CMoore.com

Tired of slow cooking and missing asian food, I went for some Thai tonight, in the form of a spicy noodle dish with pork.

Ingredients:
8 oz pork tenderloin
8 oz rice noodles
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
4 cloves garlic
4 serrano peppers (or 7 thai chilies)
5 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cornstarch
water (in 3 tbsp, 3 cup, and 1 tbsp amounts)

Optional:
basil leaves (stir fry 2/3rds, 1/3rd as fresh)
crushed peanuts (garnish)
crushed red peppers (garnish)
fresh squeezed lime (garnish)

You can substitute other meats in place of the pork. Chicken would be a good bet, I was just feeling chickened out and wanted to try the other white meat for once.

Prep:
Soak rice noodles in cold water for at least one hour.
Trim the pork. Cut into 1/4″ strips. Reserve
Cut the green and red peppers into 1/2″-1″ squares. Reserve.
Chop the chili peppers and garlic

This took me a goodly amount of time. Then again, I’m new to this whole cooking business, let alone the raw meat cutting portion. You could probably do the non-soaking part in under 20 minutes.

This dish is, like almost all Thai food, stir fried. If you haven’t stir fried before, it is not for the faint of heart (I lost an eye from exploding oil during the making of this dish, but luckily it regenerated by the time I go to the blogging.). Open flame is the best, tastiest way to do this, but if you don’t have a gas stove or fire pit, you’ll make do with what you’ve got (like me in my land o’ crappy electric appliances).

Most Thai calls for basil leaves to be added. I can’t stand basil, but if you like it, you should add it.

Directions

1. Heat your stir fry pan so that it’s hot and the oil is almost smoking.
2. Add the garlic and chili peppers. Cook for 30 seconds until garlic is browned.¹
3. Add the meat. Cook for 2 minutes.
4. Add soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce, and 3 tbsp of water. Cook for 2 minutes.
5. Add the green and red peppers. Cook for 2-3 minutes until peppers start to soften.
6. Put 3 cups of water in a pot and bring to boil.
7. Take stir fry off of heat
8. Mix 1/2 tsp of corn starch and 1 tbsp of water in small dish. Stir until cornstarch is fully blended.
9. Add cornstarch-water mixture to stir fry and stir it in. Sauce should thicken somewhat.
10. Put stir fry back on heat. Cook for 1 minute.
11. Remove stir fry from heat and cover.
12. Drain noodles and place them in the boiling water. Cook for 30 seconds.
13. Drain noodles again and place them in serving dish.
14. Pour stir fry over noodles. Mix and serve immediately.

The dish is only moderately spicy at this point (tasty, but spicy). I recommend adding a mixture of some Thai hot sauce and Sriracha (rooster) sauce. This dish with those two hot sauces == heaven.

I’m not a big alcohol drinker, but this dish needs to be served with beer. I recommend Kirin Ichiban or some other similar quality-but-not-overpowering versatile brew. This dish with those sauces plus the Kirin == fuckin delicious.

Other additions I would add: lime, crushed red peppers, and crushed peanuts. In fact, I just went back and had a small dish with these additions and it was brilliant.

Food cost: $8, including sauces
Servings: 3 as a main dish, 6-8 as a side
Cost/serving: $2.67 as a main

Review: 5/5. I like chicken’s texture better, but the pork toughness is a good counterpart to the rice noodles’ softness. The peppers are perfect stir fried, still flavorful but not overpowering while being just the right mix of crunchy and juicy. The main dish is only moderately spicy and can be enjoyed by mortals. Adding the Thai hot sauce and Sriracha makes it fire alarm hot.

I’m cooking up some Thai food tonight so I wanted to make some authentic Thai hot sauce. Given the dismal state of groceries around these parts, I had to improvise with serrano peppers instead of Thai chilies. The only problem with that is that serrano’s are much larger than Thai chilies, so I had to upsize my recipe accordingly.

