Value kebabs with extra punch,

Lamb Kofta Kebab

I'm afraid due to Google Cloud being ridiculous, I lost my lamb kebab picture, but here's a couple of wicked prawn kebabs I did last year.

I love a nice kebab, and while tonight's budget buy isn't perfect, it's better than the usual elephant leg you get in a dodgy eatery after a night out on the town. 

 These ten little lamb mince lollies, below, fed me for dinner and lunch in August.  All it needed was some sauce and some vegetables to go with it.  And I even had enough money for a budget dessert!

I've made kebabs before, although the recipe was a little different, so these aren't souvlaki style shish kebabs, which you may have seen me cook.  These are koftas, that use minced lamb.  I'll give you the recipe for them from scratch, below.

These Value versions are "minted" so the sauce of choice will be tzatsiki, a Greek cucumber, mint, garlic and yoghurt dip, with some of our harissa from last time going in with my leftover tomatoes and some artisanal Dorset Naga chilli sauce adding the firepower.  Plus some lettuce really balances with the yoghurt and the heat.


The method is simple enough.

For 4

Kebabs

1 pack of minced lamb or 10 small SupermarketValue lamb sticks
2 tsps cumin / curry powder.
Mint.  Fresh is best and easy to grow but a handful of dried will help bind the mince.
Salt and pepper.

Method

Roll the lamb mince into small cylinders and then roll in the cumin/ curry powder.  If you have a skewer, all the better, soak it in water first if it's wooden, and place the lamb under a hot grill for about 10-12 minutes.  If not, you can make these as meatballs and use a frying pan.  Or the grill.  Works for both, just make sure you get a nice crust on your lamb.

There's most of what went into the tsatziki, plus the kebas in the corner

Tsatziki

Per person:
1 tsp of jarred mint, or a large bunch of fresh mint, chopped.
2 tbsps Greek or natural yoghurt
1/4 of a cucumber, shredded and drained, with a little salt.
1 clove garlic, preferably cooked off first but half a fresh raw one is OK.
1 large pinch of dried oregano, or a big bunch of fresh if you have it.

Method

Chop everything, mix, and refrigerate.  Easy.

Chilli Sauce

Per person 
One tomato, squashed, with salt.  I used a leftover roasted tomato I had from last time.
1 or maybe two tablespoons of vinegar, a "nice" one if you have it.
1 tsp sugar.
1/2 a small chili, birdeye or similar, or one you made earlier like I did.  
Harissa, 1tsp.  I did pay out for this when doing my shakshouka a few weeks ago so a shame not to use it again to give some flowery subtle heat.
Coriander paste , 1tsp gives this a little twist as well.
And, maybe... 1/4 tsp of ginger.  
And of course, if you have a store cupboard favourite chili sauce to add heat, add some of that to taste

Ideally for a chilli sauce you want to cook it down slowly, make a lot of it in a batch and freeze it, but to each, their own today...

*munch*

Mmm...


These go well with either rice, couscous, or in a pitta, with the shredded lettuce to garnish. 

Normally with a kebab you get pickled red cabbage, but today while I remembered, I had some cheap steamable vegetables to use up, so I pickled them in a mixture of vinegar, salt, chilli, garlic and olive oil, in a clean Kilner jar.

For dessert, I had some mango and watermelon slices dressed with salted yoghurt and honey.  A little like what I posted last time...

There you are - a little healthier than the normal article and a lot more flavour for the pound than stopping off at AbraKebabera, or wherever...

Pasta alla Puttanesca, a variation on...

Cheat's Fast Fresh Pasta alla Puttanesca

I was really hungry after work and wanted something quick and easy - comforting pasta came to mind.  Knowing I had a discounted bag of fusili and some tomatoes in the fridge, but also knowing I didn't want to faff around defrosting my home made sauce, or use shop bought, I improvised one of my favourite dishes.

A Non-standard reduction sticker, but at 25% of normal cost, I don't mind.

Finest* ripe tomatoes for half the price.  Nice.

