Author Archive
Best Hamburger Meat
This is a stand alone recipe, once you make this, you can make any burgers of your choice. I wanted to add this tip as it is excellent! There is 3 options here. This tip is for grinding your own beef or at a minimum, grinding the optional ingredients. You can grind these items together or do as I did and just grind separate and mix together by hand.
Ingredients
Beef with Bacon
- 500 grams beef, any cut
- 200 grams smoked bacon
Beef with Sausage
- 500 grams beef, any cut
- 250 grams beerwurst sausage, bratwurst, smoked sausage, etc
Beef with Green Chili
- 500 grams beef, any cut
- 200 grams smoked bacon
- 1-2 large green chilies, also called large green peppers, roasted
Instructions
Beef with Bacon
- Cut the beef into strips and place in the freezer to chill for about 20-30 minutes, place the bacon in the freezer as well. Thoroughly clean the grinder parts then sterilize in bleach water for a few minutes, then RINSE the parts completely, dry, and assemble the grinder. Grind the beef with the bacon, or grind separate and mix. Immediately chill the ground meat in the fridge until use. This makes 4-5 patties.
Beef with Sausage
- Cut the beef into strips and place in the freezer to chill for about 20-30 minutes, place the sausage in the freezer as well. Thoroughly clean the grinder parts then sterilize in bleach water for a few minutes, then RINSE the parts completely, dry, and assemble the grinder. Grind the beef with the sausage, or grind separate and mix. Immediately chill the ground meat in the fridge until use. This makes 4-5 patties. This one I have done and it makes a great burger!
Beef with Green Chilies
- Cut the beef into strips and place in the freezer to chill for about 20-30 minutes, place the bacon in the freezer as well. Thoroughly clean the grinder parts then sterilize in bleach water for a few minutes, then RINSE the parts completely, dry, and assemble the grinder. Grind the beef with the bacon and roasted chilies, or grind separate and mix. Immediately chill the ground meat in the fridge until use. This makes 4-5 patties.
Notes
The beef will cost about 100 Baht/500 grams, bacon can go up to 150 Baht/200 grams and is normally more than sausage. For 4 burger patties, this is about $1.84 per burger patty. High cost but great for a once in a while meal.
The Beef with Bacon, provided courtesy of good friend, Garland Davis, US Navy Cook (Ret).
United States. The Beef with Green Chili, inspired by good friend, Jerry Juliana.
United States.
United States. The Beef with Green Chili, inspired by good friend, Jerry Juliana.
United States.
Best Ever Beef Stew
Love a good beef stew, and this sounds pretty good. I cannot vouch for this being 'best ever' but it does sound good.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo beef, any cut, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- olive oil, as needed
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 cup Worcherstershire sauce
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons beef stock powder
- 4 potatoes, diced large
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 1 stalk celery, import, diced
- black pepper, as needed
Instructions
- Shake the beef in a resealable plastic bag with the flour, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder until evenly coated. Heat a splash of olive oil in a skillet then add the floured beef to the pan and brown on all sides. Remove using a slotted spoon or tongs and place into the bottom of your slow cooker. Season with pepper as desired.
- Saute the diced onion in the same hot skillet for 2 minutes. Don't worry about cleaning it out in between, that's added flavor! Transfer the onions into the slow cooker as well.
- Pour the Worcestershire sauce, water, beef stock powder into the same skillet and whisk until mixed. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add the diced potatoes, carrots, celery, bay leaves to the slow cooker. Now, pour the mixture from the skillet into the slow cooker. Cover, cook on Low setting for 8 hours. Remove the bay leaves before serving.
Notes
The beef would cost about 200 Baht/kilo. For 6 servings, this is about 98 cents per serving.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
United States.
Crock Pot Lasagna
Sounds good, on my to cook list. Several shortcuts listed for cost savings as well. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 500 grams ground beef, (1 lb)
- lasagna noodles, as needed
- 3 cups pasta sauce, Shortcut
- 1½ cups Cottage cheese, Shortcut
- 1½ cups Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- Brown ground beef in a skillet, drain, and set aside.
