole medium onion, sometimes a cucumber, sometimes radishes, and three to four jalapenos depending on their size. I dress it with either tzatziki and white vinegar, or plain yogurt, mayo, and white vinegar. It's super tasty and super healthy.
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Dec 19, 2016 17:40
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Booyah- posted:Any recommendations for garbanzo bean based recipes? I just got an instant pot and making these from scratch is #1 on my agenda. I will of course do hummus but am looking for others' favorite recipes. I make "chickpea fritters" which is basically chickpeas blended up with their veggies and other spices into a wet paste and then mixed with flour into a sticky dough/batter. I then fry them up in whatever size and shape I want by dropping a mound into the hot pan and stretching it out with my fingers. I've made more patty style for sandwiches or popper size for in an udon bowl. It's loosely based off of this recipe, subbing our cooked chickpeas for some of the broccoli. PS I'm vegan so I sub these in for burgers, meatballs, etc by using different seasoning. The chickpeas are super tasty and filling. http://www.veganricha.com/2016/11/chipotle-broccoli-fritters.html
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Dec 19, 2016 21:25
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Booyah- posted:Any recommendations for garbanzo bean based recipes? I just got an instant pot and making these from scratch is #1 on my agenda. I will of course do hummus but am looking for others' favorite recipes. Toss in a smidge of oil, throw in lightly crushed spices (I like cumin, coriander, and sesame), salt, and paprika. Spread on cookie sheet, making sure there is only 1 layer of chickpeas. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes. Toss with a spatula, and return to the oven for another 13 minutes. They are now a delicious snack to eat.
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Jan 27, 2017 17:40
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While you're baking them (as above but add some honey near the end of cook time if you have it), add some butternut pumpkin, capsicum, and eggplant or zucchini on a tray to roast (or grill - I usually grill because this is my summer vegetarian bbq/grill recipe) Make up some lemon cous cous or lemon rice. Also to serve on top, mix some greek yogurt with cumin and lemon zest. If you have cheap coriander or parsley because you grow it, add that too. E: Just realised no one has mentioned a coconut curry. Main reason I would use chickpeas over any other legume would be especially for a coconut Indian curry. I usually just do a basic coconut curry while roasting some seasoned/spiced butternut pumpkin and cauliflower, then add the cooked chickpeas and veg to the sauce. The chickpeas act as a filler so I don't need to worry about sides/rice. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jan 28, 2017 |
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Jan 28, 2017 03:54
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I found these retort pouch Jyoti Mung Dal things for sale for 65 cents a pop and they were drat fantastic. A real nice meal. Even better because they were cheap and easy and I was tired. Add pouch and 1/4 cup water to small pot, enjoy easy 440 calories of delicious. Then I did one where I chopped up a chicken thigh, seared it off in some butter and oil, then added the pouch and water. Great easy no plan food after a long day. I dare say you could take it camping and just boil the pouch up and have a lentil mash. Gotta watch out for those deals from the ''ethnic'' part of the grocery store.
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Jan 29, 2017 02:58
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Over the last two weekends, I have learned to make Pork Siu Bao in my Instant Pot. I'm not sure if this counts as cheap, but it's probably cheaper than my prior habit of buying the 4-pack of them at Trader Joe's twice a week. Dough 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 tablespoon sake (I used rice vinegar though) Filling 1/2 lb ground pork 2 tablespoons Annie Chung's Sweet and Spicy sauce (honestly just use anything) 2 teaspoons sesame oil 3 green onions, chopped finely For the dough, sift all of the dry ingredients first, then add in the wet and stir until a ball forms. Cover and set aside to rest for 10 minutes. Mix all of the filling ingredients together with your hands. That's just the easiest way, sorry. Divide the dough into two to make it easier to work with. Roll into a thick log and cut into 6 pieces. Roll out each piece on a floured surface. The dough circles should be about palm sized. Spoon the filling into dough circles and seal at the top, like a coin purse. Use the steaming basket in a rice cooker or electric pressure cooker and line with parchment paper. I ran out of parchment the first time and used tin foil greased with sesame oil. Cover the bottom with water, make sure the appliance is vented if you are using a pressure cooker, and fill the bottom with about a cup of water. Steam for 20 Minutes.
