If you haven’t had this type of porridge before, you may be a bit confused here. When I say porridge, most people think of that as the sludge that Goldilocks ate in the Three Bears’ house - some sort of oatmeal connoction for breakfast.

The porridge I’m talking about is made with rice, and can be plain (basically just rice and water), flavored (either sweet or savory), and contain various different things like stew beef, fish, tofu, vegetables, and pickled items. I live in a community that is predominantly Asian, so I actually see this all the time on menus. Sometimes it’s called porridge, but most frequently I see it listed as “Congee” in Hong Kong style cafes.

I believe there are 3 different kinds. I think that the Taiwanese version is cooked with sweet potatoes in it and the Mandarin (mainland China) version is completely plain with just rice and water. Most of the time people eat other savory side dishes along with the porridge since it’s pretty plain. But the Cantonese (Hong Kong) style version is actually pre-flavored with chicken or fish stock and often contains cooked items in it. Don’t quote me on all this, I think there is a lot of interchange in the styles…

As far as equivalents for other nationalities go, it seems to me like a really watery version of Italian risotto. Whatever it’s called, and whoever makes it, I really like rice porridge.

Some people also call this type of porridge gruel. It’s a way to stretch out rice, wheat, or whatever cooked grain you’d like. I really don’t like the use of the word “gruel”, because besides being associated with something that is fed to starving orphans it reminds me too much of the word GRUE. (For those of you that didn’t play Zork, this is akin to a really ugly troll that will eat you.)

It also sounds an awful lot like “cruel” which it most certainly is not. It is actually quite kind on the stomach. If you are not feeling to well, this is sort of the Asian equivalent of having Chicken Soup. I put a lot of ginger in it as well, which I think is supposed to help with stomach problems.

Ok, so I’m no expert at making this, but this is my version of the Hong Kong style pre-flavored rice porridge:

Chinese Rice Porridge

1-2 cups of cooked rice — $0.15
1 can Chicken Stock — $0.50
Brown Onion (1/8 a $.50 onion) — $0.06
Cilantro or Parsley (1/8 $0.69 bunch) — $0.08
1 inch square of ginger — $0.25
Salt / pepper / water — negligible

Total: $1.04

You will have to experiment with the ratio of rice to chicken stock in order to produce the type of porridge you like. The above proportions are just guides.

Peel and mince up the ginger and slice up the onion thin. In a medium sized pot pour in chicken stock and about 1 can worth of water and add the brown onion. Bring it to a boil and then let it cook for about 3 minutes more. Add the ginger and cooked rice to the pot, breaking up the rice with a spoon. Turn heat to low and let simmer for about 10-25 minutes, stirring every so often.

The amount of time here is dependent on how “glutinous” you want your porridge to be. It also affects the amount of breakdown in the rice. Some people also chop up the rice to get it finer. Also, be carefull not to add TOO much rice or you’ll end up with a mixture that’s nearly solid. In general, put in less rice than you think you need to, since the rice expands and the released starch will thicken the mixture further.

When you’ve got it to the consistency you want, spoon the mixture into a bowl, throw in the cilantro or parsley (I don’t usually eat this but it gives it a fresh flavor, omit it if you don’t want to) and add salt/pepper to taste and serve.

Continue reading “Chinese Rice Porridge” …

I nearly always have some bacon around, because it tends to last a little longer in the fridge (several months?) than some other lunch meats and because it is usable for flavoring many things. (I’m not going to get into any fights with you health nuts out there - yeah I know that bacon ain’t the best for your plumbing).

Many pastas that I end up making involve some sort of bacon. I think the important thing is that because it’s high in the flavor department, you can pretty much get away with using only TWO strips of bacon for a one serving dish of pasta. It stretches the bacon out a bit and will no doubt please people concerned with cholesterol or fat.

Quick Bacon Pasta

Two slices bacon (from $4.00 pkg) — $0.25
Any Dry Pasta like Macaroni(4 oz of $0.99 8 oz bag) — $0.50
Parmesan cheese (1/4 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.11
Olive oil (1 tbsp of $4.00 12 fl. oz bottle) — $0.17
Butter (1 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.13
Milk (1/2 cup from $4.19 1/2 gallon lactaid) — $0.26
Chicken Stock (1/2 a $.50 can) — $0.25
Brown Onion (1/8 a $.50 onion) — $0.06
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $1.79

Get a large pot of water going on the stove. Meanwhile, mince the brown onion and parsley and cut up the bacon into bite sized pieces. Fry the bacon in a skillet at low heat until extra crispy, remove to a paper lined plate and blot the oil. Set that aside for now, in the oven if you want.. I actually learned that taking it out of the pan and then adding it back only at the very end keeps the bacon more crispy. If you don’t care about that, you can leave the bacon in the pan and continue.

