Chorizo, potato and king prawn casserole

A hearty and delicious stew, which can be eaten by itself or with bread or rice.

Ingredients:

1 chorizo sausage - gift.  (From Lidl 1.49)

1 onion - 25p

King prawns - reduced from 2.99 to 39p

Fresh chilli - leftover in fridge

Lemon - 25p

Red wine - leftover in bottle

2 medium potatoes - 20p

Tin of tomatoes - 35p

Chicken stock cube

 

Peel and slice the potatoes - quite small, perhaps inch cubes, so they'll cook quickly!  Par boil them.

Chop the onion and slice the chorizo (remove its skin!). Fry the onion til softened, and add the chorizo, so the chorizo juices colour and flavour the onion.

 

Put the tinned tomato, chicken stock and some red wine into a pan, and heat til nearly boiling.  Then add the potato.

Add the chorizo and onion, and add a generous squeeze of lemon juice.  Add the finely chopped fresh chilli.

Let simmer gently on the hob until the potato is cooked. 

Just before it is ready, fry the prawns over a gentle heat until cooked and then add them to the stew.

*Keep adding red wine if the stock becomes too low.  Season to taste, and perhaps add more lemon juice.*

Serves 3 or 4.  To make the casserole go further, just add more potatoes.
Total cost - £2.95

Greek style salad

This simple but delicious salad has very definite Greek overtones, but omits tomatoes and uses lettuce instead.  The olives are pitted and from a jar (brine), but still work well.

Ingredients

1/4 cucumber (half reduced to 15p) - 8p

1/2 Round head lettuce (reduced to 29p) - 15p

Small red onion -5p

1/2 block of feta/feta style salad cheese (I use Morrison's Value) 50p - 25p

1/3 jar of black pitted olives (59p) - 20p

Olive Oil

Lemon juice

Black pepper

Tear the lettuce, cut cucumber and slice onion.  Put into a bowl, and add olives and crumble the feta.

Dress with olive oil, lemon juice and freshly ground black pepper.

Total cost: 73p

Savoy cabbage stir fried in garlic with streaky bacon pieces and walnuts

This is incredibly simple and delicious.  Savoy cabbage in season is about 50p. 

Ingredients

Savoy cabbage

Streaky bacon

Small pieces of walnut

Knob of butter

Garlic

Prepare some bacon lardons or streaky bacon and fry or grill until crisp.

Slice the cabbage and gently stir fry in a little butter and garlic.  Season with pepper.

Serve straight away, sprinkling the cabbage with the bacon and walnut pieces, and stirring through.

Makes a great side dish or stand-alone snack.

The 'We Love Knobbly Veg' Campaign

A campaign by delicious magazine and the National Trust to put an end to the supermarkets and the EU conspiring to dump tons of cosmetically 'imperfect' vegetables, when they could be sold to the consumer cheaply.  Get informed, get involved and write to your MEP with delicious magazine's template.


nationaltrust.org/knobblyveg

deliciousmagazine.co.uk/knobbly-veg

Best before labels out of date?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/19/best-before-label-food

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1377752/Best-labels-face-axe-cut-food-waste.html

Salmon fillets with coriander and lemon rice and stir fried pak choi and bean sprouts

Ingredients:

2 salmon fillets (reduced from £4 to 99p)

2 pak choi (reduced from £1 to 30p)

Bag bean sprouts (reduced from 50p to 20p)

Lemon (in fridge)

Coriander (herb in pot)

Basmati rice

Mango chutney (dreg left in jar)

Balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Butter

Garlic (cheat's garlic in jar)

~

Prepare salmon fillets, by seasoning with salt and pepper, drizzling with lemon juice and a small amount of balsamic vinegar, and smearing a little mango chutney on top. 

Wrap in foil and roast in oven for about 15 mins at about 190.

Cook the rice (boil, drain and rest) and season with salt and pepper.  Drizzle with lemon juice and stir through chopped coriander.

Wash and chop the pak choi.  Briskly stir fry in butter, with a little garlic and salt and pepper. 

Then add the bean shoots.

~

Snack smoked salmon with shallot

Not a recipe, and not really an inspiration, this plate was made from desperate ingredients, but was delicious.

Asda 'Extra Special' smoked salmon, reduced to £1.67 and 6 weeks out of date (pack still sealed, and kept refridgerated)

Ciabatta loaf, left over in bread bin

Half a leftover banana shallot

Olive oil

Black pepper

Chop the shallot very small.  Slice the ciabatta.  If the bread is stale, toast it.  Arrange the salmon on the plate.  Drizzle with olive oil and ground black pepper.   Let the food achieve room temperature.  Eat the salmon on the bread, with a little shallot to pep.

Roast chicken with leek and mustard mash

Ingredients

Chicken (reduced from £4 to £1.55)

2 large carrots (25p)

6 or 7 small red potatoes (from bag reduced from £1.25 to 35p) -10p

Leek (from bag of 3, reduced from £1 to 49p) - 15p

Butter

Olive oil

Lemon thyme from garden

Half lemon (left over)

Salt & pepper

~

Rub a little olive oil into the skin of the chicken.  Season generously with freshly ground pepper and sea salt and thyme.  Squeeze the half lemon into the cavity, then thrust the lemon into the cavity.  Cover the chicken with tin foil and put into a preheated oven (180') for around 1.45mins.

Peel the potatoes and boil til cooked. 

Finely chop leeks and fry in butter til soft.

Mash potatoes with salt, pepper, heaped teaspoon of whole grain mustard, generous splash of milk, and butter.  Mix in the leeks and mash together.

Chop carrots into batons and put into the tray or dish that the chicken is being cooked in.  The juices from the chicken will coat the carrots.  Stir them often, and if they seem too dry add a little butter.  The lemon and fat from the chicken will almost caramelise the carrots, and the lemon thyme will help too.

Let the chicken rest when it's cooked, covered in foil to retain its heat.

~

For a general timetable:

Chicken 1.45 hr

Carrots .40

Mash  .30

Leeks     .5-10

I kept the carrots and mash warm in the oven while the chicken was resting, and then served.

Total cost: £2.05 (served 2)