Storecupboard: curry sauce

I like the idea of keeping portions of curry sauce in the freezer for when I fancy something flavoursome and spicy.  Diane (a blog friend) does it and finds it very useful.  I looked around for ideas and then created this, totally out of what I have in my stores.  It made quite a hot sauce so adjust the hot spices if you like.

Ingredients: to make six single portions
good knob of butter
A largish onion, peeled and chopped.
a can of coconut milk (I used half fat because that's what I had)
a knorr vegetable stock pot
a bit of water
about 20-ish mls red lentils (to help to thicken the sauce)
have some boiling water ready in the kettle

And for the paste:
1.5 tbsp curry powder (mine is mild, hence the added chilli lower down)
1 tbsp garam masala (mine is 'roasted', normal would be fine, I am sure)
1.5 tsp crushed ginger
1tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed chilli (optional)
2 tbsp tomato puree
a splash of water.

Method
Make up the paste by putting all the paste ingredients in a bowl and mixing well into a paste.

Melt the butter in a largish saucepan.  Drop in the onion, mix it all well and fry gently until the onion is softening and translucent.
Add the curry paste, increase the heat and stir it all in, mixing well.  Then allow to fry for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time (smells wonderful).

Pour in the coconut milk and mix well until the paste is all incorporated.  I rinse out the can with a little water which also goes in, to get the last dregs!.  Add the stock pot and some boiling water (about half a canful, maybe a bit more.  This was the one thing I forgot to measure!

Bring to a steady simmer and add the lentils.  Cover and simmer for about half an hour, stirring occasionally.

Taste and add salt if needed.

Allow to cool a little before zizzing into a smooth sauce.  I used my Thermomix but I am sure my hand blender would have done the job.  Then push it through a fine seive if you want a completely smooth sauce.

Portion out and freeze if not using that day.
 Use with leftover meat or pulses and vegetables.  I would fry more sliced onion, add the meat and veg, add the sauce, simmer for a short time and then maybe add cream or yogurt or milk.  I would use thickening granules if necessary.

Storecupboard: bread and butter pudding

I made this last Sunday and it was very delicious indeed.  It made four very good portions and would have been delicious with cream.  However, cream not being one of my storecupboard essentials, I didn't have any.  It was nice cold later on too.

The original recipe is here.

However, I changed a few things.

Earlier in the week I carelessly defrosted a fruit loaf when I actually wanted an ordinary loaf.  I used some in the normal way but the rest was becoming stale.
Because of the fruit in the loaf (dried cranberries), I didn't add any dried fruit and that was OK.  The loaf also had walnuts and they were a delicious addition.
Ditto with the spice and it was fine.
However, because it was a sweet loaf, I cut down too much on the sugar.  It was still delicious but would have been even nicer with just a tad more sugar.
I didn't bother with neat triangles of bread.  I just buttered it and tore it to fit gaps!  Nice and casual.
Finally, I added some vanilla essence to the milk and eggs.

I will definitely be making this again.  So easy.  It went in the oven as the roasties came out and by the end of the first course it was done to a turn.  Perhaps some hot cross buns could provide the bread next time!  Or a brioche would be good.  Perhaps one could drizzle the bread with a little cointreau or grand marnier before adding the custard mixture or sprinkle over some grated orange or lemon zest?

Lots of variations on a Great British classic that aims to preventing waste.

Frugal fun: butter tip

I found I was using way too much butter.  not good either from a health point of view or financially, although, to be fair, I use Morrisons at £1 a pack.

I have a diddy little butter dish.  It was one of those 'ah, that's so cute' purchases that I probably ought not to have made but did.  The internal dimensions are about 8.5 x 5.5 cms to show you how diddy it is.

So what I did was I cut the butter in half and half again to give me four cuboids (yes, I'm a teacher!), each one just the righ size to go into the little dish to last me all week.

You know what?  I still have some left!  And I've had butter when I've wanted it on my morning toast and on my beans on toast.  Just shows me how easy it is to waste when there's a lot in front of you.  And the little dish isn't wasted either!

Storecupboard: Cheesy crumble topping

I use this a lot.  It's tasty and easy and I have all the ingredients in my fridge or cupboard.  This time I remembered to measure everything out so here it is - my definitive version, if there is such a thing.

Ingredients to make seven of my size portion toppings
200g plain flour (Basics/Value is fine)
a pinch of salt
a grinding of black pepper
100g cubed butter or margarine
50g porridge oats
80g hard Italian cheese (in Sainsburys it is their Value range), finely grated*

Method
Put the fat, salt and pepper iun a bown and rub the fat into the rest until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the oats and mix well (I use my hands but a spoon or fork would be fine.
Then ditto with the cheese plus any herbs or spices you may wish to use.

