Urgent Gordon Ramsey Help Needed!!!!!

I love this pudding although I would say its more of torte than a cheesecake as its not baked and rather than using raspberries which cost about £3 a pack, you could use blackberries as others have suggested. Its super easy to make and involves no 'whisking to soft peaks' or 'folding in' or any of that jazz.

Will they let you do 'and heres one I made earlier' as this needs refridgeration time

The original recipe came from a magazine but was tweaked and changed by this wonderful food blogger so its their recipe not mine: http://happylovestrawberry.blogspot.com/2008/09/ive-told-you-before-how-i-use-food-to.html

White chocolate and raspberry (or blackberry) torte



For the base:
100g digestive biscuits, crushed (Tesco reduced fat digestives 17.3p)
100g ginger nut biscuits, crushed (Tesco Value Gingernuts 11.3p)
100g butter, melted (Tesco value butter 33.6p)

For the filling:
500g white chocolate, broken into pieces (Sainsbury Basics white choc £1.40 for 5 bars)
50g butter (Tesco Value butter 16.8p)
1tsp vanilla essence (Tesco 5p)
500g full fat soft cheese (Tesco Value £1.13)
50g caster sugar (Silver Spoon caster sugar 5.9p)
175ml whipping cream (Tesco whipping cream 51.3p)
225g punnet fresh raspberries, plus extra to decorate

1. For the base, combine biscuits & butter, then press into the base of a 23cm (9.5") springform tin.
2. For the filling, put the chocolate, butter and vanilla in a heatproof bowl and microwave in 20-second bursts to melt it. Allow to cool slightly.
3. In another bowl, mix the soft cheese, sugar and whipping cream til smooth.
4. Remove the vanilla pod from the chocolate mixture and stir the chocolate into the cream. Gently stir in the raspberries with a spatula then then spoon on top of the base, smooth carefully, and leave in the fridge to set (8-24 hours).
5. Remove from tin and decorate with raspberries to serve.


Costings from My Supermarket today £3.94 without the raspberries and it serves 12 so if you can get some blackberries free or reduced soft fruit you're laughing
Asda have fresh raspberries for £1.98 for 350g so if you used a few less you would come in at a fiver (for 225g it adds £1.27 onto the cost)

How about warm fruit tartin (upside down puff pastry tart)? Really easy, impressive and seasonal... time might be an issue with the pastry though (it's one where you have to do it in stages and chill in-between).

If making something like fruit crumble, frozen berries can be a lot cheaper than fresh. Will the £5 be allowing you to have 'store cupboard ingredients' on top (e.g. flour, salt, sugar) or would you have to buy a whole pack of sugar even if you only use a small amount?

I also like the idea of making more than one course, if you're let. If you do have to buy a whole pack of things like flour then you could e.g. make a pizza or something with flatbreads for main course and crumble for pud (both using a reasonable amount of the flour).

If it doesn't have to be done from start to finish in the one hour slot (i.e. if you're allowed to have one you made earlier) then I'd recommend some sort of casserole as you can use a small amount of cheap meat and bulk it out with lentils, cheap veg etc, and the prep is v easy, just chopping, a little browning and then bunging in a pot to cook.

You could definitely use your lack of culinary expertise to your advantage - "this is cheap, and you don't have to be GR for it to be great!"

If it can't include long cooking times, apple crumble doesn't take all that long, so long as you cook up the apples in a pan with some sugar and a little water or apple juice (and cinnamon if it's in the storecupboard...) first, that takes about 3-5 minutes while you prepare the crumble topping, then stick it in the oven till the crumble is cooked (15-20 mins?? It's been a while). Super simple and v impressive, esp if you can bung in a handful of berries...

Flatbreads are pretty straightforward to make, and go brilliantly with lots of foods, you could make a tasty veggie curry for not very much at all.

I also agree with the person who said to put more than one thing in the oven, e.g. you could bake the flatbreads and apple crumble together, and emphasise that this means less money spent on fuel.

Does it have to be fancy? I'm thinking basic and filling:

Bangers and mash (value sausages) with a tin of value baked beans, followed by supermarket own brand Swiss Roll (approx. 40p) with a packet of instant custard powder (approx. 25p).

Might not be overly healthy, but can be made quickly and cheaply and fills the gaps.

All the very best of luck with this, Martin! My offering isn't very much, but it's one that ticked a lot of boxes where taste and novelty (not to mention frugality) are concerned. Apple and Sultana Crumpets

8 crumpets
small pack of cream cheese
3 apples, any kind, peeled and cored and cut into biggish chunks
Bit of sugar, maybe an ounce
Sprinkling of cinnamon
Handful of sultanas

Toast the crumpets in a toaster (2 or 4 at a time, depending on the capacity of the toaster. When done, keep somewhere warm)
While they're toasting, put the apples, sultanas, sugar and cinnamon into a saucepan with a little water and stew them til the apples go fragrantly mushy.
Spread the warm crumpets with cream cheese and divide the hot apple mixture over the top of them. Lower fat (if you use low fat cream cheese!) than a crumble, slightly lighter, and a novelty. My guests liked it!

As for a mains, well, sausage casserole is nice. You could always try a cheese and bacon bread and butter pudding, too. Must dig out my recipe.