Pick Your Own (PYO) farms can be great value for money, very satisfying, and provide a great, cheap day out for the family. Why not get your kids doing a bit of child labour in the fields, harvesting berries, tomatoes - whatever's available?! Mine LOVED their session picking strawberries and mange tout, pottering about with their little punnets, comparing what they’d picked etc. Obviously it won't be economical if you have to drive miles to get to one of these PYO farms. But I happened to be going past one on my way to visit Granny. See what’s in your area www.pickyourown.org/unitedkingdom.htm and look at their websites for prices of seasonal produce. I went to Secretts Farm in Milford in Surrey www.secretts.co.uk. Here’s a snapshot of their prices in mid-August compared to Tesco’s/Sainsbury’s. In some cases I’ve picked the organic or premium range as that would be about the same quality.

Secrett’s Farm Price                              Supermarket Price

Strawberries - £3.75/kg                        £10.93/kg     Tesco Finest

Raspberries - £5.95/kg                         £23.92/kg     Tesco

Rhubarb - £1.65/kg                              £4.98/kg      Sainsbury’s

Redcurrants -£3.75/kg                          not available

Blackcurrants - £3.75/kg                       not available

Blackberries - £3.75/kg                         £5.96/kg      Tesco

Cherry Tomatoes - £3.25/kg                 £3.92/kg      Tesco (organic)

Peas - £1.95/kg                                   £3.98/kg      Tesco

French Beans - £2.95/kg                       £4.30/kg      Tesco

Broad Beans - £1.75/kg                        £4.98/kg      Sainsbury’s  

Runner Beans - £2.75/kg                      £4.40/kg      Tesco

Courgettes - £2.25/kg                          £1.98/kg      Tesco CHEAPER!

Sugar Snaps - £3.95/kg                        £6.13/kg      Tesco

Mange Tout - £3.95/kg                         £5.83/kg      Tesco

Recipe: Homemade Strawberry Jam

Makes – 2kg (4 lbs)

1 kg strawberries

1 kg jam sugar (has added pectin)

Juice of 1 lemon

4x1lb (454g) jam jars or 2x 1kg kilner jars

Method:

Put 2 saucers in the freezer. Wash and hull the strawberries. Put in a large heavy-based (not aluminium) saucepan with the lemon juice and heat to soften the fruit and get the juices running. Add the sugar, stir and bring to the boil. Wash the jars and lids (and rubber seals if using Kilner jars) and put in a sink full of very hot water (boil the kettle) to sterilise. Stir the jam so the hot sugar doesn’t burn on the bottom. Boil for 10 minutes, then test a teaspoon on the freezing saucer. After a few minutes, when it’s cooled, run your finger into the jam and if it wrinkles nicely, with a dry skin, it’s ready. Otherwise boil for 10 minutes more and repeat the test with the other cold saucer.

Drain the hot jars on kitchen paper then ladle in the hot jam carefully. If you put boiling hot jam in cold jars YOU WILL CRACK THEM. Put the lids on tightly while hot, to seal. When cool, I like to store in the fridge if I have room. 

Uses: 

1. Stir a dessert spoonful into chilled 0% fat Greek yoghurt.

2. Mix with 50:50 whipped cream and Crème Fraiche and freeze = delicious strawberry ice cream.

3. On bread and scones, obviously

4. Mix with FREE hedgerow blackberries and top with crumble mix. Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes until bubbling and golden.

Shop-bought birthday cakes are expensive for what they are - sugar/fat/white flour and - I'm betting - vanilla essence, not extract.

For example, in Sainsbury's, a Nestlé Smarties Celebration cake (feeds 16 with tiny slices) is £7.99. Disney Cars Occasion Cake (serves 16) is on offer at £7.99. And the supermarket's own brand Football Cake is £5.69 for 8 servings. They all have a list of ingredients as long as your arm (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Flavouring, Colouring (Curcumin, Annatto, Ponceau 4R, Brilliant Blue FCF) anyone?

I haven't done an exhaustive price comparison, calculating the cost of a teaspoon of baking powder etc, but common sense says it'll be cheaper. If you're doing the work, rather than Sainsbury's/McVities/whoever, it'll WILL be cheaper, won't it? I knew that economics degree would come in handy someday.

So I made my own for my daughter's recent 5th birthday party and, in the process, roped in 2 kids for a cheap afternoon's entertainment - helping me mix, bake and ice it. This is also a key consideration when the summer holidays are upon us, remember.

A tip is to use ground almonds to keep the cake moist, provided you don't have any kids coming with nut allergies, which is increasingly common now.

Recipe: Chocolate Birthday Cake

Ingredients: (serves 8)
125g butter
125g sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
75g ground almonds
75g plain flour
1 rounded tsp baking powder
2 rounded tbsp cocoa
Milk (about 100ml)
Icing:
75g butter
100g icing sugar
2 rounded tbsp cocoa

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly oil an 8" (20cm) springform cake tin (with a removable bottom) and line the bottom with a disc of greaseproof paper (if you, like me, haven't come into the 21st century and embraced silicone bendy cake moulds). Cream the room-temperature butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time and mix in. Add the flour, almonds, baking powder, vanilla extract and cocoa and mix further. Add enough milk to make a soft dropping consistency. Or use the "Stork all-in-one method" invented by margarine manufacturer Stork in the 70s, and bung everything in together and mix. It works just as well. Bake about 30 minutes until a knife inserted into the bottom comes out almost clean (the almonds mean it's meant to be moist).

Let the cake cool in the tin then turn out onto a fancy plate.

For the icing, mix the room-temperature butter and icing sugar with the cocoa. Slather over the COOLED cake (otherwise it'll just melt and run off - I've been there). Decorate with sprinkles, jelly babies etc, or leave plain for an adults' cake.

I have been scouring the pavements lately and spotted some lovely morsels for my tea. No, I haven’t started eating dog poo, discarded coke cans and condoms (you can tell I live in London, can’t you?). No, instead I’ve been mostly picking and eating – dandelions. They are lovely in a salad, but don’t get the old, tough ones, and don’t pick them right next to a road where they’re all covered in pollution, exhaust fumes and yuk (technical botanical term).

Another thing I have discovered is that if you buy a supermarket pot of growing basil (£1.79 at Tesco for a large pot), and you don’t pick off the top shoots, then it will just keep growing and cropping and give you loads of basil for months. Just pick off the leaves from further down the stalks (if only I’d read these instructions on the packaging years ago). I’ve just repotted my plant too, so hopefully it’ll last on until next year – any budding gardeners please advise me otherwise. So, we’ll also use basil in this recipe. It’s quite a tart salad, what with the raw onion, so have it with some creamy mash or blandish potato gratin, as well as grilled chicken/fish or (my favourite) grilled halloumi cheese.

Dandelion Salad

Ingredients: (serves 4)

225 g torn dandelion leaves

½ red onion, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp fresh dried basil

Olive oil

Balsamic or other vinegar

salt and pepper

Method:

In a medium bowl, toss together dandelions, red onion, and tomatoes. Add basil, salt, and pepper, and a slosh of oil, and a smaller slosh of vinegar. If you can’t face all dandelions then go half-and-half with ordinary salad leaves.

My country upbringing comes to the fore now (well, Surrey). Wherever you find nettles growing, you'll find dock leaves - large, flat, green and slightly maroon leaves growing close to the ground in clumps. If you get stung by the nettles then rub the juice from a dock leaf in and it takes away the pain. What an old countrywoman I am! Anyway, nettles are in season now so gather a bagful (wear gloves) and get cooking.
My Swedish in-laws do a lovely nettle soup with a boiled egg in (which I think I've given a recipe for before, but my memory may be failing me), and that is a nice lunch dish, but here's something a bit different. If you can make rocket pesto, which is quite a bitter salad leaf, why not nettle pesto? And it tastes lovely. A fusion recipe - a bit of Bologna and a bit of my Backyard.

