Would be fun to, within the atomic community, have some "these are my ingredients, what would you make?" posts. Let everyone flex their mental creativity, and one person gets tasty food :)
it is 5:30 in the morning. i have had a horrible night. time to submerge myself in the simple, sincere domesticity that is Atomic Shrimp's cooking videos
There is actually a saying in Russian, "ПЕРВЫЙ БЛИН КОМОМ", which means "the first pancake is always lumpy". It's more or less the Russian equivalent of "if at first you don't succeed".
Is the word “всегда” not included in the phrase because it’s implied? Russian is a very interesting language, the verbs of motion still confound me. The dative case makes me feel stupid. Edit: I just spent a little time learning the translation of “комом” to my native English and it is definitely hard to translate accurately! I suppose “bad pancake” works, but the word “комом” can also be used to refer to the clod of dirt around the roots of a plant?! I’m still learning
@@mumfordalien1794 yes, in Russian it's understood to be a general observation, whereas in English it sounds like you're talking about a specific situation. At least that's how I felt about it anyway.
i believe the french also say " la première crêpe est pour le chien" (the first crêpe is for the dog), but i believe it can also be applied to pancakes....
I'd have never thought to make steamed buns! I'm afraid my meals would have been almost all lentils and rice, haha! I love seeing your creativity really coming into play here, culminating with your innate problem solving skills. Great series!
In a similar vein steamed pot stickers are also awesome because you can kind put whatever is in the fridge in them. As long as you have a pasta roller. Heck his stirfry would have probably been great in them.
@@KingOfKYA If you learn to make lumpia wrappers (youtube "lumpia roll wrappers" for the brush-painting and for the oiled stack rolling techniques), you don't even need a pasta roller, and you can use normal flour instead of rice flour. Though some people add boiled rice to the mixture, to get a more transparent wrapper.
Here I am, having abandoned sour dough starters after my third attempt reading all the tips online, while you just got ahead and created a starter with baking powder in the flour, after three days no less... you must have a golden hand for cooking! I know the starter wasn't potent enough to make bread with, but that it worked at all is a miracle to me lol. As always very inspirational, I have no idea how you find those pesky comments you show sometimes, they must be like finding a needle in a haystack
I tried making a starter about a decade ago and it ended up turning into some horrid, disgusting, no good very bad beer. I shouldn’t even call it beer, that would be an insult to beer.
If you try again, and you use tap water. It probably have chlorine in it. Just leave an open jar of tap water on the counter overnight, and the chlorine just evaporates. Much better for plants too, and tastes much better for drinking.
The easiest and fastest sourdough starter I've found, is 1 TBS whole wheat flour and double that of water. I think the wheatgerm has the nutrients that the wild yeast needs to get going. The extra water seems to help a lot too. Feed it once or twice before you start using it and once it's established it'll live quite happily in the fridge.
I've done it in the past. general tips, use boiled water for the initial "start" and first couple feedings. use some of the less processed flour. feed daily and once it starts going you can just maintain it once a week by keeping it in the fridge
I genuinely like you. You always seem so self reflective and curious, eventhough a five pound challenge seems pretty hard, even for students or at the end the month.
Fascinating, watching you from Queensland, Australia and assuming that Marmite is Vegemite? Your recipes are really good for using up leftovers and I love your flatbread, steamed bun and pastry recipes.
I'm a lazy cook, so for me it would be soup, stew, pancakes and porridge (we have oats, maize and sorghum to choose from). I'm glad to see you use curry, which can add flavour to most ingredients.
@@sheilagrainger Sheila I am so jealous of your Vegemite; since the pandemic and Brexit, I can’t find it anywhere in England, and although I like Marmite, I LOVE Vegemite! :)
Ive been substituting bananas for eggs for over 20 years. I'll share these observations: 1. Bananas do make excellent substitutes for eggs. 2. A volume to volume exchange works well for most every recipe. 3. Ripe bananas will make most every dish taste like bananas. Less than ripe bananas will provide excellent results but produce far less banana taste. 4. Less than ripe bananas contain a starch that tends to pass through the digestive system with minimal absorption... i.e., lower calorie uptake as these act more like fiber than starch. 5. If you mix/mash/puree your banana then allow it a few minutes to rest, the pectin chains will become longer and provide breads and cakes a slightly more chewier texture - very similar to a high-glutine wheat flour. Love this series!
I know that it has been years, but I really want to ask a weird/stupid question. How did you learn this, are you a vegan/allergic to eggs "so you would obviously need a substitute". Or was this maybe a trick passed on by your parents/grandparents "grandmas and grandpas always have some of the best recipies and cooking skills"
I must say Mike your approach to cooking is admirable. I have been a professional cook for 40 years and I just love how you think about your ingredients and the techniques you use to make the best of them. Fantastic stuff 🙏🏾
What you made for breakfast is actually similar to an Indian breakfast dish - Dosa. Additionally, the blended rice batter is left to ferment for a while, so it has a slight sour taste.
With an excess of carrots, you could do something like the onion "soup" and make a carrot stock for sweetening things. Grate carrot, boil, blend, simmer, strain, reduce.
Growing up we were so far down the prosperity scale that I thought ramen was a fancy side dish when we had it a few times a month. So many of your dishes remind me of sitting in the kitchen trying to come up with things I could make for myself after school just with the meager pickings in the pantry. You're far better than I was as a teenager, but I've improved a ton myself over the years, and I've always enjoyed the challenge.
For breakfast, You could also make 'neer dosa' (it looks like a crepe) with rice. It's very simple it just uses rice, salt and water. I love your budget challenge series.
You can make carnitas with the banana peels. Shred them and use them as pulled pork. It's quite a common thing in South america. I've made it. Tastes good but requires herbs and spices which you probably wouldn't use in your challenges
I'm loving this series sir! Reminded me of when my wife used de-breaded chicken strips for steamed buns, and I didn't even notice! Resourcefulness should be encouraged!
You’ve given me a Eureka moment on making rice milk!, I can’t have normal milk or oat milk but I always have uncooked rice . I’d never considered making it myself. This was a brilliant video. You’ve done a fantastic job. Thank you.😊
Such a good series, I really wish I'd been able to watch these back in ''88 when I was a poor student living on my own. Certainly better than starving for 3 days before buying a hambuger with the lot!
