Cooking on a budget.

Ruby Borrowdale offers this advice in the "Golden Circle Tropical Recipe Book”

“How to save at the supermarket.

v Plan meals in advance. Then you can buy exactly what you need, and make fewer shopping trips.

v Be wise about Specials. Stock up on the Special items that you and your family really need and use. Storage space is valuable too, and you don’t want to be storing items you may never use.

v Top quality is not essential for EVERY purpose. If you plan to serve buttered beans, you want the best. If the vegetables are intended for a casserole, you can pay less.

v Take advantage of modern packaged foods. Remember that your TIME is also worth money, and there will be many occasions when minutes saved in meal preparation are minutes you can put to more profitable use. You can still enjoy cooking creatively, by giving your own personal touches to the presentation of packaged foods. Golden Circle Pineapple, Fruit Salad and Fruit Cocktail are “convenience” foods that save time on busy days, and save the day when unexpected guests arrive, because each one makes a delicious 'instant sweet'."

Budget Rice Curry

440g can of Golden Circle Sliced Pineapple, drained, 1 apple, 2 onions, 1 clove garlic, 2 tblsp butter, 500g blade steak, 2 tsp curry powder, 1 tblsp plain flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 green tomatoes, 230ml stock or water, 1 tblsp coconut, 1 tblsp lemon juice.

Melt butter in saucepan, add chopped apple, onions and garlic. Cook until lightly browned. Remove from stove and stir in plain flour and curry powder. Add liquid and return to stove, stirring until smooth and slightly thickened. Add steak cut into bite sized pieces, and simmer for a few minutes. Stir in chopped tomatoes, salt, lemon juice and coconut. Cover and simmer until meat is tender. Transfer to hot serving dish. Top with pineapple slices sprinkled with brown sugar and reheat in moderate oven. At serving-time add pyramids of freshly cooked rice garnished with parsley and pieces of red capsicum.

This curry was just like the ones flavoured with curry powder we ate in the 1960s, nothing like the curries we make today with cumin, coriander and cardamon etc, Anne.