I was really happy with the results of this recipe, but a little frustrated with the actual cooking. The noodles stuck together in big clumps and were quite difficult to get apart. And then the clumps cooked much slower than any noodles that did manage to stay separate. I don't know if the problem was my noodles, the way I broke them up, or the fact that my sauce was already boiling by the time I added them, but it was quite annoying! I think next time I'd try using a bag of the small "lasagna" noodles instead to see if that helped at all. Still... I can't argue with the results. This was excellent!

Skillet Lasagna

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

• 250g sausage meat¹
• 2-3 tsp. garlic paste
• 650-700mL tomato pasta sauce²
• 1-2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 9 lasagna noodles, broken into 5cm pieces
• 1 c. ricotta cheese³
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 large egg (optional)⁴
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2-3/4 c. grated mozzarella (or other melty cheese)

Directions

1. Cook the sausage over medium heat, breaking it up as it cooks.
2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
3. Add the pasta sauce, 1 c. of water, and Italian seasoning and stir to combine.
4. Add the noodles, being careful to make sure they don't clump.
5. Cover pan and bring to a boil.
6. Stir, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until noodles are almost tender (~12 minutes), adding more water as needed to keep sauce moist.
7. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, Parmesan, egg, and a little salt and pepper and mix well.
8. Stir the pasta again, adding a little more water if necessary.
9. Dollop the ricotta mixture on top, cover, and simmer until heated through (~5 minutes).
10. Sprinkle with mozzarella and place under broiler until cheese is melty and lightly browned (2-3 minutes).

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¹ I only used 125g of sausage for my rendition because I was tossing in ~400g of homemade bolognese along with the 420mL of canned pasta sauce. ^Back
2 My can of pasta sauce was only 420mL so I added ~400g of frozen bolognese that we had in the fridge. I know that adds up to more that adds up to more than 700mL (if you assume that the sauce is mostly water and thus you can use weight to estimate volume), but since the bolognese had a bunch of meat in it, I figured it was less... saucy than plain pasta sauce, so I probably worked out about right for the sauce volume. And the extra meat in the sauce helped to make up for the paucity of sausage since I didn't have the full 250g on hand for this. ^Back
3 I think you could probably get away with using less ricotta than this, but I didn't want to have a partial tub left over so I just followed the recipe an used it all. ^Back
4 The original recipe didn't call for an egg, but the ricotta mixture was too thick to dollop easily and I usually add an egg to my "traditional" lasagna, so I tossed one in. ^Back

I found some short-dated cream on sale and got excited about the chance to make another lemon dessert. As usual, it's not particularly budget friendly, despite coming from the Budget Byte$ blog and even with the assumption of free lemons. Beth figured it would cost just over $4 to make this pie. With lemons accounting for just over $1.50 of that cost. I figured it costs just over $9 to make here (assuming full-price cream, but zero-cost lemons). So, I mean, I guess it's still pretty good when compared to the cost of buying a dessert at a bakery or restaurant, I'm just always a bit shocked at the delta between her prices and ours.

Lemon Cream Pie

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

Crust

• 2 c. vanilla wafer crumbs
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 90g butter, melted

Filling

• 1 can (~400mL) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 1/2 c. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 250-300mL heavy (35%) cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine the cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter and mix well.
3. Press into a 23cm (9") pie plate.
4. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
6. Combine the sweetened condensed milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
7. Whip the cream.
8. Stir about half of the cream into the lemon mixture, then fold in the remaining cream.
9. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust, cover, and chill until set (~2 hours).

These were supposed to be gingersnaps, but they came out more chewy than crunchy. I don't have a problem with this -- Reiver and I both really liked the results -- but I don't really feel they can be called gingersnaps given the results.

I was initially thinking that these were fairly economical cookies, but that was before I'd realized that I'd somehow completely missed factoring in the cost of the crystallized ginger for the recipe. If you make these as normal ginger cookies, without the crystallized ginger, the whole batch costs just over $4 to make and the per cookie price works out to <$0.10. Adding the second form of ginger doubles the price and brings it up to just about $10 per batch and over $0.20 per cookie.

