Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

HowlinWolf

Weezl, let me know if this fits in with your idea of what's needed?

Okay Shirley, here are some basic cooking processes which can help you to make many different frugal meals.
Specific quantities and measurements will be given in each recipe but with these processes you can go on to make lots of delicious frugal food.

White sauce

A white sauce can be used for lots of things from a sauce for pasta, in a lasagne or moussaka, or in a meat, fish or veggie pie. You can also use it as a sauce for meat/fish/veggies if you add appropriate flavourings or for a fricasse (a white stew).

You can make a white sauce of any quantity. All you need are equal amounts of flour and a fat (e.g butter, hard margarine or a spread that is suitable for cooking) and a hot liquid (stock or milk for preference).

Put the fat in a pan and melt over a gentle heat, a higher heat will cause it to brown and will affect the taste.

When the fat is melted add in the flour. Stir. The flour will become incorporated into the fat, cook gently for a minute or two until you have a slightly sandy looking mixture with little craters in it (or honeycomb if you don't like the idea of craters in your food).

Add a good slosh of your hot liquid into the pan, stir. When all the liquid is incorporated into the fat and flour add another slosh. Repeat until you have a sauce of the desired consistency.

(If you want to be a little bit cheffy take the pan of the heat after each slosh of liquid is incorporated and give it a good beating with your spoon for a few seconds. This works the gluten in the flour and will add a lovely glossy finish to your sauce.)

When your sauce is the consistency that you want you can add flavourings if you wish such as mustard, grated cheese, herbs or onion, the possibilities are (almost) endless.

ceridwen

FrankieM wrote: »

I've finished the googlebooks preview of A Nation of Farmers. So many things to think about!
Of course I'm not sure buying locally is cheaper than the supermarkets but starting to grow your own would certainly help...imagine if we could change people's views on those things too.

I now could do with finding the most economical way of reading the rest of the book. The preview only went up to pg112...unfortunately my library doesn't do it

....but then you could order it from your library (regardless of whether they actually have it yet or no) and then there is a good chance that they will buy it.

I have ordered many books over the years from my local library - knowing full well that they dont actually HAVE them in the first place - and they have usually bought them. Double blessing - those books are then there somewhere in the county for other people to read as well:D

(Mind you - I have a suspicion that its basically pretty easy for me to get the books I want bought - as there is a group of very likeminded librarians in my library and I know a couple of them specifically look out for what books I want in - in case they want to put a reservation on them next for themselves:D).

....goes off thinking "I wonder JUST how many books my county has bought over the years because I wanted them in stock - probably quite a few by now..."

(The other possibility with your library is to say that you are prepared to pay a bit extra to order an already existing copy from them - on an "out of county" basis. I think you would be better at just ordering in a copy from them - without mentioning they dont already have one in stock though. I suspect there are few - if any - copies of this book in British libraries yet - as its American and bookshops/libraries seem to pretty much only stock British books.)

weezl74

howlin that's fantastic! Tears came into my eyes at your generosity in helping shirley 'learn to fish' :A

You are obviously a very skilled and clear expresser of cooking yourself, but if you ever want a teeny slight shortcut to describing how to do stuff then I often feel Delia is quite good at explaining things compared to the majority of online food authors.

But if you want to write it all so eloquently from scratch, then completely be my guest, with much hats offness to you

If people feel there is a cooking technique which is being assumed that shirley will understand, but you fear she won't, can I ask people to perhaps put in bold Howlin this needs some advice for shirley in your post, and it will make howlin's job a lot easier in gathering our thooughts together for Shirley

guys I'm a bit shattered as real life has been full on today celebrating my baby's first birthday, so there's much more I'd like to say but can't quite string it together! I shall post more tomorrow (which is exactly 4 weeks since we began our funny little journey together!:rotfl:)

ceridwen

weezl74 wrote: »

I'm really glad it went well shanks

I'm thinking of one with walnuts in or walnut rolls for the veggie planner, as a good source of omega3. So if you fancied that it would be a great tester for Bob and shirl as well as hopefully nice for you

? Walnut pave maybe? - licks lips....gets ready to write recipe down.....:)

...goes off singing tunelessly "Happy birthday to you...happy birthday to you" to Fergus (previously known as "the frugal foetus").

shanks77

Well get a good nights sleep Weezl hope you and Fergus had a lovely day and look forward to all you new and inovative ideas tomorrow xx

got-it-spend-it

Sorry, I'm so out of the loop at the moment! I obviously haven't lost my baby brain yet as I am struggling to keep up!

Just wanted to say that I have made the apple curd spread and it is delicious. Even better, I made it from bargainous apples so it only cost 15p for the apples in it!

grandma247

This is a thread I found a while ago.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1297569&highlight=coconut+oil

I found a few sites about coconut fats.
This one has a little info.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/nutrition-news/transfats/
scroll down to the bit about coconut on the right hand side.

http://www.vegfamily.com/dietician/1205c.htm

http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org/

ceridwen

'Morning Weezl

See you're here....still shattered after yesterday lass?

weezl74

Good morning all

Today is exactly 4 weeks since this thread started.

I've been thinking about you all, and how much everyone has done and achieved in that time. I am amazed :T:T:T:T

We have created and tested a huge amount of recipes, explored nutrition to a depth I hadn't studied before and with great precision.:o:D

We've debated the ethics/morality and politics of eating well and living within our means.

More importantly perhaps, I feel that we have a little bit of community spirit and a sense of a team having an adventure together.

Quite naturally, we have each stepped up to the plate with things we are good at. I feel little individual sub teams have also formed:

recipe testers, and amongst you two types, experimenters and faithful replicators (of recipes) and we very much need both. The 'lob it all in a pan and see if what emerges is edible' gang (more my style of cooking :rotfl:) suggest ideas, which the faithful replicators follow and show ways that the detail of these dishes can be improved :T:T:T

natural researchers: those who love to get a googling and to explore all the novel ideas on here, interesting ingredients and nutrition.

encouragers: fortunately lots of those!

project managers who are great at giving direction and a structural backbone to the project.

real -life (but probably a lot more willing/knowledgeable) bob and shirleys

and probably other sub teams I haven't even noticed yet :rotfl:

:A

and lots of you fulfil more than one role

lesley- gulp: a couple of spreadsheets (very much a work in progress!) for your perusal

stock checker one
5 a day checker one
vegetarian stock checker one
shopping list for first menu (meaty one)
calcium checker

weezl74

ceridwen wrote: »

'Morning Weezl

See you're here....still shattered after yesterday lass?

morning C, yep still bit tired how're you?

xxx