Shandygaff: Sounds like a wizard; tastes like magic

If the thought of mixing beer with liquor brings you back to the dim-lit basements of high school party days, it’s time to revisit this old-fashioned alcoholic hybrid. Beer has appeared in cocktail recipes ever since the conception of the mixed drink. And come summertime, the beer cocktail is a popular feature on menus and in bottles. The familiar ones usually rely on the lightest beers, and the results are refreshing and simple, like an easy beach read, and perfect for transforming your cheap bodega booze into something fancy on a Brokelyn budget. We’ve compiled a couple of classic beer cocktails to try on your own for less than $3 a glass.

For the slightly more delicate pockets of our Brokelyn readers, a simple two-part “hoptail” like the Shandygaff or Black Velvet is a safe way to spread your mixed drink wings and get those weird beer-fearing “I prefer wine” friends to chill out.

SHANDYGAFF (or just “SHANDY”)
This drink should be mandatory on all backyard barbecue menus. The ginger beer adds a sweet and spicy extra fizz that actually enhances the crisp quality of a good pale ale — especially in those last few swigs which somehow always turn flat when consumed under the sun.

Make it:Pour equal parts pale ale and ginger beer, the spicier the better, into a pint glass. Serve chilled over ice with orange or lemon slice for garnish.

Sierra Nevada – 6 pack for $9.99
Ginger Beer – 6 pack for $7.99
TOTAL: $17.98 for 12 drinks or $1.49 each

The pro version: Just about anywhere can make a decent variation of this summer favorite. Northeast Kingdom makes a classy elderflower version with St. Germain over Allegash White.
($8, 18 Wyckoff Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn)

Black Velvet

BLACK VELVET
Again, adding fizz to a dark and heavy stout might seem to the manliest of men like putting pink fuzzy covers over your motorcycle seat. But with the right combinations, the effect is refreshingly nuanced and full, with the champagne giving a perfect cut to a rich chocolaty stout. Chocolate and champagne, people. Don’t act like you’ve never heard of it!

Make it: Pour equal parts chilled stout, then brut champagne or sparkling white wine into a champage glass.

1 pint Imperial Stout – $4.99
Andre’s Champagne Brut – $5.99
TOTAL: $10.98 for about 4 drinks, $2.75 each

The pro version: Prospect Heights restaurant James has been singled out for their Black Velvets, featuring Leffe Brun, a caramely dark ale from Belgium
($10, 605 Carlton Ave., Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

MICHELADA
The proportions are crucial with this drink and you could very easily wind up with the sad taste of a watered down vodka Bloody Mary. We’d recommend something even darker than Sol, but no heavier than Founders Pale Ale for a Michelada that doesn’t compromise on the hoppy flavor and malted finish of a good brew. When done right, this is a full-bodied, wholly satisfying accoutrement to add to weekend brunch’s picks.

Make it:

Michelada

1 lime’s worth of fresh squeezed lime juice
Tabasco or other bottled hot sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Soy sauce
1-3 ounces tomato juice
Beer (1 can per drink)
Optional: 1 shot of tequila

Squeeze lime juice and pour sauces and tomato juice into a pint glass. Top with beer and optional shot of tequila.

With any luck, your kitchen will already be stocked with most of the sauce ingredients. For the rest:

6 pack of Sol – $7.99
Tomato Juice – $2.19
Tabasco sauce – $2.49
Lime – $.50
TOTAL: $13.17 for 6 drinks or $2.19 each

The pro version: The Michelada Cubana at Hecho en Dumbo features a light Bohemia lager and special spice mix.
($8, 111 Front St., Dumbo, Brooklyn)

Got the itch for this new world of hop-tails? Here’s more you can try, though they will cost you a bit more:

Margaveza: A popular combination of margarita and beer, just like the name implies.
Daddy’s ($5, 435 Graham Ave)

Ale Flip: Bar Celona throws a Brooklyn twist into the classic stout beer cocktail. They call it the Crooklyn Flip.
Bar Celona ($11, 104 South 4th Street)

The great thing about the beer cocktail — besides stirring up some controversial debates between booze puritans and separatists — is how easily you can substitute a light lager with something more substantial for only a few extra bucks. That said, there’s basically endless room for improving the taste, and the price difference, unlike jumping from a house to top-shelf whiskey, won’t hurt nearly as much. If you believe there’s such thing as booze heaven, you better believe that’s where this match was made.

(*Prices from Associated Market in Bushwick on Starr and Knickerbocker.)

