Luckily for both you and me, this ended up being a very delicious dinner that pulled double duty, creating a full fledged 2 meals for 4-5 people. Oh snap. On top of it all, the original dinner was vegetarian (and easily made to be vegan) and the second version, actually vegan.
I've probably lost you and you're likely wondering what it is I'm blathering on about. Well, if you'll recall, Michelle over at Thursday Night Smackdown hosts Hobo/Tight Ass Tuesday the first Tuesday of every month. And every month has themes. This month, we were charged with creating a fusion dish all while keeping it to $5 for 2 or $4 for 10. Fusion cuisine: Why bastardize one culture when you can shame as many as possible at once? For a while I was stumped. I was baffled. What could I possibly do?
Not wanting to be "that guy" and throw fallafel in a taco shell, I devised the following. It occurred to me that Italian and Thai cooking share a number of ingredients, concepts and even cooking methods. With this realization, I started formulating something of a curry tomato cream sauce.
Thai Red Curry, Tomato and Coconut Milk Sauce with Ravioli
2 tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
2 tbs thai red curry
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
zest of 1 lime
1 tsp sugar
7 oz lite coconut milk
salt and pepper
1 60 pieces ravioli
Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add garlic and onion. Cook until onion starts to become translucent. Add curry and mix well. When the curry becomes fragrant, after about a minute or two, add tomatoes, lime and sugar. Let simmer for 30-40 minutes. Blend thoroughly. (I love my immersion blender) Add the coconut milk and let simmer for at least another 20 minutes. Meanwhile, boil the water for and cook the pasta. Season the sauce to taste, plate and serve!
You will only need about half the sauce for 5 servings of ravioli.
Pan Fried Potato Crisps
4 medium white potatoes
cooking spray
salt
Wash potatoes well and slice 1/3" thick. Heat 12" sauce pan or skillet. Coat well with cooking spray. Place potatoes in a single layer in the pan. You will probably need to do this in two batches. Cook until browned, about 10 minutes, flip and do the same on the other side. Remove from heat, sprinkle with salt on both sides. Enjoy.
Cost Break Down
olive oil - pantry
garlic - pantry
onion - FREE!
tomatoes - $0.50
sugar - pantry
curry - pantry
lime zest - (what the hell is the zest worth? let's say...) $0.25
coconut milk - $0.50
frozen ravioli - $2.67
potatoes - FREE!
cooking spray - pantry
Total: $3.92 for 5 servings or $0.784 each.
So, first, the free potatoes and onions came with a coupon. We walked into the grocery store last weekend and were handed a coupon. Free 5lb bag of potatoes, 2lb bag of onions and 2lb bag of carrots if you bought of roast of 3lbs or more. So obviously we did. The roast made a lovely meal and leftovers of hot open faced sandwiches. I'm still working my way through some of the root vegetables. Obviously. Also helping with the price is truly that only half the sauce is needed. Don't worry, that was used and has all been eaten as well. So has the poor zested lime in my new favorite addiction.
For the other portion of sauce... Peel 4 white potatoes. Cut into about 1/2" cubes. Boil for 15-20 minutes until soft. Drain. Combine sauce, potatoes and about 3/4 bag thawed frozen peas. Heat through, serve over rice.
