This is my Ultimate Food on a Budget.
As a chef, I know it's not what you spend on ingredients, but results on the plate that count.
Using cheap cuts and leftovers and working them hard in the kitchen gives you food on a budget that tastes a million bucks,
And I'm going to show you how.
First up, my flavour packed lamb with fried bread.
Whether I'm cooking high-end dishes or rustic dishes, trust me, it all has to be impressive.
So, this lamb dish proves that you don't have to spend a fortune to create delicious food.
First off, put the pan on.
This is a lamb steak and it's cut just above the leg. Just here.
Because you see that delicious bone running through the center and that's full of marrow so that just gives the lamb a nice added
sweet flavor. Just take your knife, cut through each end. T his stops the
lamb steak from buckling so, therefore, it cooks evenly
and colours beautifully.
Salt and pepper.
Lamb needs quite a lot of help with the pepper so be quite generous with the pepper.
Just pat that down.
The pan's just starting to smoke on the outside now put your oil in.
Get that pan really nice and hot because this is a cheap cut, so -
And depending on the colour of the lamb steaks it'll really sort of impart a lot of flavour.
That's the noise you want to hear... you can't hear that noise, don't drop the steak in.
Put a little bit of garlic in there. Not chopped garlic. Just whole cloves of garlic, lightly crushed.
Don't even waste time peeling them. In.
Tongs, lift up - That bit of fat round the back.
That's on the top of the leg.
Tilt the pan and let all that fat
render. Rendering is a chef's term that means melting the fat. It works brilliantly when you're cooking a rib-eye as well.
Turn it over.
That colour! Beautiful!
Now it looks like an expensive cut and we've got that nice even sear all over.
As it's cooking, just tilt the pan and baste.
And basting the lamb steak just means just sort of adding all that nice scented
garlic olive oil back into the lamb...
Beautiful!
Now take the lamb out  and let the lamb rest.
Beautiful!
Now, for the perfect
rustic crouton. So this bread's quite firm, couple of days old, to slice it straight down the centre.
Dice it up. Put it into a bowl.
Season it beautifully.
From there, I'm gonna add some milk.
Sounds strange adding milk to a crouton but it just gives it that nice rich
creamy texture.  And just let that milk sort of absorb into the bread. While that's soaking unlike the dressing go back to that initial
garlic that was in the pan.
Beautiful! Into the pestle and mortar, anchovies.
Anchovies go brilliantly well with lamb - all that nice salty vinegary flavour. And a bit of kick: some capers.
They're little baby cats. Very sweet
Now,
just pound that to a nice paste.
The smell is incredible!
Next some Dijon mustard - a nice teaspoon and a half in.
A little bit of red wine vinegar - two tablespoons.
And then add extra virgin olive oil
Now -
It's got that heat in there. It's got a nice roasted garlic, a real hearty chunky vinaigrette that sort of seeps into the lamb.
Some fresh parsley.
Crunch up the parsley  - delicious flavour. Parsley in.
Nice! Now get your pan hot for croutons. Olive oil in the pan.
Grab the croutons and squeeze all that excess milk out. Not too hard - I don't want them dry. And in.
And then just fry them and the milk inside these croutons gives them a nice spongy creamy delicious flavour.
That's the colour I want.
Nice.
Now take them out and lightly drain them over a kitchen roll onto the board. Out.
Plate them. Just take this amazing vinaigrette and spread it.
Get those croutons. Listen to them. My little boulders hitting in the plate. The lamb.
Sit that on
Next one
On. Rest the croutons
On.  Now use all those little bits
And My Chef in Paris Would Kill me right now if he saw me using those because
they're the ugly scraps that customers should never see, but, but they're the best bits
Croutons on
and then just
Drop that sauce and all those little bits
of the lamb
And there. That is a perfect way of taking a cheap cut to the premier league of dishes
Stunning food doesn't have to be complicated. Keeping it simple
produces amazing results and keeps cost down. Here are three more great easy dishes that don't cost the earth but taste absolutely incredible.
Starting with roasted mackerel with garlic and paprika.
First make a spicy paste by crushing garlic in a pestle and mortar
along with paprika,
sea salt and olive oil.
Spoon the paste on the fillets of mackerel - a great inexpensive oily fish that's really healthy - and leave to marinate.
When ready to eat, put the mackerel fillet on a baking tray inside up, season and roast in a hot oven
Next make a tangy potato salad.
For the dressing, mix Dijon mustard,
white wine vinegar,
olive oil, and
and saffron.
And whisk until blended.