Photos by Ellen Knuti

No time for the Park Slope Co-op and too broke for the Grand Army farmer’s market? For my (rather limited) money, the best trick for defeating the rising cost of groceries is maxing out on curiously affordable, endlessly versatile beans and grains from Goya.

Keeping them on hand can make a huge difference in the decision to throw together something for dinner instead of ordering in Thai for the third time this week. With some onions and garlic, a can of beans can become a nutritious and filling meal that pairs easily with rice, salad or any vegetable you find in your fridge.

My favorite Goya cooking staples (all from the 9th Street Steve’s C-Town) include barley ($1.19), cornmeal ($1.49),  dried cannellini beans ($1.59), red lentils ($1.79), green split peas ($.99), yellow split peas ($.99), bulgur ($2.09), 16-bean soup mix ($1.99), quinoa ($2.99),  canned chickpeas ($1.69), and canned cannellini beans ($1.69). At my last trip to C-Town, great deals include a 20-lb bag of medium grain white rice for only $16.99, or $.85 a pound. Add that to several dozen cans of black beans, pinto beans (both $1.69) or even refried beans ($1.19) and you have lunch for months.

The cornmeal, for instance, can make enough polenta to last a week. Each night you can dress it up differently — with tomato sauce, diced meat, melted cheese or hot sauce. You can also fry some up with a little olive oil for breakfast. Barley is also an amazingly versatile grain and if you keep some cooked in your fridge, you can mix it with pretty much any vegetable or meat for a quick protein-filled meal. Try cooking it up on a Sunday evening and it will last about a week. Put it in a covered baking dish in the oven with chicken or beef broth, a little salt and pepper, diced mushrooms and onions and you’ll have a delicious casserole that makes a great side dish. Another cheap trick: eggs. Fried or poached eggs make any soup or rice dish a complete meal by adding some additional protein.

While the canned goods are quick starters, the dried legumes are where you’ll save the most money if you have the time and forethought to soak the beans overnight. For example, this below recipe for curried yellow split pea soup costs about $5 or less to make (assuming you have the spices) and serves at least six people. Give it a try along with the following recipe for hominy, an oft-overlooked ingredient that imparts a rich corn flavor to stews and soups. Do you have any Goya recipe favorites?

Curried Split Pea Soup (adapted from Robin Bellinger and Alton Brown)

1 lb yellow split peas (rinsed)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp salt
½ tsp turmeric
Approx 2 tsp total of the following spices, using more or less of whichever you favor: cumin, ginger, garam masala, red pepper flakes or cayenne (depending on how hot you want it)
7-8 cups of water

Put the rinsed split peas into a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave the peas to soak for about an hour, until they are softened. Drain water.

Add the olive oil to a large pot and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the chopped onion and carrots and cook for about five minutes, until the onion begins to soften and turn translucent. Add the minced garlic, salt, turmeric and spices, cook on high heat for about 30 seconds.  Stir in the yellow split peas and add the water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 40 minutes, until the lentils are soft. Puree with a food processor or immersion blender for a smoother soup.

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Another more off-the-beaten path and underrated staple is hominy: canned white hominy is made of dried white corn kernels that have been treated with an alkali solution and simmered until the kernels are soft. Dried hominy is ground and can be used in grits and either are suitable for making an excellent posole, a corn-based stew. Great for leftovers and as a hearty meal, this chicken posole recipe can be adapted to suit your tastes. Experiment as you like by substituting spices, making it vegetarian or even meatier, depending on what you have on hand.

Chicken Posole (adapted from the Kitchn blog weeknight recipes)
makes 6-8 servings

Broth
8 cups chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons coriander
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon chili powder

Posole
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 – 1.5 pounds chicken breast
2 cans hominy

Any (or all!) of the following garnishes:
lime wedges
red or yellow onion, diced
radish, sliced thin
cabbage or lettuce, julienned
tomato, diced
queso blanco
avocado, diced

In a large pot or dutch oven, bring the chicken broth to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the minced garlic. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the salt, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, and chili powder.

Continue to simmer on the stove top until all the other ingredients are ready. Taste for seasoning. If bitter, add another teaspoon of salt. If too concentrated, add a cup of water to dilute.

To prepare the chicken, pat dry and season both sides generously with salt and pepper. In a frying pan or stove-top grill pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 4 minutes until underside is crispy and golden brown. Flip the chicken and continue cooking until cooked through–another 4-5 minutes. Remove to a cutting board and rest until cool enough to handle. While the chicken is cooking and cooling, prepare the garnishes and put in individual bowls.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, dice it into bite-sized cubes and add to the broth. Drain the hominy into a strainer and rinse under cold water. Add to the broth. Bring the soup to a boil to bring everything to the same temperature. Serve in soup bowls and allow guests to garnish their soups individually.

