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

Lesley_Gaye · 6 February 2010 at 5:43PM

Hi everyone, this looks set to be another great thread.

Weezl, the sweetcorn fritters. Have you tried making them with ordinary batter? We have these now and again. I would make a batter using 100g cheapest plain flour, 1 egg and half a pint of liquid. Tend to use this amount as it is for a whole egg.

I used to use milk as this is the batter I use for pancakes, but tried beer for the batter for sweet and sour chicken and it was beautifully crisp. To frugalise it, I would use water as that too makes for a crisper batter than milk, and I have heard that sparkling water makes an extra crispy (or is it light?) batter, although I haven't tried it.

I would use a tblsp of sweetcorn for each fritter and just tip the corn into the batter and scoop it out for each fritter. Any excess batter tends to get used for sweet pancakes as OH loves them (he keeps them in the fridge until he wants them and zaps them to warm them up and has them with anything sweet that he fancies)

I'm sure you know all this and I would be interested to see if you can frugalise them any more, can't think how myself, but you are ace at it

PS I think I've got a chick pea curry recipe somewhere, I'll have a look

Lesley_Gaye · 6 February 2010 at 5:51PM

Weezl - did you see the carrot burgers on the BBC Good Food site? Can't remember if you did or not. They are here, or maybe these are the burgers you want to frugalise?

Half the recipe makes 6 burgers and you only need to use the carrots, chickpeas, onion, cumin (could leave that out too), egg (to stick it all together) and breadcrumbs. I think I've used just lemon juice (increased amount and from a bottle) and you could prob leave out the sesame seeds, esp if the burgers are eaten with other flavoursome things.

I have had them with the pumpkin and apple chutney I did in the autumn and the flavour of that or any other chutney would make up for any lacking in the burgers

misskool · 6 February 2010 at 6:01PM

I've just made some sweetcorn fritters and they were 39p sweetcorn can from lidl, bit of spring onion (maybe 3p?), some flour, some fizzy water, some salt. Oil to shallow fry. Very yum. The recipe is somewhere in the cook something new challenge thread on OS.

weezl74 · 6 February 2010 at 6:02PM

yay! this is fab

great response:j:j:j

Zazen, I shall add a (V) after everything that is vegetarian friendly, and see what takes your fancy...

Lesley it wasn't that recipe, but that also looks fab and I will investigate further. The seame seeds could be hard to squeeze into current budget target

Great tip on the sweetcorn fritters too, thanks

Just going to add more recipes to the frugalising list...

ceridwen · 6 February 2010 at 6:06PM

From that list you gave - i could do one or more of:

- chick pea curry
- veg. risotto
- thick onion tart
- pasta/pesto and green beans
- carrot and chickpea veggie burgers

I'm tossing up a bit about the carrot cake - due to it being likely to have sugar (as do carrot cakes normally). I did spot a recipe the other day somewheres for a carrot cake with a smaller amount of sugar in than normal and there was some sultanas in there. I was wondering whether it would be possible to do one totally without sugar - because carrots themselves have a degree of sweetness - and sultanas would probably add sufficient sweetness of themselves I would think??
(I know I've seen some cheap sultanas/raisins/whatever in the supermarket - so would imagine this could be done quite cheaply).

weezl74 · 6 February 2010 at 6:09PM

this is #1 of the monthly shopping list. I'm grateful for any responses:

Fruit & Vegetables

8 x ASDA Smartprice Apples (8) 5.44
3 x ASDA Smartprice Kiwi Fruit (10) 3.00
2 x ASDA Smartprice Beetroot (500g) 1.08
2 x ASDA Smartprice British Carrots (2Kg) 2.16
5 x ASDA Smartprice Brown Onions (2Kg) 3.90
4 x ASDA Smartprice Potatoes (2.5Kg) 3.36
1 x ASDA Smartprice Salted Peanuts (200g) 0.27
5 x ASDA Smartprice Raisins (500g) 3.25
2 x Batchelors Bigga Dried Peas (250g) 0.48

Dairy

4 x ASDA Whole Fresh Milk 4 Pints (2.27L) 5.00
1 x ASDA Cooks Value Medium Eggs (30) 2.98
2 x I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spread (500g)
1.50 any 2 FOR £1.50 - valid until: 30/03/10
1 x ASDA Smartprice Mature White Cheddar 4.98

Meat, Fish & Poultry

800g ASDA Smartprice Pork Belly Slices by Weight (100g) 3.20
1 x ASDA British Turkey Mince (450g) 1.60
2 x ASDA Smartprice Turkey Drumsticks (700g) 2.94
1 x ASDA Smartprice Unsmoked Gammon Rounds (250g) 1.00
3 x ASDA Sausage Meat Pork (454g) 3.63