I'd love to see you do a 7 days with 10£ challenge with slightly less restriction. Maybe 10 random draws from the seasoning cabinet, plus salt, water, and "city foraged" items like condiment sachets and stuff (as not all of us have access to or knowledge of safe "natural" foraging). You do so much with so little, it would be fun to see you work with a slightly less strict setup
Parma violets, now there's something I have not heard of for a couple of decades ! I think I tried one just once and spat it out but never forgot the flavour ! I have no idea how people could enjoy them ! I do find it fascinating how some people love a certain flavour and others despise it, I also wonder about how you can develop a taste for something over time that initially tastes awful and even grow to dislike things that you used to enjoy ! Taste is weird !
You can force the pan to heat evenly (uneven heat is what ruins the first pancake) by taking it off the hob and cooling it a bit on a damp kitchen towel (folded a few times to keep the heat from transferring). I put the towel on the counter and place the pan bottom on the towel, moving around a bit. When you reheat the pan to temperature, it will give you perfect evenness on the first try!
Thank you for providing your own expertise and skills to help us see what is possible with simple food ingredients. Please, don't fall prey to the UA-cam algorithm of making money. You provide a useful service to all human beings and, in fact, to all living creatures. Thank you for living your life as a responsible person and for sharing your information to other. I understand your agenda and I applaud your efforts greatly. Thank you for all that you do and all that you are, sir.
I just wanted to mention that I find your voice incredibly soothing. I find putting your videos on when I'm feeling anxious helps me to calm down. So thanks for the content and good luck with the rest of your challenge!
Been watching your channel for quite a long time. I can't recall how many subscribers you had back when I first came here, and really hadn't kept an eye on that until today...I was completely shocked to see how much this channel has grown! There are so many people who watch and appreciate your work. Bravo, sir! 😇
So creative lol. I’ve never seen pancakes made like that. And I actually clicked on the video because the stuffed bun thing in the thumbnail looked so delicious. That was awesome, you’re awesome, man. Subbed!
I'm just running through this series today, greatly enjoyed. I'd love to see a limited-prep-time version! Or perhaps a version where one meal a day is a 'picnic meal' (ie is prepped in advance and not cooked before eating) or an 'office meal' (ie prepped in advance and you only have access to a microwave and kettle if you want to heat to eat). That could be interesting.
I love that you take a moment to observe the little plaques on the bench. I don't know if I would have thought to do that if it were me but it's so thoughtful to the people who's memories they are honoring.
Hey Atomic Shrimp i just wanna say that you are amazing for thinking and making all of this for only £5 there is so many times that i have to remind myself that most of the stuff here are made with those £5 (not including the spices and stuff you gave yourself on day one. and the salt ofc). Subscribing to you a few years ago was very worth it. Tnx for entertaining us with all of this !
I'm normally a very picky eater, and I have no idea about cooking or foraging, but seeing you make all this food and talk about it makes me hungry. Also, I know this may be a bit of a weird compliment, but you seem like you'd be a great father!
Out of curiosity, have you thought of trying to make fresh pasta? I've watched several documentaries that say the poor italians never used to use egg to make pasta, just flour, salt and water. It might be a nice texture change from the pancakes / buns / flatbreads. Love your content whatever you decide to do. Cheers from Oz.
The (admittedly few) times I made fresh pasta, I always just used water and flour. Whenever I buy pasta with egg in it, it proudly says so on the package, so my guess is it's normally not in there by default.
Over here almost all pasta you can buy at the supermarket is without egg. Pasta without egg us normal. Pasta with egg is special pasta and it says so on the label.
I'm loving this series. It's very enthralling and entertaining. Come for the scam baiting, stay for the stuff in a can, and very interesting challenges.
the steamed buns looked delicious! but I think if you wanted even more flavour, you could've pan fried them! they are called 生煎包, and the crispy caramelised bottom you get from them would've absolutely elevated the flavours to another level!
Looks awesome,lots of ideas as to how use the ingredients to their best. I never would thought to make the sour dough like that and look how good it ended being! A time restricted challenge would be nice in a future. My excuse is always time,but in reality it's mostly luck of motivation so I cook myself the simplest meal I can think of, better if in one pan so I don't have to clean a lot after. Would be nice to see what you can do with little time to spare.
With the ingredients you had, I thought we'd see dumplings at some point - I suppose those steamed buns were close. Not a thing I've ever had a go at, but I might give them a try as they looked really nice.
Fun videos, but also pretty depressing how cheap food is in the UK, or more like how not-as-cheap it is elsewhere. You sure can't get much with the equivalent of £5 over here.
Just wanted to say how much me, my best friend and my husband love your videos. We sit down whenever we are all together and watch your videos. Keep up the good work! ✌🏻
It's such a treat to have daily videos like this! Hopefully your marathon of work doesn't sour your attitude on them, as they're my favorite content from you.
Surprised I've not seen it suggested already but there's the beginnings of a new series here "Weird stuff in a pan" where you put ingredients into a random generator or on paper and put them in the jar shake it up and you try to make a serviceable meal from it.
My Mother makes a banana peel chutney for which you boil the peels and then puree them along with garlic,fresh chilies and roasted cumin.It's very savoury and thick. It's quite different from what British people consider chutneys,but chutneys has a much wider variety in India.
Very interesting to see how so many of these meals built upon the days previous. Sets this challenge apart from all the others. I hope you explore that limited time budget idea or some other way to purpetuate the long term / rolling kitchen idea as I find that pretty fascinating.
