Cheap Bastid Chewing on "The Chew" and Blasting Yahoo

Cheap Bastid has done enough Cheap Bastidly cooking and writing by now to be entitled to express an opinion or two. So that’s what I’m going to do today.

I’m going to take a swipe at ABC’s new food show “The Chew”, a cutsey play on “The View”, and take a swipe at an insipid piece that showed up yesterday on Yahoo finance.

First, “The Chew”. This new show features Karla Hall who was a contestant on Top Chef along with Food Network Iron Chefs Mario Batalli and Michael Symon. It’s been on for a little over a month now. And it’s all right although a bit vapid. They’ve even made some efforts at showing how to cook good food fast and on a budget.

But yesterday they managed to pretty much alienate me with their snarky, almost condescending, take on “Southern Cooking”. Sure, they paid some lip service to the traditions of Southern or country cooking but they also managed to insert a recorded “Yeehaw” everytime they mentioned the theme or took a commercial break.

Hey jackasses, southern or country cooking is the epitome of making food dollars stretch. It’s not fancy but its inexpensive and filling and good and, most importantly, is usually made with more pinches of love than the paid shills manage to add.

To stand up in front of America spewing fake southern/country/Texas accents in the cause of entertainment demeans what they do and disrespects the food that they’re supposed to be extolling.

Certainly it’s entertainment but there are people from all over watching—not just foodies from the East coast. I thought it was offensive. Oh, and remember when earlier I said the show was all right? Too bad, because their audience (including me, at least for now) deserves something better than “all right”.

Now on to Yahoo. There was an article yesterday in Yahoo Finance—Financially Fit titled “How to Feed a Family on $15 a Day”. OK, not bad. It got my attention—I’m the Cheap Bastid. Fifteen bucks seems a bit generous, but it’s for a family of 4.

The article rubbed me the wrong way with its lead which said that the “average family of four” spends upwards of $1200 a month on groceries. Say what? The author was citing data from the USDA on monthly food costs—the $1200 a month comes from the column titled “Liberal Plan”. Even the “Thrifty Plan” at $615 per month struck me as high.

More particularly, the author was interviewing some expert who had “stopped by her kitchen” to share some advice. This expert, Allison Fishman, contributing editor to “Cooking Light”. Fishman was right when she said the important thing is to plan menus and plan shopping. I started doing that when my kids were little. Planning a menu prior to shopping was the key to making sure that ingredients were on hand and, even better, it had the result of significantly reducing the total grocery bill.

But Fishman was also suggesting that meat be used “almost like a condiment” rather than as the main feature of a meal. Huh? Meat, a condiment? She suggested that beef at $5.99 a pound and chicken breast at $5 per pound was out of reach for many to be able to provide other than a sampling of it in a meal.

That’s all well and good. But where the hell is she buying her boneless, skinless chicken breast? I pay $1.97 a pound for it. The same with beef. I now buy “lesser” cuts such as bottom round (London Broil). I can get ground beef for about $2.50 a pound by having my grocer’s meat department grind it for me when chuck or round is on special. And maybe Southern California (or at least my neighborhood) isn’t as expensive as someplace like New York City but it’s still plenty expensive.

The way this expert was presenting herself, I kind of got the impression that she was trying to educate the ignorant masses to eat a diet based on beans and squash and legumes along with using the same chicken bone for a couple of weeks to flavor the meager soups.

The “average family” spends far less than $1200 a month on food. The average family spends less than $600 a month on food. Who are they kidding. And this kind of advice does little, if anything, to enlighten or encourage or educate. What it does instead is frustrate and infuriate.

And Cheap Bastid sees that as a disservice not as being helpful.

Cheap Bastid's Chicken Fried Steak and Pan Gravy

I had the weekend off and it was time to cook some Comfort Food. Friday night I whipped up some Guinea Grinders; Saturday night I did Chicken Fried Steak and Pan Gravy and yesterday I made a big slow cooker full of Chicken and Dumpling Soup.

All 3 of these dinners not only met the Cheap Bastid test but they were really tasty too. I rummaged around in the freezer to see what I had for cooking and pulled out a couple of packages of sirloin. And quite frankly, virtually everything in the freezer was bought on special. I stocked up on sirloin when Stater Bros. had it for $1.99/lb. I won't go out and pick up dead cow or any other meat just because I have a hankering for it unless it's on special. That's the Cheap Bastid Way.


