Frugal Food

Frugal food seems to be making something of a come back at the moment, whether that is down to our current economic downturn or because of the increased number of celebrity chefs using unusual (and often) cheaper cuts of meat, etc. I’m not sure; most likely it is a combination of the two things. 

Over on Violet’s Pantry (the food forum I spend far too much time visiting) we’re having a wee bit of a challenge - you have to cook something for under £5.00 GBP but it has have one ingredient in it that you wouldn’t normally consider using. Now I love a challenge and certainly wasn’t about to let this one slide by without my participation. I decided to take the challenge one step further though – restaurant style food on the budget! I too the £5.00 to mean a meal for two people, so that gave me a little more leeway. 

Sunday night seemed the perfect time to complete the challenge as we were having guests; this could of course just be my crazy logic and I’m sure many of you are shouting out that you’d need a trial run first to test everything out especially as the dish was new! I wanted the adrenalin rush you get from last minute plating up and presentation; the kind seen to be experienced by the contestants of MasterChef while working in the professional kitchen.

I struggled to work out the cost of everything exactly as my vegetables were a part of my weekly vegetable box but the meat was a bargain and the wine a Christmas present still not opened.  Should my estimations be correct I suspect it cost about £2 a head; not bad going at all?  Who would have thought you could eat so well on a budget? Mind you I’m blowing the budget tonight with fillet steak in truffle sauce, read all about it here later in the week  

My previously never used ingredient was silverside of beef. The menu: Braised silverside of beef in a red wine reduction served with buttered carrots and parsnip batons in a stack, braised button mushrooms and piped creamy mash.

I got my inspiration for the meal from Maze (Jason Atherton) which is an amazing cookery book based on the dishes Atherton serves at this Michelin stared restaurant of the same name. If you only get hold of a copy of this book to drool over the photography it will be money well spent, but do look past all the restaurant flair too in order to find some relatively simple to put together taste sensations.

The recipe for the beef can be found at this link (scroll to page 10) and simply replace the ox cheek with steaks of silverside, or you could of course use cheeks if you prefer. After such long, slow cooking the meat was meltingly tender, although it did keep its shape – that was my main worry, I desperately didn’t want the meat the break up and just become a stew and my luck maintained. The addition of button mushrooms gave for another taste and a ‘firm’ texture component which worked really well against the softness of the meat and potatoes.  As for the red wine reduction, oh my goodness, I could have just spooned it into me; pure sauce heaven.

Mashed potatoes are the obvious choice with a dish like this, you need something capable of soaking up a little of the jus, for presentation purposes either a quenelle of ultra smooth potato or Duchess potatoes work best as they are eye catching. I went for Duchess potatoes because I absolutely adore the crunch you get on the outer layer of the potato; you’ve probably noticed as you’ve visited here, that 9 times out of 10 that I serve mashed spuds I pop them in the oven to crisp the top layer up. My top tips for glorious mash are:

1. To cook the potatoes in their skins as they remain fluffier and absorb less water.
2. To use a ricer to guarantee no lumps, or mash and then pass through a course sieve.
3. To add melted butter and beat in with a spurtle, but a wooden spoon would do, just be gentle.
4. For 1kg of potatoes I add approx. 250ml double cream; if the potatoes are hot I add cold cream and vice versa.

For the carrot and parsnip stack I simply parboiled the vegetable batons until just tender and then sautéed them in a little butter and brown sugar until glistening and heated through before serving. 

So what did our guests think of it? It was a resounding success, everyone commented on how well presented it was, how delicious it was and they went back for seconds too!!!!!!

Share this: