Thrifty Food Tips for January

January is all about trying not to spend money for me.  No matter how hard I try, there's always a slight overspend in December, and of course there's overindulgence too.  So, some good old-fashioned principles of make do and mend can equally be applied to food, to help us through this tough month.  Let's look to the leaflets produced by Britain's Ministry of Food in WWII for inspiration.  I'm lucky enough to have found a few of these original leaflets at car boot sales, and I have a couple of books detailing wartime recipes also.  The main points that I have gathered from these that we can put into practice now are:

1. Use what you've got.
This means reaching into the dark recesses of cupboards and using that half used bag of risotto rice that's been there for a year.  Any small amounts of grains and pulses, like cous cous, pearl barley, rice, lentils etc. are ideal to be chucked into a stew or soup to help make it more of a meal.  A great way to use them up rather than to have to buy another packet of the item to have enough to base a whole meal on.

2. Don't let it go to waste.
We had far too many lemons, limes and plums left over after Christmas and there was no way we were going to get through them all, so I made lemon curd, plum jam and preserved lemons (for use in Morroccan cooking).  The plum jam was a bit of a disaster, it's overcooked so it's as thick as tar, and the only way to use it is on opening a pot, to add a tablespoon of boiling water and stir it in to loosen it.  At least it won't be wasted, and it tastes nice.  For old-fashioned jams and chutneys you can't go wrong using Mrs Beeton's book, a vintage classic that never fails.

3.  Make Your Own
Buying things like jars of ready made pasta sauce is uneconomical, and unhealthy.  There was a bit of a controversy in the UK last year I recall about the amount of added salt and sugar in celebrity chef pasta sauces.  A simple pasta sauce can be whipped up with chopped tomatoes or passata, a bit of onion, any herbs you have handy, and it could also be reduced down to make a pizza topping.  For an improvised pizza base, use a flatbread or tortilla.  Making things like pizza yourself also gives you much more control over how much fat you add to it - you can use reduced fat cheese yourself, or just use much less, adding more veggies on top instead.

4.  Grow Your Own
Even if you live in a flat with no garden, you can still grow hardy herbs like rosemary and thyme in a pot.  They're almost impossible to kill (believe me, I'm not at all green-fingered) and so easy to get started - just take a cutting from a friend or family member's plant and pop it in a pot with some compost, it will get going in no time.  Growing fruit and vegetables involves a bit more skill and effort, but you can start with easy things like radishes and rocket.

5.  Repurpose Leftovers
Kids didn't eat all their veggies at Sunday dinner?  Don't waste them, pop them in a tupperware and the next day you can add them to a salad for a light lunch at work, or save them until evening and pop them in a curry, stir fry or stew.

I don't think that these kind of principles necessarily mean much more effort, but it does require a bit more thinking, planning and being creative.  I've spent far longer than normal looking up recipes on the BBC Good Food website, but that's not a bad thing.  I've learnt many more recipes based on vegetables in season at this time of year, like red and white cabbages, and so far this month I really have spent much less on food that what I would do normally.

Do you have any thrifty food tips for the winter months?

Christmas Cake Baked!

The first proper bit of baking in the new house's kitchen.  I always use Nigella Lawson's Christmas cake recipe, and follow her instructions of creating a little brown paper shield so that the top of the cake doesn't get burnt.  It works!

Have you made a Christmas cake yet?  What recipe do you follow?

Kitchen: Healthy Macaroni Cheese

Macaroni Cheese?  How American.  To be honest, I've never liked it and have preferred Cauliflower Cheese as the addition of a single vegetable makes things much more palatable.  But wait, Healthy Macaroni and Cheese has two vegetables in it - broccoli and spinach.  This sounds even better.

I had a go at the Healthy Mac and Cheese recipe from The Picky Eater's blog.  Here's how it turned out.

I don't like those funny bent tubes traditionally used in Macaroni Cheese, so I used wholewheat fusili.  I also omitted the garlic powder and used chilli flakes instead of crushed red pepper.  I also think I made too much sauce, because the recipe is in American measurements and I had to guess what a 'cup' is.  But, it was super tasty and not too much effort, though three pans on the go at the same time is about my limit!

Sometimes I struggle with making a good cheese sauce, but the method Anjali describes worked really well for me, and you could use the basic sauce recipe for a plethora of different recipes.

