Cheap Tuesday Gourmet – with help from our friends

My Grandmother shared stories of the Great Depression with me as I grew up. Others in my family have echoed very lean upbringings and their survival techniques from the time.

As an example, my Mother`s family is from the Eastern Shores of Cape Breton. As children they were teased for eating lobster in their school lunches. Lobster was for poor people – their families were fishermen who could not afford to buy their own food. The kids who ate imported SPAM (canned ham) were seen as having something of prestige and value because it had a monetary value. Perspective is everything.

My Grandmother speaks of times when everyone had a garden – it was expected and a necessary labour to ensure your family ate well. Preserving and cold cellars were not luxuries – they were minimal necessities when you were a family of 8 (6 kids) in difficult times.

I can`t imagine how they did it.

I do know that they also relied on each other. People shared tips, traded recipes and shared food during their leanest days. No one would be left behind and each helped each other. They traded ideas and food to help each other make it through.

All of this was in my mind when I received an email with a generous offer – a recipe to use and share for Cheap Tuesday Gourmet. It instantly reminded me of my Meme`s time and that of a global community gathered once again to share. A kind of future-past that warms the heart and, perhaps our plates.

CallieK, from Backyard farms sent us a gem – before you read it though, you really oughta check out their site. We have mutual friends at Not Far From the Tree (another project we simply adore) and she is a fellow can jammer. Scroll through her older posts and drool at last years gardens and find plenty of ideas for gardening in urban spaces – roof tops, potted crops and Portuguese Gardens are all shown. There’s a tonne of tomatoes, snow peas ad even a fence pumpkin. Their preserving is also going full swing and looks awesome.

Looking at the recipe she sent, I realize that we have much of it preserved in the pantry. Dehydrated onion, pickeld garlic (or scapes) and stewed tomatoes are all in our pantry. By this time next year we hope to add our own red pepper flakes, dried herbs and parsley that would further lower the price, increae the local content and taste.

Her recipe was written with plenty of verbal flavor so we’ll turn it over to her from here – love the idea and the name made me laugh…

Pantry Puttanesca

Traditionally Puttanesca ( whore’s pasta) is made with anchovies. I like this version because it’s easy and can be whipped up last minute with ingredients you usually have on hand yet still tastes like it took all day to make.

Ingredients

1 package of spaghetti ( 454 grams)

3 tablespoons of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic minced

I med onion diced

1 tin of chunk light tuna, drained – Light tuna is my preference because it has a more noticeable flavor- you can use white or albacore if preferred.

3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes ( or more or less to taste)

2 tablespoons capers

1/2 cup olives pitted & chopped ( about 12 large olives, preferably kalamata but any large olive works. I’ve even used cocktail olives froma jar in a pinch- just don’t use canned black olives as they don’t have any taste.

4 cups of stewed tomatoes, chopped ( you can use home canned or store bought)

1 tbsp fresh or ½ tsp dried herbs to taste- I like oregano and thyme, basil and rosemary work well too

Fresh ground pepper

Fresh parsley, chopped ( dried works too but not as pretty)
Grated parmesan cheese

Preparation

In a skillet sauté garlic and onion. When the garlic starts to brown add the tuna, capers, olives, herbs, red pepper flakes and tomatoes. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Bring water to boil in a pot. Add pasta and prepare according to directions on the package for spaghetti that is al dente. When pasta is done drain it and add it to the sauce and mix ingredients. Sprinkle with parsley, pepper and parmesan. Serves 4

A giant thank you to CallieK for the recipe and the warm fuzzy feeling I got thinking about my own roots and how we are continuing tradition that worked for so long and is often forgotten today.

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet – Solutions for Healthy and Affordable Eating

We started this series of posts in response to many things – an undeniable motivator (as previously shared) was the focus on poverty and eating well and a particular scene in Food, Inc which spoke to the cost of good food vs. `filler`.

Michael Pollan shares that the cost of food on the outside of a store is dramatically more expensive than the inner aisles (see his 2007 article here). The article is a must-read and it`s fascinating food for thought to consider that a dollar yields 250 calories of carrots compared to 1,200 calories of potato chips. I find Pollans` writing fascinating and thought provoking. I also find it deeply troubling.

