Shells with Tomato Cream Sauce

This is a super simple dish that's really comforting. It'd be a great pick me up meal and to prepare for kids. Add roasted chicken breast or another lean meat to add a protein. You could also add basil to make a pseudo/faux caprese inspired pasta.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of pasta (shells, penne, bow ties, etc.)
3 tablespoons Bisquick/Flour
3 tablespoons Butter (plus extra, just in case)
1/2 cup milk/cream
1/2 cup of tomatoes, chopped
Salt and pepper

1) Boil pasta to al dente

2) Make a roux by combining flour and butter. Stir until the mixture is toasted, but not burnt.

3) Slowly whisk in milk until the sauce is thick but not runny.

4) Add tomatoes and pasta. Salt and pepper to taste.

Costs:
Pasta: $1.20/8= $0.15
Tomato: Around $0.30
Butter: $0.09 x 3= $0.27
Flour: Negligible
Milk: $0.30 x 2= $0.60

$0.15+$0.30+$0.27+$0.60= $1.32

Arugula with Apples and Prok

Super simple and delicious.

1 1/2 cups arugula
1 Apple, cut into pieces
2~3 oz pork, cooked and chopped
Balsamic vinegar, olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Toss everything together and serve.

(P.s. Chicken or shrimp would work just as well)

Shrimp Fried Rice

Sometimes I crave fried rice but knowing how much it costs at restaurants I’m never really willing to pay as much as they want. While watching a Japanese cooking show one time a chef said that the trick to flaky fried rice was to soak day old rice in scrambled egg. That’s what I did here as well as giving it a Korean twist.

Ingredients:

• ¾ Cup day old jasmine rice
• 2~3 stalks (?) baby bok choy, chopped
• A handful of snow peas, cut in half
• ½ medium onion, sliced
• 8 small/medium sized shrimp
• 2 eggs, scrambled
• Soy Sauce
• Korean Pepper Paste (Gochujang; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang)
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

1) Peel and devein shrimp.

2) Into scrambled egg add a couple tablespoons of soy sauce and gochujang.

3) Add day old rice to the egg mixture.

4) Into a large skillet (wok if you have one) heat oil (vegetable or peanut) and cook shrimp. As the shrimp is turning pink add vegetables.

5) Once shrimp and vegetables have cooked through add rice.

Serve.

(If very sensitive to gluten, use Tamari instead of Soy Sauce.)

Thai Style Beef with Rice (Pho) Noodles

Thai Style Beef with Rice Noodles

Ingredients:

• A handful of rice (pho) noodles
• 1/3 pound steak for stirfry, sliced thinly
• 1 bell pepper sliced into matchsticks
• 1 Hot pepper
• A couple gloves of garlic
• A handful of basil leaves, torn
• A couple table spoons of fish sauce
• A couple tablespoons of soy sauce
• A tablespoon of sugar

1) Follow directions on package and cook noodles.

2) Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a skillet, add garlic.

3) Once oil is hot add beef.

4) Add peppers (bell and hot) to pan.

5) Combine fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. Add to pan.

6) Add basil.

7) Add noodles.

Plate.

Cost: About $2.50 for two servings. 

Basil-Cream Cheese Tart(lettes?)

Ingredients:
5 oz cream cheese (or another soft cheese, like marscapone or goat cheese)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
Salt and Pepper
A handful of basil
1/3 cucumber sliced thinly into rounds
Cherry tomatoes, sliced
2/3 cup Bisquick


Tart Shells

1) Add about 1/4 cup of hot/boiling water to bisquick. Knead a little bit.

2) Portion into six equal pieces and roll out.

3) Fit into cupcake pans to make tart crusts

4) Bake at 350 degrees for about 15~20 minutes or until golden.

Filling:

1) Whip together cream cheese, yogurt, basil, salt and pepper (to taste).

Put it all together.

1) Fill each shell with a spoonful of the cheese mixture and top with cucumber and tomato slices.

Cost Breakdown.
Will come later... Maybe.
Probably around $2.50 for six. Or about $0.40 each.

Zebra Steak. Not really.

Is it a zebra eggplant? Zebra steak?  Oh, it’s just steak and eggplant.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb chuck steak
• 1 small eggplant
• Radish greens
• The chef that I watched a cooking demonstration talked about how radish greens are like any other green. Fibrous and a little bitter. Cook them just like any other greens.
• Assorted spices; I used salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika.            

