Cheap Bone Stew in a Pressure Cooker

This is a rather low effort, quick recipe and the ingredients are cheap. You can get the meaty flavour without buying actual meat. Hooray for resourcefulness and for a good effort-to-tastiness ratio!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
1 tspn butter
1kg bones
1 onion
2 big stalks of celery
5 carrots, chopped
2 potatoes, chopped
5 turnips, peeled & chopped
1 big head of broccoli, chopped
1/2 cup brown lentils, cooked (without salt)
1 medium aubergine, chopped and lightly fried

Method:
Brown the bones with some oil and melted butter in a hot pot or pressure cooker. 
Take the browned bones out and then start to brown the onions. 
Add the chopped carrots and celery at this stage to make a mirepoix.
Once those look nicely fried, add the bones back in and then also the rest of the roots (potatoes and turnips). 
Add enough water to almost cover the vegetables. We used a pressure cooker, so these ingredients only took 20 minutes to get cooked. A stove might take one to two hours.
Once the pressure is released from the cooker, take out the bones and discard them.
Add the broccoli, cooked lentils and fried aubergines.
Put the pressure cooker on for one minute (it takes a few minutes to get up to pressure as well). Don't over do the broccoli or else it will turn into green mush.

Enjoy this hearty meal with a piece of buttered, crusty fresh bread or with grated Parmesan on top.

Pot Au Feu

This French beef stew is eaten by both the rich and the poor as a comfort food.  Literally the name translates to "pot on the fire". It is relatively easy and cost-effective to make.

If you use marrow bones, the cooked marrow can be eaten on toast, the broth can be served separately as a soup and the vegetables and meat can be served on their own as a stew (one meal, three ways). If you live in the Meadowridge area, in Cape Town, The Fat German can supply you with super marrow bones for R25/kg (and other very tempting things).

Simple, deliciously comforting and cost-effective, this recipe is one of my favourites (especially the broth).

Ingredients:
500g beef blade (you can also use beef shank, chuck, ribs)
500g large beef marrowbones
2 whole cloves
1 large white onion, peeled, halved
1 bouquet garni (something like 3 sprigs of thyme, parsley)
1 small cinnamon stick
1 tsp black peppercorns 
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
2 bay leaves
5 stalks celery, cut into large pieces
4 medium carrots, peeled and quartered
6 small turnips, peeled and quartered
500g new potatoes 
2 baby cabbages, optional

Method:
Place all the ingredients except for the last four (the vegetables) into the stockpot and pour enough cold water into the stockpot to cover the ingredients.

Bring this to boil and then turn it the heat down to a low simmer (just below boiling) for 2 1/2 hours. Add water, if needed, to keep the meat and marrowbones covered. 

After 2 1/2 hours, add the carrots, celery and turnips. Simmer these for 20 minutes. Add the baby potatoes and simmer for a further 20 minutes. 

Remove the vegetables and meat which should now be tender and cook the cabbages for ten minutes. When it's cooked through you can take the cabbage out and just reduce the broth.

To serve, spread the marrow onto toasted baguette and enjoy with gherkins, mustard, horseradish and sea salt. You can serve the broth also with some toasted baguette, and the stew can be eaten as is with the afore-mentioned condiments.

Quick Chicken Soup

Sometimes after roasting chicken you're left with a sauce in the roasting pan that you can use to make a gravy with. Otherwise, you can use it as a stock to make a soup. Add some chopped potatoes, a carrot, parsley, cream, pepper and maybe a touch of tomato. All the other seasoning from your chicken roast will be in the stock so you won't even have to add salt. Boil it for a few minutes and serve with fresh bread.

Sweet Potato Shepard's Pie

Serves 2 very hungry people

I made this the other day and it was so very tasty and so it's highly recommended. It's filling and tasty, and mostly healthy. The original recipe is from Good Food, and as I usually amend the recipes a bit depending on the state of my ingredients, or purse. So, here's my own version:

Ingredients:
250g beef mince
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
3 carrot, in rondels
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Marmite
1 cup dry lentils, cooked
3 medium-large sweet potatoes
Butter & milk for the sweet potato mash

Method:
Fry the onion & leek until translucent. Add the garlic, Marmite, Worcestershire & mince and fry until brown and almost crispy. Add the carrots and cook until soft. Add a little water if necessary. It should be a little bit saucy.

In the meantime boil the sweet potatoes. If you can cut them into 2cm slices they cook through quite fast. Drain & mash with butter & milk and a pinch of salt if you like.

And, then for the lentils: If you have a can or 2 you can use that, but if you are cooking dry lentils, it will take about 30 min. Put a cup of lentils into a pot with lots of boiling water. If you add a whole cup it will really make a lot of lentils but it will make your meal go further (my husband and I were particularly hungry this day and ate the entire pie in one night). Anyway  lentils are tasty and a healthy source of protein. But if you want less lentils to meat ratio, then use only half a cup.

Mix together the lentils and the vegetables and pour into a baking dish. Top with the mash & flatten. The butter in the mash is what should help it to brown and crisp a little bit under the grill. Grill for 10 min and enjoy hot!

Here is the original recipe: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1718633/sweet-potato-shepherds-pie