Austerity Cooking

I have written so many posts concerned with austerity cooking recently on my Northern Eco blog that I feel the need for a space dedicated to the topic. So this new blog will focus solely (or as solely as my magpie mind will allow) on cooking on a very very limited budget indeed, with each post including at least one recipe, and maybe topical tips.

First topical tip on this sunny November Saturday is make the occasional visit to your local market. Not the farmer's market where you'll see olives that it's reasonable to think were not grown nearby, jams you could make better yourself, and fancy charcuterie. No, go to your town centre market where you'll find loads of bargains - when I lived near Bury the market there sold chicken frames - the central bony bit left after a bird has been jointed. They cost 20p, made fabulous stock, and yielded enough meat for a curry or a risotto, or a good sarnie. Cheap veg too, much of it the stuff the supermarkets won't accept because it is slightly knobbly or with minor colour variations, and often from very local sources.

First recipe, unashamedly lifted (with a few changes) from my other blog because it is so good and so cheap: leek and bacon risotto. One large onion; one carrot, half a packet of Sainsbury's recipe bacon (£1.34/2 = 67p of bacon). I used small leeks from the garden but one medium leek would suffice. Half a box of own brand risotto rice, so about 60p for that.

Chop the onion and carrot finely and sweat in a tablespoon of oil in a deep and wide frying pan over a low-medium heat for five minutes, then add the bacon cut into roughly equal strips or squares until it starts to colour - don't let it crisp, the rest of the cooking finishes it off and lets the bacon flavour infuse the rice. Add the rice and stir to coat with the oil and start it cooking, just a minute at max. Make up some stock with a good cube or use home-made if you have it but it must be piping hot, and start to add and stir in until the rice sucks it up, then add more until it is nearly cooked through - just a tiny bit of chalky core left in a grain - which is when you add the leeks cooked separately. Reckon on about 20 minutes over a medium heat, and don't forget that a risotto needs to be on the wet side. The leek is cooked in another pan, very thinly sliced, for just a couple of minutes in a knob of butter. Check it is cooked right through, then season to taste and serve with a bit of parmesan if you have it, but it tastes great without. Enough for a main course for three or four at a stretch, and for considerably less than £2.

If you precede this with a first course of grated (then squeezed in your hands to dry them a bit) and dressed carrots, some strips of red or green pepper (the odd shaped cheapo ones) strips, and a couple of fresh raw mushrooms cleaned, sliced and drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with a few turns of pepper and some salt, and you have a dirt cheap Italian meal.

In the very unlikely event that you have leftover risotto it makes good fritters moulded into a ball, rolled in flour then beaten egg then breadcrumbs, and fried pretty slowly until brown. They are even better with a bit of cheese added to the rice mixture.