The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Food & crafts => Recipes => Topic started by: gillandtom on February 28, 2009, 04:03:24 pm

Title: Frugal Food
Post by: gillandtom on February 28, 2009, 04:03:24 pm
Not really a recipe but more a recipe book.  I bought Delia's new 'Frugal Food' book for a friend and she has given it such rave reviews I went back and bought another copy for myself.  So far I am pretty impressed as well.  She focuses on stuff like using fresh produce when it is in season and experimenting with less expensive cuts of meat. Things that are certainly becoming more fashionable again in these troubled times. Reading through the recipes they remind me of some of the food I was given by my mother as a young child growing up in the 70's.  There is also quite a decent sized section on eggs which will give me some ideas on how to use up our extra ones from our hens.

Tip - rrp £17.99 it is currently £9 in Sainsburys.

xx Gill
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: sandy on February 28, 2009, 06:55:15 pm
My mum was a great cook and we had a lot of frugal food as a child, Irish Stew or Scouse!!!  good old sheperds pie, Liver and Onions, Toad in the whole, mince and potatoes or tatties and some great puddings, roly poly, apple pie, crumble, trifle....good job I just had my tea!!! Never remember having chips at all and mum used to open a tin of salmon and we would have salmon, mashed potatoes, peas and a white sauce with chopped boiled eggs in it, I loved that...good old basic food :D
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: Rosemary on February 28, 2009, 07:15:07 pm
Lord, that's the kind of stuff we eat anyway - not all the time, but a lot of the time.

Recently Dan's been cooking a joint of lamb, beef or pork in a cast iron casserole ( Le Crueset - must have been a wedding present!) with whatever root veg is kicking around, some stock and a glass of red wine. The recipe's the same - just the meat changes. But it's fab - so tasty and the veg all cook down into the juice. Mmmm. It's replaced a roast. This may have happened not as result of the credit crunch but because he cleaned (shot blasted) the oven recently and doesn't want to get it dirty again!

And fruit crumbles - gooseberry tonight. And we've still got a couple of individual Christmas puddings lurking in the pantry. Might do some steamed pudding tomorrow - I have some marmalade that didn't set very well, but it's lovely in steamed pudding.

I love food.

Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: sandy on February 28, 2009, 07:21:05 pm
I have a very heavy cast Iron caserole and my son in law and brother in law have recently commented on how they miss my fish pie, I used to be ablt to go to a good fish market and get a bag of mixed fish bits, make a white sauce and add other bits and top it off with creamy mash and put it into the oven, a meal you can eat without any teeth. My friends also made a roast lamb dinner in the cassorle with all the veg and red wine, I tried it and it was fab, I think I sealed the lamb first, put all the potaotes and veg around it and covered it up with red wine then put the lid on for 4 hours and took the lid off for the last leg, it all was suculent but the weight of my cast iron pot on my pull down oven door disconnected it from the electric....had to get out the local electrician!!!! This oven is roack solid so I can do that now....I love food
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: doganjo on February 28, 2009, 08:23:22 pm
If I have visitors I always use my slow cooker for meat and veg, including potatoes, so that I have the time to spend with them instead of staying in the kitchen.  I also have a terra cotta brick - schlemertopf - which gives excellent results too - no water added so the meat and veg cook in their own juices.
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: sandy on February 28, 2009, 08:25:34 pm
We could do with a slow cooker, I just mess about and cook slow!!!!
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: rustyme on February 28, 2009, 08:36:03 pm
only me here , so I do all my own cooking . Always simple stuff like mince, mash  and veg, mince pie and mash, spag bol , curry + rice , sausages veg and mash , macaroni cheese, cauli cheese , pie and mash ,and very rarely I have a tv dinner . I keep a couple for the odd days I just don't want to cook . I love my slow cooker , makes great stews, caseroles etc. I nearly always cook from scratch ( as they call it nowdays ) , apart from the odd day here and there as mentioned. Very simple food , easy to cook and cheap.

cheers

Russ
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: sausagesandcash on February 28, 2009, 09:51:24 pm
If any of you eat rice...try cous cous as an alternative. You can do anything with it. Shred a load of veg, fry off to your preference (crunchy or soft) with virgin olive oil (or sexually experienced olive oil, if you can find it!) and a liberal dash of soy sauce, add whatever meat you like (fried off first), you can use bacon (free range of course!!), mince or whatever. Throw in some chic peas too...if you like'em, supermarkets have organic ones in a tin (L'Epicure)Very cheap and tasty. Frugal but different.

By the way John, my nephew, aged 10, sorry 11 (I'm a bad uncle) says HI!   :farmer:

Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: doganjo on February 28, 2009, 10:47:50 pm
What's a year between friends?  Hi John! ;D
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: sausagesandcash on February 28, 2009, 11:50:33 pm
John will really appreciate that, he's living with us now that his mum is on active duty in Chad for four months. He felt a little left out that I had mentioned my sons in the pig section (bless him!), and hadn't mentioned him. He'll be really pleased now though!  :farmer:
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: northfifeduckling on March 07, 2009, 02:00:28 pm
£ 6.99 by mail order from Schoollink. Orders over £ 25 free P&P and you can benefit your local school with free books (they need to register with the scheme to benefit)

http://www.schoollink.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10201_21902_151816_100_43616_43616_category_43616
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: Fluffywelshsheep on March 08, 2009, 06:03:38 pm
i'll forward the link to my local school

I like simple food too, I used to eat a lot of cous cous (i found it kept my weight down )  but at the moment i don't at much of it as am trying to vary my diet for bump
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: northfifeduckling on March 14, 2009, 09:29:52 pm
I managed to get an ancient copy in the library - 1976?? - wish I had bought it now! I'll have to keep renewing it for a while... we tried the stuffed lamb hearts - scrumptious (even our youngest who aims to be a vegetarian ate them with gusto)! :&>
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: Rosemary on March 15, 2009, 12:28:27 pm
I've never tried heart but would if I had teh recipe!! I love liver and kidney, but Dan doesn't. And he won't try heart either - I've just checked.
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: northfifeduckling on March 15, 2009, 04:00:42 pm
This one reads almost identical to Delia Smith's

http://uktv.co.uk/Food/Thread/threadID/41400/

:&>
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: Hilarysmum on April 04, 2009, 04:32:04 pm
I keep writing to Hugh Fernley W.  asking him to do a pig recipe book, one that gives lots of recipes for the cheaper cuts, the trotters, head, offal.  So far no response. 
Title: Re: Frugal Food
Post by: northfifeduckling on April 04, 2009, 05:37:03 pm
He's only done one a few years back on meat - nothing useful in there? Maybe Mr. Oliver's going to so one lol :&>