Archive for the ‘APPETIZERS / SNACKS’ Category
Herbal Eggs
An excellent alternative to just plain hard boiled eggs. These turned out perfect, the family loved these. This recipe already assumes you have hard boiled eggs ready.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 quarts water, (6 cups)
- 1 packet Bah Kut Teh, herbal seasoning
- 10 fresh Shiitake mushrooms
- 2 whole star anise
- 4 cloves, or 1/8 teaspoon ground
- 1 2 inch cinnamon stick
- 1 1/2 inches fresh ginger, peeled
- 1 head garlic, peeled
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, or 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 10 hard boiled eggs, peeled
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar, or cane sugar
Instructions
- Most everything ready, mushrooms were in the fridge.
- In a large pot, add the first 10 ingredients, bring to a boil. reduce heat to a low boil and boil for 30 minutes.
- Once you have the pot boiling, add the eggs to a mixing bowl and add the dark soy sauce, mix the eggs around to coat them and stain them evenly. Mix the eggs occasionally and set them aside while the pot is boiling.
- When 30 minutes have passed, add the brown sugar, light soy sauce, and the eggs along with the dark soy sauce from the mixing bowl. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, simmer for 45 minutes.
- Remove eggs and drain, allow to cool, then place in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Enjoy as a snack or with a meal for lunch or dinner.
Notes
Low cost
Shortcut: Perfect Hard Boiled Chicken Eggs.
King Oyster Mushroom Spring Rolls
This original recipe is from my daughter, Samantha. We had some extra King Oyster mushrooms so Samantha suggested spring rolls, and here it is. A lot of time involved with making spring rolls is the prep work making the filling. These are excellent spring rolls.
Ingredients
- 2 cups King Oyster mushrooms, diced
- 1 cup spring onions, sliced, white and green parts
- â…” cup carrot, shredded
- 80 grams dry bean vermicelli, cooked, chopped, (2¾ oz)
- 1-2 dashes oyster sauce
- 1-2 dashes light soy sauce
- handful fresh Thai Basil leaves, chopped
- salt, to taste
- extra light olive oil, as needed
- vegetable oil, as needed
- spring roll wrappers, as needed, about 20-22, thawed,
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1-2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Prep the mushrooms, spring onions, carrot, and heat a pot of water to boiling, add the noodles and cook until tender. Drain the noodles and chop. Here, everything is prepped. Now you can take your spring roll wrappers out of the freezer to thaw on the counter.
- Heat about a tablespoon of extra light olive oil in a non stick pan, when hot, add the carrot. Saute until soft, just a few minutes.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and cook for a few minutes, stirring often. Goal is to soften the mushrooms, this type of mushroom does not release a lot of water so add a bit of extra light olive oil as needed. Saute for a few minutes to soften the mushrooms.
- Add the Thai basil and stir in, saute for a minute or two. The basil adds a depth of flavor and is not overpowering.
- When the basil is nicely wilted, add the spring onion and mix in. Add 1-2 dashes of soy sauce and oyster sauce and mix in, saute for just a minute or two. Remove from heat.
- Add the chopped vermicelli noodles to a large bowl or pot. Add mixture from the pan and mix together, taste and season with salt as desired. Set this aside to let it cool to room temp, about 1 hour.
- When you are ready to roll the spring rolls, open the package of spring roll wrappers, if working by yourself, you need to keep them covered with a damp cloth to prevent them from drying out. Ideally, two people would be perfect. One person to pull off each wrapper and one to fill. If the sheets dry out, they will tear when pulling them apart. There is two textures on a sheet, one side is smooth, the other side is a more rough texture.
- Mix together the cornstarch and water in a small bowl, this is your glue.
- Pull off one sheet and place smooth side down on a clean counter with one corner of the sheet facing you. 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 away from you, the filling will spread some, that is fine. When the roll is just before the widest part of the pastry (left and right corners will be on the sides of the roll). Use your fingers and apply some glue to the two sides that are away from you, then fold the left and right sides towards the center. The roll should be about 5 inches long, and should look like an envelope.
- Continue to roll away from you and just pat the seam down with your fingers. There, you just made a spring roll. Repeat this process until all the filling is used.
- To fry these, heat about ½ inch of vegetable oil in a pan. When hot, add 5-6 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 with a dipping sauce of your choice.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Lemongrass Chicken Wings
Sounds tasty and easy. On my to make and taste list.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo chicken wings, tips removed, (2 lbs)
- 1 stalk lemongrass, hard layers removed, beaten, minced, or 1 tsp powdered
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 2 teaspoons ginger, minced
- ¼ cup fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 ½ teaspoons soy sauce
- fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish if desired
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add the lemongrass, garlic, shallot, ginger, fish sauce, lime juice, oil, and sugar. Whisk together until the sugar is dissolved.
