Pork al Pastor Bowl - Deal of the Day

Al Pastor is Middle Eastern-style fire-grilled pork served on a tortilla. Mexico has a small Middle Eastern population, so it's only natural the two cuisines would co-mingle.

For a typical al Pastor Taco, the pork is sliced thin and marinated in spices and chiles. As the fire cooks the meat, it is rotated and sliced thin and piled on a corn tortilla.

On the stack of sliced chile marinated pork is a large juicy pineapple that the cook nicks a piece from, to top each taco.

I made an al Pastor taco truck video. Leo's Taco Truck possibly makes the best al Pastor in Los Angeles, and I'm not the only one who says so - it's on every local foodies Top Ten list. Just check it out here to see what goes into an al Pastor Taco.

This latest Deal of the Day is a Pork al Pastor Bowl made by Herdez. It's a satisfying version for 99.99 cents. The chile-infused sauce is similar to a Mexican slow-cooked guisado stew.

 I've done a delish Chicken Tinga Stew video too, that is very similar, and you can check it out here to see how simply it's done.

For a small serving at 10 ounces, it's loaded with flavor. One side of the bowl is Spanish rice and the other side is a thick gravy of intense chile with real chunks of tender pork.

While the picture on the box exaggerates (of course) the size of the pork pieces, they are big enough and they are not skimpy with the total amount of meat. Of course there are no avocado slices like on the cover.

I like that the meat is not made from a processed loaf. I even tasted a couple of small chunks of sweet pineapple.

The sauce tastes like a typical bowl of chile you would get anywhere. Herdez mentions guajillo chiles, and the flavor is very similar to regular dried or fresh red chiles. There is also a mild chili heat - even if you have a low spicy tolerance, I think you can handle this Pork al Pastor Bowl.

Spanish rice is flavored with tomato sauce and studded with whole kernals of corn and green peas. The veggies were firm, not mushy as with most frozen fare.

One small flaw is the watery rice. I'm not sure if that is on purpose? The rice is not mushy, but it could have been dryer, to contrast with the saucy pork stew.

 
But overall I liked this Deal of the Day. So on the 99 Cent Chef's Cheap$kate Dining Scale of 1 to 9, 9 being best, I give Herdez Pork al Pastor Bowl a perfect 9 !

This is a great Deal of the Day that I would pay full price for, even from a regular grocery frozen case.

I had a Chicken Mole Bowl by Herdez before (click here) and this is just as good. Herdez does an excellent job with their frozen meals.

 Click on any photo to see larger.

Creamy Mushrooms & Pasta

I had a half a tub of sour cream taking up space in the refrigerator, left over from another recipe. Well the easiest way to use it up is by making Creamy Mushrooms & Pasta.

I like entrees that only use a few ingredients. And my latest cheap$kate recipe uses: pasta, sour cream and mushrooms.

If you have a little dried parmesan then finish off the dish with a sprinkle or two. I also have a basil plant, so why not add some fresh fragrant herbs. This recipe can be changed around to use what you have on hand.

I thought the sour cream sauce would be too sour - not really. Once you add tender mushrooms and a mound of pasta, it soothes the sourness quite a bit. Not quite as sweet as cooking with cream, but in the neighborhood. It still has a luscious flavor I think you will enjoy.

I get sour cream cheaply from my local 99c only Store.

I always find mushrooms there too, like brown (crimini) and white button.

Pasta is cheap almost anywhere you buy it. I used spaghetti for this recipe, but you can use any budget pasta you like.

This recipe makes 2 servings, but it's easy enough to double the ingredient amounts to make plenty for later, or for more guests.

It comes together in the time it takes to cook a pot of pasta, so you can easily make it after a long day at the office; or a day of schooling; or even between taking care of the kids. So do try out my latest cheap$kate entree, Creamy Mushrooms & Pasta.

