Fried Rice

It has come to my attention, and a bit of a surprise to me really, that despite the slight Asian theme that this blog takes, I have never managed to cover fried rice, that mainstay of Asian cuisine. Given that this blog started out aiming for readership from university, I'm almost ashamed that I have not talked about it, given that it is a very quick meal to prepare (especially if you already have cooked the rice from previously) and a highly effective way to use up leftovers. I happen to have ingredients available to make fried rice with ham and peas, both pretty prevalent in the diets of many Britons, so I thought it would be rather fitting to do something along these lines.


The Chinese have an interesting technique for cooking the rice, which involves mixing egg into the rice until everything is evenly coated in egg. This is commonly referred to as "gold covering silver", a reference to the golden hue of the egg yolk coating the whiteness of the rice grain. I will attempt to demonstrate this today.

I will be using two canned items from the Sainsbury's Basics range today, processed peas and ham. I got the latter around the same time I got the tinned chopped pork, the difference on initial inspection of the tin appearing to be the lower salt content. The texture is meatier, and feels less like the processed food product that is the Basics Chopped Pork and Ham. Still, some people might actually consider that as a bad thing.

Mince some garlic for the fried rice. Fry quickly, and then throw in the ham and peas.

Mix egg into portions of rice at a ratio of 1:1. Add to the pan, and keep stirring to prevent the egg from sticking. Serve.

 

This meal turned out to be quite enjoyable. The peas however were starchy and heavy-going, so I would advise against using these, recommending instead the Basics Frozen Peas. These only come in bags of 2kg however. It's nice to see though that the eggs have lent themselves well to the slightly yellowish hue of the rice; with practice, I might be able to do this for guests.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Ham (tinned)	£0.99	200g	+£0.40	Leaner, healthier ham

Spam Carbonara

Sometimes, your kitchen will not be as well-stocked as you hope it to be, because of your commitments, so much so that you will be left with very little to make something meaningful. I encountered one such situation today when all I had left was the leftover Basics chopped pork and ham, frozen from last time, a serving of spaghetti, an egg and some spinach. Then again, the British Army, known for their resilience, have managed to make do with less for much longer.

Due to the United States' involvement in World War II and its resultant global military presence, Spam was to be found almost everywhere you go, having left its cultural mark in the post-war period in the UK, South Korea, and the Philippines, amongst other places. It is claimed that in the mean time, the Italians were supplied by American occupation troops with bacon and eggs, giving rise to Carbonara, though the veracity of that claim cannot be ascertained. If it were true however, they could have just as easily used Spam instead, and so it would have been interesting if they really did. With all that in mind, I decided to make myself some luncheon meat carbonara.

The preparation was very simple: start by frying the luncheon meat with some garlic, while the spaghetti is cooking. Throw in the spinach when the spaghetti is almost cooked, and then add the pasta. Take the pan off heat, beat an egg, and then pour it into the lot, stirring vigourously. Add Basics grated hard cheese and serve.

This was quick to prepare, and satisfying. The only drawback here would be the nutritional value, but if you are, hungry, in a hurry and caught short on kitchen stock, that would probably be the last thing on your mind. Oddly enough, this also brought to mind the Spam sketch, Monty Python's last ever comedy item, where the overwhelming presence of the word "Spam" on the cafe's menu gave rise to its use to describe Internet junk mail.

Economy Fried Instant Noodles

Economy fried bee hoon, essentially stir-fried rice vermicelli with other cheap ingredients, chiefly fried luncheon meat (known in the UK as Spam, or chopped pork and ham; luncheon meat in the UK refers to a deli cold cut) and a fried egg, was something I ate on occasion, either because it happened to be there when we were outside and stuck for breakfast options, or a quick dinner given prior to an event, provided by the event organisers. It has not been a major feature of my diet so far though. That said, when I came across this blog post I was reminded me of home, and the little things that made home so special. In the Google searches that followed, I learnt just how much luncheon meat mattered to people back home, when a government import ban triggered panic buying.

It took a while for Sainsbury's to come up with a Basics version of chopped pork and ham, but its introduction would tie in pretty nicely with the overall theme of this blog. No supermarket in the UK stocks rice vermicelli though, so to compensate I will probably cook three packs of Basics chicken flavour instant noodles. Incidentally, doing this is popular in Hong Kong, where time-poor residents can even go to cafes which serve instant noodles with luncheon meat and egg. To assuage my mother's concerns about my diet I will cook up some spinach to go with it too.

The gelatin you see on the block of pork comes from the bottom of the can. I remembered having the luncheon meat in semi-circular slices, so I did the same. Half a can of the luncheon meat would be enough for one person, according to Sainsbury's nutritional guidelines anyway. The other half could be saved for something else, like fried rice.

Pan-fry the slices until golden brown.

Cook the instant noodles while frying an egg sunny-side up.

When fried to a crisp, the Basics chopped pork and ham tastes more like bacon than the luncheon meat I'm familiar with, possibly due to differences in the meat itself. The cost breakdown of the meal is: 50p for half a can of meat; 12p for a Basics egg; 30p for 3 packs of instant noodles, and; a variable cost for vegetables depending on what you add. Replacing the instant noodles with pasta would probably lower the overall cost of eating this. Still, it's good to know that when homesick and the nearest Chinatown is inaccessible, one can still turn to Sainsbury's to be reminded of home.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Chopped Pork and Ham	£0.99/kg	200g	+£0.30	Higher meat content.

