The saga of Ina's pancakes

Anyone who thinks that cookery writers effortlessly produce brilliant recipes like a rabbit from a hat should reassure themselves that we struggle like everyone else. Or at least this one does.I've just spent the best part of two days (sorry, Matt*) trying to recreate some fantastic breakfast pancakes I had in a Chicago diner called Ina's last year. Appropriately enough they were called Heavenly Hots. When I finally extracted the recipe from the proprietor Ina Pinkney (who, as you can see from her picture, looks like a fairy godmother - exactly the kind of person who would make a perfect pancake)...

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Loaves and fishes

I've been focussing on the respective costs of buying and making bread this week and must say the gulf between the two came as quite a shock. A 1.5kg pack of strong white flour, admittedly not the best you can buy, costs just 48p in Tesco this week. Strong brown costs 89p and stoneground wholemeal 93p. 1.5kg of flour is enough to make 3 big loaves. Even allowing for the cost of the other ingredients and running your oven at full blast for an hour that's a considerable saving.I've posted the recipe for the bread I made yesterday (above) on Beyond Baked Beans. The original came from Signe, a young...

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Couscous is local too

Felt the need for a break from the book so we went down to the centre of Bristol for the weekly farmers' market (where I got an amazing fish bargain, of which more tomorrow)I'd also heard there was a Portuguese food shop round the back which I thought might be the best place to buy salt cod. There's a dish I remember having way back in Oporto which was a bit like a fishy gratin dauphinoise based on salt cod, potatoes and cream which I thought would make a good addition to the book.The very nice woman behind the counter explained exactly how to make it but I rapidly realised it wasn't going to...

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Global food prices - the sobering reality

My efforts to save the odd pound here and there are put firmly into perspective by a sobering series of reports in the Guardian today and on their website For millions of people it's not a question of cutting back but of surviving.While food only accounts for an average 10% of the expenditure of UK households it can account for as much as 80% of that of poor families in the developing world. This Food Diary of a family in northern Cairo shows how prices have nearly doubled in the past year. Two other things I read really struck home. First that land that could be used for growing food for Egypt's...

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Mexican salsa chicken

A hectic couple of days testing and writing up recipes. This is the stage of a book I don't enjoy. It's a bit like being 8 months pregnant. You wonder why you did it but it's too late to go back ;-)However I'm more than happy with the last recipe of today. In fact I can't wait to make it again. It's an idea I picked up from the American food blog Serious Eats on which one of New York's most famous chefs Mario Batali was writing about a meal his Mexican babysitter (well, presumably his children's babysitter) made regularly for the family. It's based on tomatillos, a fabulous sharp tomato-like ingredient...

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Scotch eggs and other yummy things

Just thought I'd draw your attention to Mark Hix' column in the Independent today where he offers some budget recipes including ham hocks in parsley sauce, meatballs and (my favourite) homemade Scotch eggs.Unusually for a celebrity chef, Mark, who was brought up in Dorset, has his feet firmly on the ground. (Apart from admitting he did most of his shopping for the feature at Waitros...

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Mushroom 'caviar' Mark II

There are some recipes you get obsessed with and have to go on testing until you crack them. This is a fantastic spread that they sell in the takeaway of our local Bristol restaurant, Culinaria.I asked the chef, Stephen Markwick how they made it and he just rattled off a list of ingredients - as chefs do. I had a go and the taste was fine but it was a bit heavy. This morning I popped by when they were making a batch and found the reason was that I'd used butter and hadn't added enough crème fraîche so hopefully this version will work. Have a try and let me know how you get on.The only downside...

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Standing out from the crowd/Marmite

Walking past the butcher just now made me think there's a lot to be gained by doing the opposite of what everyone else does. Bank holiday weekend coming up - what's going to be in the shops? Burgers, kebabs and marinated chicken. What does the smart frugal cook do? Make a stew. Bake a pie. Use the cuts that nobody else wants (well nobody except the people reading this blog!)Lamb breast I noticed had come down to £4.76 a kilo - that's about 43p less a kilo than it was last week. There were large organic guineafowl on sale for £4.99 - with care that's enough for six helpings and some quality stock....

