I want to cook a nice in-expensive meal for my Mums birthday

samjones39blue

I want to cook something impressive for my mums birthday but not spend a fortune. I've seen lots of lovely recipes in some of my cook books but they all need loads of ingredients which is going to cost loads.

I'm only cooking a main meal (got birthday cake for pud!) and I'm cooking for 5 adults. Oh and I'm doing the meal this Wednesday after work so will only have say two hours max in the kitchen.

P.S I'm not a bad cook! Just need some inspiration!

spiddy100

Personally I'd do a stew or casserole - beef bourgignon is 'posh' but can be done with great results from an inexpensive cut of beef. Cook it on Tuesday night (it needs a good couple of hours to cook), it will be even better the next day, then you can spend 1/2 hour or so putting the veggies together (personally I'd do mash with leeks in and brocolli), and not have to rush.

Have a look on the cooking threads for inspiration for other similar dishes - just about any casserole will tick the boxes of cheap, tasty, and can be prepared in advance.

gerretl

Can I suggest a starter, that is dead easy, but great.
Get some on the vine tomatoes (Tesco do a load in yellow label) Add rosemary, and whole cloves of garlic, and put in a baking tray. add balsamic vinegar, and add a little salt as seasoning. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft.
Get some goats cheese or other soft cheese, and some sliced brown bread or ciabatta.
Nows the best bit. layer the cheese and tomato mix on top of the bread and eat. Its pretty good. You may want to do a practice run on Tuesday, just to get it right

scotgirl

When we have people round we do a pie of some sort to keep the cost down.

Fish pie, steak pie or shephards pie are always favourites!

We often make lasagne too as it is cheap and everyone loves it with some HM garlic bread and a big salad - yum!

Pies and lasagnes etc. can be made the night before which is great too!

vixtress

this looks like youve gone to a lot of trouble but is the easiest in the world
shoulder of lamb is also relatively cheap and you should have leftovers

slow roast lamb ;

1 shoulder lamb approx 2.5 kg
4 shaloots halved but not peeled 6 cloves garlic 1 carrot peeled and halved
handful freshly chopped mint
500ml boiling water
1 pomegranate.
serves 6-8.

pre heat oven 140 gas mark 1
on hob brown lamb fat side down in roasting tin then set aside, briefly fry veg sprinkled with salt for a few mins
pour the water over and replace lamb fat side up and bring to boil. Then tent with foil and bung in the oven for 8 hours or so or 5 at a slightly higher temp.
then shread and serve with pomegranate (cut in half and bang with wooden spoon to get seeds out) or pomegranate moulasses small amount mixed with water and add mint.
serve with roasted red pepper feta and pine nut salad and cous cous, and serve the next day with pitta.
hope you like it!

vixtress

vixtress wrote:

this looks like youve gone to a lot of trouble but is the easiest in the world
shoulder of lamb is also relatively cheap and you should have leftovers

slow roast lamb ;

1 shoulder lamb approx 2.5 kg
4 shaloots halved but not peeled 6 cloves garlic 1 carrot peeled and halved
handful freshly chopped mint
500ml boiling water
1 pomegranate.
serves 6-8.

pre heat oven 140 gas mark 1
on hob brown lamb fat side down in roasting tin then set aside, briefly fry veg sprinkled with salt for a few mins
pour the water over and replace lamb fat side up and bring to boil. Then tent with foil and bung in the oven for 8 hours or so or 5 at a slightly higher temp.
then shread and serve with pomegranate (cut in half and bang with wooden spoon to get seeds out) or pomegranate moulasses small amount mixed with water and add mint.
serve with roasted red pepper feta and pine nut salad and cous cous, and serve the next day with pitta.
hope you like it!

just seen the 2 hrs bit, perhaps you could have this cooking whislt you are at work??

lewt

stir fry?....

MrsTinks

Potato Gratin (the recipe is about on here somewhere ) and serve with peas, carrots or some other colourful veggies You can serve with gammon, chicken, lamb, infact nearly anything! Easy to make in large amounts and not too pricey (for 5 I'd say 2 tubs of whipping cream although I only used 1 and a splash of milk when I cooked for 4 at the weekend)

Or lasagna! It's always a safe bet Do home made garlic bread with it if you want to be posh

morganlefay

There's a thing I do which the family all love:

Chicken breast per person
Make a slit in it and post in there a little lump of cheapest garlic soft cheese (should be Boursin but really doesn't need to be) or goats cheese. Get a red pepper and grill it until skin burnt all over, seal it in a poly bag to cool a bit then get it out and on a bit of kitchen paper scrape all the burnt off. You should be left with softish, very tasty grilled pepper (you can buy this in jars but they cost, and this is very easy ). Cut strips of the pepper and push one or two into each chicken breast with cheese. Wrap each breast in streaky bacon ( my recipe says use pancetta but much-cheaper streaky is fine) so that the hole containing the cheese and pepper is all sealed in. roast with bacon ends on the underneath for about 30 mins. When you dish up, scrape up any of the cheesy filling if it has leaked as it's very tasty even if it looks a bit messy. Serve with rice, or mash or boiled new potatoes and a bit of broccoli for colour (or a salad but perhaps not in this weather). Make a jelly out of real squeezed orange juice and gelatine for pud - fabulously refreshing and lovely with or without cream. Hope it goes well 1

kittiwoz

I make a mushroom and walnut sauce for pasta which is based on the description label for a sauce I saw at one of the deli counters in Selfridges food hall. It doesn't look fancy but it tastes quite posh and is uber easy to make. I just blend chopped mushrooms (you only need a little because they are strong tasting and you don't want to overpower the mushrooms), chopped walnuts (you only need a little because they are strong tasting and you don't want to overpower the mushrooms), soft cheese, grated parmesan a glug of red wine and a little salt and pepper. The ingredients are reasonably expensive, though not compared to meat, but the recipe seems to stretch them a long way while still tasting quite luxurious.

womblingfree_2

I made potato dauphinoise for New Year and they were great and tasted very deacdent. Peel and slice potatoes very thinly. In a shallow casserole place a layer of potato, a little crushed garlic and season with salt and pepper. Repeat until all potatoes are used up or dish is 3/4 full. Make a mixture of half double cream half milk and add to dish so that potatoes are covered. Cook for 1.5 - 2 hours uncovered about gas 4 or 5 until potatoes are soft and brown on the top.

This tastes really luxurious. I served it with roast lamb but would go well with chicken, ham etc. You can serve something plain with it because it is so rich.

Any leftovers can form the basis of a nice cullen skink (Scottish soup made with potatoes, cream and smoked haddock)