Poverty and injustice blights millions of lives across the world, including here in the UK. Last week I watched 'famous, rich and hungry' a two part programme about food poverty in Britain. Four 'celebrities' deprived of their money, phones and laptops and sent to live with families living in food poverty.
Lyndon B Johnson born 1908 famously said: 'when I was young poverty was so common that we didn't know it had a name.' 'Angela's ashes' a memoir by Frank McCourt about his impoverished childhood speaks of extreme poverty where his family lived in a cold, wet dilapidated house sharing one toilet with the rest of the street. The family subsisted on little more than bread and tea and each child had only one set of ragged clothes, this wasn't uncommon years ago, my own father and his eight siblings grew up living hand to mouth with newspaper stuffed in the soles of their shoes.
It's hard to conceive that food poverty exists in the modern western world given that as a nation we throw away 12 billion pounds worth of food every year. Worse still is the lack of perception, Rachel Johnson (one of the celebrities taking part) blithely suggested to a widow with two daughters who has £21 a week for food, that she take her daughters to see the cutty sark, it costs £13 per person to go on board. Rachel is the sister of the mayor of London which speaks volumes about the lack of comprehension of politicians and wealthy people with discretionary incomes.
I would be hard pushed to feed my family of three on £21 a week! However, since leaving my job I have had to cut my cloth. Saving money on food shopping is not about trading down, it's about shopping and cooking wisely. For example most supermarkets discount foods that are at their sell by dates, these will usually be found in the reduced section. I abhor the obsession we have with use by dates, a huge money making machine that has taken away our common sense regarding judging for ourselves whether food is past its best. I always go to the reduced section first and foremost when shopping, meat can be bought and frozen, vegetables can be made into casseroles or curries and frozen in portions, bread and milk can be frozen, it really is about using initiative. Likewise sourcing different supermarkets for deals, Aldi for example offer a weekly 'super 6' fruit and vegetables, which this week included 750g potatoes, 7 pack of pears, 9 pack of apples, 7 pack of oranges, 150g Asparagus, 350g Mushrooms all at 69p!
One of the families taking part were reliant on one wage, when they had literally run out of money they would go to the local chippy for takeaway fried chicken, fish and chips because the owner let them have the food 'on tick'. This was a counter productive situation, surely it would have been better to strike up a relationship with the local butcher whom would probably have come to the same arrangement, that way some cheap cuts of meat could be bought, turned into casseroles with lots of cheap vegetables or pulses.
This week I negotiated a good price on a large gammon ham with my butcher, this will last us for three meals, possibly four, the recipes of which I will share with you over the next few days. I was onced asked if it is possible to cook a gammon ham in a slow cooker, I wasn't sure so gave it a try, I did swiftly boil the ham first to remove excess salt. The ham cooked beautifully in the slow cooker, however, it didn't retain its shape, if you want to roast the ham afterwards and carve it into slices I wouldn't recommend cooking it in a slow cooker. For my purposes it worked well because I ended up with lots of soft meat to be used in various dishes.
Gammon ham
Recipe
1 2kg gammon ham joint
Ginger ale or orange juice
Place the gammon joint in a large saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil and discard the water-this gets rid of any excess salt
Heat slow cooker, pour the ginger ale or orange juice into cooker until it reaches halfway up the gammon, cover and cook on low for 6 hours
At the end of cooking time, remove the gammon, allow to cool slightly then remove the skin
I poached a clementine in with mine as the juice works well with ginger ale
For my first gammon meal I added some honey and buttered par-boiled parsnips to a roasting tray
Mix the gammon slices with the buttery parsnips and trickle some of the juice from the slow cooker over, cook in the oven for 20 minutes, basting if need be, don't let the meat dry out
I served this with potatoes in a white sauce, slicing potatoes makes them go a lot further! Sprinkle with garlic and bake
Yorkshire puddings and plenty of vegetables are a good filler, hence you need less meat
Chill and cover the reserved gammon and keep in the refrigerator until the next recipe
'The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied......but written off. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.'
-John Berger
'If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.'
-Charles Darwin
Love Donna xxxxx
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