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

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

I'm fancy, huh?

Those fancy-shmancy chefs deconstruct things all the time, right? Well I wanted to fancy-shmancy. So I decided to deconstruct chili!

• ¼ lb of ground pork
• ½ can of diced tomatoes
• 1/4 can of tomato sauce
• New Mexico Chili powder (but any chili powder would work)
• ½ onion
• a few stalks of celery
• 3~4 cloves of garlic
• ½ red bell pepper (any color will work)
• 1 cup of black beans
• Salt and pepper
• Polenta Cakes from Chicken Cacciatore that I froze 

1) If you bought dried beans like me, take the steps necessary rehydrate them. If not, beans out of a can are totally fine.

2) Dice up garlic, celery, bell pepper, and onion. There should be about an equal amount of the latter three. Side note I: These three aromatics are commonly called the Holy Trinity of Southern/Cajun/Creole cooking, an alternative to the French mirepoix of celery, carrots, and onions.

3) In a skillet heat oil, and add garlic and the holy trinity.

4) Add salt and pepper.

5) In a bowl take the holy trinity and mix with black beans. Mash. Mash a lot. Form into patties (I got three). Form the patties to be about the same size as your polenta cakes.

6) In a separate bowl add ground pork, diced tomatoes (remember to drain excess water), salt, pepper, and chili powder. Also form into patties.

7) Heat two skillets. Add a little oil. Cook pork patties through. Cook bean patties to warm up and until they get a slight char on the edges.

8) In a sauce pan heat tomato sauce with chili powder.

9) Plate and serve!

Cost breakdown:

• ¼ lb of ground pork: $1.64/2= $0.82
• ½ can of diced tomatoes: $1.19= $0.60
• 1/4 can of tomato sauce: $0.99/4= $0.25
• 1 cup of black beans: $0.76/3 $0.25
• 1/2 Red Bell Pepper:  $0.25/2= $0.12
• 4 cloves of garlic: $0.48/18= $0.03
•  $0.03x4= $0.12
• ½ Onion= $0.20/2= $0.10
• Celery: $0.89/4= $0.22
• Polenta: $0.30x 3= $0.90 (Check chicken cacciatore for full cost breakdown)

Total: $0.82+$0.60+$0.25+$0.25+$0.12+$0.12+$0.10+$0.22+$0.90= $3.38
Total per serving: $3.38/3= $1.12 per serving