Recipe: Nettle Pesto

Ingredients: (serves 4)

125g nettles, blanched in boiling water, drained and roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

50g pine nuts

60g grated parmesan

80ml extra virgin olive oil

salt and black pepper

Method:

Put the nettles, pine nuts, parmesan, garlic and a grinding of salt and pepper into a food processor. Blend until smooth, then pour in the oil with the motor running. Use immediately with hot pasta or put in a clean jar in the fridge with a little more olive oil over the top. Pesto will keep for up to a month in the fridge.

I was at a dinner party the other night and a professional caterer was telling me how much food prices have risen in the past few months. Rice has tripled in the last year. Dairy products, soya beans, wheat and sugar have also shot up. Food-price inflation has raised a typical family’s weekly shop by 15 per cent in the last 12 months. Butter has gone up by 62 per cent in the same period. I have to say that, although I write this blog, I don't really look at the price of food too carefully. The caterer at the dinner party daid, "Haven't you noticed your bills getting bigger?" And I thought, "Well yes, but I assumed that was because I was buying more, or more expensive stuff."

I came across as a right Marie Antoinette, famously saying (on being told the poor French peasants couldn't afford bread), "Well, let them eat cake."

Still, this is a relatively cheap recipe - I made a lovely tabouleh at the weekend - like couscous with knobs on. 500g couscous costs 82p and then there are a few herbs and veg, so it's a cheap and filling side dish. You will want a protein with it though, i.e. grilled chicken or fried halloumi (Middle Eastern cheese).

Tabouleh (serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

250g couscous

2 lemons

20g pack mint, de-stalked and chopped

20g pack flat leaf parsley, de-stalked and chopped

2 tomatoes

15cm length cucumber

small onion, chopped finely (red onion is nice too)

good slosh olive oil

salt and pepper 

Method:

Juice the lemons into a mixing bowl and fish out the pips. Put the tomatoes in a measuring jug or small bowl and cover with boiling water for 2 minutes. De-skin, de-core, and chop. Pour the couscous into a measuring jug or bowl and cover with boiling water. Stir, leave for a minute then scrape/fork the top layer into the lemon juice bowl, fluffing up the couscous and forking as you go (if can clump into claggy lumps towards the bottom if you don't work quickly, and I can't be fagged to steam it, which is more authentic). Peel and chop the cucumber. Add all the other ingredients and mix, with the olive oil and seasoning. Spoon into a serving bowl and eat! 

I just bought a loaf - and it was £2.60! When did bread get so expensive? Admittedly, it was from Paul, the artisan French baker, and it’s a beautiful Pain Rustique with olives, made with love and attention by French virgins or somesuch - at least it should be for that price. It does smell good though, and will go down a treat in the tuna mayonnaise sandwiches I’m planning for the family to eat in the car en route to the airport tomorrow (holiday in Sicily!).

So I realised I didn’t know how much an ordinary 800g loaf is. A little research later, I now know it’s about £1. Here’s a selection of prices from Waitrose:

800g white sliced loaf - 65p!
800g Vogel sliced honey+oatbran - £1.20
800g Cranks organic bread - £1.39
800g Waitrose wholemeal+seeds - 89p
800g Waitrose sliced wholemeal - 79p

Now, the Vogel and the Cranks (and indeed the Waitrose wholemeal) I consider to be healthy, good products. If I were you, I’d pay the extra 14p and get the bran/wheatgerm that comes in a wholemeal loaf, as opposed to white bread. Go on, push the boat out. And let’s have sandwiches for a week. You get about 20 slices in an 800g loaf so that’s 10 rounds. Enough for 10 meals if you have a smaller appetite or 5 if you’re on a carb fest.

Sandwich meal ideas

Sunday: Tuna, salad cream + sweetcorn
You’ll figure out the quantities yourself. Salt and pepper too, and chopped fresh parsley if you’ve got it on the windowsill/in the garden. I have also recently discovered chervil, for FREE, growing wild like a weed near me in woodland (yes, I live in London but I still found it). Make sure you check it’s really chervil though.

Monday: Avocado + Feta + sundried tomatoes

I’m not saying avocadoes and sundried tomatoes are cheap items, but a homemade sandwich is a cheap meal, overall. Plus freshly ground black pepper (easy on the salt because the Feta is salty) and some basil if you’ve got it. No butter needed as the avo is oily (it’s good oil though).
 
