Aromatics

Good morning all. This is a little note to let you all know that I have done a guest post over at Tom Naughton’s blog, Fat Head. We are cooking up some real food over there, so check out how to make “real” chicken stock.

This soup is one of my favorites, and I can usually get the family to eat it as well. It really does not matter what time of year that you make it, it will always be popular!

The ingredients could not be simpler. A lot of people add what they have in the fridge to this soup. I find that if one keeps it clean then it is more enjoyable.

Pot Of Minestrone By Jason Sandeman

Minestrone

Yields: 4 litres

Ingredients

• 30 mL (2 tablespoons) extra-virgin olive oil
• 150 g (1 cup) carrot
• 150 g (1 cup) celery, diced
• 150 g (1 cup) medium onion, diced
• 25 g garlic, minced
• 1 L (4 cups) meat stock (*See note below)
• 500 mL (20 oz) canned diced tomatoes
• 100 g white beans, cooked
• 30 mL (2 tablespoons) oregano, preferably fresh
• 50 g (1 inch) hunk of Parmesan cheese (optional)
• 50 g soup pasta (tubetti, stars, whatever you have)
• To taste sea salt
• To taste black pepper

Method

1. Heat extra-vigin olive oil over medium heat until just about smoking.
2. Sweat the carrot, celery, and onion until translucent.
3. Add garlic, sweat for one minute until the fragrance is released.
4. Pour in meat stock, canned tomatoes and beans; turn heat to high and bring mixture to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and simmer until the vegetables float to the top.
6. Add in oregano, Parmesan cheese and pasta; cook until pasta is al dente.
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Serve immediately, or cool and reserve.

* When I say meat stock, I am referring to my mish mash of pork, veal and chicken stock. You can feel free to substitute chicken or beef stock in this recipe. If you must use the store-bought broth, please cut back on the salt, or it will not be a good experience.

Borscht to be By Noel Zia Lee of Flickr

You say that you want to be frugal? Are you tired of buying all sorts of groceries, jars, and spending thousands of dollars? I know, I have been there. How do you keep track of all those meals?

The answer lies in a little piece of geekdom that I would like to pass on to you: a meal calendar. Not just any meal calendar, a spreadsheet. You heard me right. A spreadsheet.

Sure, you could not be bothered about using a spreadsheet, right? I hear you. It can be a pain, until you get used to it. Why use it?

1. You will plan your meals for the week, and know what you need to purchase. This is so important, yet a lot of people do not do this. Having a plan will help you out in the long run. Not only in time, but in money.
2. You will be able to make a shopping list. How may times have you gone to the store, only to wander aimlessly down the aisles? It happened to me a lot back in the day.
3. You can do this with your loved ones. Get them on board with the whole meal plan. They will have an input, so everyone is happy.
4. You can follow the nutrition of your family easier. It is really hard to follow that. If you are plopping a Side Kick (TM) with your premade pork loin, and microwaving some weird canned corn, can you tell me how healthy that is going to be for your family? You can always mix and match yourself this way, avoiding that dreaded 5-time-this-week broccoli episode.
5. You can plan out what tasks need to be done. This is critical in the Well Done Kitchen! If you know that tomorrow you are going to need to make a risotto, then you can pull out the items you need to defrost the night before, and do a little of the advance preparation. For risotto, chopping up an onion, garlic and shallots will help you speed along faster the next day. Who needs a Side Kick(TM)?
6. You can make notes on the spreadsheet. This is critical as well. Maybe something went wrong, maybe your wife hated the chicken you made the night before. Write it on there. You will always have that note, and the next time you make it, you have the note to remind you. Also, it helps on the next step.
7. You can copy and paste. Now, this is not going to help you out very much in the beginning. Use the menu planner for a month or two, and now dinner becomes even easier to plan in advance. You can just highlight a whole cell, and paste it into your new calendar.
8. You can print it out. Having the calendar there is a good way to stick to the plan. It seems that having the paper there does something to make people want to follow it. Monday could be Pizza Day, which kind of makes it official.

