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00:00I know that more than ever you need incredible food that makes you feel good
00:06that doesn't cost the world. With food prices still high, I want us to think
00:11differently about the ingredients that we buy. It's all about sticking to a
00:14budget and being clever, right? This is all about maximum flavour for minimum
00:19spend. Come on! It's about making everyday ingredients work really hard for you.
00:23And bigging up the clever money-saving cooking tips our grandparents swore by.
00:27An old-fashioned recipe brought bang up to date. Whether you're cooking for two,
00:32four, six or eight breakfasts, lunch, dinner, even desserts, every one of my
00:38meals cost less than a fiver for the whole lot. I'm so excited! This is
00:44incredible food at incredible prices. Stick with me and together we will turn
00:50everyday ingredients into absolute epic feasts. Now that is a feast for a fiver.
00:56Homemade doesn't have to mean hard work. Sometimes it's just learning a nice
01:06little technique. And let's face it, eating out these days can be expensive. So my
01:13creamy broccoli and blue cheese gnocchi, made with mashed potato and topped with
01:18crunchy hazelnut and crispy sage, is the perfect way to turn everyday ingredients
01:24into something restaurant worthy. And coming in way less than a fiver, at only
01:30£2.40 for two people, it's a little indulgence without the hefty bill.
01:36Homemade gnocchi. It is a delight and a joy. And when you're saving money and getting a luxury,
01:42that is the kind of cooking that I like. So first up, 500 grams of floury potatoes. These are
01:49Romare's Piper. Give them a little prick and whack them in the microwave for about 10 minutes
01:54until they're soft and cooked. A lovely source of protein, hazelnuts working with sage and beautiful blue cheese.
02:05I've costed for a handful and this will be for a sprinkle at the end of the dish. So we're going to toast
02:11up these nuts, okay? A couple of minutes max. So I've got three sprigs of sage here. I'm going to just
02:16pick those leaves into the pan and give it a little bit of olive oil. So when we've got that lovely
02:22steaming bowl of gnocchi, we've got crunchy sage that's really fragrant and nice toasty hazelnuts.
02:28While that's doing its magic, I've got two onions and two cloves of garlic. I'll start with the garlic,
02:35just finely slicing it like that.
02:40So in no time at all, we've toasted those nuts and made those sage leaves go nice and crisp.
02:47So put those just into a pestle and mortar and we'll just crush those up a little bit later.
02:52This pan goes back onto the heat with a little olive oil and then we'll go in with the garlic
03:01and the onion. I'm just going to finely slice it. We're going to make quite a rustic sauce.
03:11We'll just scatter those in and we're going to cook these down. Keep it on like a medium heat.
03:17Let's season it with some salt and pepper. 10 minutes. Just moving them regularly.
03:26I think what's really nice about this dish, we're going to turn a potato into gnocchi and then we're
03:32going to take everyday onions and we're going to cook them down and down until they're golden
03:37and sweet. So I like that. I like that appreciation for two everyday ingredients that are very, very
03:43affordable. This is the other half of the sage. I'm going to put this into the sauce.
03:48Really this is about TLC. Keep going back to the pan and give it a little shake.
04:02So in 10 minutes, you know, you've cooked a jacket potato, so it's saving energy because the microwave
04:07is super efficient. And we're just going to mash that potato away from the skin. So the skin we're
04:15going to put to one side. I'm going to spritz some oil. We're going to season it up, bang that in the
04:27microwave. If I get something really crispy, that's quite useful, but we'll see about that. Give them
04:32about four minutes. And then here, I'm just going to mash this up to make it nice and fine.
04:42So season it nicely, salt and pepper, and then a great little spice, nutmeg. So quarter of a nutmeg,
04:51all custard in.
04:52So mash that seasoning in and that nutmeg. Let's give the onions some love.
05:05So as it's colouring now, I'm just going to turn the temperature right down. This dish is incredibly
05:11affordable. It's sort of like restaurant food that you can make at home. So having this technique in
05:16your repertoire, whether you're sort of home alone, a couple, got kids, like, this is a really gold
05:22recipe. I'm going to go in with 40 grams of flour, mix it up, and you can see it just comes together
05:30as a nice pliable little dough. Before we get on with the gnocchi, I want to get some vegetables
05:35into this story. And I'm going to use a great frozen vegetable actually. Frozen broccoli. So just four
05:42lovely florets. Currently frozen broccoli is half the price of fresh. Snap frozen when they're at their
05:48best. So nutritionally brilliant, convenience brilliant, waste brilliant, and price brilliant.
