Random Cooking

To Be(ef) or not to Be(ef)

OK sorry for appalling title of this post but could not resist it.

Beef - very expensive meat and I very seldom buy it as, living on one's own, I don't have huge roast dinners any more. I do, however, treat myself every now and then when it is on offer and invite my friend Rosemary round and cook up the full works, Yorkshire pud, the lot and enjoy.

And this is what happened a week ago. I had purchased a piece of beef on offer over Christmas and deemed it time it was hauled out of the freezer. Cost me £8 and was a silverside rolled joint. My preference is always for a rib roast with beef but I have to admit that this kind of joint is easier to slice and use up and is more economical.

So one gorgeous Sunday lunch. Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding (I seem to have the knack of making these now after years of failure; all down to the fat), sprouts, carrots, cauliflower and gravy made from the beef juices in the roasting pan.   It was simply delicious and we just sat there in ecstatic silence stuffing our faces.   I had made a treacle tart for pudding which we ate after a bit of a break, with custard of course.

 Next day I tackled the left over beef. I had already sent Rosemary home with a few slices for her lunch on Monday but there was still a lot left. So I sliced half of it up and filled four freezer cartons with the cuts and poured over the reamining gravy.  I find that when meat is frozen in this way the flavour intensifies when you reheat later. So in the freezer they went. Four portions ready to go.

Then I chopped up the rest and minced it up in my food processor. Chopped up the left over carrots from the day before and popped those in. Bit of gravy and topped with mashed spud and I had three more individual cottage pies.   I had one for supper a few days later and the flavour of the mince knocked spots off the bought packets for flavour. 

I then sat down and worked out that out of this £8 (half price) piece of beef Rosemary and I had two meals, she took a portion home, three more went into the freezer and three cottage pies were also produced.   That means that this was a really economical buy, eight portions so £1 each. Even if I had bought it at full price it would still have worked out well.   So I think I may buy beef more often in future.

And one portion of beef in gravy coming out of the freezer for my supper tonight. Indoors on a horrid windy, bleak day with no voice and sore throat so very glad I have these meals in the freezer.

Might bake a cake tomorrow as well as this kind of weather makes me want to have a warm kitchen full of cooking aromas. So will rummage in my store cupboard and likely to make my everyday fruitcake as I have all the ingredients to hand and it is more or less fail safe.

Random on a cooking economy drive

Now I have time I find that I can cook more cheaply and economically. I still keep the odd ready meal in the freezer for those days when I simply cannot be bothered, but cooking fresh and/or using ingredients you already have is just so much cheaper.

Last week I was in my local Co-op store. It is local and I use it a lot for odds and ends and a small shop to shore up the large one I do once a month where I spread my spending around between the Superstores. Last week they had an offer on chicken breasts, chopped up and ready to go. I usually avoid these as one pays for the chopping more than anything else but this time the packet was on offer at £1.50. So I bought two and one is in my freezer as I write.

One half of these pieces went into a stir fry. You can either stir fry fresh veg or frozen and I always have a packet of stir fry mix in the freezer as it is very useful. So bunged in some of this and the chicken and got stirring.   While stirring I put some Basmati rice in the microwave to cook. I never cook rice in a pan now, this method is so much quicker and you don't end up with a pan to soak. Ditto pasta.

When it is all cooking nicely I pop in some black bean sauce and stir and then leave to simmer for a few minutes to make sure the chicken is cooked through. Serve with the rice and I worked out that this meal, which was delicious and took about fifteen/twenty minutes to prepare, cost in the region of £1.25.

The other half of the chicken was used up a few days later. I put some chopped leaks in olive oil and left to cook until soft, put in chicken to cook.  Add a spoonful of flour to soak up oil and then some milk to make a roux. It will look all sticky and horrid but keep stirring, adding a little more milk if it gets too thick.   I sometimes chuck in some bacon if I have any when making a pie like this as the combo of chicken, leek and bacon is one of those three in a bed partnerships that are made in heaven in my view.

While simmering away I made shortcrust pastry, 4oz plain flour and 3oz lard (ratio of fat to flour is higher than the recipe but always find it makes better and shorter pastry) and after resting it in fridge, rolled it out and found I have enough for two pot pies.  Cooked one and had for supper that night with spuds and veg. Cost again around £1.25. The other pie is in the freezer.

So out of a packet of chicken costing £1.50 I produced three meals at a total cost of around £4 if my maths is correct.

Not bad.

Yesterday I cooked a roast dinner as my friend Rosemary came round for lunch. This was a piece I bought when it was on offer at Christmas time and I am already calculating the number of meals I am going to get out of it.

And I also made treacle tart. More on that another day..