Chicken & Vegetable Kebabs

I believe there's a trick to making kebabs. While skewers threaded with alternating chunks of vegetables and seafood, meat or whatever-you-put-on-a-skewer look great, they are difficult to cook so that everything is done at the same time. On the other hand, if you make each skewer with just one ingredient, it's guaranteed to cook evenly. Another thing, I have metal skewers and bamboo ones as well. Recipes always tell you to soak the bamboo skewers so they don't burn. But I can't be bothered. I'm going to throw the skewers away after I use them anyway so what do I care if they burn? I've never had any kebabs burst into flames and I'm not cooking over an open flame (unless I'm broiling) so it's really no big deal.

Food on a stick always seems to be more plentiful than just plain grilled food-on-a-plate. I don't know why. I had lots of chicken thighs, because I bought a "value pack" for 99 cents a pound. But I had to buy 4 pounds. Luckily I have a household of two. I can't imagine one person eating anywhere near that much chicken.

I made a simple marinade for the chicken and the vegetables, using the paltry ingredients I had on hand. I used only vegetables that were on sale. Fresh herbs would have been a nice addition but I didn't have the budget for them and my dry Italian seasoning mix probably would have burned. I served these skewer with couscous but really any starch would do. After I bought the bulk couscous I saw bulgar which was much cheaper and probably has more nutritional value. In an attempt to use everything possible, I added the lemon zest from my half lemon to the couscous. This is not a recipe I would make again. It was healthy, cheap and fast, but it was also boring.

Chicken & Vegetable Kebabs

$2.92 for 2 servings

Ingredients

1/2 onion .10
1/2 zucchini .34
1 Anaheim chile pepper .29
4 oz. button mushrooms, stems removed .99
2 chicken thigh, skinned and boned .80

1 Tablespoon olive oil .18
Juice of 1/2 lemon .17
I clove garlic, pressed .05
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

Mix the marinade, toss the vegetables in it then thread on skewers. Then place the chicken in the marinade, allow to marinate for 10 minutes then thread on skewers. Grill or broil until done.

Swimming Rama

Since today is Seth's birthday, I figured I would post one of his favorite dishes.  Happy Birthday! This has become a favorite dish of mine as well.  One of the best things to result from my pregnancy is a newfound tolerance for spicy food.  Previously, I had absolutely no tolerance for anything spicy.  None.  Now I can finally appreciate the wonderful world of spicy food.  Swimming Rama was a dish that always sounded good to me in theory, but when I actually got the dish in a restaurant, it was too spicy for me and I couldn’t eat it.  Now I find myself craving the stir fried slices of chicken that have been coated with a creamy, spicy sauce and placed on a bed of spinach.

Ingredients
1 lb chicken breast, sliced thinly and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and some fresh lime juice
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 ½ teaspoon chile paste
½ cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 cup coconut milk
1 tablespoon peanut oil
10 ounces spinach

Instructions
Whisk peanut butter, honey, lime juice, fish sauce, and coconut milk in a small bowl.  Heat oil over high heat and brown chicken.  Reduce heat to medium and add shallot and garlic. Cook until the chicken has cooked through and the shallot is soft.  Add peanut sauce and chile paste and cook for another minute or two to allow the flavors to come together.  Serve over a handful of spinach and with a side of rice.

Hunger Challenge Chili Recipe

This is one of the cheapest meals I know how to make. There are a lot of tricks to make it taste good without using very many ingredients. Chili is all about layers or flavor and texture and spice. While texture is not the hardest thing to achieve on a budget, flavor and spice are a bit trickier. To make up for the lack of complexity in the spices, I overcompensated in the texture department and also tried to get the most flavor out of the ingredients I could afford.

I like some fresh vegetables in my chili so I used one Anaheim chile and half of a large onion. I also used mushroom stems. Surprise! I will use the caps for another recipe and I would have just discarded the stems. Mushrooms, even just the crumbled stems, lend savory "umami" flavor and also meaty texture. Speaking of meaty texture, this is not a purely vegetarian chili. It has two slices of bacon which might not seem like much, but it adds a bit of meatiness and fat for cooking the vegetables.