05:53So it's a handy thing to have in your freezer. Into the boiling water they go, just for a couple of
05:58minutes. We're going to take our little ball, roll it, just try and be even with your palms. Kids make
06:03this in Italy, grandmothers make it all the time. It is just a beautiful, beautiful thing. Cut it in half.
06:12I'm then going to cut it one and a half inches, three centimetres in length. And then
06:21all we do is we pinch it and that's the kind of shape that we're going for. These will be bouncy
06:26and light and very delicate. Texturally and flavour wise they will taste nothing like what we buy when
06:33we buy the pre-bought ones. They're very convenient but this is a different level. And this is the kind
06:37of joy of cooking, right? We're saving money and getting a better product. Let's have a look in the pan.
06:45And we've turned that big pile of onions into a small pile of golden onions. If it's reduced in size
06:53it's almost doubled in flavour. How nice does the frozen broccoli look? Take it over with a little bit
06:59of that water. So we're just going to break it up and stir everything together. Prepare yourself for big flavour.
07:06This just needs two more ingredients to kind of finish it off. One is a little hack that I do. If
07:11I've ever got odds and ends of cheese I will always put them in a little container, whack them in the freezer.
07:16And one of the things I've put in the freezer is blue cheese. And by having blue cheese in the freezer
07:22it's firmer, right? And you can grate it. I've allowed 50 grams of this cheese. So this is creamy,
07:29this is delicious but it's also got a tang to it. It's a really nice hack because sometimes like
07:34blue cheese can be too much. So just a little kind of snowing. Let's have a look at these potato skins.
07:45They actually look pretty good. Let it cool down, it should go crisp.
07:48So the cheese has gone in and then I've got budget for four tablespoons of double cream.
07:56And this will just make the most simple sauce. That's on the lowest heat now. Just let
08:03the cheese and the cream just sit there. So when you're boiling gnocchi, don't have it rolling,
08:09boil, lid on top and you'll break them up, right? So we'll plop them in. They'll sink straight away
08:16and when they're cooked they'll float. Give them about three minutes. I might steal a little bit
08:20of this water just to loosen this cream sauce. And this is going to be the perfect landing pad
08:26for these lovely pillowy soft gnocchi.
08:32And then over here push some of these beautiful sage leaves to the side.
08:35And then I'm just going to crack some of these hazelnuts and sage leaves.
08:41This little sprinkle will make this dish. Imagine creamy sauce. And then that herby crunch on the top.
08:47So I'm happy with the consistency of the sauce. I'm now going to go in with a slotted spoon and just
08:52pull out these gnocchi. Look at those. Be delicate with them.
08:54You can use a spoon. I just like to shake it and just move it around like that. Just delicious.
09:11We can take some of our sage leaves, place them around. We take some of these nuts,
09:17sprinkle those on top. And then a little bit of that blue cheese on top.
09:38For me this feels like real restaurant quality food. You know we've got humble ingredients but
09:42yet we've put it together in classic Italian style with a bit of glamour. Really comforting, gorgeous
09:49little clouds that are just taking on all that flavour. The balance of blue cheese in that is
09:55amazing. It's got tang, it's creamy, but then with the sweetness of the onions and that sweetness
10:01actually of the broccoli but with that little bit of bitterness and the crispy fragrant sage,
10:08it's truly delicious. And when you get that little pop of toasted hazelnut,
10:12it is just texturally unbelievable. Last but not least, the skins.
10:21That's pretty good. A little bit of chilli on there. Cold beer. We have a use.
10:31For a delicious £2.40 for two, it's simple everyday ingredients transformed into a restaurant worthy dish.
10:39I've costed all of these recipes, taking the average cost of each ingredient and the quantity I've used
10:46from the three largest supermarkets. The only things I've assumed that you have already are salt, pepper,
10:52and olive oil. So the next recipe is an absolute classic. A legendary recipe that was the original
11:08packed lunch. Now I'm going to give it some love and some care so I can get those prices down and make you a
11:13delicious meal. My beef and potato pasties are a wallet friendly spin on the Cornish classic.