Those lovely stir fry dishes are crying out for some sugar, vinegar, garlic, and marmite. But that's an Asian thing. I learned frugal cooking from observing the ingredients in Asian dishes, and in Indian dishes. The fun part is when you use the apple peelings to make apple cider vinegar. My British best friend and I once did a NO SPEND-NO PANTRY challenge for 30 days. We literally begged for salt, sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce. Our favorite Asian restaurant owner gave us scallions and cabbage, too. He told us to regrow them from the bottoms. The wild animal butcher gave us a barrel of deer bones, and the Amish store gave us bags of "off" onions and potatoes. My sister gave me her cast offs from a commodities box--ubiquitous in US senior housing. It was amazing what we came up with. Roasted deer bones over a fire, made bone stock, and there was a lot of deer soup and stir fry going on. I cheated because it was still foraging season and I'm Native American. I learned all the lore. We had a great time with our thought experiment, but to do it without privilege is not really an option. It was done to demontrate that "waste" food is nutritious and edible. I collected fat from roasting the deer bones. My friend didn't do that. Big nutritional mistake. You must use all the healthy fat available to you to help your body use nutrients. Rabbit starvation is a real thing--not enough fat!
Since you said it's too much work to do such a long series again, you could record it in one week, and then edit it in the following weeks while spacing it out. You might or might not publish it in quick succession, and you might or might not use what you bought in the same week (since a fridge and a freezer could make whatever you bought last much longer). For example, you could work on filming a 10-day series for 2-3 months, just cooking and editing in-between other videos, and then drop all the videos at once. But I understand if you don't want to do it. I just came up with a way to stretch out the work to make it more manageable, since you said in the Day-2 video how much hours of work it took to get this series done. _(For those who read this without context, it took 100 hours of work to buy the foods, cook and record the cooking, then edit everything.)_
Love your videos, we are just getting over covid so have been binge watching them, the ones where you go out walking with the ration packs are great! Also with the chickpeas you use if you whisk the juice from the tin you can make meringues.
These Challenge videos are amazing. Your imagination and ability to really improvise is great and gives good money saving inspiration which could also really cut food waste Thanks for making these
Actually in some countries it's quite common to eat banana peel, the way i've heard it prepared is to cover them in boiling salted water and to leave them until the water goes cold, and then run a fork down them to turn them into "noodles", the texture is often compared to something like pulled pork but i've most commonly seen it in things like curries
funny. Though I was personally looking forward to seeing what Mike was going to do with banana peels. It's exactly that kind of odd yet informative stuff that draws me to his videos. Slightly disappointed he binned the idea.
These challenges are some of the most enjoyable videos of yours, because it is simply so exciting what you come up with. I also love your other videos, but these stand out in particular!
@@swanningabout How... Sounds ridiculous! I must spend around 0.8-1.2€ per meal. Granted, I live in a 2nd world country, maybe that has something to do with our food prices.
I would say £1 per serving (at least for main meals) seems to be regarded as good value, though of course a lot of people have to do it for less. It's easy to spend £5/head if you're eating things like steak, good quality fish, organic vegetables, etc.
@@CoolGuy-sd5un Prices are really not comparable going by exchange rates. Where I live I'd be lucky to get that veggie box he got for the whole budget of this challenge. But I DO live in one of the most notoriously pricey countries in the world.
Steamed buns with sausage. Amazing results all things considered. Well done! Lovely bit of the UK you live in too. Looking forward to the next episode.
Interesting to see the memorial benches. Most, if not all, the benches in the Botanic Gardens in my neck of the woods (Christchurch, New Zealand) are similarly dedicated.
Hi there! I love these ultra tight budget food videos you make and I've noticed you can be really creative with food and I was wondering if you'd consider making a different series where you make a good meal for a family for a (comparatively) low budget I'd like to see what you could come up with
I enjoyed it when you added the extra bit of water to the pancake batter and it sounded like you said "that's batter". I hope that was intentional. Really great series by the way, your creativity knows no bounds!
We cook a similar dough here in Brazil in a waffle grill. We never eat banana peels unless we are certain that they are organic, because they can contain lots of chemical pesticides. They can be chopped and cooked inside cakes just like raisins (when yellow).
I'm currently restricting calories to lose a few kilos before the start of what will a very stressful project in summer (during which I'll gain everything back to be sure - the idea is to just not end up heavier than what I'm comfortable with in the end) and watching you eat that mountain of rice and split peas made me laugh - makes me genuinely happy to see you succeed in cooking a lovely, ample meal during these challenges! well done! I'll join in come september ;)
Hrmm, another way to make a flavorful gravy/sauce could have been to cook a few of those sausages outside their skins in a good cast-iron pan-and cook 'em good. Build up a pile of fond in the pan, maybe cook with some onion too, then add some water to deglaze and some flour in it to thicken. Toss it in a spare sauce container (one for thicker substances, so a mayo or tomato paste squeeze bottle would be good) and use it liberally.
Banana peels make a great 'bacon'...scrape white off and discard & marinate in a little maple syrup, soya sauce, garlic and pepper.. fry. More delicious than you'd think. Love your videos!!!
I’m officially an Atomic Shrimp fan after watching these budget challenges. Great fun to watch and so interesting to see the creative ways you can eek out a fiver. Thanks and keep the great content coming 👍
Regarding green supermarket bananas: I believe the supermarkets tend to store and transport the bananas in excessively cold conditions, and this renders the bananas unable to ripen normally. It seems to be a similar situation with supermarket avocados. In each case, you buy the fruit unripe, and by the time the fruit should have ripened it fails to ripen and just goes off instead. Very annoying and I wish the supermarkets would store these things properly for the benefit of consumers, not for the benefit of their bottom-line.
All bananas are stored refrigerated from the time they're cut, through transport in special containers and in warehouses until they're about to be sold. They're just then put in special rooms with the right heat and ethylene gas for a few days to properly ripen. The supermarkets where you buy them seem to have a bad supplier.
What's it like though? I have seen lots of people make some kind of vegan bacon from it, and only one person said it was palatable. I'm vegan anyway, and fairly open minded, I'm just a bit iffy about it because of reactions I've seen. But maybe it works fine in a curry. 😄
I would love to see this challenge again, but with the inclusion of allowing urban foraging. I would like to see the creativity branch out into making sauces for dishes using those pesky little packets and dipping cups.
re teaspoons in little spice jars. I bought narrow measuring spoons from Lakeland for that reason. Thank you for doing this, I'm finding it a real encouragement.
Fun fact, the bit that goes most visibly 'brown' when cooking is sugar. That's why garlic browns quicker than onion, a higher sugar content. So your pancakes had such a tiny amount of sugar in (only the underripe banana) so there was nothing to go brown. If the banana was more ripe it would have had a far higher sugar content.
