This is an Israeli bread salad, and sounds delicious! On my to cook list. This does call for the use of toasted pita bread, if in a pinch, regular sliced bread, toasted, should work ok. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
26 inch pitas, torn in bite size pieces, OR make from a shortcut
1cuptomato, chopped
1cupcucumber, sliced
1/2cupred bell pepper, diced
1/2cupfresh parsley, chopped
1/4cupfresh mint, chopped
1/4cuparugala, chopped
1/4cuponion, minced, Vidalia if you have that
1canblack-eyed peas, unsalted, or 1 /12 cups if making from dry
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 200 C.
To make the dressing, add the dressing ingredients except the olive oil to a medium sized bowl and whisk, gradually drizzle in the olive oil, whisking constantly.
Toast the pita bread. Arrange the torn pita bread in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for 7 minutes in the preheated oven, stir them up at 4 minutes. Let the toasted pita cool completely and reserve 1/2 cup for garnish later.
To make the salad, mix together the salad ingredients, tossing in the toasted pita and dressing last, top with the reserved toasted pita and serve.
Notes
Low cost.Shortcut:Pita Bread.Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
As I expand my culinary learning, pita bread is needed for some recipes, and since pita bread is not available near me, I will make this myself, and will save money doing this as well.
Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10 to15 minutes until water is frothy.
Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a small depression in the middle of the flour and pour yeast water mixture into it.
Slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic.
Place dough on a floured surface and knead for 10 to 15 minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it is done.
Coat a large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough into the bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated. Allow to sit in a warm place for about 3 hours, or until it has doubled in size.
Once doubled, roll out in a rope, and pinch off 10 to 12 small pieces, just smaller than a tennis ball. Place balls on floured surface. Let sit covered with a towel for 10 minutes.
Heat oven to 500 F and make sure rack is at the very bottom of the oven, and heat the your baking sheet as well.
Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles. Each should be about 5 to 6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick.
Bake each circle for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 more minutes.
Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet and place on a wire rack.
While still warm, take a spatula and gently push down on each puff. When they are thoroughly cool, place in storage bags.
Pita bread can be stored for up to 1 week in a pantry or bread box or up to a month in the freezer.
Sounds good! I am going to give the smoker version a miss and just state this as a BBQ grill recipe. Oddly enough there is a tool to core Jalapeno peppers, I will take a miss on that as well, a thin sharp knife works wonders. On my to cook list. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
1 1/4kilosbulk pork sausage, OR make from a shortcut
Instructions
Cut the top off each jalapeno pepper and using a thin knife or vegetable peeler, remove the seeds and membrane from the inside of each pepper.
Mix together the Cream cheese and Cheddar and stuff the mixture into each pepper.
Form 12 patties with the bulk sausage about 3-4 inches in diameter. Roll a pepper in each patty and cover the pepper completely. making each ball, egg shaped.
Place on the BBQ grill on indirect heat, turning occasionally until the outside is roasted and cheese starts to ooze from the sausage.
Serve with Ranch or Bleu Cheese dipping sauce.
Notes
Figure about 120 Baht for pork to make the sausage yourself, it is very easy. Figure 120 Baht for the Cream cheese, and 170 Baht for Cheddar cheese. For 6 servings, this is about $2.00 per serving. Not a cheap meal but sounds good from visiting friends and family.Shortcut:Pork Sausage.Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
Rinse the rice 2 or 3 times, drain, and place in the rice cooker pot. Add the spices and stock, stir then cover and switch the cooker to the Cook setting.
When the cooker switches to Warm, open, remove the bay leaf and garlic cloves, stir in the butter, cover for an additional 10 minutes.
This is a popular sandwich in New York state, particularly in the Buffalo area. The name comes from the type of roll, or rather what is added to a Kaiser roll to make a Kummelweck roll, This is also a leftover dish since you are using roast beef.
Slice the kaiser roll in half. Brush the top with the egg wash, then sprinkle the caraway seeds and coarse salt on top. Be generous with the salt and seeds.
Place both parts of the roll in the oven for 3-4 minutes.
Heat the au jus on the stove or microwave to just under a simmer.
When the rolls are warmed, remove from the oven, spread some au jus on the cut side of the top part of the roll, or you can just dip the top into the au jus, do not dunk the whole top in, you just want to coat the cut part.
Optional, if the roast beef seems a bit dry, go ahead and dip that into the au jus as well.
Pile on the roast beef on the bottom of the roll, add a heaping spoon of horseradish on top of the beef, cover that with the top part of the roll, serve with a pickle spear.
Notes
Low cost as this is mainly a leftover type sandwich.Shortcut:Au Jus.Inspired by good friend, Jerry Collins.
United States.
This is a Macedonian dish. This comes from two friends, and there is two variants to it. This makes 8 servings so you may want to cut back on this to test it out. It does sound very good! On my to cook list. Prep and cook times are approximate.
In a very large mixing bowl, add the flour, oil, milk, water, salt, sugar, and the yeast, mix and then knead.
The dough needs to be soft to the touch. Quickly cut this into 8 pieces, shape each piece into a ball then flatten each ball and make a well in the center, as you will have to put cheese and an egg in there.
Place each piece in a large baking dish, then crumble in the feta cheese to your desired amount, and crack an egg on top.