Ingredients (about 2 servings)

• 8 ounces of sour cream - I used half a carton of sour cream, about 1 cup. Okay to use a vegan substitute.
• 4 ounces of mushrooms - I used a small package of crimini, but okay to use regular white button or any mushrooms.
• 8 ounces of pasta - any favorite. I used half a package of spaghetti.
• 1 tablespoon of oil - for sauteing mushrooms
• Extras include: parmesan cheese and fresh or dried herbs.

Directions
This recipe comes together in the time it takes to boil some pasta. Start cooking the pasta following package directions. I usually shave off a minute or two for al dente (pasta that is slightly firm to the bite.) While pasta cooks prepare the Creamy Mushroom Sauce.

Add tablespoon of oil to a pan large enough to hold the cooked pasta. If you don't have a large pan then it's okay to use what you got and mix the spaghetti in a bowl, or even the drained pot you cooked the pasta in.

While oil heats up over a medium temperature, brush off any dirt from the mushrooms, if needed. Slice the mushrooms, thick or thin.

Add sliced mushrooms to oiled frying pan. Saute until soft, about 3-5 minutes.

Next add the sour cream. I sprinkled on 2 tablespoons of dried parmesan, for extra flavor (optional.) Mix sour cream and mushrooms.

 

Sour cream will turn into a creamy sauce as it heats up. Stir slowly and cook for a couple of minutes.

If the sauce thickens too much (or there is not enough for you,) then add a couple of tablespoons pasta water.

Finally add drained cooked pasta to Creamy Mushroom Sauce. Mix pasta into the sauce and sprinkle on a pinch or two of fresh herbs (again optional.)

Hindsight
This recipe is easy to double the ingredients. Just make it with 16 ounces of sour cream and 2 packages of mushrooms. Also cook a whole package of pasta.

If mushrooms are too expensive then substitute any favorite sliced or chopped fresh veggies to saute, like: carrots, cauliflower, broccoli or Italian squash.

Oscar Party Recipes

And the Best Oscar Entree goes to...YOU! Come and accept your award winning chow and pass it around to your Oscar party guests.

Starting with my recipe for "The Martian" Shepherd's Pie, it will send your guests taste buds into a delicious orbit with the first spoonful. In the Oscar nominated movie The Martian, a stranded astronaut survives on spuds (called one the most nutritiously complete foods.) This hearty dish is a baked veggie stew with meat that is topped with creamy mashed potatoes. So get your Best Cook award speech ready, and you can give this Cheap$kate Cuisinier an honorable mention if you want! Just click here to blast off.

The Revenant is a brutal masterpiece of the big screen. The pivital scene involves actor Leonardo DiCaprio's mauling by a bear. It's graphic flaying of flesh may turn your stomach, but if you can stand the bloodletting then you can watch my "Revenant" BBO Pulled Pork video, that involves a whole raw fleshy pork shoulder.

The time frame of the movie is colonial America, and my "Revenant" BBQ Pulled Pork Recipe will bring out the animal in your invitees. So step up to the BBQ grill and get some vittles.You'll get raucous whoopin' and hollerin' when you set out a platter of my "Revenant" BBQ Pulled Pork. The heck with movie star dieting -- as you watch these anorexics amble to the stage to accept an award, you can kick back with a brewski and indulge a plate of meaty smoked pork sliders, with a side of coleslaw. Just click here to get a gander at all the recipe details.



My video recipe above uses hamburger buns, but get more of a spread with smaller dinner rolls to make BBQ Pork Sliders. The Revenant trailer is here.

Hollywood is known as a den of iniquity, and this live-and-let-live Film Making Chef would not have it any other way.  The Best Picture nominated Carol explores a lesbian love story set in conservative1950's NYC. This is also a great example of classic Hollywood direction by Tod Haynes, made with subtly and good taste. Of all the nominated Best Picture films, I like this one the best. Go ahead and call me old fashioned, just not intolerant. The artful movie trailer is here.

I live on the Left Coast and we were the first to legalize gay marriage in the U.S. in 2008, until a Mormon-backed (and funded) bill eventually overturned it -- then just last year the Supreme Court fully legalized gay marriage in this Land of the Free.