Kitchen: Buckwheat Salad

Another chickpea recipe (!).  This one is from the Domestic Sluttery blog, a new read to me, and so far some great recipes have appeared on it.

This one involves buckwheat, chickpeas, dried apricots, red onion, ras el hanout spice blend, tomatoes and cucumber.  I didn't have preserved lemon so just used a bit of lemon zest.  I also fried the onion as I find raw onion too strong in salads.

A word on dried apricots: try Crazy Jack's organic dried apricots.  These are the most deliciously dark, sweet, date-like apricots.  Once you've tried them you'll never go back to those sulphate-laden orange versions.  I get mine from Tesco.

For the full recipe please visit the Domestic Sluttery blog here.

Good news - only one tin of chickpeas left in my cupboard now!

Kitchen: Spiced Carrot and Chickpea Pilaf

Gosh, this is turning into a food blog lately!  My quest to use-up-all-the-tins-of-chickpeas continues.  Forcing me to be more inventive, I have sought out another winner of a recipe from the excellent Good Food website.

As usual, I 'tweaked' the recipe a little.  I added a good handful of chopped coriander, because I just love fresh herbs in things and I thought it looked a little too orange before this step.  I also added more harissa - it made it really quite spicy, oops!  So I've left the original quantity in the recipe below so you don't suffer the same fate.  I switched olive oil for rapeseed oil also, and used brown basmati rice instead of white.

There are different types of harissa too - this time I used a tube of harissa, like you find tomato puree in, that I found in the 'World Food' aisle of Asda for 75p.  Usually I buy those teeny jars that are about £1.40.  There was definitely a different flavour, I missed the complex, aniseed taste of the jars, this paste was more just pure heat!

This recipe makes quite a lot - there was enough for about 6 people as a side dish, and for 4 people as a main.  I was only cooking for myself, stupidly, so I now have a row of tupperwares in my fridge, I'll be eating this bloomin' pilaf for days!

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 3 carrots (about 300g/11oz), coarsely grated
• 2 tbsp harissa
• 300g/ 11oz brown basmati rice, rinsed
• 700ml/ 1¼ pints vegetable stock, made with 1 stock cube (or equivalent)
• 400g can chickpeas, drained
• 25g/ 1oz flaked almonds (I didn't bother toasting them but you can if you want!)

Method

1. Heat the oil in a lidded casserole dish. Add the onions and cook for 8 mins, until soft. Tip in the carrots, harissa and rice and stir for a couple of mins. Pour over the stock, bring to the boil, then cover with the lid and simmer until the rice is nearly cooked (my brown basmati took 22-24 mins, so I simmered for 20 mins before moving on to the next step).
2. Fork through the chickpeas and cook gently for 3-5 mins more, until the grains of rice are tender and all the liquid has been absorbed. Season, add a handful of chopped coriander, turn off the heat, cover and leave to sit for a few mins.
3. Sprinkle the almonds over the rice mixture and serve with a dollop of yogurt.

Kitchen: Nigella Inspired Red Cabbage Slaw

Has anyone tried the fabulous Christmassy coleslaw that's in one of Nigella Lawson's books?  It's a favourite of mine and I make it every year.

But why save red cabbage for Christmas?  It's perfect for late Summer and early Autumn.  I made my own version of the coleslaw last night that is more fitting of the present season.  I left out the fennel and beetroot because I didn't have any, I added apple, and I made it more zingy by adding coriander and lime juice.  You could probably use natural yoghurt instead of mayonnaise, but it will be more watery - best use that thicker, 0% fat Greek stuff if you want to keep a creamier consistency.

1/4 head read cabbage
2 eating apples (I used organic Discovery apples from my Dad's tree)
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp garam masala
A little black pepper
A tablespoon of mango chutney
Low fat mayonnaise - probably at least 3 tablespoons, more if you like your coleslaw very mayonnaisey!
Handful of chopped coriander

I served it with roasted vegetable cous cous and a mini naan bread.  You must think I live off mini naan bread, they've featured in the other meals I've posted recently - I've been using up a pack of them from the freezer!

