A bit late, maybe, but the skill I’d like to highlight this week is a cheaper way of cleaning clothes (particularly for apartment-dwellers).

Prior to this year, I had lived in a building that had a washer & dryer, except for two years in college. It’s a huge pain having to travel to do laundry; even worse, if you work odd hours you might not be able to get to a laundromat. Here’s the solution I’ve worked out:

I bought a small portable washing machine. There are two varieties: a hand-operated model, and an electric washer. I went with the electric model, because I’m lazy. Its priced at $250, but 9 months in, I’m happy with it. Assuming it doesn’t break for another year or two, I won’t have any complaints.

It’s light enough to be easily carried by two people. It’s 17″ by 17″, and under 3 feet tall. It uses a regular power outlet, and a nozzle attachment you put on a sink. The waste water goes into the tub. The load size is enough for a king-sized sheet, plus maybe a few socks, or 8-10 undershirts. Like I said, it’s already paid for itself in terms of convenience. If I assumed the laundromat would cost $5/week, I’m approaching payoff in pure cost terms as well.

In addition to the small electric washer, I have a drying rack (from Ikea). Everything dries on it, and there’s no wear on clothes compared to a heated dryer. If I had a yard, I’d use a clothesline… but I don’t. For half my clothes (sheets, towels, underclothes, some shirts), the drying rack is good enough. For the other half, particularly work clothes, I don’t want the wrinkles. I have two solutions here. Historically I’ve just taken all the work clothes – a single huge load is feasible, since they’re all pre-dried – and carried it to the laundromat, where 50 cents and 15 minutes is enough to heat and de-wrinkle.

However, that’s kind of a pain, and some clothes just need a quick once-over, so I’ve been (re-)teaching myself to iron clothes. I don’t mind the process of ironing. It can be rather calming. On the hole, it probably costs the same as the laundromat, in electricity terms. But it’s convenient to be able to do just a few shirts at a time.

The inaugural “Skill a Week” is one way I’ve been practicing to make cheap food: rice and beans (or, a vegetarian chili). It’s cheap, healthy, and tastes good. What’s not to like?

By the way, I don’t claim to be an expert. I’ve prepared this dish probably 10 times or so and consider this variation a success.

The Recipe

This recipe provides enough for 6 cereal bowl-size servings. If you usually eat a large volume of food, like me, that probably translates to 4 meals that will stuff you.

Ingredients

Note that this is just a rough guideline – feel free to toss whatever in. I’ve included costs for the full batch, based on buying store brand foods, but not in bulk, in the NYC area. I really just have a rough guideline for the cost of spices; suffice it to say that ethnic grocers and non-name brand (ie, non-McCormick) spices are the way to go. Also, feel free to experiment. I’ve tried some garam masala, sriracha sauce, vegetable broth, bay leaf, etc. The key spices are chili powder, garlic, and lemon juice – the lemon juice in particular makes a huge difference.

Preparation

1. Beans are (ahem) well-known to be gassy. However, proper preparation can reduce this unfortunately side-effect substantially. The key is to get the beans pre-soaked, which starts to destroy some of the chemicals that lead to gas. I start preparing the beans about 2 hours before I begin cooking. Take 3 cups of dried beans and put them in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. As soon as the water is boiling, turn off the stove and let the beans sit for 1 hour. They’ll absorb a lot of water during this time. After the first hour, strain the beans and rinse – you’ll see a ton of black run-off. Put them back in the pot, and cover with water again. Wait another hour and then strain them again. This is pretty flexible, you can try 45 minutes or 90 minutes or whatever.
2. Dice up the onions, and fry in a pan. I add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Then I add the black pepper, 1/2 the garlic paste, 1/2 the chili, and the cumin. It smells really good. Continue frying for about 5 minutes while preparing the other ingredients.
3. I cook my beans in a pressure cooker. I’ll put some oil in the bottom to prevent burning, and spread that around, then dump the beans in. Add in 1 cup of dry rice, and then 5 1/2 cups of water. The water is also flexible, I found 5 1/2 cups gives about the consistency I want, thin enough to eat with a spoon, but not soupy.
4. Add the onions to the beans, the rest of the garlic, the rest of the chili, and the turmeric. Bring the pressure cooker up to pressure
5. Cook 30 minutes after reaching pressure, then turn off the heat and wait 5-10 minutes for the pressure to subside.
6. Open the pressure cooker, and add 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 1 cup of whatever cheap salsa you found. Add salt to taste. The chili will be mildly spicy, at this point I add in additional hot sauce. The salt and tomatoes/lemon (both of which are acidic), if added earlier, will give the beans a tougher texture, this is why I wait until most of the cooking is done before adding these ingredients.
7. Cover the pressure cooker again, and cook at pressure for 10-15 minutes
8. Done! I add some cheese to my chili before serving; I’ve found that at heat even big chunks of 75% fat free cheese will melt (usually fat free cheese melts poorly). Store leftovers for work lunches or dinner.
9. I don’t have a microwave, so to reconstitute I put 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a pot to prevent burning, add 1-1.5 servings of chili, and then ~1/2 cup of water, and heat for 7-8 minutes.

Hopefully this was useful. I enjoy the chili and for 90 cents per serving, the price is right, too. Any suggestions would be appreciated. The latest thing I heard was to try adding cinnamon; I might also try cocoa powder.