Hello Dear Reader,
(Welsh Poppy and Organised Castle - please leave a comment, which I won't publish, as you both have a Riverford recipe leaflet which need your address so I can send them to you)
My trip to Riverford and their recipe leaflet has given me lots of food for thought. I will be doing a lot more with vegetables in the future and making them the star of the show. I'm also eating less and less meat as the price increases but the quality can't be proven. I buy my meat from an abattoir outlet store, which sells the meat they slaughter locally. They know exactly what it is and where it comes from and it's all British meat. That said, it costs more than the supermarket and its far from cheap.
I'll also being doing a lot more with offal and cheaper cuts such as neck and breast of lamb, shin of beef and pork knuckles. You'll have to drop by now and then to see what I do with them. In the mean time, I want to sing the praises of humble food. We (or may be it's just me?) compare ourselves to TV chefs and the restaurants we try. We can't always have the best and should (or shouldn't we?) reserve that for best or special occasions. Before the onset of spiraling home costs we would often eat steak, chicken breast and salmon and now, as I imagine so many of you do, keep those for once in a while treats.
Humble home made and home cooked food, in my opinion, can't be beaten. Our daily loaf and simple cooking which comes in small portions, is nothing to boast about and doesn't need to go in a cookery book. No fancy imported vegetables just local spuds, English cabbage, English beetroot and local pork and liver made into simple faggots with an onion gravy. Supper will be soup with bread. I don't think there's anything wrong with humble food (served on my utility plates) and I for one am proud to cook it and proud to eat it.
Over to you Dear Reader. Do we think we should eat 'posh nosh'? Are we swayed by TV cooks and popular restaurants? Is there anything wrong with a meatloaf, a pasty or meat pie? I'm not sure but what do you think? Anyone else want a hurrah for humble food?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx
soup is divine in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely in the 'Yes to humble food' camp. Whilst it's nice to try and incorporate new dishes and cuisines into our repertoire, I really think we shouldn't lose sight of our basic food heritage and humble food is part of such a heritage. It is ingrained in our culture over the centuries, and our culture would be less rich for losing it altogether.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. I make all our meals from scratch and whilst they're nothing fancy, we eat healthy, tasty food that we enjoy. The only time I buy salmon and chicken breast these days is when I see it marked down, reduced to clear in the supermarket - then I freeze for another day. We try to eat up everything we buy and not let anything go to waste. That's what works for us!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Debbie
I have three kids and I home cook everything mostly Mediterranean food !
ReplyDeleteI 100% agree with you, the simpler the better. I will occasionally make something different (though tried and tested) for a special occasion, although we have very few of those.
ReplyDeleteOver the last 20 odd years we have been bombarded with 'aspirational' food programmes - someone like Jamie Oliver is a huge multi million money making machine each time he 'wops' something into a frying pan to make dinner in 15 minutes -
ReplyDeleteProgrammers probably don't want to commission cookery programmes about normal everyday food - where's the money?
Perhaps bloggers like yourself can show the way of eating well with a tight budget....
I think it's such a shame so many young people don't know the delights of good old fashion home cooked food.
Hurrah for humble food. I still enjoy watching cookery shows on tv, mostly because it gives me ideas and then i do my version of stuff that I like. I get fed up of the tv chefs that just chuck expensive ingredients together (no names mentioned, but you know who they are), anyone can cook like that. I think real cooking is making something from cheap ingredients, using imagination and just having a go.
ReplyDeleteWe like to eat out and can afford to, but the truth is that my own home cooking is what pleases us the best. It's good simple food, and I watch our fat, cholesterol and sodium consumption, so I know it's healthy. The first thing we notice when we eat out, is that food tastes very different from my home cooking. Much saltier. Even if it doesn't taste salty, we end up drinking lots of water all evening long.
ReplyDeleteSo why do we eat out at all? Mostly because I don't want to cook Chinese or Indian food at home, and those are our favorite restaurants, especially Indian restaurants. And then I get ideas for my own cooking. But I have to say, that as much as I enjoy a lovely vegetarian Indian restaurant, I still like my own food better. And you are so right, the simpler, the better, too.
Humble food is the ONLY food for me, whether it be the humble food of our traditional fayre or that of other countries.