So I picked up the bag of fresh fusili above for 30p, and those lovely high grade piccolo tomatoes as well at half price.  Bar my, unorthodox, ingredients, more of which later, everything else came from the store cupboard. 

"alla Puttanesca" means "in the manner of a prostitute" - I have no idea what the origin of the term is but it seems to be recent.  One theory is if you're too much of a sk**k to go to the market, you use what's in the cupboard.  Olives, capers, anchovy, garlic, chilli and tomato ragout form the basis of it.

The proper way to make the sauce, and some recipe variants, can all be found online of course, But here's my alternate take on it.

Ingredients (per person)

Tonight's ingredients.  Not quite the classic Italian, but...

• 2 Handfuls of fresh pasta.  Tonight I used fusili but spaghetti is more authentic.
• 6-8 small piccolo tomatoes, chopped.  Any ripe tomato would do but a ragout made with onion, chilli and garlic is, again, nearer the mark for authenticity.
• 2 anchovy fillets, chopped
• 6 olives, chopped.  I used jarred green but black, unstoned, are tastier.
• 1 dash of chilli sauce.  I've used a nice fruity habanero sauce for extra firepower and flavour.
• 1 heaped tsp capers.
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil to dress.
• Herbs - oregano, thyme, basil, parsley, etc.  Probably cook those in your ragout if making from scratch if dried, and use fresh to serve.  See below*

  

Here's where I experiment:

• 1 small portion of feta cheese, crumbled.  This dish would maybe be served with a dusting of Parmesan but not outright lumps of cheese, let alone a Greek cheese.
• 1 tsp pesto sauce - *As I was out of even dried herbs, this gave the dish a bit of extra flavour despite it not being a classic ingredient of puttanesca sauce.
• 3 large iceberg lettuce leaves, chopped.  Bit of a risk but I think this will work; lettuce isn't just for salad - I've made soup with it, for instance.

Method

Boil the pasta for 5-8 minutes if fresh, or however long it says for dried, probably about 12 at a guess.

Meanwhile chop all the ingredients up and add some oil and the pesto to a small bowl.  Combine the ingredients thoroughly.

Our "sauce" taking shape.  Note my blue t-shirt in foreground (not essential to recipe)

When the pasta is ready, drain, reserving some of the water, and add the pasta to the sauce / salad.  Mix well, and add a little dash of the reseved cooking water.

Serve

*munch*

Yum yum.  Light, fresh, salty, savoury, spicy.

Yum.  This hit the spot perfectly.  Not too salty - the olives and capers are mellowed by the fresh tomato and lettuce, making it quite light.  The feta cheese melts slightly in the liquid and with the heat of the pasta, and the pesto gives it body, texture and herby goodness.  There's just a slight kick from the chilli as well.

Absolutely perfect - I could not have asked for a nicer ad-libbed supper.  It's even better when made with a proper tomato/garlic/onion slow cooked sauce.  Tuna also works well with this recipe, but I was feeling very satisfied.  Again, yum.

Quick budget smoothies

Smoothies

You got a bit of a cheat last week with the addition of fruit to pasta salad, so here's an extra post.  I don't write much about snacks,breakfast or dessert. Or even fruit in general.  So here's what I had/have for breakfast, and have been known to have as a dessert.

A big rake of fruit, about to blended with  natural yoghurt and juice.

3 slices watermelon or Galia melon (usually cheaper)
4 chunks of cucumber.
4 slices of mango.
1/2 an apple, sliced.
1 small pot of natural yoghurt.
Top up with apple juice, or whatever you have to hand.

Blend until smooth, and knock back.


The watermelon didn't blend well; it was a bit under ripe when I tried it.  I think I need to invest in a SupermarketValueFood® food processor...

Lots of smoothies or juice drinks will use beetroot, carrots and kale, and I'm guessing you WILL need a proper blender for those recipes, but the ease of which you can put yoghurt, ripe fruit and juice, in a pot, is pretty satisfying.  

Kept me going well into lunchtime.

