Stew with pumpkin and carrots and served with quinoa

I walk through the isles of the supermarket and for the first time I really see how ridiculously expensive everything is. Not that I shopped blindfolded before, but we’ve always been in the somewhat luxurious position of not having to count every penny we spend. And especially when it comes to food we don’t really pay attention if something is maybe 10 cents cheaper then the brand next to it. But ever since Mona started her living leaner challenge that has all changed. I have renewed respect for the people that manage to live of a salary half that of ours and have four (or more) mouths to feed too. I feel spoiled and somewhat embarrassed for having lived so recklessly before.

It’s also coming at a perfect time for us to be looking more at our spending pattern. Tom is without a job and while he still gets paid until the end of the year, finding a job has so far not been easy. And December is historically the worst month of the year to find a job anyway so it’s not very likely that he will succeed before the end of December. That also means that as of January our income will dramatically decrease. Neither of us have never been out of a job before. Well I think I was at the age of twenty for a whole month.. but that doesn’t count. Tom doesn’t like it. Gets terribly frustrated that he can’t find anything.

And that is understandable but I think we will somehow get through this and come out stronger at the other end. I will be glad that 2011 is about to end as it has been the worst year ever with loved ones dying, holidays cancelled due to earthquakes and other reasons, Tom losing his job… lol.. you would get depressed over less. Still in the grand scheme of things I do realize that there are tons of people who scrape by on far less and are in situations I hope to never be in, so it’s all relative. And I’m a positive person so all will work out in the end!

But to come back to the topic at hand; we’re having a fun time trying to eat for under the 10 euro and sofar it’s going fine. We’ve had to make some choices which we would otherwise not have made but also some delicious meals as a result of that! This pumpkin meal is another delicious one and coming in at € 7,37 for the meal but it will feed us for two days I’m sure.

1. Butternut squash / pumpkin     € 1,75
2. Cilantro                       € 1,39
3. Canned tomatoes      € 0,28
4. lemon                           € 0,47
5. onions                          € 0,59
6. Italian sausage           € 2,89

Used out of existing supplies are all the spices and the quinoa so that would be a big dent in the budget but they do last for quite a while normally. In the photos the sausages are not appearing as they weren’t ready yet but trust me if I say they go well with this otherwise vegetarian meal. So leave them in or out (leaving them out would make this even cheaper!)

Tiramisu made with Dutch Eggnog

Last friday it was that time again; time for our Black Box challenge.. It was Tom’s turn to fill the box, my turn to cook. If you have no idea what this is all about have a look here or here for more info! I had been working at a wedding the entire day on friday so I was slightly exhausted when I came home, but ofcourse I could not wait to see what was in the box. Tom was doing the cooking on friday, so the only task I had to do was to open the box… And some interesting ingredients again! They are a bit wintery, although Tom insists that is only because of the dishes I chose to make with them, but well, maybe you have some other ideas of what I could have made but here are the ingredients! O and my cooking was done on Saturday in case you were wondering…

• Jerusalem Artichokes
• Daikon
• Dutch Eggnog (we call it Advocaat)
• Mustard
• Veal Shank
• Beech Mushrooms

Cream of Jerusalem Artichoke soup (delicious!)

Have you ever seen Jerusalem Artichokes?? I hadn’t so I was a little confused as to what weird thing I was holding in my hands and then that huge white Daikon got me a little confused too. I mean; mushrooms I can handle and/or recognize in most cases but those first two ingredients got me a little puzzled. The same actually was true of the veal shank. I could tell it was some sort of shank as it was pretty clear by looking at it, but I had never cooked with any shank before and so that was an interesting thing to handle. Despite the wintery ingredients it didn’t take me too long to figure out what to make and a little browsing on the internet always helps in making sure you know what you’re cooking with.

So what did I make? I made as a starter a Cream of Jerusalem Artichoke soup which was delicious, for a main I made Braised Veal Shanks with mushroom and daikon risotto and for dessert it was a tiramisu with eggnog.

Risotto with braised veal shanks in the background

I loved the soup and the recipe is very simple and straightforward. The taste of it was fairly neutral so perfect for a little appetizer. I was a little disappointed in the risotto. I mean; I make a lot of risotto’s as I think it’s such an easy dish to prepare but the taste of the daikon in the risotto was not the best choice. I think I should have seasoned it better overall. Definitely not a winner here. The braised vealshanks on the other hand were delicious. I braised them for a couple of hours in the oven (with carrots, onions, wine, celery and garlic), then removed them from the Dutch oven I baked them in and let the sauce reduce further to the right thickness and then added some mustard in at the end. The meat was tender and fell of the bone very easily.

The dessert was delicious. However the cookies I used as a base instead of the normal ladyfingers were macaroons (not macarons!) Or at least that seems to be the proper English translation for it. We call them bitterkoekjes… They got a little tough due to all the moisture. I will definitely be using amaretti or ladyfingers for next time but I did like the taste of the mascarpone mixture that went in it. I’ll give you the recipe below with the use of amaretti instead of macaroons.