As our $6 dinner for 4 people roasts in the oven, I find myself deep in reflection.

According to Discover Magazine (here), 15-35% of North American food spoils in the field while 10-15% is lost in transport.

The Farmer`s I speak with (regularly), feel that the argument for cheaper food is dangerous – it threatens their livelihoods, could create shortcuts and threaten the future of farming. Cheaper can come with ethical issues as well – both of what goes into the product and how it is created.

There are enough voices fighting the virtues of all sides of the arguments. I`m not nearly enough of an expert in any of the above – though I`ll cheer for anyone trying to make a difference. There`s enough battling in the world of food – much of it is important – but we also need to findprovide solutions. A significant amount of food is rotting while people are starving or not being able to afford fresh, real food.

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet has been both easier than I thought and way more difficult than I could have imagined.

Making the cost work has been easy. Most meals have been less than $2 and focused on good food with solid technique. They have been healthy, satisfying and simple to make – even when balancing a 60 hour work week, writing 7 days a week, a young puppy and life at large.

What`s been tough? The meals could have been better, healthier and cheaper.

Recall our recipe for roasted red peppers in the fall. We bought a bushel (25-30 pounds) of red peppers for $14. Our freezer is full of $0.30-$0.40 bags of fire roasted peppers that take any soup to another universe.

Our canned peas taste like summer and cost about $0.70 each.

Our Romano beans were about $0.60 a can.

Fresh from the field beans were pressure canned for well under a dollar.

Our preserved turkey stock was practically free with the leftover carcass from Christmas.

We preserved 24 liters of peaches for around $19. 126 liters of tomato sauce cost us about $1 each.

Garlic scapes and wild leek chutes fill our freezer all waiting for sauces and soups. More than 60 units of these flavors fill our freezer – the total cost was $4.

There is certainly start-up costs and a learning curve. It`s not easy (though not difficult) and takes some time. It`s also the way that many families functioned for a long time from all around the world.

The results are stunning. When we opened our first can of peas last night we both started to laugh. We have 10 cans of summer peas left that taste like they just came from the field. They contain peas, water and a bit of salt and nothing else.

I haven`t been using our preserves in these posts because I thought that was cheating. It`s time to change that. Starting next week we`ll be using the pantry to raise the bar a little.

From now on we will also price all of our preserving posts (based on ingredients). Not all of our preserves will be considered cheap (wild blueberries with maple syrup is an adorable jam but not for the most cost conscious), but I want to help get the message out that preserving can help make a significant difference – in the amount of food that rots, the cost of what you eat and the quality and taste of what appears on your plate.

I`m also asking for those of you who preserve to share the word with your own communities (online and organic). Together we can make a difference. There are so many problems in our food system – we have part of the solution and we need to continue to inspire those around us with it.

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet – Chicken Barley soup for 80 cents

I wholly believe that part of the difficulty of eating affordably is, in some cases, completely solvable by learning simple cooking techniques. This won`t solve all the world`s problems but I know that some easy tricks could make a difference.

Last night was a good test of our committment – it`s a busy week and the evening was chock full. I had a 30 minute chunk of time between arriving from work and needing to head out the door to meet Dana for a walk. 30 minutes to get dinner on, change, clean a little, return some calls – you know the drill.

I decided on a chicken barley soup. The goal was something warm and hearty for last night as well as something that could be used for lunches through the week. I spent $7.50 on ingredients – barley, tinned tomatoes, a 2-pound bag of onions and a full (`double`) chicken breast with skin and bones in tact.

Before we discuss the recipe, a few tricks.

Onions from Canada were $2 a pound when purchased individually. $0.50 a pound would buy you onions from Peru. I was frustrated by this choice until I dug a little deeper – a 2-pound bag of onions from Keswick, Ontario were $0.99.

Canned tomatoes can be bought affordably and often with little to no additives. I would have prefered crushed tomatoes to extend the flavor of my broth but a quick crush was my only option.

