What's the recipe today Jim?
Those of you old enough and sad enough like me, will remember that in the sixties and seventies BBC Radio One (the hip, happening young people's pop station) hosted the dreadful 'Jimmy Young Show'. He was an ageing crooner who somehow landed the R1 gig. Every morning his pretend companion/sidekick, a fake Chipmunk would intone in a jolly, fake voice,'What's the recipe today Jim?' And Jim would then proceed to read out some horrible recipe for an even more horrible dish, I don't know and have probably deliberately forgotten what, but it would have been something like peanut and sump oil delight or similar. What on earth made him or his producer think that this would keep the kids glued to the set I don't begin to understand.
Anyway, this is a roundabout way of me saying that I'm not going to do a recipe a day or simply arrive at the computer each day to tell you what we had for supper last night - I hope. But, I am quite interested in our plans for this evening's meal.
A few months ago on holiday in France, over a huge bowl of freshly cooked Langoustine, mayo for dipping (and French bottled Mayo is a delight - more of which some other time) a simple red onion and tomato salad and a load of fresh crusty bread, my wife and I reached a food agreement. For some reason which neither of us understand she had been doing all the food shopping and I had been doing the cooking. She, it turned out had found thinking of and planning meals a terrible strain and I had found myself cooking with whatever she had bought. So we agreed that I would shop for main meals for each week and would ( I don't believe I did this) stick to a budget of £50 ($80) per week - to feed four healthy people. I ought to add that the family consists of me, my wife and two teenagers, the latter needing constant re-fuelling. The remainder of our weekly domestic budget would go on household goods, snacks, basic foodstuffs like breakfast cereals and the usual stuff you need to run a home. So I had around £6.30 ($9?) a day to feed us our main meal plus bits and pieces. I don't know how this compares to most food budgets but it seems quite modest to me in a western democracy. So, in order to say, enjoy a relatively expensive Sunday lunch including a good cut of meat means coming up with much cheaper but satsifying meals at other times. So tonight we are having...... Baked Potatoes with Cottage cheese and salad.
We bought a huge bag of potatoes from our local greengrocer a few weeks ago which is a very economical way of buying spuds in winter so that was them organised. I got some cottage cheese from the supermarket as part of the weekly shop plus a good bag of salad. So tonight we'll eat well and inexpensively. Here's how to do it.
You'll need:
Good size baking potatoes - one for each person.
Cottage Cheese - a tub big enough for each person to get two good tablespoons each.
Butter or olive oil spread.
Olive Oil (not vital but nice) and other salad dressing e.g. vinegar.
A bag of green salad (or you can make your own) - they cost about 99p here ($1.60).
Some nice pickle if you want - Branston's is a favourite in our house.
Equipment:
Metal Skewers (enough to fit the potatoes on to, although again this is optional).
Plates
Knives and forks etc.
Spoons for serving up.
What you do:
Heat the oven to quite a high temperature, about Gas mark 7 or electric equivalent (I must publish a link to gas/electric equivalents).
Wash the potatoes but leave the skins on and skewer them. Alternatively prick the skin quite hard all over. Rub in olive oil if you wish. Place in the oven on a high shelf. They cook faster if you use skewers.
Lay the table or trays if you prefer TV dinners (I don't but we'll talk about them some other time). Depending on the size of the potatoes - the bigger they are the longer the cooking time and give them a prod with a fork or small sharp knife. If they look brown and slightly crispy on the outside but the fork slides in easily they're done. They should take an hour or so to cook so you can go and do other stuff whilst this is happening.
Plonk the salad in to a serving dish and add olive oil and a drop or two of vinegar depending on your taste with a serving spoon. Get the cottage cheese out of the fridge.
Get the potatoes out - they'll be very hot so use gloves and put the skewers in cold water, and on a chopping board slice each potato almost in half and transfer to a plate for each person. Put some butter or equivalent on each half followed by a generous spoonful of the cheese, again one on each half. Take to the table and add the salad to the plates and any salad dressing you want. Eat. This looks and tastes especially lovely if you add fresh, chopped parsley or chives to the cheese but it's not vital. For those who want a bit of extra, a lttle pickle on the side is great.