Kitchen: Spiced Chickpea and Potato Fry Up

I made this recipe from Good Food for tea the other night.  So, so good!  I'm on a mission to use up everything from my fridge, freezer and cupboards presently and hence stop wasting money on food.  I had to buy the coriander and an onion for this (only used one not two), and I substituted purple flowering broccoli (heads only) for the spinach, and Garam Masala instead of mild chilli powder.  I 'tweak' a lot of recipes these days to suit what I have in the fridge and cupboards.

Ingredients

• 300g potatoes, cut into small pieces
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp each ground coriander, turmeric and mild chilli powder
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 410g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 200g baby spinach
• small bunch coriander, leaves chopped
• wholemeal chapatis, low-fat natural yogurt and mango chutney, to serve

Method

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water until just tender. While they are cooking, soften the onions and garlic in the oil in a frying pan for a few mins. Add all the spices, then fry for 1 min more. Stir in the chickpeas and tomato purée with 400ml water, then turn the heat up and bubble for a few mins.
2. When the potatoes are ready, drain and add to the pan. Cook for a few mins until the sauce is thick, stir in the spinach, then season. When the spinach has wilted, scatter with coriander and serve with the chapatis, yogurt and chutney on the side.

Very quick and easy, and it made three greedy girl's portions (the other two are in the freezer now).  I served it with a mini-naan bread, natural yoghurt, and a dollop of mango chutney.

A Vintage Plate Makes Everything Taste Better

This lovely 1930's plate is the one that I use in work.  It cost me just 5 pence!

I love throwing together salads with whatever ingredients I have to hand.  This one was pearl barley, radishes, avacado, mint, and a yoghurt dressing.  Super tasty!  Herbs in salads perk them up no end.

Birthday Breakfast

It's my birthday, how exciting!  My baby and I are going to have a day out, the sunshine has unfortunately been replaced with grey cloud and rain showers, so no birthday picnic as planned, perhaps we'll have to make do with a nice pub lunch instead.

I've had some rather lovely presents, look at them!

I'm a lucky, lucky girl!

Now, on to the subject of birthday breakfasts.  I believe in special breakfasts on special occasions - sitting down with your nearest and dearest, and enjoying a good feed, rather than grabbing some toast on the hoof or just opting for cereal, as I often do on a working day.  This morning I first of all had a cup of Earl Grey and a slice of chocolate cake (Mr Wiggles, a caterpillar cake!).  This was followed by a glass of cava, and Omelette Arnold Bennet.  If you haven't experienced this light-as-a-cloud omelette, invented at the Savoy Hotel in the 1920s, I recommend you give it a go on your next special occasion.  It's worth the effort.  I follow the recipe from Daisy Garnett's excellent book, 'Cooking Lessons', but have adapted it to use smoked salmon instead of haddock, and don't add parmesan.

100g smoked salmon
100ml cream
Knobs of butter
4 free range eggs
Seasoning

There are three stages to this recipe - first of all, combine the cream, knob of butter and salmon in a saucepan, and heat through gently.  Separate your eggs - the yolks are beaten with a splash of cream and black pepper.  The whites are whisked until forming soft peaks.  Add the yolks to the saucepan, then fold in the whites.  Heat another knob of butter in a heavy-based frying pan and pour in the combined mixture.  Over a medium heat, let it gently cook until it's fairly set, then finish it off under the grill.  Voila!

Angel Adoree's Coddled Eggs!

I'm a creature of habit, and a weekend breakfast is usually scrambled eggs on toast.  A snowy day like we experienced last month however calls for a greater degree of fortification in the morning, and I decided to give my pretty egg coddlers a go!  Angel Adoree recommends an assortment of fillings in her 'Vintage Tea Party' book, but I decided on plain eggs for the first attempt, served with toast, baked beans, fried halloumi and some hot Amazon sauce.

They were a hit, and I will be sure to use the coddlers again soon!

Family Bake Off - We Won!!

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but I was yet again crowned champion family baker, jointly this year with my partner, in the annual family Christmas competition!  This year there were only three entries - our festive cheesecake, my sister's stained glass window biscuits (hung on a tinsel tree she got her husband to make out of a kitchen roll holder!), and my Mum's lebkuchen.

We slightly overbaked the cheesecake, but it still tasted amazing.  It's from a Rachel Allen recipe with poached pears on a ginger base.  Yummy!