ReplyDeleteThink about it in Italy a staple dish is a big bowl of pasta, not drenched in expensive bottled sauces like the suparemarkets would have us believe, but either with a spoonful of a meat based sauce and a dash of parmesan, or on week nights even more simply with a dash of pesto and a sprinkle of cheese. Chinese cuisine can be as cheap with a bowl of rice with a topping of a curry or black bean based sauce, any meat would be in slivers quickly stir fried and added to the top, or steeped long and slow in the sauce to make it melt in the mouth delicious.
To eat simply, to cook the ingredients the best way you can and to eat enough to satisfy your appetite, not enough to leave you feeling stuffed (save that feeling for Christmas Day if you must,is the best way forward, this way we will save money AND eat better.
Your dinner looks delicious, and I'm sat here with a big bowl of homemade vegetable soup and two slices of homemade bread, it's absolutely delicious and most definitely 'humble food' but my idea of a perfect lunch.
Sue xx
One area I seem to really differ from my friends is with veg. I love buying what's in season and it's great when something I've not eaten for months comes back round again. DH is always excited in the autumn when British apples turn up at our supermarket and I love being sick of leeks by the middle of March but then miss them until they're cheap and local again. Same with rhubarb, sprouts, broad beans, peas from the pod. They're all worth the wait and simple to deal with when you're eating them at the right time of year. Fresh food prepared simply and enjoyed for their own flavour. Delicious.
ReplyDeleteDo some people think there's something wrong with a pasty? Goodness me. Never!
Its a positive hurrah for humble food from me too. Hubby has requested a meal this week of Sausage & mash with onion gravy! The cheaper cuts of meat like shin slow cooked are the tastiest and make the best gravy. Meat is getting so expensive now so we are cutting back and eating more veg, like you its just the basic cabbages carrots and swede, nothing posh here. A special meal is still something simple like Lasagne but shared with good friends, its the company that makes it special for us.
ReplyDeleteKaren
Some of the humblest foods cost a fortune now. When my children were young lamb shanks were a treat and well loved. Now I cannot afford the, Moat of our meals are home cooked and simple. Obviously we live in places were different foods are cheaper.
ReplyDeleteI have often pondered the days of old when it was pease porridge, oatmeal and broth. We are spoiled today as we can vary our diets to avoid monotonous meals. The traditional Australian diet in my family was very meat heavy. When we cook the Yorkshire stuff my mother grew up with I am taken aback. It is great but not suited to the climate. I am thankful though I don't live in a time when humble pie made from the venison pluck would have been my Christmas treat. I am also thankful that I live in a place where I can buy fresh food easily.
I am all for humble food. Yours looks delicious and I would be proud to eat it.
ReplyDeleteI cook simple food every day of the week. We do the occasional lunch out on a Sunday though. As far as chefs go, I think alot of the food Jamie Oliver cooks can be considered "simple" food, at least on the shows that I've seen of his cooking. Some of the other cooking shows do use alot of ingredients that are either exotic or expensive in my opinion. I buy salmon once in awhile. We like it alot and it's very good for you. My husband loves fish so I try to incorporate fish in our diet at least once a week. Fish has gone up in price and I am shocked sometimes as to what the prices are now. I think if you can buy local fresh veg and have a source for meat that is also local, you are very lucky. I would definitely spend the little bit more if I had a place where I could get meat from a local source. Unfortunately, I don't. I buy small amounts of meat and since I don't eat beef, I usually buy chicken or turkey (breast)on sale or the occasional pork chops. I cook alot of pasta and make my own sauce. I must say that I have gotten some great ideas from chefs on tv ocasionally and have incorporated some of these ideas in my own recipes.
ReplyDeleteYour dinner looks delicious and it may be simple food in that it is simply prepared at home but in my eyes a home cooked meal lovingly prepared for the family with carefully selected (unprocessed) ingredients is far superior to anything pre prepared from a supermarket. I also bet you would be hard pressed to find such delicious food in the majority of restaurants, even if you did it would cost a fortune. so please DO boast about your wonderful simply cooked meals, in my eyes these are the meals that are truly in the luxury class.
