Archive for the ‘* Fair Value $1.01 to $1.50 per Serving’ Category
Sausage Sandwich
Now a true British Sausage Sandwich would be Cumberland or Lincolnshire sausages on a floured bap with ketchup or brown sauce. However, this being Thailand, floured baps are quite scarce in a province where there is very few westerners, but I do make some excellent Cumberland sausage so that part is possible for me. But, I am going to make these with a bit of a twist. Here is 3 versions for you to enjoy.
Ingredients
1st Version (Asian)
- 4 links Arabiki sausage, in Thailand, these are 4 links to a pack
- 2 slices wheat bread, toasted
- ketchup, or Kewpie mayo, as desired
2nd Version (American)
- 1 link Italian sausage
- ½ onion, sliced
- 1 hamburger bun, or white bread
- Cream cheese, softened
3rd Version (British)
- 3-4 thin links Cumberland sausage
- 1 hamburger bun
- ketchup, or HP brown sauce
Instructions
1st Version (Asian)
- Stab the sausages with a fork along the length, this prevents bursting. Heat a non stick pan with a teaspoon of oil, when hot, add the sausage and cook until browned.
- Toast the bread, add the sausage links to one slice, top with ketchup or Kewpie mayo as desired.
- Top with the second slice of toasted bread, cut in half, enjoy.
2nd Version (American)
- Butterfly the sausage. Heat a non stick pan with a teaspoon of oil, when hot, add the sausage and cook until browned.
- In another pan, saute the onion until softened and starting to brown.
- Spread cream cheese on the top and bottom of the bun or on one side of each slice of bread. Place the sausage on the bottom of the bun or a slice of bread, top with the onion, top with the other half of bun or slice bread, enjoy.
3rd Version (British)
- Stab the sausages with a fork along the length, this prevents bursting. Heat a non stick pan with a teaspoon of oil, when hot, add the sausage and cook until browned.
- Add the sausage links to the bottom bun, top with ketchup or HP sauce as desired.
- Top with the other half of the bun, enjoy.
Notes
If making the Cumberland or Italian sausage yourself, this is a Low cost sandwich, if buying the sausage, this could be Fair to High priced per sandwich. I will mark this one as Fair priced for now.
BBQ Tuna Sandwich
This, I have to try, and it is touted as tasting like a BBQ pulled pork sandwich. On my to make list for sure!
Equipment
- Microwave
Ingredients
- 1 hamburger bun, or bread, toasted
- 1 can tuna in water or brine, drained
- 2-4 tablespoons BBQ sauce, of your choice, to taste
Instructions
- Drain the can of tuna well, place in a heatproof bowl. Add 2-4 tablespoons of BBQ sauce, to taste.
- Place a paper towel on top of the bowl and microwave the tuna for 1 minute.
- Add the BBQ tuna to the toasted bun or bread, top with the other slice, enjoy.
Notes
You can find tuna canned in water or brine from 30-50 baht/can. For this, I will just say Fair cost per serving (1 sandwich).
Arabiki Sausage 101
Arabiki sausage is a smoked Japanese coarse pork sausage in sheep casings, the casing give it a distinctive snap when bitten into. Here in Thailand, they come plain and also with cheese. These are typically small sausages, about the size of a finger, and these have to be cooked first. Oddly, the only brand of this sausage I have ever seen is only available at none other than 7-11. These come 4 sausages to a pack, which makes a nice single serving. These can be used in many ways.
Ingredients
- 1 package Arabiki sausage
Instructions
- Here is the two types, plain smoked on the left, and with cheese on the right.
- Heat a non stick pan and add the sausage, figure 4 sausages per serving, here I am cooking 4 packages.
- Turn occasionally and cook until browned.
- Serve with a potato and or vegetable side dish.
- Now with the pan fried sausages, serve as is, or slice and add to your favorite mac & cheese, add to a pasta dish.
- The directions on the packet are to microwave in the package (have to open the package first) for 45 seconds. Keeping them in the package prevents fat from splattering all over in your microwave, then they are ready for use.
- Another way to prepare these is to slice in half at an angle add to a pot of broth then serve with an Asian noodle soup, then you could stretch 1 package into say 2 servings.
