ramtops

Regular readers will know that I don’t much care for supermarkets, and generally patronise Aldi (or, occasionally, Lidl). However, we had to sally forth to Anlaby on Saturday for cat bikkit, and we needed some shallots. Inexplicably, shallots are unavailable in my usual emporia – not carried by the Indian and Continental, Aldi, Lidl or any of the local greengrocer’s (I meant to do that), although the latter have occasionally tried to sell me pickling onions, which are not the same thing *at all*.

And as we were in Anlaby, and needed shallots, we thought we’d do the shop in Morrisons. And I reckon I spent about 40% more than I usually do. To be fair, I’m not usually tempted by raw tiger prawns due to my usual shopping places, and I bought rhubarb and bok choi (but they were on the reduced shelf so not outrageous). And I bought two packs of mince for a ragu sauce, and two packs of frozen veg (but only a quid each), and a sourdough loaf for an outrageous £1.65, but I don’t think there was much more than that extra, and in fact we left some things till the next GermanShop. So no cold meat for luncheon, no sliced cheese (an abomination, I know, but nicely portion controlled for an elderly old bat with suspicious cholesterol levels), no butter.

Some of the increased bill was just temptation (which is another good reason not to patronise these stores), but I’m pretty sure they are quite a lot more expensive on the sort of stuff we buy every week.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

I’ve written before about our wonderful butcher, T L Norman of Princes Avenue, Hull. They’re an old fashioned butcher, and keep a lot of stuff out the back (not unlike Hilary Briss in League of Gentlemen, now I come to consider it), but of late he has installed a chill cabinet in the shop, and it is my downfall. Therein he puts all manner of things to tempt me – I go in for a dozen eggs, and come out bankrupt.

Today, I called in for a chickie! for the weekend, and some bacon – the weather looks foul, so we shall be hunkering down at home, I think. And there it was – a cut of beef I’ve never even seen before. I picked it up and Craig beamed; “I thought you’d like that”, he said. “It’s a rising rib, or known as a Jacob’s ladder”. And we did. So I bought it – rude not to, really. 3.3kg of prime beef for £18.80. It’s gone in the freezer to be cooked on my 60th birthday weekend, when the family are here.

I certainly won’t be cooking it like this, though. Absolutely not. No question whatsoever.

Pete and I were on our way back from Aldi when we stopped at the butcher. We bought a mound of veg, cold meat, dishwasher tablets and washing up liquid, cheese, cream, an apple strudel, some seedy rolls for lunch, some naan, and lord knows what else for £27 odd, and congratulated ourselves on our thrift. And then we were mugged by Normans again. Ho hum.

And now he’s tempting me with shin. *On the bone*. Ohmigod. And he’s putting aside some minced offal for me for next week, when the Piranha Sisters arrive. I tell you, a good butcher is worth his weight in rubies, but you need an overdraft …

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

I used to turn my nose up at Aldi and Lidl, but now we are poor people :), I’m a huge fan. There’s an Aldi about 10 minutes walk from home, and after a stroll round the park to see the new ducklings, we popped in for a couple of bits.

£17.38 bought:

1 pack of green beans
1 cauliflower
1 big pack of mushrooms
1 block of pate
2 packs of smoked mackerel
2 packs of oatcakes
1 pack of pastrami
1 pack of kabanos sausages
1 pack of another cold meat that I can’t quite remember
2 mozzarella
1 pack of Danish Blue cheese
1 litre of semi skimmed milk
2 tubs hummous
2 tins of pilchards (inexplicably, Pete likes these for lunch)

There might even have been more, but I don’t have the energy to go down and check; Aldi do a cracking range of continental meats and other deli type stuff – go take a look!