I bought the smallest chicken breast possible – the skin and bone are a bonus in this case – they are all flavor. Instead of spending $3-4 on a 1-litre box of commercial stock, $4 of chicken and $0.50 of Onions will make 2 litres of stock – and also provide actual chicken for the soup. Vegetarians could replace the $4 chicken with $4 of root vegetables.

Place some olive oil in a pan and heat. Through in about 1 pound of onions and season to your taste (we used salt, pepper and chilli flakes).

When te onions are on, bring 1.5 litres (6 cups) of water to a boil. Rinse the dried barley and add it to the boiling water; stir occasionally. Simmer for 20 minutes. While you could cook the barley in your stock, it would absorb so much broth that you would have to add more water and lose flavor from your soup. 2 cups of dried barley make 4 cooked; you could easily use less. Cooking it separately is a key to extending your broth without losing flavor.

As the onions soften, clear a spot in the middle of the pan and place the chicken to seer it quickly. You are looking to add some brown on both sides. If you don`t get a great sear, don`t fret – this is a bonus stage.

Cover the onions and chicken with water. We used about 10 cups of water. When in doubt, use less water as you can always add more at the end. We can get away with more water than you think as we`re going to add flavor with the tomatoes.

Boil the chicken on a low simmer. It`s tough to overcook like this so accuracy is not of great concern, as long as it is cooked.

Remove the chicken from the broth after 20 minutes or so. You should be able to shred it with a fork – if not, chop finely with a knife. Discard the skin and bone and add the meat back to your pot. Add your can of tomatoes at this point.

Strain about half of the barley and add it to the soup. You can add the remaining unstrained barley at this time as well. Straining some of it simply reduces the overall starch content in your soup. Some starch is good (it adds thickness and flavor), too much just makes it feel like glue.

Allow the flavors to lightly simmer together – we did this after our walk.

The total work was about 15 minutes and the soup took about 45 minutes to make. The taste is phenomenal, warming and hearty.

Click on the Cheap Tuesday Gourmet tag below for other articles in this series.

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet – Slow Baked Beans

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet continues with another vegetarian option this week – after a month of pork I feel like we are paying our karmic duty. I suppose that baked beans challenge the definition of gourmet but this was not a series emphasizing gourmet – it was about trying to eat healthy home cooking without burning a hole in your wallet.

Learning to work with dehydrated (“dried”) beans can be a massive help for healthy, affordable living if you live in a cold climate. With local food at their lowest availability, dried beans make a lot of sense. They don’t contain the additives that cans do, use less packaging, ship in lighter quantities and are ridiculously affordable. The tradeoff comes in patience as you rehydrate the beans before cooking (not always necessary – most can be cooked without this step though you will have firmer beans that some don’t like).

rehydrating beans is a simple process – soak them in water for a prolonged period and wait for the water to absorb and soften them. Baked beans are typically done with navy beans that take 5-12 hours of soaking to properly soften. Once that’s done the rest is smooth sailing in a slow cooker (you could use a pot on a low simmer if you would rather)…

Ingredients (you can double this with ease):

1 pound of dried navy beans (soaked)
1/2 an onion
Small bit of oil – canola, olive, vegetable or any of your choosing
2 cups vegetable broth (we cheated with bouillon cubes again)
1 cup water
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 can of tomato paste
1/2 cup of ketchup
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1/4 cup molasses
Garlic powder (as much as you’d like)

Directions:

Fry the onions in the oil. Drain and rinse the beans. Place everything in a slow cooker on high for 8 hours (or until soft) or on low for about 12 hours. TADA!

There is a lot of sugar to my liking but also a ton of fiber. I really must pledge to work with dehydrated beans more through this winter – any favourite recipes out there?

Cheap Tuesday gourmet is a series of posts on eating more affordably and has been running for several weeks.. The full details are here but the premise is simple – creating good, wholesome food at affordable pricing as a means to support and create a dialogue in which we can share how to eat wholesome food at a fraction of a price of fast food alternatives. The terms gourmet and cheap are relative – the term Tuesday is not. Click on the tag Cheap Tuesday Gourmet (below this paragraph) will link you to all of the articles.

