Pork and Aubergine Curry

I'm not one for food fads, but I am a sucker for a good cookbook.  I read them like novels sometimes, and it's a rare thing indeed for me to regularly cook several recipes from one author's books.

My favourite cookery writer at the moment is Jack Monroe, who essentially writes delicious budget conscious recipes that don't use ridiculous ingredients.

I've got some great ideas from Monroe's books and blog. On a very chilly walk home this afternoon, I found two wrinkly aubergines for 35p each. Instead of pork chops for tea, I thought an adaptation of Monroe's (or Jonaki's) Baba Gosht was in order.

This recipe can easily be made vegan by replacing the pork with mushrooms, and the pork can obviously be replaced with any other meat. It would be good for using up leftover roast!

0 point on WW if using chicken/mushrooms instead of pork and if leaving out the potatoes.

Ingredients
2 diced onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
3 pork steaks (about 300g), diced
1 aubergine
1/2 tsp each of ground ginger, cinnamon and tumeric
1 tsp ground cumin
2 bay leaves
a pinch of salt
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin new potatoes (optional - 8 points a tin)
200ml water
fresh coriander

Method
Spray a large frying pan with frylight. Add bay leaves and cook until fragrant.

Reduce heat and add spices. Add a splash of water so it looks like curry paste, then add the onion, chilli and garlic. You may need to add a little more water at this point. Cook on a low heat for 5-10 min and stir now and again.

Add the meat (doesn't have to be pork - anything you have to hand: quorn or chunks of mushroom) and the aubergine. Cook on a low heat until meat is sealed, then pour over the tomatoes and half a tin (200ml) water. Bring it back to the boil for a minute, add the tinned potatoes (sliced) then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30min or so.

Serve sprinkled with coriander.

Serves 3

Portuguese Beans

I've been cooking a lot from Jack Monroe's first book and blog recently. Her cooking philosophy is very similar to mine, and whilst I haven't had the same experience of having to cook to a very tight budget or live below the line, I too cannot stand wasting food!

This might sound ridiculous, but one of her suggestions was a complete revelation to me. As a budget way of buying haricot or similar white beans, she suggests buying your supermarket basics brand and rinsing the sauce off. I like to think I cook reasonably economically but I would never have thought of this.

I fancied beans on toast for breakfast this morning, so duly retrieved the baked bean tin from the cupboard. However I found the calorie count, likely from the sugary sauce, pretty off putting. I had a vague recollection of reading about a home made baked beans recipe on Ms Monroe's Facebook page but it turns out it was just a suggestion. Sorry Jack, I pinched your recipe name (and your recipe is probably better anyway).

From start to finish - to plate - it took around twenty minutes. I added the sugar because I could taste a slight vinegariness probably from the roasted pepper from a jar. It might well be a richer finish with a teaspoon of oil to fry the bacon and onions in; and of course if you want a veggie version just leave the bacon out. This would be pretty good made with some diced chorizo or leftover sausage too. Next time I would probably dice some carrot to fry with the onion and I'll probably use a smidge of oil - half a tbsp. All ingredients were found lurking in my fridge or spice cupboard!

Ingredients
2 rashers lean bacon, diced
1 garlic clove finely chopped
Tin of baked beans, rinsed
Half tsp spicy paprika
Half tsp sugar
Half courgette, diced
1 drained roasted pepper, diced
2tbsp tomato puree
Some water to loosen near the end of cooking

Serves 3

Dry fry your bacon and onion together in a good non stick frying pan. (Or if you are lazy like me and use the milk pan that's already out, cook on a high heat in a bit of water to soften the onion.)

Rinse ALL the sauce off your baked beans to reveal the white haricot beans.

Add the courgette and paprika and lower the heat. I like it spicy but if you don't, just add regular paprika.

Add the tomato puree and stir. Add the beans and a little water if you need to.

Add the pepper, stir and taste. At this point I added the sugar to balance the flavour, and I don't have a sweet tooth.

Stir and serve!

This stores perfectly well in the fridge for a few days or can be frozen. It's also surprisingly filling - I might have it with egg instead of toast tomorrow morning, or it would be nice for lunch on a baked potato with grated cheese (or in a tortilla wrap, pitta bread, with nachos).