Tuesday: Coronation chicken
You know I love a bit of Coronation chicken! Chopped cooked chicken (if you haven’t got some roast left over, put a frozen breast straight in the microwave, cover and cook 3-4 minutes on high until no longer raw in the middle). Add sultanas, mayo, scant ½ teaspoon curry powder, salt and pepper. And some salad.

Wednesday: Sardines in Tomato Sauce
Did you used to have this as a kid, on toast? With ketchup and a sprinkling of Sarsons malt vinegar? Anyway it’s a retro treat. Just use one little tin (100g?) of sardines in tomato sauce each, or in oil if you prefer, and mash - INCLUDING the bones (good for calcium and you don’t taste them as they’re very soft). Spread on toast or bread and splash over a little vinegar, and ketchup. No need for butter as the fish is oily. Incidentally, do you know how to remember which are the oily fish? Think SMASH:

Sardines
Mackerel
Anchovies
Salmon
Herring

 
Thursday: Hummous

Veggie things are always cheap, compared to meat, so slather on some hummous, plus chopped veg (peppers, cucumber, gherkins) and if you crave meat, a bit of garlic sausage or salami is nice, plus sundried tomatoes too. And some pine nuts sprinkled over, if you have them.

Friday: Sausage Sarnie!
You don’t need a recipe, do you?! Fry some (4?) sausages in a little olive oil slowly (20 minutes minimum) till done and covered with that sticky brown savoury goo that seems to come out of them. Butter bread (I prefer bread to toast with sausage and bacon sarnies), slather with ketchup/Daddies sauce and eat with lots of kitchen roll on hand (and not wearing your best tie/dress).

Saturday: Cheese toastie

In about 1981 the Breville sandwich toaster was the height of sophistication. We didn’t have one, but my friend Jane did. So it was all back to hers for cheese and onion toasties with piccalilli on the side. I’d never had a sandwich with raw onion in before, and I’d never had piccalilli either, so this was my culinary education. Now I have a Breville of my own and it’s a life saver when I can’t be fagged to cook for the kids - but still feel I ought to give them something hot. Just remember not to overfill it with whatever cheese you’re using (cheddar, Double Gloucester, Red Leicester + Edam all work well) and butter the outside of the bread. Lots of pickle/ketchup needed.

Sunday: Skagen Röra

It comes from being married to a Swede, that I have a few of these Swedish specialities in my repertoire. This is prawns and smoked salmon in lemon mayonnaise with dill. Röra means mixture and Skagen is a part of Denmark (Oh, Sweden/Denmark, it’s all the same thing, you pedants), so there you are.
Recipe: Skagen Röra
Ingredients (serves 4)
4 slices of bread
200 g peeled cooked (prawns)
200g smoked salmon
4 tbs mayonnaise
1 tbs Dijon mustard
50 g (2 oz) fresh dill
1 lemon
butter

Method:
Chop the prawns roughly, and the smoked salmon. Finely chop the dill and mix with the seafood, mayo and mustard. Toast the bread and butter. Top with the mixture with a wedge of lemon to serve. This is often a starter in Sweden but they cut off the crusts and put lumpfish roe or other fish eggs on the top (lovely, really).

***********
You made it again. I hope you had non-bread lunches and breakfasts, with plenty of fruit and veg - otherwise you’ll be the size of a house! What with all that bloating that bread gives you. Or maybe that’s just me…

In Waitrose, which wouldn't claim to be the cheapest supermarket, 600g coley fillets cost £3.99. So, that's the basis of six days' dinners for under £4. Not bad. On the seventh day you can rest. From eating fish anyway.

Coley is what my husband calls 'the cats' fish' and yes, we do feed it to the cats. But it's got a lovely flavour and you just have to stop being precious about the flesh not being AS snowy white as cod. It's a little grey. But so are oysters, mushrooms and caviar, and think how fantastic they are.

