Stocking up

Last night, the tribe warmed its collective belly to a steamy, cheese-topped crock of the finest chili in the land (the "land" being our apartment, which admittedly narrows the pack of competitors a bit). We were able to savor such a time and prep-intensive dish on a school night due to the wonders of modern refrigeration.

The plan was actually to have duck, freshly carved from the whole bird we got from Fresh Direct earlier in the week, but alas, the quacker was still frozen solid. However, my resourcefulness and forethought saved the day.

Here is the tip o' the day: Spend your free time cooking, and freeze the excess. In fact, cook in excess, so that you will have it to freeze.

Here is the situation. My wife and I (collectively "the tribe") both work in offices. We work long hours and we don't have time, usually, to spend a lot of time making dinner. However, we do not like to eat processed, pre-packaged crap, and we can not afford to eat out every night. So, since I am the first to get home, I do the cooking.

This past weekend, wifey and I went to this market in Rego Park to hunt out provisions for the week. A few months ago, we were on the hunt for an allusive Pio Pio roast chicken joint (only a legend to me, but my wife has described the savory bliss), when we stumbled across an Asian grocer and fishmonger. Now, NYers are no strangers to these kinds of places. We used to live in Brooklyn, and would make the quick trek to Chinatown on the weekends to pick up a stock of seafood and produce, but since our move to Queens, we haven't had such pleasures.

I know, I know, Flushing is the largest Chinatown outside of Chinatown, but it just isn't that easy from where we are.

Anyways, we ran across this shop, and decided to go in because the only words on the sign that were in English were "fish" and "shrimp." (We love seafood, BTW). Inside we discovered paradise.

Now, I've been to places with better selection, but this stuff was about as fresh as it comes. The first thing I noticed as we walked through the doors was the smell. Not the standard fishy, Chinatown-fishmonger-in-the-afternoon-sun smell, but instead, the smell that one normally associates with the aquarium or a pet store that specializes in tropical fish. In fact, that was quite the same impression that an initial glance around the store would convey. When we walked in the store, we were immediately faced with a stack of tanks holding the most exciting of Neptune's bounty, Dungeness Crabs!! Also, Lobster (2.5 pounders, no little crayfish here), live striped bass, tilapia, and eel. The stack of tanks seemed an appropriate introduction to the display that lay beyond. First, fillets (the standards, salmon, cod, snapper; then whole fish (pompano, kingfish, fluke); shellfish (sea scallops, shrimp, clams); the list goes on, but as I said, it was not the selection that was impressive, it was the quality. When I came out of my blissful stupor long enough to look around a bit, I noticed that the entire monger table was set above another tank, packed to capacity with giant carp (I'm not a fan of the fish, but the sheer quantity of carp present in the store was impressive). This is only the start. There are groceries and a meat counter, too. More about this later. For now, I'll try to get to the point.

To top the discovery, we found this impressive produce market, right next door to the fish place!! One stop shopping! This beats the hell out of Trader Joe's any day!! (not to mention that that the shelves weren't crowded with prepackaged crap, and the aisles weren't crowded with useless slobs who couldn't cook their way out of a wet paper bag -- try a little, people. More on this later, too)

What the hell does any of this have to do with chili, you ask? Well, the point of the story is that, last weekend, we walked down to those Rego Park markets to pick up provisions, with the thought in mind that we would cook a load of food so we wouldn't have to spend every day after work cooking until 10pm. (As I said, we have day jobs, usually work until 7, and still have to commute home to Queens). Soooo, we picked up all the fixin's to make a cozy-warm pot o' chili.

My chili is pretty basic. I don't measure anything. The real trick to good chili is to give it some depth. I do this by making sure the beef is browned before adding the onion and garlic, and by browning the garlic and onions before adding the other veggies. I also use the juice from the canned beans, which I've seen some people throw this out - what a waste. No real recipe here. Just toss it all in the pot and cook it reeeaallly sllloowwlly until it falls apart. I don't mind if it starts to brown on the bottom of the pot a bit. It gives the chili a nice smoky flavor (I'm not saying to go away for the weekend with chili on the stove, but you don't have to stir it constantly). I add chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne, and S&P to season it. That's it.

The real point here is to make enough to be able to freeze some for later. I make enough so that I can freeze about three meals-worth. I come home from work, throw the frozen chili in a pot to heat it up, shred some cheese, and we are ready for action. My wife likes rice with her chili, so I always make a pot of rice, too. Total cooking time after work is about 20 mins.

So, to sum it up, I spend time when I have it so the tribe stays happy all week.