• 500g ling or other white firm fish
• 2 tablespoons red curry paste
• 5 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 teaspoons splenda or equiv.
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 150g asparagus or snake beans, finely sliced
• 1.5 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1.5 tablespoons splenda
• ½ Thai chili minced
• 1 red shallot, finely sliced
• 1 small cucumber

Preheat your oven/deep fryer to 180ºC

To make the fish cakes place the fish in a food processor with the curry paste, lime leaves, fish sauce, egg and splenda. Blend until a fluffy mouse forms. Stir in the asparagus or snake beans.

Place half the mixture in a large mixing bowl. Using your hands, form the mixture into a ball and ‘slap’ it against the edge of the mixing bowl to allow the mixture to bind and incorporate air.

Divide the mixture into 4 patties and place the patties on a flat, lightly greased tray. Repeat the slapping and patty making with the remaining mixture.

Bake the patties in the oven for 20 minutes, turning them over half way through cooking. or deep fry until golden.

To make the cucumber relish.
Combine the vinegar, splenda, chilli and shallot in a bowl. Set aside. Peel the cucumber and divide into quarters lengthways. Remove the seeds and then, using a vegetable peeler, peel strips of cucumber to make ‘noodles’. Combine the cucumber with the relish ingredients and toss. Drain any excess liquid from the relish. This could be used as a dipping sauce.

Because this this recipe is for my brother Jason, who has a ready supply of rotissirie chicken I’ve modified the recipe to have chicken in it. Of course if you are vego you just skip the chicken. Massel chicken stock is still my vegetarian and non-vego convenience stock of choice.

Spicy chicken and lentil soup (serves 6-8- cost per serve $1ish)
2 tablespoon oil
2 cup red lentils
2 onion, finely chopped
3 teaspoon turmeric
3 teaspoon garam marsala
3 teaspoon ground cumin
(you could probably skip the turmeric if you were buying new spices)
1 chopped red chilli (or 1 teaspoon chilli paste)
Shredded chicken (optional, this soup was originally vego)
4 cup of chicken stock
2 potatoes, peeled and diced (optional, make the soup thicker)
coriander to garnish

Rinse and pick over the lentils for any discoloured ones.

Toast the spices in a medium sized saucepan until aromatic. Add the oil and saute the onion, chilli and chicken until the onion starts to brown. Add the lentils and stir to coat.

Add in the stock and potato and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 20 minutes with the lid half on. Serve with a garnish of coriander and a bit of fresh bread.

a splash of oil
some flour if you’ve got some
2kg of cheap stewing steak (ask the butcher for that!) or stewing Kangaroo ($10/kg)
garlic (chopped or whole cloves)
2 onions
any or all of the following: carrots, parsnips, turnips, celery all peeled and cut into equals size pieces (check the old veggie section at work, they sometimes pack these as ‘soup mix)
1 can of tomatoes
1 can/stubbie of beer (something dark such as coopers dark is best)
1 cup of beef stock or water

In a big pot heat the oil to medium. The pan is hot enough when you see the oil move a bit
Dust the meat in salt and pepper and flour if you’ve got some and brown it, handfuls at a time. Once each lot it browned remove it from the pot, until all is cooked.

Add in a bit more oil if the pot is dry and cook your onions until soft.

Throw in the rest of the veggies and garlic and turn the heat down. Pop a lid on for a few minutes until the carrots start to soften.

Splash in the booze and use a wooden spoon to scrape all the cooked on bits off the bottom of the pot. Increase the heat a bit until the liquid bubbles for a minute or two.

Throw the meat back in, along with everything else. Put the lid back on and turn down to the lowest temperature. Simmer for 2 hours. If you’ve got really cheap meat it might take longer.

If your saucepan doesn’t have any wooden or plastic bits (handles etc), pop it in the oven for the 2 hours instead at 150ºC/280ºF

Variations:
RED WINE SAUCE: Replace the beer with 1/2 glass of red wine and some tinned tomatoes.
OR
Red Curry: Don’t flour and season the meat and replace the beer and stock with coconut milk and add in some red curry paste

Note: this is part of the Cheap Eats series, aimed at arming my brother, who has just moved out of home with a few dishes to get him by. The heavy use of rotisserie chickens is because he works behind a supermarket deli counter and often gets the leftovers.

Chicken nasi-goereng (makes a mountain- easily about $1 a serve)

A good slug of oil
random cheap veggies gathered at the central markets OR 1 bag of mixed frozen stir-fry veggies (about $3)
Shredded cooked chicken from work
cooked rice (add more rice to make the meal cheaper!!)
a good slug of soy sauce (kecap manis is better but you could theoretically steal soy sauce from sushi bars and mix in a little sugar to sweeten it)
sambal oelek or chopped chilies
1 egg, beaten

Heat a wok or big frying pan to very high and add in some oil.
Chuck in the veggies and cook until done.
Throw in the rice and the chicken and chilli and stir fry for another few minutes until the rice is golden
Add the soy sauce, enough to coat the rice without making it soupy. Continue to stirfry for a few more minutes until dry.
Push the rice to one side and add the egg and fry until nearly cooked then stir into the rice.
A bit of coriander would brighten this up.

Image courtesy of http://ninecooks.typepad.com/