Colorful, tart and tasty, the latest 99 Cent Chef recipe will have you going for seconds and thirds!
I'll cook asparagus anytime I can get it on sale, and thanks to 99c only Stores, that is happening a lot lately.
This recipe is a hearty side with the addition of red potatoes, which I always get cheaply at any grocery (white potatoes will work as well.) The finishing touch is a tart dressing of Dijon mustard and olive oil.
In these sweltering days of summer, pull out The Cheapie Cuisiniers cool Asparagus & Red Potato Salad for your first Summer BBQ.
Ingredients
3 to 5 red potatoes - about 4 cups when cooked and cut. Okay to use white potatoes, or any cheap type you can find.
1 pound asparagus - or one bunch. A cheaper substitution would be steamed broccoli or chunky sliced carrots.
1/4 cup olive oil - Okay to use less, to your personal taste.
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Slice red potatoes in half and cover with water in a pot. Low boil about 20 - 30 minutes until fork tender. When done allow to cool for 10 minutes (or, run some cold water over them for immediate use.) Chop potatoes into large pieces.
If asparagus spears are extra large, I like to use a veggie peeler and take off some of the stem skin -- I peel off about half. Chop asparagus into 1 to 2 inch pieces. Place in a pot, cover and low simmer asparagus in a 1/4 cup of water for about 3 - 5 minutes, or until desired tenderness.
Add potatoes and asparagus to a large bowl.
In a small bowl whisk together Dijon mustard and olive oil for a minutes, until well blended -- okay to pulse in a blender until mixed.
Pour Dijon vinaigrette over potatoes and asparagus. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or chilled.
If you want to cut down on the Dijon mustard tartness, just add a little of your favorite sweetener.
A cheaper and tastier twist on Beef Stroganoff, this birdy entree is plucked from The 99 Cent Chef's nest of recipes. Try it, and see how much scratch you save! The cheapest chef is too chintzy to use beef in his Stroganoff.
Originating in 19 century Russia, this creamy meat sauce has spread all around the world, with adjustments to local tastes. I make my own cheap$kate adjustments that still keep this dish flavorful.
And sauteed mushrooms with tender chicken make a decadent sauce when sour cream is added.
So, where's the beef? It's way over 99 cents per pound, and I've found that both chicken and ground turkey make a lighter and cheaper substitution. I've made a scrumptious Salisbury Steak with ground turkey; and a round steak Southern classic, Chicken Fried Steak, with real ground chicken! So, you see, it's easy to cut corners and still create delicious budget recipes.
I often find whole (or split bone-in) chicken breast meat on sale for about 99 cents per pound. And, while this recipe calls for sour cream, you will only use 4 tablespoons, so you can get a small container.
As for mushrooms, my local 99c only Store carries white button, brown Crimini, and large Portabella varieties -- and most regular markets have sale days, offering small packages of mushrooms for around a dollar. If you don't want to spring for a package, just get a handful of loose mushrooms for this recipe.
My Chicken Stroganoff is one lush entree. Some recipes leave out Dijon mustard, but you should use it if you have it - it adds a tangy level of taste to the cream sauce. I also used a small 99.99 cent bottle of white wine for some added sweetness -- you could substitute vegetable or chicken broth.
Another advantage of using chicken breast is that it cooks in a quarter of the time, and is much leaner. The typical cut of beef in a Stroganoff takes at least 30 minutes of simmering to tenderize.
My video recipe below offers easy step-by-step instructions. And, like my Beanie Weenies recipe from last month, I use stop-motion animation to amp up the visual playfulness: heaping spoons of rich sour cream - check; a line of dancing mushrooms - check; tender chicken breast meat peeled off the bone - check; animating chicken skin - yuck !
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Chicken Stroganoff - Video
Play it here. The video runs 2 minutes 42 seconds.
1/2 to 1 whole chicken breast - cubed into bite-sized pieces. Okay to use dark meat -- it's harder to remove from the bone, but on the plus side, dark meat is cheaper.
4 tablespoons sour cream - lite or regular. Add more or less to taste.
1 cup white wine - optional. Okay to substitute with water, vegetable or chicken stock (or, a bouillon cube dissolved in one cup of water.)
5 ounce package of mushrooms - halved. I used brown Crimini, okay to use any local mushroom on sale.
