The Great 'Dinner party for 4 for under £10' Hunt

Caterina

Dan,

I have tried to cost spices and oils in a realistic way. A bottle of olive oil 1 Lt for £3 would contain at least 100 tbsps (at 10ml/tbsp) so there you go, exactly 6p, well calculated! And do you know any OSer who would use rock salt from a £2 box :eek:, unless they had bought it for 30p via Approved Food?:D

However you make a very good point, when calculating the cost we need to take into account all the bits and pieces, as they did originally cost us something even if they are already in our cupboards.

HTH

onesixfive

Spend time glitzing up yourself, the table & the room rather than the food.
Keep the food, VERY simple, like a (tinned) soup starter, a large shepherds pie / chilli or curry(with loads of rice), made with cheap mince & discount/whoops veg from supermarket clearance shelves.
Dessert can be simple Ice Cream.
This way you have cash to spare for a cheap bottle of fizz to glitz things up & get the night going!
You need recipes which can all be made in advance - its more important that you spend time with your guests than in the kitchen.

Dan_Thunder

Yeah, I was just trying to work out if you're supposed to differentiate between leaving out the cost of stuff pretty much everyone will have in their fridges/cupboards i.e. butter/flour/salt & peper etc and things that you'd have to buy i.e. half a glass of wine which may 'cost' 60p but you have to buy the whole bottle for £4-ish.

Caterina

Ah but then if you buy a £4 bottle of wine for cooking and only use 60p worth and then use the rest for other meals, it woud be only fair to cost the use for that particular meal on this instance.

I deliberately left out white wine in my risotto because I did not want to add to the cost. In reality I would add a glass of white wine to risotto (just because it is the "done" thing for Italians LOL) but I am sure that the taste would not be very much affected, unless you were making a simple white risotto, where the flavour would come as much from the wine as from the stock.

Boodle

I have tried to keep in mind the point made above: that you might have to buy everything in from scratch so have come from that angle. So there are items on the shopping list that are better value in larger quantites or a different brand range e.g. flour, garlic, olives, but was bearing in mind you might literally only have that £10 in the purse.

I have tried to have a nice warming autumnal feel to the meal too and included what would feel like a light but treat non-alcoholic drink (useful for guests who are driving anyway.)

Menu for 4

Plain, Seeded or Granary Bruschetta with Walnut Olive Tapenade
Chick Pea, Mixed Mushroom and Blackberry Casserole with Olive Oil Mash
Chocolate Mint Mouse
Lemon Fizz to drink

For the Lemon Fizz, dilute lemon squash with sparkling water.

Starter:
Slice a baton and brush lightly with olive oil. Toast until golden and cool on a wire rack so they don't go soggy. For the tapenade, whiz the walnuts and olives with a little garlic to taste and enough oil to give a nice spreadable consistency. Top the bruschetta with the tapenade just before serving.

Main:
Mix 1 tbsp flour, 1 tsp garlic granules and a stock cube with a splash of cold water to make a smooth paste. Top up to 1 pint with hot water from the kettle, stirring as you do so. Tip the drained chick peas, sliced onions, mushrooms (soaked as packet instructs) and 2-4 handfuls of washed foraged blackberries into a slow cooker or casserole dish with a lid and toss gently. Pour in the liquid. Add a bay leaf if you happen to have bay in your garden but it doesn't matter too much. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. For the mash, boil or steam plenty of potatoes until tender then drain and mash with enough oil to taste. Add a little garlic if you like garlic enough to feel it won't be garlic overload in the meal

Dessert:
Gently heat the chocolate thins with 200ml tap water in a pan as you stir. Once melted, transfer to a mixing bowl placed over ice water and whisk until thick. Turn into pots to serve.
(If you preferred, you could just serve up the chocolate thins to save yourself a job )

Shopping list (Asda)
Smartprice Lemon Squash 42p
Smart Price sparkling water 17p
Asda plain, seeded or granary baton 40p
Asda 35g pack of walnuts 65p
Crespo green olives with chilli peppers (or the plain pack) both 70, both 87p
Garlic granules 58p
Asda olive oil 250ml £1
400g loose Asda onions 36p
2x KTC tinned chick peas 62p
Asda plain flour 40p
Epicure dried mixed mushrooms 25g 1.98
Free foraged blackberries
Asda veg stock cubes 120g 50p
Smart price potatoes 2.5kg 99p
Asda dark chocolate mint thins 200g £1

