Frugal foods making a comeback

As recession fears grow there are changes in the way Australians are eating with fine dining suffering in favour of home cooking.

Veronica Cuskelly and Gail Clarkson have turned the clock back nearly a century, revamping a classic, The Commonsense Cookery Book.

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"It's almost like the Australian bible because it has all of the basic cooking styles in it," Veronica said.

"All the basic skills that take you onto being able to cook anything really."

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Veronica believes with the financial crisis, one of the easiest ways to cut back on any family budget is to actually do more cooking at home.

"If you have the basic skills of cooking, you can turn just about anything into a fabulous meal," she said.

Chef Delia Smith has taken advantage of difficult economic times, relaunching her 1970s cookbook Delia's Frugal Food.

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The latest Neilsen Grocery Report found in the past year we have shunned packaged convenience foods in favour of fresh produce.

Dairy products achieved the highest growth of any sector, with householders buying up staples like cream, flour, butter and baking aids, generic branded products flourishing with shoppers flocking to Aldi.

Chef Adrian Richardson claims frugal does not have to mean boring.

"You can take a simple recipe and that what chefs do a lot of," he said.

"We add a little bit of spice here, some different ingredients and we can make with a bit of presentation, a simple recipe into a masterpiece."

List of recipes from the show

Recipes taken from The Commonsense Cookery Book Revised Classic Edition. It is published by HarperCollins. It is available now for $29.99.

Copyright Home Economics Institute of Australia Inc (NSW Division).