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet: Local winter greens…

“Good things will come to those who wait.” While that may be true in principle, it’s tough to replace the convenience of ramen noodles and a king can of light beer (tongue planted firmly in cheek).

If you follow some of the contents of our posts, you will know there is a bit more of a conversation starting there these days – this is something that thrills me beyond words. It’s just so much fun to see others discussing back and forth and learning and sharing off of each other and really feels much more like a conversation and not a speech. It’s just a lot more fun for us and, hopefully, for those involved.

It was in the comments last week that I declared an interest in growing sprouts. Amanda cheered us on and then insisted that we should get a move on and try it out. One of the luxuries of working in suburbia is convenient access to, well, everything. It turned out that I could buy a starter kit at the organic grocery store that is 50 feet from our front door. I came home with 3 sprouting kits that night. It’s 4 days later and we are close to a cheap, healthy and local feast.

We’ve learned a lot about sprouts and sprouting in the last week and will share more in coming weeks as we experiment and learn further. For now we’ll talk about the basics and the economics.

Before we talk about what a sprout kit is, let’s talk about what the basics of what you do to grow sprouts:

Place a small amount of seeds in a container – we, predictably, used preserving jars.
Place a filter over the top of the jar – a piece of cheese cloth secured by an elastic band or jar ring. You will be rinsing the seeds and draining the jar often. You want the filter small enough to release water while still containing the sprouts.
Soak seeds from 4-12 hours to start them becoming fertile.
Drain the water from the seeds, rest the jar upside down on an angle. You want to drain any excess water and allow air to circulate. I read something which basically said “sprouts don’t like to swim but they like to dip their feet in the water a lot.” This imagery provided great guidance through the week.
2-3 times a day fill the jars with water and drain, return to the upside down angled resting position and leave out of direct sunlight. Sprouts with a lot of green leaves can be finished for a day or two in the sun to develop their flavor.
Small sprouts will be bountiful in 3 or 4 days, larger sprouts will take a few days later.

Most of the advice we read guided us to use wide-mouthed jars to make the sprouts easier to remove. We used small jars knowing that they would be crowded but we are actually short of larger wide-mouthed jars.

We are growing 3 crops this week – alphalpha, baby radish and a mixed sprout package. The seeds proudly claim that they are organic and our total cost is less than $0.40 per jar. I am confident that if we used a larger jar we would have a larger crop for the same price.

If we had kids this is a project that I would have them run on a regular basis. I think there is so much potential learning for them and can imagine that guiding them through the process.

We are going to experiment over the next few weeks and see what we manage to grow. We’ll update progress on the project as we learn lessons, make mistakes and get some great tastes. For now, it’s such a healthy, affordable and neat project that we had to name it as part of Cheap Tuesday Gourmet.

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet – Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

We have been fairly meat-heavy on Cheap Tuesday Gourmet. Living in a winter clime produces an inversion of pricing in the markets seasonally – meat can be cheaper the veggies in the winter and seasonal veggies drop under the price of meat in the warmer months.

To illustrate this point, I saw peppers at the store this week for $2.99 a pound – the same veggies will drop under $1 in the summer. Veggies can be both expensive and inferior in the winter.

It was off to the store to pick up some veggie ideas. I had a few recipes in mind and headed for the dried good section. Peas and beans dry remarkably well, retain most of their nutritional value and sell extremely econonically. 2 pounds (900 grams) of split peas are less than $2.

From there is was off to the stock section. Stock is another high-priced item when you consider what you are paying versus what you get in return. I was going to use up to 8 cups (2 liters of stock) – which would be almost $6 if I bought the ones in tetrapacks.

Pre-made stock can also be extremely high in Sodium. 1 cup of a leading brand has 750 mg of sodium, which is 30% of your daily intake. I’ve never become full on 1 cup of soup so dinner would almost cap my daily limit of sodium.

