A drizzle of good sauce can turn an ordinary meal into something special, without being expensive or difficult. The photo shows the aioli over tuna rissoles, giving them a touch of class.

For aioli, you can make your own mayonnaise from scratch or for a speedy alternative, use bottled mayonnaise. If you use bottled, use the best quality, whole egg mayonnaise that you can find and avoid the imitation stuff, the difference in taste is huge. Making mayonnaise is not difficult, but I usually just use bottled whole egg mayonnaise. Fresh chilli is best, dried chilli flakes will do if fresh isn’t available.

Makes about 1/2 cup

(more…)

I took a roast pumpkin and feta salad dressed with a honey balsamic dressing to our family Christmas lunch. The dressing is probably one of the best that I’ve made (even if I do say so myself), and it got a lot of compliments.

As I’m not a fan of salads, so I take my salad making pretty seriously as I want to ensure that I actually enjoy it. A good dressing is vital to making a good salad.

I’ve tried to give quantities here, but making a salad dressing isn’t an exact science, so taste it and adjust it to how you like it. Years ago someone gave me the secret to making a great salad dressing: it takes a rich man to add the oil, a miser to add the vinegar, a wise man to season it, and a mad man to shake it. That’s the way to make a dressing – no need to measure: more oil, less vinegar or acid, season to taste and mix well!

(more…)

It’s asparagus season, and the best thing to eat with asparagus is a nice piece of pan seared salmon.

And what holds this meal altogether and rockets it into the gourmet stratosphere?

Hollandaise sauce.

Hollandaise sauce isn’t hard, but it does take a little care and attention. I usually whip this up before cooking a meal, and let it sit off heat until I need it. It might form a skin if left for a while, you can prevent this by covering it with a little baking paper, but I usually just give it a stir every now and then. If necessary, it can be very gently reheated before serving.

A double boiler or bowl over simmering water is usually recommended, but I just cook this up in a normal saucepan. The key is to melt the butter slowly, whisking continuously. If unsure, add only a tiny amount of butter at a time and stir it in before adding the next pat. To regulate the heat, I just lift it off the burner and continue to whisk.

Slow and steady turns out a perfect sauce every time but it still only takes about 5 minutes to make.

(more…)

When it comes to comfort food we often think of mashed potato or pasta, but soft polenta would definitely have to be my favourite comfort food. I love its soft, carby, creamy, buttery goodness.

You can get instant polenta which cooks in only a few minutes, or regular polenta that takes about 40 minutes to cook. I’ve only used regular polenta so I can’t compare, but I’m told that it is better than instant.

When making polenta a skin kind of cooks to the bottom of the pot. To clean, soak in water overnight and this skin just peels right off.

Of course, it’s the real cream, the real butter and the real parmesan that make this dish so good.

(more…)

I love this mango chutney. With summer coming up and mangos coming into season, I thought that this would be a good recipe to share. You could have this chutney with whatever takes your fancy, but I usually serve this with veggie patties, which I’ll give a recipe for next Monday.

Method

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes. Chill before serving.

Method

1. Soften butter for about 1/2 hour before starting. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl, add butter and lightly rub mixture to combine.
2. Make a well in the centre and add water. Combine until you have a smooth dough. Press into a flat cake, cover and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.
3. Roll out the pastry dusting with flour. Line pie dish, pressing dough into the edges. Trim slightly beyond the edge of the dish to allow for shrinkage. Chill for 20 minutes.
4. Fill the bottom of the pastry with lightly scrunched foil or baking paper and fill with rice or pastry weights.
5. Bake at 200°C for 15 minutes, then remove weights and bake for a further 5 minutes.

Makes 1 quantity of dough for a large dish. I usually just use salted butter. For a sweet crust, add a tablespoon of caster sugar.

I want to bake my own bread. Homemade bread is like the symbol of the frugal lifestyle. Bake your own and you’re a frugal master.

However, I’m a terrible bread maker. I’ve had a go a few times, but it never seems to turn out right. Maybe I’m just so used to the fluffy white commercial sugary stuff.

