What to drink on the 5:2 diet

Given that you’ve only got 500 calories to play with it seems a bit of a waste squandering a quarter of them on a glass of wine - or any alcoholic drink. But the diet is all about choice so if that’s your special treat you might want to know exactly how much your favourite tipple will set you back.

The good news is that a 125ml glass of champagne only tots up 95 calories but if you’ve a taste for full-bodied South American reds or shiraz at, say, 14.5% and you drink a ‘normal’ 175ml glass of it, that’s 140 calories gone*. A double whisky is 122 calories. Add a non-diet mixer and that’s 178 calories. Makes you realise where all those excess pounds come from, eh?

I don’t bother with alcohol at all when I’m fasting but a food writer friend who saves up her calories to enjoy in the evening likes a gin and diet tonic. A single measure of a 37.5% gin like Gordon’s with a low cal tonic comes to just 54 calories - almost exactly the same as the square of dark chocolate I treat myself to if I have calories to spare. Horses for courses.

Another option is a small dry fino sherry - if you can stick to 50ml (a small glass makes that seem more) it’s only 49 calories a glass.

It’s when it comes to non-alcoholic options that it gets tricky. Most fruit juices and soft drinks are in fact quite high in calories. 200ml of Copella apple juice for example adds up to 92 calories. However tomato juice is roughly half that at 44 calories per 200ml. Add a dash of Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco or a pinch of celery salt and a slice of lemon and you’ve got yourself a non alcoholic cocktail (a Virgin Mary) that doesn’t make you stand out in a crowd.

I’m not mad about diet mixers except for the Fever-tree range which, although they’re higher in calories than, say, Schweppes, don’t have that slightly metallic taste you get from most low cal mixers. They do a Naturally Light Tonic Water (20.5 cals per 100ml) and a Naturally Light Ginger Beer (24.8 calories per 100ml). With ice, 150ml gives you a decent drink

Tea has been my lifeline during the 5:2 diet and, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been exploring different loose leaf teas at no calorie gain at all - provided you don’t take milk or sugar. I don't take sugar, except occasionally in mint tea and have pretty well weaned myself off milk over the last six weeks. Herbal infusions are also calorie free. I particularly like a fennel infusion with a slice of lemon.

Milk is even more of a factor when it comes to coffee. If you take it black, which I invariably do on a fast day, a small black coffee is just 2 calories though a black Americano which I often drink when I’m out I was rather surprised to find was 15 according to myfitnesspal.com. And a double espresso is 10.

An instant coffee with skimmed milk (bleugh) will set you back 6 but a large latte can mount up to 180-190, over a third of your daily allowance. So no visits to Starbucks on a fast day - or on any other day so far as I’m concerned.

PS the Bristol-based producer of an interesting Japanese-style soft drink called Koji picked up on this post and offered to drop a couple of bottles round. There are two flavours, Lemon and Ginger, which would do duty for white wine and Mandarin and Cranberry which looks much like a rosé. I find the latter too sweet and too obviously orangey though I can imagine it going with spicy food like a curry. However the slightly herby lemon and ginger is really rather delicious - so much so that I demolished the rest of the (330ml) bottle. 

The best thing about them though is that they're only 49 calories a bottle which would make a 165ml  glassful just 25 calories. Perfect for those who like a drink at the end of the working day.

At the moment you can mainly find them in Bristol shops, cafés and restaurants (Chandos Deli apparently stocks them) but they've just delivered to a number of London wholesalers so you should be able to find them there. And they're also planning to sell them online. Check out their website kojidrinks.com for updates on stockists

*The unit calculator on drinkaware.co.uk is particularly helpful for working out the calorie count of different glasses of wine depending on their alcoholic strength.

Image © Bratwustle - Fotolia.com

Jellied ham and parsley terrine

The problem with leftovers is that they can easily look like exactly that but this crafty way with cooked ham - an anglicised version of the French jambon persillé - looks like you've made it from scratch*. If you want it to look really fancy you can make it in a loaf tin and unmould it but I reckon that's far too much of a faff at this time of year.

Although I've given quantities you can adjust them depending on how much ham you have over. Or replace some of the ham with cold turkey as per the original recipe in the Frugal Cook book. You may not need all the stock.

Serves 4-6 depending what else you're serving.

450-500g piece of cooked ham
4 tbsp dry white wine (a neutral white like Pinot Grigio or Chablis is ideal)
6 sheets of fine leaf gelatine (or whatever amount is recommended to set 500ml of liquid)
425ml strained ham stock 
A large handful of curly or flat leaf parsley
Freshly ground black or white pepper
A pinch of mace (optional)

You'll also need a medium sized (about 1.2 litres) bowl

Put the wine into a shallow dish, add the gelatine and leave for about 10 minutes until the gelatine softens.  Heat the ham stock, remove from the stove and stir in the gelatine until dissolved. Leave to cool for 30 minutes.

