Mars Bar Cake

This doesn't really stick with the 'cheap food' theme, but take it as a little added extra for that day when you want a treat.

INGREDIENTS

3 Mars Bars

2 tbsp of syrup

75g of butter

Rice Crispies

300g chocolate

Decorations (optional)

METHOD

1. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Melt the Mars Bars, syrup and butter in a pan at low heat.
3. Pour mixture and add some rice crispies. Make sure there's enough for each crispie to be lightly coated.
4. Put the mixture into the baking tray, and squish it until it is nicely compact.
5. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie, and pour over the rice crispies.
6. Decorate as wished.
7. Cool in the fridge, and cut into approx. 16 pieces once hardened.

Yellow Split Pea and Ham soup

This recipe uses a ham hough, which isn't the easiest of produce to find. So if all else fails, use ham and ham stock cubes to achieve a similar taste.

INGREDIENTS

1 Ham Hough

250g of yellow split peas. (Lentils also work)

1 onion

2-3 carrots

1 clove of garlic

Seasoning

METHOD

1. The night before cooking, put the lentils in a bowl of water to soak overnight.
2. Boil the Ham Hough in water for 1 hour. At this point I made some Mars Bar Cake to fill in the time.
3. Dice the onion and carrots.
4. Take the Ham Hough out of the pan, and throw in the onion and carrots alongside some seasoning. Remember ham can be quite salty, so salt may not be needed!
5. Remove the fat from the Ham Hough, and then take the meat off of the bone. Chop into dice, and throw it back in the pot.
6. Drain the peas, and put into the soup pan.
7. Boil for a further 1-1 and 1/2 hours.
8. Season and serve.

Bacon and Courgette Tart

This may not look like the cheapest thing here, but the recipe I followed assured me that currently, each slice costs 98p (provided everything is bought from Tesco!). Which pretty good going if I say so myself!

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

135g ready-rolled shortcrust pastry

(I made my own instead)

1 onion sliced

1 tbsp of olive oil

150g of bacon, cut into thin strips

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 courgette, sliced

2 eggs

100ml single cream

50g of gruyère, grated (or cheddar is preferred)

Seasoning

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to gas 6, 200 degrees Celsius. Use the pastry to line a 23cm fluted tart tin with removable base. Prick the base with a fork and line with greaseproof paper and baking beans. Blind bake for 12 minutes. Remove paper and beans and bake for a further 5 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170 degrees celsius, gas 3.
2. Fry the onion in 1 tbsp of olive oil until softened. Add the bacon and garlic and fry for 5 minutes. Add the courgette and fry for 5 minutes more.
3. Beat the eggs in a bowl, mix in the cream and season. Put the courgette mix into a tart case, then pour over the egg mixture. Finish with the cheese and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the oven up to gas 6, 200 degrees celsius for a final 5 minutes.

As seen here served with kurly kale and mash. This is also bigger than the average portion expected, as there were only 4 of us for tea.

Cinnamon and Raisin Bagels

Makes 12

INGREDIENTS

150g of raisins

2 dsp of golden syrup

1 tsp of dried yeast

750g of strong white flour

1 dsp of butter/margarine

1 tsp of ginger

1 tsp of cinnamon

pinch of salt

METHOD

1. Fill a jug with 1 pint of boiling water. Add the golden syrup and raisins to the jug.
2. Leave for about 20 minutes, until it has cooled, and add the yeast. Leave for 10 minutes.
3. Put the flour, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and salt into a bowl, and mix slowly with a dough hook until the butter has mixed in. This will take 2-3 minutes.
4. Pour the jug contents into the bowl and mix for a further 10 minutes.
5. Cover with cling-film and leave in a warm place for 1- 1 and 1/2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.
6. Put a pan of water on at full heat, and pre-heat the oven at 220 degrees celsius.
7. Lightly flour two baking trays, and lightly oil two others.
8. Divide the dough into 12 and shape into rings. 
9. Leave to rest for 10 minutes on the floured trays.
10. Poach a bagel in the boiling water for 30 seconds, flip it, and repeat on the other side of the bagel. Remove from the water. Repeat this for each of the bagels.
11. Place them on the oiled trays, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes on each side.

Some of these may have been eaten before the photo was taken...

Well this is awkward...

Well hello there! I realise I haven't been keeping this up-to-date recently, and for that I can only apologise. My computer had a bit of an off-period, so now I will catch you lot with what culinary masterpieces you have missed.

Bread and Butter Pudding

For this recipe, I used a fruit loaf that my little brothers had baked a few days prior. However, you can use any bread you wish. My Dad suggests that if you want to use brown bread though, that you mix it with some white as well - only brown bread does not work as well.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 a loaf of bread

Some margarine

3/4 pint of milk

A handful of dried fruit

3 eggs

50g sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

METHOD

1. Spread the margarine onto the slices of bread, and cut the slices in half into triangles.
2. Pour the milk into a pan and wait until boiling. Watch out - when milk boils it has a tendency to overflow, so have your wits about you!
3. Lightly grease a 30cm by 20cm tray/dish.
4. Arrange half of the bread on the bottom of the dish.
5. Sprinkle the dried fruit over the bread.
6. Whisk the eggs with the sugar, ginger and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the milk and whisk thoroughly.
7. Pour the liquid onto the bread in the dish, and then arrange the rest of the bread on top. Squish down with a spoon.
8. Bake in an oven for 30-40 minutes at 180 degrees celsius, until well risen and golden brown.

Chicken Liver Paté

This recipe makes A LOT of paté. Feel free to divide it accordingly.

INGREDIENTS

2 small onions/1 big onion

500g butter

150g bacon

2 cloves of garlic

900g chicken livers

Mixed herbs and pepper

METHOD

1. Chop the onions and bacon roughly.
2. Put the onions, bacon, butter, garlic, mixed herbs and pepper in. No need for salt - bacon is already salty enough!
3. Put on a high heat until the butter melts.
4. Add the chicken livers and cook for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
5. Blitz your mixture in a blender, and then mix it in a bowl.
6. Cling-film a container of choice (loaf tin, individual ramekins), and pour the paté mixture into it.
7. Place in the fridge until it is set. This will obviously depend on the size of container used. Our loaf tin took about 4 hours.

Serving Suggestion