There was one loaf that turned out ok. I used wholemeal flour and spelt and surprisingly, my husband quite liked it. But my loaves are usually break your teeth rock solid.

The other thing is that it’s so time consuming. Who has time for all that kneading? Whenever I think of baking bread, just the thought of all that work puts me off.

Well that excuse at least has gone since I read the Cheap like me blog. Their website shows their bread making efforts with some very, very tempting photos. The bread making technique is from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day , which has just hit my wish list.

The recipe is knead free, you keep a batch of dough in the fridge (which takes a couple of minutes to whip up) and just pull out a handful of dough and bake a loaf when you want one. How easy is that!?

Cheap. Healthy. Tastes good. Quick. Convenient. It ticks all the boxes.

The authors of the book also have a blog Artisan Bread in Five with a few tips and tricks to bread making.

If you would prefer a more hands on bread making experience a traditional bread making recipe and tutorial can be found on Down to Earth Blog.

Cheap like me also included a link to some bread making Troubleshooting tips which could be quite helpful.

So I’m inspired to give bread making another go with this quick and easy recipe. How about you?

There are hundreds of recipes for pizza sauce, below is the one that I use. You can add onion, use oregano instead of basil, add chilli… however you like your pizza sauce.

The cheapest store bought pizza sauce that I could find was $1.15 for 140g which spreads one, maybe two pizzas.

I usually la Gina tinned tomatoes because I think they are better than the home brand, and they cost $1.09 on special. So making your own will give you around 5 times more pizza sauce for the same cost.

1. In a saucepan, fry the garlic for a few seconds, until it gets a bit of colour.
2. Add all of the other ingredients and bring to the boil.
3. Let it simmer for 5 minutes to reduce.
4. Strain the sauce, pressing it through a sieve discarding the basil and garlic, or just blitz it with a stick blender, reducing the waste.

We blend the sauce, rather than strain it. This makes a decent amount of sauce, I usually freeze it in batches to use later.

It covers 6 pizzas made on Lebanese style bread. We also freeze the bread in batches.

You can double or triple the recipe and freeze.

We never used to make homemade pizza because I thought it was a lot of fuss and mess, but with the base and the sauce in the freezer already made, pizza can be on the table in less than 20 minutes for less than $4.00 for two pizzas.

A pizza tray can really make a difference when making pizza, we have an inexpensive round tray with holes in it that crisps the bottom up nicely.

Making your own stock and having it on hand in the freezer can save you money and form the basis of healthy, inexpensive meals. A tetra pack of stock costs around $3 for 1 litre. You can make a batch three times that much for free (almost) out of leftover vegetable scraps and without the artificial extras. Making it yourself tastes better than stock powder.

Making stock is really easy. It takes time, but you just put it on the heat and leave it. And using vegetable scraps means there is no preparation and no mess.

• When you prepare meals, wash all vegetables and save the peelings and scraps. Keep the scraps in a bag or container in the freezer and add your scraps at every meal time. Make sure it’s kept frozen, otherwise it could go mouldy.
• Include scraps such as onion skins and ends, carrot peelings and ends, zucchini ends, parsley stems, the green part of the leek (washed) and celery tops. Limit things like broccoli stems and cabbage as these can give the stock a strong flavour. I usually throw these in anyway, because I don’t mind the flavour. Brown onion skins and red capsicum will give the stock a dark colour.
• When you have a full bag, throw the vegetable scraps in a pot. Top it up with 3 or 4 litres of water, add a few pepper corns, and a bay leaf or two. If you’re short on onion, carrot or parsleys scraps, throw a bit extra in the pot.
• Bring to the boil and simmer for a few hours. Let cool. Strain, divide and freeze.

This is makes an almost free base to soups, casseroles, sauces, stews, risotto, or whatever you use stock for.

A pastry crust that is simple, speedy and yum. Makes 1 pie 22.5cm pie shell.

Method

• Melt the butter with the milk in a saucepan over low heat. (Add 2 tsp sugar to dissolve if you require a sweet pastry.)
• Add sifted flour and salt and stir to form a ball.
• Press evenly into the bottom and sides of a greased pie plate
• No need to blind bake, just fill and bake until filling is set and pastry golden.