How to make tap water taste good

I was blogging this week for The Guardian about soft drinks - mainly from the point of view of what to drink when you don't drink alcohol. One of the points that came up, however, is how expensive many soft drinks are - volume for volume, often as much as wine.

It prompted me to point out (in the unlikely event that you're not already aware of it) how good basic tap water can taste if you tart it up a bit. Step one obviously being to chill it and add some extra ice cubes then to add some extra ingredients as they did in this hotel I stayed in in Chile (above) where they flavoured it with peaches, melon and strawberries.

Coils of cucumber also look cool: simply halve a cucumber, peel it and trim off the end then cut it in fine slices with a mandolin or vegetable peeler and drop them in. Lemon and lime obviously taste good too: so much better - and cheaper - than those artificially flavoured waters.

Serving it in a water jug or decanter - easily picked up from a charity shop - makes it look swish too.

If you prefer your water fizzy - which I sometimes do - it's worth shopping around. Sainsbury's own brand sparkling water for example is just 40p for 2 litres compared to 69p for the same amount in the Co-op and £1.01 for a 750ml bottle of San Pellegrino, which is over five times as expensive. If you give it the same treatment (added citrus or other fruits) you really won't notice the difference unless you're a mineral water geek.

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Leftover patatas bravas

Or, to be more accurate, leftover roasties given the patatas bravas treatment ....

Here's how it came about. We roasted a chicken last night with some new potatoes, rosemary and garlic having started a meal with a green bean and tomato salad. I had two large roast tomato halves left over plus some roasted garlic cloves and enough potatoes to feed four (although I have to admit we managed to demolish them between the two of us which wasn't exactly healthy or frugal).


It suddenly occurred to me that I could make patatas bravas by reheating the potatoes (easy in the Aga but I could have dry-fried them over a low heat) and making a spicy tomato sauce based on the tomatoes and garlic.

Only I thought it needed a bit more garlic so I heated some olive oil, and fried off a large crushed clove of garlic over a gentle heat. I added a good teaspoonful of sweet pimenton, fried it for a few seconds then tipped in the tomatoes, having first removed the skins along with the roast garlic, jellied chicken juices, a squeeze of harissa paste and a good seasoning of salt. I cooled it for 5 minutes or so then blitzed it in a food processor, reheated it and poured it over the potatoes.

And that was that. It occurs to me that you could equally well use this 'brava' sauce with frozen chips or sauté potatoes or make it with tinned tomatoes if you haven't got any ready-roasted. And you could, of course, use hot pimenton, chilli sauce or cayenne pepper instead of the harissa but it does need that spicy kick.

One of those dishes that tastes much, much better than you'd expect. I'll be doing it again.

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Why isn't soup sexy?

This week I ordered a chilled watercress soup (not the one above) in a smart London restaurant. Nothing remarkable about that you might think but in fact it's an all-too-rare occurrence. So rare in fact that they clearly didn't know how to make it. Blending it with cucumber rather than with some sweated off onion and potato, chicken or vegetable stock and a dash of milk or cream, resulted in a dark green pool of what looked - and I suspect tasted like - pondweed.

So why don't we see soup more often? It's great for restaurants - a cheap and easy dish to make and good for lunchtime customers who want something light to eat too.

The French have always appreciated soup more, as a way of keeping down the cost of a fixed price menu - this picture was taken a couple of years ago at a Parisian bistro called Les Papilles. But now restaurants seem to want us to go for starters for which they can charge almost the same price as a main course.

I suspect many of us take the same attitude at home, preferring fancier, flashier starters instead of one that could really keep down the cost of a meal - and be made ahead rather than at the last minute. When was the last time you had soup at a friend's house - or served it at your own?

Anyway here's my watercress soup recipe, first published in the Daily Mail back in the early '90's which I remember feeling very proud that my local watercress grower stuck up on his wall. (It is of course much better to buy watercress by the bunch rather than pre-washed in a packet.)

