Inspired by the TEAR Fund's Live Below the Line campaign, I have taken on the challenge to live on $2.25 a day, for five days, to experience for myself what more than a billion people across the world cope with every day - extreme poverty.
As a chef, working to a food cost is nothing new - we apply it to every dish we make- but the challenge of feeding oneself for $2.25 day, well, quite frankly, that is a challenge!
Attempting to make three recipes for under $2.25 was a lot harder than I imagined and shopping in a supermarket for ingredients was nearly impossible!
An extreme budget makes everything expensive and you can forget about anything convenient, processed, protein or dairy-based.
Unprepared basics, such as lentils and chickpeas, were almost non-existent, with everything coming conveniently in a can and always at a price.
Most fruit and vegetables were also out of bounds and, priced for the New Zealand retail market, I simply couldn't afford it.
What really struck me during my shopping experiment was how little choice there was for anything other than processed foods and the fresh food that was available was relatively expensive.
My first thought was that you could get most of this stuff at the markets or direct from the growers for a fraction of the price, but I guess if you were living below the line each day and if you had no transport, you really would be at the mercy of the retailers.
Supplementing your diet by growing your own food seems the obvious solution, but then again, it depends on having access to a plot of ground, money to buy seeds and the knowledge and skills to successfully cultivate a crop. Remove that option and you're back to square one.
Humbling thoughts for anyone accustomed to eating well.
Living in someone else's shoes for five days seems a small sacrifice to make to appreciate just how much most of us really do have.
• Bevan and Monique Smith own the award-winning Riverstone Kitchen, on SH1 in North Otago, just south of the Waitaki bridge.
Pumpkin and yellow split pea dahl with flatbread
Serves 4 - $1.20 per person
Vegetable dahl is another tasty way of economically feeding a crowd. A little spice and coconut make for a slightly exotic and comforting feel.
Ingredients
100ml soya bean oil1 brown onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
¼ pumpkin, skin and seeds removed and cut into large pieces
2 potatoes, cut into large dice
3 tablespoons curry powder
200g yellow split peas, soaked overnight in water
400g can coconut cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 spring onion, finely sliced (optional)
Flatbread
Makes 12
3 cups plain flour
Method
Place oil in a medium-sized pot and heat over a medium to high heat.
Add onion and carrots and cook for 5 minutes before adding pumpkin, potatoes and curry powder.
Cook for a further 2 to 3 minutes and then add split peas and coconut cream and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to a simmer and slowly cook until split peas and vegetables are soft and tender, adding a little extra water as required and stirring often.
Season with a little salt and pepper and divide between 4 bowls. Serve with spring onions and flatbread.
Flatbread
Heat oven to 200degC.
Place flour in a bowl and mix with enough water to make a soft dough.
Allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before dividing into 12 pieces.
Roll each piece into a ball and flatten with your fingers into a disc.
Dust bench top with a generous amount of extra flour and roll out each disc with a rolling pin until 2mm to 3mm thick.
After the last disc is flattened, go back and reroll each one until 1mm to 2mm thick.
Place flatbreads directly on to wire racks and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately.
Stir-fried rice
Serves 2 - $1.10 per person
Rice is a great filler, especially when it's packed with vegetables. For this recipe I used only basic vegetables bought from the supermarket and I stuck to the Live Below the Line budget principles.
Because of that I couldn't afford any soy sauce, chilli etc to spice things up, so I chose brown rice for extra flavour (not to mention it has three times the nutritional value of white rice) and loads of cabbage, which is always cheap and tastes great raw or cooked.
Ingredients
100ml soybean oil
½ a brown onion, peeled, finely sliced
1 medium carrot, quartered lengthways, finely sliced
¼ of a green cabbage, roughly chopped
¼ of a leek, roughly chopped
4 cups cooked brown rice
1 chicken or vegetable stock cube, crushed
salt and pepper to taste
Method
Heat oil in a large heavy-based frying pan over a medium to high heat.
Add onion and carrots and cook for 5 minutes before increasing heat to high and adding cabbage and leeks.
Cook for a further 2 to 3 minutes before adding rice and stock cube.
Continue to heat until the rice is well heated through.
Season to taste with a little salt and pepper, divide between 2 plates and serve immediately.
Bread pudding
Serves 6 - 50c per person or $1 per person (with butterscotch sauce)
Bread pudding is a great way of using up leftovers.
If, like me, you have an old loaf of bread spare, an apple and some suet lying around, this recipe will only cost around 50c per person to make.
Ingredients
1 loaf stale ciabatta
1 small Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
60g grated suet
20g mixed peel
80g raisins
40g currants
1 free-range egg
1½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground allspice
30ml dark rum
150g soft brown sugar
25g unsalted butter
Butterscotch sauce (optional)
150g caster sugar
300ml cream
120g unsalted butter
Method
Heat oven to 180degC.
Remove and discard crusts from bread and chop into 2cm pieces. Place bread in a bowl, cover with water and set aside for 30 minutes to soak.
After soaking, squeeze out as much water as possible from the bread.
Place chopped apple, suet, raisins, currants, egg, spices and rum into a mixing bowl and beat for 5 minutes.
Add bread and mix for a further 5 minutes.
Spread pudding mixture evenly into a 25cm x 20cm ovenproof dish.
Scatter brown sugar over the top and dot with small knobs of butter.
Cook for 1 hour or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving with butterscotch sauce, if desired.
Butterscotch sauce
Place sugar and half a cup of water in a medium-sized pot and bring to the boil over a high heat. Continue to boil until sugar starts to turn a golden brown.
Add cream, being careful to avoid the resulting steam, and whisk to combine.
Remove from heat, whisk in butter and store in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
