ECONOMY GASTRONOMY IS ABOUT EATING BETTER AND SPENDING LESS. IT’S ABOUT CUTTING YOUR WEEKLY SHOPPING BILL WHILST MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR INGREDIENTS; IT’S ABOUT SHOWING YOU HOW TO COOK REALLY GOOD FOOD AND DISCOVERING THAT YOU’VE GOT SOME MONEY LEFT OVER AT THE END OF THE WEEK; IT HELPS YOU PLAN; AND IT PUTS EATING BACK AT THE HEART OF YOUR LIFE, WHERE IT SHOULD BE. WHAT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU IS THAT THE SECRET OF ECONOMY GASTRONOMY ISN’T CHEAPER INGREDIENTS, ECONOMY BRANDS OR BUY-ONE-GET-ONE-FREES. OUR MAGIC INGREDIENT IS JUST THAT – THE INGREDIENTS – INVESTING IN THE BEST YOU CAN AFFORD BUT MAKING THEM WORK THAT BIT HARDER FOR YOU. IN SHORT, IF YOU EMBRACE ECONOMY GASTRONOMY AS A WAY OF LIFE, YOU’LL NOT ONLY SAVE YOURSELF SOME PENNIES, BUT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WILL FIND INSPIRATION IN THE KITCHEN, AND HOPEFULLY YOU’LL PICK UP SOME GOOD LIFE HABITS TOO.

For many of us our weekly schedule is not entirely predictable, however we can pretty much bank on being in some evenings, and wouldn’t it be nice not to be scrabbling around on these occasions, but to know you have a yummy supper to look forward to? Yet most of us only think about what we want to eat five minutes beforehand. Which means nuking ready meals or ordering takeaways a bit more than is healthy. It shouldn’t be like that. If you want to go on holiday, generally speaking you don’t decide at the last minute or you’ll end up paying through the nose for a flight. We understand this about travel arrangements but it doesn’t seem to have filtered through to food. Yet thinking about what to cook and eat in a similar way – by putting some time and planning into it – dramatically cuts down on bills and waste, whilst giving your tastebuds something to get hold of.

These days there doesn’t seem to be the same amount of respect for ingredients or production methods. Before factory farming, it was a big thing to buy a whole chicken and absolutely no part of it would have gone to waste. Mum or Granny would have made sure of that. Any food from any part of the world at any time, stacked up high in the supermarkets – is it any wonder we’ve started taking food in abundance for granted? Currently what we eat, our life force, seems to come fairly low down on the priority list. Awareness of food is increasing, but many meals being put on tables every day come from huge factories or greasy takeaways and are hardly what you can stand back and honestly call ‘good food’: that is to say they taste good and aren’t bad for you.

This book takes us back to a time before convenience made us complacent and, let’s face it, just a bit lazy. There are tips on how to plan your meals, how to shop, how to get two or three meals out of one ‘bedrock recipe’ and how best to use up leftovers. You’ll also cut down on waste: we’re all guilty of throwing far too much away, and remarkably we do it without thinking and without guilt. Economy Gastronomy makes you question the decisions we’ve been making that have come to be accepted as the norm: chucking something away unopened because it’s out of date; watching food we’ve bought with our hard-earned cash shrivel and die, be it bread or grapes or, worst of all, food that had a life, such as chicken or fish. Surely that’s just a bit wrong?

As a side effect of taking a bit more interest in your kitchen and your attitude to mealtimes, you’ll also notice a decrease in packaging in your life, which has got to be a good sign that you’re helping our planet. All of that whilst you’re inadvertently saving for a holiday, or being able to pay off some bills or a loan; money you are literally throwing away at the moment.