- Place the wings in sturdy zip lock bag and pour the marinade into the bag. Squeeze out the air and zip the bag closed, then squish the wings around to coat them with the marinade. Place the bag in a large dish and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours and overnight for more flavor.
- When ready to cook, preheat your oven to 180° C (350° F) and line a baking sheet with foil. Mix together the honey and soy sauce.
- Remove the wings from the marinade and drain, discard the marinade. Place wings on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes.
- 15 minutes into baking, baste the wings with the honey and soy sauce mixture. Continue baking, a few minutes before the 30 minutes are up, baste the wings one more with the honey and soy sauce mixture.
- Remove wings to a serving platter and sprinkle with the cilantro if using.
- Serve with sides of your choice.
Notes
Chicken wings will cost about 84 Baht/kilo (2 lbs), for 4 servings, this is about 65 cents per serving.
Sesame Chicken Rolls
This is a twist on spring rolls and was brought up by a friend who has eaten sesame chicken rolls in Hong Kong, so with the help from another friend, in Singapore, I modified a spring roll recipe to reflect the changes for the sesame chicken version. I have not tested this yet, but I will in the near future. Not all the ingredients will have quantities, I will figure that out when I make these. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Equipment
- Oven
- Baking Sheet
- Parchment Paper
- Pastry Brush
Ingredients
- spring roll wrappers, refrigerated
- chicken breasts, or fillets
- Cheddar cheese, sliced
- 3 tablespoons tahini, aka sesame paste, Shortcut
- 3 tabelspoons water
- 1½ tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- white sesame seeds
- olive oil, as needed
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into strips lengthwise and about ½ inch square, and the strips about 3 to 3½ inches long. Maybe start with one chicken breast and test the recipe before making more, I will estimate 2-3 strips of chicken per roll.
- In a non stick pan on medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chicken strips and stir fry until no longer pink and just cooked through, this goes quickly as the chicken is thin strips. Don't over cook the chicken or it will be dry. Remove the chicken to a plate lined with paper towels to cool. Allow the chicken to cool completely.
- While the chicken is cooling, prepare the other items you need. The reason for letting the chicken cool is you never fill a spring roll with hot filling as they tend to break apart doing that, so let the filling cool completely.
- In a small bowl, mix together the tahini, water, and brown sugar until smooth.
- In another small bowl, add the egg yolk and lightly mix with a fork. Get a pastry brush ready.
- Slice the cheese into strips about ½½ inch wide, I am estimating 2-3 strips of cheese per roll.
- In another small bowl, mix together the 1 tablespoon of corn starch and the 2 tablespoons of water, this is your glue.
- When the chicken has cooled, now we are going to warp the rolls, and it is good if you have two people do this, one to pull the wrappers apart and one to roll. If there is only one person to assemble the riolls, Keep in mind there is a smooth side and a rough side to spring roll pastry wrappers.
- Place a pastry wrapper, smooth side down, on your work surface with one corner pointed towards you. Place 2-3 strips of chicken near the corner nearest you, so that it is closest to you without overhanging the pastry. Two strips on the bottom and one strip on top would be perfect.
- Spread some sesame paste mixture over the chicken.
- Top the chicken with 2-3 strips of cheese.
- Preheat your oven to 180°° C (350° F), line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
- Now fold up the corner nearest you, over the chicken, and roll tightly away from you until you almost get near the widest part (the left and right corners). Now at this point, dip two fingers in the corn starch slurry and rub your fingers along the two edges that are pointing away from you.
- Tightly fold the left side towards the middle, then the right side towards the middle. It should look like an open envelope now.
- Continue to tightly roll away from you, ending up with the point end away from you, nicely sealed to the wrapper, and you just made a chicken spring roll. Place the roll on the prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat the process for as much chicken you have ready. Continue placing rolls on the baking sheet and keep them evenly spaced apart.
- Once your rolls are completed, brush the rolls with the egg yolk, then sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Serve with a small bowl of tahini for dipping, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcut: Homemade Tahini (Sesame Paste).
Vietnamese Spring Rolls
Vietnamese Spring Rolls are made with rice paper, and are not fried or cooked in anyway after preparing. These are unique to Vietnam. Since the filling is seen through the rice paper, this way is very visual and eye appealing, this method is the unmixed method, more of a layered method. I have never used rice paper before so this will be a first when I make these as well. The trick here is to use 2 rice sheets per spring roll.
