British Fish and Chips (version 1)

Serves: 4

Total cost: 4.93 zl per person (99 pence UK, 1.15 cents Euro, 89 Indian Rupees)

One of the first things on my list when I go back to the UK is get into a pub as soon as possible and order some traditional fish and chips washed down with a pint of ale! Delicious! Until relatively recently, I used to have a mental block about mushy peas - they just didn't look good at all. It was worth getting over that one because they sure taste good! 

I'm using cod freshly caught, straight out of the Baltic Sea and bought from a fishmonger at my local market. I usually buy it with the skin on - it gives you more flexibility over how you cook it.

Ok, hand up... I'm cheating slightly here by buying oven chips. I'll post a recipe for real chips later on...

Here we go!

You'll need:

500g cod

4-5 good handfuls of frozen peas

6 handfuls of frozen oven chips

some flour

1/2 tsp salt for the batter

1 tsp of baking powder

beer

vegetable oil

a pinch or two of salt for the peas

pepper to taste

a generous knob of butter

malt vinegar

Let's go:

1. Trim the fish and pull out any bones with a pair of pliers. Get the oven heated up to 180 degrees (for the chips).

2. Meanwhile, simmer the peas in a pan with a minimal amount of water

3. Cut the fish into 4 pieces and coat with flour

4. For the batter you'll need to put some flour in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Throw in the baking powder and salt. Mix up and make a well in the middle. Pour in enough beer to form a thinnish batter (crepe consistency)

5. Whisk into a smooth batter - no lumps allowed! Some time around this stage you could put the chips in the oven (they'll need around 20 minutes)

6. Heat some oil up for deep frying. Do the "bread test" - throw in a small piece of bread. If it starts to fry immediately, then the oil's hot enough. Dip the fish into the batter so that each piece is thoroughly covered and immediately add to the oil. Deep fry on a medium heat to ensure that the fish is cooked through (roughly 10 minutes) but the batter isn't burned. Drain on kitchen paper.

7. Add the butter to the peas. Squirt in some malt vinegar, a couple of pinches of salt and a good amount of freshly milled black pepper. 

8. Mush up coarsely with a potato masher.

9. Finish off that beer and enjoy your meal!

The cost:

500g cod - 15 zl

frozen peas - 1 zl

frozen oven chips - 1.80 zl

flour, salt, baking powder, pepper, vinegar, butter - 0.40 zl

beer - I'll assume you were going to open one anyway!

vegetable oil - 1.50 zl

Total: 19.70 zl

Serves: 4

Cost per person: 4.93 zl

Aubergine Moile from Goa

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 2.10 zl (42 pence UK, 0.63 cents US, 0.49 cents EURO)

Moile or molee or moilee, depending on which way you like it, is a South Indian style of cooking with a generous use of turmeric and coconut.

This one is a version with aubergine and goes well with rice. It's also a vegan dish.

No, I'm not a vegan.

One word about Indian vegetarian cuisine or Indian cuisine in general - it's not really a one-dish kind of thing. Generally speaking, an Indian meal consists of a variety of dishes served at the same time in the middle of the table and everyone tucks into whatever they fancy. So, I've written at the top "serves 4" as if it was just one dish and rice. However, it should really be serving 12 because there should ideally be 2 other dishes (also serving 4) on the table for you to nosh on. So, try this one with some other Indian stuff on this blog and fill your boots!

What you'll need:

2 medium sized aubergines
2 cloves of garlic
One inch cube of ginger
2 green chillies
1 medium sized onion
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/3 tsp red chilli powder (or paprika for a milder touch)
1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 cup of coconut milk
1 tsp salt
some vegetable oil

Here we go!

1. Make a batter out of the turmeric and salt by adding a little water and whisking up.

2. Coat the aubergines in this batter and leave for around 15-30 minutes

3. In the meantime, get your other ingredients together - finely chop the chillies. Slice the onions nice and thin. Pound the garlic and ginger in a pestle and mortar.

4. Fry the aubergines in enough oil to just about cover them.

5. When golden remove and place into a sieve over a bowl to drain off any excess oil

6. Use any excess oil for the next stage. Heat a little oil in a wok and add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop a bit, throw in the cumin seeds. When they crackle a bit, add the onion. Add a little salt. When they've cooked down a bit, add the ginger and garlic.

7. After a minute or two, add the green chilli

8. When the onion is golden, add the coconut milk. I used about a 1/5 of a block of creamed coconut diluted in a glass of hot water.

