Economical cooking

I posted details for the easiest dinner party. Now I thought I would start looking for the most economical. This will take a bit of research.

I have two cookery books which I love to read. The first is by Lionel Blu and is fascinating for his anecdotes. He was the most unpretentious of hosts giving his guests really cheap and simple meals but it is easy to get sidetracked by tales of his Polish grandmother who used an axe as her main kitchen tool and things like that.

The other book I really love is by Marguerite Patten who was one of the first "celebrity" cooks. It's a really old book. Her recipes are simple. Just basic food and no trimmings. She makes the point, and I think it is a good one, that you can feed your family really well on delicious food for a lot less than you think. This means you improve the quality of life and get huge satisfaction from it.

Last night we had braised red cabbage with apples (not from Marguerite Patten's book) and corned beef hash (which WAS from her book). It was a meal to die for. Not sure if it is dinner party food, though!

This is the red cabbage and apple that I did.

Here is the recipe for Corned Beef hash. It serves 4 and takes 10 minutes to prepare and 12 minutes to cook.

You need 2 onions, a spoonful of oil, 8-12 oz mashed potatoes. Salt and pepper and a tin of corned beef.

Peel and chop the onions fienly. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry onions for 3-4 minutes. Put the corned beef in a basin while the onions are cooking and flake them into small pieces. Add the mashed potatoes and then mix well and season lightly . Spoon into the frying pan and flatten the corned beef mixture. Heat steadily until golden brown on the underside. Fold like an omelette and dish up.

you can vary it by adding a couple of sliced tomatoes over the hash in the pan, heat for a few minutes, then fold. Add a little gravy to the corned beef etc to give a softer mixture.

She even gives a suggested menu of

haddock soup

corned beef hash

sliced beetroot

fruit fool.

If you had really close friends and you were all in the same boat and trying to save money they would love this. Try it on the family. You could smear it in tomato sauce if you wanted!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry