Author Archive
______ & Gravy
You fill in the blank with a meat of choice, can be leftovers or bought purposely for this recipe. I like simple dishes that come together quickly, and can be changed numerous ways. This is a base recipe that you can can tailor to make your own specialty. This can be a side dish over rice, or a main dish over pasta, mashed potatoes, or biscuits.
Ingredients
For the Concept
- 500-700 grams meat
- 2 cups gravy, OR make from a shortcut
- 100-200 grams pasta, rice or mashed potatoes or biscuits
For Seasoning
- ground sage, to taste
- salt and pepper, to taste
- celery seed, to taste
For Additional Ingredients
- onion, diced
- garlic, smashed and minced
- mushrooms, sliced or chopped
Instructions
For the Meats - Pick One
- Think simple items that are cooked or can be cooked up quick. Chicken Hearts, Chicken Livers, Chicken Gizzards, Sausage, leftover roast chicken, leftover beef pot roast, leftover pork loin.
- Cook fresh meats in a non stick skillet with a splash of olive oil along with a diced onion and several cloves of mined garlic and mushrooms if using those. Drain and set aside.
- For leftover meats, cube or shred, your preference. Saute a diced onion and several cloves of garlic in a non stick pan with a splash of olive oil. When the onion is translucent, add mushroom if using, then add the cubed or shredded leftover meat and saute until heated through. Drain and set aside.
- For sausage, bulk or sliced would work well with a milk gravy.
For the Gravy - Pick One
- Gravy can be from a homemade mix, from a gravy packet, or from the drippings in the pan when using fresh meats. I use packets or from a homemade mix. Your choice.
- Chicken giblets and leftovers obviously pair up with chicken gravy. Beef with beef gravy, and pork with pork or chicken gravy. Sausage would pair nicely with a milk gravy.
- For 2-3 servings, go with 2 cups of gravy, either 2 packets, 2 cups worth from a homemade mix, or you can make in the pan with the drippings.
- Once the gravy is made, add the cooked or heated up meat of choice.
For the Seasoning
- After the meat of choice is added to the gravy and mixed, taste and add salt and pepper as desired. For the chicken giblets, sage and celery seed works very well, for two cups of gravy I used 1/2 teaspoon of sage and 1/4 teaspoon of celery seed.
- White pepper can be used in place of black pepper. Any herbs of choice can be used, like rosemary, thyme, parsley, coriander. Totally up to your preference.
For Serving - Pick One
- Rice, small amount for a side dish or a large amount for a main dish.
- Pasta, can be spaghetti, egg noodles, fettuccine, macaroni, small shells, spirals, totally your preference.
- Potatoes, mashed would be my first choice, boiled and fried potatoes also work.
- Biscuits, think milk gravy with sausage. And additional option for this would be a fried egg or two on top.
Example: Chicken Hearts & Gravy
- Trim and cut the hearts, 500 grams (1 lb) in half. Saute until just cooked through. Season with salt and pepper as desired while sauteing.
- Prepare 1 cup of Chicken Gravy.
- Drain the fat from the pan and add the hearts to the gravy. Simmer for 1-2 minutes, season with salt and pepper as desired. Serve over rice, with pasta, a pasta salad, you get the picture.
Notes
Cost is dependent on if you are using fresh meats specifically for this dish or using leftovers.
Shortcut: Gravy Mix.
Based on making Chicken Hearts & Gravy, Lee Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Chicken Hearts & Gravy
I like chicken hearts, and this is a simple and easy meal to put together. I made this on 12 Dec 2017 as a way to use up some chicken hearts I had in the freezer, and this gives me an idea for a base recipe for leftovers as well. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 750 grams chicken hearts, cleaned, cut in half lengthwise, (1½ lb)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper, as desired
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- ½ teaspoon ground sage
- ¼ teaspoon celery seed
- 2 cups chicken gravy, (prepare 2 packets), Shortcut
- 250 grams egg noodles, or pasta of your choice, (8 oz)
Instructions
- In a large non stick pan, heat the oil and add the chicken hearts and saute for a few minutes, they release a lot of fat was well (additional flavor), add the onion and garlic, and saute until the onion is translucent and hearts cooked through. Drain the hearts.
