Thrift is good

By Paul Fulford on September 28, 2008 5:41 PM | Permalink

Any keen and competent cook will tell you that they love working with expensive ingredients, but get an even bigger thrill from turning cheap ingredients into something good.

A fillet steak, for instance, merely needs to be slapped in a hot pan and given the briefest of cooks to emerge tender and tasty. A slice of foie gras likewise.

But there's a greater sense of achievement in transforming something that's overlooked into a nourishing, flavoursome dish.

And that's why I'm chuffed about tonight's dinner.

I spotted some off-cuts of fresh salmon as I strolled round Birmingham's excellent fish market yesterday and bought a huge amount for a quid.

Briefly cooked and combined with mashed spuds, they've been crafted into fishcakes that I'll serve with a lemon butter sauce and veg.

Sunday dinner for three for less tthan £2...great stuff. Plus we're eating a dessert made from apples and blackberries from the garden and therefore free.

To rework a saying from the 1987 movie movie Wall Street: thrift is good.

Especially in these hard times.