1 whole small onion - white or yellow, chopped.
1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard - or regular mustard.
1 tablespoon of oil for sauteing chicken.
Salt and pepper to taste
Serve with Egg Noodles, pasta, rice, or steamed vegetables.
Directions
Remove chicken and chicken skin from breastbone. Okay to discard skin, although I like to sautee it with the chicken meat for extra flavor (I would discard skin after meat is lightly browned.) Slice chicken meat into bite-sized cubes. Breast meat is easy to remove, just slice down the length of the center breastbone, and see how nicely the meat comes off.
Heat a large sautee pan or pot to medium heat, and add oil. Cook chicken breast until lightly browned - no need to overcook it, as chicken breast dries out easily. Cook about 5 minutes, depending on heat. You will finish cooking it at the last step, when the wine and sour cream is added.
While chicken is cooking, chop onion and mushrooms. I like to chop mushrooms in half, leaving the pieces large and meaty. Remove chicken after about five minutes, and add onions and mushrooms to pan. Cook about 5-8 minutes, until onions are starting to lightly brown and caramelize.
After onions and mushrooms are softened, return the cooked chicken to pan. Deglaze pan with one cup of white wine, chicken or vegetable stock. Scrape the tasty caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan. Salt and pepper to taste (I would use very little salt, if you use a chicken bouillon cube.)
Add 4 heaping tablespoons of sour cream, mixing well. Finally add a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, or a teaspoon of dried mustard. Allow Stroganoff sauce to heat up to a low simmer - don't boil sauce or sour cream will curdle and separate. Cook at low/medium heat about 5-10 minutes until chicken heats up and finishes cooking. It's done when largest chicken piece is cooked through -- just slice into a piece to make sure there is no pink or red color.
Stroganoff is traditionally served over eggs noodles, but white or brown rice is okay, too. I've also tried it over steamed veggies.
The embargo is lifted for my final Caribbean dish, a Cuban Sandwich. The 99 Cent Chef welcomes Cubans into his kitchen anytime. I wish I could end this embargo on Cuba with a wave of my whisk. Let's move on Obama, this Cold War fiasco is so 20th Century -- it's over!
I would like to break bread with the Cuban people one day, as I am a great fan of the cuisine. Locally I've had both good and bad Cuban Sandwiches. Downtown's former Cuidad (now a Border Grill ) served a great mini-version at Happy Hour to downtown power brokers in suits and skirts. At Glendale's Porto's Bakery on Brand Boulevard, nearby mall shoppers get a bargain sandwich deliciously meaty, and cheap at $4.85 (but they add mayo, which is a no-no.) At Cafe Tropical on Sunset Boulevard, Echo Park hipsters hunkered over their Macs, can scarf down $6 sandwiches while sipping papaya juice under Che Guevera posters.
West on Sunset in Silverlake, taxi drivers dine mini-mall style at El Cochinito on $6.95 sandwiches. And my favorite Cuban Restaurant,Versailles, with locations on Venice and La Cienega Boulevards, serves a surprisingly unappetizing one for $9.99 - oily bread, ham, and Swiss cheese, with scraps of roast pork. Maybe it was just a bad day in the kitchen the one and only time I tried it. Sorry Versailles - I'll always come back for your Roast Porkand Chickendinners, though.
The Cuban Sandwich is a dynamite combination of flavors: sour mustard and pickle, tart creamy Swiss cheese, sweet cured ham, and tender Cuban roast pork - all on a crunchy crusted grilled bread roll.
When placed on your plate it is a sleek modernist meal. The sandwich is pressed thin and sliced diagonally -- looking like a crisp, cheesy, meat-filled fin, with a slash of cool green pickle peeking out. It's a great tasting sandwich that's also aesthetically pleasing.
A couple of weeks ago I showed you how to make Cuban Roast Pork. So, now you have the most complicated part of the sandwich done. The other fillings come cheaply from a typical deli case. And you now have one more use for that leftover Easter ham.
As for the bread, Cuban rolls are not easy to come by, but a sandwich roll, from the bakery section of your grocery store, works fine. I've picked them up for way less than 50 cents each. You could use an Italian or French baguette - just slice it into 2 or 3 sections. My local Latin market makes fresh Bolillos rolls daily. I've even used packaged steak rolls. Once you grill the sandwich, the bread crisps-up well enough. And since this is a pressed sandwich, the shape and texture of the bread is changed significantly.
