Cheap Eaten

[MissS]

That bread is a beautiful thing!

[pepperhead212]

I made my first batch of pasta with raw tomato sauce, with all that delicious stuff from the garden, using this year's tomatoes, garlic, and basil. First thing I make when I get enough tomatoes ripening at once. I make the simplified version first, then start making the other kinds. I made almost a double recipe, and added a can of rinsed cannellini beans, and I cooked about 2/3 c red quinoa in the Instant Pot, to add to the 1 lb of pasta.
Raw tomato sauce, of almost 3 lbs of chopped tomatoes, 8 minced fresh garlic cloves, a generous amount of basil, and olive oil. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pasta with raw tomato sauce. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

More sausage.

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[pepperhead212]

Today is National Tequila Day! So I had to make some Mexican food. I was going to grill something, originally, but the humidity was oppressive, so I did not spend much time outside today.

I made some guacamole, as sort of a late breakfast/early lunch, but saved half of it for later.

I made almost the same thing I made a while back - some eggplant and chorizo in chipotle sauce, but I added some cremini, that I had in the fridge. I used garlic, onion, and eggplant from the garden, plus all of the "off" tomatoes I had - the split ones, and any with bad spots to be trimmed out. The eggplant I dried some in the microwave, and the cremini and chorizo I cooked in advance, and mixed everything to heat together after the sauce cooked down. The guacamole I ate the rest of while I was fixing everything else, and the margarita I had as dessert - I don't like drinking those kind of things when using knives!
Chipotle sauce, cooking down. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Mixing the cooked eggplant, cremini, and chorizo with the chipotle sauce, just to heat up. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished taco - eggplant, cremini, and chorizo, in chipotle sauce. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

I made cheap dish today, with a lot of ingredients from the garden. It was sort of a gumbo, which I made in the Instant Pot, to use up 1½ qts of okra, that I'm getting mostly from the 12 Little Lucy plants, but have finally started getting them from the 6 Emerald plants. I started with some bacon - the only smoky meat I had in stock - then added some onion, celery, bell and jalapeño peppers, spices and herbs, and garlic, to cook about 10 min., adding some tomato paste towards the end. I then added the puréed tomatoes, okra, and some pearled barley, and cooked in the slow cooker high mode for 2½ hours. It seemed to need more water, so I added more, and cooked on the medium slow cooker mode for 1½ hours, and it was done just right.
Okra, cut up for the gumbo. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

5 cups of fresh tomato purée, for the gumbo. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The bacon, onion, celery, bell peppers, garlic, spices, and a little tomato paste, cooked in the Instant Pot. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Pearl barley and okra, added to the tomato mix of the gumbo. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Gumbo, after cooking 2 1/2 hrs in high slow cooker mode, in Instant Pot. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished gumbo by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

For some crazy reason I decided to make a loaf of bread and a pot of blackeyed peas with bacon ends and pieces in them.
The bread I kneaded and then rolled it out like a short fat snake and then coiled it up with its head in the middle.

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[worth1]

Here area few pictures of what I have going on today.
The bread rose nicely and is now in the oven.
Found some okra I grew a few years ago and tomatoes too in the freezer and decided to make smothered okra.
Just added a red onion and some spices and a thing of butter on top.
Will put it in the oven after the bread has baked.
The blackeyed peas came out nice too.

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[worth1]

Bread out of the oven.

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[worth1]

Two cups bread flour.
I tamp the flour on the counter to pack it and get the same results every time without scales.
1 1/2 teaspoons yeast mixed in 1/2 cup of water with a pinch of sugar.
Pinch of salt.
Dash of oil.
This is going to be a little dry.
But as you knead it just keep your hands a little wet and after awhile it will get right and you wont need anymore water.
First it will be sticky but keep going.
Then the dough will be nice and smooth and will stand up instead of getting real flat.
I let mine rise for an hour in a warm oven with the light on and a bowl on top for a cover.
Took cover off plopped it in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes but brushed on some melted butter after around 20 minutes.
Then another brushing right out of the oven.
This will make the crust really crunchy.
Trust me this bread is not a brick and the crumb is just the way I like it.
The stuff on the outside is black pepper and kosher salt.