Remove any fat from the ham and cut into largeish chunks about 2cm square. Finely chop the parsley and mix with the ham. Season with pepper and mace (no salt - the ham should be salty enough.)

Pour half the cooled stock into the bowl, mix in half the ham and parsley mixture and refrigerate until it just begins to set.  Add the remaining ham and stock** and refrigerate for a further couple of hours.

* Of course you can make it from scratch. A ham hock should contain just about enough lean meat to make a small terrine.

** If the stock has jellied you can warm it again gently.

The best of the supermarket Easter wine offers

There’s a bit of a backlash against supermarket half price wine offers at the moment with which I’ve every sympathy. To artificially inflate wine prices only to heavily discount them sails perilously close to the wind legally but if the wines have been on offer in at least some stores at the full price they're in the clear. And this kind of discounting will go on unless the public boycott special offers in their droves (unlikely) or the Government sees fit to ban it (almost equally so).

So many of the following offers don’t look as good as they seem but at the price they’re being offered the wines are worth buying. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Don’t be fooled by the size of the discount and never pay the full price for wines that are regularly discounted.

Asda
Asda Mas Miralda Cava £5 - well above average supermarket own brand Cava; Extra Special Fiano and Pinot Grigio, both £5; Rigal, The Original Malbec £5; Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon , Chile £5; Campo Viejo Crianza £6

Co-op
Charles de Cazenove champagne is on sale at £15.99 - certainly not worth the original £31.99 but a fair deal at this price. The light, creamy Torres Vina Sol is also a decent buy at £4.99 if you’re looking for an everyday white.

Marks & Spencer
A well-priced Italian pair: Vermentino £5.99, Chianti Colli de Rasenna £5.99. Also 6 for the price of 5 on all bottled beers. Offers last until April 7th.

Morrisons
Not the easiest supermarket to check out online but the Ventoux red (£4.98), Calvet Sauvignon Semillon (£5.49) and Warres LBV £6.99 would all be worth a punt. And Innis & Gunn Oak-aged and Rum Finish beers at 2 for £3 is a good deal along with Morrisons The Best Vintage cider at £1.99 for 750ml. Beware ‘Better than half price’ offers in general though.

Sainsbury’s
There are reductions on some of the Taste the Difference range including TTD prosecco £7.99, and the TTD Languedoc Red, TTD Languedoc white and TTD Touraine Sauvignon Blanc which are worth buying on a 2 for £12 offer

Tesco
See my recommendations in last week’s Guardian column

Waitrose
Bredon Brut champagne is down to £13.99 again - a good buy if you want fizz for a wedding. Other deals: Lindauer Special Reserve Brut is £8.99; Baron de Ley Club Privado Rioja £6.32; Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc £6.66; Muscat-de-Beaumes-de-Venise, Carte d’Or £4.99 a half bottle
And if you miss them? Don't panic - there will be more 'special' offers as soon as Easter is over plus the usual seasonal wine fairs.

6 good wines to buy at Tesco

Unless, like the residents of Stokes Croft in Bristol, you wouldn't be seen dead stepping through the doors of a Tesco supermarket it's the place to be buying wine this weekend. They've got their autumn festival on plus a 25% off offer if you buy any six bottles from them online.

That doesn't mean you should snap up everything you can lay your hands on. A lot of the bottles are priced at an artificially inflated level so the 50% reductions aren't nearly as good as they look. Still, there are deals - here are six that would tempt me. (Offers end on October 4th)

Tesco Finest Picpoul de Pinet 2010 (above, down from £7.99 to £5.29)
I thought we'd left summer behind us but not at all. If you're down by the sea or just eating fish and chips this crisp, fresh-tasting white from the south of France will fit the bill perfectly.

Sketches Chardonnay Semillon, S.E.Australia (down from £7.99 to £4.99)
Semillon-Chardonnay used to be a popular Aussie blend that's slightly fallen out of favour so it's good to see it back. The semillon grape adds a touch of freshness to the rich chardonnay. A bright breezy white that would make good party (or barbecue) drinking. (I'm not so keen on the red which is a bit jammy.)

Chukker Argentinian Torrontes (£36 a case of 6 from Tesco Wine)
Torrontes is a fragrant floral white from Argentina that you'll enjoy if you like riesling and gewurztraminer. Great with mild seafood curries and kormas and spicy Indian nibbles like pakoras. I don't rate the Malbec under the same label as highly, though.

Tesco Finest Touriga Nacional 2010, Alentejo, Portugal down from £7.79 to £5.79
A big, warming gutsy red made from one of the grapes used in port. A good wine to drink with hearty casseroles and braises. One to save for colder days ahead

Tesco Finest Howcroft Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 (down from £8.99 to £6.49)
Another good red from the Finest range - a delicious smooth, blackcurranty Australian Cabernet. I wouldn't normally advocate buying an inexpensive red as old as this but this should have the concentration to be still drinking well. Perfect for a steak pie.

