There are many imitators but we are the true creators.

 

Hello again. It has been a while. I was in hospital for a bit, the format of SVFB• is going to change...

In the meantime...Here's a quick recipe for Moules marinière:

1 pack of mussels from your local friendly reduced price Supermarket (25% discount)

These came in garlic butter but it was a bonus ;)

Stock:

glass of cider or white wine 

2 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped finely

1 tsp. Olive oil

Crème fraîche, 2 tbsp (or to taste)

Method:

I cooked the mussels according to the instructions, i.e. I boiled them in the bag gor 6 minutes. Fresh are better, but, alas.. 

Meantime I reduced the stock down , turned down the heat and *gradually* stirred in the creme. Once it was thick, I added this sauce to the mussels.

To finish:

Slices of toast (as pictured). Stale bread, so, perfect to use up as an accompanying side to soak up the sauce.

Lots of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped.

I couldn't go to the Howth seafood festival this year, but that sated my appetite for seafood.

Spanish inspired chorizo and bean stew

It may not look Instagrammable, but it stuck to the ribs very well.

 I have some more videos to post, but until the software quits misbehaving , here's a cheap and satisfying autumnal Spanish stew:

Ingredients

For two:

1 bell pepper (any colour)

2 shallots

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 tin of budget tomatoes

1 tin of beans - I used fava beans, but butter beans, haricot, work as well.  Super cheap from your friendly neighbourhood Turkish deli.  Just don't use the He*nz kind...  

1 reduced price (50p!) black pudding

As much chorizo as you like.  I used about a 1/3 of a large one.

Pimentón or other chilli (not too much, you want punch but not to be knocked out)

Herbs - rosemary, thyme; oregano (lots of)

Optional:

Cooking sherry - works very well in Spanish dishes.

Half a fresh chilli, deseeded, chopped, and thrown in with the garlic and shallots to soften.

Method

Soften the bell pepper, then the shallots, then the garlic, in a little olive (or veg.) oil.  

Add the black pudding, sliced up no bigger than your finger, and shake all that up.  Now add the chorizo.  I recommend you cut it into pound coin sizes (0.5cm) and then quarter those.  Give it a few minutes to colour.

Add the tomatoes and a little water.  At this point I used a chicken stock cube but it ended up tasting too salty, so I'd maybe add either more water or omit the stock cube.  

Let that simmer on a low heat.

Eat with rice, mashed potatoes, or your favourite bread.

*munch*

I'm glad I have leftovers, I'm going to take my own advice, and thin it down with more water and tomatoes.  Maybe add some more black pudding and chorizo.   Mmm... Lockdown autumn isn't so bad when you can taste Andalusia or Murcia...

Lockdown food blog - Episode 1

Lockdown food blog - Episode 1

Hello, welcome to the SupermarketValueFood® blog: Lock down edition. 
 I was in the park,  well away from everyone, when I did this simple accompaniment With a cheap tin of [no spoilers] and a couple of reduced price leg of lamb rubbed in some Moroccan spices, this was the business.

Sorry about the video quality.

Recipe is just a tin of [no spoilers] , mint, (lots) vinegar ( to taste but I used about a quarter bottle after I got back)

Stay safe, eat cheaply, use what you've got in the home, and enjoy your food, value or otherwise.

Fast Gobi Aloo

  I had planned this as a side dish to my chicken dopiaza, but ended up eating it straight off the plate for supper. 

Gobi Aloo - 

A South Asian cauliflower and potato dish, gobi aloo is not something I've tried before.  I love curry, but I'm not a fan of cauliflower, so have avoided trying it. 

But when you get a small tub, pre-shredded "cous-cous" style, for 20p, you have to push your boundaries.

My preference for side dishes when eating South Asian food are chapatis, saag aloo, or dhal.  Wow,  I could write a whole blog on dhal and never get even a tenth of a percent of it right.  Love my spicy lentils I do.  Maybe another time.

A quick research of recipes tells me what I already know:  I can't make it like anyone else, or "authentically"  Still going to try this.  

On to our ingredients - we have our cauli, handily chopped up.  With a purchase of some spuds from our local co-op, some veg I had around, the usual cupboard spice suspects, plus, one of my little home-dried chilies to hand, we can fill up and get some punch for very little moolah.

Ingredients (per person)

• 1/3 (approx) head of cauliflower, chopped finely.  
• 3 or 4 new potatoes, preferably cooked or par-boiled.
• 1/2 onion, chopped finely.
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped / smashed
• 1 chunk of ginger as big as your whole thumb, shredded.
• 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes or 1 handful plus 1 salad tomato - chopped very finely, juice reserved.
• 1/2 bunch chopped coriander or as I did, cheated and used a tsp of puree
• Vegetable Oil - about 5 - 6 tbsp**
• Spices
• 1 large tbsp generic curry powder
• 1 large tbsp garam masala 
• Add any extra mix of spices you like.  Tumeric, coriander seed, curry leaf, etc would go well.  I was missing these, but they would rock.

