Economy gastronomy

[fifyfomum]

I want to put forward my endlessly useful cashew/pumpkin seed soy sauce topping.
Simply fry cashews (nuts and seeds are interchangeable) in hot oil until slightly browned and then throw a couple of tbsp of soy sauce at them. The soy sauce will cling to the nuts (oo eer) and add a lovely, salty, crunch topping to any stir fry or asian curry. We love doing this as it gets nuts and seeds in the kids belly’s and can really jazz up a sad stir fry if we’ve little in

 

[Witchfinder Sargeant]

The anti-Jack Monroe budget recipes thread, a slop-free zone for all your good cheap eats.

(HT Allegra McEvedy for the thread title).

 

[skronkywildcat]

This Dahl is so cheap and so delicious. You can have it cold in a wrap with tomatoes the next day and it's a great packed lunch thing.

A guide to lentils & basic tarka dhal recipe | Features | Jamie Oliver

Lentils can be a very important part of a vegetarian diet, so here is a quick guide to those lovely pulses and a basic recipe for a wicked tarka dhal.

www.jamieoliver.com

 

[hoopdedoo]

Ricotta-spinach pasta, for 2
(sorry, I am a rude colonial, so not all measurements will be by weight)

6 nuggets of frozen spinach, or approx 200g fresh spinach
1/2 cup ricotta
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1/3 cup parmesan or other grated sharp cheese
red pepper flakes, or nutmeg
2 cups fusilli pasta
Equipment: two saucepans, strainer

- For frozen spinach, boil until it's unfrozen, then drain the water into the other saucepan and use that to cook the pasta. For fresh spinach, wash it and remove the stems, and and boil the pasta separately.
- Put the butter or marg into the saucepan, melt it at a medium-low heat, and then cook the spinach in it until the spinach is limp and most of the moisture in it has evaporated. Turn the heat to low, stir in the ricotta, parmesan, and whatever spice you choose, and simmer for a couple of minutes.
- When pasta has cooked, drain it and then add it to the ricotta/spinach sauce and stir it until the pasta is coated in the sauce. Serve with extra cheese if desired.

This recipe is pretty much idiot-proof, as I have demonstrated many times. The proportions don't have to be exact, so if you have a bit more or a bit less of something, it will still work.

 

[hereforthechaos]

Apologies for the use of a bullet blender but pea pesto is a chaos favourite. Blend frozen peas, a clove or two of garlic, mint and sunflower seeds/almonds/walnuts depending on taste and budget and some hard cheese. I'm vegan and use lidls parmesan style offering but it works without any tbh. Blitz with olive oil, until a nice texture is obtained. Stir through spaghetti. Quantities are really to personal preference.
Sunflower seeds are much cheaper than pine nuts and work in other pesto recipes.

 

[I'm not actually here]

I've never had much luck with vinegar. Got a recipe, dearheart?

Lesson learned from last night. Don't be dead organised and take all your empty bottles to the recycling and then start buying wine in boxes. Tortillas are very hard to roll out with a wine box.

 

[UnPickled]

If you've never made tortilla wraps, they're cheap, very easy and I'm certain most people will have the ingredients in their cupboard (Flour, oil and salt). I use this recipe, https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/tortillas but make four huge 32cm ones most weeks. Bit of time and effort, but nothing complicated. I've messed around with half wholemeal flour, flavoured oils and whacking some chilli powder or paprika in, all with good results.

Honestly the only thing I hate about these is that whenever I try to be lazy and buy a packet, they're always so disappointing now.

Using Jackmaths, 6 tortillas cost 19.5p.

 

[fifyfomum]

Hi all! Just want to report to my trip to ‘the pantry’ which is a national initiative, it works a bit like a food bank but you do pay a small amount in (£5 a week) and you get at least £25 worth of food.
Here’s what I got this week;

