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Gyros – Polish layered chicken salad (99p)

Dec13

Another one from time spent in Poland. (I’m English with a bit of Scottish thrown in, by the way.) This is a good table-filler which I ate with friends on numerous occasions, and I’ve done my best to recreate the dish as I remember it. Gyros is pronounced ‘gee-ross’, with the ‘g’ hard as in ‘goat’.

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Seven layers in my creation. Feel free to adjust quantities according to personal preference or experiment with other ingredients. From bottom to top:

  1. Chicken – 200g of meat, well chopped up. Can brown the chicken in a frying pan with a bit of all-purpose seasoning or stock for a bit of extra flavour. I’ve also made this with pheasant, which was delicious.
  2. Tomatoes – two beef tomatoes with the seeds removed, chopped up small, and with a generous squeeze of ketchup on top if you want.
  3. Red onion – half a red onion chopped up small. Can use white onion, but makes it a bit too oniony for me.
  4. Gherkins – three sliced up.
  5. Petit pois – 150g. Sweetcorn is normally used, but I don’t like sweetcorn. Gently press everything down a bit at this point.
  6. Mayonnaise – 200 ml, well-mixed with a flat teaspoon each of turmeric, coriander, paprika and all-purpose seasoning, dolloped across the peas. (Gyros flavouring can be bought ready-made in small packs from Polish shops.) Best made a few hours before so that the spice flavours can leech properly into the mayo.
  7. Lettuce – half an iceberg lettuce well chopped up. I also sprinkled grated carrot on top for visual appeal.

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I actually find this tastes best after half-a-day, when the various flavours have melded together a bit. Total cost, including electricity cooking the chicken (6 hours in a slow-cooker on ‘low’ overnight), £4.30.

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Makes five servings. With a chunk of buttered bread and the mandatory mug of Earl Grey, a meal for 99p.

Zapiekanka (76p)

Dec11

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For each serving:

  • Half a baguette
  • 100g mushrooms
  • 50g grated cheese

Zapiekanka (plural zapiekanki) is the archetypical street food sold all over Poland. Simple, filling (with good quality bread) and tasty. A small bread stick halved and buttered, with a layer of cooked mushrooms, some grated cheese on top and then grilled.

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I fried the mushrooms well, reducing them down on a medium heat until all the water had bubbled off. Don’t worry about the pan looking too full, the volume shrinks down like magic, leaving them with a rich flavour compared to the British habit of only half-cooking mushrooms. Sprinkled with cheese and grilled until it started browning. Zapiekanki are typically topped with ketchup, but I prefer a pinch of seasoning.

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This is the most basic version. One could elaborate at will, say with onion, bacon bits or capers, though this might upset purists – the food originated during the lean years of Communist rule. Mushrooms were always cheap or free, with people scouring the woodlands for them each autumn, just as they do today in this much afforested country.

I used Tesco ‘Everyday Value’ cheese, loose mushrooms and the cheapest baguettes. The cost of the meal, including electricity and cup of tea: 76p …  a little more than I’d expected, but at least under my £1 target.

Footnote: Looking out of the window while cooking, could see a rather impressive 22⁰ degree halo round the moon this night.

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Potato and onion soup (51p)

Dec10

A while back I got hold of a copy of ‘A Girl Called Jack‘ for £4.47. It’s a recipe book with very low-cost meals and inspired me to do a bit of cooking. Initially posted my experiences on Facebook, but it’s getting tiresome hunting back in time there to relocate recipes, so here’s the blog – a personal notebook and reference point for anyone interested. Here goes, with recipe no. 1  …

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Inspiration: cookingonabootstrap.com

  • 500g tinned potatoes
  • 1 onion
  • sprinkle of cumin
  • chicken stock cube dissolved in a mug of boiling water
  • 150 ml plain yoghurt. (I used Greek yoghurt, which was 50p, compared to 75p for plain yoghurt. The latter would have been better though, the tangyness of the Greek yoghurt overpowers the flavours of the other ingredients.)

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After soft-frying the onion with the cumin and simmering the potatoes with the stock for 10 minutes, the idea is to blend everything.

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I don’t have a blender, so mine was more a broth, having mashed the potatoes and finely chopped the onion. My eyes are still stinging.

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Didn’t feel it needed the cumin. Maybe single cream or even milk would work. Very filling with a slice of bread, and the above quantities made enough for three such meals.

Estimated cost of each meal, including cup of tea, bread, butter and electricity used, 51p.