So, without further ado, here is the file:

Weekly Meal Planner

*EDIT* I just would like to let you all know that I originally wrote a reference to hormones in chicken that was made in error. I meant to write “beef” in its place. I have since updated this post to reflect that. I apologize for any confusion.

I hear the question all the time:

Why should I make something from scratch when I could just buy it?

I believe that today we rely too much on premade mixes. Recently, I saw a ready-made crockpot meal. You just open up the container, toss it into a crock pot, add water. Seriously though, how much convenience is enough? Crock pots are designed to be a set-and-forget utensil. Do we really need something that convenient?

pizza, frozen dinners, beer by iboy_daniel of Flickr

Let me break it down for you. Here are 6 reasons why it is better to do it yourself than purchase ready made:

1. You know exactly what you are putting into your food. Seriously. That is power! Are you deathly afraid of trans fats? Then leave them out and cook or bake with butter. Are you worried about hormones in your chicken(See above) beef? Purchase the hormone-free version. Ultimately, you control what goes into the dish, and I can almost successfully guess that there will not be any ingredients with 10 syllables in your recipes.
2. You will save money. Listen: when you buy a pizza that is ready made, you are spending about twice or three times the amount you would if you made it yourself. Before you tell me that your time is money, see the next item.
3. You will save time. How is that possible? You are making all the stuff, right? Well, here I go a little deeper in thought here. You are spending about 50% more than you would if you made it yourself, right? How much is your time worth? For every dollar that you spend “to save time”, you are working that much harder to make the money to save you time cooking. Kind of stupid, right?
4. You will be connected to your family. Thing is, get the whole family involved in the cooking. Perhaps the significant other can even chat with you as you are peeling the carrots. Maybe your son could help by handing you utensils. The kitchen used to be the center of the house in days gone by. Let’s make it that way again.
5. You are reducing your carbon footprint on the earth. Premade items are notorious for packaging, waste, and filling landfills. Do we really need pancake in a can? Hell no.
6. Gourmet food tastes “real” when you make it yourself. Hey! That steak dinner that was frozen will taste like crap when you cook it from frozen. There is nothing that you can do for that, aside from adding “natural flavoring.” Cook your food, it will taste better.

I know that it is hard to do, but honestly, with a little planning, there should be no reason why you would ever need a convenience product. More to come on this later, where I will give you all the tools needed to start this.

It is the 4th day of Pizza Madness here at the Well Done Chef! site, and Wednesday is all about frugality. What can be more frugal than building your own pie? Let’s face it, a good pie can cost you upwards of 20$ to 30$, not including dealing with ordering, delivery, tip, and the possibility of correcting the inevitable mistake. Time is money folks, so today is all about saving by doing – yourself, that is.

Pizza Dough

Adapted from Albert Grande’s Pizza Dough Recipe

Makes 2 large pizzas, or 4 thin crusts

Dough

15 mL (1 tablespoon) active dry yeast
15 mL (1 tablespoon) honey
325 mL (1-1/2 cups) warm water
500 g (4 cups) of flour or more
5 mL (1 teaspoon) kosher salt
60 mL (1/4 cup) olive oil

1 Recipe Pizza Sauce

Toppings

Whatever your heart desires!

Directions:

1. Mix yeast and honey into a cup with 1/3 of the water. ** Wait about 5 minutes for the yeast to froth.
2. Mix flour, salt together in your stand mixer.
3. Add in olive oil, the remaining water and the yeast mixture.
4. Mix over medium speed until all the liquid absorbed by the flour. (The dough may be lumpy.)
5. Place a handful of flour on your pastry board (or a mixing surface).
6. Dust your hands and spread out the flour; empty the contents of the bowl on to the flour.
7. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes or until the texture is smooth and uniform. ***
8. Place the dough in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil.
9. Place bowl in draft free area and cover with a cloth.
10. Let the dough rise for about an hour.
11. Punch down the dough, cut in half, roll into each into a ball shape.
12. Cover with plastic and wait 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to as high as it will go and place your pizza stone inside. ****
13. Dust a pizza peel (or a cookie sheet) with corn meal.
14. Use a spatula and slide the dough onto the peel.
15. Dimple the dough with your fingers.
16. Assemble the pizza right on the peel, using the tomato sauce and toppings of your choice.
17. Use the peel to place the pizza on the preheated pizza stone.
18. Bake until the bottom of the pizza is golden brown, and the cheese is molten.

