Curry dishes are incredibly cheap if you already have a few things around the kitchen.
I have nearly stopped shopping at large grocery stores and go almost exclusively to foreign food stores that are owned and operated by immigrants from the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia. I was tired of throwing together cheap green bean casserole kinds of crap (I’m not very imaginitive and I have Chef to spoil me) and decided to experiment one day, heading to a local South Asian market to see what they had. While I perused the aisles I was surprised that these specialty ingredients were cheaper than what I would normally buy at a big chain store. The other thing that is exciting about buying food from these stores is that the ingredient list is very, very short. As a North American, it’s pretty cool to discover that the food you’re buying is completely free of artifical additives.
Here’s something I made today.
What I already had on hand:
Giant bag of frozen chicken breasts
Half a bag of dry rice
Two year old bottle of lime juice (mmmm, gimlets)
Wee bit o’ brown sugar from a haphazard baking project
Obligatory can of green beans
What I bought at the store for $10:
8 rolls of toilet paper (not part of recipe)
1 bottle cream soda (Ethan asked what it tasted like)
1 bottle green tea (mommy had a caffeine headache)
1 onion
1 bunch of coriander (aka cilantro)
1 can of green curry paste
1 can coconut milk
We eat, drink, and wipe our butts ’round these parts.
1. Make the rice. Follow the directions on the bag, but substitute 1/4 of the needed water with coconut milk. Go ahead and throw it all in there with some salt.
2. Using a deep frying pan, fry a whole chopped onion with 1-2 tablespoons of the curry paste for about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the rest of the coconut milk and a half cup of water and bring it to a boil. Stir it up until it looks slightly green.
3. Add chopped up pieces of two raw chicken breasts, drained green beans and a big tablespoon of lime juice. [Leave out the chicken breasts and add firm tofu if you want, or more veggies.] Simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes or until the chicken/tofu/veggies are done. Add a handful of brown sugar and a bit of salt and stir. Let it sit for a few minutes while the sauce continues to thicken, then serve over the coconut rice with chopped coriander.
I ate a little too much, but I expect that if you eat like a normal person instead of eating like someone is threatening to take your plate away, you could easily serve 4-5 with this meal. Just make lots of rice.
Also, I was a little worried that this dish would be too spicy for Ethan, but the green curry paste didn’t blow his little head off. In fact, this dish is E-endorsed as “very tasty” with “lots of flavor.” While I know the ingredients on this list are a bit more expensive that you’d expect me to include, it’s using what I already have with a bit of interesting other stuff, for the most part avoiding the expensive produce aisle — and no freaking additives. Unless you count the lime juice. And the hormones in the chicken. But I digress. Considering that it will provide me carry-in lunch at work for probably three days? Cheap.
Ooh, I already had dinner planned tonight and now you go and make me crave green curry. And hey, your town can’t be all bad if it’s got a good Asian market (if my town has one, I haven’t found it yet, and I’m starting to die a little inside). Usually even the rice is cheaper there than in the supermarket. Plus, as you say, no additives. If the so-called third world can manage additive-free food, why can’t we? I thought we were like Best Country Evar.
That sounds like pretty good stuff.
I probably could have made something from the ingredients I had on hand, but the curry sounds so much more exciting.
Yeah, if you’ve got a whole range of foreign food shops at your disposal you’re in pretty good shape.
Ha. Okay. I have two. There’s one on campus near my house that kicks serious ass and one a good drive away. It’s okay living on campus if you avoid the students.
Oh. Still, I have zero, so far as I know. Thanks for the recipe, though.
I could seriously eat curry all day. Haven’t tried the green chicken one though, hmm
Yeah, curry is pretty easy and fairly cheap. If you have a decent Indian grocery around and can get your hands on some Jaffna style or Madras style curry powder, I can give you loads of recipes. My husband is Sri Lankan and we eat curry here several times a week. In fact, I have frozen crab thawing in the fridge right now for a killer crab curry tomorrow.
When we lived in Hawaii, we ate curry stew a lot. You bought it mostly from lunch trucks served “plate lunch” style–scoop of curry, scoop of potato/mac salad, two scoops sticky rice and lots of shoyu! I learned early on not to eat that and go back to work, all the carbs would make me want to put my head down on my desk! It was basically beef stew with curry powder, here’s a link to a good recipe: http://www.hawaiitravelnewsletter.com/recipes/curry-stew.htm
Another variety was seafood or shrimp curry, which usually included the coconut milk too.
Yummy.
Generally the leaves are referred to as cilantro, and the seeds (whole or ground) are reffered to as coriander. FYI.
You vegetarians and your crazy “words.”
We don’t even use tofu for our vegetarian version, just whatever stirfryable veges (plus a teaspoon each of garlic and raw ginger) happen to be floating around.
Warning….like most curries it’ll be way hotter when you reheat it next day.
Speaking of cheap asian supermarket food, a packet of crispy fried garlic is cheap, saves you from crushing garlic and will last for ages (and you can whizz it up for coatings).
1. Mmmm. Cilantro. It’s making an incredibly strong run at basil as my second-favorite (green) spice. It will not, of course, upset rosemary as my absolute favorite. Rosemary goes into all sorts of bizarre places normal spices wouldn’t (try it on a salad, for example), but then again, maybe it’s not surprising since teh gays are appreciative of things like that.
2. Shut up. Green curry? *SHAMELESS PLUG* I featured that in my Food Pr0n a while back. The main differences between our recipes are a) I prefer to fry my tofu a bit, b) I loves me the green bell peppers in it, and c) you told people to cook the rice ahead of time instead of hitting them over the head with it at the last minute. Tons more professional than my “Oh by the way, you want to have rice to serve this on” at the very end.
3. When are we getting details about the HUHO wiki or whatever? I’m totally in on this. It’ll be like a normal recipe exchange except a little less faggy, since we won’t have to use those ridiculous “From Grandma’s Kitchen” recipe cards.
(PS - There’s a new Lebanese grocer around the corner from what I call “The Bodega”, which you’re probably familiar with, in the Village. They have some fantastic cheeses, but the rest of the stuff is still uninvestigated.)
I’ll be posting HUHO recipes, too. Here’s mine: Cheap Split Pea Soup That’s Quite Good and Vegan, Too. If you have less than ten dollars to your name and more than three people to feed and would prefer not to eat your own ass, it’s really a good recipe!
oooohtrysomeBasiltooitisverygoodingreenCurry.SorryaboutthetypingourSpacebarhasJustGonetoGod.
Green and red curries are pretty good with just about any stirfried vegestables and coconut milk. Just chop the veggies up, fry them, add coconut milk and curry (if you want a stronger curry flavour, add it while frying).
If I include chicken in my version, I usually fry it before the veggies, and then add it together with the coconut milk.