Absolutely love your budget meal challenges and was so happy to find out a new one was going on! Please don't hesitate in making more of these! So inspirational, entertaining and it also really makes me a more creative cook thanks to you! :) All the best from Norway! :D
This has been fun and inspiring. I am known to be able to make a meal out of anything and I used to forage quite a bit (0ld bones and a a shriveled up bod make that far less fun.. . . ).. The dinner stir fry was calling out for some of those flappy little mushrooms from earlier in a this challenge but I totally salute you for what magic you put into this challenge! I suspect in some cases of people commenting that they learned so much and will now try to employ some of the strategies you used reveal that they have always been a little doubtful to "cook outside the box" (yet get away from shopping for instant mixes, etc). And heads up you future cooking experiments folks out there: The internet is crammed full of videos and instructions from other foragers that can give you info on your particular geographic regions. Your nutritional values will doubtless improve, too. And absolutely try to learn from people from other countries. I just learned that at least in some parts of China they cook radish leaves. And those banana and plantain peels apparently make very tasty bases for a plateful of hearty hot dishes! And, I don't know the global distribution of cat tails but that plant is a gold mine for lovely, delicate flavors when harvesting in the early summers in my region of the NW corner of the Lower 48 US. In summer my partner used to call my series of favorite locations for old gnarly abandoned fruit orchards, big berry patches, lovely mounds of nettles, etc., my "trap line". I miss that all now, I realize . . . Thank you Atomic Shrimp for making me very content this afternoon. Give Eva a little pat and a double handshake from me!
Those buns look delicious! They are a fave in our house. As well as pot stickers which you could have also made instead with your stir fry filling. Lovely with fried rice.
Welcome to todays episode of 'Weird Stuff on a Plate'! 🤣 J/k ofc., those steamed buns type of things looked very nice! Seemed like the best dish so far, although i'm quite the pancake fan t.b.h. - Wasn't sugar in the budget? A little caramalized sugar at the very end, maybe tossing the whole lot back in the pan, coated with sugar to crisp and taste them up? So far, at least quite a few decent meals on this tiny budget! Looks like you'll have some leftovers too come tomorow ^.^
Probably too late now, but toasting the top of those steamed buns could be worth a try to make them a little different. A way 'ripen' hard bananas is squash (roll them) an hour or so before you need/eat them.
During your (possible) time-budget challenge attempt, will you include cleaning time in the calculations?i think it might be interesting since it might cause you to think and improvise about the number of dishes/utensils that are used
The creativity in these videos never fails to impress me as a broke student who lacks ideas for meals lol
Basically the main reason I watch these videos too
Love em
Just need the time budget challenge video now and you'll be away
@@y2keef Time budget would be perfect! The meals in these are inspiring but time is something that isn't in great abundance for someone like me :p
@@y2keef 5 meals in 5 min
Would be fun to, within the atomic community, have some "these are my ingredients, what would you make?" posts. Let everyone flex their mental creativity, and one person gets tasty food :)
it is 5:30 in the morning. i have had a horrible night. time to submerge myself in the simple, sincere domesticity that is Atomic Shrimp's cooking videos
I hope today brings better things for you
There is actually a saying in Russian, "ПЕРВЫЙ БЛИН КОМОМ", which means "the first pancake is always lumpy". It's more or less the Russian equivalent of "if at first you don't succeed".
There's also a saying "Children are like pancakes. You'll always screw up the first one."
And in India, “The first pancake for the dog, the last for the cow” or the other way round.
Is the word “всегда” not included in the phrase because it’s implied?
Russian is a very interesting language, the verbs of motion still confound me.
The dative case makes me feel stupid.
Edit: I just spent a little time learning the translation of “комом” to my native English and it is definitely hard to translate accurately! I suppose “bad pancake” works, but the word “комом” can also be used to refer to the clod of dirt around the roots of a plant?!
I’m still learning
@@mumfordalien1794 yes, in Russian it's understood to be a general observation, whereas in English it sounds like you're talking about a specific situation. At least that's how I felt about it anyway.
i believe the french also say " la première crêpe est pour le chien" (the first crêpe is for the dog), but i believe it can also be applied to pancakes....
I'd have never thought to make steamed buns! I'm afraid my meals would have been almost all lentils and rice, haha! I love seeing your creativity really coming into play here, culminating with your innate problem solving skills. Great series!
In a similar vein steamed pot stickers are also awesome because you can kind put whatever is in the fridge in them. As long as you have a pasta roller. Heck his stirfry would have probably been great in them.
@@KingOfKYA If you learn to make lumpia wrappers (youtube "lumpia roll wrappers" for the brush-painting and for the oiled stack rolling techniques), you don't even need a pasta roller, and you can use normal flour instead of rice flour. Though some people add boiled rice to the mixture, to get a more transparent wrapper.
I love steamed buns. Make them all the time.
Same here!
Steamed hams
Here I am, having abandoned sour dough starters after my third attempt reading all the tips online, while you just got ahead and created a starter with baking powder in the flour, after three days no less... you must have a golden hand for cooking! I know the starter wasn't potent enough to make bread with, but that it worked at all is a miracle to me lol. As always very inspirational, I have no idea how you find those pesky comments you show sometimes, they must be like finding a needle in a haystack
I tried making a starter about a decade ago and it ended up turning into some horrid, disgusting, no good very bad beer.
I shouldn’t even call it beer, that would be an insult to beer.
If you try again, and you use tap water. It probably have chlorine in it. Just leave an open jar of tap water on the counter overnight, and the chlorine just evaporates.
Much better for plants too, and tastes much better for drinking.
The easiest and fastest sourdough starter I've found, is 1 TBS whole wheat flour and double that of water. I think the wheatgerm has the nutrients that the wild yeast needs to get going. The extra water seems to help a lot too. Feed it once or twice before you start using it and once it's established it'll live quite happily in the fridge.
Is your self-raising flour bleached?
