I have been cooking up lots of winter warming dishes this week, seeing as I’m over here in chilly wintery Australia. I came across the following tips for cooking with red meat that I thought I’d share with you – as cooking with beef can be quite expensive if you use recipes that call for more pricey cuts of meat.

If you’re cooking a stew, or anything slow-cooked, lots of recipes are based around topside, blade and round steak. As these cuts of meat can be expensive, here is a good way to adjust the recipe so that you can use cheaper cuts, but still end up with lovely tender meat.

The cheaper cuts of beef, such as chuck, boneless shin, gravy beef or osso bucco pieces can be substituted in for any more expensive cut (and are generally more succulent and flavoursome), they just take longer to cook.

When using topside, round or blade, the approximate cooking time is 1-1.5 hours for a stew. To keep it cheap, swap in a cheaper cut such as chuck, boneless shin, gravy beef or osso bucco pieces, and adjust the cooking time to 2-2.5 hours, at around 180°C degrees. Lower the temperature to around 160°C about a third of the way through to ensure the meat stays as tender as possible.

Always brown the meat in small batches before cooking to keep the flavour rich. To check the meat is cooked properly at the end of the cooking time, it should be falling apart easily with a fork. Pop it back in the oven for another 15 minutes if it’s not quite done.

Of course, the reverse can be done by swapping more expensive cuts of meat if time is of the essence.

(Photo: TheBusyBrain)

I don’t know about you, but in our house it was a veritable orgy of Easter eggs and hot cross bun consumption over the long weekend. And while we have no problem with tackling the remaining Easter eggs, we have been left with a whole pack of hot cross buns that won’t get eaten before they go stale.

According to the packaging, they can be frozen for up to a month, but I came across this recipe for using up leftover and slightly stale buns that looks a whole lot more interesting. Intrigued – I will try it out tonight, I hate wasting food!

Here’s the recipe, it looks like a regular bread and butter pudding with a twist. You can see the original and hundreds of other recipes here at the BBC Food site.

Hot Cross Bun pudding

• Preheat oven to 180°c
• Slice 4-5 hot cross buns horizontally twice, giving three slices from each bun
• Put the top slices of each bun to one side; butter the remaining slices with low fat spread and arrange them (spread side up) in a round, 1-2 pint ovenproof dish. Cut them if need be, so that the bottom of the dish is completely covered.
• Sprinkle over the grated lemon rind of ½ a lemon, and ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Top with the reserved top slices of the buns
• Beat 2 eggs with ¾ pint of milk and strain over the buns
• Sprinkle with Demerara sugar
• Bake for approx. 40 mins until top is crisp, golden, and the pudding has risen and set. Serve hot.

(photo: QuintanaRoo)

Ahh, there’s nothing like celebrating the anniversary of attempted murder and mayhem, is there? And what better way to celebrate the almost blowing up of things with the actual blowing up of things?! Sparklers? Check. Over-excited children? Check. Emergency burns supplies? Check!!

In case you didn’t notice, Bonfire night is one of my favourite nights of the year. You get to eat yummy warming food, rug up in your woollies, and go outside and actually feel part of the community, watching your neighbours’ kids (and husbands) get way too excited about setting things on fire. And, toffee apples. I know. What’s not to love?

And what’s more, it’s totally free. And how often does that happen?

Here’s my fail-safe chilli recipe to keep you nice and toasty on the insides before you head outdoors. Simple, hearty and cheap. Be safe!

Ingredients
1 can black beans, drained and washed
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 chillies, deseeded and diced
500gm chuck steak, chopped
1.5 tablespoons tomato paste
375 ml beef stock
1 red pepper, chopped
1 large ripe tomato, chopped
Juice of 2 limes
1 large bunch fresh coriander, chopped
Sour cream to serve

Method:
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large heavy-based pan.  Sweat onion, garlic, chilli, and half the coriander until onion is soft.  Remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, heat 2 tablespoons oil on high med-high heat, brown meat well. Return onion mix to the pan, add the beans, tomato, tomato paste, and stock.

Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium. Cover and simmer for 1 hour 20 mins. Add pepper, stir, cover and cook for 40 minutes.

When meat is tender, add lime juice and check seasoning. Add remaining coriander. Serve in bowls topped with spoonful of sour cream.

(Photo by Camera Slayer.)

Ever since I became obsessed with cooking, I have lost hours and hours of my life trawling countless food blogs, marvelling at the obvious passion these bloggers have for cooking, photographing and sharing food. They are such a great resource for culinary enthusiasts, I only actually own five recipe books – the rest of everything I cook comes straight off the web. They also offer a great way to keep cooking affordable, because there are so many options out there, you are sure to find a recipe that uses the ingredients you’ve got in the fridge and pantry.

Here are five of my favourites that I visit regularly; if you haven’t stumbled across these in your web travels, check them out (if only for a spot of food porn when you can’t be bothered cooking).

Closet cooking

Written by Kevin, in Toronto, Closet Cooking is probably my fave. The variety of things he cooks is amazing, from yummy comfort foods to more complicated recipes for the more adventurous. I’ve yet to be disappointed by any of his recipes. His seven layer dip is a regular in our house on lazy Sunday afternoons.

My Feasts

Maya from New York charts her culinary adventure with scrummy photographs of everything she cooks.  You can find everything on here, from starters, snacks, to full-blown meals that look amazing, always have an emphasis on being simple and tasty.

Chubby Hubby

This blog, written by Aun, really shares the joy of eating well with people you love, which is really what it’s all about, after all. His passion for food is illustrated in the way he contextualises his recipes, sharing his stories and adventures with food as well as the food itself. And the food – YUM.

Domestic Goddess in Training

Mmmm. What’s not to love about this blog? Written by Jules from rural Derbyshire, reading it is like taking a trip to the country and finding yourself sitting at her kitchen table being fed hearty, tasty, rustic food. She really inspires me to try more things in the kitchen, especially baking, which I am still a teeny bit afraid of. But I am determined to conquer her stuffed buns recipe.

Cheap, Healthy, Good.

The most budget-minded of my favourites, this blog is a great resource for finding seasonal, nutritious, tasty recipes without having to spend a fortune on the ingredients. Written by collection of writers who love to cook and talk about cooking, it’s a must for your Google Reader. Currently in hiatus though, hopefully they will be back soon!

In other food news I am finally going to see Julie and Julia tonight and I CANNOT WAIT!! Have a lovely Sunday, whatever your plans.

Getting as many meals as possible out of one cut of meat is the habit of any good frugal cook. And if you plan your meals well you can do this without forgoing variety, simply eating leftovers or using unappealing cheapo recipes; careful meal planning means you are buying groceries for meals that require similar ingredients, so you aren’t wasting food, and are getting maximum value out of what you buy.  And eating well all the while! Here is a week’s (Mon-Fri) worth of meals, using ingredients that cost less than £25 in total. They rely on making a good chicken stock from a medium sized chook and using it throughout the week.

Meal plan
Monday: Roast chicken & vegetables
Tuesday: Chicken soup
Wednesday: Bean enchiladas
Thursday: Chicken and vegetable pie
Friday: Minestrone soup

Shopping list
(Assumes you have olive oil, milk, salt & pepper – including 4 peppercorns)

1 medium chicken £4.91
55g pancetta £1.43
I bag frozen green beans .84p
1 bag frozen spinach .99p
4 large baking potatoes .67p
1 sweet potato .48p
8 carrots .56p (.7p ea.)
5 onions .80p (.16p ea.)
1 leek .50p
1 bunch celery .78p
3 tomatoes .36p (.12p ea.)
1 round lettuce .50p
150g button mushrooms .88p
Head of garlic .30p
I bird’s eye chilli .74p (for pack of 4)
Pack dried bay leaves .70p
Bunch fresh flat parsley .73p
Bunch fresh thyme .78p
Bunch fresh coriander .79p
Ground cumin .58p
1 packet ditali rigati .79p
1 tube tomato paste .29p
2 x 410g three bean mix .88p (.44p ea.)
200g tin chopped tomatoes .35p
100g borlotti beans .40p
Pack of flour tortillas £1.27
Tub sour cream .51p
Plain flour .43p
Ready rolled puff pastry .91p