To get the most out of this book, and to live the Economy Gastronomy life, you’re going to need to find time to change your shopping and cooking habits. If you decide to do this for a week, yes, you’ll be eating better and saving money, but if you continue for a year and start to plan properly whilst regaining a healthy respect for the world we live in, it’s going to have a profound effect on your bank account. But in order to refocus so that food becomes more central to your life, you will probably need to invest in some equipment to help you along the way. If you’re going to buy stuff when you see it cheap, to make a job lot of whatever you fancy, you won’t be able to if you have only an ice compartment above your fridge. Also, investing time and money in building a larder of essential ingredients, splashing out on a really good chopping board or even putting a quality saucepan on your Christmas list might not seem the best way to start saving money, but anything you do to put the joy and fun back into making food at home will more than pay you back – in cash and in sheer pleasure.

Even if by some odd fluke none of these benefits appeal to you, don’t forget the most real and the most basic upside of Economy Gastronomy: you’ll be eating great, wholesome, home-made food.

To get the most out of our Economy Gastronomy system, there are some really simple steps that will make a huge difference:

However often you work late or socialize or eat out, you can pretty much commit to being at home a few nights a week so we’ve given over half the book to helping to sort this out for you. The Bedrock chapter is the largest part of the book as we felt it was important to show how easy it can be to cook a recipe, and then to take the leftovers in different directions, such as by freezing them or by using them up in cunning and interesting ways over the next few days. It is also the section of the book where it’s definitely worth making slightly more of an effort to get hold of your main ingredient: you’re going to be seeing it a few times in different guises so it’s worth investing in the best quality you can afford. Bedrocks work on different levels – on one hand you’ve got dishes like a classic roast, and what you can do with the leftovers, and on the other there are ideas for taking a common ingredient such as mince or chickpeas and using it in three different ways, thus giving you a fine supper and also goodies for tomorrow or your freezer. It’s a way of making your food work for you.

All the recipes in this book have been written so that they work for real people cooking now. They are designed to be accessible, with all ingredients easily obtained from the supermarket or your local butcher, greengrocer or deli. We chose recipes that are achievable with a minimum of ingredients, knowledge and skill, and we’ve also tried to be realistic, grouping the recipes into chapters that mean something to the way we lead our lives – such as Weekday Suppers, which have short prep times, or Something Out of Nothing, for when you get caught short (as we all inevitably do sometimes) and it’s down to what’s in the cupboard and the corner shop. There are also chapters with recipes with a bit more finesse to them for when you have friends over, and one that lifts the lid on British gastropub classics.

There are many reasons why you may feel like making a change: being bored of throwing your earnings in the bin; an awareness that you’re eating too much processed food; a desire to save some money; knowing deep inside that having the Chinese on speed dial isn’t great; perhaps you’ve started to think of cooking as a chore and you’ve fallen out of love with your kitchen; or maybe you just want to try something new. One or a few of these scenarios is true for most of us, and either life can go on as is, or you can let Economy Gastronomy take over for a while, and give you something to think about. Give it a go and you’ll soon discover that, with this book as a guide, you really can have luxury food for less: a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget.

PS Each recipe title in the book is followed by an A or a P to show which of us wrote it.

A WORD ON KITCHEN EQUIPMENT

AS CHEFS, WE LOVE KITCHEN KIT! OFFER US A SATELLITE TELLY SUBSCRIPTION OR AN ICE-CREAM MACHINE AND IT’D BE THE LATTER EVERY TIME. HOWEVER, WE’RE AWARE THAT NOT EVERYONE HAS THE SAME AMOUNT OF KITCHEN GADGETS AND KNICK-KNACKS. THROUGHOUT THE FOLLOWING RECIPES, CERTAIN BITS OF EQUIPMENT KEEP CROPPING UP AND WE’VE TRIED TO OFFER ALTERNATIVES TO THOSE WHO MAY NOT OWN THE KIT REQUIRED.

OUR ADVICE IS TO BUILD UP A LIST OF EQUIPMENT THAT YOU FEEL WOULD BEST IMPROVE YOUR COOKERY AND THEN CUNNINGLY CIRCULATE THIS LIST AMONGST FAMILY AND FRIENDS JUST BEFORE YOUR BIRTHDAY AND CHRISTMAS!

