Forget ‘Cordon bleughh’: here’s how to eat well and save money
Hurrah for bacon and eggs, and three cheers for hotpot. The sturdy British plateful is making a welcome comeback on TV. News that Mary Berry will be the judge of a new cookery competition, with contestants challenged to serve up traditional favourites, promises an end to television’s obsession with inedible dishes, or ‘Cordon bleughh’.
It’s about time. Telly food shows have been annexed by the sort of posing snobs who do their weekly grocery shopping in a darling bijou deli run by a simply marvellous little man called Guido, who can get you this Parma ham in truffles that is to-die-for.
Every time I see celebrity chefs opening gourmet pop-up restaurants in converted windmills, or panels of self-appointed connoisseurs debating whether it’s worth paying extra for organic haggis, I get pangs of stomach ache.
But the tide is turning. Eat, Shop, Save (ITV) is an early sign of sanity returning. This straightforward advice programme is aimed at ordinary families, whose idea of a foodie treat is a Chinese takeaway on a Friday night.
Chef Dale Pinnock demonstrates easy recipes — really easy, no more time-consuming than microwaving a ready-meal.
But he’s using fresh ingredients instead of processed food, which not only works out healthier, but a whole lot cheaper, too.
Most of the tips can be summed up in a sentence: for instance, use a big knife to chop vegetables because you’re less likely to cut yourself. and never buy supermarket pizzas — you’re paying a fortune for what is really just cheese on toast.
This pithy, practical series isn’t original. Gregg Wallace has been doing much the same thing on BBC1’s Eat Well For Less.
But like a boil-in-the-bag jumbo meal of bangers and mash, Gregg’s hour-long show is full of starch and stodge. Eat, Shop, Save is a far snappier half-hour format, stripped of all those time-wasting sequences filmed by hidden cameras in shopping trolleys.
Last night, we met the Smith family in Dudley, West Midlands — two working parents, four hungry children — and saw how much money and time they could claw back by planning a weekly menu and sticking to it.
The cash they saved went towards the legal fees for buying their council house. how about that for afters?
Talking of proper food, Lola the labrador puppy had worked out how to earn an endless supply of sausage bites, in Ten Puppies And Us (BBC2). This effortlessly fun show isn’t trying to teach us anything — it just follows baby dogs as they grow.
Lola’s owner Claire was tearing out her hair, because the pup was refusing to walk. She flopped down, until in desperation Claire bribed her with sausagemeat to take a few steps.
One gulp, and Lola was flat on the grass again . . . waiting for her next juicy pay-out.
Canine behaviourist Louise Glazebrook had the answer: stop rewarding Lola for being stubborn, and only give treats once she was actually walking.
But it takes more than a dog wrangler to get a lively threeyear-old human child to behave.
The most entertaining segment of the episode focused on the well-off Vaughan family in Surrey, who had a swimming pool, a tennis court and an irrepressible little madam called Isadora.
Isadora was besotted with the family’s new spaniel, Poppy — so much so that she couldn’t wait to dress the pup in doll’s dresses and push her in a pram.
Every puppy loves attention, but full- on adoration does get exhausting. Poppy soon lost patience. If only you could train toddlers with sausagemeat.