Meat is usually one small part of what I'm making. I can cut the heck out of meat or fish and throw it into a stew, a chili, or a stir fry, but I very rarely make a meal where the meat/fish is the centerpiece.
I have literally NEVER cooked meat on it's own. I don't know how to bake chicken or salmon or pan-sear any kind of red meat...etc.
I'm looking for any cheap and easy recipes that can be at the center of a meal. I'm cutting down on red-meats because I recently learned that I have some genetic issues I need to be careful of. ]
Fish recipes would be the best, but anything would be appreciated.
I generally cook with meatier fishes-- salmon, tuna, steelhead, etc. I'm not particularly fond of whitefish, although I cook a lot of tilapia, which is somewhere in the middle I guess.
Cooking a piece of salmon is really freaking easy. Basically, you either rub it with a spice rub or put a sauce on it or marinade it, and then you put it in an oven or on a grill until it's done. It's done when the meat is flaky.
You can make a really delicious piece of salmon by just going to the grocery store and buying a premade spice rub designed for salmon or other fish. Usually it'll involve brown sugar, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, some green spices, etc. Rub it generously on the fish, then throw grill until it's done.
Baking is more or less equally easy. There's a bunch of sauces and marinades you can whip up that go well with salmon-- ginger soy, miso, lemon herb, whatever. One of my favorites, that I've probably posted before, goes something like this:
Hot peppers (whatever you like), seeded
Scallions
Shallot
Rum
Molasses
Brown Sugar
Spices (especially nutmeg and related flavors)
Maybe some soy sauce
Basically a spicy-sweet variant on jerk sauce. Put it in a blender and fuck around with it til you get the flavor balance you like. Then spread it on your fish and throw it in the oven.
You can also broil salmon quite well. Broiling with a good sauce will create a crispy crust on the outside of the fish, but leave the insides tender and moist. I don't generally bother, so someone else would be better suited to explain it.
Tuna I generally pan sear. Get a nice, high quality piece of tuna. Throw it in a hot pan. Wait maybe 20 or 30 seconds, flip it. Wait maybe 20 or 30 seconds, pull it off.
I like making kind of a thai-style tuna by throwing it in the pan, pouring a little coconut milk and fresh basil (thai basil if you have it) on the side that's up, flipping it, pouring a little coconut milk and fresh basil on the other side, flipping it again, and then pulling it out. Once you've got your tuna seared, you can chop it up and serve it in a salad (good) or just serve it as an entree (also good).
Tilapia I just marinade and throw in the oven. It's not as flavorful a fish as tuna or salmon, but it absorbs flavors well. Sometimes I'll just eat it as an entree, other times I'll put it in a wrap and have a fish sandwich.
Note on salmon: Please buy wild. Tastier and better for the environment. Usually a bit more expensive than farmed, but you can sometimes find it cheap.
Last edited by Sueven on May 29, 2009, 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I note that you also said "cheap." Salmon and tuna are relatively expensive (although not compared to eating out of the home), while tilapia is pretty cheap. Also, if you're looking for cheap, tasty, and classy:
Roast a chicken!
Get a whole chicken. Pull the gizzards and whatnot out of the body cavity. Save them and use them for something! Trim off excess fat and season the chicken. My preferred seasoning method is as follows: Cut a few pats of butter and a few chunks of fresh herbs (rosemary is ideal). Cut little holes in the chicken's skin, and insert the pats of butter and the fresh herbs under the skin but above the meat. Salt and pepper the exterior skin. Throw a few cloves of garlic and half a lemon, along with maybe some other fresh herbs, into the body cavity of the chicken.
Now, take a glass pan and rub it very lightly with olive oil. Cut up a bunch of carrots, celery, and onions, and spread them over the bottom of the pan. Put the cleaned, seasoned chicken on the layer of vegetables and throw the whole thing in the oven for a long time. This is one where a meat thermometer comes in handy; if you insert the thermometer in the chicken's thigh and it reads 185, you're done. Alternately, if the joints move easily and the juices that run out of them are clear, you should be good.
When you're done, you have a whole tray of really good roasted vegetables (especially the carrots) and a whole tasty roast chicken. You can easily eat it as a meal for a group, or you can cut it up and save some for later.