Total £24.15

Monday: Roast chicken and vegetables
Roast your chicken, and serve half the chicken with baked potatoes, baked sweet potato, 3 of the carrots, and the green beans.

Refrigerate one quarter of the cooked chicken for the chicken soup, and the remaining quarter for the chicken and vegetable pie. Retain and refrigerate chicken carcass and skin for the stock.

Tuesday: Chicken soup
First, make your stock.
In a stock pan with the chicken carcass and skin, put 1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped; 1 onion, peeled and quartered; 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped; 6 black peppercorns; 1 dried bay leaf; 3 fresh parsley stalks (whole), 1 sprig fresh thyme (whole). Cover with about 4 litres of water. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer very gently 2-3 hours, skimming the surface every now and then; you want to be left with about 3.5 litres of liquid. Strain into large bowl. Put aside 2 litres for the chicken soup, refrigerate the rest.

Now, make your soup.
Pour 2 litres of your stock into a large pan, add 2 sliced carrots, half the remaining cooked chicken, handful of chopped parsley, season. Add half a cup of ditali rigati, heat until pasta is cooked and piping hot. Serve immediately. Eat with crusty bread.

Wednesday: Bean enchiladas
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add 1 finely sliced onion, cook until soft. Add 3 garlic cloves, crushed, and 1 bird’s eye chilli, finely chopped; Cook for 30 seconds. Add 2 teaspoons cumin, 125 mls chicken stock, 3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped, and 1 tablespoon tomato puree.  Cook until mixture becomes thick and pulpy. Season. Add 2 x 410 cans three-bean mix, washed and drained, stir for 5 minutes, add handful chopped coriander. Warm the tortillas in the oven. Serve bean mix in tortilla with sour cream and shredded lettuce.

Thursday: Chicken and vegetable pie
Heat oven to 200c. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add 2 finely chopped onions, 1 leek, sliced; sweat in pan until soft. Add 150g button mushrooms, halved; when almost cooked add 40g plain flour and stir to make a roux. Stir continuously for 3-4 minutes to cook out the flour. Add 400ml warmed milk, stirring continuously. Add 400ml chicken stock, season, add 1 dried bay leaf. Bring to boil, stirring continuously. When sauce thickens, place on low heat, add remaining cooked chicken from the roast, shredded, 2 diced celery stalks, half the bag frozen spinach (defrosted), 1 diced carrot. Pour into pie dish, cover with pastry, brush with milk, pierce lid, cook in oven 25 mins.

Friday: minestrone soup
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large pan. Add 1 finely shopped onion, 1 finely chopped garlic clove, 1 tablespoon finely shopped parsley, 55g cubed pancetta. Sweat on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1 diced celery stalk, 1 sliced carrot, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 200g tin chopped tomatoes, plenty of pepper. Add 1 litre chicken stock. Bring to the boil. Cover, simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season, add remaining frozen spinach (defrosted), half a cup of ditali rigati, 100g tin borlotti beans, drained and rinsed. Simmer until pasta is cooked. Serve.

In my cupboard, I have what I affectionately refer to as my cooking survival kit.  This is made up of the 10 most essential cooking ingredients known to mankind – according to me.  Of course, your cooking survival kit will be unique to your specific tastes (mine is heavily centred around Italian foods, for instance).