- Pour 1 cup of sauce in the slow cooker and spread around to coat the bottom. Mix remaining sauce with the ground beef.
- Place 2 uncooked lasagna noodles on sauce in slow cooker. Spread ⅓ of the meat mixture on top of the noodles. Spread ¾ cup of cottage cheese over the meat. Sprinkle ½ cup Mozzarella over the cottage cheese.
- Add another layer of uncooked noodles, ⅓ meat mixture, the remaining cottage cheese and ½ cup mozzarella cheese.
- Place another layer of uncooked noodles, remaining meat mixture, then remaining Mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top. Cook on low for 4 hours. Serve.
Notes
Figure about 100 Baht for the ground beef, and 140 Baht for the Mozzarella cheese. For 4 servings this is about $1.76. Not a bad price for lasagna.
Shortcuts: Pasta Sauce, Cottage Cheese.
Garlic & Lemon Chicken with Potatoes & Green Beans
Sounds good, on my to make list. Readily available ingredients as well.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, cut in half
- 2 lemons, 1 sliced, 1 juiced
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 250 grams fresh long beans, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
- 8 small potatoes, quartered
- olive oil, as needed
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 C. Coat a large baking dish with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Arrange the lemon slices in a single layer in the bottom of the dish.
- In a In a large bowl, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper; add the chicken, long beans, and potatoes and toss to coat. Pour this mix into the pan and spread around evenly.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are tender. Serve.
Notes
Chicken breasts cost about 60 Baht/kilo, 4 breasts are probably 1 kilo or just a bit less. For 4 servings, this is about 45 cents per serving.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
United States.
Maryland Crab Soup
Sounds delicious to say the least! On my to cook list.
Ingredients
- 500 grams crab claw meat
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, this is 1/2 standard block
- 3 cups corn
- 1 tablespoon garlic, smashed and minced
- 3/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 2 cups spring onion, chopped
- 340 grams cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables
- 2 cans diced tomatoes
- 4 cups shrimp stock, fresh or from powder, OR water
- 4 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning, divided
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven, and the spring onion, garlic, corn, mixed vegetables, cherry tomatoes, and 2 tablespoons Old Bay.
- Cook on medium high heat until the tomatoes are soft and can be crushed with a wooden spoon. Then stir in the diced tomatoes and bring to a slow boil.
- Add the stock or water, parsley, crab claw meat, and remaining Old Bay. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
Notes
I cannot price this until I get to Makro to get prices on the crab meat.
Variants: Add chopped bacon, chopped zucchini, pinch of cayenne pepper.
Recipe and photo provided courtesy of good friend, Edward Coleman.
Philippines.
Philippines.
Creamy Green Chili Chicken Soup
This is a long shot for Thailand as I am not sure of the chilies being here, but for the viewers in US, this should be real easy. Chilies used can be New Mexico green chilies or Poblano peppers. Not sure about using the large green chilies in Thailand, but they should work as well.
Ingredients
- 500 grams chicken breast, boneless, skinless
- 2 cups chicken stock, fresh or from powder
- 4 New Mexico chilies, roated, OR Poblano peppers roasted
- 2/3 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced
Instructions
- Place chicken and broth in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to a simmer and cook, until no longer pink in the middle, 10 to 15 minutes, depending on size. Remove from the heat. Transfer the chicken to a clean cutting board, leaving the broth in the pan. When cool enough to handle, shred or chop the chicken into bite-size pieces.
- While the chicken is cooking, finely chop 2 chiles; puree the other 2 in a food processor or blender with 1/4 cup of the hot broth.
- Whisk 1/2 cup of the broth in a bowl with wine and flour until smooth. Return the pan with the broth to medium heat and whisk in the flour mixture until well combined. Stir in the chopped and pureed chiles and the chicken. Add milk, garlic, lime juice, salt, white pepper, oregano, and cumin and heat, stirring frequently, until steaming and hot, but not boiling, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in cilantro. Serve.