11:20Made with the super convenient mince meat and vegetables and flavoured with a cheeky store cupboard
11:26hack. They come in at a tasty £4.82 for two. So inspired by the great Cornish pasty, there are very
11:34specific rules and regulations on how you make it. The original would have skirt steak. Now when I looked
11:40around the supermarkets, only a few sell it. Then I kind of thought, well how can I make this affordable
11:45and get it in on budget? So I settled on minced beef. So I thought, can I do it even cheaper? So I looked at
11:50frozen mince and actually the frozen minced beef was more expensive than the fresh. So you've got to
11:55stay vigilant. This is the spirit of saving lots of money. Right, let's make some pastry. If you think
12:01about it, the original recipe was for miners. They'd eat it with their hands. You want something that's a
12:06beautiful little edible package, right? Now the difference in a Cornish style pastry is they
12:11would use strong flour. It's got more kind of gluten. It's more elastic. So it was clever cooking.
12:17It's still half fat to flour. So we have that richness there still. So 200 grams of strong flour
12:23to 100 grams of butter. Cut that into little cubes. This butter is cold. And then I'm going to do a
12:30pinch of salt to season it. Then I'm going to use my thumb and forefinger to rub the butter into the flour.
12:40Just do that for 30 seconds, nice and quick. Normally you would probably put an egg in at this
12:46stage, but we're saving pennies. So I'm going to use just like 20 or 30 mils of milk. And we'll use
12:52that just to bring it together. In no time at all, you've got your dough together. So I want to cut it in
13:00half as accurately as I can. So make two little balls, and then we can press it down, flatten it
13:06out. I'm just going to put it in the fridge for like 30 minutes, just to relax and just chill down
13:11a little bit. In it goes. Okay, so mincemeat. For this recipe, for two lovely pasties, I've got 200
13:22grams of beef in my budget. And of course, mincemeat is never going to go to waste in any home. You can use
13:28it for so many different things. So this can go back into the fridge. Now the original Cornish pastie
13:37would have sliced up onions, potatoes and swede. So I'm going to do my version of adding veggies to
13:42this to add more value and stretch the meat. I'm going to take one onion. The brown onion is the
13:48cheapest one that you can get. And then I've got a similar amount of potato. So skin on potato,
13:54the cheapest way to get that at the moment is in a little bag, and they normally call them all-rounders.
13:59And then a humble carrot. I'm going to grab a box grater, and I am going to grate these in there.
14:06So I'm going to start off with the onions, and I feel that that kind of works in harmony with the
14:10mincemeat a little bit better. The carrot, just giving it a little wash, and leaving the skin on,
14:17I think you get more flavour and nutrition. And that's the same for the potato. Nice long strokes.
14:24So really, really important is we've got to get the seasoning right now, because once it's in that
14:29pastry, you can't do anything. So a nice seasoning of sea salt. I love it with white pepper. I just
14:35think it tastes amazing. When you think you've put enough white pepper in or black pepper, put the
14:39same in again. So be generous, have that little hum of heat. And then two more pops of flavour that are
14:45genius. First one is a dried herb. I'm using thyme. Teaspoon is all you need. With dried,
14:51you seem to get kind of deeper, more savoury, hearty flavours, which I absolutely love. And then
14:56the curveball is some brown sauce. You get an array of spices. You get the tamarind, which is sweet and
15:02sour. You get the vinegar in there, and that just adds a nice kind of depth of flavour to the filling
15:07of this beautiful little pasty. So hands in, clean hands, and we're going to mix it, but also mush it.
15:13And it becomes much more pliable. Divide that into two.
15:20What I have to do now is just get my pastry out of the fridge and roll it out.
15:33This is a fun bit. Super easy. So two little pasties. Flour a clean surface so it doesn't stick.
15:41And we want to basically make it about the size of a plate. If you roll away from you,
15:49you've got a better chance of keeping it nice and even. So it's the same thickness everywhere.
15:55We're going to go about four millimetres thick. Look at that. You can see we're just slightly bigger
16:03than the plate now, which is perfect. This is a 24 centimetre plate. Then I'm going to get this
16:08filling. You've naturally got that shape of the pasty, which is great. I'm going to take some milk,
16:16and the milk will also give you a nice golden exterior. So it's a nice little hack. Then you
16:21can just take that little piece of pastry.
16:28Just trim off your little bit of rim here like that.
16:31And what I want to do is show you how to crimp it. You could just use a fork like that.
16:40But what I love to do is just take a little corner like that, fold it over. It's just a kind of pinch
16:46and a crimp. But it gives you a nice visual appeal. And that essentially seals the pastry. So get yourself
16:53a baking tray, bit of greaseproof paper, put a little bit of flour over the top like that to stop it sticking.
17:01The only thing I would do now is just a little cut across like that, just to let the steam out.