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Feb 26, 2017 00:53
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Right now I have a couple staples that I make each night but I'm looking to branch out. Been wanting to do some stuff with pasta since it's fairly cheap and filling and I haven't done anything with it yet. Does anyone have any recipes that are pretty simple to start out with? Bonus if it incorporates chicken thighs since that's what I always have in stock.
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Mar 26, 2017 15:49
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Pasta is not particularly cheap, but if you want some pasta recipes, my favorite is pasta aglio e olio.
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Mar 26, 2017 17:22
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What's a good choice for daily protein? I've been eating mostly beef, but that's not a good long term choice at all since it's pricy. Also, what cut of meat should I use for chili that's relatively inexpensive but still does what I want?
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Mar 26, 2017 18:02
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plz dont pull out posted:Right now I have a couple staples that I make each night but I'm looking to branch out. Been wanting to do some stuff with pasta since it's fairly cheap and filling and I haven't done anything with it yet. Does anyone have any recipes that are pretty simple to start out with? Bonus if it incorporates chicken thighs since that's what I always have in stock. Basic pasta sauce - fry off garlic in olive oil until it's starting to go golden, add passata, salt, and white pepper. Keep on a gentle bubble until the pasta is cooked. You can add whatever you want into that, so if you cooked up some chicken thighs you could shred/chunk those and throw the meat in. I would probably cook the thighs separately as they're quite a fatty, juicy cut and that wouldn't necessarily play well with the sauce. You can also use the meat in a white sauce of some kind. A super simple thing to do would be to fry off some garlic, dump in some cream/cream cheese, heat through and toss your pasta in that with the chicken, some Parmesan and some black pepper. Aglio, olio e peperoncino is also great. Fry off some garlic and chilli/chilli flakes in olive oil and toss your pasta in that. Super simple and bloody delicious. This lentil lasagne is a bit more effort, but I really enjoyed it. The ragu can be zhuzhed up with a bit of chilli and tomato to make a tasty ragu for future use. Lemon and asparagus is also a solid pasta choice, and pretty easy. A cursory Google throws up this recipe, but have a look and find one that you feel you could get on with. You can whack chicken in this as well. Pasta is pretty much the easiest and most customisable thing in the world.
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Mar 26, 2017 18:10
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Pollyanna posted:What's a good choice for daily protein? I've been eating mostly beef, but that's not a good long term choice at all since it's pricy. Beans are good and cheap. I've been out of the red meat eating game for awhile, but maybe look for stew meat for chili?
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Mar 26, 2017 18:15
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Pollyanna posted:What's a good choice for daily protein? I've been eating mostly beef, but that's not a good long term choice at all since it's pricy. Beans, and eggs are also an option. Any meat can get amazingly tender if you can spare the time to cook it for several hours, so feel free to buy any cheap cut that would never be edible if cooked as a steak.
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Mar 26, 2017 18:22
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Pollyanna posted:What's a good choice for daily protein? I've been eating mostly beef, but that's not a good long term choice at all since it's pricy. Apart from the Pro advice on beans and eggs, pork butt / pork shoulder etc is usually very cheap. You're gonna want to either trim fat before or skim fat after cooking as it's usually going to be really fatty but it's cheap meat (in the USA at least). ' Edit: also whole chickens can get real cheap and if not, sometimes chicken leg quarters can. Seasonally you can find cheap stuff like corned beef right now being dumped after St. Patricks day sales for real cheap and can find cheap ham after easter, cheap turkey after Thanksgiving and Christmas etc. Also for chili I just go for the cheapest red meat on sale that I can find and it can make a decent chili. It's usually bottom round or something close to that.
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Mar 26, 2017 19:07
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