I've done it in the past. general tips, use boiled water for the initial "start" and first couple feedings. use some of the less processed flour. feed daily and once it starts going you can just maintain it once a week by keeping it in the fridge
Mike, are you planning on treating yourself to one of your favourite meals after day 5? I know I would be after this interesting little challenge
I genuinely like you. You always seem so self reflective and curious, eventhough a five pound challenge seems pretty hard, even for students or at the end the month.
Fascinating, watching you from Queensland, Australia and assuming that Marmite is Vegemite? Your recipes are really good for using up leftovers and I love your flatbread, steamed bun and pastry recipes.
I'm a lazy cook, so for me it would be soup, stew, pancakes and porridge (we have oats, maize and sorghum to choose from). I'm glad to see you use curry, which can add flavour to most ingredients.
@@sheilagrainger I mean Vegemite is yeast extract right. If yes then Marmite is the same thing
@@sheilagrainger Sheila I am so jealous of your Vegemite; since the pandemic and Brexit, I can’t find it anywhere in England, and although I like Marmite, I LOVE Vegemite! :)
Ive been substituting bananas for eggs for over 20 years. I'll share these observations:
1. Bananas do make excellent substitutes for eggs.
2. A volume to volume exchange works well for most every recipe.
3. Ripe bananas will make most every dish taste like bananas.
Less than ripe bananas will provide excellent results but produce far less banana taste.
4. Less than ripe bananas contain a starch that tends to pass through the digestive system with minimal absorption... i.e., lower calorie uptake as these act more like fiber than starch.
5. If you mix/mash/puree your banana then allow it a few minutes to rest, the pectin chains will become longer and provide breads and cakes a slightly more chewier texture - very similar to a high-glutine wheat flour.
Love this series!
I know that it has been years, but I really want to ask a weird/stupid question. How did you learn this, are you a vegan/allergic to eggs "so you would obviously need a substitute". Or was this maybe a trick passed on by your parents/grandparents "grandmas and grandpas always have some of the best recipies and cooking skills"
@@CatLover-lk9gz22 years could mean it’s a lifelong condition to be fair that’s quite a long time.
When steaming, use the stuff you saved for stock. You can get the stock made at the same time & the flavor also gets into the buns/dumplings.
I love that.
Brilliant!
That's a great tip :)
Seeing you using a Turkish yogurt pot for your steamed buns made my day! Plastic yogurt containers are really the tupperware of the enlightened.
These wide round containers are perfect for packing a nice lunch without anything getting crushed or mixed up
They can be a substitute for everything if you are creative enough
I must say Mike your approach to cooking is admirable. I have been a professional cook for 40 years and I just love how you think about your ingredients and the techniques you use to make the best of them. Fantastic stuff 🙏🏾
My mom taught me they were ready to flip when there are bubbles that burst around the edges, but they don't seal up again.
Works perfectly.
my grandma taught me that!
What you made for breakfast is actually similar to an Indian breakfast dish - Dosa. Additionally, the blended rice batter is left to ferment for a while, so it has a slight sour taste.
Oh really interesting. I have to look into that
Love a dosa, there is/was a really good cafe by Oxford train station that did delicious ones.
More like kadali chakuli(type of banana chilla). Cause dosa has lentil in it
@@suvamkumarsarangi6593 just what I was going to say!
Idea: use carrot juice as a sweetener. It might improve dishes which otherwise rely on sugar.
Or just add carrot pieces. No need to overcomplicate stuff. Carrots gives plenty of sweetness as itself.
@@beargrylls6135 You may not want the carrot's texture, though.
With an excess of carrots, you could do something like the onion "soup" and make a carrot stock for sweetening things. Grate carrot, boil, blend, simmer, strain, reduce.
If ever I find myself in poverty or the apocalypse you're the kind of guy I want on my team.
wow.. you really struck gold with that veg box and you've been so creative with these meals - you've inspired me to try and make steamed buns! genius!
Growing up we were so far down the prosperity scale that I thought ramen was a fancy side dish when we had it a few times a month. So many of your dishes remind me of sitting in the kitchen trying to come up with things I could make for myself after school just with the meager pickings in the pantry. You're far better than I was as a teenager, but I've improved a ton myself over the years, and I've always enjoyed the challenge.
For breakfast, You could also make 'neer dosa' (it looks like a crepe) with rice. It's very simple it just uses rice, salt and water. I love your budget challenge series.
That's good idea I will try
We also make Maida(flour) dosa. It’s just the same recipe except we use flour instead of rice.
You can make carnitas with the banana peels. Shred them and use them as pulled pork. It's quite a common thing in South america. I've made it. Tastes good but requires herbs and spices which you probably wouldn't use in your challenges
What a neat idea! I think I might try this. Thank you for sharing
If you do that ever again try to fit a bag of oats into your basket, 50g oats and one liter of water in a blender make a fine milk substitute.
I'm loving this series sir! Reminded me of when my wife used de-breaded chicken strips for steamed buns, and I didn't even notice! Resourcefulness should be encouraged!
Haha lol
You’ve given me a Eureka moment on making rice milk!, I can’t have normal milk or oat milk but I always have uncooked rice . I’d never considered making it myself. This was a brilliant video. You’ve done a fantastic job. Thank you.😊
You can also use nuts
Remember to cook your rice first! You could try tiger nut milk, like Spanish horchata if you can’t have nuts.
The best way to ripen a banana is in the sun, so we put ours on the windowsill. Love your videos, you are a skilled and knowledgeable chef, well done!
What is this "Sun" of which you speak? 🤣
Not seen in the U.K. recently for sure. Brrrrr.
Such a good series, I really wish I'd been able to watch these back in ''88 when I was a poor student living on my own. Certainly better than starving for 3 days before buying a hambuger with the lot!
I'd love to see you do a 7 days with 10£ challenge with slightly less restriction. Maybe 10 random draws from the seasoning cabinet, plus salt, water, and "city foraged" items like condiment sachets and stuff (as not all of us have access to or knowledge of safe "natural" foraging). You do so much with so little, it would be fun to see you work with a slightly less strict setup
Yep, with unlimited oil, butter, herbs etc. Plus eggs and milk, so £10 for the main ingredients.
It’s amazing what he’s been able to do for just £5
Bramble buds always reminded me of herbal palma violets. It's that fruity perfumey flavour, but honestly really good. Better than the sweets for sure.
