Now I like my grub. There is no denying it. But I am coming to loathe the snobbery that is creeping into the British way of life about food. I go to my local shop and I find beef, venison, pork and kosher sausages. Which is great. I also find Bratwursts, hot dogs, Frankfurters and the South African thingy which I can never remember. This is all good as it means that we are open, as a culture, to new things. But, does it mean that it is better than our normal diet? Well, I for one, say NO!
It is nice to have something different, but it does not mean that you can look down your nose at the standard fare of this country. Just because it is cheap does not mean that it is automatically bad or rubbish. I walk around our local superstore and find that they are selling haunches of ham for £75! Admittedly, it is Pancetta ham deep smoked in the wilds of Italy, but £15 a kilo (That's £7 a pound in old money!). I mean, there are people who have that as a weekly budget. But what is worse is the empty-headed idiots who spout drivel about how it is the only ham worth buying and they never eat anything else. My God! What world are these people living in? They are kids on the streets of Britain who are starving to death because their family can't afford a decent diet.
Before you go all Daily Mail on me, please let me remind you that for every case of feckless sponger that is splashed across the front page of that publication, there are dozens of families who suffer because the main bread-winners have lost their job and they can't afford to eat. In fact, I'll bet that the parents, in these familes, are losing weight because they would rather starve than see their kids do without.
So just to help a bit, here's a recipe that I made up and it feeds the four of us. Get a packet of cooking bacon (you know the off-cuts that aren't the right shape to make rashers) from Sa**sb**ys, three mugs of rice, some soy sauce (it's 69 pence at T**co right now), smart price mixed herbs, garlic pepper (either that or get garlic granules and some pepper), water and some tinned or frozen veg.
Stick some oil in a frying pan, dash in soy sauce (I go for 10 splashes) to suit before you turn on the hob. As it heats up, throw in enough mixed herbs, garlic and pepper to your taste. Once it is hot enough, put in the bacon and cook it. Check you like the taste or it's a waste of good food and time. As the bacon is cooking in the frying pan, put your rice on in a pan and add the veg so they cook together (that way the tastes mix in). Drain the oil (once the bacon is cooked) and pour it in with the rice and veg. (I also use the fat that has collected from the Grilling machine as it is a healthier way to use it and saves wasting it). Let it all cook together and once your rice is done to your taste, serve it up. It's enough to feed four or five depending on your appetites and it's filling and sort of healthy-ish.
Working it out, it comes to about 40 pence a serving. Even then, it could be cheaper as there is all the bits left over that you can use in other recipes/experiments!
