Exsqueeze me, I have a little tear in my eye…

Ah, that’s better. You see - I was chopping up a few of my fave little oniony friends. I’m talking Shallots.

These have been a favorite over here at Cheap Eats HQ, and not only because Mr. A. Bourdain recommended them in his book. Nor was it the fact that a Mr. A Brown devoted a whole show to them - although it was nice to see them featured.

Shallots are sort of a mystery to most people. They certainly were to me until a few years ago. I didn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t just keep either brown onions or garlic on hand for the same effect. Then I discovered that they really “kicked it up a notch” (I can steal Emeril’s mojo since he’s no longer doing his show) on gravy.

And that’s actually the reason why I decided to make a post about it now - just in time for Thanksgiving. Minced and sauteed along with the fat/drippings before putting in the flour, they make a really good turkey gravy taste great. I mean, you can easily substitute minced brown onions for gravy, and I often do. But shallots seem to give it a little extra something.

For more information on exactly what a shallot is, you should read the Wikipedia article. I don’t really care what family or species of Allium plant they are - I just know that they are nice to have around. They look a little like oversized garlic cloves with purple skins. The smell and taste is pretty close to right in the middle between onions and garlic. And, oh yes, their fumes will turn you into a crybaby (try and chill them before mincing, that helps).

One of nice things about shallots is that they can keep for a rather long period of time without going bad. I usually store them outside in the kitchen for a few weeks, and then toss them in the bottom shelf of the fridge afterwards for the long haul. This is great for Cheap Eaters who try to have a good amount of “staple” type foods that don’t go bad so fast. I have kept them up to at least a month with no ill effects. Longer than that, and I started to see deterioration and/or the growth of shoots or mold.

Peeling a shallot can be a bit tricky. The skin is papery and a bit thinner than a normal onion. If it isn’t loose and easy to peel, it can be tough to get off. Sometimes I whack it with a knife in the manner you would garlic - that’s fine if you’re going to mince them anyhow. Also, cutting off the ends of each clove may make them easier to peel. Inevitably, I have a few where I actually peel off the outer layer of shallot on accident along with the skin. I was wondering - anyone have any tips on peeling these buggers?

Shallots can be a bit on the pricier side compared to garlic and onions. I often get them for cheaper in a bulk bag at ethnic markets. However, because you only need to use a small amount (usually 1 or 2 shallots is plenty for a recipe) and because of their longevity in storage, I’m inclined to consider them cheaper eats than many other types of vegetables.

As I said before, my primary use for them is in gravy. One other great idea is to introduce a little bit in any recipe that calls for garlic and onions. That way, you get what I like to call a “triple threat of oniony goodness“. I’ve used that technique in spaghetti sauce and chili beans. I put 1-2 shallot cloves minced along with the garlic and onions. Maybe it’s all the fumes from the oniony goodness getting to my brain, but it seems like the flavor palette expands to encompass a wider array of taste structures. Haha, that’s so rich. I should write a book.

Another way to use it is in a haricot verts (green beans) type of dish with tomatoes. I know a lot of people also deep-fry slices, similar to french-fried onions, and use it as a topping for things like soup. I haven’t seem them used raw in salsa yet, but I’ve wondered if they’d work there.

As always, I’m looking to expand my shallotty ways. I’d like to know if you have any great uses for them - please comment below if so.

Eggo-licious.

This was meant to be a longer post plus recipe on the merits (and pitfalls) of the Egg Salad Sandwich. I was going to get all fast and furious with the egg jokes too. But I’m still gurgling around in the bloggity-mosh pit on Cheaplander trying to implement things and track down various blogbugs. They bite, ouch.

So I’ll leave all the eggxtras for another day. Oh, before I go: I did have one tip for cooking hard boiled eggs. I’ve forgotten if I already posted this. Actually, this idea is originally from ex-jailbird Martha Stewart.

To get really nice, fluffy, but moist yolks for hard boiled eggs, place your eggs in a medium pot and cover with cold water. Crank up the heat - but don’t walk away. Because if you’re like me, you’ll forget the eggs are on the stove. When the water just begins to boil (but before it’s all going crazy-bubbling-with-the-cheezwiz), turn off the heat and put the lid on the pot securely. It needs to be pretty well sealed.

