S001 - Le Gastronomique Frugale

2. Mains

Rice dishes

Rice is good and cheap.  The rule is 2 pints of stock to one pound of rice, so you will need to do the Math for whatever quatities you are using.  Of course there are loads of different rices around and traditionally you use different types based on their size, starch content etc.  The Frugal cook only uses 'Easy-cook long grained rice'

Paella Fry an onion (thank the Lord for onions), and some bacon bits. If you are making paella add some meat and turmeric.   Shortly before the end add some peas and and some prawns if you can afford it or chop a pepperami and add that. Serve it when all the liquid has been absorbed. Risotto Fry the onion with some bacon bits, Add two handfuls of uncooked rice. Make sure the rice is covered in the frying oil. Add boiling hot stock half-a-cup at a time until the rice absorbs it. Keep doing this until it absorbs no more then add a little more stock as it should be slightly sloppy. At this point add a handful of peas and some grated cheese.

Biryiani.
Fry an onion and some meat with a dollop of curry powder.  If you fancy add some mushrooms or veg (finely diced potato or cauliflower florets here) Add stock and simmer until absorbed.  Shortly before the end add some peas and tomato quarters and gently cook for a few more minutes so all the moisture is gone.  If you are feeling in the mood add some slices of boiled egg.  Strictly speaking you should then add yoghurt and bake for 20 mins but who does that these days??  Make the basic curry (madras) without the meat and serve with it.

Kedgeree.  Use some cooked fish such as smoked haddock or a kipper or two.  Fry an onion and add rice.  Cover with stock and cook until absorbed.  Chop 3 hard boiled eggs and flake the flesh off the fish.  Stir into the rice.  Add lemon juice to taste and serve with the fourth egg sliced and arranged on top.  Sprinkle with a little curry powder.

Curry

Although there are dozens of varieties if curry, each with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking, the frugal cook must be wary of compromising cost for authenticity.  So instead of cardamom, fenugreek, cinnamon, ginger and cumin he turns to the pack of curry powder.  But what delights await us.  All the following are cooked in more or less the same way.  When it calls for 'meat' use whatever you can lay your hands on, especially turkey as it's cheap and can be cooked quickly.  If you use beef or lamb then oven times double.  If budgetable it is well worth getting hold of a jar of chopped coriander (Not the ground spice, but the green leaf.  It's like fresh coriander - but in a jar!) which is cheaper than the fresh stuff and brightens up a curry no end.

Basic curry.  
Stage 1: Fry a very finely sliced onion and meat with a dollop of curry powder.
Stage 2: Remove meat and add some moisture (stock, water, tomato juice, beer, lemon juice) and cook what will be a paste for 5 mins until the 'rawness' of the curry powder is gone.
Stage 3: Re-add meat and other ingredients for 5 more mins plus a teaspoon of chopped coriander if using.
Stage 4: Add stock or water and either simmer for 20 mins on cooker or put in oven for 30. 

Madras
Extra ingredient: Tin of tomatoes. As above using the juice from the toms in Stage 2 and the rest of the toms in stage 3.

Dopiaza  (means 'double onion', did you know?). Extra ingredients: 2 onions; 1/2 tin tomatoes; yoghurt.  As above but with two onions at Stage 1.  Add the tin of toms at Stage 2 and the last onion, more chunkily chopped at stage 4.  Stir in half a pot of yoghurt 5 mins before end.

Rogan-josh Extra ingredients: tin of tomatoes, two fresh tomatoes, quartered, double the coriander (if using).  As above using the juice from the tin of tomatoes in Stage 2 to make the paste.  Add the rest of the tin at Stage 3 with the extra coriander and add the quartered tomatoes 10 mins before the end of cooking.

Sri Lanka Extra ingredients tin of tomatoes; tomato puree; creamed coconut; chilli powder.  As above with extra chilli in stage 1. Use the juice from the tomatoes in stage 2 and add the coconut (a chunk about the size of one Oxo cube) and the tom puree (a tablespoon) in Stage 3.  The resulting curry should be thick, gloopy and vivid red. Vindaloo Extra ingredients: onion; medium potato; lemon juice or vinegar; chilli powder. As above with extree chilli in stage 1.   With lemon juice or vinegar (about tablespoon) in stage 2 with some water to make the paste.  Potato (in small chunks) in stage 3 and more chilli if necessary.

