CONNOISSEUR:Learn how to feed four people for a week on €100, with recipes from chef Derry Clarke of L'Écrivain restaurant, as part of Eat Smart Week
WHEN I WAS growing up, the question posed by my mother at breakfast was: what would we like for supper? Half asleep, we would grunt most of the time. Occasionally, one of us three children would put in a request for a favourite but, on the whole, we would leave it up to her, confident that in the evening the smell of cooking would fill the house at around 5.30pm and at 7pm we would be sitting down to a two-course feast. Pudding, my father felt, rounded off things nicely.
My mother worked, but she still cooked. Shopping locally we were – and they still are – lucky enough to have a proper greengrocer’s, butcher’s and fishmonger combined with a real delicatessen. There is now also a wine shop and a supermarket for boring essentials. Her budget was not set, but she worked on the basis that weekend eating could be more luxurious than weekday. So we ate offal a bit, inexpensive fish, mince various ways and lots of crumbles, fools and tarts.
For many of us, and certainly those working full time and outside of the home, things are not quite so easy. Unlike in mainland Europe, too many local shops close just when we are on the way home.
Next week’s Nutrition and Health Foundation Eat Smart Week asks us to look at how healthy our shopping basket is. The premise is quite simple: shop regularly, eat cheaply and well, and stay healthy. Contrast this with the reality for so many, and it can seem a big ask.
Where are the small local retailers in all of this? Mostly closed, if you are trying to shop on the way home from work is the answer. Undoubtedly this is chicken and egg land; support for local shops is important if we want to see local produce, but it is difficult if you can’t actually get in. All downturns bring their opportunities and maybe we should learn something from mainland Europe and go back to closing things down at lunchtime, so they can stay open in the evening.
Contrast this with my parent’s local shops, which are already shutting up at 5.30pm, with doors firmly closed by 6pm. I don’t blame them, they have all been open since 9am, but what is the point in this if you are sipping your first latte at your desk at 9am and turning off the photocopier at 6pm.
In Italy recently, our local delicatessen stayed open until 7.30pm. A quarter of it was given over to fresh vegetables, the counter stocked large pure-pork sausages alongside mozzarella and ricotta. Ham came several ways, and there were anchovies and tuna fish. Fresh pasta was filled with both meat and vegetables.
Cooking from a store-cupboard like this was a joy. You could think on your feet, shop instantly and be home at the stove in minutes. If you can shop every day, there is little wastage, you can incorporate leftovers and expenditure can be tightly controlled.
The Nutrition and Health Foundation gave chef Derry Clarke €100 to come up with seven dishes to feed four for a week as part of its Eat Smart Week. That is €3.57 a head per meal, which is pretty generous, if you are able to react and shop like this. Log on to www.nhfireland.ie, and you can get the recipes along with tips on healthy eating.