Then, just leave it for 12-15 minutes. I think everyone’s preference for yolk tenderness is different, so you may need to adjust the time. The carryover heat cooks the yolk nicely. We’ve been using this method pretty exclusively for years now.

(Oh, I’ve listed this post in the 3 dollars or less category, even though there’s no real recipe. But yeah, it definitely comes in under 3 bucks. Probably could make a half dozen egg salad sandwiches for that.)

One last thing - if you have a good egg salad recipe or any eggstra special ideas, please leave a comment. By the way, I like my egg salad with chopped ham in it - you might have been wondering if those pink things were red onions. Nope, it’s ham. I also chop the onion (green or white) eggstremely fine - I don’t like biting into chunkety chunks. But to each his own I guess…

Sorry for the later post this week - we’ve been dealing with a feeble internet connection lately. It was too frustrating to try and make blog posts when submitting the form could send 2 hours of work into Nowhereland. When it finally got fixed, I realized I didn’t have anything lined up to talk about.

So I turned to an old standby: Pico Pica Hot Sauce.

I don’t mean that I’ve written about this before, but I’ve been meaning to make a post about it for a year or so now. I call it a standby because we always have a bottle of this sitting in the fridge. My parents always had a bottle of this in their fridge. Actually, it seems like it was the same particular bottle for about 10 years…

Although it’s currrently distributed by Juanita’s Foods, it has been in production since 1937. According to the website, it was “one of the original bottled Mexican hot sauces in Southern California.” I believe that Juanita’s is also the number one seller of Menudo (not the band, the stomach pieces) in the U.S. as well.

What I always liked about Pico Pica’s hot sauce was that it IS an old standby. I originally got into it in the 80s after I discovered it tasted remarkably like Taco Bell hot sauce. It’s a little less watery and thin than I remember Taco Bell’s being, but not as thick as some other hot sauces. It’s a blended hot sauce made primarily of red chile peppers, tomatoes and spices.

On the heat scale, it’s not unbearably hot - I can take a lot more heat than this. But it’s pleasant to eat when you’re just hungry but want to add some zing to a bland burrito. It has a mild afterburn, but I wouldn’t call it mild hot sauce. The flavor has a fairly strong cumin or chile powder scent, and a bit of a “raw” taste to it that I suspect some people might not like. I think compared to Tapatio it’s milder and less of a cumin taste to it. But I haven’t tried them side by side.

What I like about it is that it doesn’t have as much of a vinegar taste like some other hot sauces - I mean I dig dashes of Tabasco for certain things like eggs and breakfast skillets, but if you want something to pour liberally on top of your meal then I like Pico Pica better.

Continue reading “Pico Pica Hot Sauce” …

Hello. Ugh, shoulder and back issues again. Despite that, I still decided to try and create a new header for Cheap Eats. See above. Wonderful. Except I foolishly deleted the original photoshop file which necessitated recreating the whole darn thing which did take a toll on my shoulder (also, left-handed mousing for graphics works at the speed of sloth - unless you’re left-handed).

Because of that, pics are all you get again today. Hello, what have we here - it’s homemade “beer” batter fried fish. Actually, I made this so long ago (on desperate days like this I just go through the camera for old pics of food that haven’t been posted yet), that I’ve since forgotten if I actually did use beer in the batter. It might have just been some sort of pancake-type batter instead, perhaps with leftover buttermilk.

In any case, this is much different than the usual flour, egg-wash, panko method that I grew up with. It came out OK - this was my first try at it. I think the type of fish I used was some sort of faux sole. Let’s not get into what I mean by faux sole - but it was cheap. I was pretty surprised how nice the coating turned out, though it looks awfully orange in the photos. I had it with a side of quick-cook couscous. Not a bad lunch, although veggie-less.

Time, time, TIME. There’s little of that today, so here is another cop-out post on vegetables in order to save time. These are actually Crimini (or Cremini, or Baby Portobello, or Portabellini) mushrooms I sliced up and cooked for a bit. Great for toppings on hamburgers and other Cheap Eats.

One of the most distinct memories I have of as a child is going to a mushroom farm. I remember jumping out of The Beast (a pre 1970s Ford Ranger truck, that only got sold last year) and into piles of fertilizer and soil and mushrooms that were just all over the ground. It was pretty insane. If I remember correctly they just scooped you some by the shovelful, dirt and all. I can’t remember exactly, but I think it was very cheap compared to the supermarket.

