Olde Timey Classic: Beef Wellington

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I based my beef Wellington off Gordon Ramsay's. His major innovation was to use a mushroom duxelle instead of a traditional pate. My innovation was to change the cut of meat from a fillet of beef which can run you up to $50, to a top rump. Incredibly, I picked up a 1.89kg slab of top rump for a measly $8, which was good as I had to feed NINE people in one sitting. I manged to feed everyone comfortably...for $8. This has to be some sort of record.

Making this thing is a little tricky, but is a sure way to please a dinner party. And the satisfaction of cutting into the pastry to reveal a perfectly rare steak inside is like the feeling a kid gets digging into a kinder egg times a thousand.

Go Get:

Top rump of Beef

400g of 'shrooms. I used a mixture of wild and chessnut purchased from the awesome Borough Street Market.

16 slices of prosciutto.

Splash of white wine.

1lb of Puff pastry.

2 Beaten eggs.

English mustard.

Flour for dusting.

The Action:

1. Be sure to trim off the excess fat on the beef using a sharp knife. Season with salt and pepper seal the beef on all sides in a frying pan with a little butter. As this is a large piece of meat, you might want to do this for 15 minutes. Turn your oven on.

2. Put your mushrooms into a blender and blend until in small chunks, not a smoothie.

3. Fry the mushrooms without using any oil or butter. Add some white wine and cook until all the water has been evaporated. This may take up to 15 mins.

4. Lay some clingfilm down on your countertop, and arrange the prosciutto slices into a sheet so each slice is overlapping. Spread your mushrooms evenly on top. Cover the beef all over with a nice coat of mustard. Roll your beef up like a cigarette and secure by twisting the ends of the clingfilm. Refrigerate for 20 mins.

5. Roll out your pastry and connect the different sheets by overlapping and pressing down with the back of a spoon. Unwrap your beef-mushroom-ham ball and place in the middle of your puff pastry. Spread the egg wash on the pastry either side of the beef and cover with pastry.

6. Score the pastry using the back of a knife and glaze using more egg wash. Season with salt and pepper and stick in the oven. It takes around 45 mins for a rare center, and 55 for medium-rare.

7. To serve, cut into inch thick slices. Be sure to use a really sharp knife or you risk making the whole thing collapse into a messy heap.

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Burger under 30: Tofu Burgers with Guacamole and Spinach

As meat prices keep rising, sometimes you're forced to use ingredients that you wouldn't normally use. Tofu isn't something I would associate with a delicious, moist burger. But as I had a block of tofu in the fridge $6 left in my bank account, I had to improvise.

This one takes less than 30 mins from the cutting board to mouth and contains a lot less fat than your typical beef burger.

Go get:

Packet of firm tofu.

A small onion.

2 Cloves of garlic.

Paprika

Worcestershire Sauce

Dried chili flakes

Soy Sauce.

Spinach.

Guacamole.

The Action:

1. Finely chop your onion and garlic and fry with a bit of oil. Season with a pich of salt and pepper as well as some generous splashes of Worcestershire sauce (that's wuss-ter-sheer to you Americans who can't pronounce all them 'fancy' words like).

2. Mash up the tofu and your cooked onions and garlic. Splash in some soy sauce as well as half a teaspoon or more of paprika and your chili flakes.

3. Combine into patties and fry until cooked through. Top burgers with a handful of spinach and and generously smear the inside of the burger bun with some guac.

Quick, easy, healthy and sophisticated- and for less than a dollar per burger.

Chef Boyardee it Aint: Squash, Spinach & Bacon Ravioli

Hello Cheapskates,

It's been a while since my last update. No, I haven't given up on the project and no, I certainly haven't stopped cooking. This week I bring you something that I haven't tried before- a Ravioli made entirely from scratch.

What's great about this recipe is that what you put inside of the ravioli is entirely up to you. I came up with this one through rustling through the vegetable crisper, and pulling some unused bacon stuck to the back of the fridge (let's be honest, we've all been there).

If you can't find Yellow Squash, you could just as easily use butternut squash. This recipe takes roughly 30 mins to make, serves 3, and costs around $2 a head.

It Took me 10 minutes to take this photo. This is not a joke.

Go Get:

1 Yellow Squash

1 Bag of Spinach

2-3 Rashers of Bacon (The ball of cheap cooking bacon available at most UK supermarkets works just fine)

2 Handfuls of grated cheese, preferably Parmesan.

4 White Mushrooms

3 Cloves of Garlic

3 Eggs

300-400g Flour

Olive Oil,

Salt & Pepper

The Action:

1. Put some water on to boil. Shred the squash using a cheese grater, finely cut the garlic and combine in a bowl. Crumble the mushrooms with your hands into rough piece mix with the squash and garlic.

2. Roughly chop the bacon and fry using a small amount of oil. After the bacon bits have started to turn crispy, throw in the garlic squash & mushroom. Fry for a further few minutes, drain the excess fat & water and put back into the bowl.

3. Roughly chop your spinach and combine with the bacon, mushroom and squash. Throw in the cheese and season the mixture with a large pinch of salt and pepper. It should look something like this:

4. Time to make the pasta sheets. If you have a blender, crack three eggs and combine with the flour in the mixing bowl. Add 3/4th tsp of salt and 1tsp of olive oil. Blend until mixed. Keep adding flour until the mixture has lost it's stickiness. If you don't have a blender, pour the flour onto a counter-top, create a well in the middle and crack your eggs into it. Get your hands dirty and mix.

5. Kneed the dough for around 8 minutes. Cut the dough-ball in half and either run it through a pasta maker (I don't have one), or roll it out using a rolling pin covered in flour.

6. Place your fillings on one of the pasta sheets 2 inches apart from each other. Take the yolk of one egg, beat it, and spread around the fillings. This will be the glue that holds the ravioli together.

7. Cover with the second sheet of pasta, and cut out the individual ravioli pieces. Press down to get out all of the air inside the ravioli and make sure to seal the sides and edges. Boil for 15 minutes and serve with a dash of olive oil and pepper.