Abercrombie & Feast

Sunday is my favourite day of the week.  Sunday is when I get to sleep late.  Sunday is when I get to spend hours making complex recipes for dinner.  And Sunday is when I get to relax and not worry about the mess in the living room. 

It hasn’t always been this way.  When I was a kid, I would dread Sunday afternoons.  Home from church, changed out of my flowery dress and into cut-off jean shorts, all I wanted to do was relax.  Maybe read a book in my room.  Maybe go swimming with my friends.  But my mother had other plans.

Sunday afternoons were “chore time”.  Our whole family would spend a few hours cleaning up the house before anything fun could happen.  I hated it.  Hated putting away my laundry.  Hated cleaning the sink.  Really hated the days when my father trimmed the bushes around the house and my brother and I had to carry arm-loads of dead branches to the rubbish. 

So, I mostly got stuck dusting.  And I didn’t like that either.  But everyone was pitching in and I had to do something.  My sweet mother, bless her heart, tried her best to make dusting more appealing to me.  We would have conversations that went like this:

“SarahKate, can you dust the living room?  The bookshelf needs dusting and so does the mantle and you are so good at arranging everything and making it all look so pretty.  It always looks best when you do it.”

“Fine.  But then I’m going to DeeAnn’s.”

Do you see what she did there??  My mother tried to make dusting the mantle sound like fun!  As though I possessed some extra skill for arranging knick knacks post-dusting that made me special.  And, although I hated it at the time, I find myself doing the same thing now.  I often tell Andy, “Can you brown this ground beef for dinner?  You do it so much better than I do!  I don’t know how you do it, but it always turns out better when you’ve browned the meat.” 

I’ve been trying more in the last few weeks to get Andy to cook with me in the evenings.  He works really hard and sometimes doesn’t get home until late, so I know that chopping onions and seasoning fish fillets is often the last thing he wants to do.  But, like my mother before me, I love the idea of the whole family pitching in to bring something together.  Last week we had fish tacos. Andy make the chunky avocado salsa and I cooked the fish.  I loved it!  It was fun to spend that time together and to eat something we had created as a team. 

But, not everyone finds cooking at the end of the day soothing like I do.  So I decided that, rather than have Andy dicing and stirring, perhaps there was another way that we could work together in the kitchen.  Something that we would both have fun with and both find creative.

All of this is a very long way of explaining this week’s recipe and pictures.  You see, my husband may not find salsa making to be creative, but he loves to take photographs.  He loves to come up with interesting angles and perspectives.  So, for this final Recession buster recipe, Andy helped me in the kitchen by taking photos of the process. Here are a few of the shots…

The recipe is delicious and heartier than you would expect from what is essentially a veggie burger.  If you don’t believe me, just check out the beautiful photos.  I guarantee they will make you hungry!

Black Bean Burgers

 Serves 4
AU$ 2.68 per serving

2 cans black beans (in Sydney you can find these at Norton St Grocer)
2 tbs mayo
1 tbs sour cream
1/3 cup plain dry bread crumbs (I made my own by toasting some old bread until it was dry, then blitzing it in the food processor)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 cup chopped coriander (cilantro)
3 tbs vegetable oil
4 soft buns, split

Drain the cans of black beans and add 1 1/2 cans to a food processor.  Add the mayo, sour cream, bread crumbs, cumin, oregano, cayenne and coriander to the food processor as well.  Process to form a smooth, thick mixture.  Stir in the remaining  whole black beans for texture. 

Form the bean mixture into 4 large patties.  Refrigerate the patties for about 20 mins to firm up. 

Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium high heat.  Add the burgers and fry until golden on each side, about 3-4 mins per side. 

Remove the patties from the pan and drain on paper towel.  Put each burger in a toasted bun and enjoy!

We topped our burgers with lettuce, 1/2 an avocado and some finely chopped tomatoes.  I already had all of those toppings in my fridge, so I haven’t factored them into the cost.  We also ate this with some baked sweet potato chips- sweet potatoes, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and chilli flakes and baked on a high heat for about 30 mins.  A lovely, and really cheap and healthy addition to this meal!

I’ve just had a look back at the recipes I’ve posted here in the last 6 months, and about 50% of them call for garlic and chilli in some form.  Typically it’s chopped fresh chilli or garlic,  but sometimes it’s chilli powder or dried chilli flakes. 

And that’s just the recipes I’ve posted here!  The rest of the food that comes out of my kitchen, the food that isn’t exciting enough to post about here (or that I was too lazy to take a picture of) usually contains some garlic and chilli as well.  I’m sensing a pattern here.