A Cuban Sandwich is similar to an Italian Panini - toasted crisp with meat and cheese. It is Cuban comfort food at its finest. This is the concluding Cuban dish in my month long series, so give it a go.
And the perfect drink accompaniment is a cool Cuban concoction, made with rum, sugar cane juice and lime, called a Mojito. As a special bonus, I've called up one of my first recipe videos, "The 99 Cent Mojito," for a timely replay. To see the blog post with my Mojito recipe written out, just click here.
The 99 Cent Mojito -Video
Play it here. The video is 4 1/2 minutes.
Ingredients for Cuban Sandwich (one sandwich)
Cuban style roast pork - a few chunks or slices. Click here for my recipe.
1-2 slices of cooked ham - depending how thin the ham is.
1-2 slices of Swiss cheese - again, depending how thin cheese is sliced.
A few slices of pickle - wedges or coin sliced. Usually made with tart, but sweet Bread and Butter is a nice twist.
Cuban bread roll, split - or any roll. I've used steak rolls, French, Italian and Mexican (bolillos) bread rolls.
Mustard or dijon - a smear on each roll side. Some use mustard as a dipping sauce only. It will be good cooked with or without mustard.
A pat of butter or a teaspoon of oil for grilling. Non-stick spray is okay.
Directions
Remove meat from refrigerator and allow to reach room temperature, about 5 minutes. Add butter (or oil) to a heating pan or grill. Split roll and smear mustard on each side. Layer on pickles, chunks of roast pork, ham and cheese, and place on a heated grill or pan. Brown bread on each side, until cheese is melted and oozing.
If the pork and ham is thick-sliced you can zap it in the microwave 20 or 30 seconds to heat it through. You can also heat the meat in a pan for a minute. You want the meat to be hot in the sandwich when served.
This sandwich looks uniquely thin because it is pressed while cooking. Some cooks place everything from a cast iron pan to a foil wrapped brick on the sandwich. I just used my large metal spatula (or any spatula, really) and pressed the sandwich during cooking. It gets thin enough. Also, you could cook it in a Paninni press -- or heck, even on a dorm room George Forman Grill !
A Cuban Sandwich is served sliced at an angle -- so one sliced side tapers into a point. It's easier to inhale that way. Serve with my 99 Cent Mojito!
Deviled eggs were served at the Chef's infamous "Bloggers 99 Cent White Wine Tasting" in September. Local blogger Debbi Swanson Patrick of altadenaaboveitall was kind enough to email the Chef her tasty recipe. Some condiments hang around in the refrigerator forever, like capers, mustard and marinated hot peppers (which the Chef used a month and a half ago in a cashew hot pepper stir fry.) With Halloween around the corner, the Chef came up with a clever way to use the rest of his red hot peppers -- deviled eggs with hot pepper devil horns. It's a spicy fun Halloween party food. Debbi's recipe is quick and simple to do and chile peppers provide a hot kick sure to keep you on your toes when handing out sweets to your doorbell - ringing little ghosts and goblins. Be sure to have a cool beverage at the ready! All ingredients are from the 99c only Store.
Ingredients (makes a dozen)
1 dozen 99.99 cent eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
1 tbsp. yellow or Dijon mustard
1 tsp. celery seed or dried celery leaf
2 tbsp. sweet relish or capers (drain liquid)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 jar 99.99 cent whole marinated hot peppers - 2 red hot peppers for each deviled egg
Directions Boil eggs for about 10 minutes. Remove and cool in refrigerator. Shell eggs and slice lengthwise. Add yolks, mayo, mustard, celery seed, relish, salt and pepper and mix with a fork or a food processor until creamy (add more mayo a little at a time if too dry). Spoon egg mixture into egg white shells and refrigerate for an hour. Rinse and pat dry marinated hot peppers then add 2 devil horn red hot peppers per deviled egg. When you want some heat, use coke spoon sized devil horn to scoop out egg mixture. *When handling hot peppers make sure to wash your hands with soap afterward and do not rub eyes! Your fingers are like hot match sticks!