I used a combination of white beans and red beans which made it more visually appealing. The beans were cooked from dry beans so I spent less money than if I had bought canned beans. I also used one can of corn. I bought a 2 1/2 ounce packet of ground New Mexico chile powder I found in the Hispanic food section of the store. I used 3 Tablespoons but you could use less or more to taste. Likewise the amount of salt you use will vary depending upon your taste. I only used one clove of garlic which was probably a mistake. I would recommend at least two.

Because I cooked all the beans earlier, the chili comes together quickly. I normally don't buy diced tomatoes because they don't break down very well, but in this case that was fine. I primarily chose them because they had "mild green chiles" in them and I was looking for all the flavor I could find.

Frankly this chili isn't all the different from my normal everyday vegetarian version, though it has a lot less spice. Depending upon your serving size, you could certainly add cilantro, chopped green onions and a tiny bit of cheese on top of each serving and still stay on budget.

Hunger Challenge Chili
$3.68 for 4 servings

Ingredients

2 slices bacon, diced .58
1 Anaheim chile pepper, diced .29
1/2 onion, diced .11
1 clove garlic .05 (I would recommend adding more)
3 Tablespoons ground New Mexico chile powder .30
Mushroom stems from an 8 oz pkg of mushrooms (no cost since they would normally be discarded)
2 cups water
1 can diced Mexican style tomatoes .98
2 cups cooked red beans (1/4 lb dried) .31
2 cups cooked white beans (1/4 lb dried) .31
1 can corn .75

Generous toppings for 1 serving, about 35¢
cilantro .05
cheese .24
green onions .06

Instructions

Heat a large dutch oven and saute the bacon for a few minutes or until beginning to brown. Add the onions and pepper and continue cooking until they are soft and onions are golden. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for another couple of minutes then add the chili powder, water and tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes before adding the beans and corn. Simmer another 10 minutes and season aggressively with salt.

Is Hunger a Taboo Subject?

The first year I participated in the Hunger Challenge, one of my commenters basically said that anyone who was hungry in this country was lazy. I was also told by a blogger that she wouldn't participate in the Challenge because it was her personal goal to support organic farmers and the Hunger Challenge just encouraged support of an already broken food system. In subsequent years I have heard that hunger is a bigger issue in other parts of the world, and that childhood obesity is the real problem we should be focused on.

The goal of the Hunger Campaign is to raise awareness about hunger in the San Francisco Bay Area. Participants in the Challenge live on the same budget a food stamp recipient would receive, a paltry $4.72 a day. But somehow, I find many people I tell about the Challenge don't want to hear about that. They'd rather focus on something else. All those other issues - politics, sustainable food systems, organics, world hunger and even childhood obesity get way more attention in the media than local hunger. Yes. I said local hunger.

Here in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Food Bank, 197,000 people struggle to feed themselves and their families. In Marin, just over 40,000 people - or 16% of the population - face the same problem. 
I find it shocking that in a community as rich as ours (San Francisco and Marin), 237,000 people live at or below 185% of the federal poverty line ($33,873 per year for a family of three). While children or families may be eligible for aid at that level, even with assistance it can be very challenging to provide enough food to consistently nourish themselves.

Won't you think about what you can do help alleviate hunger in your community?

GET INVOLVED!

♥ Take the Hunger Challenge yourself. Sign up here.

♥ Read blogs by people taking the Hunger Challenge. There's a blogroll here.

♥ Follow the Hunger Challengers on Twitter. There's a listing here, or search for the hashtag #HungerChallenge.

♥ Learn more about the San Francisco Food Bank - and make a donation. For every $1 donated the food bank can supply hungry people with $6 worth of food!

♥ Follow the San Francisco Food Bank on Twitter or visit their Facebook page to see how they're fighting hunger every day.

Shopping for the Hunger Challenge

There will be no coffee, no tea, no chocolate, no ice cream this week. No matter how much I stretched my budget shopping at less expensive stores this year, some things are just out of the question. In the past I have shopped at Safeway and at Whole Foods for the Hunger Challenge. This year, I did my primary shopping at what is considered a "price-impact warehouse store" Foods Co and picked up a few bulk items at Rainbow Grocery (a coop). What exactly is a price-impact warehouse store? Warehouse stores are often located in low rent areas, have spartan, warehouse style interiors and most importantly, low prices. They are not as service oriented or as high priced as traditional supermarkets.

