Author Archive
Sweet Ginger Soy Fried Cabbage
I love fried cabbage and this recipe is a great option from plain fried cabbage, and tasty.
Ingredients
- 1/2 head green cabbage
- 1 onion, brown or red
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
- piece fresh garlic, 3/4 inch piece, grated, or 1 teaspoon ground
- 1 1/2 teaspoons butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cooking oil
For the Sauce
- 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon dashi powder, optional
- 1 teaspoon warm water, if using dashi powder
Instructions
- Cut the head of cabbage in half, store one half in the fridge. Take the half you are going to use and lat flat on your cutting board, and cut in half again. remove the core by simply holding each piece up cutting downwards to remove the core section.
- Now slice the cabbage into 1/2 inch slices. and break it up a bit with your hands.
- Peel the onion, cut in half and slice each half. Grate the ginger. Peel and mince the garlic. (I ran out of fresh ginger so opted to use powdered, it works but fresh would have been much better.)
- Make the sauce by combining the soy sauce and honey in a small bowl. If using the dashing powder, first dissolve that in the warm water, then mix in the soy sauce and honey.
- Add the butter and oil to a large non stick pan and place on medium high heat, when hot, add the ginger and garlic and basically stir fry for 1 minute, just lightly browning it and not burning.
- Follow these steps closely as you are going to lightly char the cabbage. Add the cabbage to the pan and using a spatula, turn the cabbage to put most of the garlic and ginger on the top of the cabbage, then add the onion on top of the cabbage. Let the cabbage cook, do not turn or stir it, for 1-2 minutes, to let the cabbage lightly char.
- Now flip and stir the cabbage to mix the onions into the cabbage. When it is mixed well, once again, let it cook for 1-2 minutes with touching it, again to lightly char the cabbage.
- Now drizzle in the sauce and mix into the cabbage and continue to cook the cabbage, stirring often for another 1 minute or until the cabbage is tender.
- Serve as a side with any dish, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Crab & Cheese Spring Rolls
These are delicious and easy to prepare. Keep in mind, this is in no way Chinese. The number of spring rolls you make from this will depend on the size of the wrappers you use, either 8.5 x 8.5 inch or 5.5 x 5.5 inch, either size will work. I used 5.5 x 5.5 inch wrappers and made 15 spring rolls, so using the larger ones, you will make less.
Ingredients
- 15 spring roll wrappers
- 250 grams imitation crab sticks, (8 oz)
- 250 grams Cream cheese, room temp, (8 oz)
- ¾ cup Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
- 2-3 tabelspoons mayo
- 3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2-3 spring onions, sliced, white and green parts
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed, finely minced
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1-2 tablespoons water
- sweet chili sauce, for serving, or dipping sauces of your choice
Instructions
- If your spring roll wrappers are frozen, take them out and place on the counter for 1-2 hours before you start. Take out the cream cheese, unwrap that and place in a mixing bowl for about an hour, to come up to room temperature and soften, or use a spreadable cream cheese.
- Unwrap the crab sticks and chop them, then shred or break them apart with your fingers. Here they are just chopped, not shredded yet.
- Prep the spring onion and garlic.
- Mash up the cream cheese up with a heavy spoon to get it mixable.
- To the bowl, add the mayo, Mozzarella cheese, Worcestershire sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar. Mix to combine.
- Add the crab, garlic, and spring onion.
- Mix to combine, now your filling is ready. Go ahead and mix together the corn starch and water in a small bowl, this is your glue to seal the edges of the spring rolls.
- Rolling, for this step, it is best to have two people, one to pull the wrappers, one to roll. Lay a spring roll wrapper, smooth side down on the counter with one corner pointed towards you. Place about 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of filling near the corner closest to you. Fold the corner nearest you up and over the filling and roll away until you are at the widest point of the wrapper. Use your fingers and dip into the glue and rub that on the two side that are away from you, be generous. Now fold one side, left or right, towards the middle, the repeat with the other side, now it should look like an open envelope. Now continue rolling away from you to complete the roll. If the point flap does not stay glued down, just dab a bit more glue on it. Repeat until the filling is all used. Once you have done this a few times this actually goes pretty fast. The reason for the two people is you do not want the wrappers drying or they will tear when pulling them apart. If only you are making these, cover the wrappers with a damp towel while you roll each one.
