Smoked Salmon and Broccoli Souffléd Quiche

Preparation time 15 minutes

Cooking time 1 hour
Serves 2-4
Total price £2

This is what it cost me, based on purchasing ingredients at the lowest price I could find.  This includes supermarket offers on produce and branded items as well as supermarket value-priced brands.

 
Here's a innovative way to use cheap salmon trimmings and get more omega 3 into your diet.   It isn't really a soufflé, because it's pie-shaped like a quiche.  It's not really a quiche because it doesn't have a pastry crust.   If you cut it into four pieces, one makes a light breakfast and two make a filling lunch (for me anyway).  In addition to containing about 2.2 grams of omega 3, this savoury dish is packed full of protein, vitamins and minerals. 
 

Ingredients
 

• 120 grams smoked salmon trimmings
• 100 grams (1/2 pack) cream cheese
• 4 medium broccoli florets, cooked and chopped
• 4 medium or 3 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 190 C.  Butter an 18cm diameter, 4 cm deep cake tin or pie dish. (There's no need to grease  flexible silicon bakeware.)  Separate the eggs into two large mixing bowls.

 

Beat the egg whites until stiff.  Whisk together the egg yolks and cream cheese.  (An electric hand mixer works best for both these tasks.)  Stir the broccoli and salmon into the egg yolks. 

Gently fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture to create a light, fluffy batter.  Transfer to baking dish.

Bake for around 45 minutes or until the top is browned and a knife stuck into the center comes out clean.  Allow to rest for 15 minutes before cutting to serve.

Notes

• This is also good made with spinich instead of broccoli
 
• If you use fresh salmon trimmings instead of smoked, you may want to add seasoning for flavor.

Reduce your Food Costs with Savy Shopping

Here are a few of my thrifty tips for making your food budget stretch further.

View supermarket offers online before you shop

The major UK supermarkets all advertise weekly offers on their websites. Check out which fresh and frozen meats and vegetables are heavily discounted and plan your meals around them.  Use your imagination or search the web for recipes. 

If you live in an area with more than one local supermarket, compare the offers on their websites to decide where to do your weekly shop.  If you want to take advantage of different offers at different stores, make sure the  potential savings outweigh any transportation costs involved.

Buy things that aren't on your shopping list

The endlessly repeated 'stick to your list' advice is only useful for junk food junkie impulse buyers.  Actually, those types of people are unlikely to head anyone's advice when they come face-to-face with a special on chocolate bar multi-packs!

To get nutritious food at the best possible price, you need a flexible attitude towards shopping and meal planning.  You never know what you are going to find in the 'reduced for quick sale' bins.  You may get a chance to stock up your freezer with half price premium sausages or salmon fillets.  If you are trying to stay within a weekly budget, this may mean changing your menu ideas on the spot.  It helps to have a wide repertoire of recipes.

Don't assume the advertised offer is the best value

A supermarket may have a big sign indicating that a certain package of tomatoes is a great deal at £1.  If you take the time to compare the price per kilogram with other varieties of tomatoes, you may find a better price.  The non-advertised pack selling for £1.20 could contain 50% more tomatoes by weight. 

Be sure to compare like with like

The recent years of inflation, many food manufacturers have tried to keep their prices stable by reducing the amount of product in the package.  Packs of bacon that used to contain 8 rashers now contain 6.  Packs of ground coffee that used to contain 227 grams now contain 200 grams.  If one brand stands out as cheaper than the others, make sure it contains the same amount of product.  It could turn out to be more expensive.

Stock up on store cupboard staples

With strategic planning, you should never have to pay full price for items with a long shelf life.  If you see a half-price or better offer on things you use that come in jars or tins, it's time to stock your pantry.  The same is true for dry, packaged foods like pasta or pulses.  Do check the use-by date.  If it's a couple of years in the future, and you cook with the item on a regular basis, fill your cupboard to the degree that your budget will allow.

The Cheapest Ways to Get Your Omega-3

In the previous post, I discussed the importance of omega-3.  In this one I want to tell you how to get it on a budget.  One of the reasons so many people in industrialized nations are deficient in omega-3 is because omega-6 grains are inexpensive to produce. The production of grains is often subsidised and a large percentage of agricultural land is devoted to them. 

We can all eat cheap if we load up on plenty of bread, pasta, breakfast cereal and other grain-based staples.  Unfortunately for many low income people, this way of eating often results in obesity and chronic, or even terminal, illness.