Here are some basics that will make your time in the kitchen a whole lot easier:

And for your Christmas list:

BUILDING YOUR RESOURCES

I LOVE MY LARDER, EVEN THOUGH I DON’T ACTUALLY HAVE ONE. FEW PEOPLE I KNOW (EXCEPT COUNTRY-DWELLERS) HAVE SPACE FOR A DEFINED ROOM JUST OFF THE KITCHEN FOR THE PURPOSE OF CULINARY BACK-UP. BUT IT’S THE BEST WORD WE HAVE FOR THAT CRUCIAL STORE OF INGREDIENTS. (I’M NOT A FAN OF THE WORD ‘PANTRY’– IT HAS US ALL IN CLOTH CAPS AND FRILLY APRONS, AND ‘STORE CUPBOARD’ IS SO DRY, REEKING OF RATIONING, WHICH IS EVERYTHING THAT MY METAPHORICAL LARDER ISN’T.)

It’s not about the location, it’s just a collection of choice ingredients, ready for when they’re needed – keep them in boxes above the washing machine, for all I care. Carrying a certain amount of stock (most of which will take years, not days, to go out of date) is a commitment to both preparation and home cooking – the two best friends to those on a budget.

If you are poor in time, money or both, having good resources to draw upon can turn a simple sausage into a super supper faster than a pizza can arrive on your doorstep: cheaper, probably healthier, and, as long as you’ve got a basic understanding of flavours, tastier too. It works on all levels. For those who like to be organized with charts and tables (like Paul), it’s just a form of preparation and shows a willingness to be ready for that situation we’re all familiar with – caught short with no supper. Would you go to work without your phone? No! Would you stride off on a long country walk without wellies? No! So why be so unprepared for your own hunger?

My larder is a source of warmth, comfort and interest to me. It’s like having a few meaningful cookery books sitting around – interesting things in your cupboard help to define the feel of a kitchen, as well as the attitude of the cook. But essentially what we are talking about here is a collection of ingredients I know are there to help me make a meal out of nothing: what I actually have is a lot of open shelving, with stickers written on in marker pen so that I know where everything is.

In terms of sections, there are two ways to mentally build your larder. The first is in terms of storage, because in truth any all-in-one effective larder system is not just stored at room temperature (or, as we’re frequently told, preferably a cool, darkish kind of place) but expands to the fridge and the freezer, as well as the booze cupboard.

Then there is another way to look at the ingredients you choose to store. And if I have a squint around my kitchen it seems the categories can be roughly divided into Basics, Builders, Zingers and Finishers:

Whether you choose to look at it in a creative or functional way, having a larder is just good back-up; generally there to support today’s fresh ingredients, and to turn to on days when those fresh ingredients aren’t around.

Making a home for these kinds of bits and pieces provides an easy way for you to make the right choices: ready meals, eating out and takeaways all have their time and place, but so does home cooking. And having some helpful things around just makes that more likely to happen – as well as yielding a much better end result.

On the ShelvesFridgeFreezer and Other

pasta

rice

pulses

couscous

oils: olive and sesame

vinegars: light and dark

dried herbs: thyme, oregano, rosemary, bay

spices

chilli: hot sauce, smoked paprika and sweet chilli sauce

dried fruit: apricots, sultanas

nuts: including almonds, pine nuts

seeds: like sesame and pumpkin

honey

soy sauce

coconut milk

tinned anchovies

tinned tomatoes

basics for baking:

flour, sugar, baking powder

some cheese: Parmesan, goat’s, Cheddar

some dairy: butter, Greek yoghurt and crème fraîche

a bit of pig: bacon, sausages, frankfurters, chorizo, ham

mustards

capers and olives

Thai curry paste

tahini

for the freezer:

pastry: filo and puff

peas

broad beans

spinach

prawns

chicken stock (home-made)

lime leaves

berries

other:

eggs

bread

booze: cooking wine, wine, brandy, port, sherry

STORAGE

I SPEND MUCH OF MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE IN A ‘WALK-IN’ FRIDGE, ORGANIZING THE SHELVES IN A BID TO MINIMIZE ANY LOSS THROUGH WASTAGE AND OVER-ORDERING (NOW THERE’S GLAMOUR FOR YOU!). SO SURELY THERE MUST BE SOME STORAGE ADVICE I CAN GIVE THE DOMESTIC COOK.