9. Add the aubergine and red chilli and cook down till the sauce slightly thickens.

10. Serve with rice.

Yum!

What it all costs:


aubergines - 4 zl
garlic, ginger, chillies, onion - 1.40 zl
spices and oil - 0.40 zl
coconut - 1 zl
rice - 1.60 zl

Total - 8.40 zl
Per person - 2.10 zl

Posh Cheese on Toast (version 1)

Serves: 2
Total cost: 2.30 zl per person (46 pence UK, 70 cents US, 53 cents Euro)

This makes a great little lunch - dead easy to do! I'll be using green chilli in the recipe to give the olive oil a nice background kick. You could use rosemary instead for a more herby and less spicy feel. A dried red chilli or two would work nicely as well if you don't happen to have any fresh green ones.

You'll need:

a small baguette
125 g of mozzarella
1/2 a tomato
some fresh basil leaves
1/2-1 green chilli
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Here we go!

1. Fry the chilli in some olive oil for about a minute. Turn off the heat.

2. Cut the baguette in half and slice down the middle of each half. Place each half into the olive oil to coat and then remove.

3. Put the baguette into a baking tray. Chop up some basil leaves and put onto the baguette. Cut up the mozzarella and add to the baguette. Cover the whole thing with chopped tomato and season with salt and pepper.

4. Grill in the oven on maximum. Remove when starting to brown and enjoy!

What's the cost?


a small baguette - 1 zl
125 g of mozzarella - 2.60 zl
1/2 a tomato - 0.25 gr
basil, green chilli, olive oil - 0.75 gr

Total: 4.60 zl
Serves: 2
Cost per person: 2.30 zl

Make your own garam masala

If you get into Indian cooking, it's worth learning how to make your own garam masala rather than buying the ready made packs from the shop - you'll get a fresher, more pungent and more fragrant taste.

There is no one definitive garam masala but a whole host of them depending on the regional style or the requirements of a particular dish.

Here's a good mix that goes well with the Punjabi red sauce from the previous post.

You'll need:

- 1/2 teaspoon green cardamon pods
- 2 inches cinnamon bark
- 3-4 cloves
- 1 small blade of mace
- 1 good teaspoon of black cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon pepper corns

1. Roast all the whole spices in a pan on a low heat with no oil

2. Grind the roasted spices in a coffee grinder till you have a powder

Ghia Kofta in a red Punjabi sauce

Serves: 4

Total cost: 1.85 zl per person (37 pence, 43 Euro cents, 56 US cents)

What on earth is a Ghia Kofta? I remember seeing the word "Ghia" on the back of Fords... Ghia means "bottle gourd" in Hindi, I do believe, but I still don't see the connection with cars. It's a kind of squash we don't have in Europe. So, I'm using yellow courgette instead. A kofta is a ball of some kind which is cooked or deep fried. I'll be deep frying today. 

Ghia Kofta = spicy deep fried yellow courgette balls

Yum! And it's vegan! When you think "vegan", a lot of people's next thought would be "bland!" or "why?" or "Oh no! A soya burger!"

Well, this dish is definitely not bland; au contraire! It's got a kick like a mule! And there's no soya in sight.

So let's get cracking!

You'll need for the koftas":

- 1/2 yellow courgette

- a small onion

- a square inch of ginger

- 1 finely chopped green chilli

- 1/2 teaspoon baking power

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

- 1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder

- 1 teaspoon coriander powder

You'll need for the red Punjabi sauce:

- 1 green chilli

- 2 cloves garlic

- a square inch of ginger

- 2 medium onions

- 2 teaspoons cashew nuts 

- 1 tin of tomatoes

- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala

- 1 teaspoon coriander powder

- 1 teaspoon paprika powder

- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder (Deggi Mirch)

- salt to taste

- 2 teaspoons crushed fenugreek leaves (kasouri methi)

Let's make the sauce first!

1. Soak the cashew nuts in a little water for 30 minutes. Then blend in a coffee grinder to a fine paste adding a little water if necessary

2. Roughly pound the ginger, garlic and green chilli in a pestle and mortar

3. Slice the onions and fry in a little vegetable oil and salt till golden, then whizz in a blender to make a smooth white paste

4. Whizz up the tin of tomatoes in a blender

You should now have a collection of ingredients which looks something like this:

So let's rock!

5. Heat some veg oil in a pan and add the fennel seeds when hot. When the seeds start to crackle a bit, add the garlic/ ginger/ chilli and cook for a few minutes.