Other nice things I like to add to smoothies include:

• Oatmeal, for thickness and carbs.  Use a fine oat, normal milled porridge oats work if ground finely first
• Honey.
• Spinach or lettuce - soft greens work well.
• Any soft fruit you like, but nothing too sharp.  Prefer raspberries and blackberries myself, if strained.
• More juice.

I don't like bananas taste wise, but they're pretty useful in smoothies for vitamins and texture, they blend well, so go for it if you like them...

There you go, reduced, healthy, tasty, breakfast.

Normal schedule will resume from now on - once a fortnight, or once a week if I have a small bonus post or aside to share.  Enjoy!

Bonus Post: Budget Pasta "Salad" plus fruit.

Improvised Caesar / pasta / Waldorf salad

I've been on holiday, so this is a quick filler post from when I had to grab a fast budget picnic lunch, and hope for the best.

I've been on holidays for the last ten days, and it was great.

Short on time to catch a train, a fast lunch was necessary.  I picked up a "Caesar" Salad with pasta, chicken and bacon, plus a mini-pack of apples and grapes from the T.

*munch*

Tasting the dressing tube first, I don't think it's improved an iota from back in the days when I made this Caesar much better.

I'm only going to dot it about and throw the rest the hell away. Too much vinegar, too much mayo.  Yuck.

• The pasta as always is over cooked, but isn't soggy today. Croutons, but yeah, they wouldn't travel... 
• The chicken is dry-ish; edible. 
• The salad - few leaves of iceberg at the bottom; disappointing.  
• The bacon is smoky but not crispy, and that smoke flavour isn't from wood...
• There's some cheese in here as well.  It...works with some mouthfuls, I'll give it that, but it's just T-ShopValueCheddar® instead of a nice Pecorino.

So, today, all I'm doing is tipping fruit into a store bought salad and adding a dash of sauce to balance it. 

 Will apple and grapes turn this into a half-Waldorf,  or a half-baked horrible disaster?

Pasta Chicken Bacon Caesar salad, per person

• 1 serving of pasta - fusili or similar. 
• 4 lettuce leaves, iceberg.  Little Gem also works from scratch.
• 1 half-portion of chicken - say half a breast, or 1 thigh or 1 drumstick.
• 2 rashers of streaky smoky bacon, chopped into 1/2cm strips
• 1 apple, quartered, then chopped into thumb-sized chunks.
• 6 grapes, plus or minus 1.
• A few shavings of your finest (ahem...) ripe cheese.  Parmesan is best but any hard mature cheese is good.

About the dressing:

If I was trying to reverse engineer this dish, I'd do a garlic mayo myself, from scratch.  Otherwise a nice olive oil and vinegar mix  (4/1 ratio) would work.  Some folks do (3/1) oil / vinegar but I don't like the acidity.  But whatever floats your boat.

Method

 If you're cooking it from scratch:

•  Boil pasta for the requisite time, say 7 minutes for fusili.
•  While this is on, fry the bacon.
•  Drain pasta, allow to cool.
•  Shred your salad ingredients and dress appropriately.  I'd add the bacon fat in myself as part of that.  
• - Dress with your dressing of preference, (I'd go for olive oil and white wine vinegar) to your taste, season, chill in the fridge.
•  - Add the apples and grapes last, and serve.

*munch*

I must say for something I have put no effort into, I can report that, if I had shelled out an extra pound on a packet of nuts or seeds, or even 30p on celery, this would have been even better, and probably a very good budget Waldorf.  Not great you understand, but better than what you would get at your company barbecue.



I hope that's given you some ideas for messing around with your pre-bought picnics when you are in a rush to get to somewhere sunny.

I looked online and some recipes for Waldorf Salad and Caesar can be found here, as well as mine.  So yes, maybe it's O.K. to quickly play with your food, when on holiday.

Chicken 3 ways 2/3 - Shakshouka & couscous

For my first post for almost a year, I am lucky - The supermarket reduced section was pretty kind to me the other day - I have a bucket load of Mediterranean grains and veg.






