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[Flying Dice]

How about good, easy, and still pretty cheap? I've sort of Frankenstein'd together a recipe that works out pretty well; I think I might have mentioned making it once or twice.

Here's the ingredients:

1-2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can cannellini beans (15oz or thereabouts)
1 can tuna in olive oil (5oz or so--canned in olive oil is more expensive than water, but it makes a difference to the taste)
1 tsp. rubbed sage (substitute dried, they're close enough as to make no difference)
pepper

Prepare the onion and garlic. Heat the olive oil until it's fragrant at medium-high in a medium-sized nonstick skillet (if you're using a smaller skillet, use a smaller onion and less olive oil), at most a minute or so. Dump in the onion and garlic, stir those for 4-5 minutes, until they're starting to go golden. While that's going, drain the cannellini and open (but don't drain) the tuna.

Add the cannellini and sage. Cook while stirring constantly for a further 5-6 minutes. If you're using a smaller skillet this is where things will get a bit dicey, since that's a lot of beans. Don't use a small skillet.

Add the tuna and the olive oil from the can. Cook the whole mix until the tuna is heated through and has gone light, around 2 minutes.

Transfer to a bowl, season to taste with pepper.

--

There's also the ancient standby of throwing a bunch of marinated thin-sliced beef or chicken into a skillet with onion and peppers and stir-frying until everything's cooked.

[Osmosis Jones]

Edit. Misread above question... So have some tasty cheap food instead.

Alright, new question: good, not-that-difficult food that I can make while not being constrained to a budget?

Tomato soup?

1 large/2 regular cans of crushed tomatoes ($2-3)
1 brown onion (50c ?)
4 or so cloves garlic (50c)
1 stick of celery (a bunch is like $2 at most, and you can freeze what you don't use, so maybe 20c)
1-2 tsp dry chicken stock (10c?)
1 bay leaf (<5c)
A sprig or two of rosemary/thyme/woody herb of choice (I have a bush, so I haven't bout the stuff in years, but the dried form is cheap and lasts well, so probably a few C worth)
A few tbsp of olive oil. Or canola if you wanna be cheap, but olive ain't bad bought in bulk.
Salt, pepper.

Bacon is an optional and recommended extra, but will push up the price. Similarly, smoked paprika, cumin, chilli flakes, capsicum, and the like can all make it tastier, but are not necessary.

Prices are AusD.

Fry off onion/garlic/celery (all fine diced) in olive oil. If using bacon, this too, but add the bacon fat to the oil first, cooking for 4-5 mins to render it before adding the other ingredients. Adding a pinch of salt at this stage will help draw out the liquid, letting you cook down faster.

Once onion is clear and starting to brown (maybe 5-10 mins) add tomatoes, stock, bay leaf, herbs, and about the volume of the tomatoes in water.

Heat to a gentle simmer, and cook for about an hour or so (though longer is tastier), stirring every 20mins or so. As long as you set a timer, you don't need to actually watch it.

Just before serving, hit it with a stick blender to puree it, add water/salt/pepper to taste, and serve with toasted crusty bread (I can get day old  baguettes on clearance for around $1.50).

Makes at least 4 serves, for a per meal price of <$1.50.

Further, it's adaptable. Bored of soup? Cook it for an extra hour til it thickens, and you have a killer tomato sauce for pasta. Swap the chicken stock for vegetable and it's vegan. Stir through browned beef mince and you have a poor man's ragu, or spread on pizza dough for a great pizza sauce.

Also, fresh bread is dead easy.

Mix 300g flour, 1+ tsp yeast, 1tsp salt, 1 tbsp olive oil, 200 ml of water.

Add each ingredient in order, mixing with each addition.

Put in big bowl with cling film over the top. Leave for one hour (if room is warmish, say >20 C... Colder equals longer). Knead for 5 mins by hand. Put onto buttered baking tray (YouTube will show you how to knead and shape a loaf, or you can just pour it all into a tin and call it a day).

Preheat oven to 250 C for 15 minutes, then put loaf in, drop temp to 220, and leave for 30-45 mins. Test if bread is ready (slide a butter knife in and out of the center; if cooked it will come out clean), if not 10 more mins at 180.