Ingredients
- 14 sheets rice paper, (I don't know how many is in a package, so I will update this.)
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves
- 250 grams cooked shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed, sliced in half lengthwise, (8 oz)
- 14 lettuce leaves
- 2 cups rice vermivelli noodles, aka glass noodles, cooked, cooled to room temp, chopped.
- 3 cups fresh bean sprouts
Instructions
- Thaw the rice sheets.
- Other than the rice sheets, get all of the ingredients prepped and ready to go, in bowls left to right, in the order listed.
- Get a large flat pan of hot water ready and near you. Place a clean cloth on the counter in front of you, this will be your work surface.
- When you have everything ready, take two sheets of rive paper and put them in the water for 10 seconds or so, until soft, remove from the water and for square sheets, one corner towards you, for round sheets, well, an edge near you.
- Working closest to you, Arrange 3 mint leaves, evenly spaced, near you, staring from the center and working out.
- Now place 4 shrimp halves in between the mint leaves.
- Now take a lettuce leaf and roughly tear that up, place that on top of the shrimp.
- Now add a small amount of vermicelli noodles on the lettuce.
- Add some bean sprouts.
- Then add 3 more mint leaves.
- Now tear up another lettuce leaf and top the mint.
- To roll, lift the corner towards you up over and away from you and roll, tightly, away from you, 1 revolution of the roll only.
- Fold the left and right sides towards the center.
- Now roll, tightly, until it is completely rolled. Set on a serving tray, space them apart so they do not stick together.
- Serve with dipping sauces of your choice, such as sweat and sour chili sauce.
Notes
I will price when I source the ingredients, for now I will say fair cost per serving.
Tako (Octopus) Sausages
Now for the name, these are Japanese pork sausages, NOT octopus sausages, although octopus sausage does sound intriguing, but I don't think I will be making that. When I lived in Japan (13 years), I absolutely loved Japanese sausage. This comes from a good friend who is Japanese. These are typically made for bento (lunch) boxes, but for this, think of these as a side to a good pasta dish. Oddly enough, we buy these in local 7-11's in town, never seen them in the large grocery stores like Tesco or Tops in the city.
Ingredients
- 4-6 links Japanese sausage
- cooking oil, as needed
Instructions
- Japanese sausage is typically about 3 inches long in a natural sheep gut casing. To prep, first thing is to make a cut halfway down the sausage, straight through to the other side, this results in '2 legs'.
- Rotate the sausage 90 degrees, and make another cut through the sausage to the other side, this results in '4 legs'.
- Optionally, you cut each 'leg' in half, resulting in '8 legs' but I found 4 legs to be perfect. Now we can cook them.
- Heat some cooking oil in a non stick pan on medium heat, when hot, add the sausages, as the sausages cook, the 'legs' will open and curl.
- Cook until the sausage is cooked through, keep in mind these are raw pork sausages so they must me cooked through.
- Drain on paper towels, serve as a side with any pasta or rice dish or as a snack or appetizer. Enjoy.
Notes
One package of 4 Japanese sausage is about 42 Baht. Figuring 2 per serving, this is about an additional 66 cents per serving for a side dish, if serving with a pasta, the overall dish will be less than $1 per serving.
This recipe for Tako (Octopus) Sausage inspired by Just One Cookbook.
Jammy Eggs
This sounds good, and easier than making deviled eggs. The eggs for this are not quite soft boiled and not quite hard per the recipe.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken eggs, room temperature
- 2 peperoncini peppers, in brine, drained
- 4 sprigs fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika, smoked or hot if you have it
- salt, as desired, to taste
Instructions
- Place the eggs in a sauce pan and fill with water to about 1 inch over the eggs, then remove the eggs, there, you just determined how much water you need in the sauce pan. Place the sauce pan on medium high heat and bring to a boil. When it is boiling, use a slotted spoon and carefully lower each egg into the water. Set your timer for 8 minutes.
- While the eggs are cooking, go ahead and prep the rest. Drain the two peperoncini, remove the stems, and finely dice them. Remove the leaves from the parsley sprigs and finely chop those, and both to a small bowl and mix together.
- In another small bowl, add the mayo and paprika, and mix together.
- Fill a bowl with water and ice. At 8 minutes, remove the eggs with a slotted spoon from the boiling water and place in the iced water. Leave in the iced water for 5 minutes.