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Slicing skills

A sharp knife, I’ve realised, is one of the most useful tools for the frugal cook. Being able to slice foods wafer thin not only makes them look more voluminous but often improves their texture and taste. Take cheese. If you cut yourself a 50g chunk of cheddar - a reasonable sized portion - it looks pretty mean. But if you sliced off 50g of cheese in fine slices with a sharp knife or Scandinavian-style cheese slicer you’d immediately feel you’d got more on your plate.Same with a tomato. Cut it into four and it looks small. Slice it thinly and you feel you’ve got twice as much.The Italians are...

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Do you still think in Fahrenheit?

Just a quickie before I shoot off to London - what are the most useful oven temperatures to give in a recipe? I routinely put Centigrade, Fahrenheit and gas but don't include a fan oven temperature which I note many of the food magazines now do. How many of you have a fan oven? I've also given up listing imperial measurements (i.e. pounds and ounces) so wonder if any of you still like to see those in a recipe? I've noticed a number of the local greengrocers seem to have reverted to pricing their fruit and veg by the pound. Probably because it looks cheaper . ....

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What happened to the breast of lamb

Confession time. I've never cooked breast of lamb before, having been put off by the decidedly fatty boned, rolled roasts of my youth. But at £5.19 a kilo for organic lamb it's too good a bargain not to try. Last night I slow-roasted it on the bone, as advocated by Graham the butcher - slightly too long I think. It was so lean that it dried out a little. But with the creamy chard gratin, the beet greens and a few roasted spears of asparagus from the farmers' market it was a feast. Unusually for me I tackled the leftovers straight after the meal, pulling the meat off the bone and marinating it...

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Eats Stalks and Leaves

This is the bunch of beets I bought at the farmers' market yesterday. Beautiful isn't it? And a few months ago I'm ashamed to say I would probably have thrown two thirds of it - the leaves and stalks - away.Now I know better. I roasted three of the beets for salads. I saved one which I shaved raw onto a pizza base smothered with soft goats cheese and topped with finely cut fennel (more about the virtues of wafer thin slicing to come . . .) I cut off the beet leaves, washed them, tore them off their stems and wilted them in a pan with the water that was still clinging to the leaves, drained them...

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My final verdict on the veg box

Well, in the end I made it. Just over a week after picking up my box I used the last vegetables. Apart from a few potatoes which should keep for another few days.This is the soup I made from the last scrubby remains - and they really were quite scrubbyI can't say it was easy. It took a lot of time and thought. I certainly spent more time in the kitchen than I would otherwise have done.It didn't provide all the veg I needed. Well, fair enough in a way - it's a difficult season for growers stuck with the tail end of winter and not yet into spring. They weren't to know we would have a sudden heatwave....

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Meat and potato pie

Here's the last but one product of the veg box and my recent trip to the butcher - a meat and potato pie. A bit like a Cornish pasty filling with carrot (by this time quite dessicated) and swede (given away by the greengrocer it was looking so sorry for itself). It should feed 6 though I suspect four would make short work of it. It's equally good cold as hot - if not even better. It would make a great picnic pie.The downside? It takes a fair time to make because it's best to chop the meat and vegetables by hand. If you had a sophisticated food processor with grating and slicing dish you could...

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Why you should cultivate your butcher

You might think as a frugal cook the last place to shop for meat would be an organic butcher. But you'd be wrong. Making friends with your butcher - organic or not - is a sound strategy.Yesterday I took up an invitation to spend some time behind the scenes with Graham Symes of Sheepdrove Farm, the butcher up the road. We'd been chatting about cheap cuts and he said he'd show me exactly where on the animal they were. First he pointed out a fantastic upper rib cut on a joint of beef that sells for less than half the price of the prime rib joints (for £6 rather than £15 a kilo). For organic beef!...

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A super slaw

In desperation about what to do with my remaining cabbage in this hot weather I made a coleslaw - and it was some slaw! Recipe below but it also used up one of the veg box carrots, some leftover fennel and herbs and half of one of the two rather sad-looking apples in the fruit bowl. We had it with some cold pork - the remains of Sunday night's roast - and, I'm embarrassed to admit, scoffed the lot. (In the case of my husband with some eye-wateringly hot Hyderabadi chutney)Ready-made coleslaw is so dire, so over-mayonnaisey, that you forget what a cracking salad it can be. Perfect for a barbecue....

