Daisy Chane's Eating On A Shoestring
From Bolton Interweb
By Mrs Daisy Chane
When I was asked by the editor to head up a new features page I though he said eating a shoestring, and compiled several recipes involving boiled boot laces and a great one for grilled shoe soles that tastes fantastic provided you have steamed it for 72 hours beforehand and smothered it in ketchup. As an 87-year-old on a basic pension you can't afford to waste used footwear when it wears out so I was looking forward to sharing the secrets of cooking with leather and leftover horse hoof trimmings. But it turns out that what he meant was simple basic cuisine on a budget given everyone is hitting hard times these days and most people wear shoes with man-made soles that taste awful, barely edible.
Anyway, I have a tiny budget but I don't like cheap food; it doesn't have to be fancy but has to taste fantastic as well as being filling. It is easier to do than you might think, and since I have better things to do than slave in the kitchen all day it usually quick too.
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Kitchen Equipment
When it comes to cooking there is just me so I tend not to use the main oven which costs a fortune to heat up just for a small meal. I have two pieces of kitchen equipment I wouldn't be without.
First there is a Panini press / grill, £30 in Argos. Those George Foreman grills are rubbish, never got the hang of using them, but a Panini grill is flat and grills bacon and sausages, chops and so on quickly and easily. When the grill has cooled scrape out the fat using a spatula into a pot and save in the fridge to smear on roast meat and potatoes.
Secondly I use a Halogen light oven which cooks without pre-heating, only heats a very small area big enough for a meal but no more, so it is economical, and cuts cooking time by about a third. They are between about £30 to £50 but not so easy to find in the big stores. Mine came from Makro but they are reasonably easy to get online for around £40.
I also have a small slow cooker that gets an outing once in a while. Throw the ingredients in and then leave them to cook all day. You need to plan in advance but the effort is small.
I suppose I should also mention the microwave. Mine also has a convection oven and it is worth it for things that I don't think work too well in the halogen oven such as cakes and pies. Between that and the halogen oven, the big oven only gets used for big Christmas dinners and is pan storage for the rest of the year.
Sluts Pasta Shapes
A staple I often have which is quick and very cheap involves pasta. Nigella Lawson (don't you just love that sexy father of hers) gives a good recipe for Sluts Spaghetti in her latest book but it involves anchovies which I couldn't find anywhere in the Tesco Express in Little Lever (sardines didn't sound like a good substitute). My neighbour's grandson said he had heard of anchovy fingers but I couldn't find them in the Birds Eye section either. So thought I would write down my own budget version I've been doing for years.
What you need is some pasta shapes - twists, tubes, or anything you can lay your hands on. The budget twists in Morrisons are cheapest and just as good as anything else. Pennies a bag. Boil, drain, salt, and add some butter or marge.
Next the sauce which you can start when the pasta goes on. A jar of the posh stuff costs quite a lot and you can make loads of it for a third of the price that tastes much better and free of additives too. You need a carton of own brand passata (sieved or creamed tomatoes) which costs 39p in Tesco and Asda but you might be able to get it cheaper. It is just tomatoes, nothing else. Then add a generous couple of teaspoons of dried mixed herbs - Smartprice from Asda is 19p for a tub and lasts ages. Next add a teaspoon of garlic granules or powder. Mine is from Morrisons but Asda's brand is 58p. Again lasts for ages. Salt and pepper. And I add just a dash of Worcester Sauce but it isn't necessary. Simmer. Total cost no more than 50p for a batch.
Add enough of the sauce to the pasta to coat it and dish up. I add a sprinkle of grated cheese and you could also add other leftovers like ham or chicken pieces or maybe some tuna to provide some protein.
Let any remaining sauce cool, seal it in a clean jar and put it in the fridge to use again. Or freeze to make it last longer. I reckon that per portion it costs about 30p for a really filling pasta meal and you know exactly what you are eating.
By the way, sprinkle some of the dried herbs and garlic granules or powder on roast potatoes for a taste to die for. Inspired by that Jamie Oliver boy. Must have read that tip as I can't understand a word he says.