Notes
This is low cost as the chicken breasts are just 30 Baht/500 grams.
Variants: Add cooked white beans, add roasted corn.
Inspired by good friend, Jerry Juliana.
United States.
United States.
Sausage Mushroom Pasta
I came up with this after defrosting the freezer in my fridge and sort through what I had frozen and fresh. The King Oyster mushrooms are perfect for this dish as when they cook they maintain their size.
Ingredients
- 190 grams sausage, see Step 1, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 200 grams King Oyster mushrooms, about 4, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
- 3/4 cup dry pasta, macaroni, maccheroni, etc
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- olive oil, as needed
Instructions
- You can use any sausage you have on hand, I used 8 small links, 95 grams each pack, of smoked pepper sausage that turned out very nice. But large smoked sausage or sausage scraps from Makro would work well, as would bratwurst or beerwurst.
- Heat a large non stick skillet with a splash of olive oil, then add the sausage and cook to get some browning going, then add the peppers and mushrooms and reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the peppers are tender yet still crunchy and a bit of browning on the mushrooms.
- While the peppers are cooking, heat a small pot of water to boiling then add the pasta and cook until tender, drain, then add to the skillet and mix together. Then stir in the heavy cream, season with salt and pepper to your liking. Remove from heat, cover for 5 minutes to let everything warm through.
- Serve with a vegetable of your choice for a nice meal.
Notes
I used 2 packages of sausage, 4 links each pack, each pack was 59 Baht. For 4 servings, this is about 87 cents per serving.
My own recipe.
Slow Cooker Gumbo
Sounds delicious! On my to cook list.
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cooking oil
- 250 grams smoked sausage, cut into ½ inch slices, (8 oz)
- 2 okra, sliced, fresh or frozen
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped, with juice
- 340 grams fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined, tail removed, cooked, (12 oz)
- cooked rice, for serving
Instructions
- In small saucepan, combine flour and oil; mix well. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium; cook, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes or until mixture turns reddish brown, then pour into your slow cooker.
- Stir in all remaining ingredients into your slow cooker except the shrimp and rice. Cover and cook on Low setting for 7-9 hours. About 20-30 before serving, add cooked shrimp to gumbo mixture in your slow cooker and mix well. Cover and cook on Low setting for an additional 20 minutes.
- Serve over rice, enjoy.
Notes
Figure about 50 Baht for good smoked sausage, for the shrimp, through Tesco, Whites will cost about 100 Baht for 340 grams. For 6 servings, this is about 74 cents per serving.
Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken
Sounds good, on my to cook list. Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 4-6 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 2 1/4 cups BBQ sauce, OR make from a shortcut
- 1/4 cup vinegar
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, OR 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Place the chicken in your slow cooker.
- Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and pour over the chicken.
- Cook on Low setting for 4-6 hours. Serve with corn on the cob and potato salad for wonderful meal.
Notes
Chicken breasts run about 60 Baht/kilo, figure about 90 Baht for 6 breasts. For 4 servings, this is about 67 cents per serving.
Provided courtesy of good friend, Stephen Connell.
United States.
United States.
Almond Crusted Parmesan Salmon
Sounds like a great way to prepare salmon. Salmon fillets are available in Tesco, weigh between 140 and 160 grams each. One fillet is one serving.
Ingredients
- 2 salmon fillets
- 1 egg
- olive oil, as needed
For the Breading
- â…“ cup almonds, crushed
- â…“ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- This is the type of fillets I get from Tesco.
- Mix breading ingredients together in large bowl. Whisk egg in a separate bowl.
- Heat some olive oil in a non stick skillet on medium heat. Once the pan is ready, dredge the salmon in the egg, then the breading mixture and add to the hot pan, skin side down and let the fillets cook on one side for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown, flip and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes or until golden brown.
- Plate with skin side down, serve with your favorite vegetable or even with pasta.
Notes
For 69 Baht per fillet, this is about $2.03 per serving. High cost but I think ok for a once in a while, healthy meal.
