Archive for the ‘* Best Value $1 or Less per Serving’ Category
Chicken & Thai Basil
This is an easy Thai dish that goes together quickly and is delicious, spiciness comes from green Bird's Eye Chilies and Thai Basil, and is delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
- 20 green Bird's Eye chilies
- 4-5 cloves garlic, peeled
- soy sauce, as desired
- 1 handful fresh Thai Basil leaves
- cooking oil, as needed
- cooked rice, for serving
Instructions
- Slice the chicken breasts into small pieces, set aside. Add the chilies and garlic to a mortar and mash with a pestle.
- In a large non stick pan (we use a marble wok pan) on medium to medium high heat, a tablespoon or so of cooking oil, when hot, add the chicken and chili garlic mixture. Saute until the chicken has mostly turned white, a little bit of pink here and there is no problem. Season with a splash of soy sauce as desired.
- Add the Thai basil and stir into the chicken.
- When the basil is wilted, cover the pan and turn off the heat. Now you can get the bowls and rice ready to serve.
- Remove the lid from the pan, give the chicken a stir and pour the chicken into a serving bowl. Serve family style in the center of the table and people can just take and enjoy what they want.
Notes
Low cost per serving. Depending on the sides, this is 2-3 servings.
Recipe provided and cooked by my wife, Rrayada Thayer.
Thailand.
Thailand.
Bitter Gourd & Tomato Soup (苦瓜番茄汤)
This is a Singaporean Chinese soup and it sounds delicious as well as easy to make. This is essentially how most soups in Asia are made.
Ingredients
- 1 large bitter gourd
- 4 plum tomatoes
- 2 carrots
- 2 slices fresh ginger
- 350 grams pork ribs, (12 oz)
- 2½ liters water, (2½ quarts)
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- Cut the ribs between each bone. Cut the bitter gourd in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds with a spoon, cut each half of the gourd lengthwise into 2 or 3 strips then cut each strip into 1 inch pieces. Remove stem end of the tomatoes and cut into quarters. Chop the carrots into bite size pieces, Rangiri method works well for this. And finally, cut 2 slices from a piece of ginger.
- Add all ingredients except the salt, to a large pot, and add the water.
- Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer, skim off any foam on the top, and cook for 2 hours.
- Taste and season with salt as desired. Ladle into bowls and serve with rice on the side.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Rangiri cut for carrots - to cut carrots like this, cut a piece of the carrot off at an angle, then rotate the carrot ¼ turn, cut another piece off at an angle, repeat the turning and cutting. This makes for bite size pieces that gives more surface area per piece. This is a perfect shape for soups, stews, Japanese curry, simmered dishes.
Chives Omelet (韭菜煎蛋)
This is a Chinese dish, and the method / seasonings is shared throughout Thailand and many Asian countries.
Ingredients
- 85 grams Chinese chives, or chives, or spring onion greens, (3 oz)
- 4 chicken eggs
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Slice the chives into about 1/4 inch pieces. In a non stick pan or wok, heat the oil on high heat but not smoking.
- While the pan is heating, crack the eggs into a bowl and beat until frothy. Mix in the sesame oil, fish sauce, oyster sauce, salt, then mix in the chives.
- Pour the eggs into the hot pan.
- As the edges set, check the bottom.
- When golden brown, flip the omelet over and cook until the bottom is golden brown.
- Flip again and remove to a plate.
- Serve family style with rice or toast for sides. Enjoy.
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.
Chicken & Mushrooms (Slow Cooker)
This is a delicious meal and comes from a good friend, I served with plain rice, but feel free to serve over rice or mashed potatoes. Common ingredients is a bonus. Link to the Shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Equipment
- Slow Cooker (3½+ quart)
Ingredients
- 750 grams chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, (1½ lb)
- 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil
- 500 grams button mushrooms, sliced, (1 lb)
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- fresh parsley, chopped, good handful or two
- 1½ cups chicken broth, fresh or from powdered, Shortcut
- 2 tablespoons corn starch, or tapioca starch
- salt and pepper, as desired
Instructions
- Heat a non stick pan with with the oil, when hot, add the chicken, working in batches if needed, and brown each side. When browned, place in your slow cooker. (These 3 chicken breasts were about 800 grams.)
- Once all the chicken is done, using the same pan, add the onion, cook, stirring often until tender. Remove from heat and add the onion on top of the chicken in the slow cooker.