17:08So a little scoring. I'll give it one last little milk wash. And then that goes in an oven at 180
17:29degrees Celsius, which is 350 Fahrenheit for 40 minutes until golden. And that filling is really
17:35nice and cooked on the inside. My oven is ready and ready to go. So in we go.
17:45While those beauties are cooking, I want to make a very simple salad. So I've got a gem lettuce or two
17:51that I've costed in. And I've got an apple. And I've got some celery. So I've got three sticks. I love
17:58that sound. With the gem, I'm going to take the outer leaves off and I'll save that for another dish.
18:05We'll give these a quick wash. These outer sticks are quite fibrous and stringy.
18:15So we simply get the speed peeler and run it all the way down the length like that,
18:20revealing that kind of much more sort of cucumbery interior there.
18:24With the gem, I'm going to take the stalk off.
18:31We'll cut it in half and then we'll cut the halves into quarters.
18:38With the celery here, I'm just going to cut it at a slight angle into chunks.
18:43And then a nice apple, which has been washed. I think I'm going to go into eight.
18:56So into a little bowl, we're going to go in with one tablespoon of red wine vinegar,
19:02two tablespoons of olive oil, and a nice pinch of salt and pepper.
19:10And I've got budget for a teaspoon of English mustard.
19:15English mustard, that heat is really good with the sweetness and the crunch of the apple.
19:21We can make a nice little emulsified dressing. Look at the colour.
19:29And then I won't dress it until the last minute.
19:32So salad, nice little pasties, that is a lovely little combination.
19:36So these are done. These have had 40 minutes.
19:42Have a look at those.
19:45So I would just let those sit for five minutes.
19:47Hot or cold, they're going to be amazing.
19:50Let those cool down while we dress this beautiful salad.
19:54Do it thoroughly. We've got the English mustard that's emulsifying the oil and vinegar.
19:58It's given me memories of lovely ploughman's lunches in pubs.
20:06So look, two generous pasties and portions of salad for under a fiver.
20:11That's a really, really nice thing to do for someone that you love.
20:15Let's get amongst it. Come on.
20:18I'm actually going to just tear it.
20:31Utterly delicious. The pastry, it's more flaky than crumbly.
20:35What is genius is the level of pepper and that brown sauce.
20:40The tamarind, the spices, working with those humble ingredients.
20:44The potato, the carrot, the mincemeat.
20:46It can be a portable meal. Take it on a picnic.
20:48Love it.
20:49This is a great low cost meal for two.
20:52Generous, bold and simple.
20:55Delicious.
20:58Super convenient ingredients transformed into a tasty take on a classic.
21:03Coming in at £4.82 for two.
21:15I've got a great recipe for you which I think is going to surprise you.
21:18You're going to love it.
21:19It's full of colour.
21:20It's exciting.
21:21You can do it when you get home from work.
21:22It's a 20 minute meal that really is delicious.
21:27Not only can you whip these up in no time, but my crispy noodle fish cakes will save you money too.
21:34Using handy ingredients from your fridge, freezer and store cupboard,
21:38this proper midweek winner serves two for £4.47.
21:44I've got one nest of these brilliant noodles.
21:46I always have these in my cupboard.
21:49Rice noodles, some boiling water and about two minutes to rehydrate and they're good to go.
21:54So it's a brilliant hack for quick cooking.
21:56I love it.
21:58And normally a classic fish cake is bound together with mashed potato, but we don't need mashed potato.
22:03We've got these noodles.
22:04They're fantastic.
22:04It's a store cupboard product and they kind of work as a scaffolding,
22:07holding all the flavour and the fish together and they go really crispy on the outside.
22:11So look, fish wise, we're going to go to get it on budget with frozen white fish.
22:16Frozen fish I think is brilliant.
22:18I use it.
22:19I buy it.
22:19I buy fresh fish as well, of course.
22:21Sometimes it's pollock.
22:23They're really nice little fillets.
22:24They're all skinned.
22:25They're all pin boned.
22:26It's good to go.
22:27You don't waste any.
22:28You'll be surprised how quickly this will defrost.
22:30So this is a clever hack to get more fish into your life.
22:35So what I want to do is get two textures.
22:38So I want the fine fish to really hold everything else together.
22:43And then I want these chunks here to be chunky and have like a little flake.
22:49So I've taken the tail of the fish and finely sliced it.
22:53And then that will hold nice chunks of the diced fish together.
22:56So what we want to do now is flavour this in a really lovely way.
23:03I've budgeted for a lemon.
23:05I'm going to take a little fine grater and I'm going to take some of that lemon zest
23:09and just put just the lovely yellow of the lemon over the fish.