1) Make a dry rub out of the spices. I used about ½ tablespoon of each. Generously rub all over the steak.

2) On a hot pan (I used a grill pan) place the steak and eggplant. Get a nice beautiful  sear on  the entire steak. I was aiming for medium-rare. If aiming for something more cooked after the sear you can place it on a baking pan and stick it in an oven at about 350 degrees.

3) I drizzled oil, salt, and pepper over the eggplant and added them to the grill as well.

4) In a small fry pan add oil and add the radish greens. Salt and pepper.

5) Plate. I finished off by drizzling a little soy sauce over the plate.

Too lazy to do the math…
Oops? Lol.

Caprese Bruschetta

Ingredients:

• 1 handful of zebra tomatoes, sliced
• Small handful basil, chiffonade
• 1 hoagie role sliced (but an Italian or French bread would be better)
• ¼ cup of mozzarella, shredded
• Drizzle Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

1) On a baking dish line with slices of bread.

2) Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toast until golden brown.

3) In a bowl toss tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. Liberally coat with salt, pepper, and olive oil.

4) Serve caprese salad on toast.

Cost breakdown:
Tomatoes: $1.75/2= $0.87
Basil: $1.09/3= $0.36
Mozzarella: $2.47/8= $0.31
Hoagie: $0.45

Total: $0.87+$0.36+$0.31+$0.45=$1.99

Pickled Watermelon Rinds

Ingredients:

• Salt
• ¼~½ cup sugar
• ½ Serrano pepper
• A couple stalks green onion
• 1 ½ cups vinegar
• A couple cloves of garlic

I had pickled watermelon rinds at a restaurant one time and I really wanted to attempt it myself. Instead of throwing away the watermelon rinds from the melon salad I decided to pickle them.

1) Carefully peel the green skin off of the watermelon rind. I used a vegetable peeler. Be very careful.

2) In a bowl of cold water add salt, enough to make the water taste like the ocean.

3) Allow watermelon rind to brine for at least a few hours if not overnight. Drain the water.

4) Once brined add rind to a mixture of about equal parts vinegar and water with sugar add. If desired, you could boil the rinds in the water and vinegar but I like the crunch of the rinds.

5) Add sliced Serrano peppers, sliced green onions, and garlic to vinegar. Allow to sit for a couple of hours to pickle.

Easy. Breezy. Beautiful*. Melon Salad.

*Not to be confused with CoverGirl Cosmetics.

Melon Salad

When I went to the Farmer’s Market there was a cooking demonstration by Bay Area chef Stephanie Rosenbaum. She made this beautiful summer salad and I just had to make it. To see her original recipe go to www.sjrosenbaum.com 

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the ingredients…

Ingredients:

• 2~3 cups Watermelon, cubed
• 2 cups Cantaloupe, cubed
• ¾ cups Radishes, cut in half and sliced
• 3 stalks celery, sliced
• Large handful basil, roughly chopped
• Large handful cilantro, roughly chopped

Dressing:

• A couple tablespoons sugar
• A couple tablespoons fish sauce
• Juice of 1 Lime
• Small nub of ginger grated
• Salt, to taste

1) Toss all the fruits, vegetables, and herbs together.

2) In a separate dish mix the dressing together. Adjust the amount of each ingredient to taste.

3) Toss everything together.

Eat alone or serve alongside a piece of pan seared fish. Or any other appropriate protein.

Cost breakdown:
Watermelon: $1.33/3= $0.44
Cantaloupe: $0.58/2= $0.29
Radishes: $0.49/2= $0.25
Celery: $0.89/10= $0.09
Basil: $1.09/3= $0.36
Cilantro: $1/3= $0.33
Lime: $0.10
Ginger: $0.10
Fish sauce& Sugar: Not that I expect most people to have fish sauce on hand (like sugar), a couple tablespoons out of a big bottle is very hard to calculate so…

Total: $0.44+$0.29+$0.25+$0.09+$0.36+$0.33+$0.10+$0.10=$1.96 for three or so servings

So I guess it's been three weeks...

It's been three weeks since I lasted posted anything. Now I feel bad.I hit that cycle of telling myself everyday that I'd make a post the next day (or the day after, my next day off, etc. etc.) and we all know how that goes.

But I haven't stopped cooking. I've been cooking a little bit less and unfortunately eating out a little more but I still have a bunch of stuff to post.

Hopefully I get back into the groove where I'm making posts more often.


:)
Patrick.