That's it!

Use it to top anything that you would usually top with pastry or with mash.  Bake at around 180 to 200C until browned with a bubbling underneath.

*you can, of course, use parmesan or similar but that's not vegetarian so I don't use it.  Also it is flippin' expensive!  Cheddar would also do well.

Sometimes I also add a good pinch of herb or spice.  Mustard powder is lovely and goes well with the cheese.

Frugal fun: versatile veggie mix

As there's a vegetarian in the family, I need to have a few 'bedrock' ideas at my fingertips (or in the freezer) so I always have something I can use.  I  realised that I am out of beany mix in the freezer (the one I got out
the other day turned out to be chicken based!  Ooops, bad labelling!) so this is what I made and what I used but just about everything is substitutable, one way or another and amounts are variable, according to availability and inclination.

Ingredients
A bit of butter or oil
1 smallish onion, peeled and sliced
A tsp crushed garlic and half a tsp of crushed chilli (both lazy but so, so useful)
Some frozen peppers, Morrisons
Some frozen mushrooms (I thawed these and cut them small), Morrisons
Some frozen mixed veg, Value, Morrisons
A can of chopped tomatoes, Morrisons (I didn't use value chopped toms as they tend to be more watery and there's not a huge difference in price)
A can of value kidney beans, Morrisons
One and a half tsps of Marigold stock powder
A good grating of black pepper
Herbs: I used oregano, marjoram and tarragon

Method
Melt the butter in a largish pan, add the onion and gently fry until it is softening.  Add the carlic, chilli and peppers, stir well and continue gently frying for about five minutes, stirring now and again.  Then add the mushrooms.

Then tip in the chopped tomatoes, half fill the can with water, swish it round and add that too.  Add the well rinsed and drained beans, the Marigold, some black pepper and the herbs.  Mix well.

Bring to a gentle simmer, cover and leave to stew in it's own juices for about half an hour.  if necessary, take the lid off and allow some water to evaporate.

Taste and add salt if needed (the stock has some salt).

That's it.  I made a crumble topping and that sorted out dinner.  The rest froze in single portions - it made five portions (my size portions) altogether

After thawing, to ring the changes one could add extra chilli to turn it into a chilli without carne or fry some curry pices and add them.  Or add some tomato puree and toss it in pasta, served with grated Italian cheese on top.

It's very versatile and frugal to boot.  Also it must have tasted OK because daughter polished off the lot!

Frugal Fun: another web site

I wish I'd found this earlier.  I followed a link elsewhere and spent most of the afternoon catching up on all the postings in between stirring, chopping and so on in the kitchen.

It came about when the writer, Ricky (known as SkintDad), found that he and his family were in very serious financial hot water and they needed to sort something out and fast!  He started this blog as a way of recording the ups and downs and, I think, to provide some personal accountability.

It's not just a food blog, far from it.  There's all sorts of financial information there including offers, advice, warnings, updates . . . it's very good and very readable.

He now has a column in the Mirror (not reading the Mirror, I didn't recognise his name) as well as one with a local paper and the blog is starting to provide a fairly useful income for him.

I particularly like the recipes, of course.  I've printed several off and want to work through them.  Some of them are frugal recipes and some are what he calls 'Fakeaways' - his own take on popular takeaways created under fairly strict rules. For instance, they have to cost under a fiver for the whole family!

I'm perhaps the only person in here who hasn't discovered this blog before but if you haven't and are interested in all things frugal, do whizz over and take a look.  It's well worth it.

http://skintdad.co.uk/about/

Frugal fun: keema curry

This is frugal in the sense that I used up freezer or cupboard ingredients rather than being inexpensive.  It wasn't dreadfully expensive as the mince, albeit a good 'name', was half price.

Anyway, the recipe is here on the wonderful 'all recipes' site.

Changes:
I used red onion and I used frozen mixed veg (value so mostly carrot and peas) instead of the frozen peas.
I added some frozen mixed peppers.
I added some crushed ginger after reading the comments
I also added extra water and cooked some rice with it to make it a one pot.
 I added some salt.  Not a lot, but it was tasting a bit bland without it because of the rice, I suspect.

Next time I will parboil the potatoes beforehand.  They took a long time to cook, even though they were diced.

It made four very good portions and is one I will definitely make again.  Easy and not too expensive.  Do take a look.