Economy Gastronomy TV Series Recipes - Episode 3

The third family in the Economy Gastronomy series are James and Claire Caddy and their five children (14, 12, 10, 9, 7).

Their current weekly food bill is £410/week. Most of their food is simply tipped straight into their waste disposal unit because they throw so much food away. They never use leftovers.

Bedrock Recipe:

• Poached Salmon
  

Tumbledowns and Other Meals:

• Salmon & Horseradish Fishcakes with Creme Fraiche
  
• Salmon & Corn Chowder
• Chicken Escalope with Rocket, sage and lemon
• Creamy Garlic Rabbit Casserole
  
• Treacle Tart.

This hub brings you an overview of the TV programme Economy Gastronomy, but the programme doesn't give you step by step recipes and some items they cook there are no recipes or instructions at all. Where I can, I've provided the recipes they covered, but they really want you to buy their book, which is available from Amazon as a 320 page hardback.

Again, some of the Economy Gastronomy bedrock recipe was skimped over a little, but the basics of poaching the salmon were:

• Chop up onions finely and place in a roasting tray on top of the hob - it has to be large enough to take the salmon pieces, so think about how large you're cutting the salmon up.
• Add quite a lot of white wine (it seemed like most of a bottle)
• Add 2 bayleaves and lots of freshly ground black pepper
• Lay the salmon down (they had 3Kg) skin side down, simmer, covered (use foil)

They didn't say how long the fish should be poached for though.

The poached salmon produced the first meal and was served straight away with a never fail hollandaise sauce, asparagus and Jersey Royal poatoes cooked in mint. This only uses 1/3rd of the salmon, the remaining two portions were saved for the Economy Gastronomy bedrock recipes.

The concept of Economy Gastronomy is that you do one large batch cook of your main meat or dish, which is then used to produce three separate meals for the family across the coming week.

This week's bedrock recipe was poached salmon, this would then be divided into three large portions and would produce further meals later in the week

Salmon Tumbledowns:

• Salmon & Horseradish Fishcakes with Creme Fraiche
• Salmon & Corn Chowder
  

• 2/3rds of the poached salmon (350-400g)
• The poaching liquid from the fish (700ml, top up with water as necessary)
• 1-1.2Kg mashed potato,
• 4 heaped tablespoons of fresh horseradish, break it down in a blender rather than blending it or it'll hurt your eyes
• 25g/a massive handful of parsley, chopped
• 3 eggs
• 100g plain flour + 2 handfuls of fresh herbs
• 50g butter
• 300-400g breadcrumbs

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and store in the fridge overnight to make into fishcakes tomorrow

The Economy Gastronomy programme is fast paced and they don't spell out the recipe in minute detail, but here's Paul Merritt's Treacle Tart. There's a link at the bottom of this page to Paul's Treacle Tart recipe, that includes making the pastry. In Economy Gastronomy, they used ready-made pastry to make the tart.

• Warm about 650g/1.5lb of golden syrup in the stove with a large knob (150g) of butter
  
• Using leftovers or scraps of bread,blend about 150g/5oz of bread into breadcrumbs in a food processor
• Add 1 egg to the golden syrup
• Whisk 50ml/5½oz double cream into the syrup mix
• Grate the zest of 2 lemons into the pan
• Stir the ingredients in the pan round until it's all mixed in together
• Tip in the bread and stir it all together.
• Take some ready-made pastry and roll it out, line a tart dish and blind bake this
  
• Remove tart case from the oven and let it cool.
  
• Pour the syrup mixture into the case
• Place tart (in tin) on a baking tray
• Bake in the oven for 45 minutes at about 200C/400F/Gas 6 (until it's a dark golden brown)
  

Once cooked, I doubt I could resist a hot slice with custard... but officially you're supposed to cool it down for 15 minutes and serve with a big scoop of clotted cream.

It'll keep for 2-3 days covered in the fridge.

This moneysaving recipe from Allegra is made of three parts.  Again, she gave  no measurements at all, which was disappointing, but then they want you to buy the book ... so buy the book!

