"Hey Phoebe, what should I have for dinner?" "Not sure." "I'm vegan." "huh." "And I want something filling." "Okay." "And maybe gluten free." "Great." "Oh and I'm a college student and insanely broke." "I have just the thing!" I am a true YouTube addict. Most of the time the things I watch do not contribute positively to my life in any way. Jenna Marbles, for example, usually entertains me through making fun of other people or annoying her dogs. However, I respect this YouTuber because she's empowering, self-made, creative, and, thanks to her, I have the best black bean burger recipe out there. Okay, it's probably not the best, but it's damn good and wicked cheap. Jenna Marbles and her boyfriend Julien have a vlog (well I think it's Julien's vlog but obviously Jenna is heavily featured), and sometimes they cook together. They call these episodes J&J's Kitchen. Julien is celiac and a weight lifter and Jenna is vegan, but they always make such delicious, filling, healthy things. Usually Julien will add meat or dairy to his, but the base is always gluten free and vegan. I am neither of these, but, done right, these diets are often healthy. Here's the link for their video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGTNL5VDDUg
To begin these burgers, I rinse and drain a can of black beans, and then mash them with a fork or wiz them in the food processor. I got a small food processor for my birthday and my life has changed forever. You want them halfway mashed.
To this, I add some minced red onion and salt, garlic powder, parsley, and chili powder. After this, I add the flour. I use whole wheat flour, but, if you're like Julien, then you can use gluten free flour. I add enough flour so that it really holds a shape, about 2/3 a cup.
Next, I fry them in oil until they're crispy and the bomb.com.
These things are perfect alone, but if you're so perfect that perfect becomes mundane, then add some sriracha mayo on top. If you're vegan, like my imaginary friend from the beginning, then use vegan mayo. You just mix a little mayo with however much sriracha you want, and then plop it on top. You can also eat these guys with buns, but I usually don't simply because I never buy buns and I think they're better alone.
So, a can of beans costs roughly nothing (ok, one dollar on average), and the rest is pretty cheap as well. I usually have something on hand that I can put in it, whether it's white onion, peppers, or, on the rare occasion, red onion. I may not always have the spices on hand, but I've had these things with just salt and pepper and they were still pretty close to perfect. In summary, four of five black bean burgers, are about, let's say, two dollars total. At Wal-mart, four MorningStar Farms spicy black bean burgers cost $3.67. That's pretty cheap, but it's still twice our price, and, I'm gonna guess, not nearly as good. Also, mine don't have disodium inosinate in them. Whatever that is.
Pardon the delay in getting a new post up. Since Clam Chowder went live, I finished up work for the summer and started my senior year of college. Since returning to school my diet has consisted of what I've managed to piece together without doing the big official shop. I'm lucky to have an apartment with a kitchen, but it's completely new so I've had to buy all new staples, and then the fresh ingredients. My mom sent me off with a cooler of goodies from her garden, but a college student has a hard time cooking up eight beets, and then convincing her roommates that they do not taste like dirt. I finally bought some goat cheese so I'll make a nice beet and goat cheese salad that I'll probably eat by myself for the next two weeks (unless I find some daring friends).
Anyways! Black sea bass. While on Martha's Vineyard I went fishing one morning with my uncle on his Regulator. My dad came along, as well as their other brother Philip. I earned the name "high hook" that trip, and we took home some beautiful, big black sea bass. I even caught one while trolling for blue fish, a shock since they are bottom fish. I'd love to pretend that I'm some fish expert, but here's a little information that I looked up on Wikipedia. The black sea bass is a type of grouper that exists from the coast of Maine to northern Florida, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. They are very desirable fish and had problems with over fishing in the past. Quotas helped rebuild the mid-Atlantic populations back to the status of "rebuilt", while the south Atlantic populations are still labeled "overfished". We caught them on the bottom with bait, which was fun, although not as exciting has bringing in a blue fish.
At the end of the trip, we threw them in our cooler and brought them back to Chappy. I gutted them on the beach with my dad, much to the excitement of my dog and the sea gulls (and a few crabs I'm sure). All we did was gill, scale, and gut them. The head stayed on. As a scientist, it's always fun to do a little dissecting as well. One fish was happily feeding on crabs when we interrupted.
All the delicate, mild tasting fish needs is some salt and pepper and olive oil. Ideally one would put the fish in a cast iron pan, but this was a rental so we worked with what we had. We cooked two in a hot pan for a few minutes, flipped them, and then stuck the pan in a hot oven for maybe 12 minutes. Since our pan was not oven proof we transferred them into a metal pan.
The end result is perfect. The skin is crispy, the meat is white and tender. We had more than enough fish for the four of us, but managed to eat all of it. Of course, we had some help from a very adorable and very effective beggar - Violet. Although I did not eat them, the cheeks were particularly amazing I heard. I had a nice piece that had lost some skin so that the meat became nice and crispy too. I'm not a fan of fish skin, but some eat it.
Much to the dismay of my parents, I really did not like fish growing up. I ate clams and lobster and other seafood, but fish didn't do it for me. I still don't love all fish, but I have certainly been converted- especially when it's cooked like this. This is my favorite way to prepare a fish, and there's no better fish than the beautiful black sea bass.
