Scrambled Egg & Tomato

 

 This classic is one of my favourite lazy and super cheap dishes (like SO cheap!) and it is DELICIOUS! But, is it really a 'classic' dish? Well...

Scrambled egg dishes have been eaten in China for thousands of years and when Western cooking cropped up in the late Qing Dynasty, we started experimenting with tomatoes et voila, perfection! So yes, yes it is!

Effort: 2/3

Ingredients

3x Eggs

3x Tomatoes

Spring Onions 

Salt

Ketchup

---

Optional Prep

- Slice an X on the bottom of each tomato

- Boil until the X's start to bust then take them out and put them in a bowl of cold water then peel.

---

Prep

- Beat eggs

- Chop the tomatoes

- Slice spring onions

- Dark soy sauce is optional but results in a richer colour

Let's Go!

1. Heat some oil in a pan on medium and make scrambled egg. Try not to scramble it too much so you still have some good chunks of egg to chomp on.

2. Once 80% cooked, remove the egg and put aside. 

3. Add oil to the pan and stir fry the tomatoes with sugar - I used about a teaspoon. 

4. Once the tomatoes start to soften (this will be quicker if you do the optional tomato prep) add water. I used half a bowl but you can use more or less depending on how much sauce you want.

5. Add ketchup until you get a sauce. This is a good stage to do a taste test. 

You can add a little dark soy sauce and more sugar if you like. 

6. Once you're happy with the flavour of your sauce, thicken it up with some cornflour + water.

FYI - when I use bowl as a measurement, I specially mean this bowl. 

7. Now that the sauce is complete, time to put the eggy bois back in! Because the egg has already been cooked, just a minute or so to fold it into the sauce will do.

8. Stir in the spring onions (leaving a little to garnish if you like) then it's time to plate up!

Let's eat!

---

Costings

Eggs x3 - 24p

Tomatoes x3 - 33p

Spring onion - 5p

= 62p!

Tofu Katsu Curry

 

One of my favourite dinners is a Katsu curry and you know what is excellent? Combining it with tofu! My preferred rice to curry ratio is 2:1 but you however much as you like.

Effort: 2/3

Ingredients 

2x tofu blocks

1x Egg

35g Curry

15g Panko Crumbs

Cornflour

Prep

- Slice the tofu into 1/3 pieces and dry them off as much as possible.

- Beat the egg until fully combined.

- Prep your dry goods.

Let's Go!

1. Cover your tofu in cornflour.

2. Dunk it in the egg.

3. Roll it in the panko.

4. Repeat with all the other pieces.

Pour out more cornflour and panko if you need it.

5. Heat up some oil on high heat. Once it's hot enough (you can test this by dipping in a skewer, cocktail stick or if you really need to, the end of a wooden spoon. There should be little bubbles surrounding it when the oil is hot enough.) turn it down a little (mine went from 12 to 10) and gently place the tofu in to fry.

And in case you're wondering, no. I have never tested if my oil is hot enough using the end of my wooden spoon.

6. Once the tofu has browned, turn it over and fry the other side. After both sides have browned, remove from the oil and set on some kitchen roll.

7. At this point, you can also start boiling some water for your curry. I used around 1/3 bowl of water.

8. Once the water has boiled, turn the heat down to low and melt the curry. Once it's fully dissolved and reached the consistency of your preference (you can add more curry if you want it stronger or the ole cornflour + water if you want to thicken it up quicker) we are ready to plate up!

OPTIONAL

Well, I say optional but throwing out the leftover egg was never an option to me so I scrambled it!

9. Plate up with rice! If you want to make your dish look aesthetically pleasing you can put the rice in a bowl first and turn back out and arrange OR you can whack it in a dish and get going, up to you.

Spring onion garnish optional but pretty ^^ 

Let's eat!

Costings

Tofu x2 blocks - 53p

1x Egg - 8p

35g S&B Curry - 35p (1KG box @ £9.95)

15g Panko Crumbs - 11p (350g pack @ £2.59)

Rice - 20p (2 servings)

= £1.27

Valentine's Crepe Cake

Happy Pancake Day everyone! ~

I made this mega cute crepe cake for Valentine's Day this year (I will be dusting her off today!) and out of all the crepe cakes I've made over the last year, this one is definitely the best!