23:14Just put this aside for later.
23:16I'm going to take half a bunch of coriander.
23:18If you want to make it last longer, a little bit of wet kitchen paper just keeps it fresher for longer.
23:22If you get some cold water, these nice top leaves, right, I will put in the water and they'll go really crunchy and beautiful.
23:30And then I take the stalks and the little leaves and I'm going to chop them up and put them into our fish cake.
23:35You can use any fresh herb that you want.
23:37When you're cooking on a budget, we can still use fresh herbs.
23:41They're delicious, they're nutritious and they help you to create massive flavours.
23:45So the leaves go into the icy water and I've got the other leaves and the stalks here that I'm just going to finely chop.
23:53This is all flavour.
23:58And with the help of salt and pepper, right, that's going to be good.
24:01So I'm going to go extra heavy on the black pepper to get a nice heat and just mix it up.
24:09Also, I've got some sesame seeds here.
24:17So I've got enough to have a tablespoon of sesame seeds in the fish cake and then a little bit of
24:23sesame seeds with my beans that I'm going to do in a little bit.
24:25So these will toast off, of course, and be really, really tasty.
24:29So this is about amping up this delicious frozen fish, giving an edge of flavour, but also stretching it further.
24:36So in a couple of minutes, look, these have rehydrated.
24:39So what I'm going to do is just drain these.
24:46You don't have to let these cool down because I'm going to cook these straight away.
24:49I'm going to go in with one free-range egg to bind it all.
24:53And then we're going to go in with the fish.
24:58And as we're mixing it around, you know, we can break up some of those noodles.
25:02And that egg will just get into the noodles and it will bind the fish.
25:09I've got this large pan on a medium heat.
25:13I'm going to give it a little spritz with some olive oil.
25:17I'm going to divide up this kind of batch into six little fish cakes and just put it in your hand.
25:23Right, it looks like they're falling apart.
25:24They're not.
25:24Okay, and then place it into the pan like that.
25:28And you can see how the noodles, they're sort of holding the whole thing together.
25:33They look delicate, but they're not.
25:36You can move them around.
25:39And then what I'll do is give them a little spritz or a drizzle with some oil on the top
25:43so they go nice and crispy.
25:45I'm just going to give this board a little wash.
25:47So we've got fish cakes frying.
25:52We've got a pan of boiling water here.
25:55And I've got enough for 160 grams of French beans.
26:00So always nice to get more veggies into your life.
26:03So all I want to do with these beans is just take off the end and leave the wispy part like that.
26:09So we'll get rid of these little stalks and then we'll go into the boiling water with the beans
26:17and give them like three or four minutes just to soften them up.
26:20And then I'm going to fry them in the pan.
26:21It's a very quick meal.
26:23I'm going to get my little food processor out.
26:25We've got 60 grams of dried apricots.
26:28We're going to make a really exciting little sauce to go with these beautiful fish cakes.
26:33It'll be sweet.
26:34It'll be sour.
26:35So what I can do is just nick some boiling water, about 100 mils,
26:41and that'll start to rehydrate the apricots.
26:44They'll start to plump up.
26:45I've got a brilliant spice here, or paste, harissa, North Africa.
26:49It's a really beautiful, mild kind of chilly warmth with spice.
26:55And I've costed it all in.
26:56Right, two teaspoons of that harissa go in to the apricots.
27:00So it's got a little bit of a North African Moroccan vibe going on here.
27:04So if I just go to turn one of these over, I can see this one is nicely brown,
27:09but just not perfectly brown.
27:11So I can turn the heat up.
27:13We'll go in under here, turn it.
27:15I love how imperfectly perfect they are.
27:18So I'm going to turn the temperature up now.
27:23This is now hydrated in a really nice way.
27:26Plumped up the apricots.
27:28I've got this lemon over here that I'm going to use in a few ways.
27:31So I'll take one side of the lemon off, and that'll be just to serve on the plate,
27:36along with this beautiful coriander.
27:38And then here, I'm going to put some of the lemon juice, half of that, catch any pips.
27:43So you've got lemon, you've got sweet and sour apricots,
27:46and you've got that lovely hum of harissa.
27:49This I'm going to put on the green beans.
27:50So we're using lemon and the zest in lots of different ways.
27:53And then now I'm going to whizz it up.
28:01So let's have a little try here.
28:07Mmm.
28:07Oh my goodness.
28:09Utterly delicious.
28:10Add a little salt and pepper.
28:13It's a brilliant store cupboard sauce.