Shopping at Foods Co was eye opening. The demographic of their shoppers is clearly not the typical supermarket shopper. I saw mostly Asian and Latino shoppers many who were not speaking English, primarily young families and some older couples. The store was bustling on a Saturday and people were clustered around the sale items and comparison shopping, looking at prices. More than once I heard someone talking about pay day. One woman complained about the price of chicken. She told me she has a small refrigerator and freezer now and cannot buy the larger "value packs."

While prices for some things were good, the quality of the produce was not consistently high. The pears, 4 pounds for a $1, were small and hard, and many had cosmetic imperfections. I couldn't find one good eggplant. They were all old, wrinkly, many with mushy brown spots. There were virtually no organic products. When I couldn't find something employees pointed me in the general direction but never stopped what they were doing to help me.

My initial shopping list of items cost me $40 at Foods Co would have cost $65 at Safeway (according to my virtual shopping cart on Safeway.com). Bottom line: Foods Co = CHEAP.

At Rainbow Grocery I bought bulk items that I would not have otherwise been able to afford such as extra virgin olive oil, roasted soy nuts, raisins and couscous.



Here is my entire shopping list for two people, for one week:

Foods Co
Cilantro .33
Turnip greens .78
Lemon .33
3 yogurts 1.00
Bok choy .41
Chile peppers .88
Green onions .33
Mixed fruit (12 apples, oranges) 3.98
Bartlett pears (6 very small) .48
Ginger .27
Mushrooms 1.98
Rice 1.98
Chicken thighs (10) 4.04
Chili powder .99
Italian style canned tomatoes .98
Mexican style canned tomatoes .98
Canned corn .75
Bouillon .98
Milk (quart) 1.48
Red beans (1 lb bag) 1.25
White bean (1 lb bag) 1.25
Lentils (1 lb bag) 1.28
Eggs 2.50
Corn tortillas (30) 1.08
Salsa 1.50
Instant oatmeal (10 packs) 1.98
Pasta .25
Panela cheese (10 oz) 3.18
Quesadilla cheese (10 oz) 3.85
Garlic .49
Bacon (12 slices) 3.50
Italian seasoning .98
Zucchini (1 small) .68
Onions (3 large) .65

TOTAL $47.74

Rainbow Grocery
Extra virgin olive oil 2.31
Cinnamon .31
Couscous 2.17
Raisins 1.21
Soy nuts 2.19
Frozen spinach 1.59

TOTAL $9.73 (with bag credit)

GRAND TOTAL $57.47

Note: The total budget for 2 people is 66.08, but my husband is only partly participating in the challenge. I will price out my meals.

Day 161! Sierra Leone - Corned Beef and Yam Cakes - Up Next, Singapore

Unlike the United States where most of our culinary traditions focus on special holidays, very specific preparation, utensils, process and form are the norm in many, many foreign countries. In Sierra Leone for example, tonight's meal of Corned Beef and Yam cakes, would likely have been prepared by women, using  a large pot, supported by three stones over a wood or charcoal fire. In fact, when I first started cooking in African countries back in 2010, I dug such a fire pit so I could try to replicated this process, which I highly recommend no matter what you like to cook - to see it, click here. Families in Sierra Leone generally congregate around a large dish of food, which almost always consists of rice, a small amount of fish or meat and sauce or gravy for dipping. After washing their hands, each person eats from the area directly in front of them or the middle of the platter, using their left hand only. Reaching across the platter is considered bad manners, as is using ones right right hand. Moreover,  a lot of conversation is considered disrespectful to the food. The oldest male gets the best piece of meat, followed by younger males. The balance is left for the women and girls.

Located in West Africa, Sierra Leone is bordered by Guinea, Liberia and the Atlantic Ocean. Orignally inhabited by the indigenous Sherbo, Temme, Limba, Mende, and Komo, the island was first discovered by Pedro da Cintra, a Portuguese explorer in 1462, during which time it became a transatlantic slave trade center. In March, 1792, Freetown was founded by the Sierra Leone Company for formerly enslaved African's. In 1808 it became a British Crown Colony and by 1896, a British protectorate. Finally in 1961, the two regions merged and gained independence. The country is made up of 4 provinces, Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western, which are comprised of 14 districts and 149 chiefdoms.There are approximately 15 ethnic groups, each with their on distinct languages and customs, however religious tolerance and intermarriage between Muslim and Christian faiths is widely accepted.