'Vintage' Spices

Making mince pies at my parents' house over Christmas, I was flabbergasted to see an array of very old spices and such in their cupboard.  The ginger label indicated 'Best Before 1991', making it at least 22 years old.  Blimey!  I didn't want to risk it and nipped out to get some fresh stuff from the market.

I had a good rummage, and here's what else I found.  They stopped 1/2 pence being legal tender in the UK in 1984, so the food colouring is probably well over 30 years old seeing as I remember my mum using it to colour playdough when I was a toddler!

What's lurking in your cupboards?

Here's a photo of the two chefs - the half apron I'm wearing was handmade by my grandmother in the early 1960s apparently, and the plates are 1950s Woolworths.

Porcelina's Kitchen: The Skinny Tart



Perhaps I should clarify this is a recipe post and I'm not name-calling myself in the title!

A (nearly) guilt free dessert, from Lorraine Pascal's recipe on the BBC food site, here.

I didn't have the selection of fruit suggested, so just used redcurrants.  Also, I used agave syrup instead of honey, which makes it even better for you as it's low GI!

This is a great little recipe for when you're being 'good' (bikini time next week for me!), but you don't want to sacrifice pleasure or prettiness.

My Christmas in Photos

Season's Greetings everyone!

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas, it certainly was a white one this year in Wales! I was absolutely spoilt, receiving all kinds of goodies, including: a '50s style dress by Hell Bunny, a first edition Agatha Christie novel, home-baking equipment, an Elvis duvet set, some good wine and Port, a mini boules set, Champney's toiletries and other delights!

Here's a little catch-up in photos, from top to bottom: settting the Christmas table in my Vivien of Holloway tea dress; icicles and rooftops; vintage repro cards I sent out this year, bought from a charity shop; the family Christmas cake competition; cranberry sauce making; home-made decorations on the tree.

Traditional Puddings and the Love Vintage Fair

I really enjoy attempting classic recipes from old cookbooks. There are certain desserts that you have to be able to say you've made, even if it was just the once. This week I made Apple Charlotte, after purchasing a pudding basin at Love Vintage, a vintage homeware fair that was held in Wenvoe. They don't have a website but are on Facebook. There were some clothes and accessories as well as homewares, and I really enjoyed having a thorough browse, followed by tea and homemade cakes served on vintage crockery. What better way to spend an afternoon?

The Apple Charlotte itself is just bread with an apple puree centre, but you have to then put a plate on it and weigh it down in the oven - I used a brick covered in tin foil. It didn't work quite as well as it should have as the plate wasn't quite small enough, so while the Charlotte did stand when turned out, it then collapsed within a short time! Hence no photo to show you. Tasted fantastic though - worth the effort.

I tried a Summer Pudding a few months back (put in the fridge rather than bake) and have to say it was superb! My own personal touch was to add Elderflower Cordial to the fruit rather than Cassis. It adds a wonderful floral aroma.

My top tip for any bread-based pudding, such as bread and butter pudding, Summer Pudding, or Apple Charlotte, is to use Milk Roll instead of ordinary bread. It has such a light consistency, and is a way of getting extra calcium into you as well!

At the fair there were a few items that took my eye, but other than the pudding basin my only other purchase was a 1950's Good Housekeeping book filled with tips on creating the perfect home!

If this 1950's house robe had fitted, I would have been taking it home. How glamorous would it be to swan around the house all day in this?

And this photo album cover was adorable, but needed new pages inserted and I wasn't sure I could face the effort.

I hope they will be holding another fair in December - Christmas shopping anyone?

The Perils of Ebay and Etsy!

Good afternoon, on this particularly wet and dismal day! I've spent the day so far feeling sorry for myself and making a huge vat of chicken soup, as I wallow in the misery of a particularly heavy cold that was no doubt brought on by standing in the rain in fields for most of the weekend at various festivals!

As I'm in a grumpy mood I thought I'd stick with it and bemoan the recent misadventures I've had as both buyer and seller on Ebay and Etsy. Here's what has gone wrong:

As a seller:- Not one but TWO beautiful gowns (layers of taffeta, boned bodices, the works) went astray on the way to Germany! Plus many more small packages not being delivered.
- Buyers not paying.
- Buyers disputing clothes sizes and other issues that were clearly stated in the item description, had they bothered to read it.

