TV Cookery Programmes.. are they out of touch with the real world?

o-betty-o

rachbc wrote: »

goodnes me what was in the recipe? That seems a huge amount for 1 meal

I just found the recipe on line

4 chicken breasts £6
2 limes 90p
peanut butter 20p
coriander 87p
garlic 5p
ginger 10p
chilli 15p
little gem 88p
soy 10p
fish sauce 10p
noodles £1.40
sesame oil 10p
cashews 50p
honey 20p
strawberries £1
pineapple £1
yog 50p
mint 50p
sugar 20p

I make it closer to £16 -still a lot for one meal but i would sub chicken thigh, buy the herbs and nuts from the asian store and use tinned pineapple!

Have you got a link for the recipie? I couldn't find it

lizzyb1812

The programmes are really for those who are cash rich and time poor - they don't claim to be cheap. That said, another episode shown today showed a pizza made from scratch in under 15 minutes. Mozzarella, salami and fresh parmesan were used in the topping but you could take the basic dough and sauce ideas and add cheaper ingredients/stuff you preferred. We may be OS but the programme doesn't claim to be!

rachbc

o-betty-o wrote: »

Have you got a link for the recipie? I couldn't find it

I couldn't find it on C4 for Jamie - but a couple of blogs wrote about it and gave enough info - can't post links to blogs but google it and they come up.

I don't think mozzarella and salami are especially expensive - or not in aldi anyway! Parmesan is but you don't need much t get a good cheesy flavours so its actually quite thrifty to use a little rather than more of a cheaper cheese

Fosterdog

rachbc wrote: »

goodnes me what was in the recipe? That seems a huge amount for 1 meal

I just found the recipe on line

4 chicken breasts £6 I could get the same for £3-£4 tops from my local butcher
2 limes 90p
peanut butter 20p
coriander 87p Much cheaper if you grow your own or use dried
garlic 5p
ginger 10p
chilli 15p
little gem 88p Just use iceberg instead
soy 10p
fish sauce 10p
noodles £1.40 I've never paid more that £1 for noodles
sesame oil 10p
cashews 50p
honey 20p
strawberries £1 Home grown/tinned/reduced will lower this
pineapple £1 tinned is cheaper and just as good
yog 50p
mint 50p again home grown or dried
sugar 20p

I make it closer to £16 -still a lot for one meal but i would sub chicken thigh, buy the herbs and nuts from the asian store and use tinned pineapple!

with a few minor changes I would do that meal for £10 and with four chicken breasts it would be a meal for four so not as bad as it first seemed at just £2.50 each for main and dessert. Sorry if my figures are wrong I'm half asleep.

nickyhutch

These aren't marketed as budget, or cheap meals, are they? They tell us they can be done in 30 minutes, and, give or take, they can.

If you want cheaper Jamie recipes, try the Ministry of Food ones.

thriftwizard

Do you think it's possible to cook healthy, quick and cheap meals or do we always have to compromise on something?

Yes, given a wok. My old neighbour used to cook up a storm very quickly every night with simple, basic, inexpensive fresh ingredients stir-fried & teamed with bulgur wheat, rice or noodles. They had two kids, he didn't earn much as a youth worker & she worked PT for family reasons, but they'd lived for several years in rural Korea and could make a pound stretch until it twanged. My woks get a lot of use now...

rachbc

Fosterdog wrote: »

with a few minor changes I would do That meal for £10 and with four chicken breasts it would be a meal for four so not as bad as it first seemed at just £2.50 each for main and dessert. Sorry if my figures are wrong I'm half asleep.

I agree - I quoted prices from asda as they are national and the prices universal. I would use thighs, use only 100g (recommended portion for an adult) per person - making it just £2 for the meat from my farm shop. Bottled lime juice would make it cheaper still. I reckon I could do it for £4/5 for the main, plus £2/3 for the dessert - less in summer when strawberries and mint are in the garden!

Noodles are prob loads cheaper in the chinese store but those were only rice ones I could find on asda.com

I don't think this recipe is particularly esoteric - all the 'store cupboard' ingredients would be in any supermarket and don't cost much and can be used in lots of different recipes. It's just about being a bit savvy - knowing what to swap to make it cheaper without compromising on the taste.

Perhaps theres an idea for a thread - I want to try this recipe - how can I OS/MSE it....

o-betty-o

I agree with everyone who has said that the series and the book aren’t supposed to be budget meals. I’m not trying to say I feel conned because the recipes aren’t cheap cheap, because they’re not designed to be, they’re designed to be quick.



Having said that though, they do claim to be ordinary “weekday” meals, which I feel, by inference, means that they shouldn’t cost the earth. As quick meals, I think it’s fair to expect them to cost a bit more than an “average” meal. However, the quick costings I did look absolutely excessive to me.