Roast Lemon Chicken Dinner
When you are cooking for one then you don't really want to buy a whole chicken to roast. I only like the breast meat and the price of chicken breasts is just plain silly. And then they shrink to nothing in the cooking because a lot of the time water has been added in the processing to make it look plump on the shelves and the water just evaporates during the cooking. I really object to paying for added water! You know sometimes it is cheaper to buy a whole chicken when they are on some supermarket offer than just a single decent sized breast. Then I discovered that most (not all) supermarkets sell chicken quarters with the breast quarter the same price as the leg quarter. Apparently it isn't as easy to add water to chicken on the bone so it is usually unprocessed unlike the breast portions. I suppose I could buy the economy saver meat but I don't feel comfortable about the way those birds are treated when alive. The quarters are from the decent quality farm-assured chickens.
So take a chicken breast quarter, about £1.15 to £1.25 in Morrisons, Asda or Tesco. Half an hour before cooking sprinkle over some bottled lemon juice and leave to marinate. Place in a small roasting tin and surround with some par-boiled potatoes. Pour a little oil over both and sprinkle generously with dried herbs (or fresh ground rosemary if you have a bush in the garden like I do) and garlic granules or powder. Roast for about 30-40 minutes in an oven set to around 180 degrees. Make sure the chicken is properly cooked through and the juices run clear when pierced with a skewer. You can also use frozen roast potatoes saving all that peeling nonsense. A bag of frozen roast potatoes only costs about £1 and to me they taste just as good. Just because I'm 87 doesn't mean I enjoy peeling spuds. Adjust when you put these in according to the instructions on the bag.
Whilst the chicken is cooking mix up some stuffing - I combine sage and onion (15p a pack in Tesco, Sainsburys, and Asda) with parsley, lemon and thyme (about 60p a pack) and any other varieties around. Cheapest own brands are fine as combining different flavours makes it taste a lot more interesting. A small ramekin dish is just right for one so you use very little. Then I sprinkle some lemon juice from a bottle on top before adding the water and stirring. Add to the oven with about 15-20 minutes to go. If you can't find parsley, lemon and thyme stuffing just add more of those dried herbs and a touch more lemon juice to plain sage and onion. You can also add some breadcrumbs made from a leftover slice of bread to make the texture a little bit different and more home-made.
For the gravy I like mine extra thick so it is more a sauce than a gravy (halve the liquid on the instructions) but I add a spoonful of mint sauce, the cheap one will do, 25p a jar in Asda, Tesco and Sainsburys, to the granules before adding the water.
Carve the meat off the chicken quarter if you prefer. I give the wings to my budgie - waste not want not. Some peas, steamed in the microwave saves boiling another pan. Dish up the potatoes and stuffing and smother with the mint gravy-sauce. Total cost about £1.60 per portion and you have a roast chicken dinner in about 45 minutes that tastes 100 times better than those frozen dinners in a tray. The lemon, herbs, garlic and mint make a boring meal really tasty. Lime juice instead of lemon would make for an interesting alternative.
Home Made Butter
It just goes to show that at 87 you are never too old to learn new tricks. For not far off a century I remember that butter came in a packet with an anchor on it. I don't recall anyone ever making butter, not even my dear old grandmas, though neither travelled far enough to see an actual cow until well into adulthood. So I always thought it must be one of those complicated magical processes. In my fridge I had a big leftover carton of double cream from Tesco that was rapidly going out of date and heading for the bin. Then I read on this tinterweb thing that you can turn it into butter. No really. Game for a laugh and out of knitting wool I decided to give it a try and dug out my cheap Moulinex. It said to mix on slow using a K whisk attachment. Well there was no slow and no K whisk, only pulse and a hook thing. It only comes out of the cupboard every couple of years or so. Anyway I poured in the cream and pulsed. A few minutes later and there was a bit of a clatter. Lo and behold there was a lump of butter and some buttermilk in the bowl. Unbelievable, I was told never to believe anything you read on the tinterweb. I drained the buttermilk and threw it away (you are supposed to save it for the cat apparently but I prefer to keep the cat mean to scare the budgie). Then I washed the butter a few times by adding water, pulsing for a bit, then throwing the water away. Then dried the butter using a couple of wooden spatulas to substitute for paddles. OK I also patted with kitchen towel. Scattered a bit of salt, then shaped it into a roll and wrapped in tin foil after testing a knob on a piece of bread. It was actually butter. There is a ton of greasy washing up to do and I suppose there was a good £1.20 worth of cream used, so not worth the bother unless using up leftovers, but I have some pure very creamy and very slightly salted butter better than Lurpak for nothing. Lovely. Another one crossed off the bucket list.