Anyhow, fast forward to today and you most often see mushrooms packed in those little styrofoam boxes. White button mushrooms are the most common, though portobellos are popular and sold separately. Farmers markets have them too. The thing is - mushrooms are pretty darn expensive, and they have a comparatively short shelf-life. I’m not even going to get into some of the more expensive types of fungi. So you need to look out for sales (Trader Joe’s has them usually for $1.50 to $1.80 which is surprising, but keep in mind they’re unwashed). Or find a mushroom farm - I don’t even know how they run those now or if they let people just walk in and buy some in bulk.

The thing about mushrooms is that they go well with so many breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes that I’m inclined to cut them just a little slack for being such expensive buggers. You just have to remember to use them up in a timely manner. Mushrooms in gravy, omelettes and spaghetti are a favorite for us. Stuffed mushrooms are a lot of work if you use the little ones, but pretty amazing as appetizers. I usually try to plan to use them in at least 2 or 3 meals straight so they don’t have a chance to go bad.

Price: $1.59 for box
Found At: Trader Joe’s
Cheap Eats Score: 6/10

Let’s face it: those reviews of candy, snacks, processed foods and Banquet frozen dinners are way more exciting than simple reviews of fruit and veggies. I get a ton of comments with those reviews, but readers pay less attention to plain old “nature-al” foods. After all there’s only so many epic blog rants that you can write about beets. (To all you beet-lovers out there, I’m not hating on beets!)

Still, with us trying to eat a little healthier (emphasis on the “a little” for me), you might notice some posts added of plain old vegetables in between the pop-tarts and frozen pizza. For instance, here’s some tomatoes.

We’ve recently become addicts of the local farmer’s markets. One thing surprising about a lot of them (at least here in Southern California) is that you might think that since a lot of stuff is pesticide free grown at home or is ultra chic gourmet style, it is more expensive. That’s the case with some of things, but you can also find a lot of locally grown produce for good prices. It’s not ethnic-megamarket bargain basement cheap, but for the quality of the vegetables and fruits it can be pretty decent.

We get a lot of herbs, vegetables and fruits at some cheap prices, much cheaper than the average American Supermarket. These vine ripe tomatoes might have been 3 dollars a pound or so, and would have been sitting in the cold at the market for a long time. When we get them at the farmer’s market we just leave them out instead of putting them in the fridge.

Continue reading “Tomatoes” …

I have been getting so much cereal lately for review. The thing with cereal is that I hate to keep opening new boxes until I’m done with the old ones - otherwise there are 10 boxes of cereal open. And since I don’t eat a TON of cereal for breakfast, they sometimes can go a bit stale.

Which is why I only opened this box of Fiber One Raisin Bran Clusters which I received months ago today. There seems to be a huge push on the whole fiber thing lately for manufacturers. This cereal claims to have 1 1/2 times the bran of standard Kellogg’s Raisin Bran. For me, I’m pretty “regular” and I eat enough of it daily, so it’s not so much of a concern. I guess a little extra doesn’t hurt - although, judging by the number of people who wrote in regarding the Fiber One Chewy Bars you want to go very easy on fiber rich foods when you’re first increasing it in your diet. Otherwise, you’ll have many a date with the throne…

Anyhow, the Fiber One Raisin Bran cereal looks like standard bran flakes with the addition of some raisins and small “clusters” of what I believe are oats and perhaps some almond bits. I’ve since learned not to even attempt to get a box-quality snapshot of cereal with the milk in it (who can compete with using Elmer’s Glue for milk?). So here’s the old spoon and bowl setup shot of just the cereal.

The first thing you get when you open the package is a very strong scent of brown sugar or molasses or honey. It’s a nice smell, but it’s quite powerful. I just poured some straight out of the box into a bowl.

I’m going to have to admit that I had to hunt for a few more raisins and clusters and place them strategically to make the photos look “normal”. The raisins themselves were pretty nice and plump, although pretty skimpy in quantity. Oat Clusters were even worse - I don’t even know why they bother having them in there if they are going to be that size and so scarce. I’ve had quite a few oat clusters cereals in the past, and as far as that goes, this is probably at the bottom as far as the quality and quantity of the clusters. The rest of the cereal is all bran flakes which looked pretty normal and probably above average in quality and size.

Continue reading “Fiber One Raisin” …