Cape Town - As January comes to a hot, sticky end, family budgets are often stretched to the limit.
Festive spending has to be paid up and school requirements have cost a packet – so budget fare is on the menu.
This is one time when it pays to live in a climate where January and February are warm months, with a wealth of seasonal fruit and salad fare in markets and stores.
As items drop in price as supply overtakes demand, use fresh produce to full advantage: on sweltering days and sultry evenings no one needs heavy, meaty fare.
Focus rather on light, nutritious meals that will provide energy, with little fat and limited starch.
Whether you shop from hawkers, greengrocers or supermarkets, it pays to share with family or neighbours and buy basic items like potatoes and squash or pumpkin in bulk. For the rest, keep a sharp eye out for bargains: at my local greengrocer last week English cucumbers, plums and spanspek were cheap, and tomatoes, green peppers and lazy housewife green beans had dropped significantly in price.
When contemplating inexpensive pasta for weekend fare, try one of the many noodle varieties now widely available – some of them require soaking rather than cooking, others are ready in a few minutes: add nuts, oriental spices and greens for a quick and tasty stir-fry.
Here are four suggestions for light meals that make family fare suitable for all ages, with the pumpkin salad adding a hint of sophistication for those entertaining.
Spice-baked chicken with tzatziki salad
Chicken breast fillets are used in this recipe, which are easy to prepare and great for slimmers but are also the priciest poultry cut. Save by buying bone-in chicken breasts: it does not take more than a couple of minutes to cut off the meat from the bones, and then freeze the bones to make stock when the weather is cooler.
Use 1 large English bargain-priced cucumber in place of the smaller ones and if you don’t have dill or mint in your garden, replace with rosemary, basil, parsley, marjoram or other fresh herbs. You could also add a crushed garlic clove or two to the yoghurt. The recipe comes from Simple Dinners by Donna Hay.
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 Tbs thyme leaves
1 Tbs shredded lemon zest
1 Tbs olive oil
4x200g chicken breast fillets
Tzatiziki salad
Half cup thick plain yoghurt
2 Tbs lemon juice
Sea salt
4 cucumbers, sliced into ribbons lengthwise with a vegetable peeler
1 cup mint leaves
Half cup chopped dill leaves
Preheat oven to 200°C. Place the cumin, chilli, thyme, lemon zest and oil in a large bowl and mix. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Place chicken in a baking dish lined with baking paper and roast for about 15 minutes or until just cooked through.
Make the salad: Mix the yoghurt, lemon juice and salt in a bowl. Divide the cucumber, mint and dill between four plates and spoon over the dressing. Slice the chicken and serve alongside. Serves 4.
Favourite fishcakes
Every cook has a favourite fishcake recipe , and Johanna Coetzee from the West Coast is no exception. It’s always interesting to compare other cooks’ versions with yours: here raw fish is used, but pilchards or other canned fish can be used instead.
Whichever you use, fishcakes are economical, popular with all ages, and need only a side salad or a potato accompaniment.
You can find this recipe in West Coast Cookbook, compiled by the Bergrivier Vissersvrouevereniging, which was published by Struik a decade ago.
4 maasbankers or mackerel
2 tomatoes, skinned
2 onions, quartered
2 carrots, peeled
2 cloves garlic
6 slices day-old bread
2 tsp vinegar
½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbs chutney
2 eggs, beaten
cake flour
oil for frying
Skin and bone the fish. Mince the fish alternately with the vegetables and 4 slices of the bread in a mincer. Last, mince the remaining bread. Add the vinegar, spices, parsley and chutney to the mixture and mix well. Add the eggs and mix well. Shape into cakes, roll in the flour and fry in hot oil until golden brown. Serve with rice and vegetables or with fresh bread and jam.
Pumpkin couscous salad
Butternut can replace the pumpkin, and rice can be used in place of the pricier couscous.
This can stand alone as a vegetarian meal, in which case I would crumble some feta over the salad before adding the dressing.
The recipe comes from The New Cook by Donna Hay, published by Murdoch Books.
500g pumpkin, sliced
olive or sunflower oil
salt to taste
1 cup couscous
1¼ cups boiling water or vegetable stock
2 Tbs butter
125g green beans, trimmed
fresh mint leaves
Dressing
½ cup natural yoghurt
2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbs chopped mint
1 Tbs honey
Place pumpkin slices in baking dish and toss with a little oil and sprinkle over a little salt. Bake at 200°C for about 30 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. Place couscous in a bowl and pour water or stock over. Add butter to couscous and leave for 5 minutes or until water has been absorbed.
Blanch beans in boiling water, drain, plunge into chilled water and drain again. Peel pumpkin and cut into smaller pieces.
Fluff up couscous and spread out on the base of a shallow dish. Top with pumpkin, beans and mint and toss mixture gently.
For the dressing combine yoghurt, cumin, chopped mint, honey and season with salt to taste. Pour dressing over salad or serve the dressing separately.
Serves 4.
Caramelised onion and potato frittata
Frittatas make the perfect hot-night, budget-friendly supper that needs only a tomato or green salad to add up to a nutritional, easily digestible and affordable meal. This version uses a bought caramelised onion relish; make your own by cooking thinly sliced onion slowly in a little oil until softened, and brown but not burnt. Use full-cream milk instead of cream to reduce the cost, and use vegetable stock for a vegetarian frittata. This recipe is from Donna Hay’s splendid collection titled Simple Dinners published by Hardie Grant Books.
4 starchy potatoes, thickly sliced
1¼ cups chicken stock
2 tsp rosemary leaves
½ cup caramelised onion relish
6 eggs, preferably free-range
1½ cups thin cream
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
Buttered toast to accompany
Place the potatoes, stock and rosemary in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat, cover and cook for 12-14 minutes or until potatoes are just tender.
Uncover and cook for 4 minutes or until most of the stock has evaporated.
Spoon the onion relish over the potato. Whisk the eggs, cream, salt and pepper together and pour over the potato mixture.
Cook over low heat for 6–8 minutes or until it starts to set. Place under a preheated grill and cook until frittata is set and golden. Cut into wedges and serve with toast. Serves 4. - Cape Argus