Thanks much for the tips Sueven. I don't have a grill or grill plate, so I'm wondering if things that normally would be grilled could just be done on a pan? Or broiled maybe?
Also, I actually really love Tilapia, but I know it's ALL about the marinade. Any specific marinades you like...and how long do you marinade it? I know it needs less time than other meats since it really soaks up flavors fast. Don't want to over-saturate it with seasoning, as I actually really like the light, natural taste of it.
edit: whoops
Last edited by Keverian FireCry on May 29, 2009, 7:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Yeah, anything you do on the grill you can also do on the oven. Just a slightly different taste.
Probably my favorite quick and easy way to do tilapia is a kind of garlic butter preparation. Just make a sauce out of some melted butter, chopped garlic, fresh herbs, little spice, whatever. You can just brush the sauce on and bake it, no need to marinade really.
Tilapia is often a quick and convenient staple for me, so I also just use a lot of random grocery store marinades. I think it's good with a little spice, so I gravitate toward those which have words like 'southwest' or 'jerk' in their names. If I'm doing that, I usually throw the fish into a ziploc bag with some marinade before I leave the house in the morning, and then cook it up when I get home for dinner. Not very subtle.
Almost any fish with white flesh - particularly something like trout: If you get it fresh fresh (as in caught yourself), descale it, gut it and clean the cavity. If not, you don't have to worry about the dirty bits.
stuff into cavity: a couple knobs of butter, two bay leaves, a little lemon juice, s+p. On outside: a light drizzle of oil, s+p. Wrap in foil and either barbecue or oven bake until the flesh falls off the bones by itself. It depends so much on the size of the fish that I can't give you a time indication. Eat. Love it.
IT'S HARD TO PUT YOUR FINGER ON IT; SOMETHING IS WRONG
I'M LIKE THE UNCLE WHO HUGGED YOU A LITTLE TOO LONG
Drolgin Steingrinder wrote:Almost any fish with white flesh - particularly something like trout: If you get it fresh fresh (as in caught yourself), descale it, gut it and clean the cavity. If not, you don't have to worry about the dirty bits.
stuff into cavity: a couple knobs of butter, two bay leaves, a little lemon juice, s+p. On outside: a light drizzle of oil, s+p. Wrap in foil and either barbecue or oven bake until the flesh falls off the bones by itself. It depends so much on the size of the fish that I can't give you a time indication. Eat. Love it.
I do this all the time with trout. Don't even need to descale it - just gut it and clean the cavity. When it's done the scales and skin will just pull off the meat with a fork - real easy.
I do same as you pretty much, Butter, bay, garlic, lemon juice - but sometimes I also add some white wine to it as well. Very easy, takes, 10-15 minutes on grill, little longer in the oven.
Excellent, restaurant quality fish, for almost no effort
If you have a cast iron skillet (and you should, if you don't), go to the store and buy blackened seasoning (it's cheaper than making it yourself), and apply liberally to each side of the tilapia or the meat side of the trout. Lightly spray the skillet with Pam just to keep the spices attached to the fish rather than the skillet, and cook. If tilapia, cook both sides evenly. If trout, cook the meat side longer, then flip to the scales side for maybe a minute or so.
This also works for a lot of your thicker fish like halibut/grouper/sea bass/etc. which do run a bit higher on the price side. A good idea is to find a fresh fish market or perhaps a butcher with a good fish selection, they usually have some great deals on the more expensive fish.
I actually prefer trout to tilapia by a wide margin.
Fish tacos - I don't have a recipe really, we just replace the beef with blackened Tilapia, or shredded, leftover roast chicken.