Done right, you will find bread can cost you <30c a loaf, and can be made at the same time as the above soup.

[Helgoland]

Has anyone here ever used poppy seeds in a non-sweet recipe?

[Yoink]

Silly Helgo, discussing heroin is against the rules of the forum!

[Flying Dice]

Never made them myself, but my primary poppy seed intake is through bagels. I can't say I've seen them in anything sweet.

[Arx]

Never made them myself, but my primary poppy seed intake is through bagels. I can't say I've seen them in anything sweet.

Never had a lemon poppy muffin?

[itisnotlogical]

On the topic of eggs, learn to make poached eggs! Really easy, and great for impressing that significant other.

1) Preheat pot of water to boiling; once boiling, turn heat down to barest simmer.
2) Put a sieve over a bowl, crack egg into sieve.
3) Let egg drain for 30s. Meanwhile, stir water in pot so that a vortex forms.
4) Lower egg gently from sieve into swirling water.
5) Without hitting the egg, gently keep the water stirring for about 1.5-2 min, until the white is set.
6) Serve on toasted crusty bread with smashed avocado plus salt and pepper.

Once you get the pattern down, you can make multiple eggs in no time at all. Best of all, serving temp is ~40 C, which coincidentally is about the temp of water from the hot tap; thus a large bowl filled with hot water will keep em at perfect temp until you're ready to plate!

Way I do it, which I feel is a bit simpler:

1) Cover bottom of pan with water, then add a tiny bit more. Heat on medium-low heat until bubbling, but not boiling.
2) Crack eggs directly into water. Cover. Don't worry, all the weird floaty bits from the whites (which I presume is why Jones uses a sieve) will separate from the good stuff on their own.
3) KEEP AN EYE ON IT BECAUSE IT WILL PROBABLY BOIL OVER AT LEAST ONCE. If you get to it quick enough, removing the lid should calm it down enough to prevent it from boiling over.
4) When the yolks are as solid/runny as you like, remove from heat. Remove a bit beforehand if you're preparing other stuff and let them sit in the pan to finish cooking the rest of the way.

Maybe this makes me Hitler or something, but I like my yolks almost totally hard.

[Flying Dice]

Never made them myself, but my primary poppy seed intake is through bagels. I can't say I've seen them in anything sweet.

Never had a lemon poppy muffin?

Yes, technically. Not exactly sweet though, especially when they're generic and stale as shit.

[Osmosis Jones]

Maybe this makes me Hitler or something, but I like my yolks almost totally hard.

You monster D:<

Poached eggs are for glorious gooey, saucy yolks. Now, BOILED eggs, sure, those should be hard, but hard-poached eggs wil get you sent to the gulags!

[Amperzand]

That's fine, poached eggs are heretical madness anyway.

[penguinofhonor]

Depends on what you do with them.

Spoiler: shakshuka (click to show/hide)

^recipe

Behold, eggs cooked in/on a tomato sauce. It's kind of poaching and kind of sunny side up. I saw a picture of this on the internet a few days ago and I had to make it. It's a Middle Eastern dish, and a very good one. I cut the recipe in half, except the tomato paste, because I like tomato paste, and also I added three cloves of garlic because garlic is great. Also I didn't see the chili powder in the recipe so I skipped that, but it worked out.

This was very good and filling, and I think it cost less than $4. I'll definitely make it again.

[Bumblebee]

I am fire.
I am death.
I made tom yum.

[Yoink]

Refried beans wrapped up in tortillas makes a delicious easy meal.
Now I just need to work out what to do with these two leftover tortillas...

[Helgoland]

I am fire.
I am death.
I made tom yum.

4/10, not a haiku at all. Maybe it's a reference I don't get... How about 'Now I am become death, maker of tom yum'?

[Blargityblarg]

I am fire.
I am death.
I made tom yum.

4/10, not a haiku at all. Maybe it's a reference I don't get... How about 'Now I am become death, maker of tom yum'?

I think it's related to something Smaug says in the Hobbit movies? Haven't seen 'em myself.

Also, see my sig for the optimal haiku.