PanchoHambre
New member
possibly this should go in the frugal cooking forum
this weekend i paid a visit to the Asian grocery nearby to "pick up a couple things" I rely on them for reasonable seafood, quality soy sauce, and these tasty frozen dumplings. In general my cooking veers towards the Western and South American I am sort of lost with the Eastern flavors and methods I tend to think of it as stuff to eat out.
But in any grocery I am like a kid in a candy store and like to buy and try new things. This time one item that caught my eye were these little cans of curry paste that cost a dollar and came in umpteen varieties they look like this
at a buck a pop, worth a try -
when I got home i googled them and they seemed to be in pretty high regard on blogs and such - tonight I gave the first one a go the other thing i discovered is that most of "varieties" have nearly exact ingredient lists but different instructions. The ingredients are also pretty solid for a canned product really just spices, sugar, salt, chili no strange chemicals (some contain MSG - not all)
I am really impressed - a can of paste, a can of Cocoanut milk (total cost less than $3 enough for 4 people) a dash of fish sauce for good measure - made an amazingly authentic and good tasting curry - I just did a veg and tofu saute but many of the instructions call for meat and fish -
I have so many times spent more money on Trader Joes curry "simmer sauces" to be disappointed with a cloying sweet flat quality I could never manage to get past - this cheap little can laps them for flavor.
the only caution the one i used - was quite hot - too hot for most people i know - almost too hot for me and I like reasonably hot and spicy foods. (i did toast a chili in my cooking oil which may have bumped it up)
I do not usually give shout outs to "products" but this one was cheap, had a safe ingredient list, and is definitely something I am not going to replicate with ease.
I also think there are probably alot of more creative uses for the pastes and at a buck a can it's safe to play.
this weekend i paid a visit to the Asian grocery nearby to "pick up a couple things" I rely on them for reasonable seafood, quality soy sauce, and these tasty frozen dumplings. In general my cooking veers towards the Western and South American I am sort of lost with the Eastern flavors and methods I tend to think of it as stuff to eat out.
But in any grocery I am like a kid in a candy store and like to buy and try new things. This time one item that caught my eye were these little cans of curry paste that cost a dollar and came in umpteen varieties they look like this
at a buck a pop, worth a try -
when I got home i googled them and they seemed to be in pretty high regard on blogs and such - tonight I gave the first one a go the other thing i discovered is that most of "varieties" have nearly exact ingredient lists but different instructions. The ingredients are also pretty solid for a canned product really just spices, sugar, salt, chili no strange chemicals (some contain MSG - not all)
I am really impressed - a can of paste, a can of Cocoanut milk (total cost less than $3 enough for 4 people) a dash of fish sauce for good measure - made an amazingly authentic and good tasting curry - I just did a veg and tofu saute but many of the instructions call for meat and fish -
I have so many times spent more money on Trader Joes curry "simmer sauces" to be disappointed with a cloying sweet flat quality I could never manage to get past - this cheap little can laps them for flavor.
the only caution the one i used - was quite hot - too hot for most people i know - almost too hot for me and I like reasonably hot and spicy foods. (i did toast a chili in my cooking oil which may have bumped it up)
I do not usually give shout outs to "products" but this one was cheap, had a safe ingredient list, and is definitely something I am not going to replicate with ease.
I also think there are probably alot of more creative uses for the pastes and at a buck a can it's safe to play.