Sag Aloo
This should be fairly dry and has no meat.  Extra ingredients:  2 potatoes; 1/2 can tomatoes; spinach (the pre frozen stuff is good).  Chop the potatoes into chunks and fry with the onions in stage 1.  Add the tomatoes and a splash of water but don't remove the spuds in Stage 2. Add the spinach (if using the frozen stuff - about a handful) at Stage 3 and cook until the liquid has gone and the potatoes are cooked.

Korma
This is a bit different from the above and maybe a little extravagant for the Frugal cook but often almonds can be found lurking at the back of the cupboard.  Korma is, of course, a curry for people who don't like curry. Extra ingredients. Ground almonds; creamed coconut; cream; half-the normal amount of curry powder.  In Stage 2 add a small amount of stock and the almonds (handful) to make the paste.  There's no Stage 3 or 4 insteads re-add the meat and the coconut (a chunk about the size of two Oxo cubes) and simmer, adding more stock so the korma is the thickness of a stew.  Simmer for 10 more minutes and stir in the cream.  Another couple of minutes and you're done

Stews

As mentioned above you need meat, veg, a tin of soup (don't neglect concentrated soup - it's a sauce and it's a soup.  For example added to any meat and vegetables the Vegetable broth becomes a stew after an hour of cooking.  Batchelors Condensed is best and with less than an hour of your time you have a dish of stew.)  Basically chop, fry, add soup, cook.   Please note I am obliged by convention to use the adjectives 'hearty' and 'warming' here.  Some examples:

Italian sausage and Lentil stew
Meat: sausage.  Veg: Lentils (pre-cooked) and onion  Soup: Vegetable plus mixed herbs

Corned beef hash
Meat: Corned beef.  Veg: Potatoes, onion and swedes/turnip.  Soup: Beef broth

Mexican Meatballs Stew Meat: Minced beef. Veg: Onions, chilli, kidney beans Soup: Tomato.  Chop the onion and add chilli and meat. (Maybe an egg too, if one is spare).  Roll into little balls.  Fry until brown, add the soup and the beans.

North African Stew
Meat: None.  Veg.  Potato (or a sweet potato if you feel in a sweet mood), onion, chickpeas, spinach.  Soup: Chicken plus a little cinammon.

Pasta

Being cheap, easy-to-cook and going with almost any food, pasta is the Frugal cooks dream ticket.  So much so that I'm not going to go too far into the combinations as even the most tentative of cooks can heat a tin of cheap sauce and add it to spaghetti.  So here are a few ideas that you may not have thought of:

Spaghetti/Tagliatelli/Linguini/Fettuccini
To the frugal cook these come under the heading 'long, thin pasta'.  Cook as instructed and add:

 - Fry some mushrooms, add some peanuts and a spoon of peanut butter.  Thin with a little milk if necessary.

 - Fry a chopped onion, a bit o' garlic and some chopped up bacon.  Mix an egg with a generous splash of milk.  Add the bacon and stuff to the hot pasta then stir in the egg.  The heat will cook it and make a nice creamy carbonara sauce.

- Chop and fry a small onion and lots of over-ripe fresh tomatoes (or a tin of the stuff, if you want), a little garlic, a splash of water and a teaspoon of sugar.  After 20 mins or so mush the lot up a bit and pass through a sieve.  Throw the mulch away and add the sauce to the pasta.  Add a generous glug of vodka and serve immediately. (Fact: this is Mr. Delia Smith's favourite recipe).

Shells/bows/tubes/other small pasta
They all have twee names and mostly do the same thing.  If you are using a sauce with lots of lots of liquid, use pasta that will hold it (shells).  If you are using a dry-ish sauce use a flat pasta (bows).

