March 2022 Grocery Challenge

MissRikkiC

@Greying_Pilgrim I have taken inspiration from both you and @joedenise with talk of a pressure cooker and managed to agree to collect an old school one tomorrow for nothing from market place. Once it arrives I’d be really keen to know from you both how it works 😜 

I know of it’s benefits to cook beans which is fine if it’s all I’ll use it for, however thought you’d know best. 

Lastly @Greying_Pilgrim the recipes you post, I always open and leave for later reading and today read the mung bean curry recipe you so often mention. What did you sub in for jaggery? I assume you did even with a life long store cupboard full as it seems to be one of ‘those’ things

Greying_Pilgrim

Hey MissRikkiC - I hope you have great fun with your 'new to you' PC.  Indeed, I bought my PC with the sole intention of using it to cook (soaked) dried beans.  It was brill for that (if nothing else, you can cook beans in the winter without making your kitchen a steam room!).  It is only in the recent past that I have branched out in and started cooking with it - soups/stew/curry etc as an energy saving method.  Mine is a relatively new (15 years????), and doesn't have weights or whistles.  I know that i have to take care/check the seal on mine for perishing (it is designed to burst id pressure builds too much), and it is a replaceable 'part'.  I don't have a slow cooker, but I think I plumped for the 'right' kitchen gadget for my cooking needs.  It has earnt it's place in my utensil cupboard.

No love, I am afraid I am guilty of NOT putting jaggery in Mugg.  I left it out.  I am sure that it does make a difference, but whilst I could get hold of jaggery from our local(ish) independent world foods shop, I'm not sure how much use I would have for it other than in the odd curry.  i suspect it's pretty shelf stable, but still probably an ingredient that would be too novel to earn it's place.  I wonder whether a flavourful honey - esp from a local producer, may give you the same result?  

Hope ^ is of some help.

Greying X

Suffolk_lass

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Suffolk_lass - thank you.  I don't have the book that the recipe features in, because I know that I borrowed it as a library book.  It does make a delicious cake though - although I can appreciate that even if the bananas are acquired cheaply or for free, it is quite a pricey recipe. Something else that we have to factor into our cooking these days too!

Ginmonster - I forgot to add, that I'm pretty sure Thrifty Lesley worked with Weezl 74 on the cheap family recipes project on MSE.  And I learnt that method of doing links from another MSE legend, Pippilongstocking (known affectionately as 'Pippi' or 'the stripey one' 😊) great memories of good folk 😊

Greying X

What happened to Weezl74? A legend on MSE. No posts after 2012 except one to explain about her site disappearing. DId you know Thrifty Lesley revived it in 2019 ? Here's a link

diminua

I'm declaring for the month with 57p left. Planning ahead to April I should stock up on multipacks of tinned soup and fish, stock cubes, vegetable oil, and nuts (brazil or hazelnuts). Easter eggs for others will not be included in the grocery budget (even if bought as part of the shop) but treats for me will.  

goldfinches

Thanks to @elsiepac for the April thread.

The baking budget spent £4.98 at Horrand and Ballett on gluten free fine ground oat bran and organic arrowroot and £1.94 pence at Sains on a ripe banana and whole oat milk which brings this month's baking budget total to £22.10/£25 which I'm going to declare.

I also spent £10.24 at Sains on evoo, red lentils, a banana, soda crystals and washing up gloves which makes my new monthly total £108.75/£124 and my average daily spend £3.50 with which I'm very pleased and am also going to declare.
I am very pleased to be able to come in under budget this month and will see you all over on the April thread.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning Grocery Challengers!

I am declaring at £94.74 out of my £100 budget for March.

Shopping is on the cards for today, but it is for shopping for April, and will come out of my £100 April budget.  We have everything we need to consume for today, bought in March.  I am amazed, but we did actually get to today with enough cheese for butties (in fact, we can possibly eke out until the end of this week).  DH was on board with 'why' we were being careful (but not stingy) with the cheese use - and I'm glad that I eyeballed it and ring-fenced it for Sandwiches.  There was enough for pizza topping or sangers, but definitely not both.

