The frugal gourmet

[Chancie]

I made delicious pasta tonight. I cooked a pound of spagetti, al dente, and added one pint of cherry tomatoes, roasted with olive oil and pepper, one package of pre washed spinach, and garlic sauteed in olive oil. I threw in a little jar of capers that I think I bought at Aldo's when I was there with drvnsnow and some shredded parmigian cheese.

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Chancie

I made delicious pasta tonight. I cooked a pound of spagetti, al dente, and added one pint of cherry tomatoes, roasted with olive oil and pepper, one package of pre washed spinach, and garlic sauteed in olive oil. I threw in a little jar of capers that I think I bought at Aldo's when I was there with drvnsnow and some shredded parmigian cheese.

I so love roasted vegies - really brings out the flavour.
I never really liked sweet potato until I tried it roasted with sour cream on top. That's the best way to have it, if you ask me!

Anyway Chancie, your pasta sounds yum!

Wow Cath, $1.39 a pound is a pretty amazing price. I don't think we'd ever find a special like that here in Australia. The best I've seen is about $4.00 a kilo (now the online converter says 1 kilogram = 2.20462262 pounds, but I don't want to think that hard so let's just say $2.00 a pound) but that's a very rare find. That was for a pork roast.

Meat is getting more and more expensive. The cheapest meat here is turkey mince (something like $2.50 a pound). I imagine it's because turkey meat must be relatively cheap to produce, but I wonder why? Chicken mince and beef mince is more like $5.00 - $6.00 a pound, on average. It would be interesting to do a comparison.

Oh, yeah... but that was Australian dollars... too many variables - I give up!

[Fancy]

Ursy -

When you say mince, is that comparable to what I'd call "ground"? When I read mince, I think something like paste. It can't be the same, I think.

I've been striving to not by meats (as much), or to look for local sources rather than chain super markets. I do buy a lot of turkey (ground), and fish when able. I don't mind paying a little more for the right meats when I know I'm saving money elsewhere (produce).

Originally Posted by urs

I so love roasted vegies - really brings out the flavour.
I never really liked sweet potato until I tried it roasted with sour cream on top. That's the best way to have it, if you ask me!

Anyway Chancie, your pasta sounds yum!

Wow Cath, $1.39 a pound is a pretty amazing price. I don't think we'd ever find a special like that here in Australia. The best I've seen is about $4.00 a kilo (now the online converter says 1 kilogram = 2.20462262 pounds, but I don't want to think that hard so let's just say $2.00 a pound) but that's a very rare find. That was for a pork roast.

Meat is getting more and more expensive. The cheapest meat here is turkey mince (something like $2.50 a pound). I imagine it's because turkey meat must be relatively cheap to produce, but I wonder why? Chicken mince and beef mince is more like $5.00 - $6.00 a pound, on average. It would be interesting to do a comparison.

Oh, yeah... but that was Australian dollars... too many variables - I give up!

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Freckle-K

Ursy -

When you say mince, is that comparable to what I'd call "ground"? When I read mince, I think something like paste. It can't be the same, I think.

I've been striving to not by meats (as much), or to look for local sources rather than chain super markets. I do buy a lot of turkey (ground), and fish when able. I don't mind paying a little more for the right meats when I know I'm saving money elsewhere (produce).

Oh yes Freckle, I think you guys call it ground. Funny how we have to negotiate different terminologies across the ocean. I read an amusing discussion about biscuits and cookies just this past weekend - here it is:

http://ask.metafilter.com/43569/What...biscuit-abroad

Because what you guys call cookies, we call biscuits. We tend not to have biscuits in the U.S. sense at all. It intrigued me greatly when I first heard of them. I think I'm going to have to try them!

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by urs

Meat is getting more and more expensive. The cheapest meat here is turkey mince (something like $2.50 a pound). I imagine it's because turkey meat must be relatively cheap to produce, but I wonder why? Chicken mince and beef mince is more like $5.00 - $6.00 a pound, on average. It would be interesting to do a comparison.

Oh, yeah... but that was Australian dollars... too many variables - I give up!

Ground/minced turkey is a little cheaper because they throw everything in there...skin, meat, bits of this or that...if it's on the bird, it's in there. Most of the chicken here is specialized. Breasts, skinless breasts, drumsticks, etc. so that ups the cost due to packaging and the machinery required to separate the parts.

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Gemme

Ground/minced turkey is a little cheaper because they throw everything in there...skin, meat, bits of this or that...if it's on the bird, it's in there. Most of the chicken here is specialized. Breasts, skinless breasts, drumsticks, etc. so that ups the cost due to packaging and the machinery required to separate the parts.

Blurk!
That really puts me off the turkey then. Thanks for the explanation Gemme!

[Bit]

This is a very simple recipe that makes a soft bread-like biscuit, good for butter and jam or for sopping up gravy. (It is not a British tea biscuit at all.) The original recipe came from about.com, in the southern cooking section; this is my version. My apologies about the measurements; I couldn't figure out how to convert them.

Drop Biscuits

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda; very important, don't leave it out)

3 Tbsp butter

1/8 to 1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup milk

Set an oven rack in the center position. Preheat the oven to 425 F (218.3 C).

Start by souring the milk; measure the lemon juice, dump the milk in on top, and let it sit while you mix the rest of the ingredients.

In a medium size bowl, mix flour with other dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until the particles are the size of peas. You can make them uniformly fine, so the butter is spread evenly through the flour like a commercial biscuit mix, or you can leave tiny lumps of butter--either works.

Pour in the sour milk--lumps are good but not required--and stir till the dough is evenly wet. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl. In order to get tender biscuits, do this stirring with a spoon and NEVER an electric mixer of any kind; biscuit dough is like pie dough and benefits from gentle handling. If it's extremely dry or sticky, you can fix that by stirring in a teaspoon or two of water or a tablespoon of flour.

Once the dough is completely mixed, drop it by heaping tablespoonfuls (or servingspoonfuls) onto a cold, ungreased baking sheet. Leave room for the biscuits to expand. Four rows of three biscuits should fit easily onto a standard 12" x 18" baking sheet. (30.5 x 45.7 cm)

Bake for eight to fifteen minutes, depending on how hot your oven runs and how wet/sticky the dough was. Don't set a timer and walk away--these biscuits need checked every few minutes. They're done when the peaks are just starting to brown. Makes 12.

Notes:

• If you prefer sweet biscuits, you can add up to 1/4 cup sugar to the dough, plus sweet spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.
• If you prefer savory, you can use garlic salt instead of salt, add in dried herbs and spices, and add a cup of shredded cheese with the milk.
• If you prefer cultured buttermilk to sour milk, leave out the lemon juice and use 1 1/4 cups buttermilk.
• The baking soda is important because it reacts with the lemon juice or buttermilk to do a major part of the rising.
• IMPORTANT: If you put cheese in this dough, grease the baking sheet! OY, I didn't the first time... what a mess!