Parma violets, now there's something I have not heard of for a couple of decades !
I think I tried one just once and spat it out but never forgot the flavour ! I have no idea how people could enjoy them !
I do find it fascinating how some people love a certain flavour and others despise it, I also wonder about how you can develop a taste for something over time that initially tastes awful and even grow to dislike things that you used to enjoy !
Taste is weird !
You can force the pan to heat evenly (uneven heat is what ruins the first pancake) by taking it off the hob and cooling it a bit on a damp kitchen towel (folded a few times to keep the heat from transferring). I put the towel on the counter and place the pan bottom on the towel, moving around a bit. When you reheat the pan to temperature, it will give you perfect evenness on the first try!
Lovely little tip, thank you.
Thank you for providing your own expertise and skills to help us see what is possible with simple food ingredients.
Please, don't fall prey to the UA-cam algorithm of making money. You provide a useful service to all human beings and, in fact, to all living creatures. Thank you for living your life as a responsible person and for sharing your information to other. I understand your agenda and I applaud your efforts greatly.
Thank you for all that you do and all that you are, sir.
"That's a cat noise, Eva." I adore your sense of humor.
I just wanted to mention that I find your voice incredibly soothing. I find putting your videos on when I'm feeling anxious helps me to calm down. So thanks for the content and good luck with the rest of your challenge!
Been watching your channel for quite a long time. I can't recall how many subscribers you had back when I first came here, and really hadn't kept an eye on that until today...I was completely shocked to see how much this channel has grown! There are so many people who watch and appreciate your work. Bravo, sir! 😇
So creative lol. I’ve never seen pancakes made like that. And I actually clicked on the video because the stuffed bun thing in the thumbnail looked so delicious. That was awesome, you’re awesome, man. Subbed!
Wait until he gives scammers headaches!!!🤣🤗🤣🤗 You'll love it!
You're in for a real treat!
Fried cabbage is such a good food. Now I'm craving it
I love how your videos are straight to the point Shrimp! Hope you have a good Day five of the challenge.
I'm just running through this series today, greatly enjoyed. I'd love to see a limited-prep-time version! Or perhaps a version where one meal a day is a 'picnic meal' (ie is prepped in advance and not cooked before eating) or an 'office meal' (ie prepped in advance and you only have access to a microwave and kettle if you want to heat to eat). That could be interesting.
I love that you take a moment to observe the little plaques on the bench. I don't know if I would have thought to do that if it were me but it's so thoughtful to the people who's memories they are honoring.
Hey Atomic Shrimp i just wanna say that you are amazing for thinking and making all of this for only £5 there is so many times that i have to remind myself that most of the stuff here are made with those £5 (not including the spices and stuff you gave yourself on day one. and the salt ofc). Subscribing to you a few years ago was very worth it. Tnx for entertaining us with all of this !
I'm normally a very picky eater, and I have no idea about cooking or foraging, but seeing you make all this food and talk about it makes me hungry. Also, I know this may be a bit of a weird compliment, but you seem like you'd be a great father!
I love your surprise when things work out. That’s how I feel with most of my cooking: weird but tasty 😂. I’m in awe of your outdoor knowledge.
When I tried doin the starter with self raising flour it actually finally worked for me.and that is how I have sourdough starter now
Out of curiosity, have you thought of trying to make fresh pasta? I've watched several documentaries that say the poor italians never used to use egg to make pasta, just flour, salt and water. It might be a nice texture change from the pancakes / buns / flatbreads. Love your content whatever you decide to do. Cheers from Oz.
Egg free pasta is very common actually. Take a look on the ingredient list of dried supermarket pasta. Especially the cheaper ones.
The (admittedly few) times I made fresh pasta, I always just used water and flour. Whenever I buy pasta with egg in it, it proudly says so on the package, so my guess is it's normally not in there by default.
I believe in another challenge(maybe the 2 day one) he made some fresh pasta. Man is a wizard with flour
Over here almost all pasta you can buy at the supermarket is without egg. Pasta without egg us normal. Pasta with egg is special pasta and it says so on the label.
All dried pasta is just semolina flour and water, which I think is best for everything besides lasagna
I'm loving this series. It's very enthralling and entertaining. Come for the scam baiting, stay for the stuff in a can, and very interesting challenges.
Wow, this was a good day. The steamed buns reminded me of the pasties you made and looked amazing. Loving this series.
the steamed buns looked delicious! but I think if you wanted even more flavour, you could've pan fried them! they are called 生煎包, and the crispy caramelised bottom you get from them would've absolutely elevated the flavours to another level!
Looks awesome,lots of ideas as to how use the ingredients to their best. I never would thought to make the sour dough like that and look how good it ended being!
A time restricted challenge would be nice in a future. My excuse is always time,but in reality it's mostly luck of motivation so I cook myself the simplest meal I can think of, better if in one pan so I don't have to clean a lot after. Would be nice to see what you can do with little time to spare.
With the ingredients you had, I thought we'd see dumplings at some point - I suppose those steamed buns were close. Not a thing I've ever had a go at, but I might give them a try as they looked really nice.
Fun videos, but also pretty depressing how cheap food is in the UK, or more like how not-as-cheap it is elsewhere. You sure can't get much with the equivalent of £5 over here.
UK food is cheap, but the veg box was very unusual / lucky. I've only seen those boxes once and the contents were very mouldy.
Just wanted to say how much me, my best friend and my husband love your videos. We sit down whenever we are all together and watch your videos. Keep up the good work! ✌🏻
What a treat for a Monday! Love this, I'm going to adopt some of the recipes into my life especially the flat breads
It's such a treat to have daily videos like this! Hopefully your marathon of work doesn't sour your attitude on them, as they're my favorite content from you.
I have been absolutely loving the series :D
Surprised I've not seen it suggested already but there's the beginnings of a new series here "Weird stuff in a pan" where you put ingredients into a random generator or on paper and put them in the jar shake it up and you try to make a serviceable meal from it.
I really like that idea 👍
My Mother makes a banana peel chutney for which you boil the peels and then puree them along with garlic,fresh chilies and roasted cumin.It's very savoury and thick. It's quite different from what British people consider chutneys,but chutneys has a much wider variety in India.