Method

...Hrm, the packet instructions say to stir fry the cauliflower for 4 minutes, and the baby spuds I picked up need 8 minutes in the microwave, so before that I'll prep the veg...

1.   Heat a pan as hot as possible. Whack the dry spices in and toast...
2.   Chop the onion, garlic, tomatoes and cauliflower, quickly, finely.
3. Get your spuds on.  This would be easier if I had pre-cooked potato*
4.   Turn off the dang smoke alarm when the spices start to smoke, dang dang, (sorry)
5.   Right! - Add the oil to the spice mix, and cook the cauliflower in it for 2 minutes. Stir fry thoroughly.
6.  Add the onion, garlic, ginger and coriander - stir fry for two minutes
7. Now add the potatoes and tomatoes and smash them up a bit.  
8. Reduce the heat, add some liquid (stock or water or more tomatoes, as I did), 
9. Season with salt and pepper, and let it stew for about 15-20 minutes until everything is tender.
10. Let cool and garnish with coriander sprigs, or as I did here, some parsely.

*munch*

So the original stir-fried cauli, pre-curried, was pretty decent - you didn't get that overwhelming odour or taste of brassicas you normally do.  But after I work some trickery on it...

That is goood!  Very, very filling (thanks potatoes and cauli!), very spicy and piquant  (thanks, garam masala and wee dried chilli!) and most of all, very satisfying.  

 I am thinking though that if I were to make changes to my recipe...

 - *new potatoes gave texture but I suspect a leftover baked potato works even better.

 - Add stock instead of water - If using tomato, use 1/3 tin of canned + juice.

 - Can't have too much curry powder.  Well, you can, but use 2 tbsps of each.

 - ** I needed a LOT of oil for this.  5-6 tbsp may not be enough, but it kept things from burning, and added... an almost restaurant like authenticity, dare I say it.

Definitely a recipe that I would guess is better slow cooked.  But if it says stir fry the cauliflower, quick gobi aloo is better than none at all.  

Ticked all the boxes for tonight - reduced items, lots of healthy veg, tasty, used up what was in the larder.  

Fond- [of]-ue 💕

Cheap cheese fondue and crudities <3

 Valentine's Day has been and gone but whether you were spending it with a significant other, on your own, or with friends, a fondue can be suprisingly cheap, a romantic centrepiece, and even a way to get folks talking as well as eating together.

Normally a fondue pot is heated over a candle flame or small burner but I thought "Why not adapt this to the SupermarketValueKitchen® ?  The recipe and prep are simple!"  I was lucky enough to have a load of cheese left over plus some budget mozzarella I picked up

Ingredients (for 2)

• 1/2 a bottle of cheap white wine. 
• About 1kg of cheese, grated.  Cheese is not cheap though.  Ideally it should be Emmental or Gruyere, but any hard cheese will work.  I adapted and used some of the leftovers I had from Xmas, not ideal but we'll see how it tastes...
• Red Leicester
•  Mozzarella (which I got in a Reduced salad pack with some sun dried tomatoes) [PIC]
•  Curry Sauce flavour cheddar (don't ask...) [PIC]
• Manchego (probably the nearest I got to hard cheese) [PIC]
•  A dusting of Parmesan for flavour. 
• Half a small onion or a shallot, finely chopped.  I used a couple of chopped scallions, reduced, (as featured in our curry) 
• 1 large tsp cornflour, slaked in some water.  
• Herbs
• Rosemary and floral Boquet Garni type herbs like parsley, thyme, bay and tarragon (I think) work the best to flavour the wine but you shouldn't need much.
• 1 clove of garlic, smashed up with salt but still intact 
• A little vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste

 

Method

Rub your saucepan or fondue pot with the oil and the smashed garlic clove, just enough to season it a little.
Boil the wine, herbs, and chopped onions in the pot until the alcohol's gone and then reduce to a low simmer.  This will take a while depending on whether you're using a fondue set or a saucepan, so pay attention to how it smells.

Filter out the bay leaf or boquet garni if you used one, and gradually whisk in the cornflour.
Now *very slowly* add the grated cheese into the pot and allow to melt, constantly stirring all the while.  DON'T let it burn or sit for too long if you're making this on a stove, as I found out...  Keep the heat REALLY low and slow.  Watch the texture, you want runny but not liquid, and definitley not sticky, as when the sauce cools it'll harden too much.

 To Serve
The whole point of a fondue is that it is a centrepiece and you constantly go back to it to cook your food slightly in the mixture, then come back again, so choose lots of small things.  My favourite things to put in cheese fondue are:
 - Radishes.
 - Green beans.
 - Carrots, cut into batons.
 - Celery sticks with a little salt and chilli / curry powder on them.
 - Any other vegetables you like that eat well raw or slightly cooked - cauliflower, maybe?
 
