Value meal rescue mission 1 - Chicken Jalfrezi++ / Proper Curry prep / Face The Pain

 Value Jalfreizi /

Chicken 3 ways 3.5/3 - Dopiaza Preparation &

Insane Chilli tasting

Back in the cheap food game, folks...

I had promised to do a chicken dopiaza back last year  So now's the time to prepare, thanks to a lot of hints and ideas I've adapted from this incredible recipe from the Loving Bangladesh Kitchen blog, which you will have adapted for you in the next post.  Meanwhile, today it's preparation and adaptation of a frozen jalfreizi. 

Jalfrezi vs Dopiaza

A  jalfrezi and a dopiaza, are very different, but they both use cardamon, ginger, garlic, onion, tomato, bay leaf, cumin, and whatever other spices you have to hand.  Although as we'll see, a jalfreizi should be a dry curry too...  But this one was reduced from the T.

Behold, supermarket spicy foodgoodness.

The unboxed Tesco Chicken Jalfreizi, about to be heated.

I think this cost 80p.  The sticker wore off in the freezer, but it's around £2 - £2.50 normally.  You get some basmati rice with it and ... well, we'll see how it tastes on its own first.

While the oven is on (saving electricity and heat) I am also going to finish my onions and spice mix for the dopiaza, so all I need to do is add my chicken, any sides ( gobi aloo or spicy rice and ratia spring to mind) then heat, and add the sauce   

As well as the scary part.  Let's talk chilli tasting.


I am a chillihead for sure, but I have limits.  I once went to a chilli festival.  On sale was this Dorset Naga sauce.  It clocks in at about 1 to 2 million times hotter than a bell pepper (rated 1 on the Scoville scale) and still about 10,000 times hotter than the rocket chilli.  So, pretty much intense pain in fruit form.


I don't really remember what happened for about 30 seconds in between sampling a small drop, saying "Wow!  You can really taste the pineapple!...aaaaAAAAGH"  and then finding myself in my seat , tears streaming down my flaming face, begging, "Yoghurt!  Yoghurt!!  Aagh!  Can I borrow a fiver for that Naga sauce?  It's like CS gas, but ...aaagh...with fruity...aaagh...pineapple!"


So caution is the watchword but this is preparation.  You can't cook good value food if you don't know how to improve it.  And to improve it we must experiment to see what works.  Which means tasting.



Below you'll see a sweet pepper, which I used in the chackchouka I made, next to a regular chilli I picked up a bag for for about 30p, which was pretty fiery.  

Common or garden supermarket small bell pepper

Next, I found a massive bag of "rocket chillis" from Gambia, which are less than a penny a gram, and shall be pickeled.  Finally...

The rocket finger chillis on the left are hot.  The Trinidad Scorpions on the right are just evil...

... the last time I was in Dublin, I bought some Trinidadian Scorpion chillis, which, frankly, I am scared of.  But at €1 for around 25-30 of the things, it was only stupid to try and eat them all at once, just not to sample them before ruining a perfectly good dopiaza first! 

Tonight I'll be tasting a ready meal, plus 4 kinds of chilli, to see what will give my dopiaza the right level of heat.  

Method

Chillis
 - I added a little oil to the bottom of a casserole dish to bake and intensify the flavours.

I just looked up the Scoville rating for the scorpion chilli and it rates between 800,000 and 2 million.  Whuh-oh. 

Jalfreizi ready meal

"Remove cardboard sleeve.  Punch holes in film.  Add to a preheated oven" 

I cooked it from frozen for about 45 minutes at 150° instead of the recommended instructions - I think this has given the rice time to reheat properly rather than burn or dry out, but the sauce may have suffered the freezing process...  

Four Chilis in order of heat, small bell pepper, regular, green finger chili and scorpion chili...

First impressions of the jalfreizi au naturel, plus chillis #1 and #3:

*munch*
Yep, the sauce is wet; not very thick, but the rice has come out well.  One of the hazards with trying to cook two different ingredients the same way where they could be better prepapred separaertly, as well as freezing certain types of food. 

But tastewise...