If money wasn't an issue, delicious meats like venison, bison or free-range, grass-fed beef could supply us all with omega-3.   Luckily, there are still plenty of fish in the sea that can provide this essential fatty acid at an affordable price.  They tend to be small and available in tins. 

• Mackerel
• Herring (Kippers)
• Sardines
• Anchovies
• Pilchards
• Eel
• Whitebait

You may associate these omega-3 fish with your grandparents' eating habits. They knew about getting good food cheap. 

I recently tried canned pilchards for the first time in my life when I noticed that the price of kippers had gone up and the pilchards were significantly cheaper.  I found them quite tasty and have continued to buy them regularly.  One small tin makes a healthy, convenient lunch.

Salmon is a great source of omega-3, but salmon fillets and smoked salmon can be pricey.  A cheap alternative is smoked or fresh salmon trimmings.  These are the boneless pieces cut off when the salmon is trimmed into thin slices or perfect fillets.  They cost around £2 a kilo as opposed to £12 a kilo.  Chop up smoked trimmings to eat in salads or mix them with cream cheese to spread on crackers or bagels. Smoked or fresh trimmings can also be used in omelettes, quiches and pasta dishes.

Save Money and Eliminate Waste by Using your Freezer

According to a statistic widely reported by the BBC, the average British family wastes £680 of food a year.  I estimate that we've wasted about £5 over the last year, and I still feel guilty about it.   There are very few fresh foods that can't be preserved by freezing.  Here are some suggestions to help keep the food you buy from ending up in the bin.

Vegetables

If a vegetable can be cooked, it can be frozen.  There's no need for any veg to go to waste, with the possible exception of lettuce and cucumber.  If things in the fridge are starting to go a bit limp or if you bought more than you can use, cook and freeze them.  The technique I use with big bags of onions is applicable to pretty much any veg.  Prepare it as you normally would, either for eating as a side dish or for using as an ingredient.  Freeze in plastic take-away containers or any containers with snap-on lids. Defrost overnight in the fridge or heat from frozen in the microwave.

Fruit

Fruit loses its texture and leaks juice when frozen and defrosted, but frozen fruit still has plenty of uses.  Bananas can be frozen right in their skins.  Allow them to defrost just enough to stick a spoon in and serve for dessert with hot fudge or caramel sauce.  Berries can be frozen raw (slice large strawberries first) in single serving containers and defrosted for stirring into yogurt or porridge.  Apples, pears, peaches and plums can be sliced, cooked and frozen for use in pies, tarts or crumbles. 

Bread

Bread can be easily repackaged for freezing in old bread bags sealed with twist ties. It only takes about an hour to defrost at room temperature. Buy reduced price bread on its sell-by date. Divide a loaf into bags containing 4-6 slices and keep them in the freezer to defrost as needed. Take advantage of multi-buy discounts on packs of baps or rolls and freeze the extras.

Cheese

Cheese can start to go mouldy within a week of opening the package.  Freezing is a great way to extend it's life.  Grate hard cheeses like cheddar, edam or emmental and package in take-away containers.  Use straight from frozen in baked or grilled dishes or in cheese sauce.  Defrost for about an hour to use on cold sandwiches.  Buy big hunks of cheddar with 50% extra free and immediately freeze half the pack.

Meat

 Most people routinely use their freezers to store packages of meat, poultry and fish, but here are a few tips. 

 

• Meat can be safely frozen at any time up to its 'use-by' date.  You don't need to freeze it on the day of purchase.
• You can buy meat or fish reduced for quick sale on its 'sell-by' date and freeze.  Defrost in the microwave on the same day you use it. 
• If large family packs of chops, steaks or chicken pieces are on sale, but you only need to feed one or two people, wrap the pieces individually in cling film and freeze for use as needed.   Divide large packages of mince into smaller portions and freeze in take-away containers.

Quick, Cheap and Tasty Stir Fry

This is another way to use cheap roast pork or chicken.  I'm not going to dictate a recipe, because the whole point is to use whatever ingredients you happen to have available.  I just want to share an easy cooking method for an inexpensive, healthy Chinese stir-fry meal you can make in minutes without using a wok.  The measurements given are for one serving.  Multiply as required.

See previous posts for how to prepare pork shoulder or leg or chicken legs and thighs.  In either case, you'll end up with chunks of meat and gelatinized stock.

Check your refrigerator for any vegetables that are nearing their use-by date that would work in a stir-fry.  Slice them into pieces around 1 centimetre thick.

