Old Style vs the USDA head-to-head challenge...

Been having one of my overnight "thinking sessions" - in bed to sleep....hmmmm...thought...reach for notepad by bed to jot it down....sleep...thought...reach for notepad by bed.........

I was thinking about how to layout my version of the recipe. I like to be very precise in how I say things (hence my frequent editing of posts - I'll use that word, no - I'll use that word...).

I've got numerous cookbooks and one of the reasons that some of them are particular favourites of mine is the nice clear layout. I've lost count of the number of cookbooks I've come across that only give the temperature to cook something in just one fuel or dont say how many people the quantity is supposed to serve or something. A regular one even is to put something in the list of ingredients and one gets to the end of the recipe and theres been no sign of that listed ingredient being used (or vice-versa)

So - I've been refreshing my memory of the best-planned cookbook I have: "The Really Useful Vegetarian Student Cookbook" by Silvana Franco
(- 1 recipe per page
- a little timer thingie up the top indicating maximum time to do on the quick recipes
- a comment saying "really easy" or "easy" unless the recipes are more difficult
- a descriptive comment above ingredients
- how many it serves
- ingredients (in both metric and imperial measurements)
- she gives oven temperatures in all 3 types of fuel.
- she's even listed the ingredients in the order in which one uses them:beer:
- she numbers each stage of the method part of the recipe
- at the listing of ingredients stage of the recipe she puts after the ingredient anything she requires to have done to it (eg "1 courgette, finely grated")
- she tells you at the end any serving suggestions she has
- she never tells people to use any equipment some people don't have (again I lose count of the number of recipes I read which say - use a pressure cooker, microwave, mandoline.......and part way through a recipe one is stymied)

Silvana is my kinda person....very precise. To me that is part of the attraction - I dont have to think (unlike most other cookbooks). As long as I have the ingredients I'm okay - I just follow the text step-by-step and know it doesnt matter if my brain has had a glass (or two) of wine while cooking, as its just a question of following it straight through in logical sequence.

The only amendments I would make to her style are to add cost/calories/exact preparation time/exact cooking time at the top of each recipe. I know some authors cover the price angle by putting "£ or ££ or £££" to indicate price level of ingredients - rather than the cost (which is best for a cookbook perhaps). For our purposes - we need costings to the penny.

Right - that my notes to self somewhere I cant lose 'em:D

Now I'll go off and hunt out the rest of my ingredients.

Note for others:
On the dead cheap recipes front and we might gather a few ideas from them are the following books from my shelves (which people might like to borrow from library):

"How to feed your family for £4 a day - the benefit book" - Bernardine Lawrence

"Bubble and Squeak - the leftover cook book" - Jan Arkless

"Cooking on the breadline" - Jo Hatcher

These are all old books. They were amongst my first cookbooks - but worth a hunt for to read.

Well...I've just made the ceridwen version of spicy couscous. Hmmm.. sitting here licking my lips...quite tasty that was, tasty, quite tasty. Had to head for a cooling drink of milk afterwards (MSE style of course - 2 parts full-fat milk to 1 part water) to cool my mouth down a bit. But it was basically spicy, rather than "blast your mouth off" level of heat.

So - I dont think I've quite got the format into "apple pie" order yet for the recipe. But my version was:

SPICY COUSCOUS
(serves 3)

(time taken - 45 minutes)

65 grammes sultanas - 21.5p
125 grammes broccoli - 30p
125 grammes courgette - 30p
1 can chopped tomatoes - 52p
3 small onions (finely chopped) - 33p
250 grammes couscous - 67.5p
25 ml sunflower oil - 9p
2 cloves garlic - 4p (peeled and finely chopped)
2 heaped tsp mild curry powder (bought loose) - ? (but 50 grammes was 65p)
1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard - ? (but £1 for 210 grammes) (non-organic)
1 teaspoon honey - ? (I used wildflower honey I had in, but Tesco has organic honey for half that price - at 58.5p for 100 grammes worth)
1 level teaspoon Schwartz crushed chillies - ?

1. Soak sultanas in twice their amount of boiling water for at least 1 hour. Drain and keep the "soaking" water.

2. Steam the prepared green vegetables for 5 minutes (ie courgette was "topped and tailed" and chopped into dice/broccoli head was diced/broccoli stem was scraped off and fine chopped).

3. Dice onions pretty small.

4. Put oil in wok with garlic, curry powder and chilli powder. Heat for 1 minute.

5. Add the chopped onion to wok. Saute 4 minutes (either keep warm whilst doing couscous - or do the sauteing whilst couscous is "cooking").

6. Drain the tomatoes (saving the juice).

7. Put the tomato juice in jug, add the sultana "soak water" and then make this up with boiling water to 500 ml.

8. Heat the liquid to boiling. Take off the hotplate and add the couscous. Stir to mix. Put the lid on the saucepan and leave to "cook" for 4 minutes.

9. Add the onions, chopped tomatoes, mustard, honey, steamed vegetables and sultanas to couscous. Stir.

10. Serve. One could top with flaked almonds or cashews to add a bit of "crunch" if desired (though this would add to cost).

I make that a cost of £2.47 (excluding curry powder, mustard, honey and chilli - which I couldnt quite figure out!). Therefore approx 82p per portion - plus the bits I couldnt quite figure out - my maths aint that good! So - very rough guesstimate to include the above bits would be about £1 per portion (taking this as 3 portions worth). That is pretty good going by my thinking - though I appreciate its much dearer than the non-organic version. (In mine everything was organic except the mustard - and I priced the healthiest version of that - ie it was a lot dearer than Tesco own brand).