Frugal Living and Working :: Frugal Food Forums

Frugal Living and Working :: View Forum - Frugal Food - Cooking, Baking, Winemaking on a Budget

This is just a short blog to remind all of our readers that as well as this frugal blog, we also have Frugal Food Forums where we regularly discuss topics such as home cooking, foraging, preserving, bread making and, of course, our grocery challenges.

Whether you are trying to cut costs, reduce waste or generally make a difference to your diet, there is bound to be a forum topic to suit your needs.

From edible flowers to hand made chocolates – food is a fantastic subject and we would love you to join us in the forums discussing how to get the most for your money when feeding a family on a small budget.

Now that we are into porridge, soup and hot puddings time of year, we can start experimenting with simple ingredients and cost out the ingredients while also looking at cooking costs. With the utilities companies already bumping up the prices of electricity and gas yet again, now is a great time to join us in the battle to beat the home budget, be it in energy, food or general household shopping.

How many meals can you make from a single chicken?

How many meals can you make from a pack of mince?

Could you feed your family on £1 per person per day for all meals and still afford the toiletries, laundry and cleaning products in that tight a budget?

Do you forage for fruit and berries to make your own jams and jellies?

Have you ever tried cooking with cucumbers?

Can you bake a loaf of bread for 25p?

Would you like some soup recipes?

Can you make your garden (or other growing space) produce basic ingredients that could become a meal?

Have you baked cakes from courgettes?

How do you make your pickle and/or relish?

This is your invite to join us free in the FRUGAL FOOD FORUMS

Tonight, I will be joining in the online discussion about food that’s being hosted on Twitter. If you would like to take part, simply sign in to your www.twitter.com account and search for/follow @Frugaldom We use what’s known as a hash tag (# this is a hash tag) word for following the discussions, so look for #dghour and you should be able to see all the comments made by those attending tonight’s Dumfries & Galloway based food discussion.

Mark your diaries – on 9th November, I will be hosting an hour-long discussion on the topic of moneysaving. Everyone is welcome, even if you have no other connection with Dumfries and Galloway than being a follower, reader or member of the Frugal Blog, Frugal Forums or Frugaldom websites.

See you there, don’t forget to share!

NYK Media, Frugaldom

Frugal Gourmet - Cooking Delicious, Cheap and Easy Food.

Frugal Gourmet - a Day in the Kitchen

Here in Frugaldom, I've been making and trading lemon curd for quite a few years, but am ashamed to say that I hadn't made any this year, until today. The ducks, hens and quail are all laying well, so I always have a heap of eggs ready to use.

 

This morning, we had our porridge (the cat included) and then I baked two small loves - these cost pennies each if you bake them in the breadmaker on 'Express' setting and use the cheapest of the cheap, bulk bought flour. Today's loaves are made from a 50:50 mix of gluten free bread flour with sunflower and sesame seeds and white soft bap mix. Here's the recipe I used, just in case you, too, are a bargain bulk-buying, batch cooker.

FRUGAL DAILY BREAD

300ml warm water
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons veg oil
225g soft bap mix
225g sesame & sunflower seed gluten free bread mix
1 teaspoon dried yeast

 

Baked in the breadmaker on 'express' setting, which takes 45 minutes. I'd to split the above in half and make two small loves, as it's the hand-me-down twin pan breadmaker I'm using for this.

 



 

Next up - beef and tomato stew  I cooked the diced beef with some of the past week's tomato pickings and spring onions in a little salted water then added a sprig of fresh herbs - rosemary, sage and basil picked from the garden. A few cheap gravy granules and hey presto - a dish fit for kings. As is, this big pan of stew would probably serve 4 people, depending on what it's being served with at the time, but frugal gourmet suggestions include the addition of beans, lentils, chick peas or other similar protein-rich foodstuff to turn it into a batch cooked meal for 10 to 12.