One cannot talk about Sierra Leone's history without mentioning the 1991-2002 Civil War that killed and/or mutilated more than 75, 000 people. The country's long history of diamond, bauxite and gold mining has long been a source of exploitation by those who mercilessly profit from the country's natural resources and exploit its people. This corruption, mismanagement, economic collapse and the dismantling of the educational system all contributed to one of the bloodiest and most tragic civil wars in the world's history.

Sierra Leone's tropical climate ranges from savannas to rain forests. Cassava, palaver sauce, red palm oil, onions, peppers, fish, meat stews, okra and ground nuts are all grown and consumed in this country. As mentioned above, rice is the staple starch in nearly every family, and large amounts of meat and fish are not common at the dinner table.

Peel the yam, sweet potatoes or potatoes, boil until soft and mash

Prepare the egg-milk mixture and the bread crumbs

The recipes calls for tinned corned beef, but I used fresh and minced it (my son works at a deli!)

Combine ingredients and add 2 Tbsp. of the egg mixture to bind everything

 
Brush cakes with egg mixture - don't attempt the dip method - I did and they fall apart

Get your oil good and hot and fry four at a time, turning once, until golden brown

Serve alongside hot sauce...I love this Peri-Peri sauce fromt he folks at Rhino

Corned Beef and Yam Cakes (recipe courtesy of Africaupenn.edu)

1 pound potatoes or yams
salt and pepper to taste
1 small onion, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
7 ounce can corned beef (I used 1/2 lb. fresh)
2 cups bread crumbs for coating
Oil for frying
1 tsp. cayenne pepper, optional
1 tsp. finely chopped parsley

Peel potatoes or yams.
Boil in salted water until tender; drain and mash.
Add pepper or cayenne, chopped onions, parsley and corned beef.
Add milk to eggs and whisk.
Add 2 Tbsp. of the egg mixture into the yam mixture and blend well.
Scoop up about 2 Tbsp. yam mixture and form into flat cakes.
Brush with egg mixture, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown, turning once as needed.
Drain on paper towels.
Serve with peri-peri or hot sauce of your choice.

Final Assessment: These were absolutely wonderful. They could easily be vegetarian by leaving out the corned beef and I honestly don't think you'd miss it all. I love the sweetness of the yams and the addition of cayenne gives them a great kick. Like any croquet, they're best fried in good hot oil so they don't float around soaking it all up. Once deeply golden brown, all they need is a little sea salt and a good sized dipping dish of peri-peri or hot pepper sauce. Served along side rice and a vegetables, they make a great meal. Except we just ate them as soon as they were cool enough to handle and called it dinner.

© 2010-2011, What's Cooking in Your World? Sarah Commerford/All Rights Reserved

Planning for the Hunger Challenge

Shopping on a tight budget isn't impossible, but it does take work. Yesterday I started planning for the Hunger Challenge, a campaign to help raise awareness about hunger in our community. For one week during Hunger Action Month participants live on a very limited food budget, comparable to what food stamp recipients live on. In 2008 just seven of us participated in the Hunger Challenge and the budget was $3 a day, this year there will be over 50 250 people participating and the budget is $4.72 per day.

Tomorrow I will be shopping with CBS reporter and Hunger Challenge participant Juliette Goodrich at Foods Co. Yesterday I read the Food Co weekly flyer and planned my menu based on sale items and what I know I can afford.

Here is what I plan on cooking and eating, for new dishes I will post the recipes throughout the week:

Dinners:
Panela and Vegetable Kabobs - a new recipe I will be creating for the challenge. Panela is a cheese similar to haloumi but much less expensive.

Chicken and Bacon Quesadillas - another new recipe that I am creating for the challenge.

Chicken and Rice Soup - past participant Vanessa Barrington made this recipe a few years ago l based on a recipe by Andrea Nguyen

Moroccan Chicken & Lentils - I will be modifying a Bon Appetit recipe I found on Epicurious

Pasta Fagioli - truly cucina povera, something I made the first year of the Hunger Challenge, but this time I think I will add some spinach

Chili - I will make this using a variety of beans, corn, onions and peppers

Red beans and rice
For breakfast, I will eat oatmeal or eggs

For lunch I will eat leftovers or quesadillas. In past years, I have eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but I just don't want to do that again.

Of course my plans may change depending upon what I find at the store and how much I can buy...