I am quite frankly amazed - I never thought I would keep to the budget.  Being part of this thread has been a huge help to keeping me on track.  And whilst I would love to carry the £5.26 forward, realistically, it will be used to pay for 'half' the £10 I paid in March for the 10kg basmati rice from MrM in March.  IF - and it is a HUGE if, I could keep to my £100 budget in April, that would mean I had been able to cope for 2 months, on one month's 'usual' budget.  Phenomenal for a short term aid to wading through a financial sticky patch, but ultimately, far too low to be sustainable.  But my target is clearly set out for me.

Thank you for all your support and help.  See you all over on April's thread.

With grateful thanks to all - Greying X

MissRikkiC

Very impressed @Greying_Pilgrim especially when I realised you’re feeding the same as we are on a lot less albeit out of emergency. Really great work. 

Thanks for the help around the PC! I’m sure I’ll be in touch when I can’t figure out what the heck to do with it!

joedenise

@MissRikkiC - can't really add to anything @Greying_Pilgrim has said about the PC.  My pressure cooker is even older than @Greying_Pilgrim's - bought it shortly after we moved to where we live now which was way back in 2000 so nearly 22 years ago now!  Mine does have a weight but the pressure is varied by a dial between 1 and 2 with 1 being low pressure (about 10 psi) and 2 being high (about 15 psi).  The dial is a a semi automatic thing for depressurising the PC.

I use mine for pre soaked beans, chickpeas, lentils, soups, stews, curries - so pretty much anything you can do in a SC but much quicker and I think tastes better.

You might be able to find instructions for your PC online as there are lots of instructions there, certainly worth a look.

maddiemay

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Hey MissRikkiC - I hope you have great fun with your 'new to you' PC.  Indeed, I bought my PC with the sole intention of using it to cook (soaked) dried beans.  It was brill for that (if nothing else, you can cook beans in the winter without making your kitchen a steam room!).  It is only in the recent past that I have branched out in and started cooking with it - soups/stew/curry etc as an energy saving method.  Mine is a relatively new (15 years????), and doesn't have weights or whistles.  I know that i have to take care/check the seal on mine for perishing (it is designed to burst id pressure builds too much), and it is a replaceable 'part'.  I don't have a slow cooker, but I think I plumped for the 'right' kitchen gadget for my cooking needs.  It has earnt it's place in my utensil cupboard.

No love, I am afraid I am guilty of NOT putting jaggery in Mugg.  I left it out.  I am sure that it does make a difference, but whilst I could get hold of jaggery from our local(ish) independent world foods shop, I'm not sure how much use I would have for it other than in the odd curry.  i suspect it's pretty shelf stable, but still probably an ingredient that would be too novel to earn it's place.  I wonder whether a flavourful honey - esp from a local producer, may give you the same result?  

Hope ^ is of some help.

Greying X

Hi, hope you don't mind me chipping in, my Indian Cookery Class teacher says us a little brown sugar, I found this on t'internet

To replace jaggery in a recipe the best options are rapadura, dark brown sugar, demerara, muscovado, or black sugar. At a pinch, you could also use white sugar, however, you won't get the same molasses-like notes or dark caramelized appearance.

MM - voice from the past when you had your diary. xx

Greying_Pilgrim

joedenise said:

You might be able to find instructions for your PC online as there are lots of instructions there, certainly worth a look.

I absolutely concur with this piece of advice, there are alot of instruction manuals available online, and it would give you excellent pointers if a manual is not in with the pan.  I'm afraid I have never used a PC that has weights, whistles or dials, so can't give help in that.  But if you need indicators for how long to try to cook beans etc for, then I certainly will try and help, although timings all depend on the weather - plus whether you're cooking up a mountain or by the seaside!  So it's an art rather than a science for the home cook........😊

maddiemay said:

Hi, hope you don't mind me chipping in, my Indian Cookery Class teacher says us a little brown sugar, I found this on t'internet

To replace jaggery in a recipe the best options are rapadura, dark brown sugar, demerara, muscovado, or black sugar. At a pinch, you could also use white sugar, however, you won't get the same molasses-like notes or dark caramelized appearance.

MM - voice from the past when you had your diary. xx

Hey maddiemay - you most certainly ain't a 'voice from the past'.  I was wandering through a thread the other morning (in the wee small hours, don't ask 🙄) and 'saw' you there - hope life returns to a more even keen, very quickly, for you.  And thank you for the options - the BBC food website recommended muscovado too 😊Lovely to "see" you 😊

Greying X