Broiled Cod
¼ Cup Italian Dressing
½ tsp sugar
1/8 tsp:
Salt
Garlic powder
Curry powder
Paprika
Pepper
2 Cod fillets (or loins)
2 tsp butter
1. In a large re-sealable bag or bowl combine all ingredients.
2. Refrigerate 10-30 minutes
3. Drain and discard marianade
4. Place fillets on broiler pan after spraying it with non-stick spray
5. Broil 3-4” form element for 10-12 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork
6. Place 1 tsp butter on each fillet when serving
Chicken-Cabbage Stir Fry
Ingredients:
3 chicken breast halves, skinned and boned
1 tsp oil
3 cups green cabbage, cut in 1/2 inch slices
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp soy sauce
Cut chicken breast halves into strips. Heat oil in frypan. Add chicken strips and stirfry over moderately high heat, turning pieces constantly, until lightly browned (about 2-3 minutes). Add cabbage; stirfry 2 minutes until cabbage is tender-crisp. Mix cornstarch and seasonings; add water and soy sauce, mixing until smooth. Stir into chicken mixture. Cook until thickened and pieces are coated, about 1 minute.
"Life is what happens while you're making plans for later."
Zamtuk wrote: buy blackened seasoning (it's cheaper than making it yourself)
wtf? srsly?
2 parts Paprika
2 parts Cayenne
2 parts Kosher or sea salt
2 parts Garlic Powder
1 part Black Pepper
1 part Onion Powder
1 part dried Thyme
1 part dried Oregano
1/2 part Cumin
all spices you should have already. And if you don't, you suck! You can easily make a fairly large batch and store it in an airtight container.
IT'S HARD TO PUT YOUR FINGER ON IT; SOMETHING IS WRONG
I'M LIKE THE UNCLE WHO HUGGED YOU A LITTLE TOO LONG
This is pretty cheap, assuming you have most of the dried herbs spices in your cupboard already (and if you don't, you should). Whole fryers are cheap, you can really use whatever beer you have in the 'fridge already, and you should be able to buy some fresh rosemary at your local market if you don't have a free source. This is easy enough, and most of the time involved is waiting for the brine to do its magic. Realistically, you'll be looking at about 10 minutes of prep the day before you cook, 10 minutes of prep the day of cooking, and ~30 minutes of cooking time. If you're willing / able to plan ahead sufficiently, try this:
(I use a 4 quart rubbermaid canister for this, use whatever you've got that will accommodate your chicken)
Put the following into 1 quart of hot water:
1/2 cup of kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbs paprika (don't use smoked)
1 tbs ground cayenne
1 tbs dried thyme
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs cracked peppercorns
5 rosmary sprigs
4 bay leaves
5 smashed garlic cloves
1 medium onion, quartered
Stir until the salt and sugar are fully disolved. Add 1 bottle of good, cold lager. Refrigerate and allow to cool completely (add some ice to speed things along)
While cooling, remove the backbone from a whole fryer chicken. Open the chicken like a book and pop the keel bone out, but leave the chicken in 1 piece, butterflied. Once the brine is cooled, place the chicken into the container and add enough water so that the chicken is covered. Lid up, give it a shake or two to mix and then put it in the back of your refrigerator for a day.
The next day, about an hour before you're going to cook, take the chicken out of the brine and rinse it with cool water, then pat it dry with paper towels or a clean kitchen towel. Let it air dry. While drying, mix the following into half a stick of softened salted butter (or use 2 tbs of your favorite creole seasoning):
Prepare your grill for a medium/medium high fire, or preheat your oven to 425 if you're going to roast it. Rub the skin side of the chicken with 2/3 of the butter that you made and rub the cavity side with the remainder. Place the bird skin-side down on the grill. After about 15 minutes, flip the chicken and cook it until either an instant read thermometer reads 160-165ish or the thigh juices run clear when you stab the bird. If you're roasting the chicken in an oven, place it cavity-side down onto a sheet pan and pop it into the 425 oven until it reaches temperature or the juices run clear. Remove the bird from the grill and tent it with aluminum foil while it rests for a bit before serving.
Serve it with hot sauce and lemon wedges. I like cole slaw and grilled corn for sides.
"When I was a kid, my father told me, 'Never hit anyone in anger, unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it.'" - Russel Ziskey
Xatrei wrote:While cooling, remove the backbone from a whole fryer chicken. Open the chicken like a book and pop the keel bone out, but leave the chicken in 1 piece, butterflied.
the term for that is "spatchcocking".
IT'S HARD TO PUT YOUR FINGER ON IT; SOMETHING IS WRONG
I'M LIKE THE UNCLE WHO HUGGED YOU A LITTLE TOO LONG
