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Greek Tomato and Feta Bread (65p)

Apr1

Another Greek recipe from Giota Nikolau at faghta-giagias.blogspot.com, this one a more-or-less direct copy. It is a simple bread recipe with olive oil added, plus sun-dried tomato and feta cheese. Using the tomato and feta did ramp the price up a bit, but cheaper alternatives could be found. The dough had to rise three times, so adding cooking time to this, it is not a quick one to prepare, but the results are very satisfying.

Ingredients:

001

  • 250g plain wholemeal flour.
  • 250g plain white flour.
  • 1 heaped teaspoon dried yeast.
  • 1 flat desert spoon sugar.
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (normal or extra-virgin).
  • Pinch of salt.
  • 100ml luke warm milk.
  • 200ml (teacup) warm water.
  • Handful of sun-dried tomatoes, chopped fine.
  • 80g feta cheese crumbled into small pieces.

How to make it:

Into a one bowl I put the yeast, half the luke warm water, the sugar and about 3 tablespoons of flour, mixing it to the consistency of porridge. Covered with a dry cloth and left aside of 15 minutes. The purpose of this is to wake the yeast up (‘activating’ the yeast).

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I put the rest of the flour and salt into another bowl and mixed it all together, then added the olive oil and yeast ‘porridge’ – I found using a simple metal desert spoon best to mix things together. Kept adding splashes of the warm water until it was a firm dough. (If it gets too sticky, sprinkle in more flour.) Kneaded this for 10 minutes, then left it in an olive-oil-greased bowl (stops it sticking to the sides) in a warm spot for 60 minutes to rise.

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Divided into 4 pieces and rolled these into mini-baguette shapes each with a groove into which I dropped the tomato and feta filling, pressing it into the dough. Pinch the tops together and kneaded each roll for a couple of minutes.

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After this, set them aside for a further 60 minutes to re-rise, then baked in the oven at 200°C for 30 minutes.

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Cost:

Something like 50p a roll. Toasted, buttered, and with a sliced tomato or cheese on top (and not forgetting electricity and washing-up costs), a meal for around 65p.

As a Greek-style bread recipe (i.e. with the olive oil, but no tomato/feta filling), would be 15p a roll.

Mushroon Chasseur Risotto (72p)

Feb16

Just found a couple more old. Here’s the first, to be followed shortly by Jack’s signature Carrot, Cumin and Kidney Bean Burger. That will be the last for now, I promise.

Facebook post 12 Oct 2016.

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Based on the Cooking on a Bootstrap recipe.

Chasseur, I learned from Wikipedia, is a thick sauce, typically made of mushrooms, onions and tomatoes, with a sprinkle of mixed herbs, served in generous amounts with meat dishes (‘hunters’ meats, like rabbit, pheasant, venison, etc.), or these days with rice, mashed potatoes or cous cous – what a bunch of wimps we’ve become!

I began with:half a punnet of mushrooms, 2 garlic cloves, 1 onion, a chicken stock cube and a big pinch of mixed herbs.

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The onion, garlic cloves and mushrooms went in put into a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of oil, at first on a high heat for 5 minutes to soften the onion. Then in went the tomatoes, herbs and crumbled stock cube. (Also 100ml red wine theoretically, but I’m allergic to the sulphites in wine so I added just water – I wanted to taste the dish without the wine anyway.)

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Jack’s recipe left it at that, but this looked more like lumpy soup than solid food, so after 40 minutes I threw in 100g long-grain rice to turn it into a risotto – it needed constant stirring for 20 minutes and quite a bit of extra hot water from the kettle to stop it going solid as the rice absorbed the juices. Served with one of my plus-sized slices of bread with butter, it was VERY filling.

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A real ‘winter warmer’. There was enough for four servings. The costing is a little complicated – adding for electricity, including re-heating for future meals, washing up, bread, butter and a cup of Earl Grey, something like 72 pence a meal..

Lamb and Chili Bean Casserole (80p)

Feb16

Facebook post 23 Oct 2016.

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I was very kindly donated a lamb breast joint to experiment with. After meticulously removing as much fat and connective tissue as possible from the raw joint, was left with ½ kilo of meat. Wore surgeon’s gloves to dissect the meat. Took 45 minutes with a very sharp knife, but it’s really worth it for the quality. Browned it off in a pan.

2016-10-23-lamb3Soft-fried two onions. This went into the slow cooker, plus a tin each of chopped toms, kidney beans and garden peas, ½ teaspoon each of oregano, thyme, mint and parsley and a mug of chicken stock. On ‘high’ for 4 hours.