- Now add the mushrooms, garlic, and parsley to the slow cooker. (I used cilantro in place of the parsley, worked perfectly, and I did use my 3½ quart slow cooker for this.)
- Pour in the chicken broth, season with salt and pepper as desired, tamp everything down level, no need to make sure in broth as it will make liquid shortly. Cover and set the cooker to Low setting for 4 hours.
- When 4 hours have passed, leave the slow cooker on Low setting and remove the chicken from the cooker with a slotted spoon, leaving as much liquid as you can and the mushrooms in the cooker.
- Whisk in the cornstarch into the cooker until smooth.
- Return the chicken to the cooker and cook until the sauce has thickened, about 20-30 minutes.
- Server over pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes, and the gravy is excellent. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Shortcut: Chicken Broth (Pressure Cooker).
Variant: 1. Use fresh cilantro in place of parsley.
Soy Sauce Chicken Wings (Slow Cooker)
This is the Cantonese version of Taiwanese 3 Cup Chicken, and is tasty. This is normally made with whole plump chickens and once they have cooled completely, they are simply chopped. This recipe will use wings, drummettes (called wing sticks in Thailand) and middle wing sections (called middle wing sticks in Thailand) cooked in a slow cooker.
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup light soy sauce
- 1/4 cup dark soy sauce
- water, as needed
- 1 - 1 ¼ kilos chicken wings, (1 - 1 ½ lbs)
- 2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 2 pieces whole star anise
- 2-3 spring onions, chopped
- fresh cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
- Prep the chicken by rinsing it, then cut the tip off, then separate the drummette (wing stick) from the middle wing (middle wing stick). You can use the tips if you like or discard.
- Add the ginger, star anise, cinnamon, garlic, sugar, and both soy sauces to your slow cooker. Give the mixture a stir.
- Place the wings in your slow cooker.
- Add water as you stir the wings around to get them settled into the liquid, add just enough water to cover the wings.
- Place the slow cooker on High setting 1 hour. Give the wings a quick stir then turn the cooker to Low setting and let cook for 2 hours. Sprinkle the chicken with the spring onion about 10 minutes before serving.
- Use a spoon to remove the chicken to a serving platter or bowl and spoon the sauce over the wings.
- Serve with rice or noodles, spoon sauce over the rice or noodles as desired. Enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Baked Eggs with Saffron & Cumin
This sounds interesting and the first recipe I have seen that calls for saffron outside of rice or curry, so this is on my make and taste list for sure.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra light olive oil
- 1 large shallot, finely diced
- 3 plum tomatoes, diced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 eggs
- salt and black pepper, as desired
- 1 pinch saffron threads, (6-8 threads)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 160° C (325° F). Get out 2 medium ramekins (4 1/2 oz). (I will be using 2 small Pyrex baking dishes (6 oz) and will report on how that works out after I make this.) Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Heat a non stick pan on medium to medium low and add the cumin to the dry pan, toast it briefly, stirring constantly, then remove the cumin to a small bowl.
- Same pan, add the oil, when hot, add the onion and saute until softened.
- Add the tomatoes and sprinkle in the cumin, stir and cook until the tomatoes have softened up, just a few minutes, season with salt and pepper as desired. Place half of the tomato mixture into each ramekin.
- Crack and egg into a small bowl, then slide that into a ramekin. Repeat with the second egg. (I like to crack eggs in bowl first to make sure no shell fragments are in the egg.) Crumble up the saffron threads and sprinkle half on each egg.
- Place the ramekins on the prepared baking sheet and place in the oven, bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the whites and yolks are set. For runny yolks, bake a few minutes less.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle with salt and black pepper as desired and let cool for 3 minutes.
- Serve with rice, noodles, or buttered toast, enjoy.
Notes
Low cost per serving.
Crab Pasta Salad
I like pasta salads as they are easy to make and can be dressed up any way you like. This is something I just threw together and it was well liked.
Ingredients
- 250 grams dry spiral pasta, or any bite size pasta you like, (8 oz)
- 500 grams imitation crab, cut into bite size pieces, (1 lb)
- 4-5 spring onions, chopped
- 1 handful fresh dill, chopped
- mayo, as needed
- black pepper, as desired, to taste
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and then add the pasta. Cook until tender. Drain and run under cold water, drain and let set in the colander for a few minutes to drain very well. Place in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the crab, spring onion, and dill.
- Ad 2 big spoonfuls of mayo and gently mix into the salad to coat everything in mayo, add more as needed to get the consistency you desire. Goal is well coated, not dripping, in mayo. Season with black pepper as desired. Cover and place in the fridge to chill for several hours, serve with any main dish or as is for a light meal.
