Let's see if this works...

Couscous is like the universe, say the Sufis; within an infinite substrate lie far separated clusters of sweetness which explode into life when the seeker encounters them.

They say nothing of the sort, of course, but it sounds like something they might say so let's roll with it.

If you happen, say, to own a tagine pot you brought back from Morocco and use as often as you can despite your nephew having broken the base for the coals so you have to use the damn thing over an open flame on a gas range, you can make TRUE couscous.

To make a true couscous, you need time. You soak the couscous in water, you prepare the raw ingredients, you layer them into the mix in your tagine pot, you gently simmer everything over coals for hours, you eat it with friends, on a rooftop in Marrakesh, laughing with beautiful, perfect teeth.

But this is the 21st century, drones patrol the skies, the environment is collapsing, Bladerunner was optimism. WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT SHIT.

Let's do TURBO COUSCOUS.

TO THE BAT SHOP. Or rather, the local Moroccan shop, which has two important things.

1) Fresh, inexpensive ingredients:

2) Arabic bread

Now I don't eat bread but that stuff is delicious and spongey and perfect for soaking up sauces and dipping in dips. It great to have on the table with a bunch of friends tearing off strips. I didn't buy any this evening but let's just imagine I did; it's warm, as it's freshly baked, it smells like heaven and sesame and it's already making you hungry, kay? Kay.

Back in the Bat Kitchen, we are going to start prepping. You can pull this entire meal off in around half an hour. 21st century, remember? First, you need fuel. The last of the Caol Ila.

You also need to be someone who happens to have insane amounts of weird herbs and spices to hand at all times. This is just a selection of the ones we're going to use.

So, first, you discover you happen to have an aubergine to hand and the taste of the whisky makes you reckless. You know it's one pot cooking but what the hell, you decide to cheat. I'm going to cheat. DO SOMETHING.

You roast that aubergine over a naked flame. It's actually illegal to roast aubergines in an oven. They become flavourless, lack smoke and people will shun you. Instead, turn it over an open flame until it becomes blackened on the outside and oozes juices that are going to take a long, long time to scrub out of the metal.

Meanwhile you are finely chopping ingredients. You can use anything you like, really, but these are my staple couscous food groups. Red, green, white and meat; that's two kinds of pepper, onion, halal meat from the afore-visited Moroccan shop and over there beside it a couple of chopped garlic cloves and a couple of chopped chillis.

There in the little bowl are two chopped tomatoes steeped in Modena vinegar. They were actually given to me by a friend, sourced from her garden, but we can count 'em in the price anyway.

Disclaimer: on the whole I'm veg and I'll make this with soaked lentils or lentils and chick peas instead of meat but tonight the whisky is making me wild. If you're going to substitute, just treat the legumes like the meat.

Meanwhile in the DISH OF CHEATING I've thrown three tablespoons of tahini. Add a squirt of lemon juice, some of that chopped garlic and some paprika, blend and you have a paste. A delicious, cheating paste.

Time for a quick change of drinks. The world's tiniest G&T.

Mix the remaining garlic, the chilli, some soya sauce, some cumin with the meat (or lentils) and let it steep. I also added hibiscus paste because awesome. If you can season for the whole day, so much the better, but this is the 21st century so we'll steep it until you start cooking it, dammit.

How's our cheating aubergine doing? Deliciously charred on the outside and squishy on the inside you say? Hello.

Strain the excess juices, crush and mash.

And blend with the delicious paste of cheating from earlier.

That's right, my friends. Baba Ganoush.

Meanwhile, the couscous. Here's 21st century speed couscous: equal parts water and couscous. If you are splendid, like _refugee_ you can use vegetable stock in place of water, which gives the couscous more flavour. You can also drop in half a cube of vegetable stock if that's all you have, but nothing that contains monosodium glutamate or the stars will cry.

Water in the pan, a teaspoon of olive oil, bring to the boil, throw in the the couscous, bring it back to the boil, lid on and heat off. Leave it alone. LEAVE IT.

Now this is supposed to be a single pot dish, thus after a few minutes and once we've fluffed our now yearning, swollen couscous with a fork and another dash of olive oil, let's get it out of the way to leave room to cook the rest...

A perfect time to pause and move on to Jamaican rum.

Onions first, in a tiny dab of butter. Butter is not bad; ask Michael Pollan; it also helps to brown the onion. Keep the lid on! What are you, psychotic? That will keep the onions from drying out.

Add the meat (or lentil) mix and brown through a little, then the rest of the vegetables.

I like to add peas. Keep that filthy canned stuff away from me; best peas are frozen peas.

After a few minutes, you can add a couple of spoons of tahini and a similar amount of pure peanut paste (peanut butter will do if you have nothing else and are willing to be pursued through all the circles of hell by lesser demons for all eternity).

Season with a splash of vinegar (no, really). Allow the steam to rise, you don't want it to be too liquid, nor too dry. Finally, tip in your couscous, stir nicely, lid on and allow it to sit and steep for a while.