I dove into the bouillon cubes. We called these Oxo cubes as a child (named after the leading brand) and I think many home kitchens have forgotten about these flavor-punches. They are much more economical (I paid less than $3 for a box which will make 3 liters of stock) and versatile – you can choose how strong you want their flavor to be.

I chose a low sodium version – the most important factor for me. 89 mg (4% of your daily intake) per cup of broth.

Our grocery list is almost complete – add a few onions, some olive oil, a bit of paprika and a lemon and head to the kitchen.

Heat a small amount of oil and add finely chopped onions and cook for a few minutes. You are not trying to brown them but merely soften them. I added salt and pepper at this point (skip the salt if using a higher sodium broth).

While your onions are cooking, rinse 2 cups of dried split peas (you don’t need to soak them for this recipe) and bring to a boil. Simmer until the peas become tender – this could take up to 30 minutes. I like to keep my peas a little Al Dente – know that this stage is 95% of the cooking so don’t count on them becoming a lot softer in later stages.

Remove from heat and place 50-75% of your soup base in a food processor. My experience states that the more base you mix, the thicker your soup will be. Add this mixture back into your pot and assess the thickness. You may wish to add additional water if your soup is paste-thick. We added 3 more cups of water at this point.

Add a cube or two of your bouillon. Ignore the instructions on the back which likely call for 1 cube in every 2 cups of water – you are not adding this to water alone and already have lots of flavor (much of your liquid is, after all, peas and onions). We used 2 cubes in almost 8 cups (2 liters) of soup.

Add lemon juice to flavor. It should taste different than the soup alone but diners should barely (if at all) be able to identify this mystery ingredient.

Finish in the bowl – we added a few fine squirts of olive oil and paprika – the paprika took the soup to en entirely different place.

4 big bowls of soup (dinner sized) for less than $0.75 each. Lots of veggies and great winter warmth.

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet – Liver, Onions, Bacon, Mushrooms and brussel sprouts

First off, I promise a vegetarian option next week.

Liver and Onions was a meal I grew up on – it never excited me a whole lot to hear that it was cooking but my Father always did such an amazing job of it and I found myself loving it when I pushed myself to eat it. It’s certainly not a daily dish (in fact it’s less than yearly) but it’s something few cook and it’s full of flavor and is actually a tasty, hearty meal.

Even after picking his brain tonight I didn’t live up to his legend but we came close…

Here’s the breakdown (rounded up when unsure of exact price on the physical plate):

$0.50 bacon (found a pound for $2)
$0.35 pork liver
$0.30 onion (1/3rd)
$0.60 mushrooms
$0.50 brussel sprouts
$0.40 flour, dry mustard, salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes
$0.20 oil, butter or combo of both
—————
$2.45

I’ll save you the details of cooking bacon, sprouts, onions and the like and get to liver. Most people don’t know how to cook it or have only eaten it overdone and it’s not a lot of fun when cooked to shoe leather. It’s also remarkably easy.

Heat oil until it is hot. I use a medium high heat and know it is ready just before it starts to smoke – you should see the oil start to “vein” or a small drop of water from your finger should instantly sizzle when it hits the pan.
Pat the liver dry with a paper towel.
Place a small bit of flour, dry mustard, salt, pepper and hot pepper flakes and dredge the liver in it. It will not take a lot of dry ingredients for this.
place liver in the pan and leave until small drops of blood appear on the top side. Flip and it’s done when drops appear on the other side – unless you have a very thick piece.

With liver, fresh is essential and thicker is better than thinner – medium well is what I look for – let it rest for a few minutes and test with a slice in the middle.

This isn’t a monthly meal but is a tasty treat and a great change of pace from our normal meals. Now if I can just learn to cook it as well as my Father…

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet: New Years Eve Mussels

Although this meal would be suitable for any evening that you wish, it is certainly a fine option for New Year. It is a super easy meal to prepare and so many people avoid because of the perceived difficulty. Cooking mussels is easier than boiling potatoes correctly.

Mussels are on sale this week at one of the large chains – though their prices are in kilograms, it amounts to $2.00 per pound. Their normal price is $2.50 per pound. It was common to see them at 99 cents per pound only a few years back.