28:15So let's turn these over again.
28:20See they're holding together really beautifully.
28:24So these beans have probably had about four minutes.
28:34So once the beans come back in the pan, just a little drizzle of oil.
28:39I can afford to put in just a little bit more.
28:41Sesame seed.
28:44Let the skins of the green beans catch and almost kind of like sizzle a little bit.
28:49And let those sesame seeds toast.
28:54That last bit of lemon juice goes in, shake it and cook it away.
28:59Right, heat off.
29:01So let's do this.
29:02A little bit of sauce on the bottom.
29:04By layering it up.
29:09This is going to be really, really delicious.
29:11These have had about five minutes now.
29:13There, look, you can see it's sizzling there.
29:16Just take a few of these beans.
29:25So we're back in with that amazing harissa sauce again.
29:29How lovely.
29:30It's making green beans exciting.
29:32Like, just because this is incredible money saving meals.
29:39You can see the chunk of fish there, right?
29:41Like we're not compromising.
29:43This is exciting.
29:45Beautiful apricot and harissa sauce.
29:48It's going to work in harmony with the fish.
29:53Coming home from work, come on.
29:55You get something with flavour for under a fibre for two portions.
29:59And I just love that.
30:01I've even got one last ingredient.
30:03Just a tablespoon of soy sauce.
30:05It's like the leaning tower of crispy fish pies.
30:08I think it's brilliantly bonkers.
30:11Squeeze that lemon over the top.
30:14Get in there.
30:15Crunch, then soft, then chewy.
30:29I love it.
30:30You've got chunks of fish and you've got the herbs.
30:33It's very light, but also got those lovely crispy edges.
30:37That sauce is amazing.
30:40Even these little green beans.
30:44Toasted with the sesame seeds and that little bit of soy and lemon.
30:48Yum.
30:48I think it's about thinking differently about cooking and shopping and budgeting and flavours.
30:53You can come up with some amazing things.
30:54So what are you waiting for?
30:55You've got to give that go.
31:00Handy freezer and store cupboard staples brought together to create fantastic fish cakes
31:05with a deliciously simple sauce.
31:08It's an impressive midweek meal for two at £4.47.
31:21We can learn so much from other cultures and older generations when it comes to cooking
31:25on a budget.
31:27Just as author and chef Rupa Gulati did.
31:30Growing up in Cumbria with her mum's traditional Indian cooking.
31:35We're making red lentil dal with spinach.
31:39My mum cooked it for me.
31:40I cooked it for my daughters.
31:42My daughters now cook it for their children.
31:44So it's the dal that goes through each generation.
31:48And I'm keeping the tradition alive.
31:50Dal can be a lavish dish or it can be something really simple.
31:55And it costs pennies.
31:57Rupa's great value delicious red lentil and spinach dal brings together simple ingredients,
32:03heartfelt cooking and plenty of love.
32:08Now these lentils have been soaking for about an hour.
32:11It helps shorten the cooking time.
32:13And that's great because then you save on the fuel that you're using.
32:16Rupa drains then covers the lentils with fresh water.
32:21She adds a pinch of turmeric, brings them to a boil and simmers for 20 minutes.
32:27It's got to break down so you don't want crunchy dal.
32:32In the 1980s Rupa moved to India where she lived for almost 20 years, working as a chef,
32:37consultant and TV cook while raising her family.
32:43She's been back in the UK since 2001 sharing her family traditions and rich food memories.
32:50To go with the dal we've got basmati rice.
32:53You can use any rice but I can feel my mum on my shoulder and she's saying gotta be basmati.
32:59So we're honouring her today.
33:01Rupa soaks the rice to draw out the excess starch and speed up the cooking, a common practice in India.
33:10My parents came to Cumbria. I think it was 1964 and it's 65.
33:15Mum was nicknamed the butterfly because she wore these really bright saris in this village where there
33:20was a grey sky and grey everything. And that's home to me. I've lived all over the place in my life,
33:28but home will always be Cumbria. I have got baby spinach leaves. A couple of handfuls really.