Double Ginger Cookies

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 2/3 c. oil
• 1/3 c. molasses
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 390g flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 c. turbinado sugar¹

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 165°C (325°F) and lightly grease a cookie tray or two.
2. Combine the oil, molasses, brown sugar, and egg and mix well.
3. Sift in the flour, ginger, and baking soda. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and salt in on top.
4. Stir to combine.
5. Mix in the crystallized ginger.
6. Roll the dough into balls about 2-3cm in diameter, dip in egg white, and then roll in sugar.
7. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 165°C (325°F) for 15-18 minutes.

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¹ I didn't have any turbinado sugar, so I just used regular granulated sugar. The texture is a bit different, but I still really liked the results. ^Back

Peach Princess / Peach Dream

By Reiver

This is one of the iconic desserts of my childhood, which was a staple as it relied almost entirely on shelf-stable ingredients that we had in the pantry as standard inventory. It's also one of the first desserts I learned to cook independently because (with the right plastic ring tin) it could even be microwaved thus avoiding oven use, although the exact details of cooking times I no longer remember; just the trial and error to get it! After scrounging the recipe from my mother, we taught it to Alex while she was here, and it was an absolute hit! It's closest, perhaps, to a heavily fruit-laden sponge cake, and it's delicious served hot as well as cold the next day.

Note: The batter lacking any 'normal' liquids in means it takes a bit to come together and doesn't seem 'right' until it's properly mixed through, but as the peaches continue to cook it comes out surprisingly moist. Just be gentle while doing the initial stirring, and make sure they're properly 'bedded down' in the pan so they can moisten the batter. If you're using a 20cm square pan like the one here, I suggest making a double batch to get he desired thickness.

Peach Princesse

M.J. McBrearty, RAHOTU.
Serves 6.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3-4 tablespoons butter
• 1½ cups (one 400g tin) drained cooked peaches

Directions

1. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add sugar, egg and melted butter. Mix well.
2. Stir peach slices into the stiff mixture, and place in a greased 8-9" (20cm) shallow baking dish.
3. Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 20 minutes, then for a further 10-20 minutes at 350°F (180°C).
4. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or custard.

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Variations

Fruit Salad Dream

I'm not sure I would say this was a good idea, but I have fond memories of swapping the tin of peaches for a tin of fruit salad (usually containing peaches, pears, pineapple, and cherries) in the otherwise exact recipe above, as a child. I should probably try it again sometime; for the moment, caveat emptor!

I've been running a curry train more-or-less continuously since my mom left. Reiver was about ready for a break from non-stop curries though and we'd hit a point where we were getting slightly low on leftovers anyway, so I decided to change it up for a bit. And, given that we're trying to be a bit more budget-conscious right now, I figured it might be a good time to revisit the Budget Byte$ blog. We had everything but the sausages on hand for this Dublin coddle already and it sounded tasty, so it seemed as good a place to start as any.

It was a great success! Everyone loved it. Everything was nicely cooked and the flavour was excellent.

And relatively affordable as well. Not as cheap as a dal, but not terrible either. I wanted to check since the Budget Byte$ recipes aren't always quite as affordable as one might like. At least not here in NZ. I was shocked to see pound cake come up on the blog and intrigued to see how they'd made it more budget-friendly. The answer? They hadn't. Apparently pound cake is still an affordable dessert in the US. They'd figured the 4 eggs you'd need for it would only cost $0.68. That's $0.68 total, not each! And the 240g of butter was supposedly only another $0.98. I think they figured the whole cake would have cost just over $5 to make. Meanwhile, here, the butter alone would run nearly $5! So, when they said that the coddle should cost a bit over $11 to make, I was skeptical... But it's not too bad! I think you'd struggle to do it for under $15 here, but that's still not terrible when you get anywhere between 3-6 servings out of it (depending on how big your portions are).

Running the numbers based on grocery prices here, I figured it should probably cost somewhere between $15 and $20 to make this coddle, depending on how you buy your groceries. If you're willing to get a 10kg bag of potatoes, use 1kg for this, and find another use for the other 9kg, then that helps bring the price down through economy of scale. Same deal with the onions. If you just buy the 2 onions you need for the stew, it'll cost you a bit more per onion than if you're willing to buy a 2kg bag of onions and use the others somewhere else. I think this would also be a good place to use bacon pieces rather than the streaky bacon called for in the recipe as you're just chopping it up anyway and you can get bacon pieces for ~$10/kg, while it can be tricky to find streaky bacon for much under $20/kg. So, if you're willing to buy in bulk, you can probably make this for $15. If you're just buying exactly as much of each ingredient as you need for this particular recipe, then it'd probably come out closer to $20 for the pot. So, definitely not the cheapest meal ever, butnot completely ridiculous as a bit of an indulgent treat either.

