Hero of the Hour 2022 – Crusading £1 Per Head Chef Miguel Barclay

In actually showing the British public how to actually cook a meal costing no more than £1 per head, TV chef Miguel Barclay contributes something useful whereas the likes of food bank fighters Lee Anderson MP and Jack Monroe continue just to carp

Whilst mouthy menace Jack Monroe and Tory twerp Lee Anderson MP respectively showed themselves as pugnacious, pathetic pillocks in May this year during their stupendously stupid spat over food poverty in Britain, thoughtful television chef and author Miguel Barclay has actually done something helpful and written not just one but seven books filled with £1 per head meals.

Unlike the bombastic bully and bore Monroe and the ludicrous “[people] can make a meal for about 30p a day” prat Anderson, what innovative Barclay does is to provide sensible food savings tips that are actually both practical and useful.

Amongst them are to “cook from scratch” and end up with “receipts that should read like an ingredients list and not a menu” when you leave the supermarket. “It needs to say ‘onion, tomato, garlic, and not ‘pasta sauce,’” he adds and “even things like carrot batons – you shouldn’t have the word ‘batons’ there.”

“Buy the basics” and “cook in bulk” are two of his other suggestions and today we urge readers to follow this sensible chap’s advice and learn to eat better for less… And before you forget, always look out for the ‘yellow stickers’ when in anywhere from Asda to Waitrose.

To purchase ‘Storecupboard One Pound Meals: 85 Delicious and Affordable Recipes’ via Amazon, click here. The book is the 6^th in the £1 series and a 7^th titled ‘Green One Pound Meals’ is available to pre-order by clicking here.

RECIPES BY MIGUEL BARCLAY

Featured in The Sun earlier this week, Barclay shared a number of £1 per head recipes with the paper’s Hayley Minn, amongst them:

Cheese and Potato Hotpot (pictured top right)

“I’m using cheddar here but you can totally throw in any other interesting cheeses that you have got lurking in the fridge.”

“This dish is a great template for using up other leftovers, too. Imagine adding some layers of Sunday’s roast chicken or a few slices of ham like I have here.”

To make one portion, you need:

• 2 potatoes, very thinly sliced.

• 1 onion, very thinly sliced.
• A couple of slices of cooked ham, torn into chunks.
• A big handful of cheddar cheese, grated.
• Salt and pepper.
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano.
• Olive oil.

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190C/170 fan/gas 5.
• Grab an ovenproof dish and start by adding a layer of potato slices, then onion slices and ham, then cheese, with a little salt and pepper and a pinch of oregano.
• Repeat four or five times until the dish is full to the top and finish with a layer of potatoes.
• Drizzle over a little olive oil and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the top layer is golden brown and all the potatoes are cooked.

Prawn Fried Rice

“The secret to this dish is the sesame oil, which replicates the authentic Chinese flavour that home-cooked dishes often lack. So, why not buy yourself a bottle, transform your cooking, stop ordering take-aways and save yourself a fortune?”

To make one portion, you need:

• 1 mug of water.
• ½ mug of long-grain rice.
• Sesame oil.
• Handful of cooked and peeled prawns.
• 1 egg.
• 2 spring onions, chopped.
• Soy sauce.

Method:

• In a saucepan, bring the water and rice to the boil, cover and simmer gently.
• When the rice is cooked and has absorbed all the water, tip it into a bowl and allow to cool to room temperature (or refrigerate).
• When the rice is cold, heat a wok (or large saucepan) over a high heat and add a splash of sesame oil along with the rice.
• As the rice starts to fry – keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn at the bottom – add the prawns.
• Scoop everything to one side of the pan and crack the egg into the empty side.
• Start to fry the egg and, once it is half-cooked, scramble it with a wooden spoon and mix it in with the rice.
• Add the chopped spring onions and a final splash of sesame oil.
• Then mix it all together over the heat and serve in a bowl with a splash of soy sauce.