Recipes for cooking on a budget

THE cost-of-living crisis has forced most people to cut down their food budget. Taiwanese-born British chef Ching-He Huang first learned to cook on a shoestring when she was just 11.

“My mum had to go away, back to Taiwan [from north London] to work, to try and make ends meet. My dad looked after us,” the 45-year-old says, who wouldn’t see her mother for six months to two years at a time. “It was tough. When I graduated at 21, she finally came back.”

Her parents had paid everything they had for the expensive visa to move from South Africa to the UK in 1989, and then a recession hit and they “pretty much lost everything”.

Without her mum, cooking and meal planning fell on a young Huang.

“My dad’s a very bad cook. To this day he can’t cook fried rice even. So my mum would teach me how to cook, then I would cook for him. Every time she’d come back, I would learn a bit more.”

Huang, who has just released her 11th cookbook, Wok For Less, all about budget Asian cooking in 30 minutes or less, says the recipes she includes “are the sorts of dishes that I made for my dad growing up”. Think chop suey, stir-fries, fried rice and clever hacks to turn leftovers into other tasty meals.

Born in Taipei, Huang’s first big influence when it came to food was her Chinese grandmother, whose farm she lived on until the age of five.

I was given to my grandparents to live in the countryside with. It’s very, very common. The norm was to be shipped off to the grandparents [while] parents are busy working in the city.

She’d watch her grandmother cook for 25 family members, “Breakfast, lunch and dinner – it was quite something”, says Huang. “My grandmother had two wood fire stoves with large woks and she would make the most amazing dishes and feed all of us. That art and that mastery, the clever use of every day; what are we going to eat? How are we going to pair this with that? I grew up seeing all of that. It influenced me a lot.

“Even though there wasn’t very much on the farm, everything was seasonal, everything was fresh, [we] used fermented ingredients like soy sauce or miso to give flavour.”

Her family emigrated to South Africa at a time when Taiwan was offering grants for residents to leave and travel for career opportunities, and Huang moved from one farm to another outside Johannesburg.

“We’d never had an avocado before, we’d never had things like biltong or yoghurt. My mum missed home and there was one Chinese supermarket in Jo’burg, a very small store, that had soy sauce, tinned abalone… I remember very vividly her getting very excited. We’d go once a week to stock up on supplies.

I think my mum was very good at feeding us on a budget, it was creativity, a mix of East and West. It was a lot of using whatever she could find, a taste of home, like just a splash of soy sauce on Friday.

But living in South Africa between the ages of five and 11, at a time of civil unrest during Apartheid wasn’t easy.

“My brother and I were the only Chinese children in the whole school,” she shares. “I did feel like being in a zoo. We stood out, I’m not going to lie.”

She made friends by sharing her food.

“I ‘broke bread’ literally with other children by giving them my packed lunches. And they gave me Nutella and these mince meat sandwiches you have in South Africa. They were curious what I was eating and I was curious what they were eating,” she says.

It’s all had a lasting impact on how she cooks now.

“Actually we could eat very well if you look at the ways we used to eat, and still eat, in Asia. Families would share meals, two fish filets would feed [a family], a spoonful each and some rice – that will give you a little protein but it’s sustainable.”

All of the recipes in the book use what she calls a ‘pared-down’ pantry. “I used £48 to buy all my store cupboard. I tested the whole recipe book and I still have so much left, it lasted months. With a little investment upfront – and I’m not saying everyone’s got to go out and buy all of them in one go – just £5 of them is just fine, and you can cook and eat well and wholesomely on a budget.”

While air fryers might be all the rage right now, she’s a traditionalist.

As long as I’ve got a cleaver, a wok and a chopping board, that’s all I need.

Plus, a wok is cost-efficient.

“Traditionally, it’s very little gas, very little oil and then the dish is done in less than five minutes.”

She’s not against using an oven entirely, which uses much more energy, of course. Her new book includes slow-cooked chilli beef brisket and soy butter roast chicken, but “be clever about it, because in an oven you’ve got three shelves right? All the little nooks and crannies – fill them up. Do some, like, duck legs on shelf one, a whole chicken [on shelf two]…” she suggests, and then use those ingredients in various meals for the next few days. Huang has recipes for chilli beef brisket noodles and chilli beef brisket baos, for example.

And all those odds and ends in the fridge? Chuck them in a wok.

“A little goes a long way.”

Even in hard times, like a cost-of living crisis, “I think we just have to remind ourselves that actually you can still eat well and cook.”

Wok For Less by Ching-He Huang is published by Kyle Books. Photography by Jamie Cho.

Sichuan Pork with Cucumber and Chilli Sauce

THIS dish is quicker than waiting for a takeaway.

In this dish, slivers of smoked bacon lardons are tossed with cucumber for a super umami-charged meal.

“You can use celery slices instead of cucumber to add a fresh, satisfying crunch,” says TV chef and cookery author Ching-He Huang.

 “This punchy, spicy, tangy, sweet dish is perfect against the backdrop of plain jasmine rice. Once of my favourite combinations ever.” 