The recipe itself is simple but you will need some patience  ^^'

Effort: 3/3

Ingredients:

2x Eggs

35g Sugar

75g Plain Flour

35g Melted Butter

250ml Milk

150ml Double Cream

150g Cream Cheese

30g Sugar

1tsp Vanilla

Let's Go!

1. Sieve the flour and sugar into a medium bowl and make a well in the middle - I say sieve but I'll be honest, I just weighed both straight into the mixing bowl and jiggled it! ^^'

2. Crack your eggs into the well and start whisking slowly.

3. Slowly add the milk in a steady stream and mix continuously until all the flour is incorporated.

OR you can whack it all in a mixer if you have one!

4. Once the mixture is smooth, whisk in the the melted butter.

5. I added 16 drops of red gel colouring but this is optional!

I forgot to take pictures of the process but once fully combined, you should have a very thin batter.

5. Heat a pan on medium and make your crepes! I have a 20cm frying pan (£4 from Morrisons) and since there's butter in the batter, I didn't use any oil.

6. Make your crepes and leave them to cool completely.

NOTE: this mixture makes 13 crepes in a 20cm pan. Depending on the size of your pan, numbers may vary. My crepe cake only has 12 layers because I ate one, heh.

7. Whip on high until the cream holds soft peaks then put it in the fridge to keep cool.

6. Whisk the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla (or any other flavour you want to use) until smooth.

7. Once combined, retrieve the whipped cream and gently fold it in. Here I only folded 3/4 of the whipped cream into the cream cheese because I wanted alternating layers of filling but you can mix it all in if you like! OR you ca even just do whipped cream!

8. To the whipped cream x cream cheese mixture, I added approx 8 drops of red gel colouring - this is also optional.

NOTE: Keep everything in the fridge until you're ready to build your crepe cake.

Assemble!

9. Put your first crepe on a plate - I made a mistake and built mine on a turn table. This makes the job harder, once again I'm casually making the mistakes so you don't have to!

10. Spread a layer of filling evenly over the crepe leaving a thin ring of naked crepe around the edge.

11. Stack the next layer of crepe and do the same with the whipped cream if you're doing 2 fillings like me. If not, just keep alternating between crepe and filling until you use up all your crepes! 

12. Once your final crepe is on top, you can leave it there are you can scoop the rest of the filling into a piping bag and decorate.

13. Pop it in the fridge to chill and firm up. 

Et voila!

My piping skills are on the wobbly side but on this occasion, I piped a shell border using a star tip and wrote 'Love You' in traditional Chinese because I'm still heavily in Chinese New Year mode.

Fun language facts!

I ordinally learnt to write simplified Chinese (I learnt to write through learning Mandarin) but I decided to write traditional because 'love' in simplified has no 'heart'.

心 - heart

Love - 爱 (simplified) vs  愛 (traditional)

And it's Valentine's so I want LOTS of hearts! So much that I have used the courteous version of 'you' because it has 'heart' in it.

You - 你 (normal) vs 您 (courtesy) 

Realistically though, I would never say 愛您. I'm going to confess that this is solely for aesthetic reasons - HA!

 

---

Costings

Eggs - 16p

Sugar - 2p

Plain flour - 2p

Butter - 5p

Milk - 18p

Double cream - 47p

Cream cheese - 37p

= £1.27

Danger Tofu

 

Want to spice up your tofu? Well, this one is for you!

This recipe is also easily adaptable to be veggie & vegan friendly :) 

Effort: 2/3

Ingredients

- Tofu

- Garlic

- Spring Onion

- Sugar Snap Peas

- Doubanjiang

- Salt

- Sugar

- Soy sauce

- Oyster Sauce [mine is the regular stuff but there is a veggie/ vegan version OR you omit it all together, it's just for depth of flavour so not essential!]

