Curry Night

bitsandpieces

minnie123 wrote: »

Thanks I shall look for Cayenne then x

Sorry - just checked the cupboard and you get powders made from various types of chili pepper (cayenne is just a common one). Any powdered chili pepper would do the job, I think.

minnie123

Thanks for your help x

Steve-o

I've decided to 'bulk' make meals, and then portion them in the freezer for when I need them. First attempt (as a non-cook) was Quorn chilli, which turned out to be a tasty meal. I didn't work out the portion cost, because I was seeing how well my efforts turned out to be honest.

Tonight was the turn of a Jalfraizi, because I'd just tasted a very nice Lloyd Grossman dupiaza sauce that Asda were doing for half price.

Breakdown:
2 x L.G. jalfraizi sauce, at 83p a jar - £1.66
tin of chopped toms, mid priced - 57p
1.5 peppers - 69p
1.5 largish onions - 48p
half a pack of green chilli's - 33p
turkey breast (cheaper than chicken) - £2.38
Total = £6.11
4 portions, at about £1.52 each.

I don't think that the portion price of £1.52 is too bad, but I'd set my sights on things being cheaper. There must be ways to get the price down, while keeping the quality of the meal up.

I wouldn't want to lower the quality of the meat: I'd rather have meat that is okay quality, but slightly more expensive, than water injected value stuff. The turkey was already cheaper than the same weight chicken breasts.

The Lloyd Grossman sauces were half price, at 83p, or I definitely wouldn't have bought them. They were very tasty, so something I'd consider stocking up on while they are 83p.

The curry itself was fairly thin (probably due to the added tinned tomatoes), so it could have stood to have some other ingredients added to bulk it out. I didn't want to add more turkey breast, as I didn't know how many more portions another breast would actually produce. I also didn't add any different vegetables, because I wasn't sure what would compliment it (and also freeze well).

Anyone out there able to offer advice on how to lower the price/produce more portions, without hitting any low quality value range items?

JulieGeorgiana

1 Jar of sauce is enough for 4 people, I'm not sure how you managed to get 2 jars of sauce and a tin of tomatoes to produce only 4 portions!

I personally would add sweetcorn, peas, lentils and mushrooms to a chilli.... even potatoes taste nice if cooked in the sauce and it soaks up all that flavor!

I also buy chicken from the butchers, the meat tastes so nice you don't need to add as much!

Penelope_Penguin

You could use chicken thighs - my butcher sells them ready boned. They're cheaper and tastier than breast

Even at half price, those jars are expensive. Use the same money to buy spices, and you'll have loads left for many more curries.

Olliebeak

I buy the diced turkey thigh from Asda: http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/search/searchcontainer.jsp?trailSize=1&searchString=diced+turkey+thigh&domainName=Products&headerVersion=v1&_requestid=2707

excellent vfm when it comes to making 'chickeny curries/casseroles/chillies'.

Butterfly_Brain

Well done you so far :T
I would personally use spices but if you are not an accomplished cook yet don't worry buy the sauces. I woul only use one jar though especially as you are using tomatoes.
Try bulking out with diced potato it really is tasty and I would second turkey thigh meat as being cheaper.

Try to get a copy of Jamie Oliver's Ministry of food from the library, it has step by step instructions and is really good for a kitchen virgin.

Hellyboo

Potato and cauliflower make good curries, and adding a can of chickpeas can stretch it further. I agree that you should get 4 portions from one jar (unless the LG sauces are smaller jars, I've not seen them). You could rinse the jar out with some water and put that in the curry to make the sauce go further, then if it needs thickening try a bit of cornflour. I don't use jar sauces, but my mum uses pataks curry paste and finds that a jar of that will do two or three meals for her and my two hungry brothers. You just fry the paste with the onion etc, and then add tinned toms, cream or yoghurt to make the sauce.

With regards to getting your ingredient cost down, you could try using frozen peppers instead of fresh. A pack of frozen peppers in Mr T is about a pound and I find a handful = about one pepper. You'd get about 6 handfuls in a bag at a guess, so a lot cheaper than fresh, and just as good IMO. Obviously you could use the value range of toms instead of the mid-priced, which will save another 25p-ish, not a lot initially but in the long run the savings will add up.

I think what you have there is a good start! I would definitely try adding some potato (also would save on not having to have so much rice with it) and cauliflower to what you already have and you might be able to get another couple of portions from it. Good luck!

rosie383

I agree with buying the spices and using those rather than the jar of sauce, or, if you want it easier to begin with, buy a jar of Patak's paste and use just a tbsp of that. I'd use lentils/ chick peas/ freezer veg to bulk it out too. Go to an Asaian grocer for your spices, or even in Asda, Tesco etc they have an ethnic/ world foods aisle and the spices there are a fraction of what you pay in the normal herbs/spices aisle.
If you aren't going to use a lot of the spices up, don't be tempted to buy very big bags of spices, as you don't get a lot of flavour from a pack that has been sitting in the cupboard for a year! Kind of a false economy. If you have a spice/coffee grinder, buy whole spices then you get amazing flavour .
Oh, another thing. as with most MSE recipes, make the meat only a small part of the recipe. Especially in a curry, you can get away with just a wee bit of meat and lots of veg.

adelight

You barely need the jars of sauce at all, they could be replaced with ~10p worth of spices! Try this recipe, or add these spices to your current recipe http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/537476 As you're using lots of spices you could use the cheapest chopped tomatoes, or passata for a smoother sauce or plum tomatoes in juice for a thinner sauce with big chunks of tomato(my favourite )
Chunks of root vegetables, lentils and chick peas are great for bulking curries, it doesn't even feel like you're bulking. Use 1/2 portion of turkey per person, ie if i was making a turkey curry(which i might now!) i'd use 1 turkey steak, handful chick peas, diced med potato and a fist sized chunk of cauliflower diced to make 2 very large portions.