Saturday evening we had sausages and mashed root veg [potatoes, carrot and swede**] I decided to serve them in one dish – arranged in a sort of tricolour target roundel. These were half a 50p bag from M&S [reduced to clear] I followed with mini trifles, made in ramekins [cherry plums from freezer, 5 floz custard and for the sponge base I used half a Sainsbury's ‘basics’ Swiss roll – which had been reduced to 10p] Total cost of meal – including the [reduced] sausages was well under £1 for the pair of us.
I haven’t hit my £30 target for food spending this month, sadly. After January’s stunning £20.10 [all those Christmas leftovers, plus desserts which were Xmas present biscuits and sweets] this month has cost £52.93. That included £4.28 for Approved Foods [my order was four times that- but I am spreading the cost over four months]
So I am very pleased with a weekly food spend of less than £12.50 for the two of us. I think my £30 was perhaps a little over-ambitious!
This apple sauce has a lovely spiced clove-y [not cloven] taste. Now the jar has been opened I have also used it for a dessert – a dish of natural yogurt, with a spoonful of sauce, plus a sprinkling of chopped nuts. Delicious!
**Where do you stand in the great swede/turnip debate? I know the Hairy Bikers have disagreements on this one.
Bob maintains that northerners call them all turnips, southerners refer to the larger ones as turnips [and only consider them fit for cattle food] but the smaller ones are swedes [and they originally came from France, but were inexplicably called ‘swedish turnips’]
When you think about it, we have a plethora of Euro-Veg - Swedish turnips, French beans, Spanish Onions, Greek Olives, Brussels Sprouts… have I forgotten any?
You've done so well with your food spending - well done! I'm a northerner and to me swedes and turnips are 2 entirely different vegetables. Turnips have a whiter flesh, whereas swedes have yellow flesh. They are shaped differently too. We grow swedes on the allotment- lovely mashed together with carrots.
ReplyDeleteI'm a northerner born and bred and Sweede and Turnip are quite different things. It isn't only in size, but in colour and taste as well.
ReplyDeleteSweede is tough to chop, has a yellow flesh and a yellow/brown/purpley skin that is quite thick. It mashes well with carrot and potato. It is generally about the size of a pudding basin.
Turnip is smallee. The skin is not as thick and is white with purple and sometimes a little green at the ends. The flesh is also white and it tends to be harder when cooked than sweede. It also has a much stronger flavour. Good in stews and caseroles.
I live in Cornwall and down here everyone refers to swedes as turnips. However, when I worked in a large supermarket, the photo guide we were given showing various vegetables confirmed what Scarlet and Carolyn have said.
ReplyDeleteWe eat a lot of swede in soups and stews. And of course, Cornish pasties contain potato, skirt of beef, onion and swede - nothing else, apart from seasoning and a knob of butter.
Kay
Well who knows what I am these days!
ReplyDeleteI grew up being taught that swedes were the large ones with slightly orange 'flesh'... we always had it mashed with butter and pepper, yum. Turnips were the small white ones (with purple tops sometimes) and would be diced and added to soups or stews, also yum.
In Scotland they are all turnips, though in Sainsbury's the labelling is 'turnip' on the little ones and 'Scottish turnip' on the swedes. So that must be the definitive answer then...;-)
I have never heard the little ones called swedes.
Your tri-colour mash looks yummy. Am very impressed at your grocery thrift... am just nearing the end of a month of living out of my freezer and about to restock from scratch so a big spend looms!
swiss chard, cos lettuce, chantenay carrots...
ReplyDeleteSwede is large and orange, turnip white with purple at the top. Here in Canada swedes (the veg not folk from Sweden) are called 'rutabagas'!
ReplyDeleteJane x
Midlanders and seed catalogues call the small ones Turnips & the big ones Swedes.
ReplyDeleteJan