My lovely husband often says that I would put garlic in birthday cake if he didn’t stop me.  Whilst I don’t think I’m quite that bad, I would estimate that approximately 80% of the dinners that I make begin with me chopping some garlic and a chilli.  Garlic + Chilli = Happy SarahKate. 

And I know that I’m not alone in this minor obsession with the delicious outcomes that garlic and chilli can produce.  In fact, I’ve interviewed several of my friends, and they too begin most meals with some garlic and chilli chopping action.  And some of my favourite world cuisines rely heavily on the happy marriage of garlic and chilli- Thai food, Chinese food and Italian food are good examples. 

All of this is a long way of saying that this recipe, the second in my series of Recession Busters, is not unusual for me or for this website.  This recipe begins with plenty of chopped fresh garlic and chilli and ends with crunchy capsicum and yielding chickpeas being stirred into a fiery sauce of tomatoes, beef and onions.  In short, it is classic Abercrombie and Feast fare. 

I won’t tell you that this meal is quick.  Because it relies on a cheaper cut of beef, it does take some cooking time.  However, you can easily assemble it on a rainy afternoon, as I recently did, or in a Crockpot on your counter whilst you’re at work.  This recipe requires very little in the way of prep time and almost no active time once you have it in the pot.  And while the casserole is simmering away, you can go out and do something fun with the money you’ve saved by making this for dinner!

Spicy beef casserole with chickpeas
(I am oh so sorry that there is no picture of this meal.  I have been suffering from a terrible throat infection this week and I was not up to taking pictures.  But, in the words of my husband, “It sounds so good, who needs a picture?”  I think he was just trying to cheer me up!)

Serves 4
AU$3.79 per person

450g gravy beef cut into bite sized pieces (you could also use rump steak or stewing beef- whatever your butcher has on hand)
1 large brown onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 long red chillis, finely chopped (remove the seeds if you want a milder dish)
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger*
1 tsp ground coriander*
1 tsp ground cumin or cumin seeds*
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 cup beef broth or water
1 green capsicum (bell pepper), chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Place a large, heavy pot over medium / low heat.  Add the vegetable oil and allow to warm up for a few mins.  Then add the onion and stir briefly.  Let the onion cook for about 5 mins, or until softened.  Then add the garlic and chilli.  Stir for 2 minutes. 

Add the ginger, coriander and cumin.  Stir for a minute until the spices are fragrant.  It will be dry, but that’s ok. 

Add the beef to the spices and onion mixture.  Allow the beef to brown for a few minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t stick too much. 

Once the beef is browned on all sides, add the tomatoes and their juices to the pot.  Then add the beef broth.  Stir well and put the top on the pot.  Allow to simmer for at least 2 hours.  Stir occasionally if you want.

Once the meat has simmered for 2 hours, it should be soft and tender.  At this point, add the capsicum and chickpeas to the pot.  Stir and let simmer for another 30 mins. 

We served this over mashed potato.  If you do this, add another AU$0.40 to each serving cost.  If you want to avoid the extra cost, this would be lovely on its own, or over rice, which is cheaper. 

*I have ground ginger, coriander and cumin already in my kitchen and I didn’t know how to figure out the cost of 1tsp of a AU$2.50 bottle of spice mix.  So… I left those out of the equation.  Obviously, if you have to buy those spices, this will be more expensive.  However, you could leave them out and get a dinner that is just as good- it would just be different.  If you do leave these spices out, increase the amount of black pepper you add and consider stirring in some other spices that you might have to hand.  Cayenne pepper and Cajun seasoning would both be good replacements. 

It’s all doom and gloom out there right now, isn’t it?  I can’t log into my email without seeing a story about thousands of people losing their jobs.  I can’t turn on the television without hearing about another business going under.  It’s all a bit scary.

Thankfully, here at our place things aren’t as scary.  I’ve been making little changes to save some money.  Nothing drastic… just things like taking our lunches to work more often, eating out a little less, cooking with some cheaper cuts of meat.  You’d be surprised how much you can save by changing a few small things. 

It seems that sometimes, when money gets tight, people switch to fast food, or pre-prepared meals in an effort to save some cash.  In fact, while businesses were sinking all around us and even huge corporations were posting losses last quarter, McDonald’s actually posted a 4th quarter sales increase.  

I find it surprising that people would choose to spend their even more limited budgets on food that is not actually a very good value.  It seems like now is the time for thrifty home cooking.  Our grandparents made it through the Great Depression without McDonald’s.  I think we can all rally around our own kitchen tables and make sure that a financial decline doesn’t also equal a decline in our health and well-being. 