I THINK THE EASIEST WAY TO DEAL WITH STORAGE IS TO IDENTIFY THE AREAS THAT NEED ATTENTION: THE LARDER (OR CUPBOARD, AS IT’S KNOWN IN MY HOUSE); THE FRIDGE; AND THE FREEZER.

THE FRIDGE

If left alone in someone’s kitchen, I feel an almost irresistible urge to check out the fridge. As far as I know, Freud never produced any theories based on the state of a person’s fridge, but frankly he should have. I am always amazed at the chaos of friends’ fridges. Things left unwrapped, forgotten items in a state of decay and tins of things that have no place in a fridge at all!

Based on my perfectly organized fridge at work, I reckon my top hints and tips are as follows:

THE FREEZER

Freezers are very useful in the ‘bid to save a quid’. However, like our old friend the fridge they can become ‘coldest-dustbin-in-the-house’. Having read this book, you will very soon be turning your back on all forms of ready meals or convenience food, although I could not honestly say that my freezer is free from such things. Right now, suspended in an icy state of preservation, is a box of fishfingers (from sustainable stock, the label assures me); two bags of frozen peas; and a family-sized chicken and mushroom pie, which was on special offer according to the sticker.

In amongst this selection of goodies are a number of freezer-bags, all with sticky labels giving the dates when I made up the contents:

This is what your freezer is really for. Make stuff, eat some, refrigerate some, freeze the rest.

Finally, a quick word on freezing vegetables: lots of vegetables don’t like to be frozen. Defrosted lettuce, for example, would make an awful salad. On the other hand peas, beans of all types, sweetcorn and cauliflower all freeze perfectly, but it does require a little work. Cut the vegetables into small pieces and blanch them in boiling water for about 30 seconds, drain well and then spread them out on a tray and put them in the freezer. When fully frozen, bag them up, label the bag, and wedge them into the freezer between the frozen haddock portions and the empty ice-cube tray. This way, your vegetables will be individually frozen rather than in a big clump. Making cooking a lot easier.

THE LARDER

See p.12 where Allegra has written about this most useful food cupboard. I would simply suggest you locate your larder somewhere dry and not too close to a heat source such as the oven. I would also recommend occasional date-checking of all your dry goods. Use-by dates, though occasionally a little strict, are there for a reason. So every once in a while run a check on your stock of semolina, plain flour and pistachio nuts …

MEAL PLANNING

AND THE SHOPPING EXPEDITION

IF ECONOMY GASTRONOMY IS GOING TO WORK FOR YOU, THEN THIS IS A CRUCIAL CHAPTER. ALLEGRA AND I CAN BANG ON FOR HOURS ABOUT MAKING STOCK FROM A CHICKEN CARCASS, OR PICKING WILD BLACKBERRIES, BUT IF YOU ROUTINELY SPEND TOO MUCH ON THE WEEKLY BASICS, THE GAME’S UP!

Apparently, someone somewhere (with more time on their hands than me) has worked out that, on average, one in three bags of shopping ends up in the bin. That’s an awful lot of waste, so whether your motivation is environmental or economic, read on.

I come from a long line of list-writers. This may not seem like the most staggering genetic trait to talk about, but in the circumstances it’s proved rather useful. Ask me to name the five best cover versions ever recorded or Brentford’s ten finest goals, and I will immediately grab the nearest scrap of paper and start scribbling.

Most people do a weekly shop, and most of them write a list before they go … so why all the wasted food? I reckon it’s because people write down what they know they haven’t got, rather than what they actually need. This is because very few people I know will sit down and plan seven days’ worth of meals. Imagine if you knew precisely what you would eat over the next seven days and then you went off to a shop and bought precisely those things; then (very obviously) there would be no wasted food, and no wasted money. Well, stop imagining it and give it a go!

