Living on next to nought - is that the key?

joedenise

Another newbie to your diary! I have read the whole thread from start to finish over the last few days and thoroughly enjoyed it. DH wasn't too impressed that I spent more time reading your diary than watching junk TV/talking to him over the weekend, LOL!

We're not veggie but do eat veggie meals from time to time but DH is a carnivore through and through although there are a couple of veggie meals he actually requests from time to time - including tonight's offering of cauliflower cheese using a thickened veg stock instead of white sauce, which we find much tastier.

He also loves a cassoulet type dish I make using veggie sausages (although I'm not sure he realises they are veggie!!!).

I've subscribed to your thread so I'll be reading, and occasionally, posting regularly.

Denise

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

Hi joedenise - thank you so much for de-lurking. My DP wonders how I find so much to occupy myself with on MSE.........;) If you find a recipe or two here that takes your fancy and it becomes part of your repertoire, then that's OK with me - you'll get no lectures from me in any case Tonight's dish may have something for you

Well, I bagged a NSD today. So I am into double figures Plus I found 5p *roadkill* :j

Everywhere seemed very quiet today. Do you reckon it is the calm before the storm? Should I stay out of all and any retail premises until after the new year? :rotfl:

So, dinner this evening. I made a dish with Kenyan origins called 'Irio'. I got the recipe from Troth Wells' book 'The Global Vegetarian Kitchen', which was a library book. So my recipe differed a little to the recipe I will link too, but I do think that it is one of these recipes that you can put your own spin on. So the recipe I followed, uses; black eyed beans, onion, spinach, paprika, parsley (but I didn't have any) sweetcorn, potatoes, a little oil and seasoning. So basically, it is mash+. However, I found a blog with a recipe for Irio and the blog author made the suggestion of using berebere spice - which I've used before in a version of Ethiopian Wat. So I whipped up a batch of spice (super easy to do - takes longer to take out and put back all my spice jars! ) and added some spice into the dish. I served mine with pan-fried eggs, tomato and pepper sauce and green beans - photo here;



If you'd like a bash at Irio, then this is as good a recipe to follow (I like her idea of using some sweet potato too) and if you'd like to make some berebere spice, then scroll down this page and a version of the spice is included.

On another blog it said that Irio was traditionally served with meat - I could see a juicy steak atop that eh? I also didn't mash the potato etc too smooth, I liked the chunky version, but you can easily make it smooth if you prefer.

I liked it - it didn't really seem like mash, IYSWIM. And we both like the berebere spice, so perhaps that made it seem a little more exotic? Anyway, a good, cheap dish - filling and full of good stuff I also read (somewhere else) that ajwain seeds are a component of berebere spice as it is used in Ethiopian cooking. The spice mix recipe I use didn't have it as a listed ingredient, but I did put some in today as it is supposed to be good with potato dishes.

Today I am grateful for the following 3 things;

for inspiration - and it's ability to transform the 'mundane' (although I hesitate to ever call mash mundane.....:D)

for pressure cookers - I still can't believe that over a half a kilo of soaked beans can be cooked in 8 minutes........

for the warmth of sunshine - it was good to be out and about today

Thank you so much for popping by, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

EssexHebridean

*Gasps* you've mentioned the "M" word - it won't go down well... :rotfl: Your "tattie scones" looked fantastic too - I wonder why I've never got around to making those? I always buy them if I see them yellow-stickered.

Well done on the roadkill too - MrEH is still cornering the market I'm afraid!

Tell me - sumac - you use it just sprinkled over things before serving sometimes, don't you? Does it also work well cooked into a dish or does it "vanish" IYKWIM?

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :hello:

EH - ta for dropping by and ta for the question. Short answer is... I didn't know. However, in the course of culinary advancement I changed what we had for dinner, in order to find out (really, no biggie, when I got in I didn't want to make what was on the planner anyway - and luckily jumped on here to catch up and saw your question )

Anyway - I thought it was Lemon Tree - that went green _pale_ at the mention of *m*a*s*h*??

So, today. Mmm, well I spent some money - but got some bargains 9p for 4 bananas and 6p - yes, 6p for 7 beetroot (raw) and 2 Swedish turnips for 19p each - whoop :j I also got YS'd mushrooms, carrots and some of the 'special offer' parsnips from L*Dl. Am well chuffed. I don't usually do too well with the YS'd stuff for 'pennies', but today my luck was in I'm pleased with the swedes, as I'm probably going to have to jiggle the menu planner a bit due to a lack of pennies - at least I can make 'turnip treat' now

I also found a total of 5p in *roadkill* - two tuppences and a penny today A shiny, glinty 5p beckoned me to pick it up out of a sectioned off bit in front of a shop, but I figured that they'd have CCTV in the area, and i'd only end up on one of these, 'the things people do' type TV shows, so I decided to walk on I did have to wash the money today though, it was a bit grubby

Right, so dinner tonight ended up being 'Harira' which as you know by now is a middle eastern soup/stew with chickpeas a key constituent. It was on the meal planner for next week, so I have only brought it forward a bit and we like it, so it was no problem. So as to the question about sumac. I first of all tried the product on it's own, to make sure I knew the taste. Although it is variously described as 'sour', 'lemony' and 'citrussy', I got the similar taste to dried cranberries, as it fruity, but tart IYSWIM. I then added some to the soup - half in with the onions at the start and then half later on. I used a tablespoon in total - as the recipe calls for 1 Tbsp of lemon juice - which it can replace in recipes. I also made some 'Piadana' (Italian flatbread) and put some in the dough with a 'morrocan' spice blend including sesame.