I like the cleverness of the 30 minute meals series, and he uses some really good little tricks, but the price problems makes it less useful. And of course, there’s no doubt that this recipe, or indeed any of the 30 minute meals recipes can be adapted to make it cheaper, but I feel that’s not really the point.


The point of starting the thread wasn’t to moan that it’s not a budget series. I feel disappointed because Jamie Oliver is obviously a very talented man and some of the tricks he uses in this series are great, but I’m frustrated because paying £20 for ordinary weekday meal is out of my reach, and it must be for a lot of other people. It’s not as though he’s even making the best of spending that sort of money on a meal. It’s all on coriander and limes! If I was spending £20 on one meal there'd be a massive hunk of meat and loads of smoked salmon. He is talented, and can’t help thinking if he had just kept half an eye on cost the series would have been a lot more useful to a lot more people.

I also wanted to find out what other people thought, I’m surprised it doesn’t irritate more people!

I don’t know why this has annoyed me so much, it doesn’t owe me anything. Maybe I’ve got PMT, or maybe it’s because I’ve been cooped up indoors for two days writing about the FSA (yawn) lol

Rachbc - like the idea for the new thread, I am forever [STRIKE]bodging [/STRIKE], adapting recipies to make them cheaper.

If anyone’s interested the ingredient list: (I used mysupermarket, ASDA for rough prices)

Satay Sauce
½ bunch coriander 25p
1 chilli 25p
Thumb size piece ginger 6p
1 small garlic clove 4p
Approx 60ml olive oil 15p
3 tbsp soy sauce 20p
2 limes 60p
3tbsp organic chunky peanut butter 40p
Total £1.95

Chicken
4 chicken breasts (smart price) £4.65
Tbsp honey 6p
Total £4.71

Noodle salad
250g dried egg noodles 67p
90g Cashews £1.29
Glug olive oil 5p
Tbsp sesame seeds 13p
Total £2.14

Noodle salad dressing
Red onion 10p
1/2 chilli 12.5p
Lime 30p
Tbsp soy 7p
Tbsp fish sauce 8p
Tbsp sesame oil 5p
Extra virgin oil 4 tbsp 10p
Lg bunch coriander 50p
2 Glugs oil 5p
3 chillies 75p
Total £3.29

Salad
2 gem lettuce 88p
Soy sauce 20p

1 chilli 25p
1 lime 30p
½ bunch coriander 25p
Total: £1.88

Fruit platter
1 mango £1
1 pineapple 84p
1 200g pack blueberries £2
1 bunch mint 50p
Approx 70g sugar 5p
Coconut yoghurt £1
Total £5.39

(Optional extra: a bottle of white wine to infuse flavour into your wooden skewers lol - I haven't included this)



Recipe Total: £19.36

dawn1980

Ok so I worked this out based on buying whole chickens and using them for two meals and working with what was in my cupboard and garden, it came to 10.97 though is still pretty pricey for one meal. I would do this with most recipes, see what I have, what I can swap etc. What's in season, on offer etc. When I arrange my week's shopping any recipe over £10-15 is a sunday meal. As a roasting joint is usually around £10 anyhow.

One way to afford a meal like this would be to have it one day but have a really cheap meal the next. My week's meals have to be within budget but they don't have to be equal in price.
With the recipe above, I wouldn't have made the pudding. Not on a weeknight lol. So I could do it for only about £5.00 extra.

My weekly budget for four is £90 which is quite generouse on this forum, I choose to skimp other areas rather than food. But I have friends who have £150 weekly so this would be easily doable for them.

What I have recently discovered is that older cookery books are better, many work with simple everyday ingredients and offal etc.
I bought a French cookery book called "I know how to cook" and aside from truffles (I think I could get away with using a drop of truffle oil) most of the recipes have four or five everyday ingredients. Simple selection of herbs you could grow in a window box. There are lots of recipes using "cooked" (leftover) meat.
I've made some luxurious tasting food for very little money using that book. Some arrangement of time has been needed for marinating and setting but that's about all. It's an expensive and huge book but worth every penny.

Other affordable cookbooks are....
dairy book of cookery,
Margeurite pattens everyday cookbook. (in most charity shops lol) Some of the recipes are kinda outdated though...good if you want a cheaper version of something.
Delias frugal food (again basic ingredients but huge flavour.) (I bought an old print copy in a charity shop)
How to feed your whole family... my children have loved everything that I have ever made from this book.
101 cheap eats.

River cottage have quite a few good affordable things in. And Delias complete cookery course is very user friendly and mostly affordable.

VfM4meplse

o-betty-o wrote: »

1 chilli 25p

Shocking! I buy them from an ethinc foodstore and can buy a large handful for just 25p - wash thoroughly, freeze and use as and when required.

It's also much more MSE to grow your own. I am now the proud mother of my first scotch bonnet chilli, it's microscopic atm but I'm sure will grow in time. Bought the plant last May so it's been a very long time coming!