Frugal Kitchens 101 - Water

This week's Frugal Kitchens 101 topic is water. Water is the universal solvent so it is no surprise that water plays a huge role in cooking. Fresh water is taken for granted with the only time missing it is if the main water supply is shut off for even a short period of time. Water is something we simply just assume is always going to be available. As useful as water is for cooking it presents a few problems but first let's consider the benefits.

Benefits: The biggest benefit to using water is it is in most cases a very inexpensive ingredient. It's abundant and easily used to cook foods in or stretch sauces.

Problems:

• Fresh water is not as abundant as it seems and in fact there have been reports of Canada running out of fresh water. An incredible amount of fresh water is used for other activities besides cooking so it is imperative that everyone practices water conservation in any way they can and that includes cooking.
• Some municipal and well water can have an off taste to the point it may render it quite undesirable for cooking.
  
• Most municipally treated water has both chlorine and fluoride in it. These are two chemicals many are trying to avoid due to health concerns. It has been shown that chlorinated water in the presence of dishwasher detergent and even coming straight from the shower faucet releases chlorine gas into your home.
• Water takes a fair amount of energy to heat. In fact the term calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1ºC from a standard temperature at 1 atmospheric pressure.
  
• Water adds no flavour when cooking!

Solutions:

• Water conservation is a must which means when you are cooking with water use the least amount of water possible. Rather than boil vegetables steam them. Not only does this use less water and less energy to heat the water and it gives better results.
• If you have a problem with an off taste or smell from your water, use a filtering system for drinking and cooking water. In some cases you may need a whole house filter as well. A good filtering system will also remove residual chlorine and fluoride.
  
• Anytime you are cooking always substitute water with another liquid that adds flavour if at all possible. Think fruit or vegetable juices, stocks, broths, coffee or tea. All of these can be used to cook pastas, rices and vegetables in and they make wonderful substitutions in baking.
• Think outside the box. Is there another way you can cook that particular food without using water? For example I very seldom boil potatoes or carrots. They are either baked or steamed.

Considerations:

• Every household should store several gallons of water per person in water safe containers. This water is meant for drinking and cooking in the event of an emergency. If you home can save any test batches consisting of water only as this will give you a bacterial free source of water. However, canning water is not quite practical for larger storage so pick up at least 1 - 20 L (5 gal) portable water container per person in your household. These can be found rather inexpensively in the camping supplies section of most department stores. Fill each container with clean water and make a point of rotating your water stock.
  
• Water can in emergency situations be collected through rainfall, snow and natural waterways. However. you need to purify this water to prevent any water born illnesses. For this reason every household should keep a good supply of water purification tablets in their emergency stores. The tablets will allow you to safely purify any collected water for drinking or cooking.
  

Monster Cookies

I am always watching for new recipes to try. Many food products include a recipe on the label mainly are a marketing ploy to get you to buy their product. If you like the recipe then chances are very good you will buy their product again. The Monster Cookie recipe was printed on the inside of a Grassland Butter carton. Had I not been paying attention I would have missed it!

Monster Cookies

What I found interesting about this cookie recipe is there was no flour. I thought it might be a typo but decided to try them anyway. I modified the recipe to make a half batch as well as changing weights into cups. This ended up being a wise decision as the half batch made 5 dozen cookies!

The cookies came out quite lovely! I think they are ideal for gift giving. I used the and if you are in Canada you can substitute the M&M®s with Holiday Mix M&M®Smarties®. For those outside of Canada Smarties® are candy coated milk chocolate candies very similar to M&M®s. I do think this recipe could easily be adapted to a gift in the jar if you don't have time to bake.

Monster Cookies
source: modified from Grassland Butter carton

3 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½c butter
1¼c brown sugar
1 c granulated sugar
1½ c peanut butter
4½c oatmeal
½ c chocolate chips
½c M&M candies

Place the first 6 ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium until well mixed. Mix in the oatmeal. Remove bowl from stand mixer. Stir in the chocolate chips and candies. Drop teaspoon size portions on Silpat® lined cookie sheet. Bake on convection at 163ºC/325ºF [normal bake - 180ºC/350ºF] until golden brown.

Turkey Run

Any Canadian living within an hour drive of the US border has more than likely heard the term turkey run. Now why would that be interesting? The simple reason is in Canada the turkey prices are regulated so getting any kind of a bargain is very difficult. This week one Canadian grocery store has turkeys on for 99¢ per pound which is a fantastic Canadian price. However due to the US Thanksgiving yesterday turkeys were on for as cheap as 29¢ per pound at some US grocery stores making a turkey run even with the price of gas well worth it!

We did our turkey run on Wednesday. Kroger had turkeys on for 49¢ per pound with an additional $10 purchase with a limit of one per customer with their store card. We shopped separately and each of us used our store cards so we were allowed 2 turkeys coming in a $10.86 and $10.39. Our next stop was a grocery store where turkeys were on for 29¢ per pound, limit one per customer with an additional $25 purchase. My husband insisted we get a turkey each even though I tried to tell him we didn't have room in the freezers for 4 turkeys. We paid $5.37 and $5.68 for the turkeys here. The total spent including the extra groceries and the 4 turkeys was $110.53. Considering the turkeys will give a yield of at least 28 L of stock and at today's sale price for stock of $1.63/500 ml would cost $91.28 it's easy to see how a turkey run saves considerably!

Turkey Dinner

As I told my husband we didn't have room for 4 turkeys in the freezers. He had alteriour motives though claiming he wanted his Thanksgiving feast Thursday night. I reminded him he wasn't American and he had had his Thanksgiving feast on our Canadian Thankgiving to which he responded with those puppy dog eyes and a bit of a pout so one turkey was put in the sink to thaw overnight.

Thawing Method: Place plug in sink then put the turkey in the sink. Place two t-towels over the bird and fill to almost covering the bird with cold water. Let sit overnight. The next morning remove the bird from the sink. Remove packaging and prepare for roasting.

I've talked about how I roast turkeys so there is nothing really new there and I've talked about how I make stuffing as well using homemade poultry seasoning. What is a bit different is the gravy and potatoes. I find corn starch makes a nicer textured gravy than flour does with a lot fewer lumps.

Gravy Method: Pour any liquid from the roasting pan into a large sauce pan. Deglaze the roasting pan and pour that through a strainer into the liquid. Make a slurry using about 2 tbsp cornstarch and enough buttermilk to make the slurry pourable. Bring the resulting mixture to a slow boil. Stir in about ¼tsp browning. Slowly pour in the slurry while stirring constantly. Let thicken while stirring then remove from heat.

Rustic Potatoes: Wash and cut unpeeled potatoes into bite sized pieces. Steam until tender. Place potatoes in bowl of stand mixer. Pour in about ½ cup buttermilk. Add about 1 c sour cream, a tbsp butter, 8 oz cream cheese and 2 tbsp roasted garlic. Beat on low to mix well but don't over beat.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Saving Bones

Larger cuts of meat with bone in and whole birds (duck, turkey, goose) are often served during the holiday season. All of the bones are ideal for making stocks but there may not be time to do so. After the meat or bird has served, debone then pop the carcass into the freezer. Once the holidays are over remove the bones from the freezer and make your stock as normal.