If you feel moved to celebrate St David's Day* I've just posted a recipe from The Frugal Cook on my student site Beyond Baked Beans. On the basis that a) you're more likely to have the book than they are, b) they're more in need of a recipe than you are and c) if you haven't got it you can always click on the link!It's a nice one, actually. I made it this time last year with some scrag end of lamb but the meat came from an organically-reared lamb so the flavour was great.* Odd how we celebrate St David and St Patrick but don't get too excited about St George and St Andrew. Any idea w...
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Do cooks need recipes?
I got involved in a debate on the Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog earlier this week with my former editor Matthew Fort (now the unlikely star of TV programmes like Great British Menu and Market Kitchen. I say unlikely not because I don't rate him but because I'd never have imagined him abandoning the written word for the box.)He was arguing that people shouldn’t bother with recipes. I was saying - from personal experience - that they needed them when they were starting out. No-one cooked - as in cooked well - in my family so I had to teach myself from books, a habit I only broke when I became a...
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Bistro blinis
Shrove Tuesday is one of the annual celebrations where the frugal cook really comes into his/her own for what could be more thrifty than a pancake? There are, of course, literally hundreds of recipes out there but here's a quick version of blinis* for you to try made with smoked mackerel rather than smoked salmon and caviar . . . Serves 6 as a snack, 4 as a light supperFor the pancakes:75g (3 oz) plain flour75g (3 oz) buckwheat or wholemeal flour1 level tbsp poppy seeds (optional but nice)1 level tsp baking powder1/2 level tsp fine seasalt200ml (7 fl oz) full cream milk2 large free range eggs50g...
Monday, 23 February 2009
How to cook a pigeon
Even in the current rush to snap up cheaper cuts pigeon is good value. We bought two recently for £3.50 which have been sitting in the freezer for a few weeks so my other half decided to tackle them this weekend.He cooks like a typical bloke i.e. without the slightest concern for frugality. If I’m writing a a recipe I worry endlessly about the number of ingredients, in case readers don’t have them and feel they need to go out and buy them. He just plunders the storecupboard and drinks cupboard so this dish (basically pot roast pigeon in red wine) contained bacon, onions, mushrooms, rosemary,...
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Gujarati pizza
A night out with the girls yesterday: two friends - a chef and a fellow food writer who was researching a piece on budget eats in Bristol. We ended up in a takeaway with a couple of tables called Tiffins which I can see is going to be my new favourite place.An Indian takeaway in a student town needs to appeal to the locals and the proprietors Nick and Jay have very cleverly come up with an Indian - or more specifically Gujarati take on student staples like pizza, kebabs and baked potatoes which they top with one of their really excellent home-made curries. (See Nick's flashy spinning technique...
Friday, 20 February 2009
The Frugal Cook goes live!
If you live in or near Bristol you might like to come along to a live gig I'm doing at the Cookery School at Bordeaux Quay next Thursday 26th. I'll be cooking some recipes from the book and we'll have a bit of fun working out what to do with the leftovers in your fridge and storecupboard (don't actually bring the ingredients or we'll get in trouble with the health police, just a list of 5 ingredients, Ready, Steady, Cook-style)The demo which lasts from 6.30-8.30pm costs £35 including wine, beer and tapas. Great fun and learn how to trim your household budget into the bargain! To book email cookery.school@bordeaux-quay.co.uk...
Back to frugality!
Well, back from holiday - er, my long working trip - and back to reality. The odd thing is that there doesn’t seem like there’s a credit crunch in Argentina. It’s sunny all the time for a start which always helps but it’s mainly that the Argentinians are so used to economic crisis they behave exactly as normal in any downturn. One woman I spoke to said that so many people had been stung in 1991 when the government devalued the peso (now 5 to the pound) and restricted access to their accounts that they are no longer prepared to entrust the banks with their savings. If they have money they spend...
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
The frugal cook is away . . .
On an admittedly rather unfrugal break - a working trip to Argentina wearing my other hat as a wine writer. If you're thinking (as I imagine some of you might) 'alright for some' let me console you with the fact that it's absolutely tipping down outside whereas I gather from my husband who I've just spoken to on Skype (by far the cheapest way to communicate long distance) that it's been lovely and sunny in Bristol this afternoonSo communication may be a bit intermittent over the next week though those of you who are on Twitter might get an occasional tweet.Let me share with you though what I...
Sunday, 8 February 2009
How can we stop wasting food?
There's an excellent article in the Observer today by Alex Renton, highlighting how much food we still waste. He highlights salad vegetables as a particular culprit: Britain imports twice as much salad as it actually eats. The rest gets thrown away. Supermarkets are to blame, we're to blame but it's not easy. The media is full of mixed messages. Eat more fruit and veg scream the health campaigners, get two for the price of one say the supermarkets. We want to be healthy and to save money so we do then we find we can't use it up in time (and the health police are on our backs if we go over the...
Friday, 6 February 2009
A pie that isn't a pie
No let-up in the weather in the West Country today. I'm not sure my brain isn't iced up. Finding it incredibly hard to concentrate - and write in real sentences. Or maybe it's my new Twitter* habit.Tomorrow I'm actually going to venture out of the house provided we don't find another six centimetres of snow on our doorstep and go and buy some proper food. Since we got back from France on Wednesday (thank goodness. Ryanair cancelled our flight AGAIN today) we've been living off various permutations of bacon and eggs. Or that's what it feels like.I'm planning to make a a really good dish that the...
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Why go out on Valentine's night?
Bonjour, bonjour and apologies for the lapse in communication over the last few days. As you may have guessed I've been over in France sorting out family affairs (complicated) and carousing with friends (light relief) and have now been marooned by the snow. No-one's going to feel especially sympathetic about that, I imagine, though it may make you feel better to know that it's been chucking it down and there's a serious threat that the nearby river may burst its banks. Global warming, eh?Anyway one subject I've been thinking about is how to tackle Valentine's Night, prompted by a spate of press...
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