- While the hearts are cooking. In a small sauce pan prepare the chicken gravy according to the packet instructions, this is normally 2 packets to make 2 cups. Once the gravy is made, add the drained hearts and stir in, season with the sage, celery seed, and salt and pepper to taste.
- In another small sauce pan, cook the pasta in boiling water until tender, then drain.
- Place some noodles on a plate and ladle on the gravy, enjoy.
Notes
Figure about 50 Baht for the chicken hearts. For 2 servings, this is about 74 cents per serving.
Shortcut: Gravy Mix.
Corn Soup with Quail Eggs
This is a Filipino soup, and it is unbelievably delicious, and quick to prepare. This is from a good friend so it is authentic. This can be a breakfast, lunch, or light dinner. This was enjoyed by 4 of us at the house last night, 22 Aug 2018. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Notes section.
Ingredients
- 24 hard boiled quail eggs, peeled, Shortcut
- 2 cans cream style corn, (410 g/14½ oz each)
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- ¾ cup spring onion, chopped
- 1 chicken egg, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed with 2 tablespoons water
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium size pot, add the water and broth and bring to a boil. Add the creamed corn, stir, and allow to come to a boil again then reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the spring onion and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 2 minutes. Pour in the cornstarch and water mix (slurry), stir and simmer for 1 minute.
- Slowly stir in one direction while slowly pouring in the chicken egg. Then add the quail eggs, stir, then cover, turn off the heat and leave on the same burner. Let this sit for 5 minutes.
- Stir and then ladle into bowls, enjoy.
Notes
Pizza Pasta
This sounds really good, and is an original recipe from a friend, I look forward to making this. Links to the shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 500 grams dry Penne pasta, Ziti or Maccheroni works well also
- 500 grams bulk Italian sausage, OR make from a shortcut
- 1 jar pasta sauce, OR make from a shortcut, 2 cups
- 200 grams pizza cheese blend, shredded
- 200 grams Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
- pepperoni slices, slices, as needed
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 220 C (425 F).
- Heat a pot of salted water to a boil, then add the pasta and cook that until just tender, drain well (let cool for a few minutes before adding to a Pyrex dish) pour into a 9x13 baking dish.
- While the water is heating for the pasta, heat a large non stick pan and add the sausage and break it with a spatula as you cook it, add some chopped up pepperoni slice if want and add to the pan as well, as much as you like. When cooked through, do not drain, just pour into the baking dish and mix with the pasta until "all the pasta is coated with the yummy meatiness." (Author's words, very cool!)
- Add the pasta sauce and mix together, now add the pizza cheese blend and mix that in. Once mixed, smooth out the top evenly, top with Mozzarella, then a layer of pepperoni slices.
- Bake until bubbly, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove and let rest for a few minutes, you have a bubbly dish of cheese lava, you are just cooling it a bit before serving.
- Serve. Garlic bread would be a great side dish.
Notes
The sausage if you make yourself, about 45 Baht. The cheeses will cost about 175 Baht for the pizza cheese blend, and 140 Baht for the Mozzarella. For 6 servings, this is about $1.77 per serving.
Shortcuts: Italian Sausage, Pasta Sauce.
Variants: 1. Easy, anything you like on a pizza. The author, Amy, says diced green bell pepper and sliced mushrooms is a very good addition. 2. To make this leaner, use chicken sausage.
Original recipe and photo, provided by good friend, Amy Weckerly Shanks, and the original recipe is here.
White Cut Chicken (Chinese Poached Chicken)
This is a Cantonese poached chicken that is served cold with a Spring Onion & Ginger Oil dipping sauce. The 'White' part of the name comes from meaning plain, as in minimal ingredients. The 'Cut' part comes from meaning the while chicken is simply cut into pieces with a cleaver, not separated at the joints like in the western part of the world. This sounds absolutely delicious for a lunch or light dinner.
