This has got to be the most challenging week of all. It explains my delay in posting this week. What can we eat with $1.16 - this is the change rate for 1SBD in Australian Dollar. My initial thought was not much. Prior to this challenge I’ve been to the supermarkets a number of times and my first reaction was that prices are on the rise again. So it was not until I read and re-read the terms and conditions of this week’s challenge that I decided to enter a plate. And I was nicely surprised by what we can do with 1SBD.
To be honest if we were stuck to the 1SBD and not be able to use food sourced from our garden and or use normal ingredients like salt, flour, corn meal flour or oil, then it would have been impossible for me to produce anything. As I mentioned it was a real challenge. Throughout the preparation phase I had my pocket calculator out trying to ascertain that what I was picking would actually fit the bill. Every time there is a disaster in some unfortunate part of the world there are scores of association that would raise money to help them. One of the argument put forward is how much things can be bought for $1 in these countries. Transpose this to Australia and you are unlikely to have much for that amount.
So I did some researching on the internet and interesting enough came by this article from BuzzFeed who identified 23 countries and what you can purchase for $1. The interesting part of this article is that the list is quite variable based on the part of the world you are in! The list goes something along those lines: A full breakfast including coffee in the Netherlands; a whole bottle of wine in Hungary; a frozen coke in any size in New Zealand; one box of Kraft dinner in Canada; 2 servings of nasi lemak in Malaysia; 2 kilos of bananas in Mexico; 3 ice-creams from MacDonald in the United Arabs Emirates; and 2 whole meals at a dhaba in India.
Whilst reading about this particular subject, I also got to understand that the definition of a ‘meal’ varies a lot depending on the country you are in. Food eaten and quantity of food eaten being different, each dollar spent is subsequently able to accomplish more when these different types of meals are prepared. On Sunday, I went to the butcher to look for something. I came about a really good deal. Chicken drumsticks were on special for $2.99/kg. As I also needed to do my shopping for the week I got a little over 5.5kg for my family. However I only needed 4 drumsticks which amounted to 467grams or $1.40. And that was it with my shopping as I had all the other ingredients I needed at home.
I started by looking at my spices cupboard and just thought that some of them would be ideal to marinate the chicken. I also had rosemary, lemons, spring onions, lettuce and parsley. I could use some of them for a salad whilst the rest could be used to make my polenta chips. And all of the them required some cuttings and I had just the required tool for that. Earlier in the week I received my prize from the Cook With Us Knife challenge straight from @Docsmith from Croatia. The precious kitchen tool arrived in the best conditions. It was so light and sharp that I couldn’t resist using it for this challenge. Hopefully I’ve down justice to it with this recipe.
I hope you enjoy it.
Bon appétit!
And good luck to everyone.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 chicken drumsticks
- Mixed spices (onions, paprika, garlic)
- 2 litres water
- 2 tsp Sea Salt from pantry
- 1 3/4 cups Polenta (cornmeal) from pantry.
- 1 tbsp fresh rosemary chopped roughly from the garden
- 1 tbsp dried chilli flakes from the garden
- 1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind from tree
- 3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil from pantry
- Spring onions and parsley from the garden
- Few lettuce leaves from the garden
INSTRUCTIONS
- Start by picking the relevant ingredients you may need from your garden.
- In a bowl, place the 4 chicken drumsticks and add the mixed spices and marinate overnight.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside. Heat water in a medium sized pot, and add the 2tsp of salt. Bring to a rolling boil, and then add the polenta, pouring it in a continuous stream into the boiling water. Stir it constantly and reduce the heat to low. Mix for 5-6 minutes, or until the polenta thickens and you can leave dents in the mixture.
- Remove from the heat, add 1 tbsp of the Olive Oil, rosemary, chilli and the lemon rind. Stir to combine, gently, and don't over-mix.
- Pour the polenta into the baking tray, and set aside to cool and set.
- Tip the polenta out onto a cutting board. Slice the polenta into chips (or triangles) and place onto clean baking tray. Then deep fry until ready.
- Remove the marinated from the fridge and bake in the oven for 1hr at 180˚C.