First onto the fork is some couscous "salad" - I'm aiming to eat these mass-produced edible-constructions first, before I play around with them afterwards...

Wasn't great in it's raw state...

*munch*
What I can say for this couscous is that the peppers and chilli it comes with are punchy, but these grains are as dry as the Sahara, and need some sauce if they are to be some form of dinner.

I have been wanting to make this next dish for a while, as I've eaten its Basque cousin Piperade, which is delicious.  

Shakshouka or chakchouka, is an Arab / Mediterranean / Middle Eastern dish of baked eggs, tomato, peppers, onions / other vegetables, and spices.  I've added some leftover chicken drumsticks into the mix as this is normally a breakfast dish served with breads but it's my supper tonight.  I think lots of tomatoes will help rescue the couscous, and what's not to like about everything else, so this recipe should be perfect.

  There's a very comprehensive article here about shakshouka; I've read it, understood it, but I'm going to adapt it to my circumstances.

Ingredients - per person

2 eggs
1 orange (bell) pepper
Lots of tomatoes - 4 salad, 12 cherry is what I used.  
1/2 a small onion
1 chicken breast / drumstick / thigh, cooked*  

* This addition is non-standard but I promised recipes about how to use a whole chicken, and it worked...

About 250g couscous, fresh steamed is probably better.  
A little olive oil, maybe about 2 tsps.
Spices
 - cumin or curry powder
 - harissa paste - today's store cupboard rescue.  £3.50 for the harissa but that'll    add flavour until next March.  Dot that liberally over the ingredients.  
 - pimentón - another store cupboard staple for me.  Hot, dry, spicy, tasty.  
 - 1 + 1/2 cloves of garlic, smashed up with salt.  Poke the  cloves into the tomatoes

Method.

In a casserole or ovenproof dish, lay down the couscous, and add the chopped onions, tomatoes, peppers and garlic over the top of it.  Put into a low oven for an hour, at about 160°C.  
Allow to cool.

Chop the chicken up into rough chunks, almost like "pulled" chicken.
Add a tsp of cumin/ curry powder, 1 or 2 of harissa and half a tsp of pimentón or your nearest equivalent chilli powder,  over the top of the veg and couscous saucery.

Now then - make 2 wells / hollows / spaces in the dish under the couscous & veg, and crack the eggs into them.

Turn the oven back on to about 140°C and leave the eggs to bake for about 20-30 minutes.  Timing's not important, but keep your eye on your oven.  You want the eggs soft and slightly runny, but not underdone.

Hopefully this long slow process will give you slow roasted veg and wobbly baked eggs, and I'm hoping the couscous will not be as dry as it was thanks to all those tomatoes.... but let's see...




*munch*

You can't see the eggs here but I'll take a photo of the leftovers with more baked eggs as it was good enough for me to make again.

The harissa dotted about lifts this into the stratosphere of taste highlights - fiery but flowery.  I am also very pleased with how the juices from the roasted tomatoes have rescued the store bought couscous.  The leftover chicken has absorbed a lot of the tomato as well, and is a nice addition of texture and flavour.  One more way to use your entire chicken, done.

  As for the baked eggs, they are a real treat - absolutely lovely.  But the number one key to the dish, I reckon,  is the cumin / curry powder, just scattered over the top.  

I'm having seconds, and I'll post a photo of them later in the week.

August '16 - Returning from hiatus.

I'm picking up the reins again and posting about how to best use and improve reduced food items and basic brand supermarket produce.  A lot of things happened in the last year that made posting updates...not a thing that was going to happen. 

So here's what went to the pass last year...

Ingredients Impediments

1.  Job - I was working flat out as a software contractor and was living off canteen and client lunches, take-aways, and 6 hours sleep until April; I had no energy to prepare food from scratch or be innovative.  Life was no fun.   Probably the main reason I stopped.

2.  Ingredients.  You can't predict when you'll get something in the Clearance section that will fit in well with your ingredients at home.  If I posted and ate strictly from what was in the budget aisle all the time, this blog would be nothing but "101 Things to do with coleslaw and ham"   Again, not fun for anyone.   