As a buyer (where do I start?!)
- Being sent the wrong item and then not being refunded the postage for sending their mistake back to them so I could get the correct one.
- Not being sent an item at all!
- Sellers ignoring my messages/requests.
- Garment completely different size to that stated.
- Garment completely different colour to that stated.
- Garment different fit to that pictured (e.g. pegged to model and not stated)
- Receiving unprofessional, nasty messages from sellers when I leave purely 100% factual feedback that doesn't say they're perfect.
- Garments in much poorer condition than stated.
- Garments dirty - deodorant marks, pet hair, eurghh!

All in all, not a success story! I've spent extra money on reimbursing buyers for mistakes made by the Royal Mail, as well as extra money on cleaning and altering garments received in poor condition. It is possible of course to make a nice bit of extra cash from Ebay or Etsy sales, but sometimes it goes horribly wrong.

Here are a few words of advice for selling:
- State clearly that you are not responsible for items lost in the post, and that you will provide proof of posting for the buyer to claim from the Post Office in the event of this happening.

- Wherever possible provide European sizes if they're on clothing labels, as well as UK sizes. This has to be my most frequently asked question.

- Always be professional with your customers, even if they have left feedback you think was unfair. I recently received a rude and unprofessional message from a seller. Will I be shopping from them again? No. If their response had been courteous it wouldn't have mattered about their original mistake, but rather than try and fix it they just hurled blame at me!

- Keep a record of what postage roughly costs to what locations e.g. I just underestimated massively how much it would cost to send a pair of shoes to Australia, bye bye profit on that item! For next time I'll have a note of how much it will cost to Australia, and within the UK, so I can compare and make a more educated guess.

- If an item is true vintage, I tend to add the word 'genuine' or 'original' in the item description to make it stand out from all the 'vintage inspired' and 'vintage style' items.

There we go, that's my rant for the day over. I'll leave you with a recipe for an easy and nourishing chicken soup in case you are also feeling under the weather. The quantities below make a huge stockpot full of soup, but you can alter the amounts to make less if desired.

250g pearl barley (rinsed)
Half a cooked chicken, shredded
Pint of stock (chicken or veg)
Sprinkle of chilli flakes
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Fresh herbs like Thyme or Marjoram if you have them.
As much garlic as you like, crushed.

The pearl barley needs to simmer away for at least an hour, so I tend to start it off by covering it in cold water and then adding the rest of the ingredients gradually once it's bubbling. As the pearl barley expands you will need to check if you need more liquid added. As well as the initial water covering it, plus the pint of stock, I added probably another pint of boiling water.

I hope you are all warm and well!

Recipe: Double Chocolate Muffins

A day is never a waste if you've baked something.

Fleur's Chocolate & Peanut Butter Swirl

It's 5am here and I woke up hungry and excited because it's my birthday! So a quick post until I'm tired enough to go back to sleep. Last night I had a go at making Fleur's recipe for a Chocolate & Peanut Butter Swirl (you can find it here)

Any excuse to put on one of my vintage aprons - I inherited them from my sister in law, originally to use in a burlesque act, but I wear them more in the kitchen than on stage now. They're not particularly old but I love them!





The recipe didn't quite go according to plan... I decided that instead of making a tray of it, to then divide into little squares, that I wanted to make individual ones in silicone cupcake moulds. However, because the little moulds are small there's not enough space to get the marbled effect drawing the skewer through the mixture, and I think the dark chocolate was too hot as well and it sort of just sat on the surface of the white chocolate and peanut butter mixture I'd poured in first.



I made such a mess in the kitchen too and only realised on a trip to the bathroom that I had a huge streak of dark chocolate on my cheek! Anyway, the end product has turned out to be what resembles Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! I did make a small tray of the mixture too and that has cut up nicely into squares and marbled quite well, so it wasn't a completely wasted exercise.



I think the moral of the story is that this recipe is meant to be in a tray, not cupcake moulds. Right, I'm tired enough to go back to sleep for a couple of hours now, a big day tomorrow with a girly day trip to 1940s Swansea Bay, afternoon tea, a Hatter's themed party in the evening and the Blind Lemon Vintage Fashion Fair on Sunday here in Cardiff. Will post some pictures of these adventures in the week.

Night night!