You may remember a couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a rant
about a girl who claimed to be too poor to eat well. I’ve been pondering on
this as I eat really well on a low budget and I believe that this is not only because
I know how to cook but also because I know how to shop ie. I pick up a lot of
bargains. For instance this is what I've eaten over the past few days.
Lemony, Peppery Sea Bass Fillets with Asparagus and Sautéed
New Potatoes ~ 90p
This was quickly and economically cooked in one pan. I had a
few cooked new potatoes leftover from an earlier meal so sautéed them in a
little oil till crisp then pushed them to one side of the pan and pulled that
side off the heat. I wiped out the rest
of the pan, added a knob of butter, the seasoned fish fillets and 3 stalks of
asparagus, sliced. Both the fish and the
asparagus took just a few minutes to cook. I served up the potatoes before
sprinkling the fish and asparagus with freshly squeezed lemon and a good old
grind of black pepper.
The sea bass was 66p, reduced from 4.40, the asparagus 49p for
9 stalks so about 16p, the new potatoes were 10p for a kilo so perhaps 1p!
Scallops in a Creamy Leek Sauce, in Crispy Buckwheat
Pancakes ~ 90p
½ small leek – cleaned and thinly sliced
7g butter
1 tbsp white wine or vegetable stock
60ml double cream
60ml double cream
80g raw scallops
~ Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in
the leeks to coat thoroughly.
~ Turn down the heat and press something
suitable (ie. a butter wrapper, greaseproof paper of piece of foil) directly
onto the surface of the leeks. Cover the
pan.
~ Cook gently for 10-15 minutes keeping an eye
on things and giving the occasional stir till very tender.
~ Add the wine or stock and allow to simmer for a minute or two.
~ Stir in the cream, bring to a boil then turn down the heat add the scallops and simmer gently for just a minute.
~ Add the wine or stock and allow to simmer for a minute or two.
~ Stir in the cream, bring to a boil then turn down the heat add the scallops and simmer gently for just a minute.
The pancake
recipe makes 6-8 crepes so I ate 2 and froze the rest, in pairs, for my future
delectation (the best way to reheat them is individually in
a dry frying pan so that they crisp up again). Buckwheat flour, which is gluten free, is about £2 a kilo, so my recipe for 6-8 crepes costs about
70p which is about 20p for the crepes, the scallops were reduced from £4.00 to
60p so 30p for them, ½ leek is about 20p, so with the wine and cream – say 90p.
Peppered Steak Salad ~ £1.70
We always pick up the little ends of steak reduced in
the supermarket, I use half for either this salad or for Bulgogi and the other
half in a fry up for my real man. On average
a small fillet steak trimming costs about £2.50 so that’s £1.25 for my share. handful
of lettuce from our favourite mixed bag – 20p, pepper, brandy, cream say
35p. The recipe for the salad is here and as I say it is one of my most popular dishes ever.
Roasted Salmon with Sweet Potato Fries ~ £1.36
Some while ago Jamie Oliver was berated for the expensive ingredients in his book “Save with Jamie” and in
particular people seemed aghast at his use of salmon but I can see his point
because occasionally Tesco have a half price offer on whole salmon
(I used to scale and fillet them myself but recently discovered they’ll do it
for you which is even better). A whole 4kg
or so salmon costs about £26 normally, but we never buy one for more than half
price, ie. £13.00 and I have seen them occasionally for £6.50!!!
Working it out on the half price version I cut it into
about 16 portions so 81p each. I always
keep a sweet potato in stock, 1 sweet potato costs about 60p and is too much
for me but the lucky thing is the remaining cut portion keeps well in the fridge
with the cut edge covered for about 10 days to 2 weeks so I get three goes at
it. Salmon 81p, sweet potato fries 20p, handful of salad 35p = £1.36.
Even better – sometimes I leave a little of the salmon and
have it for lunch the next day ...
Courgette Fritters with Salmon Mayonnaise ~ very little!
Quite often I can’t quite finish my salmon (aren’t I pathetic)
so, in this case, I mixed the leftovers with mayonnaise and ate it with
courgette fritters using this universal fritter recipe mainly
because we bought 3 gorgeous courgettes
for 8p!
Ham & Pease Pudding Soup with Crunchy Croutons ~ say 30p
This is thick, warming, savoury and delicious and literally
costs pennies. See here for the recipe and add some shredded ham if you can.
This time I served it with croutons about which I hold
strong opinions; they should be torn rather than cut as this way you get lots
of little ridges and points to go crunchy. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil
plus salt and pepper, spread on a baking tray and pop in the oven for a few
minutes till golden and crunchy. It’s best to make these when you have the oven
on for something else so I can’t give exact timings as I don’t know what
temperature you’ll be using but it’s not long. If you keep a collection of
bread scraps in the freezer (old crusts and trimmings) they cost virtually nothing
whereas a 100g bag of croutons from the supermarket is about £1.00! Rip off!
I eat this well and this cheaply all the time and if I can do
it so can anybody because not only is the food I use cheap but in most cases it’s a doddle to
cook and takes very little time or energy – either mine or the electricity type. I
realise that as I love cooking and have been at it for years this sort of thing
is easy for me but it really honestly ponestly isn’t difficult – and there’s
loads and loads of info out there to help, even some stuff by me! I also know that it is probably easier for me
just cooking for myself (and my real man, this is how he eats) but I am confident that I could feed a family reasonably cheaply and healthily too.
We don’t live anywhere particularly bargainaceous (inland
Cornwall, we usually shop in St. Austell Tesco) and we don't spend a lot of time searching out deals. We only shop once a week but
we do always pick up any bargains we see and luckily I know what to do with
them. Often the first step is put it in the freezer which means I always have
lots of inspirational bits and pieces to turn to.
If you have the time and the inclination it is possible
to do the job even better; we have friends who make a point of visiting Morrisons
at about 3.30 on Sunday afternoons and they really clean up. They bought 4½lb vine ripened tomatoes for 45p a couple of weeks ago – respect!