Bouchon Bakery sliders. Photo courtesy of the slashfood blog.

Brooklyn foodies are praying Thomas Keller is serious about opening a Bouchon Brooklyn, which reminds me of a cooking tip from the famed chef that you don’t need to be a swell to try. Maybe it is a little hard to believe that the man behind Per Se’s $275 prix fixe menu is a penny pincher, but in a magazine interview I did with him two years ago, he cited cost as one reason never to cook with a common ingredient that may surprise you. I haven’t cooked the same since. “Don’t cook with olive oil,” he says. “It’s such an expensive product and heat ruins it because it has a very low heat tolerance. Cook with canola or grapeseed oil instead and use olive oil as a condiment at the end.” So now you can have your Frankies 457 EVOO and justify the expense by pouring on a few drops at the end instead of dumping it into the pan.

We’re not a cooking blog (lucky for you), but other out-takes from the Keller interview include these three ideas for springy / summery desserts that are really easy to make but sound delish:

- Apricots with almonds and ice cream: Mix Ben and Jerry’s ice cream with fresh peeled apricots, top with toasted slivered almonds on top (buy them raw and toast yourself)
- Toasted pound cake with lemon curd
- Toasted country bread: “Grill some country bread, slice it, put a little bit of butter and sugar on top, throw it on the grill, chop up some fresh figs and mis with orange blossom honey and spread it over grilled bread. It’s really good.”

Okay–one more Keller tip. Be a flexible enough cook that if a recipe calls for plums and the pears look better, swap them in. Go by what’s ripest at the grocery store/greenmarket, not what the recipe says. “Shop with the season and your nose,” Keller says. “If the raw product doesn’t taste good, the finished one won’t taste good either.”

Bill moved to New York in 2007, after finishing grad school in Philadelphia. He subsisted on frozen Trader Joe’s burritos and boxed mac and cheese until a friend suggested he get a crockpot. Even though his first experiments were a series of cream-sauced, Velveeta-slicked disasters, he discovered the appeal of slow cooking. The food went a long way. “After about 4 or 5 meals, I realized I still had another 4 or 5 to go, and I did a rough calculation of what each meal was costing me,” he said. “That’s when I finally understood what crocks were all about.”

Since then, Bill’s crocks have become so good that his friends look forward to dinner invites. Lentil casserole is delicious and his red beans and rice, made with $4 worth of kielbasa from Greenpoint, is really, really good. After a night at the bar, returning to Bill’s apartment for bowls of white bean and chicken chili is the best drunk food there is.  Even his roommates steal from the crock. “They come home from the bar and they head straight to the crockpot. I know they just try to skim from the top, to stay undetected, but I can always tell.”

There is not, however, a smorgasbord of slow-cooked delicacies to choose from in Bill’s refrigerator.  He makes one of these dishes a week, and eats it for every single meal. I’m not even kidding. That’s how he affords his very social New York lifestyle.

Because I thought Bill’s thrifty ways might be inspiring to others as well, I roped him into keeping a diary of his food and outings costs for a week, and asked him to send me some of his best recipes. Try ‘em out—if you don’t have a slow cooker, they’re not very expensive, about $40, and in many cases are free. Your mom probably has an extra one.

Bill with his trusty crockpot.

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BILL’S ONE-WEEK EATING AND DRINKING LEDGER

DAY 1
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Chicken mushroom pasta, costs about $1.75 per serving
Dinner: Chicken mushroom pasta $1.75
After dinner: Drinks at Subway Bar, $15, and Legion Bar, $20

DAY 2
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Chicken mushroom pasta $1.75
Dinner: None
After dinner: Drinks at Canal Bar, $12, free drinks at Taco Competition open bar, $6 tip

DAY 3
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Paid for at internship
Dinner: Chicken mushroom pasta $1.75 (The end of the crock. Crock total cost: $14)
After dinner: BAM, A Single Man, $9 (student rate – not really a student)

DAY 4
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Paid for at internship
Dinner: Beans and rice crock (about $1.06 per meal)
After dinner: Film Forum, Red Beard, $6 (member rate

DAY 5
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Beans and rice $1.06
Dinner: Beans and rice $1.06
After dinner: Drinks at Washington Commons, $24

DAY 6
Thursday, Feb. 4
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Beans and rice $1.06
Dinner: Free, generously provided by roommate.
After dinner: Drinks at Alibi Bar, $12, drinks at Sweet Revenge, $12

DAY 7
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Beans and rice $1.06 (4 projected meals left. Total: $9.54 cost)
Dinner: Friend buys Bill 2 hot dogs in exchange for enduring the Knicks vs. Bucks game (the tickets were a gift from his brother – $0)

TOTALS
Food: $12.30
Movies: $15
Drinks: $101

[Editor's note: Please consult a medical professional before embarking on any diet plan, especially one involving skipping breakfast and spending more money on drinks than food.]