 

At lunchtime, I made soufflé omelette but decided to make the meringue version - 5 egg whites whisked into peaks, stir in one egg yolk, then salt and pepper to season - higher protein and lower fat that your 'normal' omelette, except that we had grated cheese melted over the top. :) Anyhow, it conveniently left me with 4 egg yokes, which is perfect for lemon curd!

 

LUXURY LEMON CURD RECIPE
4 egg yolks (I use our own hens' eggs)
150g sugar
100mls lemon juice (or lime or orange or a mixture)
70g butter (or margarine)
 

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together whilst gently warming the butter and lemon juice. Add the egg yolk/sugar mix to the pan and whisk together with the lemon and butter. (Today I am using 50:50 lemon and lime juice.) Keep this on a low heat and whisk regularly until the mixture thickens to resemble custard. If you are cooking on a log burner, it's easier to take the pan off the heat to whisk it, otherwise cook slowly over a low heat. Do not allow the mix to boil.

 

Pour into a sterilised, pre-heated jar and leave to cool. Once set, keep it refrigerated.

 

This quantity is sufficient for one full jar and is classed as an absolute luxury, gourmet food when it's made with fresh eggs and butter. Check the ingredients in a supermarket bought 'bargain' jar and see the difference for yourself. This here is the real McCoy, nothing beats it in taste.

This is today's lemon and lime curd, I'm using a 500ml clip-top jar. The jars were on special offer in a big name supermarket when I first got them - an amazing 3 for £2 - so I got £10 worth of them a few years ago and they have been great for all sorts of jellies, preserves, pickles and curds.

Enjoy!

An Eggs-cellent Frugal Business

January Sale Now On



I'd like one of these, please!

 2011, year three in Frugaldom and we're still pursuing the debt free, frugal living, frugal business, frugal blogging plan but now incorporating a frugal business plan for the future. Afterall, we still need to earn a living in order to pay all the bills.

There's no such thing as cash free living, no matter how much we want to believe it exists. In a nutshell, it doesn't!


Not wanting to carry all my eggs in one basket, making Frugaldom self-sufficient in all things, including cash, means diversification from ground level. There are no employees, there are no doors to be opened to allow the public access and there are no lengthy meetings or negotiations to fit into my day. What I do have is a small poultry flock that needs caring for from dawn until dusk, literally.

If you have any plans for keeping and rearing poultry or deriving part of your income from them, you'd probably be safest registering via Defra from the outset, get your flock onto the GB Poultry Register. At the moment, registration is voluntary for small keepers, but it is compulsory as soon as you reach 50 birds, including quail. Registration is completely free and it can be done online, so there's no excuse for not meeting minimum legal requirements once your flock is built up to a productive level. You'll also need to complete an annual questionnaire to confirm and/or update the numbers. This can also be done online.



Freerange eggs

Being of a frugal nature, keeping hens means that eggs become part of the staple diet. It's not just hen eggs we eat, there are also the duck and quail eggs, so there are always plenty on the go, especially once the better weather gets here. Birds usually need around 14 hours of daylight to produce eggs, but there are always a few appear through the winter. We've been really lucky in that we've managed to have an average of half a dozen per day right throughout the worst of the winter weather. The main problem was collecting quail eggs before they froze solid - something for which the cat was extremely grateful, as she got all the defrosted eggs.



Homemade Lemon Curd

 Spring will soon be creeping in and then egg production will soar. If the household can consume 40+ eggs per week then what happens when we're getting 100+ duck and hen eggs and another 100+ quail eggs?

There's a limit to what we can sell, especially as the law dictates eggs can only be sold directly to the consumer. There's all sorts of legislation governing eggs and egg sales, so best stick to selling directly to friends, neighbours, family and colleagues. Quail eggs, on the other hand, are a delicacy that can be traded retail or wholesale, to the consumer or hotels, restaurants and wholesalers.

Here in Frugaldom, I breed and rear Japanese Coturnix Quail mainly for eggs but it's the surplus eggs from the hens that get channelled into my small scale lemon curd production. I'm still tweaking the recipe to give it that 'something different' but feedback, so far, has been very positive for both the lemon and lime curds. I even make meringues and coconut macaroons in order to use up all the extra egg whites left over from using the bright yellow yokes.