- Completed spring rolls.
- When you are ready to fry them, heat about ½ inch of oil in a pan, you want it hot but not smoking. When the oil is hot, fry 4 to 5 rolls at a time until golden brown then turn over until the other side is golden brown. Drain on paper towels and continue frying in batches until all are cooked. Keep in mind, the filling in these is soft and some rolls may ooze a bit of cheese and filling into oil, that accounts for the dark specks you see on the rolls, just cosmetic, no harm.
- Serve with sweet chili sauce for dipping, or other sauces of your choice. Enjoy as an appetizer or even as a main dish. These are excellent even without a dipping sauce.
Notes
The crab sticks are 52 Baht, the cream cheese is 108 Baht for Caroline brand (Thai), and figure about 60 Baht for the Mozzarella. For 15 spring rolls, this is about 48 cents per spring roll. If using and import brand of cream cheese, figure about 60 cents per spring roll. Figure 1-2 rolls as a serving as an appetizer (Low cost), and 3-4 rolls as a main dish with a nice side. (High cost).
Chicken with Noodles & Gravy
Just as you guessed it, it is that simple, chicken, egg noodles, and chicken gravy. This is a base recipe, tailor it to your liking and call it your own. I made this on 5 May 2019, perfect! Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 340 grams dry egg noodles, (12 oz)
- 700 grams chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, cut into bite size pieces, (1 1/2 lbs, I used 3 breasts)
- extra light olive oil, as needed
- 3 packets chicken gravy, (yield is 1 cup gravy per packet), (Shortcut)
- 3 cups frozen peas, thawed, (don't use canned peas!)
- salt and pepper, black pepper or white pepper, as desired
Instructions
- This is the gravy packet I use, Thai brand, Thai made, and it is quite good. And is low cost.
- First thing we need to do is get the noodles cooking, so heat a pot of salted water to boiling, then add the egg noodles and boil until just tender. Drain.
- I used a variant which adds a step here. I sauteed about 1 cup of sliced (Japanese Sogigiri or angle sliced) Shiitake mushrooms, and reduced the peas to 2 cups. After the mushrooms were sauteed, I just wiped out the pan and that is ready for the chicken now.
- While the water is heating for the egg noodles, heat a non stick pan on medium heat with the oil, when hot add the chicken, season with salt and pepper as desired (I used white pepper), saute, turning them often.
- When no pink is visible and they have released their water, as seen in the photo, remove and drain off the water, and set the pan aside. Don't over cook the chicken or you will have tough chicken. The will still cook when the pan is off the heat and you will have perfect tender chicken.
- In a large sauce pan, prepare the gravy per the packet instructions, normally 1 cup water per packet, so 3 cups water and whisk in the 3 packets. When the gravy has thickened to your liking, reduce heat to a simmer and stir in the peas, and mushrooms if you prepared those.
- Whens the peas are warmed through, takes just a few minutes, add the chicken and drained noodles, stir and let this simmer for a few minutes to heat everything through.
- Serve and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcuts: Gravy Mix. Although I do list the shortcut here, for those in Thailand, Lobo has excellent gravy packets, which is what I primarily use.
Variants: 1. Use a combination of peas and carrots. 2. Use mixed vegetables in place of peas. 3. Reduce the amount of peas and add some sauteed mushrooms. (Highly recommended!)
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Tuna Melts
These can be prepared as open-faced or closed sandwiches, and on any type of toasted bread. And for this recipe, 5 variants are listed. Use the base recipe, and what you like, and make it your own signature sandwich. This is written for open-faced sandwiches, if you desire closed, just double the toasted bread.