3.  Repetitiveness.  Related to the above.  Soup and sandwiches had been done to death and when I was out of ideas I was repeating myself.  I enjoyed home made tomato & rice soup and leftover bolognese the first 6 times, but these pit-stops were not something I wanted to share. 

4.  Relocation.  I have a new job and have moved home to Belfast from my fun times in Dublin.  With that goes a new kitchen.  More cupboard space, gas fired hob, but the smoke alarms go off regularly.  Took a while to sort that out.  Cooking was...impractical.


But it's time to get back in the saddle and sharpen the old knives up.

Let's get back to what matters - fun, interesting, cheap food!

I came up with a few principles for the blog.  The primary axiom for me is that I have both a useful direction for, and fun, typing words about, and eating, my thrifty cooking.  

So my goals are:

1.  Always Reduced  - I'd like to always include at least one item from the Reduced section.  It may be tenuous and the same one over time, but I want to make best use of the ingredients I have to hand, and it's kinda the raison d'etre.

Always look for a bargain.  These garden veg were 80p down from £4, only because they were upside down.

2.  Challenge Ready Meals - Every month (or so) I'll try to improve a ready meal or low value prepared item, say, a tin of sausage and beansfrom the "Value" or own brand section.  
  It may be pointless trying to supercharge a culinary Nissan Micra, but I think it's fun to try ;-)
  I'll also try and replicate the recipes myself using fresh and discount ingredients to prove the obvious - that you're better making your own food from scratch!

I'm fairly certain I can do better than this myself, but I'll let you know when I open it and taste it first...

3.  If you have it, use it - I reserve the right to use non-budget ingredients when I can afford to make best use of what I have to hand.  So should you, you're making something you want to eat - make it taste the way you like!  If you have ras el hanout and rosewater, brilliant.  If you have to improvise with 59p curry powder and a Turkish Delight bar, more power.

These kebabs were a fantastic eat - it was worth investing in the skewers and harissa sauce.

4.  Health is Wealth - Ideally, the recipes will be healthy as well as cheap.  So expect lots more veg in recipes, even if I have to buy them at full price sometimes.  It's worth it in the long term.

That's a minestrone I did which was not just delicious, but full of bucketloads of healthy veg.

Epilogue

While I didn't post in the last year, I have a lot of notes and photos taken from when I did sit down of a night, and eat something that was made from the "About to be binned" counter.  

So being regular with posts shouldn't be a problem for a while.  It'll also solve issue number 2 as above - if I can't justify buying something in the section to cook, I have plenty of recipes in the archives to be published.

As I type, I've just been to the local supermart - there's going to be Middle Eastern themed dinners posted up on Sunday.

Finally I remind myself of my favourite quote when it comes to quick cheap tasty food:

"There is too much talk of cooking being an art or a science - we are only making ourselves something to eat." - Nigel Slater, Real Cooking.

Chicken 3 Ways - Part 1

Chicken 3 Ways - Part 1

Time for roast chicken

I’ve not posted for as long as I would have liked, as I have been caught up in a new job, and all that entails – crazy commutes, canteen lunches, burgers grabbed on the way home.  Sadly, little time for budget meals at home, or typing.  But I grabbed a spare 10 minutes to type this one up.

A couple of months ago, I picked up a chicken in the discount section.

There are at least three, potentially four recipes that can come off of a delicious piece of meat such as this.  And all for €3.50 for the main event. 

It was the weekend I decamped to my Dad’s house to cook the whole thing.

 

 

Winner Winner Budget Roast Chicken Dinner

Once we get the opportunity to have a roast chicken dinner, we are in full on celebration mode, folks.  And I feel like celebrating my first full attempt at roasting a chicken.  Never done it before. Dad was very happy that I was cooking too.

First up -

Brining the chicken

We're hitting this thing with 24 hours of seasoned saltwater to preserve the flavour.