So, in the spirit of creating meals that our wallets and our bodies can afford, I’m going to be posting a few recession busting dinners here in the next few weeks.  These recipes and meal ideas will be cheap and healthy.  They will also be tasty. Trust me, it’s going to take more than a global economic melt-down to get me to stop eating delicious food!

Sausage and Capsicum Rolls with Carmelised Onions

Serves 2
AU$5.40 per person

4 organic beef sausages
3 capsicums (bell peppers), cut into medium sized strips (about 1/2 inch across)
2 brown onions, very finely sliced into 1/2 moon shapes
4 bread rolls
olive oil
salt and pepper

 Heat a frying pan over medium/high heat.  Cut the sausages into bite sized pieces.  Add the sausages to the pan and cook until done.  You shouldn’t need to add any oil, because the sausages will release some of their fat.  However, if you find the sausage pieces sticking and charring too much, add a little dash of olive oil. 

When the sausage pieces are done, remove them from the pan and place on a plate lined with paper towel to drain.  Put about 1 tsp olive oil in the same pan and add the onions and a good pinch of salt.  Cook the onions, stirring frequently, until they are soft and browning nicely on the edges.  I really like the onions to be quite dark, so I cook them longer.  You can just cook them to your liking.  Taste them to see if you want to add more salt. 

Keep the onions in the pan and add the capsicum strips.  The pan should have plenty of oil still in it, but if it looks too dry, add a dash more olive oil.  Stir the capsicums with the onions until the capsicums begin to soften.  Then add the sausage back to the pan.  Toss everything together until the sausage has warmed back up.  I like the capsicums to have a bit of a crunch, but if you want them to be softer, just keep cooking until they are done to your liking.  Top the whole thing with a good grind of cracked black pepper. 

Pile the sausage, capsicum and onion mixture onto split, toasted rolls.  Add ketchup, mustard or bbq sauce if you’d like.  Andy likes his roll with some mustard, but I prefer mine plain.  

This recipe makes enough for two large rolls per person.  I can usually only eat one, so the second roll becomes my lunch for the next day.  That brings the cost per person for this meal down to only  AU$3.40!  How’s that for a value meal?

I have tried to post this recipe 2 times already… healthy, fiery and oh so good Roasted Vegetable Salsa.  But, each time I’ve made this, it has been entirely eaten before I could get a picture.  That should tell you how good it is!

The first time I made it was for a picnic in Centennial Park.  It was just Andy and me, so I didn’t make much.  I thought I’d take pictures of the leftovers when we got home.  Leftovers… ha!  We had leftovers of everything else, but the salsa container was empty!

The second time I made this salsa was to bring to a party.  I learned my lesson and made a ton.  I was confident there would be extra this time.  Nope.  The bowl was practically licked clean… which is gross.   

So, I made this salsa again last night for our Superbowl Party.  I had already planned to post the recipe today, so I knew there HAD to be some leftover for a picture this morning.  In addition to this smoky and fresh salsa, I served slow cooked chipotle pork in tortillas, black beans with cumin, chunky avocado dip, chips, cupcakes, etc.  There was a ton of food.  And at the end of the evening… there was about 1/3 cup of the salsa left!!  A victory for me, certainly.  But also for you because you get this excellent recipe. 

One of my favourite things about this recipe is that it can be made all year round.  In the summer when tomatoes are fresh this is a perfect way to use them up.  And, in the winter when tomatoes are not so great, the roasting really improves their flavour and texture.  Delicious!

Roasted Vegetable Salsa

Makes about 2 cups

5 large roma tomatoes
1 brown onion, cut in half and peeled
1 jalapeno pepper
2 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 lime
1 large handful of coriander (cilantro)

Preheat oven to about 175C or 350F.  Line a baking tray with tin foil.  Place the tomatoes, onion and jalapeno on the tray.  Wrap the garlic cloves in a smaller piece of tin foil and add them to the tray.  Put the tray in the oven and roast for about 30-45 mins.  Check after 30 mins.  The onion and pepper should have a few charred bits and the tomatoes should be bursting out of their skins.  If not, roast the veggies for a little longer.

Once the veggies are roasted, remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 mins.  Then add the tomatoes, onion and jalapeno to a food processer or blender.  Gently remove the soft garlic from the skins and add that as well.  Blend until chunky.  Squeeze the juice of the lime into the mixture and add the coriander.  Blend again.  Taste for seasoning.  I usually add a little bit of coarse salt. 

Once you’re happy with the flavour, transfer the salsa to a bowl and allow to rest in the fridge for about an hour.  This lets the flavours mingle and develop.