- Peel the eggs, slice in half lengthwise and place on a serving tray, sprinkle the yolks with salt if desired.
- Top each egg with the paprika mayo and sprinkle on some of the peperoncini. Serve as appetizers or as a side dish.
Notes
Low cost.
Variant: 1. No peperoncini? No problem, use cornichons, olives, etc.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Magic Cracker Appetizers II
Nothing 'magical' about these, Magic is the brand name of the popular Ritz type of butter crackers in Thailand (we have Ritz crackers here as well but why pay twice as much for a cracker that tastes exactly the same). For Thailand, use Magic or Rosi brand, for folks in the US/Canada, use Ritz. Here is 2 outstanding sounding snacks/appetizers, the base is butter crackers.
Ingredients
For the Base
- butter crackers, Magic, Rosi, or Ritz
add Cheese and Cherry Tomatoes
- Cheddar cheese, sliced
- cherry tomatoes, sliced
- fresh sweet basil leaves
add Cheese and Apples
- Cheddar cheese, sliced
- apples, thinly sliced
- peanut butter
add Hot Dog, with the Fixings
- quality hot dogs, steamed, thinly sliced at an angle
- mustard
- tomato ketchup
- sweet pickle relish
- Cheedar cheese
add Swiss Cheese, Tomato, and Bacon
- Swiss cheese
- tomato, sliced thin, plum would be perfect
- bacon, fried crispy
- lettuce
- mayo
Instructions
For the Base
- Place butter crackers on a tray or plate, regular or wheat is fine.
add Cheese and Cherry Tomatoes
- Top the crackers with a slice of cheese and a slice of cheery tomato and top that with a sweet basil leaf.
add Cheese and Apples
- Spread some peanut butter on the crackers, top that with a slice of cheese, top that with a slice or two of thinly sliced apple.
add Hot Dog, with the Fixings
- Squirt bottles for the condiments would work great for this. Place a small amount of mustard, ketchup. and relish on each cracker.
- Place two thin slices of hot dog on top.
add Swiss Cheese, Tomato, and Bacon
- Place a slice of Swiss cheese on each cracker, top with a tomato slice, mayo, lettuce, then bacon.
Notes
Low cost.
Pizza Crackers
How cool do these sound? To me they sound fantastic. No measurements are given for this, this is a make what you want for a quick snack or for appetizers if hosting a party. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- butter crackers, Ritz, Magic, Rosi, etc, original or wheat
- pizza sauce, (Shortcut)
- pepperoni slices, thin sliced
- Mozzarella Cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Preheat your broiler, and for those with counter top ovens, preheat the oven with the top coil at the highest setting. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with olive oil. Do NOT use parchment paper.
- Place desired number of crackers on the foil.
- Top crackers with a slice of pepperoni.
- Top the pepperoni with about 1 teaspoon of pizza sauce.
- Sprinkle the sauce with a little bit of cheese.
- Broil for 1-2 minutes, just until the cheese is melted.
- Serve hot.
Notes
Low cost.
Shortcut: Pizza Sauce.
Variants: 1. These are endless, but here is a few. 2. Use salami instead of pepperoni. 3. Add a thin slice of sauteed mushroom to the pepperoni then top with cheese. 3. Add a thin slice of black olive to the pepperoni then top with cheese. 4. Add a small strip of bell pepper to the pepperoni then top with cheese.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Creamy Mushrooms
This sounds like a delicious appetizer or side dish, on my to cook list for sure. Best mushrooms to use for this dish is White Button in the states, and in Asia, Straw Mushrooms would be perfect.
Ingredients
- 250 grams white button mushrooms, see Step 1.
- 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon onion, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- pinch cayenne pepper
- pinch ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon white pepper powder, preferred, or 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- For the mushrooms, in the states, White Button would be preferred, prep them by cutting the stems off even with the caps, gives a nicer appearance, but I would use the stems with this as well as they are just as tasty. Just toss them in when no one is looking. For Asia, Straw Mushrooms would be preferred but I would cut each mushroom in half lengthwise. Now that we have the mushrooms covered, let's continue.
- Preheat your oven to 190 C (375 F). Place the prepped mushrooms in a small baking dish in a single layer.
- In a bowl, mix together the butter, mustard, onion, salt, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and flour. Spread this over the mushrooms, not looking to be fancy here wit this or win any photo contests.
- Pour the cream over the mushrooms and then sprinkle the mushrooms with the white pepper.
- Place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes, stirring 1-2 times during the baking.
- Remove from oven, let rest (cool) for a few minutes, serve hot as a side dish or appetizer. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
