The Skint Foodie Blog

Just came across an article in the Guardian about the Skint Foodie Blog.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/29/soul-food-skint-foodie-blog

Written by a previously very successful man fallen on hard times it contains some fabulous writing and top notch budget recipes.  Well worth spending a bit of time reading...

Hot and sour prawn noodle broth

Noodles for 2 people (I used dried but straight to wok are fab for this)
Chicken stock (about 500ml)
250g raw prawns
Soy sauce (large dash)
Fish sauce (large dash)
Juice of one lime
1 green chilli, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
Ginger
Caster sugar (about a teaspoon full)
Rice vinegar (a dash)
Any veg you fancy (I used pepper because that's what I had but green beans are good)

First cook your noodles and put in the bottom of a large deep bowl.  If you are using straight to wok noodles you can put these in the bowl as they are.

In a saucepan grate some ginger.  Then add all the ingredients except the prawns and the veg.  Simmer for a few minutes to infuse.  Taste and add a bit more of anything you think it needs.  It should be spicy and a little sour but with a hint of salt.

Then add the prawns and veg until the prawns are cooked and ladle over the noodles.  If you've used straight to wok noodles then the heat of the broth will cook them in a couple of mins.

Then slurp as much as you like - yum!

Slow cooked sausages with lentils

Serves 2 greedy people or possibly 3 not so greedy people.

Pork sausages x6
Large handful green lentils
1 leek, sliced
Few cloves garlic, sliced
1 stick celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
Squidge of tomato puree
Glass of red wine
1 bouquet garni
1 bay leaf
Mixed herbs
Black peppercorns
1 beef stock cube

I put all of the above into my slow cooker along with a bit of water.  Cooked on low for 8hrs.

Taste and adjust the seasoning at the end if need be.

This was really very tasty.  I was worried that the sausages would be a bit anaemic looking but as they were on top they actually browned a little bit.  The lentils kept their shape but were nice and soft.  Ideally I'd do this with puy lentils but not sure how they'd fare in the slow cooker.

Cheese sauce disaster

I was watching the Heston cheese episode the other night and was very taken with his cheese sauce recipe.

I normally make my cheese sauce using the traditional roux, milk and cheese method.  I find that this works well in things like lasagne where it gets a good cooking but not too well in some other things like macaroni cheese where I find it can taste a bit floury.

Heston makes his sauce by reducing white wine then adding hot chicken stock.  He then grates the cheese, coats it in a spoonful of cornflour and adds it to the stock mixture.  This should give you a smooth and thick cheese sauce.  On the tv it looked lovely and I very much liked the idea of not using any flour.

I thought I would use this method to make cheese sauce for cauliflower cheese.

Mistake number 1

I had a quick look at the recipe (a very quick look and decided to guestimate the quantities)

Mistake number 2

I got caught up doing something else and forgot about the white wine reducing on the hob until I smelt something burning and found that my wine had reduced to a load of grainy black mush.

I started again and reduced the wine that was left in the bottle.  I then added some chicken stock.  While that was heating through I grated some comte and coated it in a heaped teaspoon of cornflour.  Then I added it to the stock and stirred it through.

It was immediately apparent that this wasn’t right.  It didn’t thicken and looked a bit grainy.  So I mixed another teaspoon of cornflour in some water and added that, it made no difference so I added another.  This made no difference either so I went with what I had and poured it over my cauliflower and cooked it in the oven for about 20mins.

The end result was very watery and not in the least bit thick.  It tasted nice but I’m not sure where I went wrong.  I suspect that seeing as Heston is all about precise cooking that I should have measured my ingredients.  I shall have to try again.

Greens

I have discovered that I bloody love greens!

Greens are not a vegetable that I normally buy.  I don’t know why not really.  I love the irony tang and they are dead cheap.  For £1 you get enough for about 8 good sized portions. 

So far I have had them stir fried with chilli and garlic, stir fried in olive oil and steamed with chicken stock.  Next time I think I might add them to a chorizo broth.

Anyone have any good greens recipes to share?

Pressure cooker chicken stock

One chicken carcass

2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 onions, roughly chopped

2 sticks celery, roughly chopped

Bay leaf

Thyme

Parsley

2 cloves garlic, squashed

Black peppercorns

According to Heston, the pressure cooker is the secret weapon to good chicken stock.

I had a chicken carcass left over from a roast chicken so thought I’d give it a go.  Ideally you would wait until you had 2 or 3 carcasses to give you a nice meaty stock.  However, I don’t have a big enough freezer so had to make do with one.

All I did was to bung it all in the pan and top it up with cold water.  I then cooked it under pressure for about 2hrs all in.

The result is much paler than I was expecting (probably due to the fact that I only used one carcass) but it has congealed into a nice tub of jelly and has probably made about 500ml.  The results are not as chickeny as I would like.  Next time I think I might reduce it a bit to concentrate the flavour.

Random

Seeing dogs in the passenger seat of cars makes me smile.  That is all.