It’s probably not news to anybody in the UK that we are currently facing what the mainstream media have dubbed a ‘cost of living crisis’. Martin Lewis, the friendly, affable, politically inscrutable bloke that sends you 2 for 1 pizza deals and tips about how to get the most out of your credit cards, is now nervously muttering about the […]
than oven chips. It disappeared from my site when it crashed late last year, but for posterity I have reposted it in its unedited entirety]
It didn’t start with a Jan Moir article in the Daily Mail a couple of days ago, but it could have done. Ironically, my first forays into political protest started with a Jan Moir article in the Daily Mail in 2009, when she wrote some ghastly homophobic vitriol about Stephen Gately, and I joined a motley crew of like-minded individuals […]
This recipe is ideal for vegetarians as the main centrepiece for a roast dinner, or can be served to a crowd as a stuffing alongside roast meats. A friend of mine loves this recipe so much that I often send her home with a foil-wrapped package of the leftovers, which she enjoys in sandwiches for the days that follow! It’s […]
Bagged salad is one of the most wasted foods in Britain, with over half of it ending up in landfill. I have had this recipe in mind since my first cookbook, A Girl Called Jack, and although it is something I make for myself on a regular basis, absorbed into my household as a common staple, it has never been […]
This luscious, dense, simple little number was thrown together this afternoon in the midst of a craving for something hot, stodgy and comforting while I worked from home in the bitter cold. I love my beautiful (rented) house with its views of the sea, but when the temperature drops and the wind kicks up it is devastatingly cold, and I […]
Firstly, for the budget-conscious among you raising eyebrows at the use of a bottle of the authentic black stuff in a batch of brownies, fear not, for this recipe makes 24 of the little tinkers, and uses a little over half a can at that, so you could stretch to 40ish from a single can if you’ve a crowd to […]
My original banana bread recipe is very very popular; barely a weekend goes by without someone posting a photo of it on social media, so I hope its enthusiastic fans enjoy this twist on a classic. Enjoy it warm to have it at its best; the tart explosions of hot, juicy berries popping in your mouth, drenching the cakey crumbs, […]
The first time I stayed at my girlfriends house, all she had in the cupboard was Diet Coke, tinned mandarins and a sticky patch of something ominous that was possibly once soy sauce. Her hob hadn’t worked in over 2 years, and she stubbornly warned me not to try to change her. Undeterred, over the course of the last 10 […]
This is an ideal bread recipe for newcomers, no fancy equipment needed and the bare bones of a recipe. I tricked Mrs J into making this last week; she who famously doesn’t cook but hovers helpfully around the washing up, trying not to gwt roped in with my wily ways. “Can I do anything?” she asked. “Yes darling, could you […]
This simple recipe is a must for any peanut butter lovers. Its first incarnation was as peanut butter-flavoured yoghurt – made by mixing two of my staple food items together for a sweet treat – and it went from there. I don’t add sugar or syrup to sweeten this recipe when I make it as I like the slight tang […]
Weekday breakfasts in my household generally consist of a piece of toast in one hand as I flail about the house looking for ‘the other f*cking school shoe’ or the last of the elasticated ties, so weekend breakfasts are sacrosanct. SB and My Love loll about in bed with the magazines and newspapers I ply them with to keep them […]
This simple staple started off as a tin of baked beans, thoroughly rinsed, plus a carton of chopped tomatoes – out of which I made a hearty, filling soup suitable for lunch or a light supper. I’ve jazzed it up a bit since then! And don’t be scared of rinsing baked beans, they are normally just haricot or borlotti or […]
This cheeky little number is a cross between a pie and a crumble, a hot sweet pile of stewed fruits beneath a crumbly puff pastry topping. I admit to approaching my pies with borderline religious fervour; that is, in order to qualify as a pie, it must have a base and walls and a lid. This does not meet my […]
This recipe first appeared in my Guardian column in 2013, where the prices have been helpfully preserved for posterity – and comparison. It is not a vegan recipe, for the purposes of accurately comparing the rise in prices in basic food products over the past five years, but can easily be made vegan by using your favourite brand of vegan […]
Serves 4 at 31p each. The original recipe at 2012 prices was 17p a portion. 1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans, 35p (Was 17p. Price increase: 106%) 1 x 400g tin of baked beans, 25p (Was 22p. Price increase: 14%) 1 onion, 10p (90p/1.5kg onions. Previously 5p as part of a 1.25kg Basics stew pack. Price increase: 100%) […]
This burger is where the media storm began for me and, dubbed ‘the 9p burger’ because of the low cost of the ingredients used to make it in 2012, it’s one of my most popular recipes. A can of value range red kidney beans is a cheap but excellent source of protein and I built a lot of my early […]
. I wanted to write another recipe, but I felt sullied, trite, misappropriated, and used. So instead I am going to rewrite my recipes from 2012 - that many of you will not have seen buried beneath the beautiful new ones - and re-cost them to demonstrate the soar in prices in the Basics range over the last 6 years, and how it is always the poorest who shoulder the burden of economic inequality.