Dry spaghetti - Tesco own
3 x passata cartons
2 x tin sardines (always need sardine recipes if anyone has some)
3 tins rice pudding
1 jar marmalade
1 loaf white bread
Tin of danish ham
Squash carrot and fennel soup (an old lady makes these for the pantry and I try snd get them often as they’re sooo yummy
Tin pork and ham
4 ginisters peppered steak slice
Packet blueberries
Packet raspberries
2 x tin dog food
5 x serving cat food
6 handfuls shallots
3 pieces ginger
3 bulbs of garlic
Packet tiny carrots
Packet radishes
Packet leaf greens
2 little gem lettuce
1 packet self raising flour
10 clementines
1 massive courgette
1 summer squash
Packet jersey new potatoes
Loads of rhubarb
Jar of pickled onions (made by local woman)
720g Tesco cornflakes
Tin sweetcorn.

sometimes they have fresh meat, sometimes they have frozen stuff from restaurants and they often get huge bags of rice and things in too.
It reduces our food bill down loads and means I can eat better in the day (veggies etc) without worrying about taking from the kids

 

[fifyfomum]

Highly recommend this courgette masterpiece by Nigel Slater; courgettes are easy to come by at the moment;

https://www.archive.is/oldest/https...o-courgettes-grana-padano-recipe-nigel-slater

 

[CrushedIcePlease]

Ok I’m massively here but for kids:

Wrap pizzas but so bloody tasty

1 x tortilla wrap (per child)
1/4 tin of tomato soup (per child, max tbh)
Cheddar cheese
Other toppings

You all know how to make tortilla pizzas so I won’t patronise you but honestly using tomato soup as the sauce is an absolute massive fucking game changer 🤌

 

[MurielSnark]

Spoiler: Spelling aneurysm

Please note that the cheap and delicious Indian / Pakistani lentil dish that we all love can be spelled in one of three ways:

1. Dal
2. Daal
3. Dhal

Please also note that "Dahl" is a deceased British children's author of Norwegian heritage.

 

[MurielSnark]

In light of Jack's recent collab with Curry's, I'm going to post some recipes here that feature air fryers or pressure cookers. Unlike Jack's cooking, however, these are real recipes, with ingredients that feed and nourish real people but also within reasonable budgets. All from BBC Food.

A gorgeous marmalade here ("more jam please mammapappa"):

Medium-cut Seville orange marmalade recipe

This makes a good jelly set preserve with soft tender peel.

www.bbc.co.uk

Thai red curry (you could veganise this by swapping the chicken for aubergines, equally delicious):

Pressure cooker Thai red curry chicken recipe

Using chicken legs in this Thai red curry ensures maximum flavour, as the pressure cooker quickly extracts all the rich gelatine from the bones.

www.bbc.co.uk

This risotto will knock any of Jack's rice abominations out of the park:

Pressure-cooker risotto with leeks, sun-dried tomatoes and mascarpone recipe

BBC Food

www.bbc.co.uk

This lovely soup looks greats for autumnal eating:

Air fryer roasted red pepper soup recipe

Roasting the vegetables in an air fryer creates extra sweetness and a deep yet bright flavour in this simple soup.

www.bbc.co.uk

Since we all love cheese:

Cheese and tomato chutney turnovers recipe

These simple pies are fried in a little oil rather than being baked, which makes them deliciously crisp and golden. Serve warm with a green salad.

www.bbc.co.uk

A decent burger from Poppy O'Toole, queen of potatoes and air fryers:

Spiced potato burger and coriander fries recipe

'Potato queen' Poppy O'Toole brings out the best of the humble tatty in this vegan potato burger butty served with coriander matchstick fries.

www.bbc.co.uk

An easy take on eggy bread that looks amazing:

Air fryer yoghurt custard toast recipe

As seen on TikTok, this yoghurt custard toast with raspberries is super quick to make in an air fryer. It's also absolutely delicious!

www.bbc.co.uk

Enjoy!

 

[I'm not actually here]

Sort of daal. And no, I've never been shown how to cook so amend as you see fit!!

As many cloves of garlic as you can handle. Don't peel. Just cut off a tiny bit of the pointy end- This lets the clove out later when cooked and soft. Chuck olive oil in a pan and warm up whilst chopping an onion. (I know, I know!) Throw in the chopped onion, and the whole, unpeeled garlic cloves, get sizzling and then turn down low. Go dig in the spice cupboard. My go-tos are garam masala, ground coriander, smoked paprika, turmeric, mustard seeds, ground ginger, chilies which I grow and/or buy from the Asian shops in 1kg packets, or loose in the supermarket (way cheaper, store in airtight containers forever!). Chuck a measure of each to your taste in with the onions and garlic, pref just before you turn the heat down. Cook slowly. Once you can pop the garlic cloves out of their skins, smush them up into the onions and spices and chuck the skins in your Compost bin.

