Tips for living cheaply during a recession...

[mad?]

Our children still have nightmares about the year the leftover Christmas turkey was made into one of those "curries" by Mrs 1880 during a fit of nostalgia ("no, no, not the banana...").

I don't think we had banana but we did have raisins and dessicated coconut. Why?

We had (yet more!!) chopped apple from the tree in the garden, yuk yuk and double yuk.

[marigold]

My Aunt was bought up in India and considered quite an expert on curry. She used to do lots and lots of little dishes of coconut, raisins, chopped tomato, banana and something called bombay duck which came in a cardboard tube and smelt like dead squirrel.

I suppose that for a certain generation this is what a curry was and it was not until they discovered a good chicken tikka masala that they put the dessicated coconut at the back of the cupboard, only to be discovered in 2003 by a scornful daughter who mocked the pounds, shilling and pence price tag.

[TP123]

[quite] Thanks I remember my Dad trying to do that after he got back from a holiday in Sri Lankan fired with culinary enthusiasm. The coconut fought back and he had a black eye for a week
I am sure there is a technique to it.[/quote]

Oh no!!

[sasa]

Ooh. We all love it in our house when I make a curry to have with "all the to-its" (coconut, chopped tomato, cucumber, banana, hard boiled egg etc) as the toppings are collectively known in the family! Usually our curry has no extras, but the kids enjoy making the little bowls of things to sprinkle on top! And I suppose it must help towards their 5-a-day too

I think it goes back to my parents who were in both the army and spent time in the Far East, and Germany. They would go for curry lunch on a Sunday in the Mess, and then I grew up eating home made Colonial style curry with 'sprinkles' too.

[marigold]

Oh How interesting sasa, I had always assumed it was my Anglo Indian Aunt that was cause of all the little dishes but my Uncle was in the army, also in the Far East and Germany so perhaps it was the Mess influence rather than her true upbringing.
I am definitely going to introduce "sprinkles" to my curries , may also be money saving as I am sure banana is still cheaper than meat.

[Samlet]

The 'army style' curry rings a bell with me too. My first curry was in an army officer's mess and although there were only three different curries on offer, all the little bowls meant that the food stretched all the way down the enormous table - about 30 or 40 foot from memory.

I also remember that the water jugs were put neatly in the middle of the matching table which we sat at - which made them impossible to reach from either side - I always assumed that was deliberate and someone was having a laugh at our expense

[Reading Mum]

I made flapjacks today - DD was very impressed

[doodles]

A very easy and reliable flapjack recipe is melt 3oz butter, 3oz demorara sugar, 2 tbsp golden syrup in a pan. Add 4-5 oz porridge oats and mix together. This just fits a Victoria sponge cake tin. Cook at about 150 C in fan assisted oven for about 15 minutes (obviously varies slightly according to your oven).

Jiff, this is the best flapjack receipe I've ever tried, so thank you, you have saved me a fortune on cereal bars etc. I now double it and put it in a swiss roll tin. My only problem is that I line the tin with greaseproof but this is then the very devil to peel off the flapjacks after they've cooled - any tips.

[Jiff]

Hallo doodles

I'm delighted the flapjacks have worked out well for you. I first came across this recipe in the Zebra cookbook for children some 40 years ago (complete with directions for washing up afterwards) and have been using it ever since! I must admit I don't bother with greaseproof paper but just grease the tin and they seem to come out alright using a flat or palette knife.

[yoyo123]

I have to admit that the crumble mix went horribly wrong ( rhubarb from garden) However. Miss Yoyo is heading back to London with a tin full of oatmeal and ginger cookies! ..thank the Lord for Asda ready made crumble mix ( 30 p)