Tonight, scrolling through Twitter, I came across a frankly audacious message sent from the ‘Bath Conservatives’ account, that had tagged me in. Unfortunately this is not an account dedicated to the frugal recycling of your dirty wash water, more’s the pity, but the haphazard and misfiring musings from the anonymous social media person for the Bath branch of the Conservative […]
This cake is a cheap but luxurious twist on my original banana bread, slightly more moist and gooey than the first iteration, with a home made sticky syrup sauce to drizzle over the top, ideally warm from a jug. I have made this as a loaf cake and also as a round, Victoria sponge type cake, split in the middle […]
As a child I loved Pop-Tarts™, those saccharine toaster pastries thick with white icing and multicoloured sprinkles that, when eaten greedily from the toaster, would scald your tongue with red-hot jam. I decided to see if I could make my own version from scratch, pastry and all, and here they are. They’re not an everyday breakfast but they’re definitely a […]
This easy, comforting spinach and lentil soup was inspired by a recipe in Saha, by Greg and Lucy Malouf. I made it a few times as a quick late-night supper, before I lost the notebook with the details in one of my many house moves. For a long while, as a single mum on benefits, I all but lived out […]
Courgettes in cake came into fashion a few years ago, but I only really bothered with them when I had a glut of the green blighters one autumn. Desperate to get rid of them, I made them into wholesome soups, pestos, pasta sauces and smuggled a few into this big chocolate cake. The courgettes are virtually indetectable – a novel […]
Granola is one of my most favourite breakfasts to have on standby, usually slung in the bottom of an oven that already has something else going on in it, in order to utilise the hot air already swilling around in there to create something else, practically for free, from storecupboard ingredients. My Small Boy loves this with his milk warmed […]
11 months ago today, I turned up to work late, sleepless, an incoherent babbling wreck chewed up by an 18 month landmark court trial and with bright copper dye fading from my wiry, tousled mania of hair. I left my walking stick in the lobby, and limped in to work…to find a hand thrust towards me in a polite gesture of welcome, a smile, a curt hello. She introduced herself. I apologised seven times for my lateness and my pulled-from-a-car-wreck appearance. She was firm and professional, and she smiled at me again. And I felt that selfsame car wreck collide with my solar plexus and toss me down a rabbithole of giddy headspinning highs and that soaring, almost nauseatingly disorienting feeling of time stopping and slowing and turning on its head. I stumbled away, a new crush ablaze across my cheeks and in every tip of my fingers, burning coiled springs in the soles of my feet, a song whispering in the cold, grey, slumbering chamber of my strange little heart. And then I went home, and did what any self respecting 21st century romantic heroine would do; I followed her on Twitter. Fast forward a few weeks and, having established that my paramour was mutually curious, I found myself standing frozen in my kitchen, petrified, with a wooden spoon in my hand, wondering what to cook for her imminent arrival. I settled on this, and it has become eponymous, […]
This tomato sauce is exactly what its name says – a wonderfully versatile sauce for all occasions. I make a large batch and freeze it in small jars or ice cube trays to use as the base for pasta sauces, soups, stews, or anything that could do with a bit of pepping up. It stands alone as a pretty decent […]
This is my favourite curry, my go-to, easy but perfect comfort food. I used to make it with turkey, but any protein source will do – so feel free to chuck a fistful of whatever you fancy in with the onions if you want to bulk it out or extend it. Serves 2 for dinner, with leftovers for a light […]
The idea of putting bread in stew is one that dates back hundreds of years, to a medieval broth known as ‘caudle’. It is both a use-up for stale bread, or crusts cut off for fussy children, and adds both texture and thickness to a liquid broth. This soup is hearty, wholesome and delicious – made in a grey January […]
I came across this idea in the food magazine that comes free with the Guardian, by the inimitable and rather wonderful Nigel Slater. I was at my girlfriends house for the weekend, where she helpfully leaves the Guardian magazines in the bathroom for my bathtime viewing pleasure, and scrawled the idea of a whole roasted beetroot in my little blue […]
This hot spicy little number is a favourite in my household for dealing with the dreaded cold and flu, or when feeling a little rundown. The combination of garlic, ginger, chilli, tomatoes and a kick of citrus is a feisty relief for the symptoms of even the most grim winter germs. I make a double batch of the paste and […]