This quantity will serve 4 - 6. Imagine the bread is sitting on the table too. There is the tomato which you can spoon over a full bowl of couscous to add moisture and zesty flavour, there's the harissa which will spice things up if the chillis don't do it for you, there's the illegal baba ganoush which you can either dip with imaginary bread or spoon over the couscous.

And to drink? I like my vodka like I like my post-modern pro-feminist Disney fable reimaginings....

Frozen.

As for the accounting, this is tricky. Already to hand, the couscous, the spices, the tahini. Even the unlawful aubergine lurked in the fridge. The tomatoes were a gift but let's add them in regardless. Everything I bought amounts to around 8 euros BUT! I used half the veg and only a third of the meat which by rough calculation means around 4 - 5 euros. Add a euro for imaginary bread which will also feed four to six, say 50 cents for an aubergine, 10 cents each for the spoons of tahini and pure peanut paste, 25 cents for the lemon I already had, another 25 for a handful of frozen peas and we're looking at maybe 6 - 7 euros (7 - 8 dollars) for the whole thing; $1 to $1.50 a head; which leaves 14 euros for 2 - 3 good bottles of local wine.

COUSCOUS 1 onion 1 green capsicum 1 red capsicum 2 green 'guindillas' (chillis) 2 garlic cloves 1 tbspn hibiscus paste 1 fist sized lump of steak 1 handful fresh / frozen peas 1 cup couscous 2 tbspns tahini 2 tbspns peanut puree Salt / pepper / soy / vinegar / cumin

BABA GANOUSH 1 aubergine 3 tbspns tahini Juice of 1/2 lemon Pinches of salt, paprika 1/2 garlic clove

GARNISH 2 tomatoes Dash of salt, dash of Modena vinegar

My $20 One-Pot Meal

>$20 worth of pot - one Andrew Jackson

>Your friend's refrigerator - priceless

#munchski

I was actually in the middle of cooking myself a meal when I read this!

Ingredients, and a rough estimate of price:

Potatoes: $0.90

Green Onions: $0.08 (no typo! Bundle of ten green onions for $.80. Cheaper and nicer taste.)

Champignon (mushrooms): $1.40

Paprika (you call it bell pepper?): $0.80 (bought in bulk & frozen)

Leek: $0.50 (bulk & frozen)

Paprika powder: $0.10

Total: $3.78. Step up yo game, Rico. Granted: I didn't include meat. And it's not a particularly fancy dinner. But it's tasty as fuck.

I have some ground chicken frozen that I couldn't added, which would be around $1.60 more.

Recipe:

Put oil and cut potatoes in pan. Add salt & pepper. Wait a while, then add the frozen veggies (leek & paprika). When they're starting to become cooked, add the green onion, champignon and a bunch of paprika powder. Taste, season as needed.

Suggested Wine Paring: I have no idea I never drink wine. Choose whatever.

End result:

I'm on my way to the grocery now specifically for this challenge. My french lentil recipe is a favorite these days in our house.

I'm excited. I'm going to get a nice beer to enjoy while cooking. wasoxygen once said to me, "Sundays are the best," he's spot on. Been a great day thus far and cooking is the perfect way to end it. I'm digging the #grubski tag.

Okay, so I did an adaptation of this recipe with some amendments to make it one-pot friendly and just better in my opinion. Used a dutch oven for the whole shebang. Left out the Chinese sausage because I couldn't get it at the store and sausage is expensive anyhow. Added ginger in a couple formats. More garlic. Rehydrated mushrooms in chicken stock for better flavor all around.

Purchasing procedure was kind of a cop-out. I had pretty much all of the oils/seasonings already, which together would have cost and arm and a leg. Proof:

Which means that my bill was:

Chicken thighs: $5.91 Ginger: $0.71 Scallions: $0.50

Also already had the rice, garlic and the dried mushrooms as those are staples. Swapped oyster sauce w/ fish sauce, because that's what I had. The chicken stock I'd frozen from homemade (so much better/cheaper than store-bought). So let's say maybe a buck for the chicken stock (original whole chicken was around $6, carcass divided between around eight c of stock... can't do that math this late at night, just say a buck). It should be noted that the 6-ish dollars for the chicken thighs is actually kind of unconscionable. They only had "100% natural" thighs, which I've heard translates to "100% bullshit."

Total: $8.12

Recipe:

In dutch oven, heat 2 c. chicken stock to boil, then remove from heat. Add dried mushrooms, let steep for at least 30 min. Take mushrooms out and put them on your cutting board or something. Transfer stock to measuring cup, previously used to measure said stock (NOT A POT, STILL COUNTS).

Meanwhile, add brown sugar, corn starch, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, fish sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, 1/8 t salt and 1/4 t black pepper to chicken pieces in a gallon ziploc (another cop out, but who's counting at this point). Refrigerate and marinate for at least 30 min.

Rinse rice in colander under cold water until water runs clear.

Dice scallions, keeping white and green parts separate. Skin a 2 in. piece of ginger, halve. Fine dice one half, chop other half into large pieces. Separate.

