So this week's culinary shenanigan is my attempt at another F.E.A.S.T.. Unfortunately, this one was not quite as successful as my last, but hey, experimentation is a part of this whole wacky process, right?
This week, I wanted to try something I haven't done in a while: pouch cooking. What's that, you ask? Excellent question. Essentially, it's exactly what it sounds like: cooking in a pouch. You basically wrap all your food up in a pouch of folded parchment paper or aluminum foil, throw the package in the oven (or into a bed of hot coals, though I've never tried this), and steam/bake the whole thing.
So, how do you do it, you ask? Another excellent question. Boy, you're really on top of things today, aren't you? First you pick a protein. I feel that since other meats like beef or pork really benefit from browning, and there's none of that here, fish is an excellent choice. I had some tilapia left over from my Fish and Chips meal a few weeks ago, so I went with that. Second, you pick a starch, such as rice or pasta. I went with gold potatoes, because I thought they'd be tasty. Third, you pick a few veggies to accompany your meat. I went with tomatoes, bell peppers, and mushrooms. You also select a couple of aromatics, in my case, an onion and some garlic. Finally, you choose your seasonings (salt and lemon in my case) and a flavored liquid (white wine here).
I'll have more to say afterwards, but I figure let's get down to the actual cooking first.
THE INGREDIENTS!!!
4 tilapia fillets (from a $4 frozen bag)
6 gold potatoes (about $2)
4 roma tomatoes (about $1)
1 red bell pepper (about $2)
1 yellow bell pepper (about $2)
8 baby 'bella mushrooms (from a $4 package)
1 medium yellow onion (about $1)
4 cloves of garlic (about $0.50)
salt
2 lemons ($0.25 each)
A few good splashes white wine (from a $3 bottle, but you can use fancier)
Final price: about $20, give or take.
THE METHOD!!!
Make sure your fish is well thawed in the fridge first. Once it's thawed, season it with a little salt. Set your oven for 425 degrees.
Now start chopping. Dice your potatoes. You'll want them small so that they can cook thoroughly. Seed and chop your tomatoes. Seed and chop your peppers. Clean and slice your mushrooms. Peel and slice your onion. Peel and smash your garlic cloves.
Make sure you have four large sheets of parchment paper ready to go. You want them big enough that they'll be able to fold over the food with enough left over to be folded shut.
Begin your assembly. You'll divide everything four ways, naturally. Place your potatoes down first. Lay a piece of fish on top. Squeeze half a lemon over the fish. Pile on your tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Last, give the whole thing a good splash (maybe 1/4 cup?) of wine. Fold the parchment over, and crease your edges together to seal the whole thing shut. (Watch out that you don't let your liquids leak away!)
Place on a cookie sheet (for ease of movement) and bake for at least 30 minutes (it took me closer to 50, actually) or until everything is done as you desire.
Ok, like I said, I wasn't terribly pleased with my results this time. Oh, everything was cooked through, so the process worked, don't get me wrong. But I had a few points of contention.
For one thing, I used too much food in each pouch. This increased the cooking time by nearly double and made the pouches difficult to seal. I actually had to double layer one of them because the first layer was too small. For another, I need to improve on my seasonings, as the whole thing tasted a bit bland. Plus, the flavors of my veggies and aromatics didn't mesh as well as I would have liked, but that could also be because the seasonings were off.
Let's review the acronym:
Fast: Sadly, no. The whole process took about 2 hours from start to eat, which is double my target time. Next time, I want to use fewer veggies (four instead of six potatoes, only one pepper, etc.) to decrease both my prep time and my cook time.
Easy: The process itself if actually pretty straightforward: chop everything up and throw together in a pouch. Cook. Done. So here, I'd say we have success.
Affordable: Here I pushed things a bit. My goal here is not to go above $20 for four people to eat, as $5/person seems pretty cheap to me. But again, next time I plan to use less food, which will also reduce the cost.
Super Tasty: Unfortunately, the best word to describe the taste here is "meh." It wasn't bad by any stretch, but it was hardly Super Tasty. It needed more seasoning, and it needed more contrasting flavors. Definitely something to work on.
So in the end, the meal itself was less than successful.
But fear not! I have not given up hope!
I plan to try this again after some careful consideration. In fact, while writing this, I came up with a fairly wacky idea that I plan to try at the earliest opportunity. But as I said, I will revisit this method, in the hopes that I can improve on the whole thing and turn it into a proper F.E.A.S.T.! So keep your eyes open for my next few posts!
Thanks again for reading everyone! Go forth and eat well!