For a professional chef, the above idea is not really that startling. We make money by careful purchasing and good housekeeping (i.e. limited waste); and we know what we need to buy because each day we check every item that goes into a dish, ordering more if we need it and less if we don’t.

Anyway, your new-found food purchasing philosophy starts here …

MEAL PLANNING

Identify the meal that you and your household would consider the main meal of the day. For most people who work, I expect this would be the evening meal.

Sit down with other members of the household and decide what your main meal will be each night for the next seven days. Bear in mind the aim is to save money, so if anyone requests fillet steak and foie gras, ban them from the meeting. I would suggest flicking through this book, where you will find a range of cheap options for every taste (well, obviously, I would suggest that …).

When choosing your main meals, spare a thought for little cost-saving tricks, for example one meal creating the leftovers for the next. By this I mean that a roast chicken on a Sunday can provide the meat for a simple, tasty yet cheap pasta dish on Monday – see our Bedrock section for a much more detailed approach.

Once your main meals are planned, decide on breakfast and lunch. Sandwiches made at home are always cheaper than those bought from a shop, and with a little invention they can taste pretty good too.

Throw in a couple of treats. You know that, come Wednesday, you will be desperate for a slice of cake or a biscuit. Don’t buy these treats. Make them. Flour, eggs, sugar and butter are the basic ingredients required for a wide variety of biscuit and cake recipes, so get them in and then find time for a little home baking.

Once you’ve agreed on all the above points, it’s time to get list writing. I do this by running through each meal and listing every ingredient and the amount required. OK, it’s not a two-minute job, but it is going to save you a fortune!

When you have your complete list, walk over to the fridge, the freezer and the larder, and cross off everything that you already have.

You’re now ready to shop!

SHOPPING

Where you choose to shop is up to you. As you’d expect, I suggest you scour farmers’ markets, local butchers, fishmongers and delis. However, I am a realist and I understand that, to most, the supermarket is favourite when judged on convenience – so let’s presume that’s where you will shop.

I have a few hints and tips on how you should approach the weekly shop. Some of them might even save you money. (I shall deliver these tips in list form, as would any Merrett stretching back several generations …)

  1. Try not to go when the shop is full of people with poor trolley-driving skills and badly written lists. They get in the way of your mission.
  2. Bear in mind that early in the day the reject shelf is pretty empty, and you should always check the reject shelf. Tomorrow’s use-by date can be today’s dinner!
  3. The supermarket manager has been trained at a secret location by the country’s leading supermarket manager training team in the art of selling you something you don’t want or need. He will have watched as hundreds of people have left his store with a 12kg sack of brown basmati rice free with every multipack of poppadoms. Fancy cakes, reduced family-size chocolate bars and 2 for 1 ready meals will all leap out and tempt you from your money-saving ways. Stick with it – you know what you need. Buy and leave.
  4. Eat before you shop. A hungry shopper is not a thrifty shopper.
  5. Buy stuff that’s in season. The supermarket has done much to limit the impact of the seasons and they didn’t do it to save you money. Raspberries in December will cost you a fortune, as will asparagus in September. Learn to live a little more seasonally.

With all this in mind, I would expect your grocery bills to tumble. The joy is that the wider your cooking repertoire becomes, the greater the choice of great-tasting cheap meals; which all means you have more money in your pocket and more space in your wheelie bin. Lecture over.

Oh, by the way, the five best cover versions ever are:

A SAMPLE MEAL PLANNER

AS YOU MIGHT HAVE GATHERED BY NOW, THE KEY TO ECONOMY GASTRONOMY IS PLANNING, AND IN ORDER TO GET YOU STARTED ON YOUR NEW CULINARY JOURNEY WE’VE PUT TOGETHER A COUPLE OF WEEKLY MENUS FOR YOU.