- Another way to prepare these is to run onto skewers and place on a grill, turn often until nicely browned.
Notes
One package of 4 Japanese sausages is about 42 Baht. Figuring 4 sausage per serving, this is about $1.32 per serving. If adding to say a mac & cheese, you may only need to add 1 package, then the cost per serving would be less than $1 per serving.
Common preparation methods for Arabiki sausage. Lee Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Giant Meatball II
This is a takeoff from the Giant Meatball I recipe which uses beef and beef gravy. Think of this as a 'Spaghetti and Meatball Dinner.' Links to the shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 500 grams ground pork, (1 lb)
- 1/4 cup bread crumbs, (Shortcut)
- 1 egg
- handful fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 tablespoons tomato sauce, (Shortcut)
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, (Shortcut)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
To Serve
- hot cooked spaghetti, or pasta of your choice
- pasta sauce, of your choice, (Shortcut)
- fresh salad, of your choice
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F). Line a baking sheet with foil then place a rack on the sheet and cover that with foil, this is so the fat will drain.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix all Meatball ingredients together by hand but don't over work it.
- Divide the mixture into 2 or 3 equal portions, shape each portion into a ball and place on the foil covered rack.
- Bake for 30-45 minutes. The meatballs should be nicely browned and internal temp should be 70 C (160 F).
- About 20 minutes before the meatballs are done, go ahead and prepare your pasta sauce, cook the spaghetti, and prepare a salad of your choice.
- When the meatballs are done, add a generous helping of spaghetti to a plate, place a meatball on top of the pasta, ladle some pasta sauce over the meatball, place some salad to another smaller dish as the side, repeat for the remaining meatball(s), serve and enjoy.
Notes
Figure about 70 Baht for 500 grams of minced pork. For 2 servings, this is about $1.13 per serving.
Shortcuts: Bread Crumbs, Tomato Sauce, Italian Seasoning.
Variant: 1. Use a 4 cheese pizza blend instead of the Parmesan.
Adapted from an internet recipe.
Prawn & Cheddar Spring Rolls
In my never ending search for ways to prepare spring rolls, I found this recipe on a friend's website, and these sound very tasty. Spring roll wrappers generally come in 2 sizes, 8.5 x 8.5 inch and 5.5 x 5.5 inch, it is recommended to use the smaller 5.5 inch ones. When I get prawn for this I will measure them with and without the heads so you can estimate the size. This recipe is in no way considered Chinese.
Ingredients
- 50 medium prawn, peeled, deveined, leave tails on
- 50 spring roll wrappers, 5.5 x 5.5 inch preferred
- Cheddar cheese
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 tablespoon water
- cooking oil, as needed
For the Marinade
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
Instructions
- For the cheese, you can use sliced or block. For sliced, stack 3-4 slices and cut into strips. For block cheese, cut slices about 1/4 inch wide, then slice those into strips. Goal for the cheese is to insert it the prawn where you deveined them.
- If your spring roll wrappers are frozen, take them out of the freezer and place on the counter about an hour before you start so they are completely thawed.
- Prep the prawn by rinsing, removing the head, peel off the shell but leave the last segment of the shell and tail attached, devein but slice a little bit deeper than what you would normally do, this is where the cheese will go, and rinse again.
- Spread the prawn out on some paper towels and pat them dry.
- Mix together the Marinade ingredients in a large mixing bowl, add the prawn and toss together with the marinade. Let the prawn marinate for 15 minutes.
- Now we are going to roll them and this is slightly different from regular spring rolls as both ends are open, with the tail sticking out from one end. First thing to do is mix the corn starch and water in a small bowl, this is your glue to seal the edge, keep that right near where you are rolling. Open the package of spring roll wrappers and if working by yourself, cover them with a damp paper towel to keep them from drying out. Highly recommended to have two people do this, one to pull the wrappers apart, and one to do the rolling.
- Spring roll wrappers have have different textures on each side, one side is smooth, the other is rough, when using these, smooth side always goes down on your work surface. Carefully pull off a wrapper from the pack, if you have not done this before, you will get the hang of it very quickly and will know how hard you can pull without tearing a sheet. Place the wrapper, smooth side down in front of you with one corner towards you.
- Pick up a prawn and stuff the back where you deveined it with a strip or two of cheese, place the prawn on the wrapper on the corner nearest you. Keep the tail end on the same side for each roll you make.
- Fold the corner nearest you up over the prawn, leaving part of the last shell segment visible.
- Fold the left and right sides in towards the center.
- Roll the prawn away from you until you almost get to the end, now dip two fingers in the corn starch slurry and rub along the two edges of the exposed corner pointing away from you.
- Continue to roll to seal the corner.
- Repeat for all remaining shrimp.
- To fry them, heat about 1/2 inch of cooking oil in a pan to 180 C (350 F), when the oil is hot but not smoking, place 4-5 rolls in the hot oil, a pair of chop sticks will be quite handy to prevent burnt fingers.
- Turn the rolls over when golden brown on the edges and fry the other side until golden, remove to paper towels to drain.
- To serve, have sweet chili sauce, mayo (think Kewpie), or even marinara sauce available. Enjoy.
Notes
I will figure pricing on these when I get some prawn and determine how much cheese I will need. For now, I will say Fair cost.
This recipe for Shrimp and Cheese Spring Rolls is courtesy of Rasa Malaysia.
United States.
United States.
Creamy Lemon Chicken Piccata Meatballs
This recipe comes from a friend, and it is delicious. If making the sauce only to use with another meatball recipe, start at Step 4. I made the sauce for chicken meatballs that were baked but I still browned them up a bit before making the sauce. Links to the Shortcuts are listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 500 grams ground chicken, (1 lb)
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup bread crumbs, (Shortcut)
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- salt and pepper, as desired
For the Sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, (to brown the meatballs only)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth, (Shortcut)
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1/4-1/3 cup lemon or lime juice, adjust to taste
- 1/4 cup capers, drained
- salt and pepper, as desired, to taste
For Serving
- cooked pasta, of your choice
- Parmesan cheese, as desired
Instructions
- Place all the Meatball ingredients in a mixing bowl and get int there with your hands and mix everything together. If the mixture is too wet to form into a meatball, add some bread crumbs a little at a time.
- With wet hands, roll a heaping tablespoon of meat mixture into a meatball, place on a plate or sheet of foil, continue until all the meatballs are rolled.
- Now let's get the pasta going, I used spaghetti for this dish. Heat a pot of salted water to a boil, when boiling, add the spaghetti and cook until tender. Drain. While the water is heating you can proceed on with the rest of the steps.
- Heat the 1 tablespoon of oil in a large non stick pan on medium high heat, when hot, add some meatballs but don't overcrowd the pan, you will need to work in batches, brown on all sides, intention is to brown, not cooked through, we'll take care of that later. As the meatballs are browned, remove them to a plate.
- Reduce the heat to medium and wipe out the pan, add the butter. If just making the sauce for your own meatball recipe, add the butter to a non stick pan and place on medium heat.
- When the butter is melted, add the flour and mix into the butter, whisk constantly and cook for about 1 minute, now add the broth, lemon or lime juice, and the whipping cream, and whisk together.
- When the sauce is at a simmer, add the meatballs. Simmer for 5-8 minutes or until the sauce is starting to thicken, and check a meatball and make sure it is cooked through. Taste the sauce and season with salt and pepper as desired.
- When the sauce is thickened as desired, stir in the drained capers, let cook 1 more minute, remove from heat.
- Serve over cooked pasta of your choice and garnish with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy.
- I used a different meatball recipe and the meatballs were baked but I did brown them before making the sauce.
Notes
The cheese used and capers are the costly items for this, when I work out the cheese and capers, I will state a price per serving, for now I will say Fair cost per serving.
Shortcuts: Bread Crumbs, Chicken Broth (Pressure Cooker).
Variants: 1. To use milk in place of whipping cream, add an extra tablespoon of flour into the butter, and add 2 tablespoons of Parmesan, grated, into the sauce and it will thicken and taste very good as well, and it is healthier. 2. Add fresh mushrooms to the sauce.
Inspired by Spend With Pennies and the link to this recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
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.