Easy watercress soup
Serves 4
1 large or two smaller bunches of watercress
2 tbsp olive oil
15g butter
1 medium to large mild onion peeled and chopped or a large leek, trimmed, washed and sliced or half a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and sliced
1 medium floury potato, peeled and finely sliced
About 600ml chicken or vegetable stock
A little creamy milk or double cream (optional, but nice)
Salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon

Wash the watercress thoroughly, chop off the stalks and roughly chop the leaves. Heat a saucepan or casserole and add 2 tbsp olive oil and a small slice of butter. Add a chopped onion and cook for 3-4 minutes then add a finely sliced medium sized potato, stir, cover the pan and cook on a low heat for another five minutes or so. Add the watercress stalks and 600ml chicken or vegetable stock, bring to the boil and cook until the potatoes are almost cooked (about 10 minutes) Add the chopped watercress leaves bring back to the boil, cook for a couple of minutes then take off the heat and cool slightly. Pass the soup in batches through a liquidiser until smooth then return to the pan and reheat gently without boiling. Add milk or cream if you want to thin the soup or give it a creamier texture. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a small squeeze of lemon juice. You can serve it hot, warm or cold. I prefer the former.

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Rescuing beet greens and bean skins

Frugality, as I've said before, isn't just about buying cheap but making the best use of what you buy. And nowhere is this more true than of beetroot leaves and broad bean skins, that get discarded from the now seemingly compulsory double podding process. This week I've found uses for both.

First the greens, because that was a triumph, though I say so myself. I turned them into a Greek style spanakopitta by wilting them then mixing them with chopped spring onions and a little garlic softened in a mixture of oil and butter and some feta-style ewes' milk cheese I'd impulsively bought in the farmers' market then stuffing them into a filo pastry case. Really pretty and really tasty.


Beet Green Spanakopitta
Serves 4/5
the leaves from a bunch (or two) of beets
2 tbsp olive oil
60g butter
a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced (or a leek)
1 clove garlic, crushed
150g-200g feta or similar white crumbly cheese (you could use something like Caerphilly or Wensleydale and add a squeeze of lemon)
1 lightly beaten egg
A pack of filo pastry
Freshly ground black pepper and possibly a little salt

Wash the beet leaves and rip the leaves off the central rib. (If you're feeling exceptionally frugal you could stir-fry these) Pile them up in a saucepan without any extra water, put on a lid and leave over a low heat until the leaves collapse, turning them once or twice. Don't cook them or you'll lose the colour. Drain them in a colander then squeeze out the water and chop.

Meanwhile warm the oil in a small frying pan and add a quarter of the butter. Add the crushed garlic and spring onions and cook for a minute or two until soft. Set aside to cool then add the chopped leaves and crumbled cheese and about two thirds of the beaten egg. Season well with pepper and a little salt if you feel it needs it.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and let it come to for 20 minutes. Remove the packaging and wrap the filo sheets in a damp tea towel so they don't dry out. Melt the remaining butter. Take the filo sheets one by one and brush them lightly with melted butter and lay them into your dish or tin. Use just under half the filo sheets, layering them up so the whole base of the dish/tin is covered. Cover with the beet green filling then lay the remaining buttered filo sheets over the top. Tuck the edges in neatly (the beauty of filo is you don't have to do it evenly) and brush with the remaining beaten egg. You can cut the pastry into diamond shapes as I've done but you don't have to.

Cook in a hot (225°C) oven for about 20 minutes until the pastry is well browned then set aside. Serve warm or cool but don't refrigerate.


I was about to chuck my broad bean skins, I must confess, when it suddenly occurred to me you could make a nice little tapa with them. So I sweated off a bit of chopped pancetta - again from the farmers' market - in some olive oil with a couple of chopped spring onions and a crushed clove of garlic then simply turned the beans in the flavoured oil to warm them through. Actually I cooked them for a minute, hence the rather dull colour, but you don't need to provided the skins aren't too tough. And if they are you wouldn't want to make the dish anyway. Not a great photo but you get the idea.


And this is what I made with the actual beets and skinned beans ...

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Is shopping once a week the best way to save money?

Whenever a conversation about budget eating comes up, it almost always comes down to how often you shop.

My view has always been that doing a large weekly shop is potentially wasteful as you never know exactly how the week is going to pan out. I prefer to shop just before the weekend for what we're going to eat over the next three or four days then take stock once I see how much I've got left in the fridge or the storecupboard and when I know what our movements are for the coming week.

