Resident foodie Katy Hofstede-Smith says informal and relaxed is the way forward in January.
After the excess of Christmas most of us are not only watching our waistlines but also our wallets. But that doesn’t have to mean you can’t still entertain, you just have to think things through a little more carefully.
January is usually a bit of a slower month in our house, so informal, relaxed evenings with friends are definitely good enough. This allows me to make cheaper large pot meals like a really good lasagne with a couple of extra touches such as mozzarella scattered on the top and a crisp fresh salad or a flavoursome curry, which always go down well and enable you to make your meat and meal stretch further. You can hopefully leave a couple of servings for the next day or the freezer too. If you’re using mince use half beef and half pork, not only will you increase the flavour in your dish but it will also be cheaper to buy. If using chicken breasts or other meat in a sauce make sure that you slice it quite thinly, it gives the impression that there is more in the dish and makes your meat stretch further, just be careful to adjust cooking times as you don’t want to over cook it.
For something a little more special and even cheaper try out some less used and less expensive cuts. Instead of a beef stew try osso bucco, an Italian style stew using beef (or veal) shin cut straight across the bone. Slowly cooked throughout the day the bone releases the marrow inside leaving a beautifully rich and sticky sauce. If you fancy serving steak ask the butcher for cheaper cuts such as skirt, which cooked correctly will still give you good flavour but at a lower cost.
The other key rule for budget cooking is to buy seasonal. Not only is seasonal food fresher (it’s more likely to be local) and therefore better for you, it is also cheaper and things like root vegetables and resilient greens are definitely more suited to a January mood!
Katy