Check your freezer for things like sliced mixed peppers, mixed stir-fry vegetables, julienned carrots or sliced mushrooms.  If you have frozen veggies like broccoli that come in big chunks, you'll need to defrost and slice them before using. 

You should have crushed garlic and ginger, soy sauce and five spice powder on hand.  It helps if you've also got a bottle of some sort of Chinese flavouring such as hoi sin sauce, oyster sauce, plum sauce, sweet chilli sauce or black bean sauce.  For a bit of a kick, you'll need some dried or crushed chillis.  Check your pantry for value-priced peanuts or cashews.

  

Put about a tablespoon of the stock, including the fat that's congealed on top,  into a frying pan over medium heat.  When it's melted and bubbling,  add a half teaspoon each of crushed garlic and ginger.  If desired, add chilli.  Stir for about a minute. 

Add any sliced, uncooked vegetables and stir until tender.  Throw in frozen, pre-sliced vegetables and stir till defrosted.  Add enough chunks of cooked meat for one portion and, if desired, a handful of nuts. 

Pour over about a tablespoon of soy sauce and sprinkle on about a teaspoon of five spice powder.  Add about a tablespoon of any thick Chinese sauce.  Stir everything for a couple of minutes until the meat has absorbed the flavourings  You're done!

You can serve this over rice or noodles, but, if you're trying to watch your weight, why not skip the empty calories from refined carbohydrates?  The vegetables and nuts will provide a variety of textures and flavours.

Chicken Curry with Tarragon Rice

Preparation time 30 minutes

Makes four servings
80p per serving

This is what it cost me, based on purchasing ingredients at the lowest price I could find.  This includes supermarket offers on produce and branded items as well as supermarket value-priced brands.

Ingredients

Curry

• 400 grams roasted, deboned chicken thighs or legs 
• 1 500g carton tomato passata or 1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 2 medium onions
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 heaped teaspoon chicken stock granules
• 2 heaped teaspoons sugar or granulated sucrolose
• 2 heaped teaspoons crushed garlic
• 2 heaped teaspoons crushed ginger
• 2 heaped tablespoons curry powder
• 1 heaped tablespoon garam masala
• About 4 ounces water
• Hot chilli powder to taste

Rice

• 200 grams (a mugful) uncooked long grain rice
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 heaped teaspoon turmeric

Puree one onion in a food processor and chop the other.  (Or chop both for a chunkier curry.)

On a back burner, boil a large saucepan of water for the rice. 

On a front burner, put 2 tablespoons oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.  Add the garlic, ginger, curry powder and garam masala.  Stir for 2-3 minutes to combine the spices into a paste.  Stir in the water and add the stock granules and sugar. 

Add the rice to the boiling water.  Reduce the heat and simmer for around ten minutes until you can break a grain with your fingernail. 

Add the pureed and chopped onions to your spices and simmer for about ten minutes until soft and translucent. 

Put the cooked rice into a sieve in the sink to drain.

Stir the tomato passata and chicken chunks into the curry.  Now taste!  If you want a hotter curry, add chilli powder by the teaspoon until you reach your preferred level of mouth-burn.  If you want a more fragrant curry with a richer blend of spices, add more garam masala.  Simmer on low heat until the tumeric rice is ready.

Pour oil into the empty rice pan, toss in the cooked rice and stir to coat.  Sprinkle on the turmeric and mix until the rice is evenly coloured.

Suggestions

• For a creamier curry, stir in two heaped teaspoons of yoghurt before serving.
• For more colour, flavour and texture, add sliced mixed peppers, cauliflower or any other veg you like in curry sauce.

Cheap Chicken

A few minutes work boning cooked chicken pieces can save you a lot of money.  I recently paid £1.93 per kilo for whole chicken legs and thighs.  A kilo of value priced boneless, skinless chicken breasts costs £7.40.  Even when you allow for the weight of the bones, that's a huge increase in cost.

I think the popularity of boneless breasts has something to do with the fact that many adults now hesitate to eat or cook with anything that reminds them of an animal.  Since the 1970s, a growing number of people have grown up on a diet of processed food and fast food that has no bones about it.

I would quite happily make a stew or curry with cheap whole chicken wings, legs or thighs and pick out the bones as I eat it.  Traditional cooks know that meat cooked on the bone has more flavour.  However, I'm well aware that some people find the idea of eating with their hands or chewing around bones barbaric. 