But before you jump for joy and rush out to start making and plying your wares, one word of caution: In order to make and sell food, it is mandatory that you have a valid and current Food Hygiene Certificate. Your certificate needs renewing every 3 years. On the plus side, it costs only £25 and you can do the short course and sit the exam online within a few hours. As long as you are only making small quantities when you have surplus eggs, this project shouldn't need further certification for the premises. This is a handy publication (downloads as a .pdf) about starting a food-based business.

In the long run, I'd love to be able to build a Log Cabin and live the good life, but let's not try to run before we walk. In the meantime, if anyone has a scrap of land available for sale, please get in contact.

10 Frugal Things to Do This Weekend

Phil the Pig

It's the final countdown! Only one week to go until the festivities begin, culminating in the hogmanay celebrations that will herald in the beginning of the 2011 Frugal Challenge.
 
Loads to do this weekend, making, baking, counting, wrapping, attempting to be prepared... especially if parcels need posting out on Monday! Here's hoping the weather doesn't delay any important deliveries.

So what are we doing in Frugaldom this weekend? I've made a short list of things to keep me busy once the feathered friends have been attended to and eggs collected



10 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND



Cash Cow



1) Make shortbread

2) Make chocolate marzipans

3) Make lemon curd

4) Make snowman soup packs



5) Make a clootie dumpling (recipe here)

6) Make chocolate truffles

7) Count out the £2 coins you've been saving all year

8) Empty the papier mache banks you've been filling with spare change all year

9) Wrap presents

10) Clean kitchen - it's a bombsite after the weekend cookathon

I'm not very focussed when it comes to following lists, I prefer writing them, so there may be a few updates over the weekend, appealing for help when the shortbread burns, the marzipan gets stuck to the rolling pin and the chocolate for the truffles goes lumpy.

Watch out Twitter - that's where I get the quickest response if there's nobody about on the Frugaldom Forums.

Chilly Weather But No Snow in Frugaldom.



1st December 2010

The past couple of days have been very cold but gloriously sunny. It's actually quite warm in the sunshine, so we've been sitting out at the back door for coffee breaks in between seeing to hens, ducks and quail.

Egg laying is on the increase, so I've been able to set aside a few extras for selling and also made the first batch of stove-top lemon curd. It's just cooling now. I've also popped two trays of muesli biscuits into the oven, so bring on the visitors - we have something to accompany the coffee. :)

Keeping the stove going is a daily chore, as is trying to keep a ready supply of dry  firewood. Chopping logs and splitting sticks is a very regular occurance here - we just can't get enough of the stuff. With temperatures not getting above freezing, most days, it's going to be great once the wet weather returns - NOT!

The plan to summarise the past year fell apart. It just seemed silly copying it all over here when it's already on the old website, so that time-wasting project has been called to a halt.

Off to check on the biscuits then make lunch; can't decide between soup and bread or eggs on toast. Such are the major decisions that have to be made in Frugaldom.

LUXURY LEMON CURD RECIPE

4 egg yolks (I use our own freerange hens' eggs)
150g sugar
100mls lemon juice (you can substitute this for lime juice or do half and half mixed)
70g butter (or margarine)

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together whilst gently warming the butter and lemon juice. Add the egg yolk/sugar mix to the pan and whisk together with the lemon and butter. Keep this on a low heat and whisk regularly until the mixture thickens to resemble custard. If you are cooking on a log burner, it's easier to take the pan off the heat to whisk it, otherwise cook slowly over a low heat. Do not allow the mix to boil.
Pour into a sterilised, pre-heated jar and leave to cool. Once set, keep it refrigerated.

Did you know there are NO EGGS in many of the cheap, mass produced lemon curds?

Join us in the fun, frugal forum at
http://www.frugaldom.co.uk/