Whether your food staples include Indian spices, black beans, or just some good ole olive oil, you should make sure to keep your reserve fully stocked at all times.  If you don’t,  you could risk paying extra when you make that last minute run to the corner shop for some more pasta or a half dozen eggs.  And don’t be afraid to go for quality when you buy your essential ingredients – good quality olive oil or salt and pepper could go a long way in making your favourite meals all the more flavourful.

Above all, always keep an eye out for your essential ingredients when you hit the supermarket.  Remember that these are items which you should always need, so you should be especially keen to stock up on perishable items when they’re on offer.  This way you won’t have to compromise quality for cost!

Good quality olive oil:  Emphasis on the good!  In my opinion, it is always worth the extra quid to buy a nice olive oil suitable for cooking.  If you’re feeling extra splash, pick up a bottle of extra virgin olive oil as well for salads, breads, and low-heat cooking.

Balsamic vinegar:  I don’t just use balsamic vinegar for my salads – it’s also an essential ingredient for my pasta sauces and chillis.  I find that it gives most tomato-based dishes a nice acidity and depth of flavour.

Chopped tomatoes/tomato paste:  Any guide to student cooking surely listed tinned tomatoes as a cooking essential, whether it’s for Bolognese or chilli con carne.  Boiling down a tin of those bad boys makes a wonderful blank canvas for any pasta sauce.

Herbes de Provence:  If you don’t have a spice rack and think quality spices are too expensive , a bag of Herbes de Provence might to the trick.  Herbes de Provence is a mix of rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaf, and thyme and is a great way to season meats, stews, and soups.

Bag of onions:  I use onions so frequently that it makes sense for me to just buy a large – or else I’m always running out to buy a single onion at £0.40 a pop.  A bag can keep for several weeks, so it will definitely be worth it.

Salt/pepper:  This one is obvious, and I’d be shocked if your cooking survival kit didn’t include some good salt and pepper.  I personally love Maldon sea salt, but any good table salt is better than none.

Crushed red pepper:  I love my heat, and I can tend to overdo it with crushed red pepper – I’ve even sprinkled it on buttered toast before (don’t tell FruGuy).  A small jar goes a long way.

Eggs:  And buy them fresh!  I go to a farmer’s market on the weekend and by them by the dozen.  A carton of six eggs from the supermarket won’t last long and in all likelihood isn’t very fresh.  I’m a free-range girl, regardless of the price.

Dry pasta:  In every shape/curl/strand to suit your mood.  And might I also suggest some whole wheat pasta?  Naysayers suggest it’s mealy, but I find that it goes especially well with chunky tomato sauces.

Dijon mustard:  Mustard is my secret weapon.  I find a reason for adding a dab of it to almost everything – homemade dressings, gravies, marinades.

What’s in your cooking survival kit?  Any secret weapons worth sharing?

I love my frugal recipes as much as the next girl, but as with all living standards, there really is a fine line between the delightfully frugal and the, well, un-appetisingly frugal.  I’m worried that this recipe from Dizzy Dee rides that fine line.

A microwavable cake!  That’s right – in less than 5 minutes you can make a piping hot, ‘chocolate’ cake from ordinary kitchen ingredients.  A good cure for the midnight munchies, with all the health benefits you’d normally get from 4 tablespoons of sugar.  Heart attack or no heart attack, this frugal recipe has definitely piqued my curiosity.

Disclaimer:  I have not tried this recipe myself and therefore bare no responsibility if this turns out to be as unsavoury as one might expect.  Microwave at your own risk!

Ingredients/supplies:
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
1 mug

Mix the flour, sugar, and cocoa in the mug.  Then mix in the egg, followed by the milk and the oil.  Mix thoroughly until smooth.  Put the mug in the microwave for 3 minutes on high. 

From the looks of it, the cake will actually start to rise out of the mug while it’s ‘cooking.’  Spooky!

Who’s bold enough to give the 5-minute cake a try?  Any takers?

