Josh Cooks

Fish tacos with guacamole and jicama slaw, with pineapple fried rice

Fresh fish this time, not frozen. I’ll say this took twice as long to cook as I expected, but it was also pretty good/worth it.

I just put a layer of asparagus (with some chopped onion, capers, green onion [obviously I was playing around], garlic, olive oil, and seasoning) in a pan and put the fish filets on top. On the filets I put some basil leaves, thyme, lemon juice, and some butter (because I am a glutton a lot of the time). Baked at 375 until the fish is opaque all the way through.

Then I poured the juices into a saucepan and reduced them, adding lemon zest, some fish sauce for umami, minced garlic, more lemon juice, and some chicken stock. It was too salty, so I added sugar and butter and it got more in line with what I wanted.

I made three filets, planning to save two. I ate all of it.

I wanted to make a white wine sauce but I drank all the wine I had yesterday.

mdfsmash:

wcfoodies:

Think of yourself as a minimalist rather than a broke student. Make your pantry your arsenal: stock it with the things you love best: maybe the only seasoning you like is salt and pepper; maybe you hate dried herbs but love ground spices. Grab a few different types of dried pastas, at least one variety of dried beans, and your favorite kind of rice. Spend an extra buck or two for high-quality canned tomatoes (I recommend either Muir Glen Organic or tomatoes actually from Italy). Ditto for a small hunk of good butter (don’t buy those 4-packs of quarter pound sticks - unless you’re a baker, the butter will go stale before you can use it all) and a wedge of your favorite cheese. Buy a bottle or jar of olive oil from a store that lets you taste the oil first, and don’t buy the most expensive oil or the biggest bottle.

Now your pantry’s stocked and you can make a completely satisfying meal just from there - olive oil + tomatoes + salt + time = marinara sauce; reconstitute your beans, simmer them in salted water, season them, and top with your marinara or toss with rice. With beans, rice, pasta, and good canned tomatoes, you’ve got at least half a week’s worth of meals taken care of.

From there, hit up your farmer’s market. Get onions, garlic, potatoes, eggs. Get your favorite fruits and vegetables. Wash and slice your vegetables, toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and lay them flat on baking sheets. Roast your veggies in big batches, then store them in the fridge. They’re even more delicious cold the next day, tossed with a little extra olive oil and some fresh parsley - or even just straight out of the container. Splurge on a good loaf of bread or even a foccacia and make yourself a cold vegetable sandwich: press the veggies down into the bread, drizzle with olive oil and maybe some balsamic, and smash the sandwich together. Top the veggies with cheese if you want, but you’ll see it isn’t necessary. Cut your potatoes into large cubes, toss in a pot with twice as much salt as seems right, and cover by an inch with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the potatoes are just fork-tender. Store them in the fridge and eat them either tossed with olive oil and mustard, or smash them down a little in hot oil in a skillet until brown and crispy on the outside and top with a fried egg.

Freeze your vegetable trimmings - carrot peels and tops, onion and garlic skins, zucchini ends, old herbs - until you have a good amount. Toss in a pot, cover by an inch or so with water, bring to a boil, and then simmer 15-30 minutes for homemade vegetable stock. Freeze the stock and whenever you need it - say, to make a more flavorful soup with your beans - toss a big veggie broth ice cube in a pot and slowly melt it before adding your reconstituted beans.

If you’re a meat eater, think of meat as more of a seasoning than a main ingredient: chop a slice or two of bacon, fry in oil, and add the bacon to a soup of white beans and escarole. Ditto chorizo with black beans and potato, or chickpeas and kale. Buy quality meat in small quantities and you’ll find the taste to be richer and more satisfying than a big hunk of crap meat.

And, perhaps, above all - save your stale bread either for bread crumbs (blender, then freeze) or for French toast.

Ask me anything

Rebecca is such a pro. Good advice for anyone looking to eat a bit cleaner.

Amazing, gonna do more of this.

I cook my vegetables daily, but I think this could be faster and I like having cooked vegetables on a sandwich — right now I normally just slice cucumber and onion and (if it hasn’t gone bad) some lettuce.

I haven’t tried making my own stock, but I may as well start with vegetables and I have a lot of vegetable trimmings. I’ll report back on this when there is enough to use.

Are canned tomatoes smarter than just cutting fresh ones? How could that be cheaper? I also think a tomato sauce really benefits from tomato paste, which isn’t that much extra.

I use dried herbs and it’s a corner I wish I didn’t cut. To fix it, my plan is to start an herb garden. But doesn’t that sound like a lot of work? I’ve also read you can do well freezing some herbs.

Further recommendations:

• If you want to have mustard, get dijon instead of yellow. You can add dijon mustard to sauces and dressings — like balsamic vinaigrette — and personally, I prefer it as my sandwich mustard.
• Stale bread is also easily baked into croutons with some olive oil or butter, salt and pepper, and other herbs (parsley, garlic, etc.).
• Wine. Not only will it put you in the right state of mind to eat, wine also adds flavor to sauces (like the tomato sauce above) and because of its acidity it can deglaze pans you cooked meat in for pan sauces.
• Kosher salt, baby. Chicks dig it.
• Soy sauce is a powerful thing.
• Remember the five tastes. You want to be able to manipulate any of them independently with foods/spices you have.

I just went to the grocery to get some salad greens and ended up getting all sorts of good stuff, like a tuna steak, frozen cooked shrimp (not ready for raw ones), some spices I needed, etc.

So after I went running I decided to eat the tuna instead of waiting for dinner. Rinsed it, dried it, pepper on all sides. Hot olive oil in a pan, sear it on all sides, and eat with soy sauce. If I had made something to go with it it would have been crazy.

Then I decided to eat a salad. I had already made croutons from some old bread (oven with oil, salt and pepper, and parsley) and oven dried tomatoes (super easy, just takes 6 hours), so I figured why not be an insane person and make the dressing too.

Balsamic vinaigrette is easy, turns out. I already had everything it takes. Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, oil, and salt and pepper. I minced half a garlic clove and put that in too, as well as some shallots I bought to day (although HALF of them were rotten and I didn’t even notice at the store — future tip: MAKE SURE THEY AREN’T before you buy them).

I’ll start posting pictures at some point, I’m sure. 

There’s always one post that’s first, and this is it.

I started cooking for myself when I moved to New York, but my “fast-paced lifestyle” led to me eating at restaurants all the time. In LA I’m finding I have time to try new things and cook more, so these will be the annals of what I make.

Yesterday I cooked Swiss chard for the first time. I made it with tilapia (from frozen, which I am trying not to do anymore but it is way more convenient), potatoes, and a sauce. This is the recipe I went from, even though I normally don’t cook from a recipe. I didn’t have any chicken broth so I used white wine, water, and salt, and it was still good.

No picture today, because I just ate it and then decided to blog about it.