- Serve immediately after with some garden salad, using the lettuce and spring onions.
Nice entry @foodforsoul! Budgeting can make things harder but you managed it :) I have never tried polenta chips before. Might have to make them sometime!
Thank you. The polenta chips are delicious. You have the crispy feeling on the outside but pretty soft and enjoyable from the inside.
All I can say is WOW @foodforsoul - so happy you were able to use your prize knife from @docsmith - how about a blog on it - we'd love to see it in all its glory. Your budget recipe is superb as is your story and your fantastic story telling abilities - 100% for the effort in this post
Thank you @pandamama. The knife was a real asset in chopping and cutting everything around. It was good to have it. The dish was really about what I would normally enjoy eating at a low cost. And now I know I can do it.
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Thank you.
a fantastic post and a fantastic effort, congratz!
Thank you so much. It was a tough one I must admit.
The price of food in Australia is crazy but then wages are higher but with sbd at its base rate makes it a tough challenge. I'm surprised u managed it! I guess that's to your lovely garden grow!
Thank you. With spring and soon summer coming in most of the veggies are starting to come out. I’ll have to remove some and add new ones with the new season. Otherwise we’ve been lucky to have a lot of fresh vegetables from the garden.
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Look at that beautiful knife!!! Thanks for sharing photos! I'm glad you like it and, of course, you've done it justice. Its really so much fun in the kitchen when you have the right knife or the right tools!
Yes, there's so much variability on what money can buy around the world. It can be a challenge creating budget meals but am glad you did so well. After reading the entries for this week, I am even more impressed by the CwU community.
The chicken and salad look so delicious! And the polenta fries ... yummy! Who would've guessed it's a budget meal?!?
Thank you @offoodandart. Definitely not me! It has been a crazy week. And sometimes when you shopped for stuffs you just don’t realise how expensive things are and what our average meal truly cost. So in that sense this challenge was great.
I agree. I have to be more mindful of my spending habits with groceries. But I’m good at regularly checking what’s in the freezer and cleaning things out. Am not as good with cleaning out the pantry though.
Wow @foodforsoul, what an amazing meal, those polenta chips are something else!
Great to see your @docsmith knife in action, love your photos as well! Was so nice seeing you in the ocd blog, I had such a hectic day yesterday with my late post, guests checking out late and having to prepare for new ones that I clean missed your post! Simply gorgeous!
Thank you @lizelle. It was indeed very hectic trying to get everything organised and done in time. I think this must be the first time being so late. It was good contest though trying to stick to a budget. It’s been raining a lot over the last couple of days and I wasn’t sure I would get some good pics for this week. But luckily they turned out ok. Best of luck.
Very interesting to see this week what everyone was able to come up with! Having a garden is definitely a huge asset in any part of the world, especially when trying to stick within a budget. Love that you are able to start using that wonderful knife. I would happily munch on those polenta chips. :)
Thank you. The polenta chips were amazing and my husband had it for dinner and lunch the following day. The original recipe is to bake them but I thought I’ll deep fried the chips. We’ve just put Lebanese cucumber in the garden hopefully we get a good crop this summer.
I really wanted everyone to struggle a bit with this one and then come up with a creative solution. That's exactly what you did! Great dish! The chicken looks so succulent and I love the polenta fries. There is nothing better than fresh lettuce from the garden.
So glad that you have your knife now! Since it is a carbon steel blade remember to keep it dry. After each task that you complete wash it off and then dry it with a towel. These knives require a bit more care than a stainless steel blade. The link below has all the info that you need to care for the knife. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-care-for-an-opinel-carbon-steel-knife-229504
Thanks for sharing your budget meal with us!
Thank you for the link @chefsteve. Docsmith sent me a couple of links during the week that are helpful as well. The budget meal was indeed a really good challenge. If we remove the garden and pantry this is a quasi impossible challenge in the western world. Most things are so expensive that you have to really cast your brain back to the 80’s to remember what 10 or 50 cents would get you. In Poland we could literally buy 1 egg or x ml of oil if needed. Gone are these days everything is in bulk now. Thus our inability to really budget things out properly.