A Low Budget Wonder!

Budget & Find Those Deals

This is what The Poor Man’s Gourmet Kitchen is all about! Eating well and not paying out the A-R-S doing it! I always get comments about the photo’s my wife and I post on all the top sharing sites. It seems that some think my recipes contradict the very idea I preach about; gourmet meals at a low budget wonder. But, I’m telling you folks it can be done very easily, and you don’t have to store up all of your coupons like all of those super moms that Groupon all the time.

Take these crab legs for example. These are called Santolla Reds, and most days they’re cheaper than Jumbo Shrimp. Here’s the really crazy thing… they are the size of King Crab legs! And, they look and taste just like them. To be completely honest, just a little bit saltier is all. So what… use unsalted butter and they are fantastic. I usually buy 4 to 5 lbs of these Santolla Red Crab Legs for under $40 bucks and it feeds my whole family, with left over’s. Try getting ½ a pound of King Crab Legs and a Baked Potato at any restaurant for under $26 dollars!

Budget those Threats

How about these Crawfish? Do you see the Budget price listed on the front of the carts in the pic above? It even got down to 99 cents a lbs shortly after I took this photo. Ironically, some guy on my Crawfish video freaked out on me, the other day, about it. He called me a liar and proclaimed in his well educated text, “no where is america its sold for 99 Cent per pound”. Shortly there after he threatened to come after me and get me evicted from my house when I proved to him they are. See for your self in the comment thread.

Budget and Save

Anyway, if you don’t budget and you’re paying top dollar for everything you are trying to cook at home, then you are either stuck on the wrong website or you are severely trying to learn. So if you haven’t closed out this blog yet and your still reading, and you truly want to know the trade secret to paying less, then whip out your note pad app and write this down: start talking to the chefs, start talking to the butchers, start talking to anybody and everyone that handles the service behind the refrigerated counters, AND(wait for it), MAKE NICE! Get in good with them; shit, flirt a little. It’s not going to hurt you. I’m telling you from experience and matter of factually, if you get in good with them, you’ll get in good with the prices and you will Budget and Save big!

My Hobbie My Headache!

I love to cook. I love to eat. I absolutely love food. But! I don’t eat drink and sleep recipes. I can’t stand all day in a kitchen preparing meals for others that I’m simply not going to be able to sit down and enjoy for myself. Though I love the critics, and I enjoy the compliments, if I’m going to endure a full day stand in the kitchen I’m going to inherit a headache.

Moderation is the key for good cooking I think; at least it is for me. I’ve got to resonate after I take in a good meal and process what I can do better next time. Putting it down on paper doesn’t seem to help. In fact it’s actually something I avoid wholeheartedly. Doing the blog, the facebook page and the Youtube channel weren’t even things that I originally wanted to do, like, at all. My brother talked me into it. And the problem I find myself repeating constantly is making the time to write down these recipes that I’m constantly perfecting on a daily basis.

As you can see here, I’m clearly cooking. There’s the evidence right in front of you. But, I ask myself, “Is this something others want to be cooking?”, “Are these secrets that I even want to be giving away?! It’s really tough to swallow sometimes. A ton of hard work goes into making a dish something that everyone wants and loves to eat, then just hand over the recipes.

Why do others do it? We see it all over the web these days right? What’s the payoff? Advertising! Commercials, product placement and pay per clicks. Guess what though. You’ve got to be getting hundreds if not thousands of ad clicks a day to see any results from that kind of gig before you even see a dime. I haven’t. not even one red cent. Not that I’m complaining, I just want you to recognize that some people just love what they do so much they feel like keeping things to themselves. That way our hobbies don’t become headaches and we don’t become slaves to the pills that stop the pain.

I don’t want that for me; headaches that kill the passion I have for my hobbies. As long as I can share the things that I’ve learned through my education and experimentation, I’ll keep cranking out recipes for Poor Mans Gourmet Kitchen. But like any true artist out there, sometimes you’ve got to wait for the release of a masterpiece!

On a lighter note, here are a few concoctions I’ve been thinking about writing about. If any of these recipes catch your attention I’d like to know about it. There’s a Lo mein noodle that is as good as any restaurant or fast food I’ve ever had; grilled Salmon smothered in a sweet and sour sauce with veggies; Nachos… baked; Ceviche Tilapia; fresh Chicken Tequitos; and last but not least, a Chicken Wrap with a Peanut Lime sauce!

Beef, Chicken or Shrimp Curry Recipe

I love a good Curry Recipe

There are a lot of different traditions out there when it comes to making curry. If you read about it, you’ll find that it is more or less complex combinations of spices and/or herbs, usually including fresh or dried hot chilies. Many Asian and Indian cultures have different methods in their preparations as well. There are two ways to make curry; dry or wet curry. This curry recipe that I’m going to be sharing with everyone is preparing a wet curry. Wet curries contain significant amounts of sauce or gravy based on yoghurt, coconut milk, legume purée (dal), or stock. And the easiest way I can show you how to do it is with coconut milk, not to be confused with coconut cream(very important).

Curry Recipe

1 12 oz can coconut milk

2 tbls curry powder

Salt and Pepper to taste

One 12 oz can of coconut milk, 2 tbls of curry is all you’re going to need for the basic curry recipe. Heat a pan on High Heat, add the milk and stir in the curry. As soon as it comes to a complete boil remove it from the heat immediately and then add salt and pepper to taste. Now, this basic sauce can be turned into anything and will set up and get really thick in the refrigerator if you want to save it for other things; cold curry chicken salad for example is one of my favorites. 7 oz of pulled cooked chicken breast to 1 ½ oz of curry dressing and a handful of raisons mixed together and mashed into a snowball sized lump in the middle of your favorite greens makes for an excellent chicken salad. However, using the curry recipe right away for a Masala over rice like what I have demonstrated in the photo is just as easy but will take a few other preparations to kick it up a notch.

Wikipedia says a survey found that of 48 different Tikki Masala recipes, the only common ingredient was chicken; which tells me you can substitute anything you want in the curry recipe and completely make it your own! All I did here is diced up some bell pepper, green onions, pureed a couple of tomatoes in a blender with a clove of garlic and pinch of Cumin, and I was ready to roll. Originally I was going to make the Tikki, meaning chicken, but I remembered that I already had a cooked beef brisket in the refrigerator; so essentially that alone cut my cooked time in half right there.

Here’s how I did it: In a hot skillet a few tbls of canola oil, added the diced green onions and bell pepper and sautéed for just a minute before I added the sliced brisket portion. Now the beauty to doing this yourself people is that you can add as much onion, pepper, beef brisket, chicken, shrimp, WHATEVER as you want. Completely make this dish your own! Now, after you toss all of that together for just a few minutes add and combine your curry and your tomato puree. Add if you happen to have some cilantro, now is a good time to add that too. I know cilantro is one of those things you either love or you hate it. Anyway, just let this reduce just a bit, maybe 10 minutes is all and serve over your favorite rice. Now if you don’t want the Masala and you want to just stick with the curry, NO PROBLEM! Just eliminate the tomato puree and add the garlic to the pan directly instead, it’s just that simple. But don’t stop here, look around and experiment with your own curry recipe and make it your own.