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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