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Parchment Paper
- Oven
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1 can tuna in water, drained, (180 g / 6 oz)
- 1 stalk celery, finely diced
- 1 spring onion, sliced
- ⅓ cup mayo
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon lemon or lime juice
- salt and pepper, as desired, to taste
For the Sandwich
- 2 slices bread, of your choice, toasted
- fresh tomato, sliced, as desired
- Cheddar cheese, shredded or sliced, as desired
American Classic
- tuna salad, as stated above
- white bread, Wonder, toasted
- American cheese, slices, as desired
- fresh tomato, slices, as desired
New York Deli
- tuna salad, as stated above
- Pumpernickel bagel, sliced in half
- dill pickle, slice lengthwise into slabs, as desired
- New York Cheddar cheese, slices, as desired
Apple Pie
- tuna salad, as stated above, but mixed with chopped pecans and dried currents as desired
- apple, sliced, as desired
- brioche hamburger roll, sliced in half
- extra sharp Cheddar cheese
Hot & Spicy
- tuna salad, as stated above
- jalapeno slices, canned, as desired
- soft wheat taco shells
- roasted red pepper, as desired
- Pepper Jack cheese, as desired
Californian
- tuna salad, as stated above
- avocado slices, as desired
- almonds, slivered, as desired
- Asiago cheese, as desired
- whole grain bread
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200° C (400° F), line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toast two slices of bread, place the toast on the parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, add the Tuna Salad ingredients.
- Mix together the salad, and at this point we have a really nice tuna salad that would make a nice cold sandwich on its own, but why stop here.
- Next item needed, fresh tomatoes, I used two Tor tomatoes with three thick slices each.
- Top the toast with equal portions of the tuna salad, then top that with 1-3 slices of tomato (depends on how big your tomato is), then top that with 1-2 slices of cheese or shredded cheese to your liking (I used a 4 blend pizza cheese).
- Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per sandwich.
Variants: 1. For bread, think white, wheat, whole grain, English muffins, leftover hamburger buns or hot dog buns, etc. 2. For cheese, Cheddar, Gouda, Swiss, Monterrey Jack. Colby, you get the picture. 3. Don't like an open face sandwich, just top with another toasted similar piece of bread and enjoy as a regular sandwich.
Great Northern Beans & Tomatoes (Pressure Cooker)
Excellent bean dish, either as a side or main dish. There is two steps to this, first we are going to cook the beans in a pressure cooker, then we will add the tomatoes when not on pressure. I use a stove top 9 liter (9½ quart) pressure cooker with 12 psi (80 kPa) pressure for these. Follow all safety precautions for your model of pressure cooker. This is a 2 for 1 recipe, beans for this dish plus bean broth for a soup or noodles another day.
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry Great Northern beans, (1 lb)
- water, as needed
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 250 grams bacon, chopped, (8 oz)
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, or 2 sprigs fresh
- 2 cups fresh tomatoes, diced
- ½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Rinse the beans and remove any bad ones and any debris, place in a large bowl and cover with 2 inches of water. Add 2 tablespoons of salt and stir that in. Cover the bowl and let that sit for at least 6 hours. If you are going to soak these overnight, place in the fridge, this will reduce the chance of the beans fermenting.
- After 6 hours, drain and rinse the beans and add to your pressure cooker. Add 8 cups of water, bacon, and the 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, the oil keeps the beans from foaming so do not skip the oil.
- Place the lid on the pot, add the weight (jiggler), and bring the heat up to high. When the jiggler starts moving and releasing pressure, indicating full pressure, start timing this for 6 minutes, and turn the heat down to low or medium low to maintain the jiggler moving and releasing pressure.
- At 6 minutes, turn off the heat and move the pressure cooker to an unused burner and allow a natural release of pressure. When the pressure is released, open and remove the lid, you won't need the lid for the rest of the cooking. Pour the contents into a large strainer that is on top of a large pot. Now you have beans for this recipe and bean broth, 2 for 1.
- Return the beans to the pressure cooker along with 1½ cups of the bean broth. Add the tomatoes, rosemary, salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to mix together and put low heat to simmer.
- Take the remainder of the bean broth and pour that into a jar and let it cool, then place in the fridge. Use as a base for a soup or noodles, use within 2-3 days. I got just under 1 quart of broth.