Tesco Finest Amontillado Sherry down from £5.49 to £4.12 for 50cl
And the biggest bargain of them all if you like sherry. Gorgeously rich and nutty, it's a great buy at £5.49 but totally unmissable at £4.12. Stock up if you find it*

*Note: Tesco now has some 2500 outlets so you won't necessarily find these wines in smaller branches - including ones like my local Metro (unfortunately) and possibly in Scottish branches given the new legislation outlawing wine promotions.

Incidentally if you want to keep tabs on offers on your favourite wines check out Find Top Wines

Now Credit Crunch Drinking posts will appear on this blog too

I've come to the conclusion I have too many blogs. Five, at the current count which is ridiculous.

The logical step is to drop Credit Crunch Drinking as a separate blog and incorporate it here. Regular readers will remember I did this once before then rather weakly resuscitated it.

I should have stuck to the original decision. After all if you're interested in keeping down the cost of your food shopping, chances are the same applies to wine and other drinks. And if you're a fan of the Credit Crunch Drinking blog you may appreciate a few frugal recipes too.

So win/win, I hope. There will continue to be posts like this under £6 selection of bargain buys from M & S which ends on September 4th and this well-priced cider from the Co-op. Let me know if there are any drinks you'd particularly like me to cover.

And now for frugal drinking!

I've been thinking for a while of starting a frugal drinking blog including beer, cider and other drinks as well as wine. It's actually the other part of my working life (I used to write a regular column for the Daily Mail!) but it never seemed to quite fit in with this blog.

It struck me though that it would be pretty useful, particularly in the current economic climate. We like to drink well but we don't spend a lot of money on doing so. I happen to think that drinks like beer and cider are underrated and that there are a lot of bargains out there that people don't know about or are unsure whether it's OK to buy because they don't know that much about wine.

So I've kicked it off, it's called Credit Crunch Drinking and you can find it here!

I hope you enjoy it. Do write and let me know how you get on if you follow my suggestions and share any tips or brilliant special offers you've spotted. (If you feel self-conscious about asking questions about wine, as I know many people do, you can always email me at fibeckett@live.com)

Human Hoover Syndrome

Bad news from the scales. I have not only failed to lose the weight I put on over Christmas, I have acquired a couple of kilos more. Which makes me about four and a half kilos overweight in total.

Where did it all come from? All too obvious, when you start to think about it. Bread, cheese and wine - the three things I love most to eat and drink.

Working on any cookery book tends to pile on the pounds but acquiring a frugal mindset is even worse. You convince yourself that no ingredient must be wasted so you find a home for it. Human hoover syndrome . . .

This is a dilemma I'm going to have to get to grips with. I need - urgently - to lose weight. I need to test recipes. I simply need to eat less.

No more than 1 glass of wine and two modest slices of baguette a day for a start. Cheese only as part of a meal, not as a nibble. Cut down charcuterie (difficult in France). Cut out butter. No puds (that's the easy bit - I don't have a sweet tooth)

A good start with a scratch salad for two for today's lunch made from leftovers from the fridge - half a small cucumber, half a green pepper, a head of chicory, the green bits from a large, sweet spring onion and a handful of parsley. All chopped, sliced or cut into chunks and tossed with a dressing made from a dessertspoon of tarragon vinegar, 2 dsp of basil-flavoured olive oil and 1 dsp of grapeseed oil (cheaper and lighter than using all olive oil). To my portion I added a few fine shavings of sheeps' cheese and a small chunk of fromage de tete (a very frugal jellied ham paté, a bit like brawn) and half the day's bread allocation. Surprisingly delicious and satisfying but can I keep it up?

The myth about 'cooking wine'

One of the things we're never short of in this household is leftover wine. Not because we're a couple of old soaks or, as the Government would have it, pernicious 'middle class wine drinkers' but because when I'm not writing about frugal cooking I'm writing about wine.

This puts me, I know, in an enviably better position to reach for a bottle mid-recipe than most households, but - more importantly - reach for a drinkable bottle. There's a general idea that you can chuck in any old wine but it isn't so. On the 'rubbish in, rubbish out' principle if you add a wine that's been open for a fortnight and tastes like vinegar your dish will end up tasting of vinegar too.

That doesn't mean you have to buy special 'cooking wine' - indeed I'd strongly advise you not to. It's the lowest of the low in the wine world. But you do need something that's fresh and clean and which you'd be prepared to drink yourself. And for certain recipes - a coq au vin or a daube for example - it pays to add something a touch more characterful.

A good trick if you're cooking the dish for a long time is to add a final dash of fresh wine five minutes before the end to lift the winey flavour. At least that's my excuse . . .