Total: £9.94

vanoonoo

daisiegg wrote: »

Why do these threads get called 'hunts'? Just out of curiosity

cos you have to go off in search of the info quite often and hunt it down. the best deals are not always obvious and need to be investigated HTH

wanchai_2

Pink. wrote: »

Spaghetti carbonarra:

spaghetti everyday value 30p
4 egg yolks everyday value eggs 12p each = 48p
tub of cream 600mls £1.50 [half of which will be reserved for desert] This can be replaced or diluted with milk if you're watching the pennies or the calories.
packet of everyday streaky bacon 275g 97p
mushrooms [free...see starter]
grated cheese about 75p for four

Carbonara doesn't contain cream or mushrooms (or milk!), just egg and pancetta. Also, a good mature parmesan lasts aaaages and you can buy exactly the amount you need for this meal if keeping costs down (about 40p, tops and that'll give you plenty). So your main should be even cheaper.

sarahemmm

poppy-glos wrote: »

Hi mse debs. I have commented on the 2010 meal for six for £20 thread as ideas in there. It's on the first page of oldstle forum at the mo but will drop downbeat again if not commented on.

Hth, poppy

So have I, as there are some excellent suggestions there which you might well be able to do at under £10.

Pink.

wanchai wrote: »

Carbonara doesn't contain cream or mushrooms (or milk!), just egg and pancetta. Also, a good mature parmesan lasts aaaages and you can buy exactly the amount you need for this meal if keeping costs down (about 40p, tops and that'll give you plenty). So your main should be even cheaper.

Thank you for your comments wanchai.

I realise that what I make is not an authentic Italian carbonara, I don't think that I claimed that it was. My recipe is more like the Americanised version, but I don't really care because my family and friends love it and that's all that matters to me.

Pink

kateweb

Without drinks, I could do a fairly fancy dinner for four for £10.07; with the exception of the chocolate sauce, this can also all be made beforehand and doesn't need fiddling with, so you're able to talk to your guests.
You could certainly do a cheaper dinner party menu and this is all priced from Sainsburys with no market/allotment fruit and veg, so I'm sure it's possible to do this menu more cheaply:
Hummous, carrot batons and breadsticks
Caramelised onion tart with roast carrots and parsnips in a honey and mustard glaze
Frozen mixed berries with a hot white chocolate sauce

Starter:
Bought hummous (again, making your own would be cheaper), carrots batons from the main course carrots and bought breadsticks. Just chop and assemble.
£1.09 hummous
£0.75 toasted wheatbran breadsticks
£0.00 carrot batons (from carrots bought for main course

Main course:
Roll out puff pastry onto a greased baking sheet. Caramelise onions very slowly in a pan with some olive oil; when cooked, stir in the creme fraiche, pour onto pastry with a thin border around the edge and bake for c. 20 minutes. (If you prefer a pie to a tart, make two sheets of puff pastry, put one on top and cut a slit in the top, then bake until golden.)
Peel and chop carrots and parsnips into fairly solid chunks; put a dessert spoon of oil, a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of mustard into a bowl and coat the veg, then pour into a roasting tin and roast for 30-40 minutes.
£1.10 puff pastry (500 gms)
£0.45 onions (750 gms)
£1.10 creme fraiche (300 mls)
£0.90 carrots (1 kg)
£0.85 parsnips (750 gms)
Oil, salt/pepper, honey and mustard from cupboard (total less than 50p)

Pudding:
Arrange frozen berries on a large platter (preferably glass if you have one) and put flat into the freeze. Just before you're ready to serve, make white chocolate sauce (nice easy recipe here: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/632137 that takes ten minutes). Put the sauce into a jug, put the platter on the table and pour the hot chocolate sauce over the fruit; it all melts/freezes and looks quite spectacular.
£1.29 frozen mixed berries (400 gms)
£0.60 butter (85 gms)
£0.55 single cream (100 mls)
£1.39 Fairtrade white chocolate (200 gms)