[worth1]

I have never had tilapia before in my life as far as I know.
Refused to eat it due to stories.
But I got a free bag of the stuff from someone that was moving and decided to fry it up in corn meal.
I don't batter dip fish because I think it retains too much oil.
The first thing I did was cut the red blood line out of the middle.
No way can this taste good at least not to me.
Just tasted a piece and I can deal with it, 'not bad, not bad at all.

[worth1]

Here it is served up like one of them there fancy eaten joints.
Smothered okra.
Blackeyed peas.
Homemade bread.
Fried tilapia.
The dippen sauce is ketchup and sandwich pal horseradish spread.
And as usual I ain't hungry, I have been cooking and screwing around all day doing other stuff.
Can a person have too many ramekins??????
I think not.

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[worth1]

Had some of the fish left over so I fried up three white corn tortillas and made taco shells and had tilapia tacos.
Flash fried the previously fried fish in the hot oil to heat it up.
Yes I make my own corn tortilla taco shells, nothing beats fresh fried taco shells fresh out of the hot oil.
Nothing fancy, just the fried fish and guacamole salsa with a twist of fresh lime.

[worth1]

Worked late yesterday it's the best I could come up with.
Polish sausage boiled taters with cream style corn with melted Jack cheese and chili powder on top.

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[pepperhead212]

Here's a cheap and delicious meal - only the pasta, olive oil, and salt were bought. All the rest were from the garden.

I have all these cherry tomatoes, and last night I remembered that Milk Street had a bunch of cherry tomato recipes that I said that I'd have to try, once I got my cherry tomatoes coming in. One was Bucantini Pasta with Cherry Tomato Sauce and Fresh Sage. While I have never used bucatini, I figured that other pasta would be good, too, and it turned out delicious.
Ingredients for the pasta with cherry tomatoes and fresh sage. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tomatoes for the pasta with cherry tomatoes and fresh sage. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Cherry tomato sauce, just started. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Tomato sauce finished cooking, after 50 minutes, ready for the rest of the ingredients. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Pasta mixed with the finished sauce. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished pasta with cherry tomatoes and sage, topped with a little more chopped sage, and pecorino. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[karstopography]

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Eggplant from garden, tomatoes frozen garden, basil from garden. All for a no breading eggplant Parmesan. Tasty.

[worth1]

[mention]pepperhead212[/mention]
The Bucantini Pasta looks like Gemeli to me.

[worth1]

I have a huge whole 5.60 pound extra tender ((((Pre-Pandemic)))) Pilgrims pride chicken thawing out.
Going to cut it up and fry it but doing so I have the wish bone portion.
I need to get my boning knife razor sharp for the event.

[pepperhead212]

@pepperhead212
The Bucantini Pasta looks like Gemeli to me.

The pasta I used was gemelli, but the original recipe called for bucatini, which looks like a fat spaghetti, but is actually a hollow pasta. I haven't seen that pasta in supermarkets - only in stores in the Italian market, and the like. Probably only made by Italian pasta companies, and it's not cheap - probably why I've never used it!

Last year I dried some okra, and it didn't rehydrate well, when I tried it in a recipe, and was sort of hard to chew dried, as a snack. But I know that there is dried okra available as a snack, that has been fried first, so I dried some thawed okra, from last season (that I had to rinse very well), figuring that since that was cooked, it might be better, and it turned out good, though it shrinks considerably. A couple of days ago I steamed some fresh okra, salted it, and dried it, and that also makes a good snack - sticks to the teeth some, like eating English toffee, but delicious, and better for you! Today, I took that out of the dehydrator, along with a number of other things.
Okra, briefly steamed, and going into the dehydrator. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here is what that okra reduces to. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The packed tray of okra is now about 1 1/2 cups. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[worth1]

[mention]pepperhead212[/mention]
I have made bucatini at home several times with my Marcato Ragina pasta extruder.

[pepperhead212]

[mention]worth1[/mention] You would need an extrusion maker for the bucatini - the reason I never made it. I'm surprised that home extrusion machines have holes small enough for the bucatini; I never looked into getting one after I saw that the KA version cost almost as much as the mixer!