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BILL’S FAVORITE RECIPES
Always brown meats first and sautée and onions, garlic, peppers, and celery—it softens the vegetables and seals in their flavor. Otherwise, just throw everything in the crockpot and cook for 6 to 8 hours on low—or 3 to 4 hours on high.

Chicken mushroom pasta
1 pound chicken thighs (bone-in), trimmed of excess fat
2 large cans crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
2 ribs celery, diced small
6 to 8 mushrooms, sliced
1-2 onions, diced
Garlic, minced
Oregano, 1 1/2 tsp
Box of pasta, preferably a roni-esque noodle (cooked first, and added at the end)
Optional: mix in a block (cubed) of your choice of cheese in the last 20 minutes
*When finished, remove bones from chicken thighs, should be very easy to do at this point

White bean chicken chili
3-4 large cans of white beans
1 green chili (sent fresh/frozen from New Mexico if you’re lucky or can be found frozen at Trader Joe’s or canned in various markets here)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 pound chicken thighs (bone-in, again remove bones upon completion of cooking)
3-5 slices bacon, diced
8 oz button or baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, diced
1 rib celery, diced
Cayenne, chili powder, paprika, pepper, etc. to taste
*Fry up bacon, mushroom and onions together first and add to crockpot with rest of ingredients

Red beans and rice
1 pound kielbasa, sliced
1 – 1.5 cups dry rice, cooked
3 cups water
1-pound bag of dried red beans, soaked overnight, weird looking beans picked out [Ed: a commenter notes that red beans can cause food poisoning if undercooked, which is a risk in a slow cooker. So to be on the safe side, you should soak dried kidney beans in water for at least 5 hours, pour away the water, and then boil them for an hour in fresh water before putting in the slow cooker.]
1-2 onions, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1 rib celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
Thyme, paprika, pepper – to taste + a bay leaf
*Stir in rice at very end

Lentil casserole
1 pound lentils
1 cup brown rice
3 cups chicken broth
1-2 onions, diced
1 carrot, sliced thin
1 large can of diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
Thyme, basil, oregano, salt, sage, garlic powder to taste
*Add 1-2 blocks of cheddar in the last hour

If you’re thinking of catering a Mad Men party this weekend with authentic 1960s cuisine, you may want to reconsider—a look at the terrifying stuff that passed for dinner back then offers a clue as to why Julia Child was regarded as such a revolutionary. The following photos are from Betty Crocker’s Dinner in a Dish cookbook, published in 1965, a mayonnaise-slicked, canned-fruit dotted roadmap to an American culinary era thankfully gone by. First among the supper-time atrocities: a “Summer Salad Pie” (left), whose ingredients include lemon-flavored gelatin, tomato sauce, and tuna fish tossed together in a cheddar-cheese pie shell. 

PARTY SANDWICH LOAF: This festive table topper only looks like dessert. It’s actually buttered white bread layered with three different fillings: shrimp-celery-egg salad, a cream-cheese-pecan-pineapple spread and chicken-bacon mash. The icing: more cream cheese, cut with light cream and tinted with green food coloring.

LOBSTER ÉLEGANTÉ: What makes this lobster so “éleganté? A cup and a half of shredded, processed American cheese, in a pairing that puts today’s postmodern chefs to shame.

STUFFED PEPPERS FESTIVO: As simple to make as they are beautiful: fresh green peppers, stuffed with a box of Betty Crocker’s macaroni and cheese, flecked with cubed ham.

CURRIED TUNA CASSEROLE: A blend of cream-of-mushroom soup, rice, canned tuna and canned onions gets its jazzy look from festive triangles of egg yolks, chopped peanuts, plumped currants, crabapple jelly, sliced green onions and crumbled bacon. Bon appetit, indeed.