To make boneless chicken dishes a lot cheaper, simply process your own chicken legs and thighs before using the meat.  Here's how.

Preheat the oven to 170 C.   Put a pat of butter in a roasting pan and place it in the oven until softened.  Roll your cheap chicken parts in the butter and sprinkle with salt. 

Roast for approximately one hour and fifteen minutes or until the skin turns golden brown.  Allow them to cool for half an hour.  Peel off the crispy skin and have a tasty snack. 

Pour the pan juices into a lidded container to use as chicken stock.  It will gelatinize in the refrigerator.  The fat that rises to the surface is great for frying meat and vegetables.

Separate the meat from the bones.   It will fall away easily.  Feel the pieces with your fingers to ensure that you've removed all the cartilage around the joints.  Place the meat in recycled lidded take-away containers and store in the refrigerator for up to five days. 

Use in curry or any recipe that calls for chicken breast pieces.  Since the meat's pre-cooked, add it during the last few minutes of cooking time.   I don't think my squeamish partner noticed that the stir-fry below was made with chicken legs, not boneless breast.

A Tomato a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Though tomatoes may be a bit pricier than, say, root veg, they are cheap compared to most other fruits.  You can almost always find some kind of fresh tomatoes on sale and the tinned ones are perpetually on multi-buy offers.  They add intense flavour to all sorts of traditional dishes.

 A medium tomato (123g) has only 22 calories.  It contains 20% of the GDA of vitamin C,  26% of the GDA of vitamin A, 12% of the GDA of vitamin K and 8% of the GDA of potassium.

Tomatoes contain a higher concentration of lycopene than any other food.  Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant which helps to prevent cell damage.  Several studies have found that a diet high in lycopene lowers the risk of certain cancers including prostate, lung, breast and stomach.  Lycopene has also been found to protect the bones from oxidative stress, lowering the risk of osteoporosis. 

More of the lycopene in tomatoes is absorbed by the intestines when they are cooked than when they are eaten raw, and still more is absorbed when they are eaten with fat.  A tomato salad with an olive oil dressing is healthy.  Homemade tomato sauce with olive oil is even better.  Tinned tomatoes retain all their lycopene.

Basic Italian Tomato Sauce

I always make my own tomato sauce so I can add ingredients that I like in the proportions that I like.  Here's a recipe that you can tweak to come up with one that's perfect for you.  Price comparison is discussed below.

Preparation time 30 minutes

Makes one litre (four servings)
Cost £1.70 per kilo (without optional extras)

This is what it cost me, based on purchasing ingredients at the lowest price I could find.  This includes supermarket offers on produce and branded items as well as supermarket value-priced brands.

Ingredients

 

• 1 400g  tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 142g tin tomato puree
• 2 onions
• 1 large carrot.
• 1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1 stock cube
• 4 cloves (2 heaping teaspoons) crushed garlic
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Slice the carrot and cook until soft.  Peel the onions and roughly chop them.  Put the (cooked) carrot and half of the (raw) onion into a food processor and puree. 

(If you don't have a food processor, you can grate or dice the carrot and chop the onions as large or small as you please.  You'll just end up with a chunkier sauce.)

Put the olive oil in a large saucepan and turn the burner to medium-low (3).   Add the vegetable puree, chopped onion and crushed garlic.  Stir for about 5 minutes until the onion begins to soften.  Pour over enough water to cover the vegetables and add the stock cube, vinegar and sugar.  Stir until the cube dissolves.

Stir in the tomato puree and add the herbs.  Simmer for  about five minutes.  Stir in the chopped tomatoes. 

At this point you can add any optional extras and continue stirring until they are heated through.

 Optional extras

• Sautéed mushrooms
• Sautéed sliced peppers
• Chopped chilli peppers
• Black olives
• Spinach (fresh or frozen)
• Cooked mince (beef, pork, turkey - whatever's cheap)
• Sliced cooked sausage
• Cooked brazing or stewing steak
• Chopped bacon
• Meatballs
• Anchovies

Tweaks

There are many variations you can make on this sauce.  I add carrot because I think it mellows out the tartness of the tomato, but you can leave it out if you want.  Traditional Italian recipes include celery.  If you've got some hanging around, chop it or puree it and put it in along with the other veg.  For a smooth sauce, puree all the veg and add tomato passata instead of chopped tomatoes.  Taste as you cook and add more herbs if you want or use fresh rather than dried.