So, buy a bag of frozen coley fillets and here are your six recipes:

Monday

Fish pie (serves one)

Ingredients:

25g butter

1 onion, chopped

1 piece frozen coley

1 tsp flour (I use Doves Farm gluten free but wheat flour is fine)

100ml milk, or soya

1 pinch mixed dried herbs

1 scoop frozen peas

salt and pepper

1 large potato (or sweet potato)

Method:

Put half the butter in a saucepan and gently fry onion for 5 mins. Cut defrosted fish into 2cm cubes and fry 5 mins more. Add flour and stir 1 minute. Add milk and stir. Add salt and pepper, herbs  and peas. Gently bring back to simmer. Peel potato, cut into 2cm chunks and boil until tender with salt (approx. 10 mins, depending on how small the chunks are). Drain and mash with the rest of the butter. Put the fish mixture in an ovenproof dish and spoon on the mash. Brown it under the grill or eat as it is. Serve with salad or a green veg - or on its own.

Tuesday

Grilled pesto fish (serves one)

 Ingredients:

1 coley fillet

1 large teaspoon pesto

salt and pepper

wedge of lemon to serve

Method:

Put the frozen fish on a baking tray, slather with pesto, salt and pepper. Grill until done (5-7 minutes) - the flesh will be opaque and flaking. Serve with with lemon juice squeezed on top, and salad or green veg. For a variation serve with potato/rice/noodles, or even bread to mop up the juices.

Wednesday

Microwaved fish (serves one)

Ingredients:

1 frozen coley fillet

Juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper

1 tbsp parsley/chervil if you have it

Method:

This couldn't be easier on a hectic weeknight, and I've done it for a family of four in only marginally more time. Put the coley on a microwaveable plate with the other ingredients sprinkled over. Microwave from frozen on high for about 3 minutes (for one fillet, but it'll be about 6-7 minutes for 4 fillets). Take the plate out and add salad/veg/potatoes as liked. If you have a knob of butter melting over the top, that'll be nice too.

Thursday

Easy fish and chips (serves one)

Ingredients:

1 frozen coley fillet

1 -2 tbsp olive oil

200g leftover boiled potatoes

salt and pepper, vinegar, ketchup

Method:

I say EASY fish and chips because actually, these aren't chips at all - they're fried potatoes. But it's the same combination of foods basically. I'm not going to suggest battering the fish because that's too much palaver. So, heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan till hot, then fry the fish (season with salt and pepper first) for 2-3 mins on one side without moving it. Cram the cubes of potatoes round the edge of the pan, and fry them too. Turn the fish and the potatoes, browning all sides. Turn the heat down halfway through. Serve with all the trimmings if you have them - tartare sauce, ketchup, and I like capers.

Friday

Coley with anchovy sauce (serves one)

Ingredients:

1 frozen coley fillet

1/2 onion, chopped

50g tin anchovies in oil

1 tbsp tomato puree

Method:

Coley can be a bit tasteless so I like to boost its fishiness with anchovies. Love them or hate them, I love anchovies and my mouth is watering as I write this, just thinking about them. And their saltiness goes well with the sweetness of tomatoes too. So, gently fry the onion in the anchovy oil and then add the anchovies and coley, cut into cubes or strips (you can almost cut it from frozen as it is quite a thin fillet). Simmer and stir and add the tomato puree. Cook some rice, or make an undressed salad to go with this, as there are a lot of strong flavours that need to be balanced with something bland. I have no problem eating a whole tin of anchovies to myself in one sitting but some of you might find it a bit strong!

Saturday

Baked bean fish hotpot (serves one)

Ingredients

slosh olive oil

1 coley fillet, defrosted

1 small onion, chopped

1 stick celery and or 1/2 red pepper

salt and pepper

1 tsp mixed dried herbs or 1 tbsp fresh chopped herbs

400g tin baked beans

salt and pepper

Worcestershire sauce

Method:

Why not combine our old favourite baked beans with a bit of fish, which is meaty enough to stand up to the beans? Gently fry the onion in the olive oil , then add the celery and/or pepper and herbs and soften. Tip in the fish and stir for 1 minute, then add the beans. Heat through and add a drop or two of Worcestershire sauce if you like it spicy.

Well done - a healthier week than the baked beans week we did a while back. Your heart, and brain, will thank you for it.