ReplyDeleteYes, yes, yes to humble food. It's great to give veg centre stage, we use wholefoods - wholegrain rice, pasta and flour has more nutrients than white, keeps you fuller for longer & just tastes so much better. If people must have meat make sure its fully traceable and watch the portion size. Trade the cost of wholegrains, rather than white, refined, grains, against the meat budget by reducing the quantity of meat, definitely worth it for taste & for health. Meals out........ rarely, with few exceptions we end up thinking we could have cooked better at home and they are just so salty. Bring on humble foods and a starring role for the veg! Looking forward to more recipes. Keep up the great blog. x
ReplyDeleteAnother hurrah for humble food! Your faggots with potatoes and vegetables looks really comforting and inviting. Like many of the others who have left their comments, I think that we have forgotten to truly value what we are eating. Over the past twenty years we as consumers have been encouraged to buy what was previously seen as special treats to eat as everyday food - that ad for frozen roast potatoes comes to mind with the old ladies watching a family eat a roast dinner (of sorts!) on a weekday. It seems that the economic situation combined with the recent food scares is finally forcing people to re-examine their priorities and think about what they are putting on their dinner plates. You cannot find cuts of offal routinely in the supermarkets (although I will say that Morrisons seem to be an exception) but people need to learn how to prepare and cook them. I clearly remember making 'Italian liver' in my school home economics class - my son, however, recently had to take in chicken breast strips to make fajitas. I look forward to seeing more examples of inspirational humble food coming out of your kitchen!
ReplyDeletecertainly no posh nosh going here in our home, we eat yite like you, even though we are miles an miles and an ocean apart.I think it may because I was raised this way and our ancestors are from Britain and Scotland, coming here to Canada over 100 years ago.We still eat the same, we grew all our own vegies and farm raised meat.We still grow some vegies but mostly our family does and we share, we buy local meat and you know I think really we are the posh eaters, your family and ours, healthy wholesome food, thats posh , beautiful plate of food you have showed us today, I would take this any day of the week,
ReplyDeleteThat dinner looks delicious!. Real comfort food. How did you cook your beetroot. I saw some in the farm shop yesterday but didn't buy as the only way I know how to cook them is to boil them and put them into jars with vinegar. I too buy all my veg in season from the local farm and once a month go to the farmers market. I do buy frozen peas and sweetcorn as a standby too. I also buy my meat from our local abbatoir which incidentley is where the farm shop get theres from and also the local butchers but then they put their mark up on it so I've wised up to that! Keep up the goos work as I read your blog eveyday. Thanks
ReplyDeleteJules
I totally agree with you, I plan my weeks upcoming meals based around the contents of my veg box, or what's in the garden when things are growing, that way we eat loads of vegetables and meat very rarely, but when we do it's good quality locally sourced meat. I would recommend Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's 'Veg' book as a great place to get lots of ideas, also Riverford's web site has loads of great recipes on it.
ReplyDeleteI think we should eat the same, or to the same recipes that you do, homemade faggots, lamb shanks, in our local restaurant they go for £13.95 when I could but 4 for that price, vegetable Lasagne home made burgers, pasta with garlic and kale,
ReplyDeleteI'm another one on the humble food band wagon. It's lucky that hubby and I both share a love of simple food. I suppose many would say it's boring, but we're quite happy to have plain food. Posh nosh would be waste on me!
ReplyDeleteHurray for humble food from me too! We eat well, we have our favourite veges that we like (very basic), and while I do like to watch cooking shows, I certainly don't aspire to cook the meals that they do. And we are often disappointed with restaurant meals so rarely venture out there. Last night we pulled 2 different pots of single serves from the freezer and my treat with my dinner was a glass of bubbles. Yum!
ReplyDeleteHumble food is the best. I hate having to buy expensive ingredients for a dish to turn out so so. I love it when you make dinner out of whatever is in the cupboards and it turns out. We eat veggies every day and I have slowly been reducing our meat intake. I need to try out more vegetarian dishes (hubby is a die hard meat eater so not an easy task)
ReplyDeleteDear Froogs,
ReplyDeleteProvided it has good flavour then yes! Frugal as good as expensive.
By the way, may I comment on the huge improvement in your food photography. That frugal grub looks yum. In the past some of the rather grey looking grub was a bit offputting, but now it looks great!
Every country has their own "comfort foods." I am in the US. I have read stories of politicians, kings, and the wealthy whose favorite foods were always something from their youth and was something people consider humble and a comfort food. My ex refused to eat certain foods because his grandmother told him that only poor people ate that food--black beans, brown bread, corn. His father was appalled when I asked him about this. I rarely make a dish that calls for complicated items or measuring unless it is something to bake.