My slow cooker simmers at that setting, different makes vary so may need shorter or longer – just make sure the meat is cooked. (Thanks, Anna, who gave me the thing. I’m a convert already.)

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It worked! The lamb was tender, not chewy. I’d accidentally used ‘beans in chile sauce’ (not the usual red kidney beans that have to be rinsed) and they worked really well.

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I boiled the potatoes separately to preserve their flavour and visual appeal. Pleasantly surprised that this came in at under £1 – at equivalent Tesco price for the meat and including electricity, four servings at something like 80p each.

Bacon, Pea and Mint Casserole (75p)

Feb16

Facebook post 12 Oct 2016.

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Bacon, Pea and Mint Casserole, based on https://agirlcalledjack.com/…/16/ham-pea-mint-casserole-30p.

  • 300 g bacon.
  • Tin of peas.
  • Teaspoon each of dried mint and parsley.
  • 12 new potatoes.
  • 2 white onions.
  • Chicken stock cube.

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Really struggling to get close to Jack’s claimed prices, this coming to 94p a serving (£1.11 including electricity, bread & butter and a cup of tea). One reason is that being in a semi-rural area, prices are hiked and choice limited. The bacon I used, for example (http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=292312017), is £1.50 a pack, not even the £1.35 they claim online.

Fried the bacon and onion separately. The bacon shrank down to less than half its original size on cooking through water and fat loss. It’s one-seventh added water! They add water!! They’re charging us for water!!!

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Boiled the potato with the herbs and stock, adding everything else when it was almost done, and kept it bubbling until the potato was cooked through – needed to add extra water from the kettle.

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It was really tasty and there was enough for four. Even though full, I felt I could eat another lot.

Chicken in a Creamy-mustardy Sauce (95p)

Feb15

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An important point about the A Girl Called Jack recipe book is that it’s not a gourmet book full of fancy creations. It’s a book about making nutritional food at minimal cost. Some of the recipes do have a touch of genius and are full of flavour, others are more ordinary, although I haven’t found anything that I didn’t like so far. The following lies somewhere in the middle …

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The ingredients I used today:

  • 250 ml chicken stock – can use less if that’s all you’ve got, but no less than 200 ml. (I wouldn’t use stock made from cubes because they ate high in salt, artificial flavourings and palm oil – palm oil production is a major cause of environmental destruction worldwide (although a minority of suppliers manage their crops ethically and sustainably), but unfortunately is in many products you wouldn’t think had it.
  • 1 white onion. (Could also use green beans, peas or any other odd veg lying around.)
  • 1 large carrot.
  • A generous pinch each of dried thyme and parsley.
  • Mustard. I think Dijon on it’s own works best, but use whatever mustard you have around.
  • Several dessert spoons of natural yoghurt.
  • 75 g cooked chicken meat per serving (or more if you are very hungry!).
  • All-purpose seasoning (my favourite is Schwartz ‘Season All’).

I obtained the stock by slow-cooking a chicken, then tipping the contents of the pot into a metal strainer resting on a bowl. When cooled a bit, I transferred the juices to a tall glass and after a few minutes poured off the layer of fat which separated out on top.

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Fine-chopped the onion and soft-fried it. Cooked the carrot (popped it on top of the chicken in the slow-cooker for 20 minutes, but could have just boiled it, of course) and chopped it up a bit. Everything then went into a saucepan and simmered for 20 minutes – the veg, herbs, stock and a couple of generous teaspoons of mustard.

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When it had cooled a little, stirred in yoghurt until it was looking creamy. Could use cream, but yoghurt keeps the calories down. The result was ladled over some broken-up bits of chicken in a bowl.

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With the above quantities there was enough for four servings. Tasted excellent. I actually used English and Dijon mustard in my first batch, but next time I’ll use just use Dijon. Nothing wrong with the English, I just think it goes better with sausages! A sprinkle of all-purpose seasoning on top goes well. With the usual cup of tea and assuming a slice of bread and butter, 95p (not absolutely sure as I played around with the ingredients – somewhere between 85p and £1)..

The cost I originally posted was £1.10 a meal based on three servings, but it proved to serve four. Wasn’t sure how to classify this in the ‘categories’ list, but decided to call it a soup, as that was what the final product reminded me of more than anything else – some home-made croutons (a slice of toast cut into little squares) can be added.