Pizza Acheepa
You can get frozen pizzas from about a £1 a time in Lidl and they are nice, but I do like fresh and they are not so cheap. Plus it is good to use up things that would otherwise go in the bin. I had a couple of square olive rolls from Asda creeping past their sell-by date. It doesn't have to be olive rolls and works with lots of different types although avoid the soft ones. A little bit stale actually helps. In the fridge some cheddar and a value ball of mozzarella that needed using up. Plus a small and very sad-looking red onion no longer fit for a salad. So halve one of the rolls. Spread both sides fairly thinly with tomato ketchup. Scatter with dried herbs and garlic powder to taste. Then sprinkle some grated cheddar over the top followed by chopped red onion, and top off with slices of mozzarella (half the ball did the two roll halves). Put in the oven until the mozzarella bubbles and browns and hey presto delicious pizza far better than you can buy in the shops, very quick to make, and for a fraction of the price. You can also add any leftover ham or bacon, peppers, whole tomatoes, sweetcorn whatever you have.
Super Supper Soup
I like a nice braised steak casserole from time to time cooked for hours, sometimes days, in my little slow cooker. Bung it all in and leave it. The longer it cooks the more tender and delicious it gets although some of the beef always falls off the chunks and it is shame to waste it. The casserole does me for a couple of days and I always end up with half a pot of gravy left over with bits of beef in it. So, I add some tomato puree and if I have any of the home made pasta sauce (see above) then that goes in too. Then whatever is to hand and needs using up - half a can of sweetcorn, any root vegetables at hand (cook them first), a potato cubed up maybe, a handful of frozen peas. Let it simmer for a few more hours and you have the most wonderful chunky soup, with all the bits of the beef that were at the bottom of the pot. It is a meal all of its own and nothing wasted.
Chunky Coleslaw and Potato Salad
I find most shop-bought coleslaw insipid and over-processed. And I don't rate the potato salad either. If you go for the premium deli versions then they cost a small fortune, definitely outside my price range. But it is so easy to make your own, better-than-premium-deli, coleslaw and potato salad and cheaper than all but the nastiest "value" versions in the shops. Coleslaw is just four main ingredients; cabbage, carrot, onion, and mayonnaise. To make enough for a small party or a greedy family, shred half a small cabbage. White cabbage is best but I've just done it with a savoy cabbage and it makes a nice change. Key is that it needs to be a dense and crisp not open and floppy leaves. By shred I mean slice into narrow strips and if you cut straight across the top then cut it across into strips then slice more narrow slices it is done in no time - don't try and slice leaves individually. Slice a couple of small onions, red or ordinary, and break the slices up into strips of onion. Rough grate a large carrot using a cheese grater. Mix it all up, then add 3 or 4 desert spoons of mayonnaise and stir thoroughly to make sure all the veg is coated. Total cost about £1 if you use decent mayo, for an amount that would cost you £3-4 for shop-bought rubbish. Potato salad is even easier. Cube three small to medium potatoes that are too small for jackets. Boil until cooked but firm. Mix with some chopped onion, spring onions are nice, add some chives, and add a dollop of mayo. I add some fresh mint and chives from the garden for some free extra taste but a small amount of mint sauce or some dried herbs are good alternatives. 50p for enough for four very generous portions. Make enough of both to last a few days - the preparation time is really no more than 10-15 minutes and you know precisely what is in your food.
Home Made Mayonnaise
The other day I ran out of mayonnaise. Unfortunately I have expensive tastes but not a lot of money and I didn't want to spend a fortune on an expensive jar. A couple of years ago I had unsuccessfully tried to replicate a demo on one of those shopping channel shows - throw all the ingredients into a cup and whisk with a stick blender. Wasted eggs and oil. This time I thought I would do it properly but which recipe to follow... In the end I adapted a Delia Smith one and the results were delicious. I only wanted a small amount because it won't last like the shop-bought stuff with all its preservatives and you don't take chances with raw egg. Take 1 egg yolk, discard the white, and put it in a mixing bowl. Add a half teaspoon of mustard (I used Dijon from Asda). I should then have added a half teaspoon of salt and some black pepper but I forgot but I added it in at the end once I tasted it and it worked out fine. Whisk all these ingredients up so they are well mixed. Measure out 150ml of vegetable oil. Drip a few drops of oil into the mixture and whisk well. Drip a few more drops of oil and whisk. Repeat the drip and whisk until the mixture starts to thicken. At this point add half a teaspoon of lemon juice (a few drops of lemon flavouring will intensify the lemony taste) and whisk in. Now you need to very very slowly but steadily add the rest of the oil, whisking all the time. I was using a manual food processor with a recepticle on the lid with a pin hole in the middle to make this easy - most food processor have this but it shouldn't be be difficult if whisking by hand. It isn't an exact science; stop pouring the oil when the mayo is the right consistency for you. Store in the fridge in a sealed container for no more than a week. I spent about 15p on a basics egg, 15p on normal vegetable oil, and the flavourings I had in the cupboard anyway. So 30p for 200ml of brilliant home-made fresh mayo with no E numbers in about 5 minutes.