- Fry small brocolli florets, small chopped onion, some peas, garlic and herbs.  Add a small tin of sweetcorn and some cherry tomatoes (halved) one minute before serving. - Fry onion and bacon bits.  Add a tin of tomatoes, some sugar and a generous dollop of chilli.  Cook 10 mins.  This is 'arribiata' sauce (which means 'angry' in Italian.) - Cook and chill the pasta.  Mix a tin of tuna, a small tin of kidney beans, a chopped onion, some lemon juice (or a bit of mayo).  Season and mix with the pasta.

Lasagne/canneloni/zite
This is the big pasta that can be stuffed or baked.  Less sauce, more filling is the usual but if you really want to be authentic and frugal you need to master two simple sauces that will go 25% of the way to being a 'proper' cook.

- Tomato sauce: Fry an onion and garlic.  Add two tins of toms, a large pinch of sugar, herbs and salt'n'pepper.  Cook for 15 mins.  Remove the lumps.

- White sauce: Gently melt some butter or marge.  Add double the amount of flour.  Keep on low heat and stir like buggery until the flour forms a dark yellow lump of paste (this, sir, is the roux).  If it doesn't coagulate: add a bit more flour.  Then add milk (half a pint or so), a little at a time, and keep beating over the heat until you have a lovely silky sauce.  Remove from heat, add salt and pepper and some grated cheese and you have cracked the most important part of cookery.  Of course you could open a packet of white sauce mix.  (NB Big-tongued Mockney saviour-of-the-nation’s-food Jamie Oliver does away with the white sauce and adds crème fraiche instead and it’s a pip and a dandy.  But that costs money, doesn’t it.)

Now, with these two sauces you can go to town. 

Lasagne Fry what the hell you want, mince and onion; chunky veg; turkey and mushroom then layer it in a dish:  A small amount of tomato sauce at the bottom, a slice of pasta, some filling, more pasta, more filling, more pasta.  When hear the top add more tomato sauce and top with white sauce.  Bake for 20 with some cheese on top.

Cannelloni
Again it's very much up to you but it needs to be stuffable.  Try frying onions, garlic and chopped mushrooms.  Add spinach and cook some more.  Stuff into tubes, cover with some tomato sauce and top with white sauce.  Bake for 20.

If you are oven-less, then no problem.  Create a non-baked lasagne by cooking the pasta and layering it on a plate with the cooked ingredients.  Pour some tomato sauce round the edge before serving.

Mexican Food

Can be a lifesaver for the Frugal cook because it is basic and, for some reason, still considered exotic in Britain.  You'll have to buy the tortillas but the rest can be made from basics.  Its best to raid the spice rack because you will need cumin, coriander and chilli powder.  Mix these together (2:1:1) to form your 'Mex Spice Mix' (MSM).

Beef
Fry a chopped onion with some mince.  When browned, drain the fat off and add plenty of MSM.  Dry cook (keep stirring) for 10 more mins.

Tuna
Fry onion, add can of tuna and can of sweetcorn and plenty of MSM with a glug of beer.  Cook until beer has gone.

Beans
Fry an onion, add two tins of canellini beans.  Fill one can full of water and add that.  Boil and simmer.  When the water is almost gone the beans should be mushy.  Add plenty of MSM and keep cooking until nearly dry.  Add a big glug of beer and cook some more until the mixture is the consistency of thick porridge.

Turkey al Carbon
Coarsely chop two onions, some strips of raw turkey and some tomatoes.  If you can lay your hands on some lime juice (NOT the cordial) or even some tequila.  Add a handful of MSM.  Heat a frying pan with NO oil in for three minutes (on top whack).  Then add the onion/turley/tomatoes and cook until the turkey is charred outside and cooked inside.  Warning:  keep the pan hot, if you are using tequila you will see flames, so watch the eyebrows and don't lose your nerve.

Vege al carbon
As above but with big chunks of veg.  You may even use peppers here.  Also baby sweetcorn is good.  Add chopped fresh tomatoes and chopped onions.  You don't have to but some of that coriander leaf that I referred to in the curry section does wonders here.

Guacamole
Two ripe avocados, a little MSM, lime or lemon juice.  Mush together.  There is a school of thought that adds fresh tomato chunks here.  Do it if you want.

Nachos
Pack of nachos, grated cheese, microwave.  You can add a dollop of the beef or bean mixture to the middle.