While snowed in yesterday (yes, six inches of snow in London and the whole city just… stops), I whipped up the yummiest Minestrone-esque soup EVER with the ingredients I had in the house. You’ve probably got most of them in your cupboard too, so keep this recipe in mind next time you are looking for an inexpensive meal.  It took about an hour, but it’s mainly cooking time.  Don’t worry about what veggies you add, you can literally use whatever you have in the house (courgette, peas, runner beans, shredded cabbage, spinach, carrot, whatever!)

Ingredients:
1 tblspn olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 tblspn finely chopped parsley
50g pancetta, cubed
1 carrot, chopped into small pieces
1 stick of celery, sliced
1 litre chicken stock
Ground pepper
200g chopped tinned tomatoes
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 chopped courgette
100g tinned borlotti beans, drained
¾ cup ditalini pasta (or macaroni)
2 handfuls of baby spinach, roughly chopped

Method:
Heat the oil in the pan, add the onion, garlic, pancetta and sweat for 20 minutes on low heat until the onions are soft and translucent.
Add the carrot, celery cook for 5 minutes
Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock and good sprinkling of pepper, and bring to the boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the courgette, borlotti beans, pasta, simmer for 10 minutes
Check the seasoning, add the spinach, simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve with toasted wholemeal pitta bread.

Enjoy! (I’m about to have more for lunch – it is delicious).

Over the weekend my post, Domestic Slack-arse to Domestic Diva in 3 steps was featured on the MSN Money Smart Spending blog (thanks, Karen!)

A lot of people left comments saying that while they would love to be more adventurous in the kitchen, they didn’t have the time to slave away for hours preparing dinner after a long day at work.

Fair point.  Quite often, the last thing I feel like doing after a busy day is standing in the kitchen carefully basting and sautéing. Which is why I leave my more daring kitchen adventures for the weekend, and have built up a foolproof list of quick dishes for week nights.  None of them take more than 20 minutes from start to finish, none of them require excellent cooking skills, and all of them are healthy and nutritious, and cost no more than a fiver for the ingredients.

I’ve decided that over the next few weeks I will publish a few for the sceptics. Starting today with king prawn and broccoli stir-fry. It is SO easy, and absolutely delicious.  Happy cooking!

King prawn and broccoli stir-fry

Ingredients:
Olive oil
175g King Prawns, uncooked
2 canned anchovies, sliced
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 large handful of broccoli
2 red chillies, seeded and sliced
1 tblspn soy sauce
A dash of fish sauce
A dash of sesame oil
1 tblspn sesame seeds
Juice of 1 lime
Salt/pepper

Method:
Toast sesame seeds, set aside
Heat oil in pan until very hot, add prawns, sauté 2-3 minutes
Add garlic, anchovies, chilli, sauté 1 mintue
Add broccoli, sauté 2 mintues
Add soy sauce, sesame oil and fish sauce
Add lime juice
Season
Sauté 30 seconds

Serve with brown rice or noodles if desired, top with sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

I was once FruGal, Domestic Slack-arse.

These days, I do a lot of cooking. Imagine!

Ever since I first nervously ventured into the kitchen to crack open our beautiful, homely display of previously unused cookbooks about a year ago, I have gone from cooking about, oh, once a year, to pretty much every second night.  FruGuy no longer reigns as God of Cooking in our house. Although he still has a lot more natural talent for cooking (the show-off rarely uses a cookbook), I like to think that I am developing a sense of how flavours and textures work together and am relying less and less on recipes to serve up something not only edible, but very tasty!  Hail FruGal, Domestic Goddess.

I first began learning to cook for frugal reasons – mainly the hideous amount of money we were spending on eating out.  I also felt bad that FruGuy was the only one who cooked in our house.  Now I do it because I actually like it, and have become obsessed with knowing exactly what is in my food – especially the salt content.  So, not only is it frugal by saving money on eating-out, but it helps me stay healthy too.

If you’ve been watching Nigella Lawson orgasm over a chicken and mushroom pie lately, thinking ‘I could do that’, here’s a quick guide.