 About the cost

You can buy cheap brands of tomato sauce in a jar for around £1.50 a kilo.  They aren't made with olive oil and they're thickened with corn flour.  However, they are marginally cheaper than homemade.

The 'authentic Italian' brands with ingredients similar to the ones I use go for £3.50 or more per kilo.  If you want a full-bodied, full-flavoured sauce, you can make your own for less than half that price.

I Like a Meaty Sausage (and Easy Meatballs)

I never buy the cheapest sausages, they're low in meat and often taste like breadcrumbs coated in rancid fat.  I only buy brands with at least 75% meat and prefer the premium brands that are 95% meat or more.  When I see them on sale for half price, I stock up the freezer.

Good sausages purchased at a good price are a delicious and versatile source of protein.  You can eat them with potatoes and gravy or with eggs at breakfast,  You can use them in traditional British cuisine like sausage rolls or toad in the hole.  You can slice them up and add them to au gratin potatoes, stews, omelettes or quiches.

You can even use sausages to make cheap and easy mini meatballs.  Preheat the oven to 200 C.   If the sausages are linked, cut them apart.  Unravel the twisted ends of the casing and peel it off.  Slice each sausage in half and cut each half into thirds.  

Roll the pieces around in your hands until they are vaguely spherical.  Arrange the meatballs on a baking tray that has been covered with foil or a reusable non-stick liner.

Bake for twenty minutes and you're done.  Reheat the meatballs in tomato sauce and serve over pasta or use as a pizza topping.

Roast Paprika Chicken Wings

Value chicken wings are so cheap (£1.99 per kilo), I don't have to wait for them to go on special offer.  This recipe is really easy and the result is finger-licking good.  The skin is crispy and the meat is tender, juicy and flavourful.

10 minutes preparation time, 1 hour cooking time

Two average sized servings
95p per serving

This is what it cost me, based on purchasing ingredients at the lowest price I could find.  This includes supermarket offers on produce and branded items as well as supermarket value-priced brands.

Ingredients

• 8 - 10 chicken wings (about 750g)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• salt
• smoked paprika
• sugar

Preheat the oven to 190 C.  Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Check the wings and pull out any remaining feathers.  Add the wings to the pan and stir to coat them in butter.  Sprinkle them with salt, sugar and a good coating of paprika.  Flip them over and season the other side. 

Cover a baking tray in foil or a silicon/Teflon sheet.  Arrange the wings plump side up on the tray.  Pour the pan juices over them.  Roast for 30 minutes.  Turn the wings over and return to the oven for 15 minutes.  Turn the wings right side up again and roast for a final 15 minutes.

Options 

•  If you like spicy wings, simply sprinkle them with cayenne pepper or chilli powder in addition to paprika.
• If you're trying to cut down on sugar and salt, make them like I do with granulated sucralose and low sodium salt.

The Humble Onion

Onions have to be the ultimate peasant food.  They're very cheap and incredibly versatile.  A basic ingredient in soups. stews and curries, onions can also be added to stir-frys, pizza, pasta sauce and gravy.  They can even work well raw in salads and garnishes. 

This week I bought a bargain bag of onions at 80p for two kilograms.  I don't intend to let any go to waste.   According to traditional accounts, onions that were braided together and hung from the rafters would last all winter.  For some reason the ones I get from the supermarket only last about two weeks in the fridge.  Who knows how long they've already been stored or in what conditions.

I'll use about one kilo fresh and freeze the other.  I make a lot of dishes that call for two chopped onions, so I'll chop them and sauté them just as I would for a curry or pasta sauce.  I fill lidded plastic take-away containers with two prepared onions each and store in the freezer.  When my kilo of fresh onions has run out, I'll defrost them as required.

Onion Nutrition

A medium onion contains 14% of your GDA of vitamin C and is high in soluble fibre. Compounds in onions (and garlic) convert a phytochemical called allicin when the bulb is sliced.  Allicin has so many health benefits that people take it in supplement form. 

•  It is antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal and antiparasitic and helps to fight off many kind of infections.
• It can lower blood pressure and help to prevent the formation of blood clots, reducing the risk for heart disease and stoke. 
• It can lower levels of LDL 'bad' cholesterol and raise levels of HDL 'good' cholesterol.
• It acts as an antioxidant to protect cells from damage by free radicals, reducing the risk of cancer.