Then, get a tin or jar of precooked lentils, drain it, lob it in. I tend to do veg as side dishes so not included here. Throw a stock cube in, salt and pepper, some water, or wine if you haven't drunk it all, find a lid that vaguely fits your pan, bring up to a decent heat, then simmer gently until you are too hungry to not eat NOW. Stir occasionally, and check liquid. Serve on a plate and bulk it out with side dishes, meat, whatever.

I often prep this on the gas cooker and then chuck it in my hay oven whilst I get on with chores, go for a run etc, which saves hugely on the fuel bill and means it will cook nice and gently without being cremated because I've totally forgotten about it!!!
---

Sort of daal. And no, I've never been shown how to cook so amend as you see fit!!

As many cloves of garlic as you can handle. Don't peel. Just cut off a tiny bit of the pointy end- This lets the clove out later when cooked and soft. Chuck olive oil in a pan and warm up whilst chopping an onion. (I know, I know!) Throw in the chopped onion, and the whole, unpeeled garlic cloves, get sizzling and then turn down low. Go dig in the spice cupboard. My go-tos are garam masala, ground coriander, smoked paprika, turmeric, mustard seeds, ground ginger, chilies which I grow and/or buy from the Asian shops in 1kg packets, or loose in the supermarket (way cheaper, store in airtight containers forever!). Chuck a measure of each to your taste in with the onions and garlic, pref just before you turn the heat down. Cook slowly. Once you can pop the garlic cloves out of their skins, smush them up into the onions and spices and chuck the skins in your Compost bin.

Then, get a tin or jar of precooked lentils, drain it, lob it in. I tend to do veg as side dishes so not included here. Throw a stock cube in, salt and pepper, some water, or wine if you haven't drunk it all, find a lid that vaguely fits your pan, bring up to a decent heat, then simmer gently until you are too hungry to not eat NOW. Stir occasionally, and check liquid. Serve on a plate and bulk it out with side dishes, meat, whatever.

I often prep this on the gas cooker and then chuck it in my hay oven whilst I get on with chores, go for a run etc, which saves hugely on the fuel bill and means it will cook nice and gently without being cremated because I've totally forgotten about it!!!

When I say fuel bills, I cook on a gas stove only in summer, wood burner and outside from Oct 15th ish onwards when we are allowed fires again. Most people have an outside kitchen, which will include brick-built barbecues and pizza/bread ovens. I'm not yet at that stage of civilisation!!! Running out of gas means finding somebody going to the nearest village, having 35e spare, and being prepared for this not to all come together for several days, possibly longer. During summer when I can't just light a fire outside to cook, I become the tightest tightwad on the planet about my gas bottle!
---
Sun tea. Get a large glass jug. Fill with water. Drop a teabag in, or sprigs of mint or any herbal infusion you fancy. Sugar or honey if you want. Cover the top to stop flies and ants getting in. Put in full sun. Wait a few hours for it to brew. Drink. Free.

 

[fifyfomum]

I’m going to share my minestrone recipe, but the way I do mushrooms is soo good and easy to put in anything else.
Chop half a packet of mushrooms per 2 people into cubes, place into COMPLETELY dry and hot pan, they will squeak and steam and shrink in size. When they are small and brown, add a knob of butter and two cloves of minced garlic. Fry until butter has coated and mushrooms are crispy(ish)

remove mushrooms from pan, take pan off heat and reduce heat and add 2tbsp olive oil.
Add a finely diced white onion and cook low and slow for around 10 mins, onions will turn brown and translucent. This step is essential.

then add a glug of balsamic vinegar or butter/oil

add two cloves of garlic, minced and 2tbsp of Italian seasoning

stir through for a minute or two.
Add 2 diced carrots a diced courgette and a tin of mixed beans (drained)

the finer you can be bothered to cut up the veggies, the better. Allow to cook for 5 mins, while making up 250ml (about a mug) of stock.

add a splash of stock to the veggies and cook for a couple more minutes. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes or a carton of passata.

add the rest of the stock, any sweetcorn/peas/fresh veggies that take less cooking and also add a serving (50g?) of broken up spaghetti. Add the mushrooms back in

let the spaghetti take in the fluid, serve warm with a spoon and grate over Parmesan to taste.

