Sunday 27 March 2011

3.7 Sunday - The Sunday Roast (Pork)



 
Today's Sunday roast brings to an end Week 3 of my blog on how to create family meals on a tight budget.

As price rises and taxes begin to bite even deeper, now is a good time to take a long hard look at your finances.

It is unlikely that any more money will be coming into your household, so the trick has to be for you to examine precisely what you are letting go out of your income.

Supermarkets are smart places - everything looks attractive, clean and fresh and there are signs everywhere enticing you to buy two-for-one, tempting you with words like "deal" and "family size" and "price crunch." Adverts have smiling cashiers and happy young mums with content children.

But supermarkets are not your friend. They are businesses with obligations to their shareholders and the board of directors.




However, with a little bit of homework and shopping around, there are bargains out there. You just need to train yourself to know where to look. That way you will discover that you can make significant savings, by seeing through the marketing and smart words and choosing your ingredients wisely.

I have published to the right the shopping list for Week 4.

If you haven't yet joined me on Dining in for Less, do not fret. Just have a look at the menus to the right, choose a week that appeals to you, then look at the relevant shopping list and pop to the shops.

You will find that whereas you might have been spending £80 or more every week just on the main family meals, you can indeed cut that spending down to around £25.

That is an immediate saving of £55 in a single shop - that's £220 in just a month and over the course of a year that amounts to nearly £3,000. Goodness - that's a free family holiday, courtesy of the supermarkets. It might not please the shareholders and directors, but it should certainly please you!

Happy shopping...

Georgette




Roast Pork Dinner and Banana Pie Dessert


Ingredients

Rolled shoulder of pork
3 sp seasoning
Thyme
Garlic, chopped
Flour
Egg
Milk
3 large potatoes
Broccoli
Peas
Cornflour

Method

Cut several deep holes in the pork so that seasoning can get into the middle of the meat.

Spoon a little of the seasoning into each hole, then add a couple of pieces of garlic and one sprig of thyme in each hole. Rub the remainder of the seasoning all over the outside of the meat. Place the meat in tin foil, scattering the remaining thyme and garlic on it and seal in the foil. Place in a hot oven for 50 minutes.


In the meantime, mix together the egg, flour and milk to make a batter mixture. Slice the potatoes into enough portions for four people.

Prepare an oiled oven proof dish for the batter and another one for the potatoes and place them in the oven to warm up.

Take the meat out of the oven after 50 minutes, open one end of the foil. Use two tea towels to hold the pan and the meat in place and pour the liquid from the meat into a small saucepan. Re-seal and return the meat to the oven, together with the batter and potatoes for roasting.

Cook for a further 40 minutes or until brown.

Ten minutes before the end, take the meat out again, pour off any juice, open up the foil completely and place the meat back in the oven for 10 minutes to crisp off.

Before serving, remember to remove or leave a chunk of the pork for tomorrow’s meal and to set aside a little of the gravy.

Prepare the vegetables.

Add some hot water to the meat juice in the small saucepan and a splash of wine if you have some left. Bring to the boil, add 1 teaspoon of cornflour mixed with a little water to thicken the gravy.



Banana Pie Dessert




Ingredients

2 ripe bananas
8 sp plain flour
4 oz butter
4 sp sugar

Method

In a bowl, add flour, 3oz butter and 3 sp of sugar. Rub together with your fingers to make a breadcrumb mixture. Add a couple of sp of cold water, which allows you to form the pastry into a dough ball. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Slice the bananas first in half and then in thin strips and place in a shallow oven proof dish. Take the pastry from the fridge, roll out on a floured surface to roughly the size and shape of the dish to a thickness of about ½cm.

Use a frying pan to melt the remaining ounce of butter and sugar, stirring continually. Be very careful, as this mixture will be extremely hot.

Once melted, pour over the bananas and roll the pastry over the top. Make sure the pastry is inside the dish, so there is room for the liquid to expand and escape on top of the pastry. Place in the oven to cook for 20-25 minutes.


This meal appears on Shopping List 3

2 comments:

  1. how much of the butter and sugar do you use for the pastry and how much is for the syrup?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your comment - you should use 3oz butter for the pastry and the remaining ounce for the syrup. Thanks for your interest.

    ReplyDelete