Tacos/tortillas/enchiladas/burritos/chimichangas/quesadillas. All these depend on you taking a tortilla, adding some filling and either frying or baking it.  It's up to you how to do it - a burrito is just a folded tortilla eaten by hand; a quesadilla is rolled like a cigar and fried; a taco is folded in half and deep-fried; a chimichanga is folded into a pillow-shape and fried; an enchillada is rolled and baked.  Do any of this with the fillings and server with lettuce, the tomato sauce, chopped onion, grated cheese and you have a Frugal mexican feast.

Provencal Fish Pie
Onion, tinned tomatoes, fish fingers, a potato (large), bag of crisps and a bit o' cheese and whatever herbs are festering in your Swartz spice rack.
Cook the fish fingers then mash them. Don't worry about the breadcrumbs - adds to the crunch. Thinly slice onions, fry, add toms* cook for 10 mins so it thickens, adding salt and pepper and whatever herbs. Boil and mash the spud. Grate cheese and smash crisps into little bits and mix. In bowl layer tomato mixture on bottom, then the mashed fish on top of that, then the mashed potato on top of that and top with the cheese/crisp mix. Bake 15 mins.
(*and a teaspoon of sugar. It removes the tinny bitterness from the tomatoes.)

Fish cakes.
Tin tuna, onion, 2 potatoes.  Boil and mash spuds (add a little milk or butter if you like and some dried herbs).  Mix with tuna, shape into small rounds, flatten and fry until golden.

Sausage and bean casserole.
Pack of bangers. Onion. Tin of tomatoes. Tin of kidney beans. Chilli powder (Or paprika, or nothing really).
Cut sausages into half or into 4, fry. Add chopped onion, toms, beans and chilli, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of sugar. Cook until it's ready. Add a chopped green pepper with the sausage if you want, but they don't taste of anything anyway.

Shepherd's/Cottage Pie varients.
Very easy.  Fry mince and onion.  Add two stock cubes and a large glug of boiling water (or a couple of teaspoons of gravy granules) and simmer until gravy is thick, adding a little more water if necessary.  Chop, boil and mash potatoes.  Into dish, mince on bottom, mash on top.  Remember:  beef mince = cottage pie, lamb mince = Shepherd's pie.  There is no other difference.  To make things more interesting:
 - Add a big dollop of tomato puree to the mince or some peas or chopped carrots or swede/turnip at the frying stage.
- Thinly chop and fry some leeks or spring onions.  Add to the mash before baking
- Add a teaspoon of whole-grain mustard or some chopped fried garlic to the mash before baking.
- Add a handful of grated cheese to the mash before baking and some more on top.

Frittata Potatoes, 3 eggs, onions, (bacon bits or Peperami).  Size of pan is important.  A small frying pan is best but it shouldn't be too shallow. Parboil the spuds, cool and slice.  Finely chop onion and fry (with optional bacon bits or chopped Peperami).  Add mixed herbs and a little garlic too.  Add potato slices and fry for another few minutes.  Beat the eggs and add to pan. shaking so it coats all the potatoes.  Cook on low heat until eggs are set.  (Finish under the grill if you want).  Pop out onto plate and slice.  This is really a tapas dish but it is most excellent with ketchup although if you do want that extra Spanish flourish, go to sleep in the afternoon and then murder some ruminants whilst wearing tight trousers.

Borek
This is another North African dish that is inexpensive and visually impressive. Basically it is a filo pastry tart cooked like a pizza.  Lay out the pastry on a oily baking tray some 8-10 leaves thick and bake it blind on a gentle heat for 5 minutes or so to remove any sogginess that your ingredients might impart.  Then add whatever toppings take your fancy.  These are usually presented sliced and added alternately to make an appealing pattern and then the borek is returned to the oven for 12 minutes or until the pastry edges are cooked.  Adding a sauce or a glaze at this point is always a good idea.

- Thinly sliced figs (being frugal they have to be thin slices; about 3 figs will cover a decent size and slices of a salty cheese (pretend feta) with a chilli sauce glaze

- Cooked Cumberland sausage and roasted onions with a robust gravy or Lea and Perrins on top.

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