WE DON’T REALLY EXPECT YOU TO BE ABLE TO COOK A LUNCH EVERY DAY AND BE AT HOME SEVEN NIGHTS A WEEK, SO USE THE PLANS AS A BASE; PICK AND CHOOSE WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. THE LUNCHES ARE PARTICULARLY UP FOR CHANGE, AS THE NATURE OF OUR LIVES ARE SUCH THAT MANY PEOPLE GO OUT TO WORK, BUT SOME ARE SUITABLE FOR A PACKED LUNCH THAT YOU MAY WANT TO KNOCK UP THE NIGHT BEFORE. OTHERS ARE JUST QUICK IDEAS FOR THOSE WHO ARE AT HOME WHEN THE MIDDAY HUNGER PANGS ROAR. THE SAME FOR PUDS AND TREATS – JUST BUILD THEM INTO YOUR WEEK AT A TIME THAT WORKS FOR YOU.

THIS IS NOT A MEAL PLANNER THAT YOU HAVE TO STICK TO RIGIDLY OR ELSE THE WHOLE SYSTEM FAILS, BUT USE IT AS A GUIDE – ESPECIALLY TO SEE HOW THE IDEA OF THE BEDROCK AND TUMBLEDOWN RECIPES CAN WORK THROUGH THE WEEK – AND THIS WAY YOU’LL NEVER BE CAUGHT SHORT. NO MORE REACHING INTO THE FREEZER FOR A READY MEAL OR PICKING UP THE PHONE FOR A TAKEAWAY.

WEEK ONE

SUNDAY

Lunch: Warm poached salmon and never-fail hollandaise (p.113)

Pudding: Treacle tart (p.297)

Dinner: Spicy black bean quesadilla (p.159)

MONDAY

Lunch: Salmon and corn chowder (p.119)

Dinner: Quick spiced chicken thighs with emergency biryani (p.187)

TUESDAY

Lunch: Chorizo frittata (p.169)

Dinner: Spaghetti bolognese (p.139)

WEDNESDAY

Lunch: A very simple pasta dish with home-made tomato sauce (p.87)

Dinner: Salmon and horseradish fishcakes with crème fraîche tartare (p.115)

Treat: Anytime cookies (fresh from the freezer) (p.307)

THURSDAY

Lunch: Home-made salmon gravadlax (p.111) and cream cheese sandwich

Dinner: Thai-spiced steamed mussels (p.241)

Pudding: Rhubarb and custard pots (p.303)

FRIDAY

Lunch: Brutus salad (p.153)

Dinner: Onion bhajis, tarka dhal and almond rice (p.197)

SATURDAY

Lunch: Freshly baked bread (and cheese) with flame-grilled tomato salsa (p.155 and p.171)

Dinner: Spicy chicken bhuna salad (p.269); Salmon en croûte (p.287)

Pudding: Lemon cream with a berry compote (p.309)

WEEK TWO

SUNDAY

Lunch: Slow-roasted shoulder of lamb with a grilled vegetable and white bean salad and smoky aubergine (p.123)

Pudding: Banana sponge with toffee sauce (p.301)

Dinner: Garganelli pasta with purple-sprouting broccoli (p.175)

MONDAY

Lunch: Bubble and squeak with bacon and egg (p.151)

Dinner: Cuban chicken with rice and beans (p.173)

TUESDAY

Lunch: Souped-up soup (p.149)

Dinner: Shepherd’s pie (p.125)

Treat: Carol’s bran muffins (p.299)

WEDNESDAY

Lunch: Barley and bits salad with honey’d goat’s cheese toast (p.199)

Dinner: Pork and ginger noodle stir-fry (p.183)

THURSDAY

Lunch: Leftover shepherd’s pie baked in a loaf with pickled red cabbage (p.127)

Dinner: Fennelly trout with petits pois à la Française (p.181)

FRIDAY

Lunch: More than simply a steak sandwich (p.161)

Dinner: Escalope of chicken with rocket, sage and lemon (p.179)

Treat: Chocolate brownie biscuits (p.305)

SATURDAY

Lunch: Spinach tortilla (p.201)

Dinner: Thai prawn curry (p.223)

Pudding: Coffee granita crunch (p.211)