Thrifty breakfast fix: Tony’s breakfast waffles made with spiced rice, bacon and egg. (Photo: Tony Jackman)
My way of shopping is the French way – think about what you want to make for supper, and go out and buy only what you need for it. But not in January. In the first days of the year, I count up the money that needs to be ringfenced to get through the month, then count the days until then and divide the first number by the second to find a manageable daily budget.
But I also count “free days”. The more days within that period that don’t cost me a cent, the better February is going to be and the sooner we’ll be past Thrifty January. Having something left in the kitty at the end of January is a target worth aiming for.
To achieve this, I open the fridge and the kitchen cupboards and have a good look around. The freezer too, for those cuts of meat and whatnot that can be defrosted and turned into supper.
Start with starch. This morning I found: half a packet of arborio rice, ditto couscous, two packs of Asian noodles plus half a packet more, and, in the “pasta cupboard”, all sorts from macaroni to farfalle to fusilli and the ubiquitous spaghetti. On the kitchen table, in the vegetable basket, were onions and potatoes.
On the pantry shelf there wasn’t much. A solitary can of chopped tomatoes, a can of kidney beans and another of chickpeas. But all the flours et al were there, so pastry can be made if needed.
In the garden there are some ripe tomatoes and courgettes, and a handful of gem squash that won’t be ready just yet, so they must wait.
Those starches can be the base of a host of meals. Take the onions and risotto for example. Roast two or three onions, chop them up, and use them, with stock, to make a creamy and filling risotto.
That can of tomatoes can be turned into a pasta sauce with not much else. I invariably have bits of leftover parmesan in the fridge, and these can finish off a range of pasta dishes very happily and you don’t need much at all if you grate it finely. A little parmesan goes a very long way, so consider that when balking at the price of a wedge of it.
Check the spice stocks too. Instead of paying for fresh garlic, use up that garlic powder or salt. Check the garden for fresh herbs. Check the fridge for what’s left in jars of preserves, chutney, ketchup (yes, that can enhance a sauce too), half-used sachets of tomato paste (I also have some in the fridge), mayonnaise, mustard. Everything counts in avoiding additional spend.
I found frozen pork sausages we’d forgotten about. There’s a quick weeknight braai supper, all I need buy is rolls (or make them).
Also think ahead. When planning tonight’s supper, think about how much rice to make (say) and cook a bit too much. This brings us to this morning’s recipe, for which I used leftover spiced rice from the previous night’s supper. It was in fact New Year’s Eve and we’d had Chris and Julie Marais-du Toit over for braaied peri-peri chicken flatties with spiced rice.
I kept the leftover rice to use next morning in bacon and egg waffles. Okay, spiced-rice bacon and egg waffles. And very good they were too.
In a perfect world, I choose either back or streaky bacon. Shoulder bacon is inferior to both but is cheaper, and if you’re going to chop it up it makes no sense to spend more on a better-quality cut. So choose either shoulder bacon or bacon “bits”, though the quality of those ranges from middling to appalling. Some are randomly hacked up, others more fat than meat.
Oh, and whenever I see a discount on bacon, I take advantage and freeze them. Ditto butter.
Much more on a thrifty theme to come in the coming days, but first, have a go at these this Thrifty January.
Tony’s spiced-rice bacon and egg waffles
(Per 1 portion)
Ingredients
About 2 cups leftover spicy rice (or enough to fill your waffle iron)
2 rashers bacon, chopped, for the waffle
1 egg, beaten, for the waffle
Salt and black pepper
Cooking oil spray
To serve:
2 bacon rashers, fried, to serve
1 egg, fried sunny-side up, to serve
Butter
Salt and pepper
Method
Fry the bacon rashers. Chop up two of them.
Heat a waffle iron and spray it with cooking spray.
In a bowl, stir the bacon bits into the spicy rice and season with salt and pepper. Plop an egg on top, whisk it with a fork, then stir it into the rice.
Spoon the mixture into the heated waffle iron, shut it, and leave it to cook.
While the waffle is cooking, fry an egg in butter, sunny side up, spooning some fat over the yolk so that it is not completely raw.
Transfer the waffle to a plate, and top with the egg, and the rashers alongside. Season with salt and black pepper. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023
Order Tony’s book, foodSTUFF, here.
Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.
This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.