Crepes

A feature of BBC's Economy Gastronomy sees the featured family attempting to replicate something they would usually get from takeaways or eating out. The first episode had fried chicken, the second chocolate brownie biscuits, and the third, Indian curry. Typically, they save at least 50% of the money they would otherwise spend buying it ready-made.

We here at Ekonomi Gastronomi love crepes. There's an excellent creperie near where we study that has been visited by many a celebrity, and students with extra change. However, prices are expensive, anywhere between £3 to £8.50, so for today we shall demonstrate and attempt to make our own crepes.



The only problem was sourcing for ingredients. The team did not want to invest in 1.5kg of Basics flour that nobody would be using in future. So the 8p bag of pancake batter mix was a godsend. It consists of nothing more than plain flour, skimmed milk powder and a pinch of salt. All that had to be added was an egg, 250ml of water, and a tablespoon of oil, before whisking till smooth.


I decided on a savoury crepe and a sweet crepe. The sweet crepe would be honey and peanut butter, while the savoury one is ham and cheese, with added mixed herbs and black pepper.





The total cost for both crepes comes up to:
8p for the mix, 10p for 2 slices of ham, 10p for the cheese, 10p for an egg, and about 10p for both the honey and the peanut butter (although of course, the initial outlay for both jars would be much higher), bringing it to a total of 48p for the entire lunch. If memory serves, an equivalent sweet crepe costs £3.50-£4.00, while the ham and cheese crepe costs £6.50-£7.50. How's that for savings?

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Pancake Mix	£0.08	128g	+£0.26	Fewer calories. Make your own with flour, milk, salt, butter and egg.

Savoury Rice with Ham & Cheese Omelette

My flatmates have been introduced to Economy Gastronomy on BBC2 and they have been hooked on it ever since. A common feature on the show involves the presenter chefs, Paul and Allegra, working together with the family whose food budget they're helping to reduce, to produce a fancy three-course meal for the family's friends or relatives within three hours using nothing but £10 and whatever they can find in the kitchen at that point in time.

Inspired by their success, I am starting a parody series, Ekonomi Gastronomi, which will consist of a few blog posts mimicking certain parts of the show, in this case, the one I just described. However, since I'm not a celebrity chef, and I did not plan a budget, for this blog I will produce a fancy one-course meal for myself using £1 and whatever I happened to have leftover from previous posts. So the meal for today is riz aux legumes with jambon and mild cheddar in an egg casing, or put simply, mixed vegetable savoury rice and ham & cheese omelette.

This was a chance find. Have never used this before, but can imagine that this could be a nice alternative to the plain rice that we are all used to. It turned out pretty okay.. perhaps a little salty, but it was still acceptable.

The British love their sandwiches, and in most supermarkets you would find an aisle dedicated to cooked meats and other sandwich fillings. There is a fairly comprehensive range of Basics ones, including cooked chicken tikka masala, but the one that most of us coming from overseas will be familiar with is ham. This comes in two varieties, cooked ham slices, as shown below, and wafer-thin ham, which is, as its name suggests, thinner than usual, and (for me at least) gives an excuse to put more of it into your sandwich. Of the latter, there is an interesting story to tell. Its predecessor to this was the Sainsbury's Basics Wafer-thin Pork Shoulder. I bought this in my second year at university, and regretted doing so. It tasted sweet, almost sickly sweet. I don't actually remember the honey-roasted wafer-thin ham being this sweet at all. I don't remember when they took it off their shelves, but was certainly disappointed to see it gone, because it would have otherwise made for a more entertaining post.

Sadly, all we have for today is the sliced ham. I didn't really want to have 400g of ham that nobody in the house wanted to eat, and those of you living in university dorms might not have a big enough fridge to hold so many items. This ham tastes pretty alright, but does leave a slightly overwhelming aftertaste. Possibly best served with as much bread as possible to compensate said aftertaste. Try not to feed your friends with this.

Alright. prepare the savoury rice by following the instructions on the back of the bag. While it's cooking, cut up the ham and cheese into little pieces.

Heat oil in a pan. While waiting, crack two eggs, and add milk and pepper. Beat with a fork, trying to get as much air into the mixture as possible. The more air, the fluffier the omelette.

Pour the egg mixture into the pan, and wait for it to set slightly. Add the ham and cheese, and attempt to fold over. Check the rice is done, put together, and serve.



So on to the costings, just like they do it on Economy Gastronomy. I used 2 slices of ham, which works out to be 10p. Add to this the savoury rice, which is 28p, the minute amount of cheese (10p?), the two eggs (20p), and the splash of milk, and the total cost comes up to just under 70p. Hopefully this doesn't come round to bite me in the future in terms of increased medical bills.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Cooked Ham	£0.52	10 slices	+£0.48	Higher meat content, better tasting ham, choice between smoked or honey roast
Savoury Rice	£0.28	1	+£0.18	More variety, higher quality. Recommended.