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 1 whole chicken, small, about 1 kilo
- 4 slices fresh ginger
- 2 spring onions, tied in a knot
- 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
- 1/4 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, or use pink or white peppercorns
- sesame oil, for brushing
- fresh coriander, chopped, for garnish
For the Spring Onion & Ginger Oil Dipping Sauce
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
- 1/2 cup spring onion, green part only, finely chopped
- 4 spring onions, white part only, sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh coriander, stems, chopped
- 2-3 tablespoons cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons broth, from poaching the chicken
- pinch salt, or to taste
Instructions
- Remove the head and feet from the chicken, rinse it inside and out and place in a large pot. Add the spring onion, ginger, peppercorns, and cooking wine.
- Add water to the pot to just cover the chicken. Bring to a boil and hold that for 8 minutes (a few minutes longer if you have a larger chicken), then turn off heat, leave on the burner, and cover for 20 minutes.
- In a large bowl fill with cold water and ice, remove the chicken from the pot, set the pot and broth aside, and place in the ice water and soak for several minutes, turning it often to ensure the chicken is completely cooled. Remove and drain residual water, place on a cutting board and brush the skin with sesame oil.
- To cut the chicken, use of a large cleaver is highly recommended as the weight of the knife is helpful. The chicken has to be completely cooled in order to cut to get smooth edges. Basically remove the legs at the thigh joint, then cut each thigh from the leg, then cut each leg in half. Remove the wings and separate each wing at the joints. Cut the remaining chicken in half, cut each half into large pieces.
For the Spring Onion & Ginger Oil Dipping Sauce
- In a small heat proof bowl, mix together the ginger, chopped spring onion greens. and coriander.
- Heat the oil in a small saucepan or wok, and the spring onion whites when the oil is hot and saute until the whites are just starting to brown and they are aromatic.
- Pour the hot oil into the bowl with the other ingredients and mix. Add two tablespoons of broth from the pot the chicken was in. Season with a pinch of salt or to taste and mix well.
- Serve the dipping sauce as a side for the chicken, enjoy.
Notes
I cannot really remember what a whole chicken in the market costs, I think 150 or 200 Baht. Going with 200 Baht, 2 servings is about $2.95 per serving, which I think may be on the high side. I will verify price and servings when I make this.
This recipe for White Cut Chicken (Chinese Poached Chicken) is from China Sichuan Food.
Dumpling Egg Soup I
I got this from a friend, who had an Asian friend make this soup for him, and as my friend calls it, 'comfort soup, right up there with chicken noodle soup'. My friend never kept the recipe and just goes by how he remembers it, and it not only looks great, it tastes great! This is a simple to prepare soup with plenty of nutrients. I will be making several versions of this easy and delicious soup. This recipe is assuming you have dumplings (or wontons) ready made or already homemade and on hand, and hard boiled eggs on hand as well.
Ingredients
- 3 cups beef broth, fresh or from powder
- 2-3 vegetable dumplings, or wontons
- 3 hard boiled eggs, peeled, chicken or duck
- 1 small potato, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2-3 spring onions, 1-2 chopped, 1 for the side
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- Add the broth to a small sauce pan and add the potato and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer until the potato pieces are almost fork tender, 8-10 minutes or so.
- Just when the potatoes are almost fork tender, add the eggs. Let this simmer for another 5-10 minutes or so to finish cooking the potatoes and to heat the eggs through.
- For the dumplings or wontons, you can do this two ways. You can pan fry the dumplings first then add to the broth, or for raw wontons, you can just add to the broth when you add the eggs and let them cook that way. (And I totally forgot to add the wontons that I made just 2 hours before.)
- When the potato is tender, season with salt as desired, scoop the potato, eggs, and dumplings or wontons into a bowl, ladle over plenty of broth, top with 1 or 2 chopped spring onion.
- Serve with a spring onion or two on the side.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcuts: Perfect Hard Boiled Chicken Eggs, Perfect Hard Boiled Duck Eggs, Vegetable Wontons.