First, de-clutter your kitchen
As you know, I am a fiend for de-cluttering and purging at the moment, so of course I’m going to suggest this.  That aside, you really need to give your kitchen a good clean out in order to want to cook in there every day. If it’s a big jumbled mess and takes you half an hour to find a potato peeler, you won’t succeed.

1. Go through your cupboards and throw away anything broken or never-used that just take up space (the pop-corn maker your mother-in-law gave you three years ago (why?), Tupperware bowls with no lids, etc).  Make sure everything has its own place.
2. Create zones in your kitchen.  In these zones, put everything you need in the one spot for particular activities, so that you aren’t poking around in 6 different parts of the kitchen to make a piece of toast. Our kitchen has five zones: food storage (pantry, fridge, fruit-bowl), cleaning (sink, dishwasher, cleaning products under sink), breakfast (cereal cupboard, toaster, espresso maker, kettle), food prep (this is the biggest area – chopping boards, knives, crockery, utensils), and cooking (oven, stove, herbs, spices, cooking oils, pots & pans).
3. Organise your cupboards so that the most-often used things are easily accessible within the area that they are most used.
4. Try to avoid using the kitchen counter as a dumping space for your handbag, mail, keys, etc at the end of the day. If it looks like a bomb hit your kitchen as soon as you walk through the front door, you’ll be less inclined to want to cook in there. Your kitchen should be a happy, organised, welcoming place.

Tools of the trade
If you have ever picked up a Jamie Oliver cookbook in the bookstore only to leave it on the shelf, intimidated by the impossibly beautiful photographs of gorgeous rustic kitchens overflowing with expensive cookware, don’t fret.  There aren’t really that many tools you need in the kitchen (and even fewer gadgets), to be able to follow the majority of recipes.

1. Firstly, a good quality chopping board for preparing food, and one plastic chopping board for preparing raw meat.
2. Utensils: Other than knives, forks and spoons, you’ll need a good set of sharp knives with a sharpener, a can opener, a vegetable peeler, tongs, slotted spoon, spaghetti spoon, whisk, wooden spoon, soup ladle, one of those food turner slide thingos, measuring spoons (tsp, tblsp etc), measuring jug, garlic crusher, grater, and colander.
3. Crockery and pots & pans: (besides plates and bowls), a couple of good mixing bowls of varying sizes, a couple of ceramic cooking/serving dishes of varying sizes and shapes, a good set of saucepans and lids of varying sizes, a good large heavy-duty saucepan with lid for stews, a good extra-large heavy-duty saucepan with lid for soups.  I also have a three-tier steamer that I use almost every night for vegetables, but that’s only if you’ll use it.
4. Storage: A set of plastic food containers with matching lids for storing uncooked food and leftovers.
5. Gadgets: The only gadgets I ever use in the kitchen (besides the espresso machine), are a set of scales, blender and the George Foreman grill (turned out nice again). I don’t use a food processor because I don’t have one, but haven’t found an awful lot of recipes require it; but in an ideal world I would have one.

Getting down to business
When I first started cooking I was a nervous wreck in the kitchen. I would sweat over timings, my non-existent dicing skills, and basically everything else possible! After learning that the best tools to ensure a bearable time while preparing a meal are a glass of wine and some good music, I began to relax and enjoy it.

1. Always read the recipe through from start to finish before beginning. The amount of times we didn’t eat ‘till 9.30pm because I didn’t figure in the necessary cooking time…
2. Stick to quick and easy meals during the week and be more adventurous on the weekends.
3. Share the cooking around with your other half, housemates or others. If you are stuck doing it every single night you’ll end up hating it.
4. Make cooking part of the evening unwinding process. Catching up on your partner or family’s day while preparing dinner makes it more enjoyable.
5. Tidy as you go. This makes the cleaning up process much easier, and keeps the kitchen from looking like a bombsite.  Keeping the worktop as clear as possible will ensure a much more relaxed and happy cook.

There you have it. Nigella, eat your heart out.

Got any other tips?