So today we’re going to talk about Chicken Fried Steak. It’s one of the ultimate Southern style comfort foods. I don’t cook it very often because it’s a bit messy but sometimes the mess is worth the effort for the flavor. The flavor is terrific and the steak is tender and tasty. I use real steak rather than cube steak or, as some people do, hamburger. And, with just a bit of practice you can get the breading crispy and golden while cooking your meat to the “doneness” you like—even medium rare.

Cheap Bastid’s Chicken Fried Steak and Pan Gravy
1 ½-2 lb Steak (sirloin or round about ¾-1 inch thick)
1 ½-2 cups flour
1 egg
Milk
1/3-1/2 cup cooking oil

Directions
Get out a good heavy skillet, cutting board, ½-1 gal. freezer bag, knife and heavy sauce pan—and put on an apron. Cut thawed steak into 2-3 chunks roughly 6 inches square. Put the steak in the freezer bag. Now pound the crap out of the meat using the sauce pan until it’s a uniform thickness of about ½ inch. (Don’t get the meat cut ½ inch thick because the pounding also tenderizes the meat). After I do this step I use a meat mallet to put the “indentations” into the meat which helps further tenderize it but I don’t wallop it, I just mark it. This step also allows you to let go of some of your frustrations by pounding on the steak. You may need to cut the meat after you tenderize it so that the portions are about 6 or 8 inches by about 3 inches.

2 Handed dredging--one for dry and one for wet.

You’re going to “double dredge so get out a couple of bowls or containers which have flat bottoms and are big enough to put the meat into flat. In one bowl dump in your flour (I also like to use some sort of crumb—about 1/3-1/2 cup bread crumbs or just take 10-12 saltines and schmoosh them into little crumbs). Break the egg in the other bowl and add about ¼ cup milk. Then whisk it thoroughly.

Put your skillet on a stove burner, turn the heat to between medium and medium high and let it heat up. Add about 1/4” of oil to the bottom. If it smokes it’s too hot and will instantly burn the breading. Season the meat with salt and pepper. (To me, this works better than seasoning the flour. You have to add to much salt & pepper to the flour to season the meat so just put it right on the meat before you dredge it). Now, you’re going to dredge your meat and lay it in the oil.

Carefully put it in the pan over medium/medium high heat and brown it.

Use 2 hands to dredge your meat—one for dry and one for wet (this is important). With one hand pick up a piece of the meat by an edge and lay it in the flour. Coat it on both sides with the flour. With your other hand lift it out of the flour and put it in the egg/milk mix and coat both sides. Then put it back in the flour still using your “wet hand” and coat both sides of the now wet meat with the flour again. Then gently put the meat into the skillet without flipping the hot oil onto your fingers. Put 2-3 pieces of the steak in the skillet. Make sure that there is space between each piece of meat in the skillet so that it fries rather than steams.


Do it 2-3 batches. As each is done, put on a plate/platter with a double layer of paper towels on it to absorb the oil. Then put the platter into a warm oven (set at 200).

Pan Gravy:
Now that the steak is done, it’s time to do the gravy. Pour oil out of the pan so that you have about ¼-1/3 cup remaining. Put pan back on the burner with the heat on medium-medium low. Add an equal amount of the leftover flour to the oil and start to whisk, whisk, whisk this into a roux. It’s going to take about 5 minutes or so of whisking to make a good roux. When you’ve got your roux made up, slowly add a cup of milk (or half a cup each of milk and chicken broth). Turn your heat up just a skosh and whisk, whisk, whisk until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken. Add some salt and a nice heavy dose of pepper. Add more milk if needed to make the quantity of gravy you want.


Mashed ‘Taters
Now I’m not going to repeat my mashed potato recipe (if you want it, check out Cheap Bastid’s Swiss Steak post). Suffice it to say, that you want mashed ‘taters with your Chicken Fried Steak and Pan Gravy. NO garlic. NO cheese. Just mashed ‘taters. Make sure that you time them so that they’re done about the same time as your gravy—it takes a bit of practice.


Plating
Put a mound of Mashed ‘Taters on a plate and add a couple of good hunks of Chicken Fried Steak. Smother the ‘Taters with gravy and put a healthy coat of it on the steak. Salt & pepper to taste and enjoy! Oh man! You’re going to love the stick to your ribs flavor of this dish!