- Simmer for 15-20 minutes to cook down the tomatoes and the liquid reduced some.
- Serve as a side dish or main dish, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving for sure.
Taco Spring Rolls
I came up with this on a whim, seemed like a good idea, and it was! Very well liked by the family. This does take time as the meat mixture needs to cool to room temperature, as the key to making spring rolls is to use room temp filling, a warm filling will break the wrappers when you roll them. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams ground pork, or beef, (1 lb)
- 1 packet taco seasoning mix, (Shortcut)
- 1 cup water
- 120 grams lettuce, chopped, (4 oz)
- 150 grams Cheddar cheese, or a cheese blend, shredded, (5 oz)
- 1 package spring roll wrappers, 5.5 x 5.5 inch wrappers, at least 20 wrappers, thawed
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1-2 tablespoons water
- cooking oil, for frying
- dipping sauce of your choice, salsa would be good, and in Thailand, sweet chili sauce
Instructions
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat and add the ground pork. Break it up as it cooks with your spatula.
- Break the meat up finely and to cook until little to no pink is visible. Since I used pork, I drained the fat.
- Once the meat is drained, add the taco seasoning packet and 1 cup of water.
- Stir together and simmer the seasoned meat until the water is all evaporated, stirring occasionally. Once no liquid remains, remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool to room temperature. If you are pushed for time, you can add the meat mixture to a mixing bowl to cool, but why dirty up another bowl, just leave it in the pan on an unused burner or counter top. To cool takes 1-2 hours.
- Take the spring roll wrappers out of the freezer and place on the counter to thaw. Go ahead and prep the lettuce and cheese.
- When you are ready to roll the spring roll, add the lettuce and cheese to the cooled meat mixture.
- Give the filling a good stir to mix everything together, there, you just made the filling, which is much faster than traditional spring rolls. In a small bowl, mix together the corn starch and 1-2 tablespoons of water, this is your glue for the next step.
- For this step, it is best to have two people, one to pull the wrappers, one to roll. Lay a spring roll wrapper, smooth side down on the counter with one corner pointed towards you. Place about 1-1 1/2 tablespoons of filling near the corner closest to you. Fold the corner nearest you up and over the filling and roll away until you are at the widest point of the wrapper. Use your fingers and dip into the glue and rub that on the two side that are away from you, be generous. Now fold one side, left or right, towards the middle, the repeat with the other side, now it should look like an open envelope. Now continue rolling away from you to complete the roll. If the point flap does not stay glued down, just dab a bit more glue on it. Repeat until the filling is all used. I made 21 rolls, you may make 18 or 25, depending on how much filling you are using. Once you have done this a few times this actually goes pretty fast. The reason for the two people is you do not want the wrappers drying or they will tear when pulling them apart.
- And here they are all rolled. My wife and I made these at about 3 pm but did not dry them until about 10 pm, so we just covered them with foil and placed in the fridge.
- When you are ready to fry them, heat about 1/2 inch of oil in a pan, you want it hot but not smoking. When the oil is hot, fry 4 to 5 rolls at a time until golden brown then turn over until the other side is golden brown. Drain on paper towels and continue frying in batches until all are cooked.
- Serve with dipping sauces of your choice. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcut: Taco Seasoning Mix.
Made this on a whim, I researched this idea for spring rolls and every recipe seemed way over engineered, this seemed like the most logical way, and it worked perfectly.
Broken Meatball Spaghetti
The author of this recipe stated she never had enough meatballs in her spaghetti, she solved that problem with this recipe, and it is good! Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry spaghetti, or linguine, (1 lb)
- 500 grams ground beef, or pork, (1 lb)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, (Shortcut)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs, (Shortcut)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 3 cups pasta sauce, (Shortcut)
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Cheddar cheese, shredded, for topping, optional, as desired
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add the beef, onion, bread crumbs, egg, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
- Get in there with your hands and mix everything together. Now at this point, you are thinking you are going to make meatballs, well, you're not, just mix well and go wash off your hands.
- Now heat a large pot of salted water to a boil, when the water is boiling, add the spaghetti (I used linguine) and cook until just tender. Drain.
