Yesterday evening I attended a drinks party at the Carlton Club. It was good fun and had some interesting American themed canapes like little pastry cups with Caesar salad and mini hot dogs. Since I knew it would finish rather late and I’m not too keen on walking home on my own at night, I’d arranged to stay in Hammersmith and make my experiment meal for two.
The kitchen in this flat certainly lives up to the student cliche. No washing up had been done in weeks and the floor was slippery with grease. You’d need a hammer and chisel to find out what colour the hob was. Nevertheless, I set about making that evening’s meal.
The idea was simple. I made meatballs from beef mince, garlic, onion and random dried herbs and spices. I cooked them in a tomato based sauce with aubergine, chilli, more garlic and herbs and lamb stock. I think using lamb stock is a nice cheat to make beef or turkey mince based meals taste richer. I intended to use turkey or pork mince for this, but there didn’t seem to be any available.
And now for the cost of the meal. This made too much for two people!
500g Tesco beef mince
1.20
1 large-ish onion
0.15
herbs, spices, oil
0.15
salt and pepper
0.05
flour
0.10
1 tin plum tomatos
0.35
half aubergine (200g)
0.60
lamb stock cube
0.09
garlic, half bulb
0.10
200g dry spaghetti
0.12
Total
2.91
If you include the eggs (which I bought yesterday), it is £3.20 so £1.60 per large portion- and when I say large I mean too much for a hungry 16 stone man! The meatballs were really nice and soft! I’ve had trouble with them being dry before but I think the slightly fatty beef mince helped this. The aubergines were lovely with the tomato, herbs and lamb stock.
This is a very temperamental camera. All the photos has the weird blurring to the left. But the important thing to notice is how much food there is! Those were big plates too! See the comparison with the knife and fork.
There is a definite advantage to cooking for several people and splitting the cost. If I was doing this experiment on my own, I couldn’t buy an aubergine! I wouldn’t want to eat it four days in a week and, if I left it longer, it would go off. By cooking for two, I used half my aubergine. I’ll probably do this again to get rid of the rest.
I’ve not been specific about the herbs and spices because I used things that were lying around. Cayenne pepper went in with a little chilli and oregano. You can improvise with the things you have in your kitchen. A couple of squares of dark chocolate would be nice with the chilli. Here’s a basic recipe.
So after splitting the cost of the food, my total so far has risen by £1.45 to £8.76. I’m still on target …for now… but I’m beginning to struggle for ideas. I think it might be time to try out some offal.
Yesterday evening I attended a drinks party at the Carlton Club. It was good fun and had some interesting American themed canapes like little pastry cups with Caesar salad and mini hot dogs. Since I knew it would finish rather late and I’m not too keen on walking home on my own at night, I’d arranged to stay in Hammersmith and make my experiment meal for two.
The kitchen in this flat certainly lives up to the student cliche. No washing up had been done in weeks and the floor was slippery with grease. You’d need a hammer and chisel to find out what colour the hob was. Nevertheless, I set about making that evening’s meal.
The idea was simple. I made meatballs from beef mince, garlic, onion and random dried herbs and spices. I cooked them in a tomato based sauce with aubergine, chilli, more garlic and herbs and lamb stock. I think using lamb stock is a nice cheat to make beef or turkey mince based meals taste richer. I intended to use turkey or pork mince for this, but there didn’t seem to be any available.
And now for the cost of the meal. This made too much for two people!
| 500g Tesco beef mince | 1.20 |
| 1 large-ish onion | 0.15 |
| herbs, spices, oil | 0.15 |
| salt and pepper | 0.05 |
| flour | 0.10 |
| 1 tin plum tomatos | 0.35 |
| half aubergine (200g) | 0.60 |
| lamb stock cube | 0.09 |
| garlic, half bulb | 0.10 |
| 200g dry spaghetti | 0.12 |
| Total | 2.91 |
If you include the eggs (which I bought yesterday), it is £3.20 so £1.60 per large portion- and when I say large I mean too much for a hungry 16 stone man! The meatballs were really nice and soft! I’ve had trouble with them being dry before but I think the slightly fatty beef mince helped this. The aubergines were lovely with the tomato, herbs and lamb stock.
This is a very temperamental camera. All the photos has the weird blurring to the left. But the important thing to notice is how much food there is! Those were big plates too! See the comparison with the knife and fork.
There is a definite advantage to cooking for several people and splitting the cost. If I was doing this experiment on my own, I couldn’t buy an aubergine! I wouldn’t want to eat it four days in a week and, if I left it longer, it would go off. By cooking for two, I used half my aubergine. I’ll probably do this again to get rid of the rest.
I’ve not been specific about the herbs and spices because I used things that were lying around. Cayenne pepper went in with a little chilli and oregano. You can improvise with the things you have in your kitchen. A couple of squares of dark chocolate would be nice with the chilli. Here’s a basic recipe.
So after splitting the cost of the food, my total so far has risen by £1.45 to £8.76. I’m still on target …for now… but I’m beginning to struggle for ideas. I think it might be time to try out some offal.