ReplyDeleteVeg is always the star of the show with us..as we don't eat meat,or dairy. I made 'shepherds' pie, with lentils as our protein,a chopped onion,2 carrots,a tin of value tomatoes,a handful of frozen value peas and some veggie gravy granules.. and added a splash of rice milk to cream the potato.There was enough to freeze for a meal in the week too. I make a big pot of soup once a week,with a bean base for protein and whatever veg I can find on offer,this does us a meal plus lunch to take to work for a couple of days.Since giving up meat and dairy we have eaten healithier,lost weight and cut down our food bill.I still cook all our old favourites but just ''veganise'' them..simples! :)
ReplyDeleteI have always been buying meat from my local butcher shop...more expensive, but I would rather eat less and know where it has come from...bargains in meat are not really bargains...enjoying your varied blogs. Just got a free load of oak firewood from someone who had a tree go down and had no use for it! (We have 2 woodstoves..).I hesitate to burnpallet wood as it is sometimes chemically treated....
ReplyDeleteLynda, I don't know where you are in the world, but in the US, it would be extremely rare to use treated wood in making pallets. Generally, pallets are made from low grades of lumber. Also, if it were treated, you would normally be able to tell by looking at the lumber. There would be rows/grids of short lines, about 1/2 inch long, where the preservative was injected. These usually look like someone with a stapler ran amok! (Look at a treated fencepost to get the idea). Anyway, my DH worked in the forest products industry for nearly 40 years. I can't say treated wood is never used, but it would definitely be the exception, not the norm. I wouldn't hesitate to burn pallets if I had a wood stove. I wouldn't burn my old deck, however, because the supports were made with treated lumber.
DeleteYour cooking reminds me very much of my mother's cooking, and it makes my mouth water every time you show us your meals and your recipes. It may seem humble, but I think it is the essence of cooking with love: it looks good, it tastes good, you give your family wonderful and healthy variety on the plate, and you do not waste anything, Mother fed eight people every day on a small budget and believe me, we never thought we were eating on the cheap! I cook much the same way and am especially proud of my family style meals, even though our children are grown and gone. I love adventuresome cooking and have found some wonderful meatless dishes to serve, such as curried garbanzo beans alongside homemade enchiladas, bean burgers, and felafel. Thank you for adhering such wise ways and for sharing them with the rest of us!
ReplyDeleteThings that were once cheap- like veal shin (osso bucco) and lamb shanks are now wildly popular so they have become very 'spensive here.
ReplyDeleteMy late grandmother couldn't believe the popularity of shanks- she grew up on them during the depression and they reminded her of poverty. She was shocked that restaurants sold them.
I like steak but I never buy chicken breast- everyone knows thighs have more flavour!
I love the comfort food of my childhood like roasts, pastas and nursery style treats.
I sometimes do chicken/mince for husband but I don't eat it so it's no problem for me. I think far too much is made of food nowadays rather than concentrating on the simple stuff. My Mum said, she blames everything on the TV and everyone wants new kitchens, bathrooms, posh food etc, when they really can't afford it! She does have a point, because if people didn't see it, they might not want it.
ReplyDeleteTV cooking shoes and famous chefs - must remember it's all a business and they have got to sell something. Most of these chefs did not grow up eating what they sell. A couple of years ago, I read an article about what some of these great chefs eat when they get home from work (i.e. their dinner) and it is the simple stuff. Remember one Welsh chef, used to make himself (or have his wife make him) cheese on toast. Simple but yum. Reminds one of childhood. Humble is best :)
ReplyDeletePru
We just have to use these cheaper cuts nowadays and they can be every bit as delicious as posh-nosh. A vegie based diet is far cheaper and healthier too, soups and stews in winter, salads in summer, beans etc cooked in the pressure cooker and frozen, yum...now I'm hungry!
ReplyDeleteMy dog and I work hard over the shooting season and I now have a freezer full of pheasant and partridge for free. Rabbits and pigeons are readily available if you can find someone who shoots. Farmers are crying out for people to shoot and clear their land of these pests which eat your vegetables!!!! As you can tell I am not a vegetarian and have found a good way to stay fit and fill my freezer with humble meat at the same time.