Prep

- Finely mince the garlic. I only had one clove to hand, you can use more if you like!

- Slice the onion into thins. You can dice if you prefer, I just wanted t mix up the shapes.

- Removed the ends and stringy bit of the peas and chop.

- Dice the tofu.

Let's Cook!

1.  Once the pan has heated, add some oil and fry off the garlic on medium-high until fragrant. 

2. Add the onions and shortly after add the tofu as well. Turn the heat to medium and gently fry until the tofu starts to brown.

3. Finally add the beans - I added them last so they will still have a bit of a cronch!

4. When everything has started browning nicely, we can add the seasoning! I used approx one flat tsp of sugar and just shy of one flat 1/2tsp (I think that's what that little spoon is?) of salt. 
That's my personal taste, you can season as you like!

5. Now we're going to make the sauce!  

First, add some water to the pan. All in all I used about half a rice bowl.

6. I used about a tbsp of each sauce then added a little extra oyster sauce. If you're making this for the first time, I would use a tsp, taste it and slowly add as you go.

Veggie & Vegan friends - you can omit the oyster sauce or use Lee Kum Kee's Vegetarian Oyster Flavoured Sauce instead :) 

7. And now we make it dangerous!

If this is your first time making this or you're not well acquainted with doubanjiang, start with small amounts and taste your sauce as you go. I overall used about 1.5 tsp and I'd give it a danger rating of medium danger BUT I have a pretty low spice tolerance. 

8.  After you've reached your optimum danger level (you can also add more of the other seasonings too at this stage if required) we can thicken up the sauce with a cornflour + water solution. 

I like my sauce coating my food so I reduced it a fair bit. I suggest mixing 1tbsp of cornflour to 1tsp of water then adding it slowly until the sauce reaches your desired consistency. 

9. Finally, add the chopped sprint onions (leave a little to garnish if you like) and serve!

Let's eat!

---

Costings

Tofu x3 blocks - 90p

Sugar Snap Peas (half pack) - 13p

Garlic - 2p

Onion - 6p

Spring onion - 5p

= £1.16

Hainanese Chicken Rice

A super easy take on Hainanese Chicken Rice that you can make in the rice cooker? I'm in!

Recipe by 肥媽 (translated from Cantonese) 

Effort: 1/3

Ingredients

- Chicken stock

- 1tbsp oil

- Salt

- Pepper

- Ginger

- Lemongrass

- Spring onions 

- Pandan essence (leaves are even better if you have them)

- Chicken thighs 

Prep

-  Cut 3 slices of ginger - I'm not a massive fan of ginger, if you are you can add more if you like!

-  Chop the lemongrass into chunks, we only want the bottom half.

NOTE: The lemongrass needs to be picked out later (we don't eat that!) so just chop it in half - I've made the mistake of chopping it too small so you don't have to!

- Take the spring onions and chop off the whites. Don't worry we'll use the greens later. 

- If you have pandan leaves, knot one leaf, if not you can use a tsp of pandan essence like me!

- Make chicken stock. I used about 2 tbsp to about 300ml of water but I will be adding more water later.

- Season your chicken with salt and pepper. I have used thighs because I prefer the smoother texture but you can use whatever cut you like!

Let's Cook!

1. Wash your rice and put everything on top. Yep, that's right! Everybody in!

2.  After pouring in the chicken stock, top up the water like you normally would when you make rice.

3. Make sure you add the tbsp of oil after the water or it'll be a bit gross when you put you finger in to check. I measure the water using the finger method and if you do too, I have once again made the mistake so you don't have to!

4. Lastly, put the chicken in.

NOTE: If you're using boneless, skinless chicken like me I would recommend adding the chicken once the rice is at a bubbling stage as I thought it was a bit overcooked. If you're using chicken on the bone and with skin on, you're probably fine to put it in together.

5. Hit cook and let the rice cooker do it's thing!

NOTE: Keep and eye/ ear out for the bubbling stage if you want to put your chicken in later to avoid overcooking.

This smells AMAZING while it cooks!