Recipe provided courtesy of good friend, Drew Padilla.
United States.
United States.
Spring Rolls aka Lumpia
These sound delicious and I just picked up several packages of spring roll sheets last week. These are Spring Rolls or Lumpia that have a very thin pastry, not Egg Rolls which have a thicker pastry. And these are outstanding! Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and finely minced
- 400 grams ground pork
- 8 fresh Shiitake mushrooms, stem removed, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups vermicelli noodles, an 80 gram package is perfect
- 1 1/2 cups carrot, shredded
- 1 1/2 cups cabbage, shredded, packed
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce, and as needed
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
For the Spring Rolls
- 20 spring roll wrappers, thawed
- cooking oil, for frying
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
Instructions
For the Filling
- In a pot of boiling water, add the vermicelli cook for 2-4 minutes or until soft, drain, lightly chop, you want about 1 1/2 cups, an 80 gram packet is fine. It is ok if they are a bit underdone as the rolls get fried later. Set aside.
- A lot of the prep time is the shredding and chopping. Use a box shredder for the cabbage and carrots, Chop the mushrooms on a board. I doubled the recipe that is why there is so much.
- Fresh ground pork (I used pork loin for this which is lean, the mushrooms add the juiciness). I also had some shrimp we added, the shrimp were cleaned, deveined, and chopped. The shrimp is NOT cooked with the pork, add the shrimp at the very end if using.
- Heat the olive oil in a large non stick pan (big pot if doubling the recipe), when hot, add the garlic and saute for a minute until fragrant then add the pork and break up the pork as it cooks until it just turns white, as it will get cooked again.
- To the pork, add the carrot, cabbage, and mushrooms and saute for several minutes until the veggies are good and wilted. Now mix in the cornstarch, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Saute for about a minute or until the liquid is steamed off. You want the filling sticky, not watery. Taste and season with oyster sauce as needed.
- Add the cooked noodles and remove the pan or pot from the heat.
- Mix in the noodles and cool the filling, a hot filling means your spring rolls may burst (no one likes a sloppy spring roll). So just let the pan or pot cool, or spread the filling on a baking sheet and let cool, or even place in the fridge for 5 minutes.
To Assemble the Spring Rolls
- First thing is to make the 'glue' so in a small bowl or cup, mix together the cornstarch and water, set this aside but keep it handy, this is used to seal the rolls.
- Open the package of spring roll sheets. Carefully pull off one sheet and place smooth side down on a clean counter with one corner of the sheet facing you. Very important, place a damp towel on the unused sheets, if the sheets dry out they are hard to pull apart and will tear.
- Place a tablespoon or so of filling near the corner closest to you.
- Fold the bottom (the corner closest to you) up over the filling.
- Tightly roll, the filling will spread some, that is fine. When the roll is in the widest part of the pastry (left and right corners will be on the sides of the roll) fold each side towards the center. The roll should be about 5 inches long, and should look like an envelope.
- Continue to roll, and when there is just a pointy section at the end away from you, use your finger and apply some of the cornstarch slurry you made just a few minutes ago to the edges of the pointy section (just like sealing an envelope), continue to roll and seal the edge, and just pat that seam down with your fingers. There, you just made a spring roll.
- Repeat until you have either used all the filling or all the pastry sheets. 13 more to go.
- To fry these, heat about 1 inch of oil in a pot. When hot, add 4-5 spring rolls at a time and fry, turn often, until golden brown, These cook fast so keep an eye on them. Remove to paper towels to drain and fry the remaining rolls. Perfect color.
- Let cool for a few minutes then serve hot as is or serve with a dipping sauce of your choice. My Sweet & Sour Sauce is listed as a shortcut in the Recipe Notes section.
Notes
Figure about 50 Baht for the pork. I will wing about 3 servings from this (I like spring rolls), for 3 servings this is about 50 cents per serving.
Shortcut: Sweet & Sour Dipping Sauce.