6. Add the turmeric

7. Add the tomatoes and the ground spices. Cover and cook for 5 minutes on a low heat.

8. Add the cashew paste

9. Add the onion paste

10. Stir well and throw in the fenugreek leaves. Cover and simmer for another few minutes. It's ready!

Now for the koftas!

1. Grate the courgette and squeeze out the excess water by pressing the courgette between the palms of your hands

2. Finely chop or grate the onion

3. Mince the ginger with a fine grater

You'll have a collection of ingredients like this:

4. Sieve around 2-3 tablespoons of gram flour into a bowl

5. Add the ingredients

6. Mash together with your hand

7. Sieve some extra flour if it's too runny. What you're after is a soft, wet dough-like texture. Not to firm, not too runny.

8. Heat some oil in a wok for deep frying. Form balls of the mixture with your hands and drop into the oil when hot enough. To find the right temperature for the oil, drop in a tiny sliver of courgette while the oil is heating up. When the sliver rises to the surface and starts to bubble, the oil is the right temperature. After dropping in the balls, turn the heat down to medium - it's important to cook the balls through without burning the outside and leaving a raw inside.

9. Drain on kitchen paper. Serve with the sauce and rice

An alternative to this version uses red onion instead of white and some rice flour instead of the baking powder:

What does all this cost?

- 1/2 yellow courgette - 1 zl

- onions - 0.20 zl

- ginger/ garlic - 0.10 zl

- 2 green chillis - 0.40 zl

- spices - 0.30 zl

- oil - 1.5 zl

- cashew nuts - 0.40 zl

- 1 tin of tomatoes - 1.90 zl

- 200g rice (for 4 people) - 1.60 zl

Total cost: 7.40 zl

Cost per person: 1.85 zl

How much would this cost where you live?

Breaded Aubergine with tomato sauce and tagliatelli

Serves: 4
Total cost per person: 2 zl/ 0.40 GDP/ 0.46 EURO/ 0.60 USD

This one's a firm favourite with everyone, including my kids (good to get the kids enjoying a vegetarian meal, I reckon), and brings to your table some rustic flavours of Italy. This is the kind of meal you'll find in Italian homes rather than Italian restaurants and it's dead easy to make. So here goes!

What you'll need:

- a slim medium-sized aubergine
- one tin of tomatoes (whizzed up in a blender)
- 1 plump clove of garlic
- a handful of fresh basil leaves
- salt and pepper
- flour
- 1-2 eggs
- breadcrumbs
- 200g tagliatelli

1. Cut the aubergine into fairly thin slices, salt and leave in a bowl for 30 minutes

2. In the meantime, let's get cracking on the tomato sauce! Throw some olive oil into a pan, turn the gas to medium, roughly chop the garlic and throw in for around 30 secs until the garlic just starts to brown (but doesn't burn!).

3. Add the whizzed-up tomatoes. Chop up the basil by rolling all the leaves into a "cigar" and then finely slicing through. Throw into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer on a low heat for around 10 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly and you're done! A fantastic yet easy tomato sauce!

4. Get 3 things ready - a small plate with flour, a larger plate with breadcrumbs and a bowl with some whisked egg.

5. Rinse the aubergines, gather them all up between the palms of your hands and give them a good squeeze to get some moisture out - this will give a better result when they're fried.

6. Pat the aubergines in flour, then dip into the egg and finally pat onto the breadcrumbs - this will coat them nicely.

7. Pour enough olive oil into a frying pan to just cover the bottom. Switch on the gas to medium. Fry the aubergine slices until golden - you'll need to turn them a couple of times during this process and it will take around 10 minutes. When done, put on kitchen paper to absorb some of that excess olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

8. While you're frying the aubergines, boil up a pan of water and throw in some salt. Cook the tagliatelli till al dente (typically 6 minutes, but check the packet just in case!). It's a good idea to set the alarm on your phone to avoid soggy pasta syndrome. Drain. When you're ready to serve, boil up a kettle and pour the boiling water over the pasta - this will "bring it back to life" as it were.

9. We're ready! 

The costing:


a slim medium-sized aubergine - 2 zl
one tin of tomatoes (whizzed up in a blender) - 1.9 zl
garlic, basil, salt, pepper, flour, eggs - 2 zl
breadcrumbs - 0 zl (you can use stale bread - just whizz it up in a blender)
200g tagliatelli - 2 zl

Total: 7.9 zl
Serves: 4
Total per person: 2 zl 

Here's the interesting part - the costing is based on Polish prices so I'm wondering how much would it cost to make this dish where you come from?

Feel free to post comments below.