Place in the oven and bake until golden brown on the bread, such as this photo shows.
Alternate Method
Use pizza dough of your choice and follow the same steps, make a well in the center, add the cheese and egg, and bake.
Serve as a breakfast or I would even serve as a light dinner.
Notes
Low cost.Recipe and photo provided by good friend, Zore Petrova-Dimitrievski.
Macedonia. Additional method and photo provided by good friend Lisa Durrell Little.
United States.
One of the first oven roasted dishes I made in Thailand was roasted Cornish game hens (first dish was a big pan of lasagna). One day I found Cornish game hens in Villa Market, bought me three and headed home to roast them, here is what I did.
Slice the vegetables, place some of the carrot on the bottom of a small roasting pan, this is done to keep the hens above the bottom of the pan.
Remove the giblets and rinse the hens, shake off the excess water. Generously salt and pepper the hens, inside and out. Stuff the hens with a slice or two of the carrot, daikon, and an onion quarter, trimming each piece so nothing is sticking out of the birds to much.
Place the stuffed hens on top of the carrots, any remaining vegetables, spread them around between the hens. Pour the melted butter over the birds.
Roast for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, occasionally spooning some of the liquid in the pan over the birds or until golden brown. Internal temp, just like a chicken should be 82 C / 180 F at the thickest part without touching bone.
Serve.
Notes
I cannot price this until I see Cornish game hens again in the store. I will say fair value for now.Just a common roasting method for poultry.
Enoki mushrooms are long and slender with very small caps, in the US these would be known as Golden mushrooms. Enoki goes well in soups also as they maintain their crispiness well. This is a make as much as you want recipe.
Trim off the root end of the mushroom bundle(s) and quickly rinse them.
Divide the mushrooms into smaller bundles.
Cut the bacon slices in half. Wrap half a slice of bacon around the middle of a mushroom bundle and secure with a toothpick.
When you have all the bundles of mushrooms you want, heat a non stick pan to medium heat with a splash of olive oil, then as the bacon cooks you will have enough oil in the pan.
Add the mushroom bundles to the pan, turning as needed to cook the bacon through.
When the bacon is cooked, they are ready to serve and enjoy as a side dish or appetizer. I had some leftover bacon so I just cooked that as well.
Panang Curry is thick red curry that is popular throughout Thailand and South East Asia. This recipe is based on a store bought curry paste, and the brand of choice for me is Lobo. Lobo also exports this to the US so you should be able to find this in most Asia grocery stores.
I love ravioli, when we lived in Phuket, we bought fresh made ravioli from an Italian producer, excellent ravioli. Where I live now, no ravioli, so I decided to make some yesterday, 26 Aug 2017. No servings are given, the only items with measurements is the egg pasta dough. Feel free to use any filling you like, and any sauce you like, this is what I prepared.
In a large bowl, add the flour and mix in the salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and crack in the eggs. Use your fingers to slowly mix the eggs and flour together until it forms a ball, it will come together. Knead the dough for just a few minutes, adding flour if it starts to get sticky. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge while you prep the filling.
For the Filling
Heat a skillet and crumble in the sausage and cook through, pour the meat into a strainer to thoroughly drain any fat.
While the sausage is cooking, prep the mushrooms, can be any mushrooms you like, just rinse, and chop. I used two handfuls of small Shiitake mushrooms, stems and caps, chopped.
After you remove the sausage from the pan, use the same pan, heat a splash of olive oil then add the mushrooms. cook until browned.
Add the mushrooms to the strainer with the sausage to let that drain a bit, then add a handful or so shredded Mozzarella.
Once the sausage and mushrooms are drained, pour that into a mixing bowl and stir together and let cool.
To Assemble
Take your dough from fridge and cut into quarters. Using 1 piece of dough, flour a a work surface and roll out the dough with a rolling pin, get it as thin as you can.
I used a dumpling press (3 inch size), you can use any method you prefer. When the dough is rolled out, cut circles just a bit larger than the press.
Take a circle and flip it over and place on the press, push down in the center to fit the press, then press along the edges to make sure dough it tight on the press.
Take about a teaspoon of filling and place in the center of the press. Use a brush and brush one side of the edge of the press with water.
Fold the press in half and squeeze to crimp the edge, any of the dough that comes out from the press, just scrape off with a knife. Open the press and remove the ravioli and place on a lightly floured plate.
Take the leftover dough, form into a ball, roll out and repeat the steps. I used 2 pieces of dough from the original ball and made 15 ravioli.
For the sauce, just whisk together the paste and water. The ratio for sauce is 2 cans of water to 1 can of paste, I used a 220 gram can. Whisk in the Italian seasoning and put on stove on low heat to simmer while you cook the ravioli. (I also added several large spoonful's of leftover filling to the sauce.)
Heat a pot of salted water to boiling. Add some ravioli using a slotted spoon without over crowding the pot, I cooked 15 ravioli in two batches. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until they float, then remove with a slotted spoon to a plate.
Serve with sauce over the ravioli, enjoy.
Notes
Ground pork if using the shortcut is about 50 Baht/kilo. This is actually a low cost meal.Shortcuts:Italian Sausage, Italian Seasoning.Dough recipe adapted from an internet recipe. The filling I just made since that combination sounded good, and I have been making pasta sauce using paste for years.
