Take Two: Fish Pouches

Hello friends!

This past week I decided to try my hand at the fish pouches again. As you may recall from my last attempt, the results were of a mixed success. I am happy to report that I got much better results this time. Unfortunately, I don't think it quite qualifies as a F.E.A.S.T. anymore, but I'll let you be the judge.

THE INGREDIENTS!!!
4 flounder fillets  (from a $4.50 frozen bag)
1 cup uncooked white rice  (don't ask the price; I'm pulling this from a huge bag)
1 cup golden yellow grape tomatoes  (from a $3.50 package)
1 red bell pepper  ($1.00)
1 medium sweet yellow onion  ($1.00)
2 14.5oz cans veggie broth  ($2.00)
2 small lemons  ($0.50)
chopped garlic, about 8 cloves worth  (staple)
Italian seasoning  (staple)

salt and pepper  (they better be staples!)


Total price: about $12.50, unless you need to restock your staples.

THE METHOD!!!
Preheat your oven to 425. Tear off four large sheets of parchment. Line a cookie sheet or other containment vessel with foil (for ease of cleanup and whatnot).

Slice your tomatoes in half, and remove the seeds. This can most easily be accomplished through gentle squeezing, which is oddly satisfying. Chop your onion and red pepper, and divide each into four even piles. Have your garlic chopped if it doesn't already come that way.

Assemble your pouches. On each sheet of parchment, place 1/4 cup of rice in a rectangular pile, then place a piece of frozen fish over top. Trust me on this, okay? Next, add one of the onion/pepper piles over top of that. Then add your chopped garlic, about two cloves' worth. Squeeze half a lemon over top and sprinkle with Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.

Now seal your pouches. Fold the parchment up like a hot dog going longways with the fish. Then, crease the edges together and fold downward. Now staple them shut. Yes, with actual staples. Twist one of the ends up to close it, angling the fold upwards. Have the other end ready to twist, but do not seal it yet.

Pour about six ounces (about half a can) of your veggie broth into each pouch, then twist the end shut. Place each pouch side-by-side on your sheet pan, and set the whole thing in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, then gently rotate the pouches by moving the outer two in and the middle two out. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes longer. When the timer beeps at you, pull the pouches out of the oven, and allow them to sit another 15 minutes so that the rice can finish absorbing all the liquids. When that's done, tear into them and gobble them up!

I had much better results this go around. The fish was wonderfully cooked, the rice was a perfect al dente, and the veggies were all tender without being mushy. The seasonings were more spot on then last time, but I think I still need to work on them just a bit. But to really guage the success, we need to compare to our acronym:

Fast: Much better than last time, but still over my goal of 1 hour from start to finish. It was more like 1 hour 15 minutes, but a goal is a goal, right? To be fair, I think this is the only shortcoming here.

Easy: Yep. Just chop and assemble. Even the clean up is a breeze, since the cooking vessels get tossed in the garbage.

Affordable: At around $12 to $15, this is exactly where I want the budget to land, so I call this a win, especially compared to last time.

Super Tasty: The flavors were much better this time, although I still think there's some room for improvement. But that having been said, I am still quite pleased with the results.

So there you have it. A great success, but one that still leaves me with some room to tinker around. After all, cooking is, at its heart, as much an art as a science, and finding that balance takes a great deal of work. As I said though, I am pleased with how this turned out, and I'm looking forward to tinkering with it some more in the future. I love the whole pouch cooking concept, and I am excited to see where I can take it next.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Please post any thoughts you have on the subject at your leisure. Go forth and eat well!

F.E.A.S.T.: Fish Pouches

Hey everyone!

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!

Deep Fried Goodness: Fish & Chips

Hey everyone!

So yeah, been a while since my last post, hasn't it? Rather than hang my head in shame, I will carry on with business as usual. I ought to get one of those "Keep Calm" shirts... "Keep calm and cook something!" I wonder if that actually exists...?

Where was I? Ah, yes. Cooking and talking about it.

Anyway, guess what? I bought a deep fryer!

Now, I know what some of you are going to say... probably some variation of, "WTF?" I expect. No matter, though. Maybe some of you will think I'm crazy for acquiring such a device, but let me offer you this counterargument: I get to fry things now.

I've wanted one for a while, so I finally decided to bite the culinary bullet and pick one up. At first, I had buyer's remorse, I admit, but then I realized how many different dishes I could create with the bloody thing, so I got over it quick enough. And for my first foray into deep frying, I decided to go with a classic: Fish and Chips.

As per usual, you can follow along with my inspiration, here.

THE INGREDIENTS!!!

4 large baking potatoes
2 cups AP flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
a good few dashes Old Bay seasoning
~1.5 bottles Shiner Bock beer (or similar dark brown brew)
1-1.5 lbs white fish (I used frozen tilapia fillets, sliced in half)
cornstarch (for dredging)

THE METHOD!!!
To begin, cut your potatoes into vaguely french fry shaped strips by whatever method you choose. I just took my chef's knife and cut them in half lengthwise. Then I cut each half in half again, and cut each quarter into about four strips. Once you have your taters cut to size, soak them in cold water for at least 15 minutes to remove excess starch. When they're done soaking, they'll need to be dried as thoroughly as possible, either with towels or a salad spinner.

Meanwhile, make your batter. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, and Old Bay together in a bowl. Then add the beer. I started with one bottle of beer and found it wasn't enough, so I added more until it got a nice gooey-batter consistency. Imagine the consistency of cake batter, and you have it right. Once this is made, give it about a 10 minute rest in the fridge, just so that the flour can absorb all that delicious beer.

Ok, now begins the frying. Get your oil to about 325 degrees and your oven to about 200 degrees. All will be made clear. Working in batches, fry the potatoes for about 2-3 minutes or until pale and floppy. Remove from the oil, drain on paper towels, and set aside to cool to room temp. This is only the first frying; the second time in will get them crispy and GBD.

Raise the oil temp to 350 and get your fish ready. Dredge each piece lightly in cornstarch, being sure to remove any excess powder. Then, submerge the fish in your batter, coating evenly. Gently introduce the fish into the oil; don't just drop them in or they'll sink to the bottom of the pot and stick. Once the batter sets, flip them over with a metal instrument of your choice (I used a spatula, but you can use tongs, a fork, a flute, whatever's handy), and cook until GBD. This'll take about 2-3 minutes. Once they're done, drain them and set them on a pan in your warm oven while you finish the fries.

Raise the oil temp again, this time to 375. Working in batches again, fry your potatoes for 2-3 minutes or until GBD. Remove from the oil, drain, salt, and consume. Oh yeah, and get the fish outta the oven too. I like my fried fish with malt vinegar, personally.

THE AFTERMATH!!!
Ok, so this was a fairly simple method. But simple does not equate to easy, now does it? The challenge here was learning patience, and understanding that I couldn't do everything all at once. Next time, I need to use smaller potato slices (like cutting the ones I had in half) and work in smaller batches so that the fries crisp up a little better.

But, in the end, everything turned out pretty good. The outside of the fish was very crisp and savory, and the fish itself was perfectly cooked without being dry. I would perhaps consider using different fish the next time though, since I thought the tilapia was slightly too soft.

But perhaps I'm being overly critical of myself.

I know; me. Shocking, isn't it?

Anywho, thanks as always for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed making it.