Yum!  Quite fragrant, not overly spicy (yet...)  - the chicken is breast meat and comes in quite large chunks, which makes up for it being pretty poor quality chicken.  Despite the sauce being too runny and too based on tomatoes, there's a nice after kick to this, plus some layering of spices (I swear I could taste the bay leaf and cardamon).  I quite recommend this if you like hot but not insane ready Indian meals.  On its own this is a fine supper for 80p.

Now for chilli number 1 - sweet pepper, baked in a little oil.

As expected, it's almost sugary, and has zero heat.  A nice addition to any meal - would barbeque well, oven roast well, or ... go with anything really. Pickled with salt?  A bit of fish and sea veg?  Roasted peppers - lovely.


Now for the Gambian rocket chilli, also baked in some oil.

Ha-HA!  This hits like a drunk baritone opera singer at a karaoke night.  Not much front of mouth, all chest and back of the throat, loud, and lingers too long!  BUT... I think this chilli is the perfect accompaniment for a *really* hot jalfreizi, if you like your gums to water for a few minutes afterwards.  One of these would *really* fire up that ready meal.  I'm going to call perfect ingredient for jazzing up your supermarket Indian.   

 I *did* make the error of leaving the seeds and pith in, which, if you want control over heat (or not) you should carefully remove with a knife and use hand protection.  But after a slug of cream to let the dairy fat absord the capsaicin, I was fine.

I shall try chillis #2 (the normal T red chilli) and #4 (the "sorry boss, need to go home sick, can't see the computer screen for tears, also best no-one touches me." Trinidad Scorpion tomorrow for lunch with the remaining jalfreizi as leftovers.

Yum yum - not a bad and spicy improvement to a 60p frozen curry

 So far the dopiaza is going to have half a Ghanaian rocket and half a regular T chilli, in addition to the spice blend I prepared and baked with the sauce earlier, but more details follow next time.

Update

I ate the red T-chilli for breakfast (not as hot as I remember but still a good kick) and then...

For lunch I polished off the rest of the jalfreizi, plus... the scorpion chilli.

The first half was lovely, so much so I ate the second half too.  After about twenty seconds I got a nice fruity tang and then... well... it was a good job I remembered to bring yoghurt and cream with me.  Any oil will help absorb capsaicin.  Not the hottest I've ever eaten and to be honest, not a lot of flavour but oh the burn after about 30 seconds...

Thank-you cream, thank-you yoghurt, thank-you Pepto-Bismol® Phew!

I think these bad gals and guys are going to be preserved and turned into a fruity insanity sauce with pineapple and herbs.  Not for the dopiaza.

So there you are - 
1.  Can recommend the T's Hot Jalfreizi if reduced, and especially if you want to kick it up, with a halft of Ghanaian rocket chilli (finger chilli also would work)  Of course pickles, naan, extra sauce can all be added to strecth this.
2.  I'll be sticking mainly to the recipe I linked to in the opening paragraph next week, but using a regular and rocket chilli for heat.
3.  The scorpion chillis deserve their own post and Health and Safety regulation.  I'll deal with them at a later date.      

[Temporary Technical Setback]

Well, it seems that Google Drive and Blogger (owned by Google!) have different ideas what it means about photo sharing so I apologise for my last post not having any pictures of last week's lunch I made in the office in about five minutes.  

Also I've noticed a lot of my old pictures have been removed.  I think I need to read the manual on Google Drive again, as I was getting tired of uploading pictures to Drive and having to download them again in order to post them.

Nevertheless, I'll have a post featuring an insane amount of hot chillis and chicken dopiaza up today, tomorrow at latest.  Once I've finished uploading all my old pictures again.  Gah...

Here are some nice (mainly non-food related) pictures from my own archives of happier times,in the meantime, to keep myself sane and happy while I sort this mess out.  Thanks for your patience.

EDIT:  I've managed to find the pictures of my improvised working lunch, see my previous post for pictures!  Still working on finding the rest of them...

The old garden

Ah yes, happier times making that chicken chachocka

There's video footage on my YouTube channel of the opening and tasting of this on our visit to the GBBF 2016

Just a few of the plants at my dad's house.  Many good meals consumed there

Bit jealous of Dad manging to grow a chilli...

...and lettuce

Happy camping at Ballycastle
.  Not pictured was the budget burger supper I cooked up on a stove

The original budget beer festival I had when I was broke and couldn't make it to London.  I don't miss the cider, but |I miss that blanket...

That'll be me in silhouette then. 