Ingredients (Serves 1) 

1tbsp rapeseed oil

1 garlic clove, finely chopped 

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped 

50g lean smoked bacon lardons, finely diced 

1tsp Shaohsing rice wine large cucumber, deseeded and sliced into 0.5cm half-moons 

¼tsp chilli bean sauce 

1tbsp low-sodium light soy sauce 

1tsp golden syrup 

1tsp clear rice vinegar 

6–8 roasted, unsalted peanuts 

2 sprigs of fresh coriander, finely chopped 

Very small pinch of dried chilli flakes 

Cooked jasmine rice, to serve 

Method:

• 1. Heat a wok over a high heat. Add the rapeseed oil and give it a swirl.
• 2. Add the garlic and red chilli, stirring for three to four seconds.
• 3. Add the smoked bacon lardons and stir-fry for five to 10 seconds until caramelised at the edges. Season with the Shaohsing rice wine.
• 4. Add the cucumber slices, chilli bean sauce, light soy sauce, golden syrup and clear rice vinegar, and toss well for 10 seconds until the cucumber has softened but still has a slight tender bite.
• 5. Add the roasted peanuts. Transfer to a serving plate, sprinkle over the coriander and dried chilli flakes and serve with jasmine rice.

Smoked Tofu Veggie Stir-fry with Cashew Nuts

THIS is a great dish for clearing the fridge.

“It’s amazing what a little carrot, red pepper and spring onion can do! Or you can use whatever veggies you have to hand – this one is delicious and versatile,” says TV chef and cookery author Ching-He Huang.

Ingredients (Serves 1) 

1tbsp rapeseed oil 

1 garlic clove, peeled, crushed, and finely chopped 

2.5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated 

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

½ red onion, sliced

100g smoked tofu, sliced into strips 

1tsp dark soy sauce 

1 carrot, trimmed and sliced into julienne strips on the diagonal 

½ red pepper, cored, deseeded and sliced into strips 

2 spring onions, trimmed and sliced into 5cm pieces 

1tbsp Shaohsing rice wine 

1tbsp vegetarian mushroom sauce 

1tbsp low-sodium light soy sauce 

1tsp golden syrup 

1tsp toasted sesame oil 

8 whole roasted, unsalted cashew nuts, halved 

Cooked jasmine rice, to serve Black sesame seeds, to garnish 

Method:

• 1. Heat a wok over a high heat until smoking. Add the rapeseed oil and give it a swirl.
• 2. Add the garlic, ginger, red chilli and red onion and toss for a few seconds.
• 3. Add the smoked tofu and season with the dark soy sauce, then toss for a few seconds. Add the carrot, red pepper and spring onions, then season with Shaohsing rice wine.
• 4. Add the vegetarian mushroom sauce, light soy sauce and golden syrup, and toss well.
• 5. Season with the toasted sesame oil, then add the roasted cashew nuts. Sprinkle over the black sesame seeds and serve with jasmine rice.

Oyster Sauce Beef and Broccoli Chow Mein

NOTHING beats a classic beef and oyster sauce broccoli chow mein.

“The combination of juicy beef rump steak tossed in an umami oyster sauce with tender broccoli steams on chunky egg noodles, and seasoned with big hits of ground black pepper makes this an all-round winner,” says TV chef and cookery author Ching-He Huang.

“Instead of the drier versions of this classic, I’ve made it saucier to coat the delicious noodles. Enjoy!” 

Ingredients (Serves 2) 

For the beef:

180g beef rump fillet, diced 

¼tsp bicarbonate of soda 

2.5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated 

1tbsp oyster sauce 

1tbsp low-sodium light soy sauce 

2 pinches of ground white pepper 

1tbsp cornflour 

For the chow mein:

350ml water 

200g long-stem broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces 

2tbsp rapeseed oil 

200g cooked egg noodles 

Pinch of ground black pepper 

1 spring onion, trimmed and finely sliced, to garnish 

For the seasoning:

2tbsp oyster sauce 

1tbsp low-sodium light soy sauce 

200ml cold vegetable stock 2tbsp cornflour 

Method:

• 1. In a jug, add all the seasoning ingredients and stir to combine well.
• 2. In a bowl, add the beef pieces, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, oyster sauce, light soy sauce, ground white pepper and cornflour. Mix to coat well and let it marinate for 10 minutes.
• 3. Pour the measured water into a wok, then bring to the boil. Add the broccoli pieces and blanch for 30 seconds. Remove, then drain.
• 4. Reheat the wok over a high heat until smoking. Add the rapeseed oil and give it a swirl.
• 5. Add the marinated beef and let it settle for 30 seconds, then toss and stir-fry for five seconds to sear and colour the edges. For medium done, cook for another 20 seconds.
• 6. Add the sauce, bring to the boil and cook for three to four minutes until thickened enough to coat the beef.
• 7. Add the broccoli and cooked egg noodles. Toss together well, stirring everything thoroughly. Add the ground black pepper, sprinkle over the spring onion and serve immediately.

Vegan option: Add some chunky king trumpet mushrooms sliced into five centimetre batons, mushroom sauce instead of oyster sauce and wheat-flour noodles instead of egg noodles.