I'm going to cook it and eat it now and what's more the whole meal costs about £3 ($5) not including the gas or electricity and tastes suprisingly wonderful.
Anyway, this is a roundabout way of me saying that I'm not going to do a recipe a day or simply arrive at the computer each day to tell you what we had for supper last night - I hope. But, I am quite interested in our plans for this evening's meal.
A few months ago on holiday in France, over a huge bowl of freshly cooked Langoustine, mayo for dipping (and French bottled Mayo is a delight - more of which some other time) a simple red onion and tomato salad and a load of fresh crusty bread, my wife and I reached a food agreement. For some reason which neither of us understand she had been doing all the food shopping and I had been doing the cooking. She, it turned out had found thinking of and planning meals a terrible strain and I had found myself cooking with whatever she had bought. So we agreed that I would shop for main meals for each week and would ( I don't believe I did this) stick to a budget of £50 ($80) per week - to feed four healthy people. I ought to add that the family consists of me, my wife and two teenagers, the latter needing constant re-fuelling. The remainder of our weekly domestic budget would go on household goods, snacks, basic foodstuffs like breakfast cereals and the usual stuff you need to run a home. So I had around £6.30 ($9?) a day to feed us our main meal plus bits and pieces. I don't know how this compares to most food budgets but it seems quite modest to me in a western democracy. So, in order to say, enjoy a relatively expensive Sunday lunch including a good cut of meat means coming up with much cheaper but satsifying meals at other times. So tonight we are having...... Baked Potatoes with Cottage cheese and salad.
We bought a huge bag of potatoes from our local greengrocer a few weeks ago which is a very economical way of buying spuds in winter so that was them organised. I got some cottage cheese from the supermarket as part of the weekly shop plus a good bag of salad. So tonight we'll eat well and inexpensively. Here's how to do it.
You'll need:
Good size baking potatoes - one for each person.
Cottage Cheese - a tub big enough for each person to get two good tablespoons each.
Butter or olive oil spread.
Olive Oil (not vital but nice) and other salad dressing e.g. vinegar.
A bag of green salad (or you can make your own) - they cost about 99p here ($1.60).
Some nice pickle if you want - Branston's is a favourite in our house.
Equipment:
Metal Skewers (enough to fit the potatoes on to, although again this is optional).
Plates
Knives and forks etc.
Spoons for serving up.
What you do:
Heat the oven to quite a high temperature, about Gas mark 7 or electric equivalent (I must publish a link to gas/electric equivalents).
Wash the potatoes but leave the skins on and skewer them. Alternatively prick the skin quite hard all over. Rub in olive oil if you wish. Place in the oven on a high shelf. They cook faster if you use skewers.
Lay the table or trays if you prefer TV dinners (I don't but we'll talk about them some other time). Depending on the size of the potatoes - the bigger they are the longer the cooking time and give them a prod with a fork or small sharp knife. If they look brown and slightly crispy on the outside but the fork slides in easily they're done. They should take an hour or so to cook so you can go and do other stuff whilst this is happening.
Plonk the salad in to a serving dish and add olive oil and a drop or two of vinegar depending on your taste with a serving spoon. Get the cottage cheese out of the fridge.
Get the potatoes out - they'll be very hot so use gloves and put the skewers in cold water, and on a chopping board slice each potato almost in half and transfer to a plate for each person. Put some butter or equivalent on each half followed by a generous spoonful of the cheese, again one on each half. Take to the table and add the salad to the plates and any salad dressing you want. Eat. This looks and tastes especially lovely if you add fresh, chopped parsley or chives to the cheese but it's not vital. For those who want a bit of extra, a lttle pickle on the side is great.
I'm going to cook it and eat it now and what's more the whole meal costs about £3 ($5) not including the gas or electricity and tastes suprisingly wonderful.
posted by Drugsblogger at 9:28 AM
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