Variants: 1. Bake instead of fry, place on a rack on a baking sheet, spray with oil all sides, bake in a 200 C (400 F) oven until golden brown. 2. For the filling, use cooked and chopped bacon, cooked hash browns, and Cheddar mixed in. 3. Place 3 or 4 raisins in each spring roll if using the original ingredients listed.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Sweet & Sour Dipping Sauce
Sounds good, and easy, common ingredients.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a sauce pan on medium heat and whisk to combine, simmer and stir often until sauce thickens to your liking. Taste and adjust sugar to your liking.
- Remove from heat and let cool, sauce is ready.
Notes
Low cost.
Used in Recipe Listed on this Site:
- Spring Rolls aka Lumpia, made it, GO-TO recipe.
- Mushroom Spring Rolls.
Shrimp & Grits with Tasso Cream Sauce
This is a quick meal to put together. One of the ingredients is Tasso Ham, which is a specialty of Cajun/Creole cooking of the southern US. If you do not have access to this type of ham, you can easily use Andouille sausage or thick cut smoked bacon and just add a bit of Cajun seasoning to taste. On my to cook list for sure.
Ingredients
For the Grits
- 2 servings grits
- water
- milk
- Cheddar cheese, shredded
- salt and black pepper, to taste
For the Rest
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/2 cup Tasso ham, diced, or Andouille sausage or smoked bacon
- 2 tablespoons onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons bell pepper, diced, any or all colors is fine
- 1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
- 20 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed
- 1/4 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- salt and pepper, to taste
- spring onion, green part only, chopped
- Cajun seasoning, optional if using sausage or bacon
Instructions
- Follow the package instructions to prepare the grits but for what ever amount of water it calls for, cut that in half and use milk for the other half.
- Get your grits going, season with salt and pepper to taste, and stir often to make nice and creamy grits. When the grits are done, add in Cheddar to your liking and stir in, set aside but keep warm.
- Get everything else prepped, measured, and set out and ready to go, this will come together quickly.
- In a large non stick pan on medium high heat, heat the oil and butter. When hot, add the ham and saute until crispy. Add the onion and bell pepper and saute until the onion is translucent then add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Add the shrimp and saute for 1 to 2 minutes or until all the shrimp are pink. Pink shrimp are tender, over cooked shrimp are tough. Remove the shrimp when pink and set aside.
- Stir in the white wine and let it reduce. When it has reduced, slowly stir in the cream, season with salt and pepper, and if you used sausage or bacon, season to taste with Cajun seasoning. Let sauce reduce to thicken.
- Divide the grits between two plates, divide the shrimp onto the grits, pour sauce equally over each plate, top each plate with chopped spring onion greens. Serve.
Notes
I will say low cost for now but will price this when I get the shrimp again, I will be using large shrimp for this.
This recipe for Shrimp & Grits with Tasso Cream Sauce is from Menu Musings of a Modern American Mom.
Dinner Rolls (Bread Machine)
These are a little dense and chewy, and they are delicious! Your bread machine does the heavy work, but you will cut these, let them rise and bake in the oven. I made these on 11 Dec 2017, perfect!
Equipment
- Bread Machine
- Oven
- Baking Pan (8x8 inch)
Ingredients
- ½ cup milk, and as needed
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 448 grams all purpose flour, 3½ cups if no scale
- 1¼ teaspoon instant dry yeast
Instructions
- Place ingredients in your bread machine in the order listed. Set to dough function and note the time until the cycle is completed. Keep an eye on the dough for the first few minutes, if it appears to dry, add a tablespoon of milk at a time until the dough comes together to a ball. I used two additional tablespoons of milk, this photo is about 10 minutes into the cycle.
- When the dough cycle is complete, roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface, cut into 9 equal portions (9 fit perfect in a 8x8 baking dish), shape into balls, and place in a baking dish with a sheet of parchment on the bottom, lightly dusted with flour as well. Let rolls rise.
- Preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F). When the rolls have risen, bake for 20-25 minutes or until nice and golden brown. Brush with melted butter when you remove from the oven.
