Stir fried veg in black bean sauce

When I was at uni this was my standard takeaway option. As it's a vegetarian dish, it ended up being cheaper than alternatives, which left some money for me to order soup and rice too. When I first discovered the joy of Asian supermarkets, I bought a pack of fermented black beans and followed a recipe to the letter. It resulted in a rather bitter but delicious version of the takeaway meal I was used to. Over the years since, I've gotten lazier with my cooking and still have a tight budget, so this version is cheaper, quicker and a lot less authentic, but none-the-less tasty.

Mixed Vegetables

use a selection of veg that you have to hand. Tonight I used:
1/2 broccoli head chopped into sections
couple tablespoons peas
few cherry tomatoes, halved
1 head pak choi leaves with greens separated from whites
greens of 3 spring onions, sliced

Black Bean Sauce

2 tablespoons fermented black beans, soaked in boiling water for 20 mins then drained
2 cloves garlic, diced
whites of spring onions, sliced
large dash sesame oil
large dash dark soy sauce
small dash chili oil
small dash oyster sauce
sprinkle of ground ginger (or fresh diced)
sugar to taste
splash of white wine (optional - I had some leftover. Chinese rice wine is better if you make Chinese food enough to justify the purchase!)
sprinkle of sieved cornflour

Sesame oil and water to cook
Rice to serve

Method

After draining the beans, mush them up with the back of a spoon.
Mix in the other ingredients, adding sugar to take off the bitterness, to your taste.
cook the rice.
when rice is nearly done, heat sesame oil in a wok and add the broccoli and whites of the pak choi. (If you are using different veg, then this is where 'longer to cook' things go, like carrots, white cabbage, pepper etc). Add a little water and stir fry for a few minutes until the veg starts to soften.
Add the other veg and the sauce, and stir fry for a couple more minutes until everything is heated through.
Serve spooned over the rice.

Tuna burgers with paprika chips

Originally written 3rd January 2016

Necessity is the mother of all inventions. Certainly the case when I'm looking at an empty fridge wondering what the hell I want to eat and trying really hard not to cave into takeaway. These oven chips are my go-to use of lingering potatoes, and really easy. You can pop them in the oven with a timer and pretty much forget about them. The burgers were an experiment.

Tuna burgers:

Tin of tuna
1/2 small onion (spring onions would work well here but I didn't have any)
handful black olives
hot sauce
paprika
salt
chili powder
black pepper
2 garlic cloves
egg

Chips:

potatoes (skins on)
olive oil
paprika
salt
pepper
chili powder

chop the potatoes into chip shapes, leaving the skins on. Put them into a bowl along with the seasonings and mix well. Lay out on an oven tray and put in oven at gas 6 for 40ish mins.
Use the same bowl, with the remains of the seasoning mix, to make the burger mix. Chop the onion, garlic and olives finely and add to the bowl with the tuna and seasonings. Mix well. Lightly beat the egg and then add to the mix. Shape mix into patties and fry lightly a few minutes each side in olive oil.
serve with salad or other side.

Lentil and Sweet Potato bake

Originally written 12th October 2015

Lentils are a very under-appreciated food but are a very cheap form of protein that's filling and warming. Because of this, they are an excellent autumn and winter food.

Lentil and Sweet Potato bake

Another filling and warming dish. I made this using leftover sweet potato and butternut squash which I'd roasted previously. I tend to estimate the amount of ingredients I use depending on the size of the dish I'm going to use (the oven dish I used for this has enough for 2 or 3 large portions). If using a larger dish, you could add more onion, carrot, lentils and potatoes to stretch the meal into more portions.
Because I had already roasted the squash in oil and the potatoes and sweet potato were mashing easily, I didn't need to add any butter or margarine, and I prefer not to when I can get away with it, to be healthier.
Carrot and celery work well in this dish because they are cheap, and also they hold their crunch well. But you could switch in any other veg you happen to have. You could also use a tin of kidney or black eyed beans instead of some of the lentils.