Ingredients:
8 tbsp fish sauce
7 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp lemon juice
2.5 tbsp sugar
7 serrano peppers, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
pinch of salt
dusting of black pepper (freshly ground)

Directions:
1. Put everything in a bowl.
2. Mix until sugar is dissolved.
3. Season to taste

This makes a fairly significantly-sized batch of very hot hot sauce. Note: when I say “very hot,” I mean it. I love hot sauce and this stuff will make an Indian blush and a Singaporean run for cover. Tasty, though, if you dig fish sauce-based condiments.

For a more rational portion size that you don’t have to store if you are making Thai food, go with 3 tbsp fish sauce, 3 tbsp lime, no lemon, 3 serrano peppers (or 7 thai chilies), and keep all the garlic. You’ll thank me later.

If you can handle the heat, you can serve this hot sauce with any asian dish that goes with fish sauce, though south asian cuisine works best.

For this adventure in slow cooking, I thought I’d try something I’d never even heard of before – Brunswick Stew. Looking over the ingredients, I was nodding and mmm-hmm ing… right up until that point where it mentioned okra. And lima beans. (the original Brunswick stew used squirrel meat as well)

I’m not ready to go there just yet.

So I improvised.

Instead of okra, I added a yellow caribe pepper and a cubanelle pepper.

Recipe:
2 lb chicken
8 oz precooked ham, diced
3 medium onions, cut into wedges
1 head of garlic, diced
1 yellow caribe pepper
1 cubanelle pepper (similar to an angelino)
14.5 oz diced tomatoes (1 can)
14 oz chicken broth (1 can)
1 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp thyme (I used crushed leaves)
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp hot sauce (I just squirted on the mix until it felt right)
1 cup butter beans
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn

My local grocer doesn’t carry cubed ham, so I got a 1 lb. section and diced it myself. You may have to do the same. For the hot sauce I decided to use some rooster sauce (AKA Huy Fong “Sriracha”). I don’t think it was quite the flavor I was craving, but I didn’t have any yu la jiao sitting around and I wasn’t going back to the store.

Directions:

1. Toss the onions, peppers, and garlic. Place in slow cooker.
2. Put chicken and ham on top of the onion mixture.
3. Sprinkle dried mustard, thyme, pepper over the mixture.
4. Add chicken and ham.
5. Add broth, tomatoes, Worchestershire sauce, and hot sauce.
6. Cook on low 8-10 hours, high 5-6 hours.
7. Add drained, washed butter beans, add corn. If you want, pull chicken out and cut into smaller bits.
8. Cook on high for 45 minutes

The traditional recipe has you adding olives, raisins, or fresh thyme and stirring it in at serving time. While I think sliced green olives would probably work well, I’m opting out of those additions.

Food cost: $20-25, depending on your meat choices, not including spices. $24 for me.
Servings: 6
Cost/serving: $3.33-$4.17

Here’s what it looks like cooked:

Here’s a slow cooker, in case you don’t have one.

Review: 4/5. tasty! meaty and rich, flavorful, and a touch spicy. I like this a touch less than the Garlic Stew with Other Bits (probably my cow-eating nature at heart), but it’s close.

Two more prep photos after the jump Read more…

New week, new adventures in cooking. I still like the spicy, so it was cajun time.

Recipe:
~1 lb. chicken breast, cut into 3/4″ pieces
6 oz. Andouille sausage
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper
1 cup celery, chopped
14.5 oz (1 can), low sodium tomatoes, diced
14 oz (1 can) reduced sodium chicken broth
3 oz (1/2 can) tomato paste
1 tbsp Worchester sauce
2 tsp Boondoggle Cajun Seasoning (see below)
1.5 cups instant rice

I know, I know, instant rice. How embarassing! However, the recipe is designed so that the liquids soak into the rice and I didn’t know how much broth to take out for steamed rice.

You can use whatever seasoning you want, but I wanted to make it homemade. Here’s Boondoggle Cajun Seasoning:

2.5 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp salt
1.5 – 2 tbsp garlic (I used 2, probably too much)
1 tbsp each of:
white pepper
cayenne pepper
onion powder
oregano leaves
thyme leaves

Ingredients:

Not pictured: Worchester sauce, instant rice

In the slow cooker:

Directions:
1. Combine celery, onion, tomatoes, broth, paste, bell peppers, Worcestershire sauce and cajun seasoning. Stir in andouille and chicken
2. Cook on low 5-6 hours, high 2.5-3 hours
3. Stir in rice. Cover and let stand 10-15 minutes
4. Eat!

Total food cost: $18.00 (not including spices for homemade seasoning or Worchester sauce)
Servings: 6
Cost per serving: $3.00

Here’s a slow cooker, if you don’t have one.

Review: 3/5. I forgot, sorta, that I don’t like either the taste or texture of celery. Cajun… probably not the best choice for celery haters. I thought the slow cooker might help. It, uh, didn’t.

Update: the celery mellows in time and I like the jambalaya more after storing it for a few days. I still don’t like instant rice and overall the dish is still too… mushy for me. Also, after mellowing, it was no longer spicy. I had to add more Boondoggle seasoning and some tapatia. I’d eat it again, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.

It’s a new year, welcome to my latest obsession… cooking!

For the inaugural voyage of my slow cooker, I decided to make a beef stew dish. Something flavorful, a bit spicy, and altogether yummy. Given my current location and predisposition, I chose a recipe with a little Mexican twist, including salsa verde, jalapenos, and a green pepper. Here’s the recipe:

1.5lbs extra lean stew beef, in 1 inch pieces
4 medium unpeeled potatoes, cut in 1 inch pieces
1 large onion chopped
1 green pepper, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
3 jalapenos, chopped
2 heads cloves of garlic, minced
14.5 oz, stewed tomatoes
15-16 oz pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup salsa verde
1 tsp ground cumin

Pre-cooking, post-prep ingredients:

In the cooker:

Prep time is supposed to be 30 minutes. It took me a bit over an hour. I suppose if you are a garlic peeling maniac you could make it in 30, but I’m not at that level yet. (see also: update 1 below to explain my laggardly prep time)

Directions:
1. Brown the meat, on medium heat in hot oil. Drain the fat and remaining oil.
2. Dump the ingredients in the slow cooker.
3. Cook! (8-9 hours on slow, 5-6 on high)

This should produce six servings. I recommend warmed tortillas or bread to go along with the dish (I went with a sourdough bowl loaf).

Total food cost: $18.00 ($21.00 with bread/tortillas).
Cost per serving: $3.00 – $3.50

If you don’t have a slow cooker, here’s a great one: Rival 4-qt 3040TCC

Update: it turns out that a clove of garlic is not the same as a head of garlic. Who knew? I share this with you because I’m an idiot I want to increase the level of knowledge around the world and one of those bits of knowledge is that the clove is one of the pods of a whole garlic thingy, not the whole thingy.

If you re-examine the first picture above… those yellow-white things? That’s more than two cloves. Just so you know.

Update 2: (pre-tasting, given update 1, above) I’m renaming tonight’s concoction Garlic Stew … with some other bits!!!!!!! (alternate title “The Garlic Steamer”)

Update 3: (post-tasting) Not too garlicky actually (and surprisingly; the salsa verde and tomatoes color the flavor more). 2 heads o’ garlic may be the new norm (we may need to wait for the work/sweat test tomorrow to verify, though).

Taste Test: Woooo! Flavorful, spicy, yum-may (note: I like my dishes quite spicy. That I didn’t feel the need to add any form of hot sauce or pepper flakes probably means the garlic was too strong for mere mortals those who aren’t so into teh hawt). The salsa verde adds a great tang and makes the stew. It still needs some salt and touch of pepper, though, and I’ll probably add some wine next time, but overall… it’s a 3-star or 4-star dish (out of 5).

Update 4: peel the potatoes. I’ve also been upping it to 2 lbs of beef, 2 cans of beans, and a can of tomatoes and one can of tomato paste. Plus more seasoning