Drain off all but 1 tbsp or so of fat. Add 1/2 tbsp of olive oil. Add brown onion and cook for about three minutes or so on med heat. Turn up heat to high and deglaze the pan with chicken stock and milk, scraping it well. Sometimes I use a tbsp of vodka or white wine as well, but it’s not necessary. Reduce heat and simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes. You want it to thicken a bit. Watch out for the mixture foaming over though. You might need to add a bit of water and reduce heat.

When water boils, salt it and add macaroni. Cook till al dente then drain (don’t rinse or sauce won’t stick to pasta). Add pasta to skillet and toss well. Add parsley, parm cheese, butter and 1/2 tbsp olive oil if it’s too dry. Cook for about 1-2 minutes more. Off heat add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle the reserved bacon on top and serve.

Continue reading “Quick Bacon Pasta” …

Garlic bread is a huge favorite to make. In the past, I’ve had some mixed results with different methods until I stumbled upon a Cook’s Illustrated recipe for garlic bread. That set me straight in several respects, and I can turn out some pretty good ones usually and fairly cheaply as well. The two most important things are oven heat and roasting the garlic first!

Garlic Bread

1/2 loaf french bread (1/2 of $1.19 large loaf) — $0.60
8 medium cloves garlic (about 1 head) — $0.33
Parmesan cheese (1/4 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.11
Butter (2 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.26
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Kosher Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $1.36

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Yes, that’s right 500 degrees. You need blastingly high heat to make it, otherwise the tops will be soggy.

Mince up parsley and set aside. Cut up the butter in small bowl and allow to come to room temperature. Meanwhile, separate head of garlic into cloves, no need to peel the papery skins off! Toast them in small skillet, shaking pan frequently about 8-10 minutes on low heat, or until small burnt marks appear on outside.

Allow to cool, then peel and mince finely. Add to butter, and add in Parmesan cheese, about 1/4 tsp of pepper and about 1/8 tsp (or less) of kosher salt. (You may not need the salt at all, because Parm cheese is salty). Mix well. You should have a paste, but the butter should still be semi-solid.

Cut bread in half (or, you can use the whole loaf, just double the rest of the ingredients). Now slice the bread down the center so you have a top and bottom half. Spread garlic butter mixture on top of both sides. Place on cookie sheet and bake in oven for 10-12 minutes. Cut the bread crosswise with a sharp knife into finger food sized pieces. Sprinkle parsley on top.

Continue reading “Garlic Bread” …

I find there’s a lot of uses for canned cream of mushroom soup, the majority of which are casseroles. So I try to keep a few cans around all the time. Actually, the key is to buy ‘em in bulk (6 for $3?) at CostCo once again because as the bottom of this particular can I’m looking at says, it will last until MARCH 2007. That’s 2 years! Cheap Eats pantry heaven. Plus you can get your Andy Warhol fix having all those soup cans lined up…

Anyhow, I actually like cream of mushroom soup plain as it is, straight up, just add water. Seriously, I don’t even add milk sometimes. I can hear you cringe. But it’s actually really good and surprisingly filling. Here’s a sample:

A Mushroom Soup Lunch

Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup (1 can) — $0.50
French Bread (1 small mini loaf) — $0.25

Salt / pepper / water — negligible

Total: $0.75

Put Campbell’s soup in pot. Add water. Bring to boil stirring often, or it will burn on the bottom like no tomorrow. Meanwhile put your bread in the toaster and toast it up. Put soup in a large, no, HUGE bowl. Help yourself to bread. Yum!

Duhrr.. I know, there’s more to it than that. And you don’t want to do that every day. But that’s 75 cents for a pretty good lunch. I actually use crackers (saltines are a favorite)

Mushroom soup gets really useful when you use it as a base for sauces. The stuff is condensed so it’s actually really tasty. (Health-concerned cheap eaters should be concerned that it has a bunch of MSG in it… but that’s another tale.) I’ll be posting some of those recipes later, but you can basically use it to make anything from Turkey A La King to Tuna Casserole to Smothered Chicken. What makes a difference is the amount of dilution and what you use to dilute it (water, milk, chicken stock). It also makes pretty durned fast gravy.

Actually, here’s a “Chicken Bake” right off the can:

Chicken Bake

Campbell’s Mushroom Soup (1 can) — $0.50
2 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast Halves - $2.00
pepper / water — negligible

Total: $2.50

I modified this to a half recipe, plus I like more gravy! Place chicken in 2 qt. baking dish, glass is good. Spread soup evenly over the chicken and cover it. You probably want to dilute the soup a bit w/ water and add some black pepper.

Bake the whole shebang for 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Take it out. That’s it.