I could see that working out in chutney.
Awww Eva, always in the background of the shot whilst you’re eating, so adorable.
Very interesting to see how so many of these meals built upon the days previous. Sets this challenge apart from all the others. I hope you explore that limited time budget idea or some other way to purpetuate the long term / rolling kitchen idea as I find that pretty fascinating.
Those lovely stir fry dishes are crying out for some sugar, vinegar, garlic, and marmite. But that's an Asian thing. I learned frugal cooking from observing the ingredients in Asian dishes, and in Indian dishes. The fun part is when you use the apple peelings to make apple cider vinegar.
My British best friend and I once did a NO SPEND-NO PANTRY challenge for 30 days. We literally begged for salt, sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce. Our favorite Asian restaurant owner gave us scallions and cabbage, too. He told us to regrow them from the bottoms. The wild animal butcher gave us a barrel of deer bones, and the Amish store gave us bags of "off" onions and potatoes. My sister gave me her cast offs from a commodities box--ubiquitous in US senior housing. It was amazing what we came up with. Roasted deer bones over a fire, made bone stock, and there was a lot of deer soup and stir fry going on. I cheated because it was still foraging season and I'm Native American. I learned all the lore. We had a great time with our thought experiment, but to do it without privilege is not really an option. It was done to demontrate that "waste" food is nutritious and edible. I collected fat from roasting the deer bones. My friend didn't do that. Big nutritional mistake. You must use all the healthy fat available to you to help your body use nutrients. Rabbit starvation is a real thing--not enough fat!
Since you said it's too much work to do such a long series again, you could record it in one week, and then edit it in the following weeks while spacing it out. You might or might not publish it in quick succession, and you might or might not use what you bought in the same week (since a fridge and a freezer could make whatever you bought last much longer). For example, you could work on filming a 10-day series for 2-3 months, just cooking and editing in-between other videos, and then drop all the videos at once. But I understand if you don't want to do it. I just came up with a way to stretch out the work to make it more manageable, since you said in the Day-2 video how much hours of work it took to get this series done. _(For those who read this without context, it took 100 hours of work to buy the foods, cook and record the cooking, then edit everything.)_
Love your videos, we are just getting over covid so have been binge watching them, the ones where you go out walking with the ration packs are great! Also with the chickpeas you use if you whisk the juice from the tin you can make meringues.
These Challenge videos are amazing. Your imagination and ability to really improvise is great and gives good money saving inspiration which could also really cut food waste
Thanks for making these
I really appreciate how you show the placard on every bench you sit on. You shared someone’s memory with thousands of people
Here's the best recipe for banana peels: Put them in the fridge, then take them out when they are cold.....and throw them in the bin.
Actually in some countries it's quite common to eat banana peel, the way i've heard it prepared is to cover them in boiling salted water and to leave them until the water goes cold, and then run a fork down them to turn them into "noodles", the texture is often compared to something like pulled pork but i've most commonly seen it in things like curries
funny. Though I was personally looking forward to seeing what Mike was going to do with banana peels. It's exactly that kind of odd yet informative stuff that draws me to his videos. Slightly disappointed he binned the idea.
Banana peels contain, the bulk of the potassium found in the banana, what I would recommend is drying and crushing into a powder
I have seen some vegan make "Bacon" out of them
@@tanyaparker6296 I was just thinking that! vegan bacon! though I use banana peel in water to create a nice plant food.
You did an outstanding job on this challenge. Well done ! Showing anyone can eat fairly well on a very, very limited budget
I've learned so much from this channel, and I'll be forever grateful. Thank you.
These challenges are some of the most enjoyable videos of yours, because it is simply so exciting what you come up with. I also love your other videos, but these stand out in particular!
Have you talked about what your typical grocery spending would be for 5 days? It’d be interesting to know how far out of the ordinary this is.
Most people regularly end up spending more than £5 on one meal
@@swanningabout How... Sounds ridiculous! I must spend around 0.8-1.2€ per meal. Granted, I live in a 2nd world country, maybe that has something to do with our food prices.
I think this is an interesting and valid question.
I was doing a little price comparison between people I know and our budgets were very different.
I would say £1 per serving (at least for main meals) seems to be regarded as good value, though of course a lot of people have to do it for less. It's easy to spend £5/head if you're eating things like steak, good quality fish, organic vegetables, etc.
@@CoolGuy-sd5un Prices are really not comparable going by exchange rates. Where I live I'd be lucky to get that veggie box he got for the whole budget of this challenge. But I DO live in one of the most notoriously pricey countries in the world.
Steamed buns with sausage. Amazing results all things considered. Well done! Lovely bit of the UK you live in too. Looking forward to the next episode.
My five days would be easy. Buy a load of spuds and veg. Then bubble and squeak for the next 5 days. 😆 Really enjoying this AS. Thank you so much.
Totally should have done bubble and squeak at some point. (especially with lard to fry it) Missed opportunity!
Yep! Filling, nutritious and delicious but sacrificing variety
Interesting to see the memorial benches. Most, if not all, the benches in the Botanic Gardens in my neck of the woods (Christchurch, New Zealand) are similarly dedicated.
Hi there! I love these ultra tight budget food videos you make and I've noticed you can be really creative with food and I was wondering if you'd consider making a different series where you make a good meal for a family for a (comparatively) low budget I'd like to see what you could come up with
Yeah, it's a possibility - maybe like a cheap meal for 6 people, that doesn't feel cheap.
I enjoyed it when you added the extra bit of water to the pancake batter and it sounded like you said "that's batter". I hope that was intentional.
Really great series by the way, your creativity knows no bounds!
I love these series! Thanks for all the effort and creativity you put into making them
We cook a similar dough here in Brazil in a waffle grill. We never eat banana peels unless we are certain that they are organic, because they can contain lots of chemical pesticides. They can be chopped and cooked inside cakes just like raisins (when yellow).
