THE BUDGET GOURMET: MUSSELS ON A BED OF SAMPHIRE WITH CHILI OIL

Our resident Budget Gourmet took a trip to Tescos reduced goods aisle. After a bit of a rummage through all things cheap and reduced, he spotted a bag of fresh Samphire - a very "in vogue" vegetable with fine dining restaurants - for the bargain marked down price of 75p. Then as if by magic a pack of shelled and cooked Mussels for 85p.
The Samphire was fried in butter for only a minute or 2 and the mussels heated through in a saucepan with a good squeeze of lemon juice. Arranged on the plate in a fancy way that would have scored points for presentation on masterchef, and drizzled with some chilli oil - anothe squeeze of lemon juice and a hearty grind of black pepper and........ voila! Fine dining on a shoestring! (very quick and simple to make too!!!)