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

ifonlyitwaseasier

hmmm i never wash raisins, and i grated the carrot, peel an all, as i figured more goodness (washed them tho!)
and i always use my grater to zest, can't be faffed any other way

btw the carrot cake gets better the second day (if you have any left.....)

ceridwen

Reet...that carrot cake is now out of the oven - 40 minutes later...as it met the criteria of golden brown and springy in the middle.

Lovely spicey smells wafting through my kitchen.....

eRRR....I'm only really used to baking bread actually and I whip that straight out of the bread baking tins as soon as I get it outa the oven.

Sitting here thinking "now - do I try to get the cake out right away (from my casserole dishes I did it in) or leave it a bit to cool?" Whaddya think?

purpleivy

weezl74 wrote: »

List here of recipes I'd like to frugalise:


sweetcorn fritters (not the ketchup)

HM pizza with gammon and green beans (on top!)

carrot and chick pea veggie burgers

I tend not to get spring onions unless I know in advance I will use the whole bunch. Some finely-ish chopped regular onion will do the job, or chives if you have them in the garden.

ceridwen

Hmm...reet...gave way to temptation and found the carrot cake came out no problems from my casserole dishes.

THOUGHTS:
Personally - I would make it again. - with the following amendments:
- 1 more teaspoon of honey (ie 4 teaspoons of honey in total)
- More raisins (I would think about 25% more than specified amount)
- If I were someone who used sugar - I suspect I would find the amount of sugar specified too sweet for my liking and would use about half the quantity specified.
- Its very moist (a good quality) - but I agree with the previous poster that its too oily. I used sunflower oil myself (rather than "vegetable oil"). I suspect its going to be much the same result anyway. If/when I make it again - then I will try it with two-thirds of the amount of oil specified (maybe even half the amount of oil specified?). It did make my hands oily and in need of a wash and am not quite sure just why it has so much oil in it.

So - my amendments for general consumption would be:
- half the amount of sugar
- half the amount of oil

I have no idea what it would be like with different spices. By choice I would have used mixed spice - but didnt have any in - hence cinnamon/nutmeg.

Oh - and I dont think its me being a greedyguts - but I have cut mine into 16 slices actually (having used the full quantity of all ingredients specified - apart from not using any sugar). So - I'm guessing that if I had added the sugar - then perhaps it would have made 20 slices?? So I would say the cost (with ingredients given) would actually be around about 8p/9p per slice - ie still incredibly cheap in my book - just not AS cheap as put.

princess_loki

purpleivy wrote: »

I tend not to get spring onions unless I know in advance I will use the whole bunch. Some finely-ish chopped regular onion will do the job, or chives if you have them in the garden.

agree - when i had £36.80 per week for two people for food, clothing, toiletries, washing powder, phone etc. then spring onions and mushrooms were a treat!! fifteen years on i still relish spag bol with mushrooms!!!!

being skint and only being able to have what you can afford really makes you appreciate things like buying a chicken and stuff to go with it!

HariboJunkie

princess_loki wrote: »

agree - when i had £36.80 per week for two people for food, clothing, toiletries, washing powder, phone etc. then spring onions and mushrooms were a treat!! fifteen years on i still relish spag bol with mushrooms!!!!

being skint and only being able to have what you can afford really makes you appreciate things like buying a chicken and stuff to go with it!

Just a wee point about the spring onions. They are VERY easy to grow in a pot. A packet of seeds will last ages and they more or less grow all year round and won't spoil by being left in the ground until needed.

purpleivy

weezl74 wrote: »

Hi purple ivy, would pork mince be cheaper than sausage meat plus breadcrumbs egg and apple and maybe onion in sausages then?

xxx

I imagine that would depend on whether you were on value sausages or not I suppose. I just remember that when I made cassoulet a little while ago, the sausages cost more than the pork shoulder I used.

I just had a look, Asda have value pork shoulder joint at £2.78 per kg. This would make quite a lot of sausage meat with a bit of rusk (aka dried bread) and some onions. Doesn't end up looking that expensive.

Cassoulet is quite a good frugal recipe I think, actually, Pork shoulder is a good cheap cut, as are sausages, beans give fibre and more protein, so you don't need such lavish helpings of meat (at least nutritionally speaking) and there are odds and ends of other veg, celery if available, onions. My recipe was originally duck, but I don't waste good duck on that now! It also has bacon in it (originally lardons no doubt) but I use the scraps of cooking bacon that comes in at about £1/lb

In_Search_Of_Me

ok up to page 4 and will finish tom as MUST start kesters babette blanket or he'll be 20 before he gets it! Couple of frugal recipe ideas that may appeal...
carrot lentil and ginger soup (delicious and filling)
pasta with black pepper and butter (delicious and soooo cheap!)
what about a lentil cake...think I may have a recipe somewhere?

re the debate on butter vs spreadable could someone do costings - I think smart price butter is alot cheaper than spreadable and tastes so much nicer? Decided a couple of years ago that lifes too short not to have butter...know its fattening but its yummy......
Re ammt of bicard I'll do a test recipe for a lesser ammt and post back...

weezl74

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I'll ask my butcher if he can source one :eek: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I hope they don't have to butcher me first to get mine out penny

weezl74

We made lesley's frugalised sweetcorn fritters and ate them with the chutney. Our verdict:

chutney great! Would happily make it again, yummy, could have a touch more garam masala, and an onion if there were enough, but definitely a winner

Fritters, our batter was too runny but DH thinks he used the dodgy measuring jug, so this is not the fault of lesley's proportions, more our technique! We were also a bit concerned for a hungry family of 4 how the cook would do it so all the fritters were warn and crispy by the end of the batch, rather than warm and floppy. We debated with the idea of everyone having just one giant fritter rather than 5-6 smaller ones :rotfl:, but weren't too sure.

I look very much forward to seeing what others make of the same recipe.

Bit done in now, up since 5.

Sleep tight, see you in the morning

xxx