My next Oscar themed recipe is "Carol" Rainbow Sprinkles Cupcakes, mixed with mulit-colored sprinkles and topped with a sweet cherry. So heat up the oven and dust off the cupcake pan for my colorful just desserts.

If your Oscar party revelers are religious fundamentalist,  just skip the recipe video below for now - you wouldn't want them to see that same sex couples are really just like them. Get all the sweet recipe directions here.



Hey, wealth-extracting Wall Street fat cats, come and get it. If you're like the predatory slime depicted in the The Big Short, I have a way you can redeem yourselves at your Oscar Party. Put on the Ritz and serve up some "The Big Short" Portabella Crab Rockefeller. The recipe is so easy even a hedge fund manger can make it! 

I created this recipe using a Tiffany tinned bauble of canned crab, but if your stock dividend just spit and the government bailed you out...again, then get expensive fresh crab from your fave seafood market. For the rest of us in the cheap seats, fake krab is a tasty budget-wise substitution.

I often find expensive portabella mushrooms at my local 99c only Store. The other ingredients of cream, spinach and cheese are cheap enough. So click here to get the recipe and serve up my Big Short Portabella Crab Rockefeller and watch as your guest swing from the chandelier with delight after a few flutes of champagne and this rich tasting entree. The Big Short trailer is here.

The Best Picture nominee Spotlight exposes clerical child abuse in the Boston Catholic Church Archdiocese. This is heavy stuff but well done. I like activist films that pull no punches and tell truth to power. Just check out the trailer here, for a taste.

As a child I was a Catholic alter boy. Between service, I would stare up at the sheet of weekly film ratings in the church lobby to check out what I was allowed to see at the local movie house. If it was an Elvis Presley movie, I knew it was would be confession-time for me the next Sunday, as the singer's musical movies were usually rated "B" for bad - man, how I loved Elvis movies as a kid.

Maybe one day the Catholic Church will join the 21 Century, allowing all it's clergy to marry, even same sex, and put women in positions of power as priests. I have faith that one day the Vatican will see the light.

My Oscar entree of "Spotlight" Clam Chowder is perfect for dipping your communion wafer. A creamy bowl of  the Heretic Chef's Boston-style clam chowder is a beatific vision of deliciousness. After tasting one spoonful, you'll think you've died and gone to heaven! And get the recipe here.

"The Hateful Eight" Black-eyed Peas is a knockout dish, just like Jennifer Jason Lee's Oscar worthy Supporting Actress performance. Director Quentin Tarantino is a sometime ham-fisted film maker you love to hate. While indulgent, over the top, and profane, he can sure deliver a mouthful of spicy dialogue.

The most controversial part of The Hateful Eight belongs to the character of Daisy Domergue played by Jennifer Jason Lee. Throughout the movie she is literally beat over the head with dialogue (thus my black-eyed recipe.) Not a pretty sight, but eventually the tables are turned. If you can take the heat, then do check out the movie trailer here.

This pot of goodness will have your Oscar party guest scraping the plate for every tender legume. And, man is this entree cheap. By the sweat of your brow, you'll get enough food to feed your captive Oscar audience. My recipe is here.

So try out any of my Oscar Party dishes. You're sure to get a standing O. So have your acceptance speech ready because the golden statuette for Best Entree at an Oscar Party will be yours.

And as a special bonus, here is my Oscar Special video from a few years ago -- just check out the Cheap$kate Thespian hamming it up.

Chicken & Basil Stir Fry - Video Recipe

This is a perfect windowsill herb garden recipe. I have always have a small herb garden somewhere nearby, either in a pot, or I'll reserve a small part of my patio garden.

I get small basil plants from the local nursery or hardware store. A basil plant only cost a few dollars and once it grows out, you can get several serving worth - a much cheaper way to go than buying an expensive bag of basil leaves from the grocery store. A farmers market is another less expensive place to find basil plants.

 Click on any photo to see larger.

