ONLY a few years ago, Jack Monroe had a budget of just £10 a week to feed herself and her baby son.

But when her blog, A Girl Called Jack, which detailed the thrifty meals she cooked, gained in popularity, Monroe went from being a skint single-parent to being dubbed the ‘poster girl for austerity’ by newspapers across the world.

Such is the success of her writing that the blog has now been turned into a cook book, also called A Girl Called Jack, and Monroe’s fronting a new Sainsbury’s advertising campaign.

She will be heading to Dorset this summer as part of The Feast Collective at Camp Bestival.

“I get a lot of messages from people saying that the blog is really inspirational and has changed the way they shop and think about food, or they’re cooking different things for the family or learning to cook,” explains the mother-of-one, who often bakes with her three-year-old son and her partner’s three-year-old daughter.

While life is looking rosier for Monroe, who is an active campaigner for Oxfam and Child Poverty Action Group, at her lowest point she ‘deliberately isolated’ herself, because ‘I didn’t want to admit to people how bad things were’.

If her success has proved anything, she says, it’s that people are naturally supportive and kind.

“I haven’t done this all by myself,” she says.

Now in a better position, it would be easy, you’d think, for Monroe to splash out on her weekly shops. But she’s eager to maintain her thrifty habits, and confidently rattles off the prices of store cupboard essentials, quickly pointing out a price increase for tinned tomatoes.

“My cooking hasn’t changed,” she says.

“I still cook and eat the same way I did but there’s less anxiety around it now.

“I know I’ll open the fridge and there’s food in there. I’ve not abandoned my principles; I still cook using basic food, I use leftovers and I cook seasonally.

“The only thing that has really changed is that I’ve started to think about ethical eating.

“I’m very lucky that the tea, chocolate, sugar and bananas at the supermarket I shop at are all Fairtrade and that’s right down to the basic range.”

But she’s acutely aware of the pressures people living on the breadline are under.

“I now buy free range eggs and meat, but when I was living on £10 a week I knew it was not possible and that’s fine,” she explains.

“I’d never dream of telling people what to do; I just make the suggestions and say this is what I do.”

JACK'S SIMPLE FISH PIE (Serves 4-6)
1kg potatoes
1 large onion
A handful of chopped fresh thyme
350g skinless river cobbler or other firm white fish
350g skinless smoked haddock
300ml whole milk, plus extra to mash the potatoes
4 eggs
50g hard strong cheese
30g butter, plus extra to mash the potatoes
2 heaped tbsp plain flour
2 mugs of spinach leaves

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Wash and dice the potatoes and bring to the boil in a large saucepan of water. Reduce to medium and cook until tender.

Meanwhile, poach the fish. Peel and quarter the onion and put into a large saute pan or saucepan with the thyme. Add the fish, cover with the milk, and poach on a low heat for around eight minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, take out the fish and onion pieces and place on a plate. Flake the fish with a fork. Reserve the poaching liquid to make the sauce with later.

Boil or poach the eggs in a small saucepan for six minutes. Drain and carefully spoon on to the fish plate.

Check the potatoes, they should be very soft. When cooked, drain the potatoes and tip back into saucepan. Mash with a little milk and butter. Grate the cheese into the mash and stir well to melt through.

Melt the butter in a milk pan over a low heat and add one tablespoon of the flour. Stir well with a wooden spoon to make a thick paste. Add the other tablespoon of flour and repeat. Now take a tablespoon of the reserved poaching liquid and stir it into the paste until well mixed in. Repeat, gradually adding more liquid, until blended together in a thick sauce. Add the spinach, stir to wilt, then tip in the cooked eggs, mashing them with the back of a fork to break up. Add the onion then the flaked fish and mix everything together well to coat in the sauce.

Spoon the fish mixture into a large ovenproof casserole dish then top with the potato mash, starting at the edge of the dish and working inwards, using a fork to fluff up the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, until the mash is golden and crispy on top.