Frozen

2 x ASDA Fine Whole Green Beans (1Kg) 2.00
2 x ASDA Freshly Frozen Baby Carrots (1Kg) 2.44
4 x ASDA Smartprice Cauliflower Florets (907g) 3.16
4 x ASDA Smartprice Peas (907g) 3.48
4 x ASDA Smartprice Sweetcorn (907g) 3.44

Tins, Jars & Cooking

1 x ASDA Pure Sunflower Oil (1L) 0.93 was 98p
1 x Colman's Mustard Powder (57g) 0.94
1 x Gia Garlic Puree in Vegetable Oil (90g) 0.59
1 x Rajah Garam Masala (100g) 0.56
15 x ASDA Smartprice Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce (420g) 4.35
14 x ASDA Smartprice Peeled Plum Tomatoes in Tomato Juice (400g) 4.34
1 x ASDA Green Olives Anchovy Stuffed (340g) 0.84
1 x ASDA Red Cabbage in Vinegar (420g) 0.77
2 x ASDA Green Pesto Sauce (190g) 2.00
1 x ASDA Stock Cubes Chicken (12x10g) 0.76 any 2 FOR £1.00 - valid until: 31/12/10

Packets & Cereals

2 x ASDA Wheat Bisks (24x18g) 2.00
3 x ASDA Smartprice Porridge Oats (1Kg) 1.74
1 x ASDA Smartprice Self Raising Flour (1.5Kg) 0.43
10 x ASDA Strong White Bread Flour (1.5Kg) 6.10
1 x KTC Lemon Juice (250ml) 0.44
1 x Silver Spoon Granulated Sugar (1Kg) 0.98
7 x ASDA Smartprice Pasta Shapes (500g) 2.24
5 x ASDA Smartprice Long Grain Rice (1Kg) 3.65
1 x Natco Chick Peas (2Kg) 2.53

Drinks

1 x ASDA Smartprice Tea Bags (80 per pack - 250g) 0.28

Lesley_Gaye · 6 February 2010 at 6:11PM

The recipe I was thinking of is Butter Bean and Vegetable Curry, but I'm sure chick peas would work just as well used in place of the butter beans. Do you have a particular recipe in mind for the curry?

I also have a chickpea crumble recipe. Happy to post if you want them, although I think the point of this thread is to frugalise a pre chosen list of recipes/dishes?

System · 6 February 2010 at 6:12PM

Happy to test, as long as the ingredients aren't specific to a particular shop and don't require too much compromise on quality/sourcing compared to our usual choices. (You mentioned Asda, but that is too far from us; we shop with Ocado or in local independent shops. Can provide you with costings for comparison purposes, if you wish.)

Let me know what you would like us to try. From your list so far, the following look like possibilities:
~thick onion tart
~carrot cake
~sweetcorn fritters
~chick pea curry
~veg risotto
~home made chutney
~pork and apple burgers
~pasta, pesto and green beans
~borscht
~pizza with gammon and green beans
~carrot and chick pea veggie burgers

With the exception of the gammon-and-green-bean-pizza(!), this is all the sort of thing we might eat anyway. In case you are interested for consumer research purposes, the reasons for discounting the other recipes on the list are as follows:
~turkey leg: we tried it once and found it tough so no one liked it; I have not seen it for sale at my current shopping places
~pork belly: too fatty for our tastes; we only like very lean meat
~meatballs and pasta: I suspect this is beef, which I don't eat -- if it is lamb or pork instead, add it to my list of possibles!

Good luck with the project! I look forwards to seeing the results. :-)

ceridwen · 6 February 2010 at 6:17PM

Just had a quick checkout of www.mysupermarket.com - wondering what value dried fruit there is (thinking of carrot cake). I dont know how widespread Asda supermarkets are - I dont have access to one myself. So - I checked out Sainsburys - and there is Basics sultanas there for 13p per 100 grams (and "greenies" like myself could substitute organic variant). Anyone could substitute other dried fruit - according to taste (eg I think I have some dried apple in from earlier in the year for instance - and I reckon I could use that for sweetness).

The idea of a shopping list is probably a good one - with some tweaks to allow for vegetarian and/or single person households. Maybe two versions - a veggie and non-veggie one perhaps? (and giving in brackets revised quantities to buy if its just a single person household?).

ceridwen · 6 February 2010 at 6:24PM

Frugalising first thoughts:
- I dont think icing is necessary on carrot cake and adds to the calories/sugar element. Think that recipe might be adaptable - by my using higher level of dried fruit than they say and no sugar.

- Like look of onion tart. See the self-raising flour. Am I correct in thinking one can just add a bit of baking powder to ordinary plain flour to turn it into self-raising flour? If so - then it would save people having to buy two types of flour.

- Re recipes with pusles/beans in - I think it would be a good idea to list both types of ingredient in the list of ingredients (ie both dried and canned chickpeas for instance). Dried chickpeas are obviously cheaper/healthier on the one hand - so ideally we would use those. However - it would be better for people to use canned chickpeas than not to use the recipe at all and do some less healthy recipe IYSWIM.

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

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