 - Flatbreads or pittas, warmed and cut into strips.
 - Toasted slices of garlic baguette.
 - New potatoes, boiled

 - Cooked chicken and a dash of hot sauce on the side.
 -  Very rare strips of steak, which can cook through more in the pot if you leave them in.
 - Chorizo or other spicy sausages would work.  A good way to use up leftover salami from Xmas...
 - Sun dried tomatoes.  Maybe you got these in a Reduced salad pack with some mozarella...

You could also do nachos or just breadsticks - everything tastes better in fondue.

*munch*

Mine came out a bit burnt at the bottom, I think I turned the heat up a little too much and the wrong sort of cheese doesn't help, but this was an exceptionally good way to use up a lot of leftover dairy (yes, I know, I'm lucky that was the case, cheese doesn't normally last a day in my home...)  Gooey, fun, and made everything I/we dunked in it taste amazing.


The leftover sauce also makes a very nice Welsh Rarebit mixture if you add a large spoon of English mustard (or two of American/French) and 2 tbsps Worcester sauce to it.  Grab a couple of slices of toasted bread, spread the mixture on top,  put it under the grill for a few minutes and you have some delicious leftovers.

Result <3

Quick spinach & chorizo soup

Spinach & chorizo soup

I know I said I was bored of soups but this was the only way I could use up some spinach and pasta quickly.  I had thought of a vegetable lasagna but this did me well for another workday lunch and supper.

So I haven't been feeling too well and have been a little run down, so I thought, a bit of vitamin B and Iron is what I need.  And of course, you think iron, you think spinach!

I had planned  to make a lasagna as I said, but I had some old elbow macaroni to use up and fancied a soup.  The addition of a little chorizo was, if I may say so, inspired.

Ingredients (for 2)

about 400g-500g spinach (or 2 small bags like I used)
1 chorizo, skinned and sliced finely.
1 small slug of orange juice*
1 small handful of random pasta shapes (cooked)
1 pot of boiling water
1 stock cube (I used chicken)

salt (but not too much) and pepper to taste
2 tbsps (approx) fresh cream to finish

Method

 Couldn't be easier.

• Boil the water and add the stock in a pot.  Stir.
• Drop the chopped chorizo in. 
• Wash the spinach and pop it into the pot.  By the way, did you know if you are cooking fresh spinach, you only really need to rinse it and drop the damp leaves into a hot pan until it wilts?  Now you do.
• Turn the heat down and blend
• Allow to cool and serve with a little cream

Tastes as good cold as it does warm. 

* The orange juice helps release the iron from the spinach.

Pictures to follow, was just keen to get back posting.  Easter and spring recipes to follow, as well as those other recipes I said I'd try.

Chicken 3 ways concludes! 4.5 /3 - Chicken Dopiaza

At last! Chicken Dopiaza

This is a restauarant made dopiaza but I thought I'd add a nice picture to kick things off...

Hurrah!  Happy February!  I have finally had a few spare hours to type up what was one of the best curries I have ever made for myself, and all using cheap or local ingredients (bar the spices of course...)

This recipe can easily be extended to feed 4, or 8, but this is for one hungry dude.

The original recipe this is based on comes from the fantastic Loving Bangladeshi Kitchen blog but I have modified it slightly to my own ends.

First of all though, by way of a bonus, since this has taken so long, I did a compare and contrast exercise (albeit a restaurant and vegetable based one) with a dopiaza I had from my favourite Indian restauarant in Belfast as shown above.

*munch* - Good large slices of onion, but maybe not enough (as I shall show you why below ...) and beautiful par-boiled potatoes and peas, with crunchy red and green peppers, all garnished with coriander.  The real hero is the sauce - have a look at the clarified butter (ghee) used to give the sauce some real taste and richness, as well as stop the whole thing burning.  Great spice to it as well.  A benchmark has been set.

That yellow liquid on the right of the spoon is ghee (clarified butter) used to make the sauce rich.  Curry translates as "gravy" or "sauce"  a good rich sauce is the cornerstone of any "curry".

 

So on to the main event - my chicken dopiaza, with thanks to the LBK blog.

Ingredients

• 1 500g pack of value grade pre-sliced onions or 2 large onions, or 4 small ones.  Dopiaza means "double onions" so use lots.  Here's some I bought earlier...

• 1 portion of chicken.  I have gone for a chicken quarter (breast and drumstick) from my local butcher - saving money on transport to the ValueSupermarket® but I can recommend thigh as being tasty as well as cheap; maybe more authentic too...
• 2 tomatoes.  Normally I don't think tomatoes belong in a curry but I'm experimenting.

