I’m in the mood for some chiles.
I found a couple of recipes on Epicurious that sound pretty easy and tempting. Here are a couple of ideas that might work:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beef-Tenderloin-Steaks-with-Chili-Sauce-102999
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Monster-Shrimp-with-Orange-Chili-Glaze-235199
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Corn-and-Green-Chili-Chowder-4349
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Bucatini-in-Fiery-Chili-Garlic-Paste-107544
(Bucatini are spaghetti-like noodles that have a hole through the center. Spaghetti or linguini would substitute quite well.)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Seared-Duck-Breast-with-Chili-Honey-Ginger-Glaze-102303
(This one is just a bit more complex than the others. Don’t worry about the “when the duck has rendered it’s fat” part. That’s a very simple concept. As we’ve all experienced, as you cook meat slowly over a lower flame, fat comes out of the meat. What you want to do is cook the duck breast slowly over a medium to low heat until the fat has “rendered,” and then the lack of excess fat and the cooking process will cause the skin of the duck breast to become crispy. This is a very good thing! Crispy skin is necessary on duck breast, and rendered duck fat has many, many amazing uses! The flavor of duck fat is to die for! You can even use rendered duck fat to make some out-of-this-world cornbread! Once the fat has rendered, if you’re having trouble achieving a crispy skin, you might want to increase the heat slightly on the duck breast and even pour off the excess fat earlier than the recipe suggests. You don’t need all of the rendered fat in the pan in order to cook the breast on the second side.)
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/skirt-steak-with-creamed-corn-and-poblanos
(I include this last one one from Food and Wine (http://www.foodandwine.com/) because I’ve made it before and it’s incredibly fast and unbelievably easy. I also happen to be an absolute nut for sour cream! Skirt steak is that long, skinny piece of meat from the belly of the cow. It’s a tougher piece of meat, but the flavor is great. If you don’t mind the steak cooling off while you cook the corn, and you don’t own a grill or a grill pan for the steak and are going to compromise on that particular step, as I always end up doing, I highly recommend first cooking the steak with a little butter in the pan that you’re going to use to cook the corn, and then using the fat and seasonings from the steak in place of the olive oil in the recipe for the corn. It tastes amazing!)
Now the only question is: Which recipe is the cheapest one to make? Oh, how I adore eating on a budget. . .