Now THAT was a good Thai coconut, chilli and coriander soup/stew...Yum

It might not be budget, but the winter brings belfast's continental market, where I'll score a few goodies and enjoy the ambience with friends.

Good old soda bread.  Difficult to get right, but when I made this a few years back, it was cheap AND satisfying.

My experience at a Colombian restaurant in '13. those were some good empanadas...  

Fiscally responsible business lunch

Fiscally responsible business lunch – Caprese salad with a twist

I’ve made salads before on this blog, but today you may notice a difference in the surroundings they were prepared in...

I prefer to focus on the hills and forests, not on the cars or my job at lunchtime.  And no, I did *not* go dumpster diving either!

Correct – this is obviously not the SupermarketValueFood® kitchen, this is the view from the canteen in my office.  A challenge to make anything from scratch, other than in a microwave.  Normally it’s heated up soup, or pay for sandwiches like everyone else for lunch for the staff. But not for me today.

Today’s budget ingredient (in addition to some of the iceberg lettuce and salad tomatoes I picked up from the Co for 59p each a few weeks back) is this ball of Basic Mozzarella for 50p.

50p for a large fist shape of cheese?  Let's give it a shot...

*munch* - It’s not so much of a cheese as a sphere of edible consistency.  I can see it being an addition to something, just not an ingredient on its own.  If you had enough toppings it would go well on a budget pizza.  I *do* like the texture though – pleasantly stringy and chewy.

Classic Caprese salad is simply tomatoes, basil and buffalo mozzarella seasoned with olive oil and salt.  But I need to bulk this up if I’m going to last the day at the desk.

Ingredients - for one as a light lunch or two as an antipasto

-          Half a ball of mozzarella, peeled; torn off, not sliced.

-          2 or 3 salad tomatoes, sliced.

-          1 bunch of basil, torn

-          Olive oil

-          Salt and pepper

Here I deviate from tradition, add extra edibles, and also experiment…

-          4-5 leaves of iceberg lettuce, cut or torn into fork sized chunks.

-          1 small handful of chard, or any other salad leaves you have to hand.

-          1 small bunch worth of mixed chopped herbs – I got the chard, plus a bunch each of coriander, parsley, and the basil, from St. George’s Market for a quid, and there’ll still be plenty left after this…  So coriander and parsley it is.

-          2 or 3 tsp soy sauce.  Yes, soy sauce. 

-          Dried herbs – oregano and basil today, for garnish.

Method

Put a layer of iceberg lettuce and some of the herbs on the bottom of a plate.

Top with a layer of tomatoes.  Add some salt to them.  Now put a chunk of the mozzarella and a bit of basil on top of each slice.  Dress with a little olive oil.

Layer more of the chard/ iceberg lettuce, salad leaves and chopped herbs, and repeat the process with the remaining tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.  Dust with the dried herbs and finish with a little more oil.

Now drip the soy sauce down to the bottom of the plate in four corners and add a small amount on top over the oil.  Serve.

Healthy, fast, tasty, cheap, what more do you want to keep you going through another 5 hours of work?

*munch*

I’ll be honest, the parsley is maybe a bit too bitter for this recipe and I’m not getting much from the dried herbs (although they do look aesthetically pleasing).   I also should have taken the tomatoes out of the fridge sooner (it’s way colder than mine at home and they were almost frozen – they should really be left in the sun to ripen and go juicy…)

That aside - each forkful of tomato, mozzarella, basil and oil, is delicious.  This recipe is a classic for a reason, and the extra salad veg layered in makes this feel more like a lunch than a starter.  The real surprise is how well the soy sauce and oil, and the fresh coriander keeps things interesting.

That’ll keep me going through the 3 o’clock meeting, and all at a fraction of the cost of what you’d pay for in a restaurant (on expenses)

There were some jealous looks in the office when I knocked this together

PS:

The next day I was able to make a “Superfood “salad, containing chard, rocket, kale and beetroot (priced at …) with the rest of the iceberg lettuce plus a few grated radishes, a pack of which cost 9p, the remaining herbs (minus the parsley) with Supermarket chicken peri-peri (priced at £1.35 down from £2.99) I added a home-made mustard and olive oil dressing (1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard to 1/3 cup oil, whisked thoroughly.

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.