Now on to the spices for the sauce:

• 2 cloves of garlic, smashed into a paste with some salt
• 1 large tsp. ginger, either from a jar or, ideally, grated from fresh
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1tsp coriander powder, or, as I did, use half a bunch fresh for garnish
• 1 tsp turmeric.  I used fresh but ground is also good, and won't stain your fingers when you grate it ...
• 1 tsp ground cardamon or 2 or 3 pods of the seeds, slightly ground, smashed up a bit if you will
• 1/2 stick of cinnamon or 1 large tsp of cinnamon powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsps oil.  Plus some.  Don't worry if that seems like a lot, as I will explain...
• 1 tbsp butter, or ghee (clarified butter) if you have it.  I don't normally mind using ordinary butter in cooking as I am careful not to burn the solids, but you don't need to worry about that with ghee.  To make clarified butter all you do is melt some butter and pour off and reserve the clear liquid; this is your ghee. 
• 1 tsp chilli powder or half a rocket finger chilli and 1 dried regular SupermarketValue® chilli.  Nice fresh chillis to give this some punch, but as always, make this as hot or as mild as you prefer.  Dopiazas are usually mild-ish but I'm going all in, without scorpionizing my mouth...

Method

Step 1. - Sauce

Prepare all the spices by dry-frying the dry ingredients.  

When they start to smell a little, add the oil and some of the onions, mix well, and allow the onions to caramelise.  Start to get a nice char on them, but don't burn them... 

Add the garlic when the onions start to turn translucent, then add the rest of the onions and a little more oil and the ghee, and cook them until just before the garlic burns but the first batch of onions look really soft or burnt - (Pay attention!  Don't burn the garlic!  The onions will survive a good fry, the garlic will not!)   If you like, hold some of the onions back and add them when the main pan looks cooked through, just to warm them and add some bite. 

The point of this two or three step onion frying process is to get a contrasting texture.  Normally a restaurant dopiaza will have all the onions sweated through and cooked evenly - I want most of them to be cooked and sweet, but I want some of them to taste burnt and sugary, and some just a little bit on the raw side for texture (this is how mine were from the restaurant, cooked but still crunchy)  This was tricky, but worth the effort.

 Now I baked this sauce, drained of the oil but reserving some of it for future recipes (see what I did there?) in a balti pan with the whole tomatoes, split with a knife, for a while, in a low oven.  20 minutes in a hot oven if you prefer, but I left this to simmer for a couple of hours.  I like slow food...   

That's after we fried the onions and spice in oil, drained it, added more spice to taste, but before baking it.

Recall I saved heat by cooking my prepped veg, dopiaza and roasted my chillies at the same time.

Step 2  - Chicken prep

Rub the chicken with a mixture of salt and oil, but if you marinaded it in a spice mix, similar for a tandoori chicken, it would really work as well.  But just not today...  Just a simple rub of oil and salt while the sauce is simmering.

If you're cooking the chicken whole I recommend about half an hour to 40 minutes in the oven, followed by a good grilling to crisp the skin up and finish it off.  

If you're using chopped chicken then I'd say 15-20 minutes in a hot oven, in a dish or in foil, followed by 5-10 minutes in the sauce.  Or 7-8 minutes in a hot pan followed by a quick 5 minute roasting (220°) in the sauce to finish.  Your call...

Chop it up and add to the sauce, or if using a chicken quarter, just serve the sauce on the side, with your choice of basmati rice, naan, flatbreads, roti, or saag aloo (*mental note*, make discount saag aloo...)

*munch*

After a long bake in the oven, the onions, tomatoes and extra spice just need mixed, and wow, did they taste good...

 I can report that, asides from the year my brother bought me a vindaloo kit (which I might try and recreate some time, *mental note*)  this is the best curry I have made myself.   

If was to change one thing I'd omit tomato and use a few teaspoons of tomato puree or tablespoons of passata -  the sauce is too wet but I remedied that with an extra tablespoon of garam masala to bind it.  

There's a lovely sweetness from the cinnamon, a nice bitterness from the clove, and background heat from the chillies.  I got it just right - hot but not overpowering, more of a front on the fresh ones and a back of the mouth on the dried.  Pleasantly fiery but not uncomfortable.


But the star are the double cooked onions, soft and sweet but their crunchier counterparts give it great texture.  They make the dish what's great about it, which is the whole point of the dopiaza style.  

What else can I say, if you haven't made your own curry from scratch with value for money and local ingredients, you will never want to get a take-away again!  Definitely one for sharing.

  
In the forthcoming weeks, since I have moved into a new house (hence the delay in posting)  - the SupermarketValueKitchen® will now no longer be plagued by overactive smoke alarms and defective freezers.  I have a few plans including a late Burns Night supper on the cheap, plus a few more quick store cupboard favourites.  Heck, I might do a late Valentine's supper as well - no reason not to be romantic all year round, even if it is a little thrifty <3