• Cover your whole chicken in water, in a pan, probably about 4 pints at least. 
• Add about 5-6 tablespoons of salt
• Add 2-3 tablespoons of sugar.
• Things like rosemary, oregano, lemon, bay leaves, boquet garnis, peppercorns, a little wine or vinegar (couple of tablespoons, tops) don’t hurt your brine either.

  This brining process will make your bird very succulent, but also, kill off anything you may have inherited from your SupermarketValue chicken that you may not want.

• Refrigerate overnight.
• Drain the liquid, and dry the chicken with kitchen paper or a tea towel.

Now rub a little oil and salt and pepper over the skin, this will help it crisp it up nicely in the oven. 

Before roasting, I added

• Rosemary - about 5 or six large sprigs inside and outside. Rosemary grows in abundance in local gardens along the road near my house, and is easily aquireable... 
• Garlic - 1 whole bulb, slightly smashed, but still in its skin, into the roasting pan, and a few cloves in the cavity. 
• Lemon - score, zest,  and punch holes in it, and jam it in the cavity.  Sprinkle some of the zest on the outside, and keep the rest for the gravy (see below).  Lemon and chicken are good buddies.

Method

At a pre-heated 200°C , a small chicken will cook through in about a half hour to 40 minutes
Mine took about 50 minutes as my Dad has an Aga, which only goes to about 180.  
HINT:  You know to check the juices run clear and not red, by sticking a skewer or fork in the centre of a chicken, right?   

Chicken is not to be messed around with – under-cooked can and will (from my own experiences), cause terrible awful stomach upsets.  So if 50 minutes isn't enough, put your roast back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

I think this came out OK.Check out the crispy skin the oil rub has given it.

*munch* - Mmm... my first bite of the breast slice I tried is *very* juicy, slightly seasoned from the brine, and the rosemary on the skin gives it a nice subtle crispy flavour. 

So what to serve on the side?  

 

Gravy, mashed potatoes, and carrot and parsnip

•  Gravy made with a little white wine, hot water, a chicken stock cube, and flour mixed with the pan juices, whisked up vigorously until thick.  The trick is to add the flour VERY gradually, so you don't get lumps, and use a sieve if possible.    
• You might even add some of the lemon zest I mentioned you save, earlier.  If you're very brave, retrieve the lemon from the cavity of the chicken and squash some of that nice caramelised jammy citrus flavour into the gravy.  Just a little squeeze, but it gives your gravy a real zing.
• Mash - Dad likes his store bought mashed potatoes, so we went with that.  I'm not going to tell you how to make mash,  I won't insult you ;-)  
• However, champ is the best mash variant, hands down.  Well, maybe with some horseradish...
• Carrot and Parsnip - Again, this was bought from Dad's favourite local convenient veg supplier - Mash Direct  .  I'd probably have made it myself from scratch, but I put a value added twist on it:

Spice up your carrot and parsnip: 

• Chop and boil the veg (or just heat it in the oven if you're my Dad using Mash Direct's lovely pre-prepared version)
• Drain and mash the veg with:
• 1 tsp cumin.
• 1tsp garam masala or mild curry powder
• a little salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp cream. 
• a slug of milk 
• Salt and pepper  

Adding the milk and cream will probably make the veg mixture a little runny, so cook that off until the consistency is a little thicker.  Adjust to taste, as always.   

A little butter goes well with this too (if your Dad’s not on a low-fat diet) 

Cumin and garam masala, really bring out the flavour of the parsnip, countering its bitterness, and complement the sweetness of the carrot.

All this went down very well with Mr SupermarketValueFoodBlog Sr.  

What's next?

So 3 way Chicken Parts 2&3 (and maybe 4) will cover:

• Budget pasta bake featuring the chicken breast we didn't eat.
• Chicken dopiaza curry, using the thighs.
• Jerk Chicken drumsticks.  Dad ate mine, but I found more...

And of course, make stock or soup with the leftover carcass.  

But these will feature another time, and not necessarily next week or month.  But soon.

Enjoy putting some love into your chicken and veg dinners, all.