3 Course Meal for 6 With a £20 Budget?

RobsterRulz

Hey everyone!

I was lookin for a little bit of help. Me and my friends are having a "Come Dine With Me" week but being poor students we have a £20 budget to cater for 6 people, preferably with 3 courses. I was just looking for some advice on what I could cook and the best supermarket to get my ingredients that would fit the £20 budget but be fancy enough to win

I know this sounds like a tall order but any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance :T

lurkylurky

I think you would be better posting on the Old Style board. There's loads of suggestions and advice on money saving menus there. Good luck.

nikinackyloo

I agree, loads of help and advice like this on oldstyle - I think your come dine with me sounds fab! and definately do-able on £20

i would do a chicken liver pate to start - very cheap but impressive - 44p for frozen chicken livers, 10p an onion, 20p garlic, and 90p for butter. ( rough calculations, before I get shot down;)) serve with some red onion chutney - either homemade or bought and either some melba toast bought or some toasted bread!

main course - loads of choices - meat joints at the moment are 3 for £10 in M&S so I would be tempted to do something from there but you also could do a homemade lasagne perhaps - will leave that to someone else!

dessert - bannoffee pie, tiramisu, white choc cheesecake ( fab gary rhodes recipe on goodfood), caramel croissant pudding ( google Nigellas recipe) - you could easily make a dessert for £4 though ( or even less)

good luck - let us know what you do

MrsE_2

RobsterRulz wrote: »

Me and my friends are having a "Come Dine With Me" week

Sounds a great idea, have fun:D

marywb

you could have a look at some of these 'posh budget recipes' from the Good Food website. For a starter you could do some pea and mint soup - cheap and delicious, and maybe some nice slow roasted belly pork for main and apple crumble for pud. You could also have a look at Delias frugal menu of the month for January (don't fancy the soup much

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/favourites/posh-budget/

http://www.deliaonline.com/news-and-features/menu-of-the-month-january.html

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zarazara

Spicy lentil and parsnip HM soup with 2 or 3 types HM bread, eg white, wholemeal with sunflower seeds,herb rolls. :-), followed by a large fruit bowl filled with various fruits, pretty HM parcels of mixed nuts and dried fruits ,even choc chunks, a cafetiere of coffee and good conversation.

wssla00

Chicken pie... Yum yum!

1 boil a chicken with one carrot one cellery stick and a quartered onion in a big pan with enough water to just cover the chicken
2. Once it is cooked, remove the chicken and the bits of veg add some a small carton of single cream and boil until it is reduced add a couple of teaspoons of cornflour or plain flour to thicken, whisk well
3. Pull off the chicken pieces and add them to a pie dish
4. Add any cooked veggies you like. I like peas (which can be put in frozen) or some simmered leeks
5. Add any extras (ham is lovely with either chicken and pea or chicken and leek or perhaps some cooked streaky bacon chopped up)
6. Pour on your sauce you have just made to ensure everything is coated
7. Roll out a piece of puff pastry and pinch around the edges of the pie dish
8. lightly score the puff pastry in a diamond pattern (diagonal one way then diagonal the other way)
9. Brush top with some whisked up egg
10. Bake in the oven for about 20 mins or however long it is until the pastry is browned.
Makes a really big dish of food for the cost of the chicken and a few handfuls of extras. I serve it with new potatoes and soy sauce cabbage or some fine green beans.

wssla00

and what about a nice chocolate fondue for desert?

Melt about two bars of dark chocolate
add enough cream to the mix to the desired consistency
arrange nicely on the plate a selection of fruits and marshmallows
give everyone skewers and let them dip into their hearts content

oooh would be fun to have some hundreds and thousands too yummo!

Jem8472

This might take up a little too much of the £20 budget but they are amazing!

This is the recipie I have. I use silcone muffin cases, which came in a big sheet but I cut up into seperate cases.

This can be done the day before they are needed and kept in the fridge.

serves 6

150g Dark choc at least 70% coco
125g Butter
4 Eggs
2 egg yolks
130g caster sugar
60g sieved plain flour
10g coco powder
And a little butter to grease the moulds

Melt the choc and butter over a pan of water.
Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the eggs and egg yolks one at a time.

Fold in the sugar flour and coco powder.

Rest the mixture in the fridge for at least 2 hours or over night is best.
The moulds should be about 3/4s full.

I actually grease the moulds and put the mixture strait in then let them rest in the fridge. Much easier as the mixture gets very hard and gloopy when left in the fridge.

put the oven on 180c
Put the moulds on a try and put into the oven.

Cook for about 10 mins. they pudding should rise and the surface starts to break. The middle will feel very liquid when tapped but as long as it is sponge on the top it should not break open when turned out.

When done turn out carfully into dishes and serve with good quality ice cream. This is when the silcone really helps, it makes them easy to pop out of the case.

As for the cooking part keep an eye on them as it is a very fine line between being perfect. *Sponge on the outside and liquid in the middle.* And being over cooked *sponge all the way through.*

YUM YUM YUM YUM:D

gingin_2

That sounds like great fun.

I have done a few recipes from the Come Dine with Me website.

These were amazing and really easy to prepare

http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/occasions/dinner-parties/come-dine-with-me/series-4/prawns-pil-pil-recipe_p_1.html

I would imagine if you shopped well you could do it for £5 for 6. Serve with lots of crusty bread.

What about a risotto for main course? Better if you have the dining table in the kitchen though, as it's an easy but high maintenance dish to cook.

I'm not so good on puds but nickynackynoo's sound lovely, or make a nice big pavlova.