You can use regular basil or Thai Basil. Both are about the same, although Thai basil has a slight mint undertaste. I see Thai basil at local nurseries too.

My Chicken & Basil Stir Fry is pungent, but not overly so. Like spinach, basil leaves shrink when cooked, and once mixed into a stir fry takes on a milder flavor.

I also add minced garlic and sliced green onion, but you can substitute cheap sliced yellow or white onion if green onion is not available, or too expensive.

This recipe is based on a Thai recipe, so the other flavors are soy and fish sauce with a little honey (or sugar.) If you cannot find fish sauce, then use easier-to-get oyster sauce. But this stir fry will taste fine without fish sauce or oyster sauce.

Usually Basil and Chicken Stir Fry has a whole spicy red chili. For this recipe you can use red pepper flakes or any spicy chili from your local market. Of course, you can leave the heat out.

I find skinless dark meat chicken on sale all the time at my local Latin market, for less than a dollar per pound. If you want to keep it cheap then you have to by it bone-in. It's not that hard to remove the bone, especially for breast meat. You could also use lean ground chicken or turkey, instead.

It's a one pan meal, and all comes together quickly, that's why I like to make a stir fry. It only takes about 10 minutes to do, and it's ready when the chicken is cooked through.

If you like fresh herbs in your entree, then try out the 99 Cent Cheap$kates latest recipe, a fragrant Chicken & Basil Stir Fry.

Chicken & Basil Stir Fry - Video

Play it here. Video runs 2 minutes, 43 seconds.

To view or embed from YouTube, click here.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken - I used skinless and boneless dark meat, okay to use breast meat. Ground chicken or turkey is good substitute.
• 1 green onion - okay to use 1/4 yellow or white onion, sliced or chopped. Okay to add as much green onion as you like.
• 1 cup basil leaves - add as much as you like, to taste. You can use dried basil leaves in a pinch, try a tablespoon.
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic - fresh or from jar.
• 1 teaspoon honey - or any favorite sweetener.
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce - okay to substitute with oyster sauce. Will still be tasty if you cannot find either one. 
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce - more or less to suit your taste.
• 1 tablespoon oil - to saute chicken.
• 1 tablespoon corn starch or flour - optional. This will thicken liquid, if you like it that way. Mix into raw chicken.
• 1/4 cup water or favorite broth - optional. Add this if you like a lot of sauce in your stir fry.

*For a little spicy heat it okay to add a 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (or less if you have a low tolerance.) Traditionally, small red hot chilis are added during sauteing. You could use any spicy chili or jalapeno. You will want to add a little at a time to reach desired spiciness.

Directions
If you are serving with rice, then get the rice going, according to package directions. It will take 20 to 30 minutes. When about half way done, you can start the Chicken and Basil Stir Fry. You can make the rice ahead of time - I usually have a cup or two of cooked rice in the freezer, that microwaves to hot in just a few minutes.

For this recipe I used skinless and boneless dark meat (It comes on sale for less than a dollar per pound, so I always have some in the freezer, at the ready.) You can use more lean, but expensive, white breast meat if you can afford it. White meat is easier to remove from the bone than dark meat.

Add oil to a medium/hot pan. For a thick sauce sprinkle in a teaspoon of corn starch or flour over chicken. Add chicken to hot pan.

Stir in garlic and mix well. Add a teaspoon of honey or any favorite sweetener.

Pour in soy sauce and fish sauce (or oyster sauce.)

Add sliced green onion or regular sliced white or yellow onion.

If you like a lot of sauce then add an extra 1/4 cup of water or favorite broth.

Continue to stir and cook chicken until done, about 3-5 minutes. Check for doneness by slicing into thickest piece of chicken to make sure there is no pink color.

When chicken is done add the basil leaves (remove any large stems.) You only need to stir fry less than a minute to soften the leaves.

Serve over rice or noodles. My Chicken and Basil Stir Fry is tasty on it's own, or serve with a fresh salad (my Thai Cucumber Salad is a quick away, here.)