Delia says to add garlic - I tried that but overdid it and prefer the lemon taste - don't do both, it tastes horrible. She also says use vinegar where I find lemon juice nicer. Lime juice would work too for a different tang. And Delia goes for expensive groundnut oil but I got a perfectly good result from bog standard veg oil which is made from rapeseed. For 30p why not experiment with different flavours! Another tip is to add some tomato puree out of a tube, just a little bit at a time at the end to get the right colour and taste. It turns it into seafood sauce perfect with prawns or as a dip for breadsticks. Add chopped capers and gherkins and you have tartar sauce.
Lemon Loaf Cake
I do like a nice cake and until a few months ago put normally put a shop-bought one in the basket when shopping. But my favourite is lemon cake and good ones don't come cheap. So after a long gap in cake baking I decided it was time to go back to the old days and try and do it on a small budget. Basic ingredients - eggs, butter, flour, sugar. Three saver eggs from Sainsburys. Why Sainsburys? Their saver eggs are from barn hens not caged hens and are just as cheap - about 12p each so 36p. You need about 113g of butter but Asda do a Best For Baking marge for under 60p so half of that is 30p. You need 175g of caster sugar. When you buy caster sugar it costs about £1.30 a kilo but if you use regular sugar which is £1.20 for 2kg and whizz it in a food processor for 5 seconds or so you get caster sugar - it is just normal sugar ground more finely. So 175g is about 11p. And 175g of self-raising flour. For the saver stuff it is 52p for 1.5kg so this costs 6p. So the basic batter costs 83p in total. For a moist result add a 15ml tablespoon of veg oil. For the lemon flavouring I used 2 x 15ml tablespoons of lemon curd (Asda smart price 22p a jar so about 2p). Total for the cake, 85p. This is how you do it. Soften the marge and combine it with the sugar - looks a bit lumpy but don't worry. Add an egg and whisk it in. Then add the other eggs one at a time and whisk. Finally add the oil and lemon curd and whisk. If still lumpy still don't worry as it will smooth out with the flour. Add the flour bit by bit. Make sure it is smooth but don't over beat. Grease a loaf tin or line with greaseproof paper and pour in the batter and smooth it to the corners. Bake in a pre-heated oven - mine is a convection fan oven I set to 160 degrees centigrade and baked for 60 minutes. Stick a knife in and if it comes out clean then it is cooked. The end result is a light and fluffy delicious cake about twice the size of one of those McVities ones that come in at £1 each. The problem I always have is getting cakes to come out of the tins in one piece no matter how thorough I thought I was with the greasing. Using greaseproof paper at £1.50 for 10m is worth investing in for a decent presentational result and doesn't cut into the savings too much - half a metre should be enough and you can use it to wrap the baked cake it so nothing is wasted. You can add some zest for a touch of luxury or try different flavourings. For this price you can experiment to get the perfect result for you. If the cake comes out too dry it may mean you have over-beaten the mixture - once you add the eggs, do it by hand, or add extra lemon juice or an egg yolk to keep it moist. Don't throw a dry cake away though, have it with ice cream or cream to add the moisture back in when you eat it.
More Tips
- I only buy Richmond sausages. Don't know why but all the others seem full of gristle and just don't taste the same. But they are not cheap. There is a Tesco con where the pack looks the same and costs less but there are only 8 in that pack so be careful. Look in the frozen section - the same sausages, frozen, cost around £2 for 16. OK you have to thaw them before using but who cares about that when you save a fortune.
- When cooking sausages (in my Panini press but works as well in a conventional grill) try slicing the sausages almost in half lengthways, and fold out flat before grilling. More of the fat comes out, it cooks faster, and is easier to fit into a sandwich.
© Evrose, 2011