Dice 5 cloves garlic, add to fine-diced ginger. Re-heat dutch oven to med-hi, throw in some oil (I used peanut), add garlic and diced ginger. Heat until fragrant, maybe 30 sec.

To that, add the marinated chicken sans marinade (reserve that, though). Cook chx on hi until browned all over. Take it out of the dutch oven, leave in the drippings.

To the drippings add the rice, stir frequently until well-coated and a little bit toasted, risotto style. Add chicken/mushroom stock to that, throw in the coursely-diced ginger and white parts of the scallions. Add reserved marinade. Stir.

Bring to boil over med-hi, then reduce to low. Cover and simmer for about 15 min, giving a brief, brisk stir every few minutes.

Add the chicken, keep simmering on lo for another 15 or so, or until no liquid is present in the rice mixture and chicken is cooked through.

Put it in a bowl, add green scallions and sriracha if you so desire.

Doesn't look like much:

But it tasted like a whole lot.

EDIT Oh, and drink pairing- wanted as hoppy a beer as possible with it to balance the sweet/earthy flavor of the dish. Best I could get from my store was Lagunitas Hop Stoopid (another 5 bucks to the tab). If I'd had my druthers I would have gone with a Green Flash Brewery "Green Bullet," which I had recently and was blown away by. Nice grassy thing going on that would have gone well with this.

Think I might steal the chicken thigh idea... those things look goooooood. Question: is this strictly "make it up yourself," or are prearranged recipes allowed?

The New Green Lentils:

Cost:

I have no idea, I threw out the receipt and I went grocery shopping for the whole week, but here are the ingredients and what I think would be the cost: 2 Cups French Lentils: $2.00

  1 Yellow Onion: $1.00
  2 Carrots: $.25
  3 Celery stalks: $.50
  5 garlic buttons: $.50
  Butter: $.75
  Flour: $.75
  Cucumber: $.25
  1 lemon: $.50
  1/2 bunch of parsley: $.50
  Misc Spices from my pantry/fridge that I'm very much estimating the cost of:
  Corriander, Yogurt,  Garam Masala, Cumin, Paprika, Olive Oil, Salt, Sriracha = $3.00

  TOTAL COST: $10.00 -So more likely, $10-12 bucks

Makes about 12-15 servings.

Recipe

In a large sauce pan, add a few table spoons of olive oil on high. Add in your chopped onion, celery and carrots. Let them cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the onions become somewhat translucent. During this time, take half of your lemon and squeeze the juice in to the pan.

Then you want to add in the garlic and let it cook for another couple of minutes. Then you want to add in your spices.

Many recipes say to add your spices after you add the water, but I like to add it now and let the onions, carrots, celery and garlic absorb them. I think it helps to carry the flavor. So, add two tablespoons of coriander, 1 table spoon of garam masala, 1 table spoon of cumin and 1/2 tablespoon of paprika. Salt to taste. (truth is, I do all of this to taste and don't use measuring utensils. Use the force)

Then you add in 6 cups of water and 2 cups of lentils. Add in your chopped parsley and stir. Bring the water to a bubble and then lower your heat and let the lentils simmer for about an hour.

Continue to stir the lentils throughout this hour or they'll definitely stick to the bottom of the pan. No bueno.

In a small sauce pan, take a stick of butter and melt it on medium heat. Add in some of that beer that you're drinking and the rest of that lemon juice. Now, slowly add some flower until you start to thicken it and before you know it, you'll have a nice thick roux. If you'd like to add some heat to your lentils, now is a good time to add some sriracha via the roux:

Now take the roux in table spoons and add it to the lentils, stirring it in vigorously. Eventually, this will give the lentils a creaminess.

Let them cook for another 1/2 hour on low heat or until the lentils are no longer firm and are to your liking.

Now in a small bowl, add some plain yogurt and stir in some sriracha and a little bit of that lemon that is still kicking in those rinds you have laying on the counter -go on, squeeze... there's more in there. Also, thinly slice some cucumber.

Here it is paired with Hitachino Nest, White Ale a favorite of mine. The cucumbers and the beer both work nicely to help cool down the mouth as I add a good amount of sriracha/spice to the dish.

ENJOY

I'll definitely post something here, probably tomorrow, to contribute.

I'd say that theme ingredient grubski's are the way to go to make this a fun challenge

Alright, taking the brood to the store for tonight's dish, will update later w/ recipe, pics.

I like your bold-face easy to read headings. Let's calculate cost as per person, per meal. It looks like you have enough there for 2.5 people or a couple of meals worth of leftovers.

If you divide your $20 by 3, it's a less than $7:00 meal

The winner sets the next challenge.

I'm so in! I'm also unfortunately at the library, and pleasantly full.

Expect something delicious tomorrow.

What happens if you have a lot of ingredients already? I fed 6 for less than $20 with an exciting couscous the other day but I already have certain spices and the couscous at hand.

This is a great idea. I'd say they shouldn't all be one-pot but it's a great way to start.

I'm working nights this week so I'm out.