The Cheap Bastid Test: About 1 ½ pounds of sirloin cost me $3 for this recipe. I used maybe $.50 worth of potatoes, $.25 worth of oil and $.10 worth of milk. With the egg and flour, let’s call the whole thing $4.00. We had a hearty, stick to the ribs dinner Saturday night and we’re just about to polish off the left-overs for lunch today. So that comes out to $1 per serving. That’s a terrific value for a Home Cooked, Comfort Food meal!

That’s the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good! Eat Cheap! Be Grateful!

Cheap Bastid's Beans (aka Bean Soup or Ham & Bean Soup or Hock Soup)

It’s November. And in some parts of the country that means that it’s getting cooler, the leaves have turned, nights are longer and there’s even been some snow. That makes it time for “comfort food”. Well, here’s a one pot meal that will warm you up and fill you up. Plus, it’s really economical.

I grew up eating Beans. My Mom would make it several times a year and I developed my recipe based on watching her. A lot of people call it Bean Soup or Navy Bean Soup. But for those who grew up in the South or with families who started out on a farm, it’s just Beans. Or sometimes I’ll call it Hock Soup because the meat is smoked ham hock or shank.

This always tastes best when accompanied by corn bread. I’ve always used that blue box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix that you can get for about half a buck. It’s November. And in some parts of the country that means that it’s getting cooler, the leaves have turned, nights are longer and there’s even been some snow. That makes it time for “comfort food”. Well, here’s a one pot meal that will warm you up and fill you up. Plus, it’s really economical.

So, here’s the recipe. Make it in a big dutch oven or in a crock pot. Let it cook all day and fill your kitchen and home with its incredible aroma.

Beans
Smoked Pork Hock or Shank (you can usually get these at the grocery store)
2 bags (16 oz ea) northern or navy beans
1 medium onion diced
1 cup diced celery
3-4 gloves garlic, minced
Salt, pepper, cumin

Soak beans overnight according to directions (put ‘em in a big bowl and cover ‘em up with water). The next morning, drain the water from the bowl.

Saute onion, celery & garlic just until softened in the bottom of your soup pot or in a skillet if using a crock pot. (Or if you feel like me, lazy, just dice it up and toss it into the pot. You’re going to be cooking it for at least 4 or 5 hours anyway). Set heat to medium (stove) or high (crock pot) & drop in the hock/shank.

Cover the hock, onions & garlic with water (about 4 cups). Add salt, pepper & cumin.
Allow to cook/simmer for about 3 hours or until the meat is loosened from the bone.

Remove the hock/shank and all loosened meat from the water with a slotted spoon and put on a cutting board—it should be loose to the point of falling off. Chop up the meat. Then add it back to the pot. Add beans—start with about half then about half again (I don’t use all of both bags—about a bag and a half). Make sure beans are fully covered with water.

Add more salt, pepper and cumin, to taste. (Why cumin? Simple. I like cumin). If you want some bite add more pepper or some cayenne.

Simmer for 2-3 hours until beans are tender. Check liquid level every half hour or so and add water as needed so that it’s soup not paste!


Make up a 9x9 pan of “Jiffy” corn bread and enjoy! (I use the mix because it’s cheap—about 50 cents—and a lot of “big shot” chefs use a mix too rather than doing it from scratch.)

This smells incredibly good cooking. Your mouth will be watering all day in anticipation, but wait. Just wait until it’s ready. You’ll have some great eating for 2 or 3 days on this.

Now, some people will use a portable blender or will scoop this into a processer to “puree” the soup. You can do that if you want (in fact some recipes for Cuban bean soup do just that and it can be delicious—especially if you use garbanzos).

But, neither my Mom nor Mamaw would be caught dead pureeing this classic, traditional soup. It just isn’t done. This is comfort food; more fundamentally it’s country food—the kind of soup that country people spend all day cooking. I wouldn’t want to mess with it by “foo-fooing” it up that way because I don’t think that it would be respectful.

The Cheap Bastid Test: How’d we do for budget on this? Well, the smoked shank cost $3.00 ($1.69/lb). The beans cost $2 and the veggies were $1. The Jiffy Mix was $1 for 2 boxes and 2 eggs cost a quarter. Total for this farm-style feast was: $7.25. It’ll feed 4 people for at least 2 days with enough left for lunch. So this is reasonably priced eating.

That's the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good! Eat Cheap! Be Grateful