Some of you may have seen the ‘Dinner for under a fiver‘ series on The Guardian’s excellent Word of Mouth blog, which featured receipes from household names such as Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver. The standout dishes for me from the chef’s series were Delia Smith’s Spiced rhubarb and ginger brulee, the Mussel Pilav from Sam Clark of Moro and Yotam Ottolenghi’s Roast Vegetable Tart.
However, as many, many of the Word of Mouth commenters pointed out, most of these recipes include pricey ingredients (Jamie Oliver calls for organic pancetta in his salad!) and many necessitate a trip to the specialist shops to buy exotic spices. There was also some heated debate about whether you should include the full cost of buying the spice or price it by the teaspoon: which seems a bit silly to me, who on earth would throw the remaining spices away instead of using them in future recipes?
But in the wonderful spirit of internet cooperation, readers submitted their own recipes, and there’s some gems there. I’m definitely going to try out the Spinach, lemon and peppered mackerel pilaf and the Chickpea Curry sounds great too. It’s well worth reading through the series, there’s a full mini-cookbook’s worth of recipes to try out yourself.