Continue reading “Campbells Mushroom Soup” …

There’s about a billion ways to make Pasta with Ham. Ham is a really resiliant form of Cheap Eats because it lasts so long in the fridge. This goes for both packaged ham steaks and for larger whole hams. My absolute favorite thing to do is to make this near the holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. Why? Because someone ALWAYS makes a whole ham and I’ve never been to a family gathering that didn’t have leftovers from it. Usually, the relatives have to cajole someone to take home some of the ham. I’m the first to signup, however. Leftover ham also makes great fried rice, sandwiches, etc. The below recipe assumes storebought ham, but subtract 75 cents from the final price if you can get it for free!

Pasta with Ham and Parmesan

Cubed Ham (1/4 of $3.00 hamsteak) — $0.75
Any Dry Pasta like Rotini (4 oz of $0.99 8 oz bag) — $0.50
Parmesan cheese (1/4 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.11
Olive oil (1 tbsp of $4.00 12 fl. oz bottle) — $0.17
Butter (1 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.13
Milk (1/2 cup from $4.19 1/2 gallon lactaid) — $0.26
Chicken Stock (1/2 a $.50 can) — $0.25
Brown Onion (1/8 a $.50 onion) — $0.06
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $2.29

Get a large pot of water going on the stove. Meanwhile, mince the brown onion and parsely and cube the ham. In a large skillet heat olive oil and add ham. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until browned, then add brown onion. Cook for another 2 minutes. Turn up heat to high and deglaze the pan with chicken stock and milk. Reduce heat and simmer mixture for 5-10 minutes. Watch out for the mixture foaming up too muich. If that happens, reduce the heat. When water boils, salt it and add macaroni. Cook till al dente then drain (don’t rinse or sauce won’t stick to pasta). Add pasta to skillet and toss well. Add parsley and parm cheese and cook for about 1 minute more. Off heat add butter, salt and pepper to taste. Mix and serve.

Continue reading “Pasta With Ham” …

I hesitate to call this a true Oyster Poorboy because the oysters aren’t deep fried or rolled in cornmeal or any of that other stuff. Plus I make it using oysters from a can. It’s more like an oyster sandwich. I find that it tastes really good though, and I can do with the flour-only coating. Depending on where you live, you are probably able to get oysters that are better tasting, fresher, and cheaper, but for me the can is the only easy way to go. I think they may come in jar too. By the way, oysters are a pretty much self-sustainable, non-polluting form of aqua-culture. I believe it’s one of the few like that. So you can eat your oyster sandwich and feel good about the environment… well, maybe.

Homemade Oyster Poorboy

Can of Oysters (1 small can) — $2.50
French Bread (1 small loaf) — $0.25
Mayo (1-2 tbsp of $2.00 jar) — $0.08
Parsley (1/4 cup chopped from $0.69 bunch) — $0.06
Flour (1/4 cup from $1.50 bag) — $0.03
Corn Oil (2 tbsp from $2.00 bottle) — $0.05
Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $2.97

Chop parsley fine. Mix in small bowl with mayonnaise, add a bit of salt if you like. Drain the oysters from the can (save the oyster liqueur if you want). In a ziploc bag put in the flour, salt, pepper. Dump the oysters in there, seal and shake a bit. Heat oil in a nonstick pan. In meantime, put cut a pocket in the french bread and toast it if you like. When oil is hot, fry oysters until golden brown. Dry them on paper towel lined plate. Spread some mayo mixture on bread and shove as many oysters as you can in there. Sandwich is done.

Continue reading “Oyster Poorboy” …

I make this quite a bit, but don’t have a picture handy just right now to show. This is not only fast because it uses the microwave, but tastes halfway decent. You can, of course, simply buy a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or any number of other substitutes for around $1.50 to $2.50. I think that as far as Cheap Eats goes, this might beat them out if only slightly. It probably doesn’t beat out instant ramen recipes in price, but you can’t possibly eat that every day.

Macaroni Noodles w/ Parmesean Cheese

Macaroni (4 oz of $0.99 8 oz bag) — $0.50
Parmesan cheese (1/2 oz of $3.50 8oz can) — $0.22
Olive oil (1 tbsp of $4.00 12 fl. oz bottle) — $0.17
Butter (1 tbsp of $1.00 4 oz stick) — $0.13
Salt / pepper — negligible

Total: $1.02

Boil some water in a pot. Chuck in the macaroni with some salt and cook it until done. Drain it. Put it in a big microwave safe bowl, pour the olive oil and parmesan cheese over it and mix well. Throw in some black pepper. Put in the pat of butter and mix. Nuke the whole thing, but not too long. Maybe a minute, unless you’re starting with cold noodles. Mix again. Eat.

Continue reading “Macaroni Parmesan Noodles” …