Book Review - Tin Can Cook

Tin Can Cook by Jack Monroe seems like a great idea for a recipe book to me. For those days when you don't have time to shop for a meal or someone calls in unexpectedly to eat. Having some cans in your cupboard that can be transformed into a meal would make you feel super organised.

But does it work? Can you make acceptable meals mostly made from canned goods? Let's find out!

First up: Warm potato salad with anchovy mayo

Ingredients

100g mayo

Tinned potatoes

Tin of anchovies

1 tablespoon lemon juice

I picked this recipe because we've had a tin of anchovies in the cupboard for ages and I feel guilty for not having tried them on pizza before now. We already had lemon juice and mayo so I just had to buy some tinned potatoes.

Warm up the potatoes in a pan and then blend the remaining ingredients to make the anchovy mayo. Drain the potatoes and stir the mayo though them. I finished ours off with some parsley and pepper.

Lunch for two!

The anchovy mayo was a really strong flavour on it's own (I tried a bit as I made it) but it was different on the potatoes. Potatoes are quite plain which made the anchovy taste more mild. We really enjoyed it! It was incredibly simple and quick to put together with only a few ingredients. It ticks all my boxes. ✔️

PBJ Crumble 

Ingredients:

100g butter

100g peanut butter

1 tin cherry pie filling

100g jam

200g flour

50g sugar

Pour the cherries into a dish and try not eat all of the cherry sauce with a spoon right then. I just managed this! Dot the jam all around in the cherries. Make up the crumble topping by creaming the butter, peanut butter and sugar together and then rubbing in the flour until the mixture resembles small pebbles. Spoon this all over the dish to cover the cherries/jam. Bake in an oven at 180 C for about 30 minutes or when the crumble is browned a bit.

I only just remembered to get a picture of it. Such was my eagerness to eat it, I forgot all about it being a food for this post. It was fantastic. The best crumble I've eaten. We had it with custard and it was so good. Using tinned fruit for a quick crumble dessert is a genius idea and much more convenient than preparing fruit first. Another thumbs up!

Creamy Tomato Soup

I often make tomato soup as we like having it with grilled cheese/cheese toasties for tea. This recipe is different from my usual recipe even though I do use tinned tomatoes in mine.

Ingredients:

1 can tinned tomatoes

1 can coconut milk

1 can tinned carrots

1 vegetable stock cube

Ground black pepper

The recipe is as easy as putting everything in a pan, heating it up and then blitzing it with either an immersion blender or putting it into a blender to puree. Heat through again and serve.

It was certainly creamy from the addition of coconut milk but it also gave it an unusual smell that me and Val weren't keen on. It was a nice thick soup thanks to the addition of carrots. Overall I enjoyed it, it was warming, creamy and thick as you'd expect but it didn't have quite the same taste of tomato soup I usually have. Still, it was so quick and simple to make it'd be ideal for a quick lunch on a cold day

Conclusion

I found Tin Can Cook to be a recipe book full of ingenious and unpretentious recipes that are cheap and quick to prepare. There are lots more recipes in there that I want to try. I feel like this is the first true cheap meals cookbook I've ever read. Some of the recipes suggest rinsing baked beans because it's cheaper than buying beans such as pinto or cannellini beans. These kind of tips are so helpful to anyone struggling to afford food at anytime. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to feed their family for less money and to increase convenience too.