frugal cooking

When you need to grease baking trays etc, use the saved wrappers from block hard fat, or use the wrapper on the top of things like stuffing to stop it burning.

Also good to wipe baking potatoes with.

Just switched on and found the all of these fantastic recipes especially like the sound of the bacon and onion pie. Today I have written out a menu plan for the week so as to use all that needs using. I have just discovered on opening the fridge door bacon that needs using so I will swap things around and use this recipe, thanks.

Here below two of my frugal veggie recipes, both are my invention.

**Roasted leeks (two portions)
3 leeks
6 slices ham
olive oil

Remove the green leaves and wash the leeks throughly. Cut them in halves lenghtwise.
Wrap one slice of ham around each leek half.
Place a spoon of olive oil on the bottom of a baking dish, place the leeks and spread another spoon of olive oil on them.
Roast in the oven at 180°C for 30 mins.


**Poor man's vegs (feeds me for a week)
1 onion
1/2 cabbage (green or red doesn't change)
1/2 chard (a.k.a. swiss chard)
3 cups raw pumpkin
1 clove garlic
olive oil
rosemary
sage
pepper
salt

Clean all the vegs and cut them in chunks, about 1 inch.
Dice finely a clove of garlic and add it together with the herbs, pepper and salt.
Cook 30 mins at 180°C in the oven. Rememeber to turn it sometime because cabbage leaves tend to try out.

Hope you enjoy the bacon pie.

BACON AND CHEESE PASTIES

4 oz (120g) boiled (or lightly fried) bacon, chopped
2 oz (60g) cheese, grated
6 oz (180g) onions, grated (I omitted these as only I love onions)
4 oz (120g) boiled potatoes, mashed - I boiled and cubed mine
1/2 tsp mixed dried herbs
pepper
a little milk
plain pastry using 3 oz (90g) fat and 8 oz (240g) flour


Divide pastry into two and roll each piece into a circle (I cut mine out around a side plate and made 3 plus a runt). Mix together all other ingredients except milk. Put half of the mixture on each pastry round. Draw up opposite sides of pastry, moisten edges and press together, fluting with the fingers. brush with milk, prick both sides with a fork and bake in a moderate oven until brown - 20 to 30 mins.

This comes from Elizabeth West's VERY frugal "Kitchen in the Hills". We buy bacon mis-shapes and in this week's pack was a large chunk of boiling bacon, which I used half of for a veg/lentil/bacon soup, and the other half for this recipe.

For some more rib-sticking ideas check my blog-entry for last Saturday:
http://codlinsandcream2.blogspot.com/

Today I did a bit of windfall womble - the impossible-to-reach apples fell down from all the wind we got last night and I was able to gather up the biggest, ripest, loveliest apples which have been partially transformed into a Dorset Apple Cake, baked in my trusty cast iron skillet. Delish! The other apples have gone into storage and I'm now pretty confident I've got plenty to make crumbles and cakes through the winter.

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, Hath!!!

Now the doctors are on my case about cholesterol and I'm not eating red meats and again no butter. Sigh. And a veggie diet seems so pricey!!

We do grow vegetables but... Any good ideas out there? Tasty things? By the way, the War Cake looks wonderful.

Some of the cheapest veggies are the ones that spread out furthest. Today I'm gonna have a crack at borscht, which is shredded or grated cabbage, carrot, beetroot, onion, and potato with a little chicken stock, tomato puree and seasoning and a dollop of creme fraiche (which someone was uncertain of elsewhere on this post - I'm going to use it inside some fajitas as well inst. sour cream). The soup is simmered for quite a long time.

I always buy whole chickens (I can't raise them myself, alas) at about £3-£4 even for the free-range-once-happily-scampering-around-chickens, cut off the breast meat and legs for later, brew up the carcass with an onion and a carrot plus black pepper, when I'm really skint, I use half of each. My chicken goes quite far this way, and I find I can make a big soup which is in the fridge for a couple of days - easy and healthy.

Then tomorrow I'll fajita the chicken breast with spices and whatever veg I've got in the fridge, make some salsa to go with from a 40p tin of tomatos + seasoning and maybe roast the legs and strip them for sandwich meat for the blokey to take to work.

House smells like borscht :biglick:

Me too. I'm feeling quite pleased, because I harvested celery, carrots, celeriac and a cabbage from the lotty this morning, and it will go with beetroot, potatoes, onion and garlic I harvested earlier and stored. Mmm.

Leek and potato soup for lunch here and home made bread and butter.

Soup made from ham stock (from last time we had boiled ham) the dark bits of the leeks we had for sunday dinner ( from the veg patch) and onions and potatoes which had bits of damage so need eating up first.

Mmm delish

Several portions in freezer, some for tomorrow luch in the fridge and Cg had some for supper as well

Oh dear, this will show how really tight I can be!!

OH likes BBQ ribs & things like that. Went to Supermarket this week & they had a big section of bones, mostly beef but a few pork ones as well. Found the meatiest pack I could, cost less than £1 & marinaded them in a BBQ sauce & slow roasted them. Result was a really tasty meal for 2 & a very happy OH

Pol - sounds impressive

Thing is JG, I resent paying top money for what is in effect a pack of bones, nicely cut & plastered in a load of chemicals. When I do it with stock bones, or bones for dogs at least I know what is in the marinade.

Sometimes I manage to get lamb bones & they make a really tasty stew.

We had the ribs from Dorcas our giant Tamworth as BBQ the other day. When I butchered her I took them out in one piece (usually they are cut in half as the side of pork is divided into belly and back) and they were HUGE - about 20" or more. It looked like the rack of ribs that tips the car over at the beginning of the Flintstones. The kids found it hilarious. Maxwell looked particularly comical gnawing on a rib that was almost as big as he is.

Yabba Dabba D.. Om nom nom