6. While the rice cooker works it's magic, finely cut the greens from our spring onions.

Et voila! It is done!

7. Take the chicken out to cut for serving and remove the lemongrass. 

I took the ginger out too because not a huge fan but you can leave it if you like.

8. Heat a little oil to pour over the spring onions (you should get a tiiiiny sizzle!) and add a little soy sauce.

Let's eat!

---

Costings

Rice (250g) - 20p

Chicken thighs x3 - £1.14

Lemongrass x2 - 43p

Spring onions x3 - 21p

Ginger (3 slices) - 3p(ish)

= £2.01 AND there's enough rice for tomorrow! 

Welcome to Cook Cheep D!

Hellos ~

Welcome to Cook Cheep D, a foodie's blog dedicated to sharing recipes for yummy food without breaking the bank! 

If there is anything you need to know about me it's that I LOVE to eat, like I am ALWAYS hungry! Having said that, I am also stingy (that's why this blog is called 'Cook Cheep D', more on that in the ole 'About' section) but that doesn't mean I can't eat like a Queen!

So! Let's do a quick walk through of my kitchen essentials!

DRY GOODS

The Necessities

As long as I have rice, I can make it! I have done the maths, one bowl of raw rice makes 4 bowls of cooked rice (size depending) so if you're like me and have 2 bowls of rice for dinner, that's 10p a meal ;) (based on Amigo 20KG bought at £16)

Damae Ramen is my favourite instant ramen, a good 49p savour for a 30 minute lunch break or to make a noodle soup dish.

Noodles

Noodles are an excellent basic! Both the shrimp noodles and noodle king by Sau Tao are SUPER fast to cook and were saviours during my crazy 20 minute lunches! The egg noodles I tend to save for stir fry and chow mein because they're sturdier. 

Not pictured: Pasta. I've a lot of pasta too!

---

COOKING FRIENDS

Always Out

[L-R: oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, red beancurd, oil & salt]

- Oyster sauce: stir fry, marinade, sauce or simply drizzled over steamed veggies.

- Dark soy: marinade, dipping sauce... mostly for colour to be honest, also has a sweet undertone.

- Soy sauce: EVERYTHING 

- Red Beancurd: marinade, sauce, stir fry or almost everything if you're me. This is tofu's best friend!

- Sugar and cornflour should also be here but I forgot them...

Frequently used

[L-R: doubanjiang (hot bean/ chilli bean sauce), ketchup, chicken stock, honey & garlic powder]

- Doubanjiang: mapo tofu comes to find but you can use this in ANYTHING where you want to amp up the danger levels.

- Ketchup: I use this in all tomato dishes (tomato prawns, egg & tomato, etc) because it adds a nice depth of flavour and colour. 

- Chicken stock: noodle soup, you can add it to rice, congee... also pretty good for stir frying veggies!

- Honey: mostly sauces but sometimes watered down for marinades. Also helps tenderise meat. 

- Garlic powder: any time you want to intensify garlic!

Occasional Cameos

[L-R: hoisin sauce, drunken chicken marinade, soy sauce chicken marinade, sesame oil, teriyaki sauce, 5 spice & char siu sauce]

- Hoisin Sauce: add to marinade for char siu

- Drunken Chicken & Soy Sauce Marinade: literally stick it in a pot and boil your chicken in it, it's that easy and it's DELICIOUS! The leftover liquid can be kept in the fridge for a while to reuse but keep an eye on it.

- Teriyaki sauce: what it says on the bottle!

- Char siu sauce: marinade or use to make the filling for char siu bao!

The Good Stuff  (you can tell from the packaging!)

[L-R: sweet & sauce sauce, satay sauce, salt & pepper & peking sauce]

For when you get those takeaway cravings! 

These are in derpy recycled thingies because they're my Dad's secret blends but you can get these kinds of sauces/ seasoning in most supermarkets or at the Chinese supermarket if you want a brand like Lee Kum Kee or Yeos. 

And that's a wrap!

Unless you're a fiend for certain things (like me for red beancurd) these are all goods that will last months.

Happy cooking!