Dublin Coddle

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$"

Ingredients

• 250g bacon pieces (or chopped streaky bacon)
• 450g sausages (I like beef, but any will work)
• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 4 tsp. minced/crushed garlic
• 1 tsp. black pepper, ground
• 1kg potatoes, cut into 3-4cm pieces
• 2 c. chicken broth
• 1 tsp. dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).
2. Cook of the bacon in a Dutch oven over medium heat.
3. Add the sausages and sear on all sides.
4. Remove sausages and bacon from the pan (leaving any grease behind).
5. Bacon pieces are less fatty than streaky bacon, so you might need to add an extra splash of oil at this point depending on what you used.
6. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened and beginning to colour.
7. Add pepper, potatoes, chicken stock, parsley, and thyme and stir to combine.
8. Place sausages and bacon on top.
9. Cover and bake at 150°C (300°F) for 90 minutes.
10. Remove lid and continue baking for another 30 minutes.

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Variants

InstantPot Version

I think this recipe would lend itself particularly well to an InstantPot/multi-cooker, I just need to figure out how to adjust the seasonings and liquid for it.

Masaaledar Phool Gobhi (Spicy Cauliflower)

I really liked this curry. I accidentally made it with twice as much onion, garlic, and ginger as it was supposed to have, but I would absolutely do it that way again. I loved the sweetness of the onion with the acidity of the tomato and the spiciness of the cayenne.

Masaaledar Phool Gobhi

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1-2 Tbsp. oil
• 2 onions, halved and sliced
• 12 cloves garlic, sliced
• 4 tsp. ginger paste
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 2 tsp. coriander seeds, ground
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. ground cayenne
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 small (400mL) tin diced tomatoes
• 450g cauliflower florets
• 1 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. chickpea flour (besan)
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat.
2. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and cook, stirring often, until well-browned (12-15 minutes).
3. Add the cumin, coriander, salt, cayenne, and turmeric, stir to combine, and cook for another 30-60 seconds.
4. Add the tomatoes, water, and cauliflower, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until cauliflower is tender (~12 minutes).
5. Stir in the chickpea flour and cook until sauce is slightly thickened (1-2 minutes).
6. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

This is a very brothy curry. Basically a soup. Which would normally feature "drumsticks" as the vegetable component. I'm not a huge fan of drumsticks, so I swapped in asparagus since it's now in season here. I also reduced the water quite a bit to make a thicker curry. While I found the results acceptable, neither of us were blown away by it and I probably won't be revisiting this one. It wasn't bad, just not good enough to get excited over either.

Palidu

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. skinned split pigeon peas (toor dal)
• 2-4 c. water, divided
• 1-2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. fenugreek seeds
• 2 Tbsp. garlic paste
• 1 Tbsp. chickpea flour (besan)
• 2 tsp. dhania-jeera masala
• 1 tsp. ground Kashmiri chiles (or 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne + 3/4 tsp. sweet paprika)
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 bunch asparagus, ends snapped and cut into 5cm pieces
• 4 pieces kokum¹
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Rinse the pigeon peas, then place in a pot with 2 c. of the water.
2. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until peas are tender (20-25 minutes).
3. Meanwhile, heat ghee over medium heat.
4. Add cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds and sizzle for 10-20 seconds.
5. Add garlic paste and cook for another minute or so.
6. Add chickpea flour and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
7. Once peas are tender, blitz with a blender.
8. Add the chickpea flour mixture and stir to combine.
9. If you want a thinner broth, add up to 2 c. of additional water.
10. Stir in masala, ground chilies, and salt.
11. Add asparagus and kokum and bring to a boil.
12. Cook for a minute, remove from heat, stir in cilantro, and serve.

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¹ I didn't have any kokum, so I tossed in a tsp. of tamarind concentrate in its place. ^Back