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The veg box experiment - days 3 and 4

Managed to make significant inroads into the veg box over the weekend, polishing off the remaining courgettes (as a veggie accompaniment to some baked fish with a punchy tomato and olive sauce), the leeks and a couple of potatoes and half the cabbage (with a roast hand of pork with wild herbs and garlic). I blanched the cabbage then tossed it in a little oil I'd flavoured with yet more garlic and a sprig of rosemary from our neighbours' garden (No, I didn't nick it - they gave it to me!) Cabbage and rosemary is a good combination.The highlight though was a leek and tarragon frittata (above) which...

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Courgette, leek and cauliflower soup with Manchego

We were out last night so the veg box experiment resumed this morning. I discovered that one of the courgettes was already going mouldy at the end (not good) so thought I'd better use a couple of them up along with the rest of the cauliflower. This was the result. The Manchego - another fridge leftover - was a last minute addition because the soup tasted a bit bland. Rather good though.Serves 43 tbsp olive oil2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed and finely sliced2 medium courgettes, trimmed and sliced1/2 a cauliflower cut into florets (cooked or uncooked) or a small potato, peeled and finely sliced2...

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Warm cauliflower, egg and anchovy salad

Here's what I did with half the cauliflower in my veg box. Normally my first thought would be cauliflower cheese but the weather's so warm and balmy I fancied a salad instead.Serves 22 large eggs1 medium-sized cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets3 tbsp olive oil1/2 bunch of spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced or a small onion, peeled and chopped1 x 50g tin of anchovy fillets1 tbsp capers, rinsed and chopped2 tbsp finely chopped parsley + a little extra for decoration1 tbsp red or white wine vinegarSalt and pepperHard boil the eggs for 10 minutes, drain and leave in their shells in cold...

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Faffing around with falafel

These are the falafel I made last night. Not bad for a first time attempt, eh? A word of advice, though. Don't even think about it. By the time I'd discovered my neighbour's food processor wasn't up to the task and transferred the mixture to my more powerful blender then found even that wouldn't break down the chickpeas and tipped them into a bowl and chopped the herbs and ground the spices and washed up the mountains of equipment and crockery I had used I must have spent a good two hours in the kitchen. They tasted good, granted but to achieve that light fluffy texture that the best falafel have...

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My veg box challenge

Have just picked up my veg box and this is what's in it:1 medium-sized cauliflower1 spring cabbage - hispi, I thinkA bag of mixed salad leaves (enough for 2)4 medium courgettes (435g)4 leeks (450g)4 medium carrots (445g)and just over a kilo of potatoesMy first reaction is that even though this is organic produce it's quite expensive for £8.50 - probably about £1 more than I'd pay in a shop. I'd expect to pay that if they delivered it but we had to collect it.The produce looks reasonably fresh except for the cauliflower which feels a bit limp. There are no onions which is a bit of a pain as it...

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Musings about falafel and veg boxes

Yesterday we went to the annual Redland Mayday fete - the first time we've been since we moved to Bristol. It was a huge affair, absolutely packed out with people of all ages. A real community get-together.Inevitably I had to try the food and picked a falafel stall run by the Falafel King. They sold really big chunky flatbreads stuffed with falafel, coleslaw and red cabbage salad topped with tahini and smoked chilli dressings which you could add to taste. I've never made felafel from scratch but it's such a great food I'm thinking I might give it a try. Only problem is I don't have a food processor...

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'Premium' sausages - worth the money?

Finding myself with a quarter of an hour to kill before an appointment yesterday I dived into Sainsbury's and had a snoop around to see if they had anything good in the way of bargain buys.(Cheap pineapples, btw)What was more interesting (to sad anoraks like me who are obsessed with such things) was the pricing on their sausages. They had three ranges - cheap branded, their own-brand Butcher's Choice and their premium Taste the Difference. The TTD ranges, which tend to be higher in meat at 85%-95%, were (and are regularly) on offer at two 400g packs for £4, a pretty reasonable £1 a head. Those...

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