Sirloin & Provolone Surprise aka Ham & Cheese Pizza Lasagna
This recipe is an original from a good friend, and Chef, and it is tasty! This can be tailored many ways to make it your own. The recipe as stated is for using one 5 inch ramekin. For the photos, I doubled the ingredients and used three 5 x 7 inch baking dishes (Tesco).
Ingredients
- 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
- 1/4 cup carrot, diced small
- 1 clove garlic, smashed and minced
- 250 grams ground sirloin, (1/2 lb)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 3-5 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 3 slices Provolone cheese
Instructions
- You are going to need a small baking dish, the dish used by the Chef was a ramekin measuring 5 inches across and 2 1/2 inches deep with a volume of 10 ounces.
- Prep the tomatoes and carrots. Measure out all the spices. I also added some fresh Shiitake mushrooms sliced on an angle.
- Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F).
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat and when hot add the sirloin, breaking up the meat as it cooks until just a little pink remains visible, about 3-5 minutes. I used minced pork, so you have to drain the fat from that once it is cooked through.
- Add the garlic, cumin, basil, oregano, parsley, black pepper, and salt and give the meat a stir and cook for about 1 minute.
- Add the tomatoes, carrot, and tomato sauce, and stir together. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust salt and pepper or spices, as needed. If using mushrooms, add them now as well.
- Coat the inside of your ramekin or other suitable oven safe dish with some olive oil. Add a slice of Provolone to the bottom of the dish. I used 5 x 7 inch baking dishes, I added two slices of smoked ham to the bottom of each dish, then topped that with cheese. Cheese I used was Gouda, which is square so went with 1 1/2 slices for each layer.
- Add half the meat sauce and spread evenly.
- Top the sauce with another slice of Provolone, then add the rest of the meat sauce and top that with the last slice of Provolone. I also added two slices of smoked ham in the middle layer followed by the cheese.
- Place the dish in the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. Increase the heat to 190 C (375 F) and let the the cheese brown a little, about 3-4 minutes. If using a counter top oven (like me) switch to the top coil for the last 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Serve with bread or sides of your choice and enjoy. The 5 x 7 inch dishes were perfect for 2 servings.
Notes
Low cost per serving as written, when using larger baking dishes, more cheese is needed taking this up to fair value per serving. Some of the variants will also increase the per serving cost as well.
Variants: 1. Replace the sirloin with regular ground beef or pork but drain the fat before adding the spices and tomatoes and such. 2. In place of Provolone, use Gouda, Emmental (Swiss), Cheddar, or cheese of your choice. 3. Add some cayenne pepper to the sauce. 4. Add a handful of al dente pasta to the sauce at the last 3 minutes of cooking. 5. Add 1-2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese to the sauce. 6. Add sauteed mushrooms to the sauce. 7. Add a layer of pepperoni on each layer of cheese. 8. Add a layer of thin sliced smoked ham to each layer.
Provided by Chef Andy Anderson of Just A Pinch Recipe Club and his recipe is here.
United States.
United States.
German Meat Salad I
This should be called Fleischsalat or Wurstsalat depending on where you are in Germany, but I am not using German Bologna, just regular bologna from Tesco here in Thailand. There is two dressings listed as well, a vinaigrette and mayo, use either one per your preference.
Ingredients
- 400 grams bologna, (14 oz), German bologna if you have it
- 200 grams Swiss cheese, (7 oz)
- 4 small dill pickles, German if you have them
For the Vinaigrette Dressing
- 1 tablespoon vinaigrette dressing
- 1 tablespoon pickle juice
For the Mayo Dressing
- 4 tablespoons mayo, or as needed or desired
Instructions
- Stack the bologna and slice into ¼ inch wide strips, add to a mixing bowl.
- Slice the cheese into long thin slices, then stack and slice those into ¼ inch wide strips, add to the mixing bowl.
- Slice the pickles, you guessed it, into ¼ inch wide pieces like the bologna and cheese, add to the mixing bowl.
- Mix together the vinaigrette dressing and pickle juice, add the dressing to the mixing bowl and toss to mix together.
- Or toss with the mayo.
- Cover and place in the fridge to chill for 2-3 hours.
- Serve as is or on a bed of lettuce. Enjoy.
Notes
Fair cost per serving.
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.
