No New Things

improve your home cooking without spending a dollar

photos by Lauren Hurt

First I want to thank all of you for supporting Stir the Pot and making the transition over here with me. I promise to keep building on all of the things that made you love The Broiler Room, lots of food for thought, actionable advice for your kitchen, and tons of great recipes. Ok, let’s get back to business.

A few weeks ago, some subscribers and I were chatting about how volatile the selection at all our markets has been since 2020. I worked at grocery stores for almost a decade so I can’t stop myself from noticing when things aren’t right. Aisles are bare, options are increasingly limited, and the variety of produce offered is shrinking. I used to rely on the grocery stores around me to stock a variety of cabbages, lettuces, and other greens but now I’m lucky if I can find romaine with any regularity. I gave up on napa cabbage and savoy cabbage. They’re like unicorns now. Collards that aren’t precut and packaged are fading in my memory. It has been four years since the pandemic laid bare our fragile supply chain and still so many common grocery staples like potatoes, all-purpose flour, onions, and citrus go missing for weeks at a time.  Not only does it seem like there is less to go around but grocery prices have also risen 25% during this same period. There are so many issues at play like increased cataclysmic climate events, supply chain disruptions, crop volatility because of climate change, labor shortages/not wanting to pay living wages to workers, and increased profit margins. In fact, the White House Board of Economic Advisors has found that food and beverage retailers have increased their profit by two percentage points since the eve of the pandemic, the highest they’ve been in two decades. These high prices hurt all of us and make dining out even more out of reach as restaurants contend with the same high cost of groceries. We’ve got to cook more with what we’ve got so I’ve compiled four ways you can make your home cooked meals better without spending any extra cash. No new ingredients, gadgets, or complicated techniques required.

Bloom Your Spices

my spice drawer runneth over

We all know that the key to a well-seasoned meal is to, you know, season it. Lots of chefs will recommend that you change out your spices regularly to make sure you have the freshest stuff but we all know that’s not gonna happen. We’re gonna use what we have until it’s gone. The best way to make sure you are getting as much flavor as possible from your dried herbs and spices is to bloom them. A common technique in South Asian cooking traditions, sautéing your spices in fat early in a recipe allows their flavor to really come through. Not only does it breathe new life into the dried out spices, but lots of their flavor compounds are also fat-soluble which means you are helping them reach their full potential. If you’re cooking one of my recipes, I likely already have you do this but as a rule, I like to add most of my dried herbs and spices right after I’ve sautéed my aromatics, like onions and carrots. There’s usually enough oil in the pan and giving them a minute or two of attention before adding any additional ingredients lets the spices step into their own. Just try it.

Ditch Your Nonstick Pan

Lots of us tend to use the same three pans over and over in our kitchen. If you always reach for your nonstick, try grabbing a cast iron, enamel coated, or stainless-steel pan instead. The burned bits you get when cooking in a regular pan, verses nonstick, are full of flavor and key in making your food taste more complex. You want that caramelization, and you don’t need that much oil to keep your food moving freely in the pan. Stuff getting stuck? Add a splash of wine, broth, or water and gently scrape up all that flavor. Your finished dish will be better for it.

Finish Cooking Pasta in the Sauce

@humormeI voluntarily eat spaghetti daily, tbh. #KnockedUp #SethRogen #Filmtok

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When it comes to stretching grocery dollars, lots of us rely on pasta. No shade here, my love for pasta is for richer or poorer. But when it comes to making our finished dishes taste their best, you’ve really got to let the pasta finish cooking in whatever sauce you want to cover it with. It improves the chew of the noodles and makes the finished dish taste so much more cohesive. Just drain your pasta when you think they could still use at least a minute more of cooking time then sauce them right into your warmed saucepan. Stir them around over a low heat for a couple minutes until they look nicely coated and taste perfect to you. This might take you an extra 5 minutes total but it’s worth it every single time.

Breathe New Life Into Frozen Veggies

Frozen veggies are a great way to make sure you always have staples at home, regardless of what fresh items are available that week. I know lots of people are snobby about frozen veggies but I’m not one of them. Any veggies are better than none and there are two easy ways to add them to your rotation. I am a well-known lover of a lazy blanche. I’ll toss frozen veggies, or even fresh ones, into a pot of boiling water right before my noodles are done to cook them just enough for me to enjoy. I made a whole video about it.

@stir_thepotdo the ✨least✨ this week 🍜 recipe for the peanut sauce in The Broiler Room 🔗 f*ck your routine, be a breakfast pioneer w/ me #breakfast #cookinghacks #peanut #brunch #brunchtime #veganfood #veganhackspod #veganrecipes #thebroilerroom

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But last week I saw this tip from Kelly LeVeque on how to best roast your frozen veggies and it’s a killer.

Basically, roast your frozen veggies with nothing on them on a sheet pan at 375 F until they look dry, about 10-15 minutes. Then you are going to pull the pan out of the oven, oil and season them how you like, and finish roasting them until they’re how you want them, at least another 10 minutes. This way you can always serve some veggies with your meal and you don’t even have to grab a knife. Perfect for a quick side or an addition to your entrée.

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Do you have any tips and tricks that you use to get the most out your home cooked meals? Let us know in the comments so we can all level up.

Need some ideas for dinners next week? Here are some great recipes that have been on my mind, all free.

Magic White Bean and Vegetable Soup

Lasagna Stew

Buffalo Twice-Baked Potatoes

Garlic Sriracha Noodles w/ Broccolini

Baked Butternut Squash and Gnocchi with White Beans

Thanks for joining me for the very first edition of Stir the Pot. You are all the fucking coolest and I hope you know that. I am working on an recipe index so that you can find all the recipes I’ve created from my time with Bad Manners and The Broiler Room with ease unlike the full scavenger hunt you have to go on now. Can’t wait?Tomorrow paid subscribers are getting a one pot dinner that is ready in less than an hour and makes your whole place smell like Thanksgiving: Baked Butternut Squash and Gnocchi with White Beans. Don’t miss out!

xoxo

Michelle