If your mind works like mine, right about now you’re considering how much it’s going to run you. And it’s true, entertaining can be a costly proposition. As the gods of thrift would have it, though, many of the staples of backyard barbecuing—beans, coleslaw, iced tea—are built from peasant-level ingredients that can be had for spare change. So we set out to throw a barbecue for a dozen people and see how little we could spend while serving up a meal that nobody would suspect cost little more per person than their subway ride over. For tallying purposes, we’re assuming you’ve got a number of basic ingredients in your kitchen: oil, white vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, mustard and milk.

The key to pulling this off is coming up with a main course that’s cheap and good, and it’s here the act of barbecuing—not grilling, but long, slow cooking over a smoky wood fire—becomes your friend. After all, the founding concept behind that method was to get good eating out of cheap, tough cuts of meat, like brisket and pork shoulder. And it still works. Not only that, but it’s easier to do than you may think. All you need is a covered kettle grill, some charcoal, a few handfuls of aromatic hardwood (chips or chunks) and a willingness to spend long hours hovering in the vicinity, absorbing smoke until you smell like you’ve spent the day battling wildfires.

For the long version of how it’s done, click here. The short version is this: after seven hours bathing in wood smoke in the confines of my vented grill, a pair of 5-lb. pork butts that cost a mere 99 cents a pound at the local C-Town emerged smoke-blackened outside, tender within, and flavorful throughout, ready for shredding, dousing with vinegar sauce (or not), heaping on a cheap white bun (or not) and otherwise devoured by an appreciative crowd. Cost, including $2.78 for the buns and $2 for dry-rub ingredients (chili powder and paprika): $14.78.

The other long-haul cooking task was making baked beans. Turning a $1.39 bag of dried navy beans into the ultimate barbecue side dish involves overnight soaking followed by 5 hours of stovetop simmering (though you can largely ignore them during that time, aside from the occasional stir). According to the unbeatable recipe in Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby’s classic Thrill of the Grill, it also involves a half-pound of bacon, an onion, some molasses, a whole bottle of ketchup, some cheap yellow mustard and brown sugar. Total cost: $6.98.

Thrill of the Grill also has my favorite corn bread recipe, which yields a giant pan that’s moist and slightly sweet. And, did I mention, cheap to make? If you’ve got flour, sugar, salt, milk and baking powder on hand, you’ll need only a stick of butter, some cornmeal, and 4 eggs. Total cost: $3.88.

In the green division: Mustard-based spicy coleslaw modified from Mark Bittman’s recipe in How to Cook Everything, which other than kitchen staples like vinegar calls only for green and red cabbage (which isn’t a standby of the penniless for nothing) and a red pepper. (I skip the scallion and parsley). Total cost: $4.35. To really lay on the dog with a second vegetable, I added marinated cucumbers and onion, an inevitable crowd-pleaser whose ingredients ran a whopping $2.61.

To drink: As the host, you, of course, ask your guests to bring beer. But for a classic BBQ accompaniment you ought to also brew up some iced tea, which runs only the cost of a few teabags. I tossed in some mint from my herb garden, but will spot you the cost of a lemon if you’re lacking a fresh mint supply. Total cost: 60 cents.

The result: a kingly feed that and fed a dozen people (more, if you count me eating leftovers the next day), for the pauper’s price of $33.20—which comes to $2.77 a person. For this, I earned the plaudits of happy guests, a fine party—and all that leftover beer.

Photos by Marie Viljoen

What if you have a hankering for meat and a vegetarian’s budget? You might consider shopping halal. At the Atlantic Avenue butcher shop where I buy leg of lamb, it goes for $4.50/lb., as compared to $6 to $7 a pound at Fairway and $7.99 at Whole Foods last time I checked. There are some differences between halal lamb and the kind you’re probably used to, and we’ll let you decide how you feel about the slaughter practices.

It tastes a bit different as well—halal lamb is completely drained of blood and it hasn’t been aged, so it’s not that super-tender lamb chop you’re going to grill to a pink medium-rare. This is hearty flesh that responds to marinades, barbecuing, and to slow simmering.  Here’s a recipe I came up with…

Butterflied lamb with Yoghurt and Garlic

Have the leg deboned by the butcher, or do it yourself. Rub a cup of creamy Greek yoghurt onto the flesh, along with three finely chopped garlic cloves and about 4 sprigs of oregano. Salt. Let it sit for a few hours in the fridge, and then put it under a blistering broiler for maybe 8-10 minutes a side. Then it rests.  It is very good on a wood fire, too. Or charcoal. Whatever. After ten minutes of resting slice it and serve with something strong like a fennel-and-potato salad.

Halal Meat Market, 232 Atlantic Ave. between Court Street & Boerum Place, 718-625-2781. See more from Marie Viljoen here.