Left over Sunday roast vegetables

On Sunday chef daves household had a Sunday roast, this left me with the dilemma of what to do with the leftover vegetables and mashed potatoes. 

After a chat with the mo in law we decided that I would make Pan Fried Lambs Liver, bubble and squeak and an onion and bacon gravy. We chose lambs liver as it has a more subtle flavour to calves and pigs liver and at £0.85 to feed 3 adults was a good wholesome cheap meal.

And remember Lambs liver is rich in nutrients such as iron vitamins D,C, and B12.

So this is what I did:

Own Brand

I admit, I am a food snob.  As a chef, I was always taught that Fresh is Best and Farm to Fork.

But sometimes it just isn't cost or time effective to make your own sauces from scratch.  So I decided to run an experiment on Own Brand Labelled foods products.

0.75p

The Guv'ner and I decided to go to the following shops and decided what product we could actually stomach eating for a week that hopefully wouldn't put us off...

• Sainsburys
• Tesco
• Asda
• Lidl (but they didn't have what we wanted)
• Aldi
• Premier
• Spar
• Morrisons

and we purchased the same Own Brand item Tikka Masala Sauce, we've all heard of Pataks and Sharwoods (which ranges in cost from £1 to £1.47) the top two names but how does Own Brand stack up against the two?

Surprisingly well is the honest answer.  Other than price, neither the guv'ner nor I could really find a difference in taste between Pataks, Sharwoods and Own Brand.

0.95p

Personally we preferred the Asda Own Brand Tikka.  After Frying the chicken off in a deep pan we added the sauce and after 20minutes we were ready to eat.

We found the Tikka Sauce had more flavour than the comparisons of Sainsbuys, Morrisons and Tesco and was a lot better in taste than the Aldi Own Brand.  With the Premier and Spar brand we really felt that they were on a par with the Asda Own Brand but for cost they really weren't very cost effective and the jar was smaller so didn't serve as many people as the Supermarket Brands.

So to serve 4 people - with chicken we had already bought from the butcher and rice we had in our store cupboard the whole meal cost 0.18p per person.


In comparison you could make the same sauce yourself - the whole process would take approximately 1hr 20mins and serve around 5-6 people and would cost around £8 total (including the Chicken) which to serve the same 4 people (with the rice being store cupboard and the chicken already bought from the butcher) it would cost around £1.30 per person.
Ingredients

·         2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)

·         1 onion, finely chopped

·         4 cloves garlic, minced

·         1 tablespoon ground cumin

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1 teaspoon ground ginger

·         1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

·         400ml tomato passata

·         235ml double cream

·         2 teaspoons paprika

·         1 tablespoon sugar

·         1 tablespoon vegetable oil

·         4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cubed

·         1/2 teaspoon curry powder

 
Method

1.    Heat ghee in a large pan over medium heat; cook and stir onion until golden and softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in garlic; cook and stir just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, ginger, cayenne pepper, cinnamon and turmeric into the onion mixture; fry until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

2.    Stir passata into the onion and spice mixture, bring to the boil and reduce heat to low. Simmer sauce for 10 minutes; mix in cream, paprika and 1 tablespoon sugar. Bring sauce back to a simmer and cook, stirring often, until sauce is thickened, 10 to 15 minutes.

3.    Heat vegetable oil in a separate pan over medium heat. Stir chicken into the hot oil, sprinkle with curry powder and sear chicken until lightly browned, about 3 minutes; stir often. Transfer chicken and any pan juices into the sauce. Simmer chicken in sauce for 30 minutes; adjust salt and sugar to taste.

 

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Simply Cook - Discovery Box

 

Well today my simply cook discovery box arrived through the post. 

I opened it with eager anticipation to find what I'd been sent. I'd never ordered from Simply Cook before and usually through taste and elimination I create my dishes to be personal to how I like them to be.  Inside I found four recipe cards, with the spice blends to make said recipes. 

So, after chatting to the guv'nor and moomin we decide that I would buy the ingredients to do the BBQ tandoori chicken.

These recipe cards have handy tear off shopping lists so of I went to Sainsburys to get 

• Boneless Chicken Thighs
• a lemon
• a pot of natural yoghurt
• and a couple of sweet potatoes  

When I got back from shopping I marinated the chicken using the spice blend and following the directions on the recipe card which is very easy to understand. 

The card even gives you a bit of information about where the dish originates from. This dish the BBQ Tandoori Chicken originates from the Punjab region of India.  And interestingly gets its name from the hot clay oven in which it is traditionally cooked - a "tandoor".

This recipe advised that the longer you marinate the chicken the better, so we marinated it for 10hours (a little over kill but really helped the seasoning to tenderise the chicken)

and to be honest it really didn't look nice, but smelt amazing even in it's raw state.

Having lived with the yummy smell all day, finally it was dinner time and time to cook the BBQ Tandoori Chicken.

On the recipe card is also the cooking instructions, clearly written and very well explained in plain English.

We heated the Grill, as although we could have simply cooked everything in the oven we really wanted to get that smoked grilled taste.  And it only took 10minutes, 10 long minutes where our mouths were watering as our smell senses went into overdrive. 

We served it with the suggested Sweet Potatoes and Salad.  I can honestly say I would buy from Simply Cook again - this dish was a massive hit and I am really looking forward to trying the other 3 recipes because if they are as good as the BBQ Tandoori Chicken we really will be in for a treat.

Try it for yourself now https://simplycook.mention-me.com/m/ol/eco-dave-hayes

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