33:35The reason I like it is one for the flavour but also the grandchildren. If I was just going to put
33:40a pile of spinach on a plate they'd look a bit like oh okay. But once it's with the dal it's like oh
33:47this is quite herby and they feel quite grown up. The spinach goes into a hot dry pan to quickly
33:53wilt it down before it's drained. Honestly it's less than a minute and spinach dal is one of those
34:00dishes that transcends generations and each one of us adds a little extra spice to it or a little
34:08less chilli and I think good food should evolve. Right the rice is soaked. Mum never used written
34:16recipes. No weighing scales. So she would use the first knuckle to gauge how much water to add to the
34:24rice. So you just touch the top of the rice and you should have enough water just to reach the first
34:31knuckle. And you know what? It works. I bring it to the boil. That dal's coming along nicely. The lentils
34:41have broken down. So stir it just to make sure it's not getting too thick. I think that will take
34:48another few minutes. And our rice, the water has almost come to a boil. We want the rice to cook in
34:54the steam. You turn the heat down really low. That's not going to take very long, about seven to eight
35:01minutes because it's already soaked. So all that spinach that we had is now being reduced to just two
35:10small handfuls. So I just chop it and you can hear by the crunch the spinach isn't overcooked. Now we're
35:22going to make the tukka. Tukka means finishing spices. It's the sizzling bit. It's quite explosive
35:29really because it's a burst of flavour. In India if two people are having an argument and a third person
35:36comes in and stirs the pot, figuratively speaking, we say, oh they're adding tukka. They're adding spice
35:45to that argument. So tukka can be used in the relationships. It can be used in the cooking pot
35:50too. So garlic. I just squash them down. Whenever I chop garlic, the thing I like to do is add salt and it
36:00makes it easier to break down. Four cloves there. You can never have enough garlic. Any recipe that says
36:07one clove of garlic, I just ignore it. I always put in lots of garlic. Now root ginger. Peel the outer skin,
36:15grating it. Makes it cook just that bit quicker. In Cumbria we always could find root ginger. We're
36:22talking late 60s, 70s. But for everything else we used to make a trip to London. It was 360 miles one
36:31way. Fill the car boot with massive sacks of chapati flour and basmati rice and then the fruits,
36:41mangoes and of course spices. And so we would have Cumberland sausage and mash for lunch. But every
36:48single evening we would sit down to dal, chapatis, rice, a curry of some kind. So, you know, I've got
36:57a lot to thank my mum for. And I still feel she's the best cook. One green chilli. And because this dal
37:05is family friendly, I am taking out the seeds, the pith, because that's where the heat is. Just finely chop
37:13them. And I am going to wash my hands. One tomato. If you've got tinned tomatoes, use them. So quite big chunks.
37:31When you're making a turka, the oil has to get really hot. I've got cumin seeds here
37:37and Kashmiri chilli flakes. So if you throw cumin seeds into hot oil, you'll straight away
37:45get this whoosh of nutty, earthy flavour. Same goes for chilli flakes. The flavour becomes more intense.
37:53And then you turn the heat down to about medium when you add the garlic, ginger and green chillies.
38:00And we're just frying that until it gets that toasty aroma. Tomato. Keep it moving. As soon as the tomatoes
38:14start to soften, I'm going to add the spinach. I'm literally just warming it through. Salt to season.
38:23That is our turka. So, lentils, dal into the bowl.
38:36Then the spinach goes over the top. A little squeeze of lime. The rice is fluffed up. It's cooked in the steam.
38:47And now just a bit of indulgence because we do need it. Nice lump of butter. By the time everybody's
38:55around the table, that butter will have melted into the grains. And it will just add an extra touch of
39:03richness, I think. It's a taste of my heritage.
39:17For such simple ingredients. It tastes so complex. The cumin gives it this nuttiness. And there's a bit
39:27of a sharpness from the tamaric and from the green chillies. And it really does feel like a hug in a
39:33bowl. It's a great meal. Fills our tummies. And easy on the pocket too. Brilliant value store cupboard
39:41staples for a heartwarming family meal. Generously serving four people at £4.16.
39:59So I might be giving you money saving meals, but there's still room for dessert. And this one is delicious.
40:04My super quick, creamy and comforting mango rice pudding is full of gorgeous tropical flavour with
40:12frozen fruit, warming spices and it's fantastic value too at £4.91 to serve six people.
40:23So this is rice pudding, but not as you know it. So we're going to have fun here. In a large pan,
40:28we're going to add one litre of semi-skimmed milk on a medium heat, maybe slightly above that.
40:36So let's bring the milk up to a simmer and I want to infuse it with some nice flavours. So I've got
40:40a bay leaf here. You might think that one bay leaf won't do anything, but that is wrong. It really will
40:45give a nice fruity, sort of tutti fruity vibe. Nutmeg, old school spice. So I'm going to grate
40:53about a quarter of a nutmeg. I can already smell, it's really perfumed. And then lime. I'm not going
40:59to use the juice because of course that would split the milk. So just grating the lovely green oily
41:06zesty skin there. Let's just put this aside for later. So in with the bay, we're going to gather up
41:14the nutmeg and put that in. Let's go in with the lime.
