Cooking for "Benefits Street" and another rant!

Cooking good nourishing food on a budget is NOT difficult, END OF!  Two recipes this week are examples.

I think all my followers know by now how I feel about the ridiculous amounts of money spent by the chefs in TV cooking competitions!  Its outrageous.  Not only that but most of the dishes wouldn't feed a dormouse!  Contrast this with the amazing examples of skill and expertise demonstrated by the likes of Michelle Roux Jr, Jamie Oliver, Rick Stein, James Martin and "The Gorgeous Pouting One" Nigella! Does anyone seriously believe that a woman with such a gorgeous Junoesque figure could possibly be a "cokehead" - if they do, they're deluded! They don't know what 'Charlie' does to its sad addicts and I've seen more than a few!

Oh and more rants.  Buy your ingredients from proper butchers, greengrocers, fishmongers and bakers, go to the markets, support them and they will help you to select the best ingredients.  Just tell them what you want to make and they'll become your friends.  Use supermarket groceries if you have to, but just think about the quantity of packaging they use and how many times your goods have been handled before you get them: And bl**dy 'sell by dates' and 'use by dates' are a complete con to encourage you to throw good stuff out.  What a waste of resources!  Try my test, the "Smell by Date."  If its smells OK cook it thoroughly and put it on the table!"

Lets get real and cook for a family for pennies (or centimos) this week. "En Avant Mes Braves."

First off a good nourishing North Country dinner for 'common sense Monday.'  Yes, that's what they used to call it when almost all the money had gone over the weekend on whippet racing and mild ale in the "Muckshovellers Arms;" and it was time to eke out the small change.  Ribs n' Cabbage is about the easiest thing in the recipe book.  It tastes fabulous, its warming and of course is loaded with healthy fibre for roughage.

WARNING it is also quite a "windy" dish - you have been warned!  Do not feed leftovers to the dog unless you have ample supplies of 'Air Wick' spray or gas masks!

Ribs n' Cabbage

Sorry but this dish doesn't photograph well, so I'm sending you a picture of the "Gorgeous Pouting Nigella" instead.

Ingredients - for four servings

• 1 Large green 'Savoy' cabbage.
• 6/8 Meaty spare ribs from the wide end of the rack.
• 1 Chicken stock cube.
• 1 Litre water.

Method

• Remove the outer leaves from the cabbage, wash and reserve.
• Check that the remaining cabbage is clean and bug free then shred it finely, including the heart, just chop it even smaller!
• Put all the shredded cabbage in a lidded earthenware 'crockpot.'
• Rinse the ribs (two per person - three for hearty eaters) in cold water, chop each into two pieces and add them to the pot.
• Mix the ribs and cabbage together with a clean hand - it won't hurt.
• Boil a little of the water, dissolve the stock cube in it and pour it into the pot.
• Add the rest of the water.
• Put the outer leaves on top of the cabbage and rib mixture to help conserve the juices during cooking.
• Cover the pot and cook on the middle shelf of the oven at 160C for about 90 minutes until the meat on the ribs is tender.
• Check the seasoning and when cooked, correct as necessary.

Serving

Serve a generous helping in large bowls with any old bread to mop up the juice, even if it is a bit stale.  If you feel like adding a few more carbs for an energetic audience then put a big bowl of fluffy mash in the middle of the table for people to help themselves.

Cost

£0.76/serving using ASDA internet grocery prices at 26th January 2014.  Not including bread or potatoes. 

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Its a double helping this week.

Next up is another hearty "Benefits Street" meal for the family that also comes with a health warning.  DO NOT feed this to children who have not had at least one hour of energetic outdoor playtime, it contains a shedload of calories.  Scrumping apples or pears counts, its cheeky and energetic especially if the owner of the apple trees is grumpy; nicking tele's from all over the parish and legging it to the fence, not over itis not, its a crime!

"Grannie Betty's" Stuffed, Roast Jacket Potatoes with sausages.

Ingredients for four servings

• 4 large baking potatoes
• 8 good quality pork sausages
• 300gm strongly flavoured "melty" cheese
• Corn oil
• Salt

Method - Potatoes

• Wash and dry the potatoes.
• Put plenty of salt in a bowl and add a generous glug or three of cooking oil.
• Put each potato into the bowl and roll it around until it is covered in salty oil.
• Cup the potato in your hand and roll it around to make sure it is thoroughly dressed with the mixture.
• Put the oily salty potatoes on a baking tray and cook them in the oven at 160 C for about forty five minutes to an hour until the are done.  They should be lovely and brown and crispy on the outside and soft in the middle when tested with a skewer.  Leave the oven turned on we're going to need it again.
• When cooked, take the potatoes from the oven and carefully (they'll be hot) put each on a chopping board and cut into halves with a sharp knife try to keep the skins intact.
• Scoop out the lovely centres and set aside in a clean bowl.  You should have just the crispy skins left.
• Grate the cheese into the bowl containing the potato flesh, tip the cooking oil in too if you like and mash it and the cheese into the potato.  Do NOT grate your knuckles and fingertips, I don't know what they taste like but its painful and you'll need them again tomorrow!
• Load the cheese/potato mixture back into the skins, put them back on the roasting tray and then back into the oven until the cheese mixture starts to bubble up and the potato mash gets brown and a little crispy on top.

Method - Sausages

There are two ways, traditional or the low calorie, "Ellesmere Port" way if you're trying to save on calories (who could be really, making this meal?) it's your call.   However I will explain, 'coz you might like to use the low calorie method another time.

The traditional way

• Prick the sausages all over then just put them on a tray in the oven alongside the spuds while they are cooking until the sausages are cooked to your liking.
• I normally put them in for about twenty minutes (half the cooking time of the potatoes.) 

The 'Ellesmere Port' low calorie way!

So called because when my first ex (the nice one, not the other,) was training to be a midwife, she was sent to lodge with an 'old bird' in Ellesmere Port whilst she was training to deliver babies; who insisted on poaching sausages before she grilled them. Obviously to get the fat out, but I often wondered, and for those of you not in the know, Ellesmere Port in Cheshire is one of the biggest manufacturers of heavy chemicals in the UK, whether it might also be a way to remove environmental contaminants too!

• Boil a large pan of salted water and then reduce it to a simmer.
• Prick the sausages all over then add them to the pan.
• Bring the water back up to a rolling simmer so as to poach the sausages without splitting the skins and cook for about fifteen minutes.
• Tip the greasy water from the pan then put the sausages on a tray and as before, roast them in the oven until the skins are brown.  They will be drier, so take care not to burn them.

Serving

Put two of the loaded potato halves on a plate with a pair of the sausages and if you feel like adding a side serving, baked beans go well.

Cost

£1.70 per serving, less if you use budget bangers, not including beans.

P.S. "Granny Betty," so called by my daughter, was my late mum.  She is the inspiration for my love of food and cooking and could make a delicious dinner from an old shoe.  Thanks mum!


Eat and enjoy - more recipes another day when I feel inspired!

Nigella's picture courtesy of "The Daily Mirror"