- While the water is heating/pasta cooking, Heat a large non stick pan on medium heat, when hot, add the meat mixture you made, flatten out the meat and chop it up roughly with the spatula, don't break up the meat to much, goal is large chunks but not meatball size. Now just let it cook, no more breaking it up, just let it cook until you start to see the edges cooked.
- When the edges are cooked through, turn the meat over, break it up just a bit, keeping the chunks large, not quite meat ball size, but nice large pieces.
- When there is no more red in the meat, add the pasta sauce and cayenne pepper and stir into the meat, reduce heat to low and let the sauce get hot. Now that, is a meat sauce!
- Once the pasta is drained, add to the pan and mix with the sauce.
- Add to plates, top with shredded cheese as desired, enjoy.
Notes
I will say fair cost per serving based on the beef alone.
Shortcuts: Italian Seasoning, Italian Bread Crumbs, Pasta Sauce.
Provided by Lori Harbin-Combs of Just A Pinch Recipe Club and his recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
Fish Chowder III
Another great sounding fish chowder recipe, any whitefish can be used, boneless and skinless. I look forward to making this.
Ingredients
- 500 grams whitefish fillets, boneless, skinless, cut into bite size pieces, (1 lb)
- 1 large carrot, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, with leaves, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2½ cups potatoes, chopped
- 1 can baby clams, rinsed and drained
- 2 cups water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper, and as desired
- 2 cups milk
Instructions
- In a large, melt the butter on medium heat, when melted, add the celery, onion, garlic, and carrot. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the potatoes, fish, clams, water, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer. Cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender, stir occasionally.
- When the potatoes are tender, stir in the milk. Leave on a simmer and cook, stirring often until the chowder is heated through.
- Ladle into bowls, sprinkle some black pepper on top, serve with crackers.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Variants. 1. Use 1-2 containers of oyster meat (Thailand, think Tesco), drained, in place of clams. 2. Use evaporated milk in place of whole milk.
Fish Veronica
Sounds like a very nice fish recipe, use any whitefish fillets your prefer, cod, haddock, pangasius, barramundi, tilapia, etc. On my to make and taste list. I will verify the servings this makes when I make this.
Ingredients
- 3 whitefish fillets, boneless, skinless, pangasius would be perfect
- salt and pepper, as desired
- 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth, fresh or from powder
- 1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup green seedless grapes, sliced in half
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F), lightly oil a 7x11 baking dish.
- Place the fillets in the prepared baking dish, season with salt and pepper as desired.
- Mix together the lemon juice and stock in a measuring cup, then pour over the fish.
- Cover the dish with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
- While the fish is baking, melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat, then remove from heat and whisk in the flour, place back on the low heat and slowly add the milk while whisking, whisk continuously until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven, remove the foil, then remove the fish to a plate, pour the liquid from the dish into your sauce. Put the fish back into the baking dish. Stir to sauce to mix together well. Pour sauce over the fish and sprinkle with the grapes. Place back in the oven for another 3-5 minutes. Optionally, you can broil for 3-5 minutes to lightly brown the sauce.
- Remove from the oven. Serve with sauce spooned over the fish, serve with sides of your choice. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Caprese Sandwich
Sounds like a tasty sandwich, on my to make and taste list. This is a make as many sandwiches as you need so no quantities listed. You can make this on baguette, ciabatta rolls, or even toasted wheat bread.
Ingredients
- 2 slices wheat bread, toasted, or a split baguette or ciabatta roll
- tomato, sliced, as needed
- Mozzarella Cheese, sliced thick, as needed
- fresh basil leaves, as needed
- extra virgin olive oil, as needed
- salt and pepper, to taste, as desired
Instructions
- Place a slice of toast on a plate (or bread of your choice), cover the bread with tomato slices (depending on the size of your tomatoes), season with salt and pepper as desired
- Top the tomatoes with Mozzarella cheese and top that with some fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with some olive oil.
- Top wit the remaining toast, cut in half, and enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per sandwich.
Adapted from an internet recipe.