I have to say, it is my opinion that in a soup/stew the sumac was mostly 'lost'. There was a slight piquancy, but DP - who is better at flavour analysis than me - failed to identify anything different and certainly didn't come up with 'citrus', 'lemon' or anything remotely in that vein. I felt that the sumac held up slightly better in the flatbread, which was 'less' cooked if you see what I mean. However, whilst my sumac was bought in a reputable shop, etc etc etc, I would say that if you had sumac in a country of origin, or bought it from a spice shop with a very high turnover of sumac, you may well get a totally different reaction. I shall continue to use it as a 'sprinkle' or subject it to the least heat I can.

I must add though, when I am putting lemon in a soup/stew, I tend to add it in at the end anyway, otherwise it too disappears. Yet baking is different, and lemon, ie in cakes tends to hold it's flavour better.

Anyway, dinner has been scoffed. I used the piadina recipe out of JaymeeO's new book 'Saving with....' I don't know how he got his so thick/puffed up, however, it was tasty (very redolent of naan), quick to make and cheap too. So it's a keeper! Unfortunately, I can find no reference to it on the web (other versions are more complicated - although possibly more authentic???), but as Jaymee put a copy of 'Saving' in every library, then you have absolutely no excuse to not march into your local library and get the book!

Here's a pic, of a frugal dinner to help you along - I must apologise for the quality, the camera didn't want to play ball tonight



So, today I am grateful for these 3 things;

to hear kissjen's positive news - :D:D - everything crossed for Monday!

to have received a 'thank you' for a Christmas gift from a younger member of the Greying clan - even if it has been opened a week early???????:huh:

for the 'discounts' and *roadkill* I received/found today - every little helps!

Thank you so very much for popping by, reading and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

I'm away to warm myself by the stove

See y'all later.

Greying

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

A quick note from me, then it's 'up and at 'em'.

Will need to be a spend day today. Last few bits and pieces - some of which is boring mundane household items, that have all decided to run out.....now :rotfl:

Hopefully it is the last of the spending before the end of the year - with the exception of perhaps milk.

I've no idea about dinner - I seriously need to take another look at the planner and do some re-organisation. I think I'd rather make it through December with more or less what we have than spend, spend, spend on getting posh ingredients, 'just' because it is xmas. We'll not starve at any rate I think there is only one meal that will actually have to be ditched due to the cost of one of the ingredients anyway, so that's not too shabby

Have a great day all. Keep warm and well

Thanks for reading - you know I appreciate it.

See y'all later.

Greying

Pippilongstocking

And we appreciate you posting.

I think your meal planning and managing is a sensible one, you always do such yummy things with food anyway. Quite inspiring.

Hope the spends aren't too heavy today. Off to read back - sorry been awol with work and all that palava. Funny trying to squeeze four weeks of hours into just under 3 - the joys of self employment.

Have a great xmas when it comes me dear GP and DP - hope that 2014 finds us both is new locations enjoying life to the full!

Off to read some more, I hate it when work interferes with my MSE time.

Have a good un - pizza tonight?

dreaming

Pippilongstocking wrote: »

And we appreciate you posting.

I think your meal planning and managing is a sensible one, you always do such yummy things with food anyway. Quite inspiring.
QUOTE]


I echo the above, and love the photos - it helps me a lot when I try something new and think "is it meant to look like that?". I'm planning to try 2 new meals a week in January and build up a new file of recipes, so thank you for your inspiring posts.
I have been "secreting" all the Christmas food and drink around my house. With a 2 bed bungalow and little storage I have to quite ingenious about where I put things and often find something in February which I forgot about (not perishable thankfully). I had to get rid of a shed in the garden this year and have not yet found a replacement. That used to take a lot of stuff. I think I said before that I retired in August this year and thought I would have Christmas all sorted easily this year but no. It seems having all the time in the world means I am less organised than previous years when I used to book a week off in December and do all the shopping, wrapping, card-writing and decorating etc. then.

joedenise

Absolutely agree Dreaming! I seem to be far less organised now I'm not working than I ever was when working!

I won't be around for the next couple of weeks so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all.

Denise

Piquant_2

Just to echo dear pippi "We really appreciate your posting every day" :j:j for GP. If I did the appreciation of three things daily, without a doubt reading your diary would be one of them!

Pippilongstocking

shucks I'm quite cheap really piq!