Ahh! Freshly Baked All-Dressed Pizza

** The water should be between 37° C- 43°  C (100°F-110°F).
*** If the dough seems a little sticky, add a little more flour. If it is too dry, add a little water a drop at a time.
**** If you do not have a pizza stone, no worries, just make sure that your oven is preheated to the highest it will go.

Now, here comes the contest time! For a free copy of Pizza Therapy’s Pizza Cookbook:

What types of toppings do you like on your pizza?

Comment below, and the winner will be chosen at random next Wednesday!

It is day 2 of Pizza Madness, and today is nothing short of revolutionary! Okay, so it is not like we are taking over the world. Today we talk about how you can get professional-like results with your pizzas. How do the pros do it? Read on…

Brought to you by Kitchenaid!

Make and perfect your own dough. This goes without saying. The professionals revise their dough until it is perfect. Then they execute it flawlessly day in and out. Why do you think you go back and pay them 25$ for a large pie? Consistency is the key here, as well as flavor.

Use quality ingredients ~ you will not be sorry!

Use quality ingredients – a little goes a long way. Sure, roll your eyes. Let me tell you a quick story: I just about failed Home Economics in grade 7 because I thought the pizza we were making needed 1 kg of cheese. It was a mess. Use what you can afford, and make it good. After all, you are saving money making it yourself, right? Take it to the next level. Use buffalo mozzarella, a quality pepperoni, or even some roasted free-range chicken. You will not be disappointed.

Use a pizza stone... you will have consistent temperatures

Use a pizza stone. I repeat: Use a stone. There are a lot of good ones out there. The one I hear is the best? Pizza Therapy’s Amazon Page! I agree that it is a wonderful pizza stone! Why use a stone? Look – go to all the good pizzerias, the ones with a deck oven. They will all have one thing in common. They will have stones on the floor of the ovens.

Use one of these, and you are making pizza like the pros

Use a pizza peel. Not only would you look cool, but you actually have more flexibility with the peel. The pizza rests on the paddle, and you slide it on to your stone with the pieel with a shaking motion. A lot easier than fighting with a pan.

These dimples will carry the sauce, and your toppings will not slide off!

Dimple your dough before adding your sauce. My mother would kill me for giving away that secret. The dimples pool out the sauce, so the ingredients won’t slide off on your first bite. Cuts down on the cost of the undercoat of cheese to make all the ingredients stick.

You will use this board for baking projects all over.

Use a  wood pastry board. Get a real nice one, and you will use it for more than just pizza, I promise. There is nothing better to knead your dough on.

Albert’s Addition to the Tips:

Make your dough the day before you will be making your pizza. Let the dough proof in the fridge for at least 24 hours. This tip comes from master pizzaiolo and bread guru Peter Reinhart. Allowing your dough to proof in the fridge imparts a better flavor in the dough.

Make sure your oven is hot, hot, hot. If you are using a pizza stone, pre-heat your oven for at least an hour. Crank up the oven as hot as possible. The oven temperature should be at least 260°C (500°F.) The hotter the better. You want your pizza to cook quickly. Don’t over do it, but make sure the bottom is starting to change color.

Put these tips into practice, and you will be making pizza like the pros!

Do you have any tips on making pizza?

The Finished Pizza - All Dressed Of Course!

***UPDATE***

Thank you Albert for your advice, I have added the points to the list!