The only two things you have to keep in mind for cooking this shellfish is that you only want to cook live ones and that you don’t eat the beards (a small grass-like piece which allows a mussel to attach to rocks and other anchors in the ocean).

Looking for live mussels is easy – you want to ensure the shells are closed. If a shell is open, knock it on the counter a few times (not hard) – it should close over the next few minutes. If it remains open, discard it.

Removing beards is also easy – simply pull them from the shell before or after cooking.

To cook this shellfish, add liquid to the bottom of a pan with a cover and bring to a boil. You can use anything you want – white wine with garlic, coconut milk with curry paste and shallots or my all time favorite, tomato sauce. A few bay leaves or pepper can be added – no need for salt. You are steaming the mussels so there’s no need to cover them with liquid – and the mussels will add their own juices to whatever you are steaming them in, creating a salty brine that is amazing to dip bread into as you eat.

Each person will eat about a pound. Add a jar of tomato sauce ($3), a no-knead bread ($2), fresh parsley to top it off ($2) and 4 pounds of mussels ($8) and you have a fabulous meal for $3.75 each. Buying an extra 2 pounds (bringing the total to $4.75 each) would leave most everyone positively stuffed at the table. Alternately you could skip on the extra mussels and buy coconut milk and curry paste and make mussels two ways to compare and contrast.

Once you’ve cooked it, do not throw out the leftover stock. Strain and freeze it for a decadent addition to pasta, seafood chowder. This stock freezes well and sells for $4 a jar (which is ludicrous considering that the mussels to make it would be cheaper – it’s like getting the mussels for free). This flavor would easily eliminate any need to add additional flavors to a sauce and drop the cost per serving of your New Years meal even lower.

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet – filling your fridge affordably

We announced the start of a new series of posts last week with a promise to launch today. The full details are here but the premise is simple – creating good, wholesome food at affordable pricing as a means to support and create a dialogue in which we can share how to eat wholesome food at a fraction of a price of fast food alternatives. The terms gourmet and cheap are relative – the term Tuesday is not.

A recent interview with Thomas Keller (one of the world’s top chefs) revealed his secret to great food as a single equation: great products + technique = great food. So many recipe books and tips on eating healthy focus on recipes (i.e. technique) but rarely where to find the product affordably.

Chef Keller’s definition of great ingredients likely differ from mine – then again I am not cooking nightly at a 3 Michelin star restaurant. Local and organic are niceties – fresh and healthy are necessities.

Consider the following sink full of vegetables bought last weekend:

I forgot to count – the haul amounted to more than 16 peppers, 4 medium-sized broccoli and more than 2 dozen carrots. Enough vegetables for an entire week for $10 Canadian dollars. All were fresh – the carrots were almost field sweet.

The downside is that they were imported from the US – alas it is likely that more and more groceries are coming from elsewhere as today is the first official day of winter (and the shortest day of the year). Compared to the origins of much of the produce appearing at major grocers these days, the US is relatively close (and certainly can be closer than many locations from across our vast country). Purchasing the same amount at the grocery store could easily have been $25+.

If shopping on a budget, timing can be everything. We have the luxury of the St Lawrence Farmer`s Market in Toronto which is a year-round market. The North Market is a temporary market that is in a building just north of the main building and operates only on Saturdays.

There are some farmers (as well as some truly authentic butchers, cheese makers and others) as well as several resellers. A reseller is someone who buys fruit or vegetables from places such as the food terminal and resells them to the public at large. I`ve had my frustrations with dedicated resellers in the summer who do not clearly separate their offerings from farmers and are willing to allow consumers to confuse them with farmers.

Many resellers at once-per-week markets do not sell food full-time. Many do not have storage facilities and know that their produce simply wont last a full week until the next market. It`s also exhausting to haul all their produce back to storage facilities and many are willing to part with their product at cost (or lower) at the end of the day. You do not need to barter – simply arrive at the end of the market and look for reduced prices. The closer to the end, the more likely a reseller will drop their prices.

