What are your favourite luxury meals - which are budget friendly!

Burp_2

I asked my OH what he considered to be our luxury meal that we have as a treat and he said 'Home made chips and egg' ... i gues it's cos I don't do it very often!

lol bless him ... so a nice cheap luxury meal for us!

Burp x

kbl

My favourite luxury meal is stuffed chicken fillet which, depending on what you have in your cupboards could work out cheap enough. For two you need:

• 1 large fillet each (battered flat by rolling pin, or in my case clingfilm wrapped brown sauce bottle )
• cubed onion, pepper and garlic, fried in a little butter
• slice of bacon to wrap
• little grated cheese to finish

Batter fillet as flat as you can, place large spoon of veg in middle (use stuffing if you prefer), close chicken around it, hold together with strips of bacon, bung in oven for roughly 25 minutes at med to high temp (doesn't take long, so long as chicken is well battered and flattened), just before taking out sprinkle a little cheese on top (just long enough to melt). Serve with chips/mash. Hope you like it, I always get major brownie points for this dish from whole brood every time I make it, doesn't take long or much effort but i don't tell them that !

hope6804

We like Buffalo Turkey Burgers (Rachael Ray) - turkey burger in a hot sauce bath with HM sour cream and roasted veg or bourbon chicken (bit BBQy but a bit spicy mmmmm) & egg fried rice (HM) with strawberry roulade or cheats lemon cheesecake but then again if there's only the two of you I guess you are dessert!!!!:rotfl:My OH is sometimes real lucky he gets both!!!;)

Odette

Great question!

I used to do a Rick Stien recipie regularly for my ex - it was salmon in a champagne sauce (he got the champers - he was a bit of a foodie and Im totally OS) which was very impressive but didnt really cost that much aside from the champagne which we usually had laying around (lol, sounds very decadent but he was in sales and those people always have odd bottles of champers....:rolleyes:).

Now...I think in terms of cost its gotta be maybe prawn arrabiata (sauce is very cheap - tin of chopped toms, t-spoon chilli flakes, lemon and a load of parsley stewed down, then fresh prawns added 5 mins before its ready). Its expensive because its so simple you have to get nice prawns. Im making this on Thursday :drool:

grimerking

This is a bit of a twist on a 'standard lasagne'. It tastes delicious and can be knocked up with 15 minutes preparation time and 30 minutes in the oven:

Lasagne al Forno with Spinach - Serves 6
Preparation time 15 minutes
Cooking time 30 minutes

6 sheets, about 75g (3 oz), quick cook white lasagne or fresh lasagne (I use 'value lasagne')
50g (2 oz) strong cheddar - grated

Ragu and Spinach Sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
450g (l lb) pork sausage meat (or lean pork mince)
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
2 fat garlic cloves, crushed
150g (5oz) button mushrooms,sliced (I use any mushrooms I have available)
1 x 200ml carton full-fat crème fraiche (I've used half-fat and it turned out fine)
100g (4 oz) baby spinach, roughly chopped (normal spinach is fine - as is frozen spinach)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tomato and Thyme Sauce
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste (normal tomato paste is also fine)
1 teaspoon Demerara sugar
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (a level teaspoon of dried thyme also works)

You will need an ovenproof dish about 1.8 litres [3 pints) in capacity, 15 x 25 x 5cm (6x10x2in).


1. Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/Gas 6.

2. For the ragu and spinach sauce, heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan, then odd the sausagemeat and brown over a high heat until golden, breaking it up with two wooden spoons,

3. Add the chilli, garlic and mushrooms and fry for a few minutes, Stir in the crème fraiche and spinach, bring to the boil for a couple of minutes, season well and set aside.

4. To make the tomato sauce, measure all the ingredients into a jug and season well.

5. Divide the ragu sauce into thirds, and spoon a third into the base of the dish, Spoon a third of the tomato sauce on top at random, and arrange half the pasta sheets over the tomato sauce, Repeat using two more layers each of the ragu and tomato sauces and one of pasta. Sprinkle over the grated cheese.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-30 minutes or until golden brown, bubbling around the edges, and the pasta is tender,

Actiongirl_2

We really like Jamie Olivers recipe for pea and prawn risotto. But it doesnt have to be pricey.

On very special occasions we do it properly with fresh peas and king prawns etc. And actually I like to keep the really good ingredients for special occasions like birthdays because then it feels like a real treat.

But I often do it with frozen peas and value prawns from sainsburys and we have just as delicious a meal.