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The Joy of Frozen Veg

Health conscious readers may have noticed that in my recipe for American Style Barbequed Pork with Beans and Rice, I used frozen sliced mixed peppers, as opposed to fresh peppers.  This is because fresh peppers are ridiculously expensive these days, a standard sized 140 gram pepper is usually around 75p  at my supermarket.  The frozen ones are reasonably priced at £1 for a 500 gram bag.  Keep in mind that frozen sliced peppers don't have any seeds to discard and are easy to use straight out of the packet.  That makes them even better value.  But do they taste as good and are they just as nutritious?

Taste

I suggest you answer this question for yourself.  Try making the same stew, curry or stir-fry with fresh and frozen peppers and see if you notice a difference.  If you do, is it great enough to warrant paying three times as much for fresh as frozen?

I generally don't eat frozen vegetables on their own as a side dish.  The texture can be rubbery, especially when it comes to broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.  But I barely notice a difference between fresh and frozen when the veg is chopped or pureed and added to dishes like quiche, casseroles or soups.

Nutrition

If you compared frozen vegetables to ones you pick from your own garden and eat right away, the garden veg will probably retain more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.  But generally, people chose between fresh and frozen vegetables available at the supermarket.  Supermarket vegetables are rarely 'fresh'.  They often don't arrive on the produce shelves until nine days after being picked, and they can sit there for around four days before their sell-by date.

The nutritional value of vegetables begins to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested.  Fresh vegetables continue to lose nutrients while they are being sorted, packaged, transported and displayed.  Freezing vegetables immediately after harvest preserves them so that no further deterioration takes place.

Part of the freezing process involves blanching in steam or boiling water.  This is done to deactivate enzymes which could cause vegetables to lose flavour, colour and texture.  Blanching also cleans the vegetables and destroys microorganisms.  The only downside of this heating process is that is can reduce amounts of vitamin C, folate and thiamine.  However, the same thing happens when you cook fresh veg at home.

So, unless you are going to pick vegetables out of the ground and put them straight into your mouth, you won't get the full nutritional value.  If you are going to buy veg them from the supermarket and cook it, frozen will probably contain higher levels of nutrients than 'fresh'.

How to Handle a Big Cheap Hunk of Pork

Pork joints, particularly shoulder and leg, frequently go on special offer for around £3 a kilogram or less.  Check out the one I just bought for £2.66 a kilo. 

That is a big cheap hunk of meat!   If I had a crowd to serve, I could simply roast it and serve with gravy and vegetables.  But there's just two of us to feed and it's going to last all week and feature in a variety of meals.

The first step is to cook it.   My pack says to cook for 35 minutes per 450g plus 30 minutes at 190 C.  If you do this, I advise you to first seal the meat in a hob on the frying pan to help retain the juices.  Also, let it rest for 20 minutes or so before slicing.

I'm going to ignore the instructions and use my slow-cooker.  This method makes pork shoulder come out so tender it simply falls apart when you stick a fork in it.  If you want neat slices of roast, use the oven method.

Slow cookers are great for inexpensive cuts of meat that need to be tenderized.  You can just put in the ingredients for a stew in the morning and it will be ready in the evening.  You can get a basic slow cooker for about £15, or try advertising on a free-cycling group to see if anyone has a used one taking up space.

With this hunk of pork, I'm not going to add any flavours to the pot because I'll be using the cooked meat  in differently flavoured dishes.  I just pour about an inch of hot water into the cooker, plop in the meat and cover it.  I leave it on high heat for about an hour to get things going, then switch to low and leave it to slow roast overnight. 

The next day, I take out the pork and transfer it to a cutting board to cool.  I then slice off the crackling (which I'll crisp up later).  I pull apart the joint, removing any gristly or rubbery pieces of fat.  I chop up the meat into bite-sized pieces and store in a lidded container for later use.  The unwanted fat goes outside for the neighbourhood fox.

I pour the juices from the bottom of the slow cooker into a separate container.  This is essentially pork stock and can be used to add flavour and smooth texture to sauces.  It will gelatinize when refrigerated, but quickly melt when added to a hot pan. 

Ideas for using cold roast pork shoulder

• American pulled pork sandwich

Reheat with juices and barbeque sauce.  Serve on a buttered bap with caramelized onions. 

• Poor man's crispy, aromatic duck

Stir fry with juices, soy sauce, garlic, ginger and Chinese five spice powder.  Serve on Chinese pancakes with hoi sin sauce and sliced cucumber or spring onions.  

• Use instead of minced beef to liven up chilli con carne or bolognaise.