It's easy for me admittedly because there are only two of us at home now, I live in a town where the shops are open 'til late and I work from home. But I still think that buying food 7 days ahead can result in buying more than you need.

Against that you might argue that the more times you go to the shops the more likely you are to be tempted. And that if you're on a tight budget you need to cost things carefully and that's more easily achieved in one shopping expedition. There's also for many the cost of getting to the shops.

What may be worthwhile, either way, is costing exactly what you spend in a week as Linda of With Knife and Fork revealed she'd done recently on Twitter. (The answer was £7-10 a day for two. And she wrote down everything, including teabags!) And then try shopping an alternative way. If you go to the shops regularly try a weekly shop. If you do a big shop try two or three smaller ones as I do. See if there are savings to be made.

You might also try and have what I've previously described on the blog as a No Food Shopping Day - a day when you live off what you have in the storecupboard, freezer and fridge. I suspect a lot of us could manage for the best part of a week like that, essentials like milk and fresh fruit and veg apart - and even then you probably have frozen veggies you could use up.

What have you found is the most economical way to shop?

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Making your own drinks

In all the time I've been writing about frugal food I've never thought of making my own drinks. Actually, I lie. I did post this idea for an apple lemonade a couple of years ago and very delicious it was too which makes my lack of interest in the subject even more lame.

If I'd had Susy Atkins new book 'How to make your own drinks' before now I might have been better motivated because it's full of brilliant ideas for cheap healthy, mainly non-alcoholic drinks you can make from seasonal gluts of fruit and vegetables. Or even - and as a townie without a garden this appeals to me - by bartering with others who have gardens or allotments in return for bottles of your finished potion. (You may get the better deal out of this.)

For those of you who feel nervous about the idea - and frankly I was a little too - the book is packed with clear and reassuring instructions about sterilising and sealing bottles and troubleshooting tips. Maybe start with drinks that can be made and drunk almost immediately like lavender lemonade (lovely for this time of year) and fruity ginger ale then progress to ones that need a bit more skill and patience like nettle beer, plum wine and mead.

Many drinks can be made for free from hedgerow ingredients - sloe and damson gin being the obvious examples - but I also love the sound of Susy's Crème de Mure (blackberry liqueur) and homemade rosehip syrup which apparently has higher levels of vitamin C than citrus fruit. ('Kids adore it' she says.) You can also make perfectly good drinks from frozen fruit which can sometimes be cheaper than fresh.

All in all this book a is good investment - with the added bonus of being a fun way to create your own delicious drinks. A great diversion, I'd have thought, for the forthcoming school holidays . . .

Have you ever made your own drinks and if so which ones?

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How a Michelin-starred restaurant uses leftovers

I've just spent the past week on a work trip in Alsace (I know, I know, alright for some ... ) and stopped the night on the way back at a hotel we've often stayed in - the Hotel d'Angleterre in Chalons-en-Champagne. It's not as cheap as it used to be but we like it so much we occasionally treat ourselves.

What's particularly interesting about the place (and the relevance to this blog) is the fact that the bistro Les Temps Changent (times change) clearly uses the leftovers from the Michelin-starred restaurant alongside which enables them to keep the price of their set menu down to a very reasonable 21 euros*.

There were three dishes on the menu where you could spot this. A really delicious 'salad' of lightly cooked green beans (above) lined up over a finely chopped salad of cold roast beef, shallots and carrots dressed with a good gutsy dressing and topped with a sprinkling of garlic chips.

A fish terrine - almost certainly made from different kinds of leftover fish, some blitzed smooth, others left in bigger pieces. (More delicious than it sounds or looks!)


And a guineafowl breast stuffed with a boudin like stuffing that I suspect was made from leftover chicken. (I like the use of in season fresh cherries too.)


Of course I'm not suggesting that you slave away for hours to create similar dishes although the green bean salad is perfectly easy to achieve but simply want to make the point how well the French still do this sort of thing and what you can get away with if you present leftovers cleverly.

I still think there's a bit of a stigma though in serving up leftovers to your friends (shepherds pie apart though I always think that's better made with fresh mince). Personally I wouldn't hesitate but how about you? And what are your favourite leftover dishes?

* Bear in mind that price (English equivalent £18.55) includes service.

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