We have this for lunch frequently, it’s one pan, takes me 20 mins and feeds our family of 5 on for a total price of about £4, which we reduce with our own veggies from the garden, leftovers, foraged mushrooms and stuff from the pantry. I made it on Sunday and we worked out it was less than £1 to make because of the stuff we get reduced/we grow.
You can do it with just tinned stuff, just frozen stuff and add in loads of random things. I put olives in ours on Sunday and they were delicious

 

[Shimmering]

What's a Mumsnet chicken @Shimmering? #Curious

Also, have you ever tried frying up the chicken skin as a separate thing instead of throwing it out? I've seen Jamie Oliver do it with chicken and fish skin, which he then crumbles up and sprinkles on the dish -- like a distinct element that brings another texture to the meal.

The Burmese-English cook MiMi Aye also does this. Sprinkles chicken skin with salt, pepper and MSG and then fries it off in a pan until very crisp. Says it's her cook's treat, eaten in the kitchen while making the meal.

I also found this recipe online:

Spiced crispy chicken skin

Shatteringly crisp, melt-in-the-mouth and with a gentle curry kick, these chicken skin shards – think spiced pork crackling – are so easy to make and are insanely moreish.

philshomekitchen.org

Maybe worth a try?

That sounds amazing! Will try it this weekend.

A mumsnet chicken is a mythical single chicken that will feed a family of 17 for a month, according to some mumsnet posters.

 

[TheMiceInTheShed]

Spoiler: Spelling aneurysm

Please note that the cheap and delicious Indian / Pakistani lentil dish that we all love can be spelled in one of three ways:

1. Dal
2. Daal
3. Dhal

Please also note that "Dahl" is a deceased British children's author of Norwegian heritage.

I read this, and couldn't remember how I had spelled it.

So I looked back over my posts . . . and all I can say is . . .

FORGIVE ME! I AM ASHAMED!!!

Though it was quite a relief to me to have proof positive that I AM NOT GUEST.

I know this because I didn't double down, tell you I am DYSLEXIC* and have TWO KINDS OF ARTHRITIS, that my SHOULDER is OUCHY, and MY BONES ARE CRUMBLING, and my GRANDFATHER is DEAD, all of which make it hard for me to type accurately.

Nor did I attempt to re-make this recipe more cheaply, using aquarium gravel** instead of lentils, dandruff instead of garam masala, and the scrapings of toenails instead of everything else.

I may not be able to spell, but at least I can look my dahl dhal in the face.


* I am, as it happens, but that is no excuse not to at least try to get it right

** Wouldn't work - that stuff is stupidly expensive

 

[SophSpinsSillyStories]

My husband makes a delicious asparagus pesto:

the ends of the asparagus that you’d usually throw away
Handful of Pistachios
A garlic clove
Handful of Parmesan or similar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

bash it about in a pestle and mortar - it’s delicious over new potatoes, as a salad dressing, as a bruschetta topping or as a sauce for fish.

 

[I'm not actually here]

If you've never made tortilla wraps, they're cheap, very easy and I'm certain most people will have the ingredients in their cupboard (Flour, oil and salt). I use this recipe, https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/tortillas but make four huge 32cm ones most weeks. Bit of time and effort, but nothing complicated. I've messed around with half wholemeal flour, flavoured oils and whacking some chilli powder or paprika in, all with good results.

Honestly the only thing I hate about these is that whenever I try to be lazy and buy a packet, they're always so disappointing now.

Using Jackmaths, 6 tortillas cost 19.5p.

Making this tonight to go with the cooked mince that now needs eating urgently, the tomatoes and cucumber from the garden, and the last bit of Mild red Cheddar which is a total luxury, rarely seen and now sweaty as hell!!! I love love, love this thread, thanks for all your contributions.
---

Making this tonight to go with the cooked mince that now needs eating urgently, the tomatoes and cucumber from the garden, and the last bit of Mild red Cheddar which is a total luxury, rarely seen and now sweaty as hell!!! I love love, love this thread, thanks for all your contributions.