ReplyDeleteCan't beet a bit of humble. I have another vet bill so am scouting around again for some uber cheep ideas and Froogs, you came up trumps BTW thanks for the link to "Rubber Chicken" Helped enormously along with a few of the recipes I have gleaned from you. Today will be a quiche have some leftover scrap bacon peas onion parsley cheese and a touch of single cream so that will contribute very nicely towards 3 meals for 3 adults. I think some home made spud salad and a little bit of salad we have left will round things off very well. Like Sue we use the cheaper cuts and I remember my being told about my Paternal Grand father (naval chef)cooking Pigs cheek in a very low oven for a long time it was tasty and nutritious and was used I believe in "pie" type dishes. This is something I'm going to look into trying. Lovely post Froogs and some interesting comments.
ReplyDeletewe love our home made humble food more than restaurant food, I believe not because we are the best cooks in the world (although husband's bread is hard to beat ;-p) but because we cook to suit exactly our taste. We don't really have british food as it is meat based, which I don't eat, but the world offers so many good ideas for cheap and delicious food that we don't eat the same thing twice in a month!
ReplyDeletePosh Nosh? Meh!
ReplyDeleteA recent article in an Australian newspaper had a study comparing the nosh dished out in some of the cookbooks of Jamie Oliver and Nigella, versus takeaway food from a particular, well knows fast food outlet. Jamie and Nigella are extremely popular here in Oz.
The calories and fat in the fare tested was very similar to the pap dished up at the takeaway. Only the actual nutritional value of their food was higher than the takeaway.
Simple food, prepared simply gets a lot of praise here in our house. My family love my soups and casseroles. I love using cheaper cuts to slow cook a yummy casserole, and they pressure cook really well as well - if I'm stuck for time.
I make my soup stock from scratch and you can tell the difference between home made and store bought.
There is nothing as good as seasonal food, bought not far from where its source is. Yum.
We have homemade soups and breads four nights a week here! As for 'posh nosh' and TV chefs... I know too many people who sit glued to cookery programmes and then don't have time to cook so even their mashed potato comes from MS. I can't get over that watching other people cook is more fun than cooking.
ReplyDeleteHumble offering's is all that's on offer in this house, thats more of a reflection on my cooking skills, im getting there slowly when I learned how to bake bread in the slow cooker it stopped the looks of horror from the hollow legged gang everytime I turned out a loaf, i have soup down to a fine art..even if half the time im trying to make a casserole
ReplyDeleteMy nephew says I cook "peasant food" but even though it sounds like a bit of an insult he means it as a compliment. I bake bread, but not weekly, we don't eat it that often. I often base a meal around a soup or stew, or something over brown rice. I'm not a hgue pasta fan, although we do eat it at times. We definitely consider meat a luxury, more of a flavoring agent or condiment than anything.
ReplyDeleteI'm a greedy guts...I love humble food but I also like to add a few foreign dishes to my weekly menu. Yesterday I made beef stew and dumplings, mash and carrots, tonight Pad Thai tomorrow home made fish pie. I write my menu's up on a Saturday for the week and try to include a variety of different meals,British, Chinese, Italian etc. I work full time but I really enjoy cooking and experimenting with different dishes. Two of my children still live at home and they all enjoy a good healthy evening meal when they come home from work. I consider myself to be frugal. I can feed a family of three adults on approx £ 250 a month. My dream would be to be able to give young mums cookery lessons and teach them how them how to budget and create healthy wholesome food and not rely on ready made meals from a supermarket freezer.
ReplyDeleteFroogs, that looks delicious. Humble food can have international flavours in my book though. A generation ago, spaghetti bolognaise was fancy and exotic. Now it is standard frugal fare. These days we have expanded the international repertoire to include things like Mexican mince tacos and an endless variety of stir fries. All home cooked and definitely not restaurant food. Bangers and mash will always be a family favourite though.
DeleteWe love humble food! Particularly foreign humble food. One of our favourites is daal and rice, which I added to our repertoire when I was working out what meals would feed the family for less than a pound. Delicious.
ReplyDeleteI really look forward to your 'humble food' recipes. I'm a single mum , on a low wage , working very hard to support 3 of us . My two teens are adult size. To be honest I'm getting seriously worried. I've gone from being able to cook frugal meat meals throughout the week to now....really struggling to be able to put meat on the menu. Fish is just completely off the scale money wise. I worry I'm not supplying the vitamins and nutrients my kids need to be healthy.So a big thankyou for taking the time to show us basic home cooks how to cut the pennies.Any advice is most gratefully received.
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