I'm currently restricting calories to lose a few kilos before the start of what will a very stressful project in summer (during which I'll gain everything back to be sure - the idea is to just not end up heavier than what I'm comfortable with in the end) and watching you eat that mountain of rice and split peas made me laugh - makes me genuinely happy to see you succeed in cooking a lovely, ample meal during these challenges! well done! I'll join in come september ;)
Love your videos , nice to see the landscape , give Eva my best. 🤠👍🐕
I am loving this series. Thank you so much
love your take on char siu Bao it's my favourite steamed bun so many great ideas thank you very much.
Hrmm, another way to make a flavorful gravy/sauce could have been to cook a few of those sausages outside their skins in a good cast-iron pan-and cook 'em good. Build up a pile of fond in the pan, maybe cook with some onion too, then add some water to deglaze and some flour in it to thicken. Toss it in a spare sauce container (one for thicker substances, so a mayo or tomato paste squeeze bottle would be good) and use it liberally.
Banana peels make a great 'bacon'...scrape white off and discard & marinate in a little maple syrup, soya sauce, garlic and pepper.. fry. More delicious than you'd think. Love your videos!!!
Can I just say, my dogs always perk up and watch during your walks. Its nice to be able to enjoy your videos as a family 😆
I’m officially an Atomic Shrimp fan after watching these budget challenges. Great fun to watch and so interesting to see the creative ways you can eek out a fiver. Thanks and keep the great content coming 👍
Regarding green supermarket bananas: I believe the supermarkets tend to store and transport the bananas in excessively cold conditions, and this renders the bananas unable to ripen normally. It seems to be a similar situation with supermarket avocados. In each case, you buy the fruit unripe, and by the time the fruit should have ripened it fails to ripen and just goes off instead. Very annoying and I wish the supermarkets would store these things properly for the benefit of consumers, not for the benefit of their bottom-line.
All bananas are stored refrigerated from the time they're cut, through transport in special containers and in warehouses until they're about to be sold. They're just then put in special rooms with the right heat and ethylene gas for a few days to properly ripen. The supermarkets where you buy them seem to have a bad supplier.
Banana skins... more green than ripe-
Scrape off the white inside. Shred peels with a fork lengthwise. Use as shredded chicken and cook as a curry. 😊
What's it like though? I have seen lots of people make some kind of vegan bacon from it, and only one person said it was palatable. I'm vegan anyway, and fairly open minded, I'm just a bit iffy about it because of reactions I've seen. But maybe it works fine in a curry. 😄
I would love to see this challenge again, but with the inclusion of allowing urban foraging. I would like to see the creativity branch out into making sauces for dishes using those pesky little packets and dipping cups.
I am enjoying the fact that you explain some of the science behind what you are doing in the cooking.
It would be interesting to see you do a tier list of all the meals you made at the end of the challenge!
re teaspoons in little spice jars. I bought narrow measuring spoons from Lakeland for that reason. Thank you for doing this, I'm finding it a real encouragement.
Fun fact, the bit that goes most visibly 'brown' when cooking is sugar.
That's why garlic browns quicker than onion, a higher sugar content.
So your pancakes had such a tiny amount of sugar in (only the underripe banana) so there was nothing to go brown.
If the banana was more ripe it would have had a far higher sugar content.
thanks for sharing this - very interesting
@@serenepeacefulrelaxingmusi3874 yeah for the top of the sausage rolls? Definitely
Once I commented about your love for old design, and u kindly responded. I still remember it and love your videos and what u do even more than before.
Absolutely love your budget meal challenges and was so happy to find out a new one was going on! Please don't hesitate in making more of these! So inspirational, entertaining and it also really makes me a more creative cook thanks to you! :) All the best from Norway! :D
This has been fun and inspiring. I am known to be able to make a meal out of anything and I used to forage quite a bit (0ld bones and a a shriveled up bod make that far less fun.. . . ).. The dinner stir fry was calling out for some of those flappy little mushrooms from earlier in a this challenge but I totally salute you for what magic you put into this challenge! I suspect in some cases of people commenting that they learned so much and will now try to employ some of the strategies you used reveal that they have always been a little doubtful to "cook outside the box" (yet get away from shopping for instant mixes, etc). And heads up you future cooking experiments folks out there: The internet is crammed full of videos and instructions from other foragers that can give you info on your particular geographic regions. Your nutritional values will doubtless improve, too. And absolutely try to learn from people from other countries. I just learned that at least in some parts of China they cook radish leaves. And those banana and plantain peels apparently make very tasty bases for a plateful of hearty hot dishes! And, I don't know the global distribution of cat tails but that plant is a gold mine for lovely, delicate flavors when harvesting in the early summers in my region of the NW corner of the Lower 48 US. In summer my partner used to call my series of favorite locations for old gnarly abandoned fruit orchards, big berry patches, lovely mounds of nettles, etc., my "trap line". I miss that all now, I realize . . . Thank you Atomic Shrimp for making me very content this afternoon. Give Eva a little pat and a double handshake from me!
Those buns look delicious! They are a fave in our house. As well as pot stickers which you could have also made instead with your stir fry filling. Lovely with fried rice.
Those steamed bun were genius! How inventive. I am still eating these videos up :)
Thanks, Sarah
Welcome to todays episode of 'Weird Stuff on a Plate'! 🤣
J/k ofc., those steamed buns type of things looked very nice! Seemed like the best dish so far, although i'm quite the pancake fan t.b.h. - Wasn't sugar in the budget? A little caramalized sugar at the very end, maybe tossing the whole lot back in the pan, coated with sugar to crisp and taste them up?
So far, at least quite a few decent meals on this tiny budget! Looks like you'll have some leftovers too come tomorow ^.^
ive been excited for this one! thumbnail looks good
Probably too late now, but toasting the top of those steamed buns could be worth a try to make them a little different.
A way 'ripen' hard bananas is squash (roll them) an hour or so before you need/eat them.
I'd love to see more videos of your just exploring around where you live. I'm from Australia so it's really interesting to see.
During your (possible) time-budget challenge attempt, will you include cleaning time in the calculations?i think it might be interesting since it might cause you to think and improvise about the number of dishes/utensils that are used
This inspires me to go trough my kitchen and cook with what I already have. Thanks!
I sta si na kraju napravila?
@@neonafflictioncrispy chicken broth French toast + crispy chicken
it's just amazing how good it looks for it's price
Because his culinary skills are priceless