ingredients:
1 mugful green lentils
vegetable oil
either 1 large sweet potato or 1 smaller sweet potato and 2 medium potatoes
optional: 1/4 roasted butternut squash
optional: a little margarine or butter to mash with
2 carrots
2 sticks celery
1/2 onion
tin tomatoes
1 large clove garlic
vegetable stock cube + 2 mugful hot water
tomato puree
1 tsp coriander seeds (whole)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme (dried or fresh)
salt and black pepper
optional: small amount Parmesan cheese

method:
chop the potatoes into 2cm square pieces and put into large pot of water to boil
chop the celery, onion and carrots into 1cm chunks. Mince the garlic.
Bash the coriander seeds to let them release their flavour.
put a little oil into the base of a saucepan over a medium heat and add the chopped veg and garlic and herbs/spices. Cook until starting to soften.
Add the lentils, dry, and stir well until the lentils are thoroughly mixed in and coated in the oil and seasonings. Add the tin of tomatoes, tomato puree and the stock cube dissolved in the water.
Leave to simmer, adding water when necessary, until the lentils are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste, and more herbs/spices if necessary.
Drain the potatoes once cooked and mash up. Mash in the butternut squash if using. If necessary add a little margarine or butter, and season with salt and pepper.
pour the lentils and veg mix into an oven dish and then spoon the potato mix over the top. If using, grate a little Parmesan over the top.
Bake at gas 5 for 20-30 mins until starting to brown on the top.

Sausage-tomato-couscous (£1.17pp) and my parents' food legacy

Originally written 25th September 2015

A lot of my eating habits, as with most people, come from my parents. I am very lucky that my parents had a balanced and healthy attitude to food, and so the habits I've inherited are largely healthy (or at least the 'in-moderation' kind). I remember knowing about carbs before I heard about fad diets and before we covered it in school. Carbohydrates were a vital part of your meal, but it was also vital you didn't eat too much. Mum's a type 1 diabetic. Carbs were always carefully measured in our house whether it was pasta, bread, potatoes, rice... I understood what carbs were and how much of the meal they should make up. I always found it weird when friends would have pizza and chips. Didn't they know that was carbs and carbs?
The other thing I thought was perfectly normal was the way that we cooked most things from scratch. Granted a lot of it was a variation on tinned tomatoes + onion + garlic and herbs + whatever is in the fridge, but I was used to meals being made at home and processed foods being rare alternatives when Mum and Dad needed something quick.
And finally we ate a great variety of foods. By the time I'd reached secondary school, I had tried so many different things and so many different styles of cuisine. There were a few things I didn't like, sure, but I would always try. I was not a fussy eater, and I think I largely have my parents adventurous eating style to thank for that. I also didn't think that every meal had to include meat. We ate a lot of vegetarian meals, not only are they normally cheaper, but also yummy!
These days my diet is shaped quite a lot by how expensive things are, but there are a few cheap staples that I've inherited from my parents - Mum's spaghetti bolognaise that bumps out the meat with extra onion and veg. A chinese stir fry base consisting of ginger, spring onions, soy sauce and a little oyster sauce... and finally, the good old tinned tomatoes plus... which is what tonight's dinner is.

Sausages and tomato sauce, served with couscous.

(2 portions, £1.17 per person)

ingredients:

3 sausages (tonight's are honey and thyme from my local butchers = £1.58), cut into chunks
tin tomatoes (33p)
1/2 onion (6p) diced
1 carrot (4p) sliced
2 or 3 runner beans (mine from the garden) cut into 2 cm pieces
1 clove garlic, crushed/diced (2p)
(dried) basil and thyme (10p for basil, thyme from garden)
oil to cook (5p?)
couscous (13p for 100g)
stock cube (13p for one veggie cube)
boiling water 160ml
chop veg and sausages.
add to pan and fry in oil until sausage chunks cooked and veg softening.
add herbs and tomatoes and reduce heat to simmer.
boil kettle.
pour couscous into bowl.
mix stock cube well with 160ml boiling water and pour into couscous. Stir well and leave, covered, for at least 5 mins until couscous has absorbed water. Stir/fluff up with fork.

Over £1 per person because of the sausages, but in my opinion worth splashing out on decent meat when you do eat it. This, works well with pasta too, I just fancied couscous for some variety as I tend to eat a lot of pasta. =)