Notes
The imitation crab will cost 52 Baht/250 grams, 104 for 500 grams. The pasta I used was Fusilli (spiral) from Italy for 35 Baht/250 grams. For 6 servings, this is about 72 cents per serving.
Chicken Satay
This is an original satay mix for chicken provided by a good friend. Her and her husband follow no recipes when they cook, so they had to endure two days in a row of this tasty sounding satay in order to write the rough measurements down so I can share her 'recipe' here. From the author of this, "this is a guide, feel free to increase, decrease amounts of items, tailor it to make it your own." And as I like to say, a recipe is not set in stone.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup coconut milk
- 5 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon lime zest
- 1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
- 500 grams chicken breast, boneless, skinless, (1 lb)
- wood skewers, as needed
- vegetable oil, as needed
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add the coconut milk and peanut butter and mix together. If it is too stiff, add bit more coconut milk, and if too thin, you guessed it, add a bit more peanut butter.
- Now add the cumin, cayenne, lime juice, and zest and mix together. Taste and add mix in the sugar to counter the lime if the lime is too strong.
- Slice the chicken breasts lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick strips.
- Add the chicken strips to satay mix, and mix together until all the chicken is coated. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hour, and over night is highly recommended.
- When you are ready to cook, light your grill (charcoal or gas), you will be direct cooking over medium heat, about 350-450 F. Soak the wood skewers in water for about 30 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the satay mix and brush off excess satay mix. Thread the strips onto skewers. Brush the chicken with vegetable oil.
- Grill the skewers for about 8-10 minutes, turning once, with the lid closed.
- Serve with sides of your choice.
Notes
Chicken is low cost.
Variants: 1. Use half of the mix (marinade) mixed with the chicken, and the other half heated in a small saucepan for a dipping sauce, OR, what I will do, is make one batch for the marinade, and another batch for the dipping sauce, problem solved). 2. This marinade works well on pork, shrimp/prawn, and even rabbit. 3. This works well on very dense/firm fish, on salmon it is excellent. This does NOT work well with average white fish and is NOT recommended. 4. For shrimp/prawn, clean as you would, remove shell, tail, devein, marinate in the mix.
Steamed Golden Pomfret (Rice Cooker)
This is steamed in garlic and chili, and is an absolutely easy dish to prepare. This will need a steamer, either a pot with a steamer basket or a rice cooker with a steamer tray.
Equipment
- Rice Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 medium Golden Pomfret
- 5 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
- 2 red Bird's Eye chilies, seeded, chopped
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- hot cooked rice, for serving
Instructions
- First thing we need to do is to clean the fish, and this is easy as these have tiny scales. You can do this in the kitchen sink under running water without making a mess. Rinse the fish off, then take a spoon and scrape from the tail to the head, the skin will be smooth where there is no scales, this takes just a minute or two. After they are scaled, rinse the fish one more time.
- Now we need to gut the fish, using a sharp knife, make a cut on the bottom, behind the head, down to the vent, just before the fin on the bottom towards the rear. Just cut through the belly. Set the knife aside and with your fingers, you need to scoop out the insides, pay attention to the backbone, that is where the liver is, the red part, you need to remove that, it actually comes out easy. Rinse the fish under running water and make sure the inside is cleaned out including the liver along the backbone.
- At this point it is up to you if you want the head on or off. To remove the head, cut just behind the pectoral fin, the fin on the side, right behind the head, cut straight through at a bit of angle. Discard the head.
- Make 3-4 diagonal shallow cuts across the fish on each side.
- Place the fish on a heatproof dish that will fit inside of your steamer tray with a gap around it to let steam pass through.
- Heat your steamer, whether that is a pot with a steamer basket or a rice cooker with a steamer tray.
- In a small bowl, add the garlic, chili, soy sauce, wine, and sesame oil. Mix together well.
- Pour the sauce over the fish, yes, the liquid is going to go into the dish, I know this, goal is to keep the garlic and chilies on top. The dish will heat and impart flavor as well.
- When the water is boiling in your steamer, use a plate gripper (highly recommended), place the dish in the steamer, cover, and let the fish steam for 8-10 minutes.
- Remove the dish using a plate gripper and serve with rice on the side.
Notes
Each fish is 65 Baht, $1.96, each fish weighs 300 to 400 grams (11 to 14 oz). For 2 servings, this is about 98 cents per serving.