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Bean and Tomato Broth no. 2 – potato (34p)

Jan14

A simple variation on the 9th January posting, Back to Jack – Bean and Tomato Broth. (Actually found I’d mispriced that, it was 34p a serving, not the 80p+ I originally posted.) I’ve decided not to include the cost of the accompanying cup of tea or coffee in future postings, just the straight meal price as a single serving, but still including the cooking, washing-up and any other incidental costs.

This version uses the insides of large baked potato instead of the bread, and the stock dissolved in just half a mug of water. The potato can be baked in the microwave – jab it all over with a fork or make a deep cut all around to let the steam out as the potato is cooking – takes 10 minutes or so. I need to experiment with different methods to see what times and methods work best.

  • Tin of beans.
  • Tin of tomatoes.
  • Herb seasoning.
  • Juice of half a lemon.
  • Half a mug of vegetable stock.
  • The insides of one baked potato – could actually include the skin, I just prefer it without.

As before, just simmer everything together for a few minutes. I liked this version better, tastier, although I think that would depend on the quality of the bread used in the other.

The result is a straighforward broth – I like to leave mine very lumpy, but it could be whizzed up or the ingredients well-mashed to make it more soupy. Could also use packet mashed potato. 34p a serving.

Back to Jack – Bean and Tomato Broth (34p)

Jan9

Taking up the cheap cooking challenge again. My goal is nutritious food for £2.50 a day or less, including cooking and washing-up costs.

This one is a close copy of a Jack Monroe recipe, although I can’t find the actual web page I copied it from. Simple, tasty, 100% veggie and low salt – about 1g per serving.

Ingredients:

  • Tin of beans – kidney beans, any sort of beans really, even baked beans.
  • Tin of tomatoes – chopped or plum.
  • Herb seasoning.
  • Fresh lemon juice – I don’t use processed juices to avoid additives.
  • Mug of vegetable stock.
  • Two slices of bread, well broken-up.

Really simple to prepare – everything simmered for a good few minutes, then add the bread, mashing everything up a bit with the end of a rolling pin. Three servings. Along with cooking and cleaning up costs, 34p a portion. Freezable.

Another time I might try this with a microwave-baked potato instead of bread and no stock (to remove the added salt and sugar).

Lent Potato Salad (39p)

Apr14

greece-flag-17A hot (or cold) potato salad inspired by a recipe on Giota Nikolau’s ′Grandma’s Food′ blog, a site which has many wonderful recipes. It is all written in Greek, but with help from Google translate and the wonderful photos on the site, her recipes and ideas can be followed.

It is still Lent in the Greek Orthodox church calendar, their Easter day being Sunday 19 April, making this their Orthodox Holy Week and a time of fasting – no meat, fish, wine, oil, wine, dairy or eggs, so my version of the recipe almost meets the criteria, bar the splash of oil for frying and knob butter for flavour.

Ingredients (serves four):

  • Three baking-size potatoes.
  • One onion, red or white.
  • Dried oregano.
  • Tin of beans – I used a tin of Flageolet beans that I found at the back of the cupboard, but would normally use the cheapest kidney beans, or indeed anything suitable hanging around in the cupboard or fridge that needs using up – some fresh green or string beans, for example.
  • Salted butter.

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Method:

  • Slice the onion up and fry until soft and translucent, then put it aside. Don’t over-fry the onion, keep it a little al dente.
  • Peel and chop the potatoes into inch-sized lumps, then simmer them in a saucepan for 15-20 minutes until soft. Keep a close eye on them so they don’t dissolve and you end up with a watery potato soup.
  • While they’re simmering, empty the can of beans, rinsing them under the cold tap, and add them to the simmering potatoes half way through.
  • When the potatoes are ready, pour off the water and transfer to a bowl, sprinkling in a pinch of dried oregano.

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And that’s it. Makes about four portions. Serve hot in a bowl with a good knob of  butter on top, or can be eaten cold.

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Estimating electricity use and washing up costs, and with a mug of Earl Grey tea, that’s a meal for about 39p.

 

Jack’s Carrot, Cumin and Kidney Bean Burger (20p)

Feb16

Facebook post 16 Mar 2016.

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This is arguably the recipe that brought Jack Monroe into the limelight and the first one that I tried.

1202340The original 2013 blog (superseded by www.cookingonabootstrap.com in late 2015) where this and other recipes were originally posted are archived here, and a BBC Business article featuring Jack a couple of weeks later here. I discovered the recipes in 2015 and their simplicity and low cost got me interested in cooking for myself.

I did a bit of basic cheffing many years ago, and it was these articles that promoted me to ‘take up the knife’ again.

Astonishingly, discovered a single ‘web ghost‘ showing the place I used to work, although the date stamped on the photograph (2003) is impossible – the business was dissolved in 1997 (I was there a few years earlier) and has changed hands and names several times since. Mixed memories, but mostly great fun and window into a world I could never have imagined.

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For my version of the CCK burgers I finely chopped an onion, grated three smallish carrots, and then located the dustpan and brush and swept up all the bits of onion, peel and carrot chippings which had appeared on the kitchen floor and elsewhere.

Drove to Tesco to buy a proper can opener because the budget one I got from there didn’t work and was grinding bits of metal into the tin of kidney beans I was trying to open. Spent a few pounds on a decent one, and successfully opened the tin.

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Rinsed the goo off the beans, covered them with water in a saucepan, brought to boil then simmered for 15 minutes. Meanwhile soft fried the veg.

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Mashed everything together with a heaped teaspoon of flour and teaspoon each of cumin and coriander powder, then with floury hands made burger shapes and browned them off in the frying pan.

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Toasted some brown bread and made a burgerwich. With a dash of tabasco it was excellent.. There was enough mix left to make 4 more. Cost as a meal (inc. bread, butter, tea and electricity, but not petrol to get to Tesco and get the new can opener), 20p.

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