41:19So mix all of that in. Then I need to sweeten it lightly. We're going to go in with some honey.
41:29Two tablespoons goes in to the milk.
41:34So stir that in. And what's clever about the honey is actually by weight, it's sweeter than regular
41:40sugar. So you get a good bang for your buck. I'm now going to go in with pudding rice. 250 grams goes in,
41:46short stubby little rice grains and full of that lovely creaminess. Now that almost like starchiness
41:53that comes out of it. So a little rice goes a long way. So stir that up. We're going to keep an eye on
41:59that and give it a stir every now and again. After about 20 minutes, it'll absorb all of that milk.
42:04It'll be gorgeous. Now in this pan here, let's just turn it on. I've put it on a medium heat.
42:10So desiccated coconut. This is unsweetened. Six heaped teaspoons goes in.
42:18Give that a little shake. So that will just toast it up. Now what's quite cool about toasting up
42:23the beautiful coconut is it amplifies its flavour. But that kind of vibe of coconut,
42:28mango, lime, you know, spices. I think when we're in the depths of winter, we can use food
42:35to really transport us. So you can see the colour of that coconut changing. It smells amazing. So
42:42that little 30 seconds of toasting makes all the difference. So give that a stir. You can see the
42:51rice beginning to plump up and take on that beautiful scented milk. So we're going to cook some fruit.
42:58Some frozen fruit. Mango. Certainly in the UK, the mangoes can often be disappointing.
43:04You actually pay extra for them to be ripe and then they don't necessarily taste great.
43:08Frozen ones are brilliant because you can take what you want a little bit, a lot. They're peeled,
43:12they're cut up for you. They're super convenient and they're really delicious. I can use those in savoury
43:17curries or I can use them in desserts. But for me, the frozen fruit is just an incredible lifesaver and
43:23something that we should use to save money and save waste. It's a brilliant, brilliant thing.
43:28So I'm going to use two more tablespoons of honey in here, like that.
43:37We're going to defrost that mango. That's 500 grams there. It feels like tropical in a really
43:42gorgeous way. What we can do is just stew this down and make a lovely compote.
43:47So stir the rice. We're getting there. So it's plumping up. So don't rush it, otherwise it'll
43:55catch and you don't want to catch the milk. Rice pudding. Come on. It feels like lovely memories
44:00as a kid, but it's a really nice dessert served hot or cold. We've now basically defrosted the mango
44:07and it's now starting to caramelise. And you can either leave it chunky or you can mash it up completely
44:13or puree it or do 50-50. So I'm going to probably do 50-50 because I quite like it. And just a little
44:20mash like this gives you this ability to really get some amazing colour rippled through that beautiful
44:29rice pudding. So now I've mashed that bit up, just give it a nice little shake. Remember we've got our
44:35lime here. So I'll give that a nice little roll. Look at the juice that comes out of it. Now using the zest
44:45and the juice means we're wasting nothing. So it's a really good way of maxing out flavour and taking
44:52advantage of the whole thing. So look, I think we're done. Heat is going off. Hot and steamy. Delicious.
45:05And then we've got the mango.
45:16Time for the desiccated coconut. That's going to give you that beautiful tropical flavour,
45:21but also that little crunch. And if you think about it, we've got a dessert here that's got
45:25store cupboard staples, frozen fruit. I just love it. This for me is food that makes me so happy.
45:33Coconut and mango rice pudding with all of those beautiful spices.
45:38So look, an old fashioned recipe and technique brought bang up to date. Let's get in there.
45:47Yum. Oh man. The lime and the sweet and sour of the mango is just delicious.
45:55The lime zest, the nutmeg, the bay. This is a delicious dessert. When you take some of that lovely
46:01creamy rice, take a bit of mango and then dip it in that lovely toasted coconut. Wow.
46:10It's so good. Six portions of incredible value dessert made with love and it's a little bowl
46:17of joy for when you most need it. So what are you waiting for?
46:23Made with a few handy ingredients, this is an irresistible sweet treat that will save you time
46:29and money at a tasty £4.91 for six people.
46:32Save cash on your trips away too. How to cruise on a budget, bargain holiday secrets revealed
46:43tomorrow at eight. Next tonight, Alan Carr and Susie Dent are on the hunt for undiscovered talent,
46:49wising up with Secret Genius on the way.
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