10 tips on… eating on a shoestring

1.      No one ever starves here. As expensive as it may have become to buy food from a supermarket or to eat at a restaurant in Malta, we are still blessed with the possibility of paying a quick visit to any of the pastizzerias found in every Maltese piazza whenever we like and at a pittance. Our national street food is filling, cheap and cheerful. I believe there is also universal consensus on its deliciousness. The claim that each pastizz is worth 500 Kcal of energy is as fake as a three-euro note. You can’t live on pastizzi every day, granted, but it’s worth considering that two ricotta pastizzi (360 Kcal in total) are likely to cost less than making a sandwich at home and are possibly less fattening and more filling... And once we’re touching the subject of calorific count, pea-filled pastizzi (which are far from being true to proper Maltese tradition) are about 20% more fattening than ricotta ones.

2.     Roll up your sleeves. Less time in the kitchen has made our food bills rocket. Had I been working in an office I would undoubtedly turn into a convenience food junkie. No matter how hard foodies try to escape it – junk food is as tasty as it is practical. And children love it. Pity that we don’t think about how terribly unhealthy some preserved or fast food can be. Frozen pizza being one of my pet hates, I once challenged my 12- year-old son that I would prepare a homemade pizza faster than the time it takes for a frozen one to defrost in the microwave. Even though I lost the challenge by a minute or so (read 15) – each pizza portion cost me five times less, was far tastier and definitely healthier. Same thing applies to burgers, potato fries, chicken nuggets and the like. And let’s not even get started on popcorn.

3.     Restraint. Cooking is more about feeding others than feeding yourself. Let’s face it, hiding our satisfied looks is a hard feat when others show us even a slight degree of appreciation for what we manage to slap up onto their plates. We like to impress at times. I most definitely do. Before becoming a professional cook, my idea of impressing with home cooking was to dump in as many ingredients as possible into the pot. Admittedly, the technique may have worked whenever I needed to cover up some bad mistakes. But the real mistake was not to think about how much my pseudo-Escoffier style was coming up to in terms of food cost. Stop experimenting with 500 ingredients and keep things simple and delicious. Take a leaf out of an Italian cookbook and you’ll see what I mean. Carbonara – four ingredients. Amatriciana – five. Polpette – four ingredients. Bistecca alla Fiorentina – two ingredients. Gamberoni a crudo – one ingredient. And the list goes on.

4.     Fish. Not all fish and seafood is costly. Salmon is. Wild red snapper is. King size red prawns are. But less cliché and (arguably) tastier fish costs nothing. Parrot fish (Pappagall, ideal for grilling) – €2.00 to €3.00 per kilo. Amberjack tuna (Plamtu, ask for it filleted – take it home and just sear it) – €3.50-€4.50 per kilo. Xalpa (al cartoccio would be nice) – ask for it for free and they won’t think you’re that rude. Fresh mussels – €5.00 per kilo. Fresh sardines (eat raw with grapefruit for breakfast) – dirt cheap. The trick is to go for local, wild and common fish. Some fishmongers specialise in this kind of ware.

5.     Secondary cuts. The price of meat scares us. Beef fillet for instance, may cost about €30.00 per kilo. That’s steep. Frying a minute steak (at €5.00 a kilo) will hardly match, but stewing rump chunks (€8.00 per kilo) will surely work the magic if it’s a rich meal you’re after. Lamb rack costs a ridiculous €23.00 per kilo. Hind shanks – which can be nicely braised – cost about €6.00 per kilo. Veal T-bone? €19.00 per kilo. Veal topside (cut thinly, roll in breadcrumbs and shallow-fry in extra virgin olive oil) – €7.50 per kilo. I know it’s not the same thing, but hey.

6.     Seasonality. Veggies are cheaper when they are in season. No news there. But if you’re really after saving some euos, the trick is to exercise patience with seasonal produce – wait until it peaks. Artichokes for instance, start at €4.00 each and gradually move on to four for €1.00. Same applies to strawberries, figs, pears, broad beans and many others. Another way of exploiting the beauty of seasonal ingredients is to use them as a replacement when you follow a recipe. Strawberries could replace cherries for certain dessert recipes; peaches replace apples; grapes replace berries and so on and so forth.

7.     Preserving. Oldest trick in the book. You just need time and patience. When seasonal produce is at its cheapest – buy in bulk and make it last. I know of a five star hotel that purchases stupid amounts of beefsteak tomatoes and freezes them to eventually use for ‘fresh’ sauces when the fruit goes off-season. I would be more inclined to use natural preserves: dehydration, salt, acid, sugar or fat. We’re talking about sundried tomatoes, dried beans for bigilla, beetroots in vinegar, olives preserved in oil, strawberry jams and the like.

8.     Local produce. As obvious as it is that local produce is cheaper, many of us forgo the fact that with imported produce – transport and storage are included in the price we pay. A fresh ġbejna costs 35c. The cheapest Neapolitan buffalo mozzarella I found on supermarket shelves in Malta cost €2.00. Sure, they are two different cheeses. The ġbejna is objectively superior though, besides costing five times less. Gozo-style Caprese anyone? Local chicken is quite lovely if it reaches our shopping bags prior to it being frozen. It also turns out to be considerably cheaper than many frozen and imported (and water-injected) brands.

9.     Sauces and spices. This is for when you’re both a protein junkie and really, really broke. Ever wondered how come 50g of meat in an Indian curry could fill you up as much as a Christmas turkey? Slow-cook your meats in sauces and spice them up. You’ll get away with feeding four people using the same weight as for one person.

10.  Left-overs. OK - bread-puddings, turkey sandwiches on Boxing Day, a sauce for pasta using a left-over steak your teenage son opted not to dig into due to a bad hangover… we know the tricks. But the true joy of working with left-overs is when you economise after having planned to have left overs. This needs further explanation. You’re working on a chicken salad for lunch. You buy a breast no? No. Buy a whole chicken (far cheaper), use the breast for the salad, the carcass for a fresh stock, the wings for an evening TV snack and the thighs for a broth which you will cook tomorrow.

Beef ragù for spaghetti? Make double the amount you need. Use half for pasta tonight and the other half for lasagna tomorrow. With larger batches you end up saving both time and money.

Bon appetit!

David Darmanin is chef-owner of traditional Maltese restaurant Taverna Sugu in Vittoriosa.