More Affordable Food

With the world in financial freefall, we are looking for ways to make our money go further. Try these great tips and recipes from Taste magazine editor Suzanne Dale.

Use the freezer

• Freeze spices such as fresh chillies, ginger and lemongrass – in separate bags so the flavours won’t mingle.

• Freeze leftover stock and tomato paste in sealed containers.

• Cheese freezes really well and means leftover pieces won’t dry out in the fridge before you have had the opportunity to use them.

• Freeze very ripe bananas for use in cakes and muffins or, when you have friends coming for dinner, use those bananas to make a decadent-tasting dessert, such as Winter Banana Pudding with Caramel Sauce.

• Whip up a loaf of banana bread for breakfast. Offer it to guests with a bowl of runny honey and ricotta for spreading.  And, for times when you have just bought firm bananas, delight the family with these banana fritters with caramel sauce.

• Buy fruits, such as berries, in season and free-flow freeze them for later use. Great for desserts and in baking. Try Julie Biuso’s Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes – they will be a big hit with family and friends at breakfast time.

Affordable desserts

• Make meringues or pavlova. They are little more than eggs and sugar. Here, Annabelle Voss zaps up her pavlova with chocolate and tops it with a coffee cream.

• And then there’s Lemon Delicious Pudding. Always popular, it uses few pantry ingredients.

• Bread and butter pudding is a perennial favourite that uses up stale bread. Try Allyson Gofton’s version.

Butter me up

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