Looking ahead to a frugal february

In January, many people like to economise after the indulgence of Christmas and New Year. It’s a time for renewal, new beginnings or resolutions. Diet is often involved. Perhaps you’ve been trying Veganuary or having a Dry January. We haven’t really made any major changes and certainly no major reductions in food intake or expenditure. If anything, spending has gone up in January as I stocked up the store cupboard and the freezer.

The theme for February will, hence, be ‘Frugal February’. I haven’t set any specific financial targets, my plan rather is to develop a series of recipes made with relatively inexpensive ingredients like potatoes, lentils and the ever-reliable tinned tomatoes. This is a chance to exploit the store cupboard built up in January and double-up or batch cook for the freezer. I’m also planning to price up each meal.

My first challenge was to work out how many meals I could make out of a 5kg bag of potatoes. I chose the Agatha variety of potatoes, which are sold in France as suitable for baking ‘au four’, in other words, jacket potatoes. Many English people don’t rate French spuds, and I’ve even come across some who include these on their Tesco delivery. I’ve never found any difference, and I tend to buy the large oven potatoes and use them for everything. The French shops tend to sell potatoes according to the meal type and potato size (calibre – in centimetres, e.g. 50/70):

Au four – oven (jacket, roasts, wedges)

Vapeur – steaming, I find these are OK for boiling too

Frites – chips

Salade – usually the oval Charlotte salad potatoes, with firm skin (chair ferme)

Raclette or sauteé – again, a firm skinned variety

Here’s how the numbers worked out. Last week, a 5kg bag of jacket spuds cost €7.95. It contained 21 large and medium potatoes, so that’s an average 38 centimes per potato, though their individual weights ranged from 200g  (0.32c) to 600g (0.96c) depending on size. We usually eat two medium potatoes each if we’re having jacket potatoes with a beany topping, about 400g for homemade potato wedges and 600g-800g for Janssens’ Temptation or enough mash to cover two Cottage pies.

How many meals from 5kg bag of potatoes?

Meal 1	Jacket potatoes with a beany topping	4
Meal 2	Janssens’ Temptation	4
Meal 3	Potato wedges, omelette and green beans	2 medium
Meal 4 + 1	Parmentier x 2 (1 for freezer)	2 v large
Meal 6	Potato and spinach curry	2
Meal 7	Samosas	2
Meal 8	Leek and potato soup (2 portions)	1 large
Meal 9	Bombay potatoes	2

 

One of cheapest recipes I’ve developed recently is for Homemade Potato Wedges. I used to buy a bag of McCain Country Potatoes, which are potato wedges in sunflower oil with either a herby or a spicy coating, costing €1.53 for 700g. One bag would do for two meals, provided I weighed them out carefully (€0.76). I doubted whether it would be more economic to make them, and indeed the saving is only marginal. Two medium potatoes, 0.64c; one tbsp sunflower oil (0.02c ); one tbsp herbe de provence (0.03c ): total €0.65. The cooking time is about the same as I microwave the potatoes before slicing into wedges to reduce oven time. So, the saving is only eleven centimes, but the satisfaction of ‘homemade’ is worth it.

Homemade Potato Wedges

 

 

Two medium potatoes

One tbsp sunflower oil

One tbsp herbe de provence or smoked paprika

 

·         Scrub or peel potatoes, stab with a knife and microwave on high for about five minutes until slightly soft but not completely cooked

·         Allow to cool, then cut in half and then slice into wedges, usually four wedges per half

·         In a plastic freezer bag or a bowl mix the herbs and oil

·         Add the potatoes and mix well

·         Spread onto baking sheet and cook in oven at about 180c for 20  minutes