We do not hound people or barter when we do this – we simply arrive at the right time. If you are in an urban area, look for a weekly market and find out when it closes – take a peak around and see what is being offered – you may find yourself in for a great find!

Cheap Tuesday Gourmet – Pigs Trotters and Local Fare

This post is a love-it or hate-it kind of affair. I didn’t know where I fell so I had to try it.

Many of the worlds best restaurants are pushing for sustainable eating and nose-to-tail eating (something many give credit it Fergus Henderson in the UK for bringing to fine dining).

Mark Cutrara of Cowbell Restaurant in Toronto (he is also on Twitter) has been a local champion though I don’t know if Henderson was an inspiration of his. Cowbell opened to many rave reviews and still heavily supports the local movement and heavily supports local farms, products and people. They have received National attention for their approach to food – Mark essentially butchers the animals and cures, brines and smokes them himself. Cowbell is dedicated to offering local and organic meat which is processed from head-to-toe. Cowbell also caught the attention of many Chefs across the city and its impact is clearly felt far beyond it’s individual patrons.

The Food Networks own Wild Chef own Martin Picard is better known in food circles as the owner and chef of Au Pied Du Cochon (“at the foot of the pig”). Martin has launched himself to global attention through his many offerings which include tongue, pigs head and head cheese – and people rave about the restaurant. I received a text message from Montreal when a friend visited claiming that she had found “Heaven.”

I grew up as a very adventurous eater. Head Cheese, blood sausage and more were simple delicacies to my Acadian Grandfather (who would also not dream of wasting food). His favourite was pulling the “cheeks” and tongue from a whole cooked cod – something he would share sparingly. My personal experimentation has been successful with the very easy to eat (and cook) pork hocks that we covered this summer.

So all of this brings us around to Cheap Tuesday Gourmet. I have been wanting to try trotter’s for some time. Trotter’s are indeed the feet of the pig. I have eaten chicken feet before but pigs feet were a new adventure. It’s amazing how the very thought turns so many of us off – I wasn’t sure how I felt about it though it did make me laugh to think about all the years that I was told I would never eat a hot dog again if I knew what was put in it – including PIGS FEET!

The price caught me off guard. I had heard they were very cheap – I received 2 for $1.50. It was a lot of work to eat but the price was certainly there (the butcher suggested cutting them per above).

I noticed that there was still a little bit of hair on a few of these. A quick singe with a blowtorch (often used to finalize the plucking of birds) was all I needed to remove any excess.

I opened the Fergus Henderson book for inspiration. His option looked great – deboning the foot and stuffing the void with potato. But I was eating lunch and didn’t have the skill to make that a quick process. It was time to turn to Google and do some improvising.

I filled a pot with 80% water and 20% cider vinegar. I added some cloves and whole pepper and garlic. I simmered until tender. I added quickly blanched local cabbage and some previously homemade apple sauce for a total cost of less than $3. Note the pork that is on the right-side of the picture – it is de-boned meat from one of the small hocks.

The meat was tender, fatty and tasty. There were a number of bones (ok, a LOT of bones) that made eating tricky but it was an interesting lunch (which could have been eaten for dinner). The Trotter’s I had were very small and larger ones would have certainly made the process of consuming a lot easier. It was a tasty lot that simply felt great to eat knowing that I was partaking in something that would have been thrown out years ago (and cherished many more before).

I did find it difficult to process what I was eating – I have no logical explanation on why the thought of feet was a bit difficult to consume other than it simply was. Some of the pork was unlike any I’ve had before and it took me back to my early struggles with Oysters. I think the more you eat such a dish the easier it would become until all hesitation becomes replaced with pure joy. The subtleties of texture and flavorful fat are simply not found like this in other parts of a pig that I have tried.

I also think that my technique needs some serious work. The slow boil certainly kept the moist texture of the meat but so much more could have been done here – broiled, braised or possibly even fried. I will have to try these from a professional kitchen in the future to learn more on how I could approach this dish from a different angle.

Love it or hate it? Let’s just say that I’ll go on a second date and take it from there…

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