1] Bhaji Mix

• Take a big mixing bowl, put in some flour - use ground flour (plain will workk for convenience)
• Add some Greek yoghurt
• Add ground cumin,garam masala, water,season with salt
• Beat into a smooth batter, so it's like a creamy dip consistency
  
• Put the mix aside, somewhere warm, for about 30-45 minutes
• After 30-45 minutes, slice up some onions, and add chillies (3 small birds eye chillies), loads of coriander and lime juice
• Add a bit of flour (to stop it doesn't blow up in the pan)
• Add some turmeric (for colour and flavour)
• Mix it all up

2] Dhall

• Put a lot of chopped garlic in the pan with wholeseed spices (mustard, coriander, cumin, cardamon pods)
• Stir around and fry/cook the seeds.
• Wait for the garlic to get a nutty brown and that's where the flavour is
• Tip in split peas, give them a good roll around in the oil
• Add water
• Bring up to the boil
• Turn it down to lowest setting and leave for 40 minutes

3] Almond rice

• Put 2 tablespoons of butter in pan
• Drop in flaked almonds, fry until they're a nice brown
• Tip in rice
• Roll and coat
• Add 500ml water and put the lid on
• Simmer for 10 minutes, then turn the heat off and steam for 5 minutes with the lid on

4] Fry the Bhajis

• Heat up 1 litre of sunflower oil (can be reused after)
• Put one piece of onion in and you're waiting until the onion bounces straight back up and bubble (it's ready then). Allow at least 2" at the top of th pan for the oil to bubble up.
• Drop spoonfuls of the Bhaji mixture into the hot oil and fry for 3-4 minutes each side until golden brown

Serve them together.

This recipe was provided by Paul, again, he gave no measurements:

• Ask the butcher to break the rabbit down into joints
• Toss in flour before being coloured in a pan - the starch in the flour will thicken the finished sauces
• Fry for a few minutes either side
• Lift out and keep to one side
• Add vegetables (celery, leek, onion), white vegetables for a white sauce
• Add sage, thyme and half a bulb of garlic
• Pour a couple of glasses of white wine in and let it simmer, when it's reduced to half add chicken stock
• Bring to a gentle simmer
• Put rabbit into the stock, let it cook for an hour
• After an hour, the rabbit is tender and cooked through, remove from the pan
• Turn the heat up, and boil the sauce rapidly for 5-6 minutes to reduce the liquid and increase the flavour
• Add cream, simmer for 5-6 minutes
• Sieve out the sauce so veggies are gone, put the white sauce back in the pan
• Add rabbit and some chopped garlic into the white sauce
• Chop up some mushrooms and pan fry them until caramelised

Serve by spooning the rabbit out onto the plate, pouring the white sauce over it and topping with the mushrooms.  Top with chopped chives.

Essential carbohydrates you should keep in your store cupboard:

• Pasta, rice 60g per person is a portion
• Rissotto rice can make a meal out of leftovers
• Cous cous, boil a kettle, pour water onto the cous cous, 2 minutes later it's ready. Throw a handful into soups and slow cooks. It is made of the same stuff pasta is.
• Buy pulses dry, they are under half the price because you're not paying for other peoples tins, suace or cooking time - and, Pulses count as part of your 5 a day
  

The expert money saving tips this week came from Pauline Ivaldi, Fishmonger

• Grey mullet - a delicious and really meaty white fish, this is a good alternative to Sea Bass.
• You can roast it whole, or cook on a barbecue
• Coley is a member of the cod family, it's popular in Scandanavia. It's half the price of cod.
• Mackeral is a sustainable fish, as well as being healthy and easy to cook

 At the end of the programme, they cook a dinner party for guests, who are arriving in three hours, using only what's already in the house and a budget of £2.50 for each guest. This week's menu was:

• Crunchy Thai Salad with Prawns and Chilli Prawns
• Sea Bass Wrapped in Pancella with saffron rissotto and fish sauce
• Chocolate Fondant with pistachio brittle and peanut butter milkshake
  

Images

Poached Salmon/Andrew K Brown: © http://www.flickr.com/photos/66678483@N00/532825864

Treacle Tart: © http://www.flickr.com/photos/irrational_cat/306234814/