Due to an early morning flat viewing, I ended up staying in Hammersmith last night and cooking for 3. It was decided that I should do a sweet and sour. Whilst browsing the shelves in Tesco, it struck me that sweet and sour could easily be turned into a budget recipe. Most of the basic ingrdients aren’t expensive at all and, if you avoid doing batter for the meat, it is all pretty easy.
Admittedly, when I make a sweet and sour I do put in lots of stuff that is a little bit pricey. I tend to do egg fried rice with sesame oil and spring onions and throw five spice over the meat. But I was pretty convinced that it could be a much less expensive affair.
So I tried it out, substituting diced turkey for pork. I threw in my usual extras but they certainly could be left out. The turkey worked fine in the dish. It was all very good apart from the batter, which was ok but not as good as I wanted.
Here’s the cost analysis.
1.99 for 620g diced turkey leg,
0.16 for a large onion
0.60 for half a pack of peppers
0.49 for a can of pineapple chunks in juice
0.04 for a couple of small garlic cloves
0.35 at the very most for cornflour, a pinch of sugar, ginger powder and a dash of vinegar
That made the sweet and sour dish about £3.65 on its own for three people. Adding a portion (8p) of plain boiled rice made the whole (decently sized) meal £1.30 per portion.
If you wanted egg fried rice, the eggs, spring onions,sesame oil would set you back about 75p more so the meal would be £1.55 per portion. I also tossed the meat in five-spice. It costs 80p for a jar and I only used a little- so maybe an extra 5p per person.
As for the batter… well batter isn’t my strong point. I guess it would be another 15p per person but I always make too much and it never quite works. It always turns out thick and stodgy or, like last night, a bit insubstantial.
Ignoring the batter, everything was good and we had a nice meal washed down with Champagne. Ok, so it was really Tesco Cava which was on offer. We can’t seem to break away from the student sterotype! The sweet and sour recipe is here. There’s a link to the egg fried rice on there too.
Due to an early morning flat viewing, I ended up staying in Hammersmith last night and cooking for 3. It was decided that I should do a sweet and sour. Whilst browsing the shelves in Tesco, it struck me that sweet and sour could easily be turned into a budget recipe. Most of the basic ingrdients aren’t expensive at all and, if you avoid doing batter for the meat, it is all pretty easy.
Admittedly, when I make a sweet and sour I do put in lots of stuff that is a little bit pricey. I tend to do egg fried rice with sesame oil and spring onions and throw five spice over the meat. But I was pretty convinced that it could be a much less expensive affair.
So I tried it out, substituting diced turkey for pork. I threw in my usual extras but they certainly could be left out. The turkey worked fine in the dish. It was all very good apart from the batter, which was ok but not as good as I wanted.
Here’s the cost analysis.
1.99 for 620g diced turkey leg,
0.16 for a large onion
0.60 for half a pack of peppers
0.49 for a can of pineapple chunks in juice
0.04 for a couple of small garlic cloves
0.35 at the very most for cornflour, a pinch of sugar, ginger powder and a dash of vinegar
That made the sweet and sour dish about £3.65 on its own for three people. Adding a portion (8p) of plain boiled rice made the whole (decently sized) meal £1.30 per portion.
If you wanted egg fried rice, the eggs, spring onions,sesame oil would set you back about 75p more so the meal would be £1.55 per portion. I also tossed the meat in five-spice. It costs 80p for a jar and I only used a little- so maybe an extra 5p per person.
As for the batter… well batter isn’t my strong point. I guess it would be another 15p per person but I always make too much and it never quite works. It always turns out thick and stodgy or, like last night, a bit insubstantial.
Ignoring the batter, everything was good and we had a nice meal washed down with Champagne. Ok, so it was really Tesco Cava which was on offer. We can’t seem to break away from the student sterotype! The sweet and sour recipe is here. There’s a link to the egg fried rice on there too.