I also use a lot of smoked salmon in pasta etc and we have blinis when people come round. But I use sainsburys value smoked salmon offcuts which is 88p a packet and no-one can tell! It always sounds so extravagant when I say I give our toddler smoked salmon for lunch but really its cheaper than buying ham or something!

hotcookie101

I love things like roasted fish (a whole sea bass is delicious, but a little pricey) with new spuds, a thai red curry with duck breast is really nice and a special treat (even nicer if you cook duck breast separately so it has a crispy skin.
I always think risotto is a luxury dish-I think as it takes a while to cook and you put such care into it as you stand stirring it at the stove (I drift away into a day dream lol) and there is so many variations on how you can have it-I love wild mushroom, or pea and mint (with leftover lamb if available) or asparagus in season yum
However our true luxury dinner involves steak (rump,from a butcher-usually a bit over a fiver or so for 500g steak) slow fried new potatoes with thyme and pancetta, and something green (ideally french beans or asparagus depending on season) It probably slightly blows the £10 budget including wine, but we have it as a treat quite infrequently (OH would have every day but I would worry about our arteries )
Also roasted lamb shoulder-roast long and slow with sliced potatoes and onions(HFW recipe) WAY too much for 2 so you have lots of leftovers,although the lamb costs about £10 from the butchers for a whole shoulder you can then make lamb and mint risotto (with peas, drool!) shepherds pie and curry-so luxury plus you get lamb for AGES afterwards, yum yum yum

Chell

Bethankim wrote: »

slow cooked pork, ive done it with loin steaks unless i get a loin of pork joint. cooked slowly in tomato and cider gravy.

the gravy is a fantastic sauce goes great with nut roast.
to make

1LB very ripe tomatoes - brill if you pick them up cheap
1 onion
1 small red pepper
tomato puree
1/4 pint vegetable stock (i use a good cube)
3/4 pint of cider - depending on how dry or sweet you use will give you a different taste, i use decent cider - so i get to drink the rest

fry off the onions and pepper until soft but not browned. add in the chopped toms, and cook til very soft. add liquid and puree, season to taste. once the alcohol has been cooked off - cool and liquidize.

seal the pork loin, and place in an over proof dish, pour over the sauce so it covers the pork. cover with foil. (if you have a slow cooker this works brilliantly) cook on a low heat for at least an hour.

serve with crisp vegetable and mash or what ever spud you like. is a cheap dish but is fab

Thanks for the gravy recipe, I keep meaning to look for an alternative to veggie gravy granules.

attentionseeker1

Just found this and wondered if you were still doing this or back to the meals out?

It's a great thread- a couple more ideas I've had recently-
-duck breasts with red wine/port sauce. Sainsburys often doing duck breasts half price at the mo, pan fry then deglaze the pan with a bit of wine or port. Serve with mash/green veg
-chicken, pea, pine nut and mint risotto-as it sounds really- tastes luxurious but cheap enough to leave £ for a starter or dessert. Peas from freezer, mint from garden, chicken from a rubber chicken and toastedpine nuts.

Anyone any new ideas to add to this thread as I'm sure many of us will have to be v strict on foregoing restaurant meals at the mo...

Winged_one

I like a risotto as a luxury dish. The box of rice is expensive, but does 3 dinners for 2 adults. Add to that a batch of HM chicken or fish stock. A homegrown onion. A dash of the wine from your bottle for drinking (it is just a tablespoon or 2). And your flavourings - can be from cheap (a handful of regular mushrooms browned slowly) or more expensive (like some dried mushrooms rehydrated - and use that water as part of your stock), and some parmesan if you have it (the rind, thrown in for the last few minutes of cooking adds the flavour without beging terribly expensive and uses up that piece that you can't otherwise).

A decent chunk of butternut squash, roasted, would be lovely too. (And lots of squash left for other dishes).

Some leftover chicken pieces - say roast chick on Sat and risotto on Sunday with some leftovers, perhaps a scallion chopped in as well.

Chorizo sausage and some sweet red pepper (we LOVE Lidl's chorizo which goes a really long way).

The fishmonger in town (recently moved too far away to get to) used to sell a box of frozen baby squids for €6 (I think) - which would do about 7 or 8 risottos as you really don't need much. Perhaps add a couple of prawns (frozen bags work out cheap too), or some small pieces of other fish (like fish pie mix - jst a handful). Fry those all off first, and use a ladel of stock to rinse off the pan and get all the flavour into the risotto.

There's loads of flavourings that work really well with risotto, so you could have it once a week for about 2 months and have completely different dishes every time. And it is a NICE dish too.