Boil new potatoes in salted water,
drain and lightly crush,
add sliced spring onion and spoon in the vinaigrette.
To serve, top the potato salad with the roasted mackerel and drizzle with more vinaigrette.
A healthy meal that makes the most of cheap but delicious fish: stunning roasted mackerel with garlic and paprika.
My next brilliant budget dish
Is pork and prawn balls in aromatic broth.
For the pork and prawn balls, in a bowl, add pork mince
Then add finely chopped prawns
Diced ginger and Chopped Chives
Season
and roll into ping-pong sized balls
For the broth, heat fresh stock and add star anise, oyster sauce, soy sauce
and sliced ginger
Gently Simmer
Fry the pork and prawn balls in a pan until golden
Then transfer to the bubbling Broth
Add handfuls of spinach
Then serve. Top with finely sliced spring onions.
A gorgeous healthy dish that uses great value ingredients with amazing results: pork and prawn balls
and aromatic broth. Ready to eat in under 20 minutes
An incredibly simple recipe that's perfect for using up leftovers: easy arancini
First,  chop mozzarella into small cubes
Then take handfuls of leftover risotto, add a cube of mozzarella, and fold into a ball around the cheese
This dish Is perfect with leftover mushroom risotto but it's great with any risotto
For the coating, prep three bowls: one with flour, one with bread crumbs, and one with beaten egg.
Dip each arancini first into the flour,
then the egg wash, and finally the bread crumbs
Then in a pan, heat the olive oil and fry the arancini until golden brown
Drain and serve simply with lemon
Easy arancini: a delicious tempting treat that's great for leftovers and cooks in under ten minutes
Three quick and easy recipes that give maximum flavor for minimum cost: fantastic dishes that prove you didn't
have to spend a fortune to eat amazing food at home. Nice
Next, five more of our 100 tips that'll make cooking in the kitchen easier.
First up, a great cheap staple: how to cook the perfect rice
Basmati rice, the king of all rices: light, fluffy, delicious, and I'm going to show you how to cook it perfectly
Now, start off with
400 grams of rice
Rice in
Spot-on
So what we're going to do now is just rinse off the dust and the starch
Cold water, always
And just rinse the rice.
That stops the rice from becoming clumpy in the pan and allowed it become really nice, light, and fluffy
once it's cooked. Rice into the pan. Now, to make a plain fluffy rice exciting, we're going to infuse it
Three cardamom pods
And just get the pods and just pierce them so it allows all that flavor to come out.
Cardamom pods and then
star anis. Now these are beautiful whole star anis
It makes it really nice and fragrant
Salt and pepper: a lot easier to season the rice now
than it is once it's cooked. We start to break it up when you season once it's cooked. Now, basically
one part rice to one and a half part water
Six hundred mills. Always start it off in cold water
Cold water in
Onto the gas
Lid on
Bring it up to a boil as quick as possible and turn it down and let It simmer for eight to ten minutes and that's
the secret behind cooking great rice: allow it to steam as it's cooking
Do not lift that lid up
Lid off
mmm. It smells aromatic.
Basically all the water's absorbed, the rice has doubled in size, and it's nice and light and fluffy. Take the star anis out
The cardamom pods. They all should have risen to the top
Pods Out
Take Your Fork
Fluff It Through
Basically, it just sort of starts to open everything back up
Once you forked it through, it becomes really nice and light and fluffy.
And there:
That is perfectly cooked rice.
Always made the most of your leftovers. Use last night's rice in stir fries,
scrambled up with eggs, or it's simple to make a delicious fresh salad. Remember, a good cook wastes nothing.
A great tip for stopping potatoes, apples, and avocados from going brown when cut:
Simply cover with water and add a squeeze of lemon.
The acidity stops the flesh from oxidizing, which is what causes the color to change.
Herbs are great for adding flavor without spending a fortune.
To keep them at their best, simply place them in a glass of water and they'll stay fresh for up to a week.
And if you've got extra herbs left over, save than waste by making an amazing flavored oil
Place washed and dried stems in a bottle
Cover with warmed olive oil
Then seal and leave to infuse. Great for salads, pastas, and drizzling on veg.
Coming up on my ultimate guide to cooking on a budget,
how to make the most of your ingredients. And this is where you get
so much more bang for your buck out of sausages because the skins off and the real flavor, you know is gonna come through.
More essential kitchen knowledge
They cut thin like this: there's more flavor. And a delicious and cheap
spicy sausage rice. And that is an amazing way to take spicy italian sausages to a completely different level