Oh and an unbelievable snack, addition to any food etc - dry fry (no oil) slices of chorizo so it goes crispy. Use the oil that comes out for anything at all, it goes a bit like dripping if there is a decent fat content in the chorizo, so is awesome spread on bread- definitely store it, don't pour it away, and don't put it in with the fucking fish oils that mad woman keeps in her fridge door!!!
---
Panceta, ricotta, etc are real luxuries with no fridge. It is a 60km round trip (and 25e in fuel) to the nearest supermarket that might stock such things, and it is unbearably hard not going mad when there, knowing that you have max 48 hours to eat EVERYTHING fresh or that isn't in a tin or packet. I'm drooling at these recipes though! Anybody who is an expert at smoking food, canning food, drying food, should step up... All very useful skills.

We aren't quite at apple time here, but last year, I got a length of bamboo cane, tied string to each end to make a loop to hang it up, a piece of netting over the top to keep flies off, sliced a load of apples from the tree, cored, and threaded them onto the cane and hung up outside to dry. Still chewing my way through them now, added them to stews etc all through winter etc. Made dried oranges and figs too. This year, I am going to be much better at gathering rosehips and blackberries as a very important part of winter vitamins against colds and so on, and make rosehip and blackberry syrup to ward off coughs. If you have anybody in your family who suffers from bronchitis etc, the absolute best thing is elderberries in late aummer/early autumn. Pick well away from any roads (or buy if you can't) and make a simple syrup with them, pref with honey not sugar. And then hide it!!!!! It's bloody amazing on ice cream, I was told, after the kids finished the entire store cupboard stock!!!!!

 

[fifyfomum]

Brilliant idea for a thread. Loving it.

Going to start with my chocolate brownie cake, cos sweet treats are important…

Ingredients:


Ingredients
225 grams spreadable butter
375 grams caster sugar
2 large eggs beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 grams dark chocolate (use supermarket basics choc)
200 grams self raising flour
250 milliliters boiling water

Line a 9 inch cake tin or a 2lb loaf tin (do the Jamie Oliver trick of scrunching up the grease proof paper and running it under the warm tap til it’s soaked, line the tin with the wet paper and you don’t need to grease it…)

Preheat fan oven to 150. This cake can be made in a medium sized saucepan, and you only need that and a wooden spoon to mix.

Over lowest heat possible, melt the chocolate, butter and sugar, and vanilla stirring til smoothly combined.

Cool a little, then beat in the flour, til all amalgamated. Beat in the eggs.

Lastly, slowly pour in the boiling water. Carefully, as the batter will be very runny indeed. Once all combined pour the mixture into a tin (it will deffo be very runny but do not panic!!)

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes - check after this time. A skewer inserted will come out almost clean. It may take up to an hour depending on your oven.

Take out and allow to cool. Once cold, remove from tin and wrap in foil. It’s better to keep for 24 hours before you cut into it. It’ll keep fine for four days, and will also freeze well! This will make 10-12 smallish slices - it’s quite rich. Serve with plain yoghurt or custard and fresh or tinned raspberries…

I’m making a Soviet Union flag - icecream cake this week for my sons 13th birthday. He is a huge SU fan and has been teaching himself Russia for the last 2 years in his spare time. They are actually allowing him to sit a Russian GCSE at school next year, he will still be 13 when he sits it, two years before the rest of his exams.
Needless to say I am immeasurably proud of him and can’t wait to make his cake
---

My husband makes a delicious asparagus pesto:

the ends of the asparagus that you’d usually throw away
Handful of Pistachios
A garlic clove
Handful of Parmesan or similar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

bash it about in a pestle and mortar - it’s delicious over new potatoes, as a salad dressing, as a bruschetta topping or as a sauce for fish.

Love this for using up ends of stuff

 

[CarmenGhia]

Naans make really good pizza bases. A leftover one is absolutely fine. Spread with some tomato puree (cheap supermarket stuff is ideal), add whatever cheese you have and whatever other ingredients you like on your pizza. Do leave a gap around the edge so all the topping doesn't slide off when the cheese melts. A sprinkle of dried oregano will always make it taste and smell that bit more Italian.

Cook in a hot oven for about ten minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling.