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

natlie

Starter Carrot Soup

Pack of carrots from aldi 69p
2 parsnips 30p ish
1 small swede 50p
dash of cream 69p tub from aldi
from storecupboard:
1 veg stock cube
thyme
tumeric
salt and pepper
coriander

Main - Pithiver

Pack of puff pastry or homemade rough puff £2
Bag spinach £1
Feta cheese £1
dash or cream from starter
from storecupboard:
nutmeg
salt and pepper

serve with side salad £1

dessert

Millionaires brownies from tesco 4 for £2
use up cream from other courses

dronid

We have a local area website where we are in London and a group from there do a monthly "Come Dine with Me" only without relentless criticism, prizes or attitude. 6 people per group. The host makes the main meal, one (or the partner) bring the main course wine, 2 of the other guests bring the starter and dessert and the other two bring the starter and dessert wines. I made a Pork Goulash and a butternut squash one for a couple of stray vegetarians who wandered in - so ended up cooking for 8, wine and main course under £10 and the rest was brought by the guests. And you get a nice meal, once a month!

attentionseeker1

Caterina wrote: »

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.

I disagree with this. I don't think you should just work out the unit cost if it is something you are having to specifically buy for this recipe. Obviously it depends who you are but say you do not have bottles of wine as part of your store cupboard and need to buy it for this recipe.

It doesn't matter if you can use the other 5 glasses for something else as you either have the £4 needed for the wine or you don't. What if the recipe calls for Marsala or brandy or port? There is no point in saying that this recipe can be made for under £10 if it requires you to go out and buy a £10 bottle of booze to make it!!

Personally I would consider having different types of flour, a full range of spices, oriental pastes and sauces etc as part of my store cupboard but others might not. A recipe that I would consider all but free as everything is in my store cupboard could cost someone else £30 if ON THE DAY they had to go out and buy loads of new things.

Old-biddy

Yikes - dun think I want to dine with you guys, thanks all the same! Veggy squish and pulses etc. and school dinner puds. I'd be pushed at under £10 per head (but then again I do nice fresh juicy meat) and no-skimp on extras. Add in the bubbly and wine and I dread to think about the cost. Maybe I should start considering the alternatives though!

airgead

A great cheap starter is french onion soup. Use one onion (good sized one) per person, and a clove of garlic. Cook gently in oil and butter until they are soft and beginning to darken in color. Add a litre of water and a beef stock cube, and simmer for 10 mins.
To serve, make a piece of cheese on toast, on thickish bread if possible, quarter, and float a piece in the middle of each dish.

Because its a very flavoursome dish, you don't need a large amount, so it makes the ideal starter.

Onions are about 10p each, so that's 40p, a stock cube, 12p, the garlic, 5p, and cheese on toast, about 30g of cheese (cheap cheddar will do, the more mature the better), 20p and a thick slice of bread, 10p. We should count the oil/butter, lets say another 12p.
total of 99p, or 25p per portion.

(All my prices are roughly calculated from ASDA online, I'm sure cheaper versions are available!)

lostinrates

Pink. wrote: »

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

Dh, like many Italian foodies, got quite hot under the collar with my carbonara initially. When we lived in Italy it was one of my favourite discussions, as well meaning kind friends all tried to tell me the the 'real' recipe, and there are EVEN itlaian variations. This is the same for all those things we are told people of a certain nation never do. For example, Italians never have Parmesan on fish pasta (and I agree with them) but I defend absoltuely the classics of French and British cuisine where softer cheeses and fish marry beautifully.

Mine carbonara os slightly different to dh's, which is very purist, and both are lovely.

Pink.

Old-biddy wrote: »

Yikes - dun think I want to dine with you guys, thanks all the same! Veggy squish and pulses etc. and school dinner puds. I'd be pushed at under £10 per head (but then again I do nice fresh juicy meat) and no-skimp on extras. Add in the bubbly and wine and I dread to think about the cost. Maybe I should start considering the alternatives though!

You weren't invited to dine with us, just to parcipitate in a thread.

Under normal circumstances those of us who aren't vegetarians would cook ''nice fresh juicy meat''. However the challenge was to make a three course meal for four for less than £10.

Under those circumstances, what would you cook?

Pink

dundeedoll_2

Old-biddy wrote: »

Yikes - dun think I want to dine with you guys, thanks all the same! Veggy squish and pulses etc. and school dinner puds. I'd be pushed at under £10 per head (but then again I do nice fresh juicy meat) and no-skimp on extras. Add in the bubbly and wine and I dread to think about the cost. Maybe I should start considering the alternatives though!

Thank you so much for registering especially to be able to post your input

Of course you are perfectly entitled to your opinion, but it would have been ever so helpful if you could have given us a non squishy alternative.

(I have actually bookmarked this thread as there are some brilliant recipes - thank you to everyone who went to the trouble of writing them all out :T)

Caterina

lostinrates wrote: »

Dh, like many Italian foodies, got quite hot under the collar with my carbonara initially. When we lived in Italy it was one of my favourite discussions, as well meaning kind friends all tried to tell me the the 'real' recipe, and there are EVEN itlaian variations. This is the same for all those things we are told people of a certain nation never do. For example, Italians never have Parmesan on fish pasta (and I agree with them) but I defend absoltuely the classics of French and British cuisine where softer cheeses and fish marry beautifully.

Mine carbonara os slightly different to dh's, which is very purist, and both are lovely.

So true! I have lived in the UK for the last 30 ish years now and I still get a bit of a shiver when I see people use garlic and onion in the same recipe LOL (because it is NOT the done thing in real traditional Italian cookery). Of course you are so right, that the "real" recipe varies from village to village, even from family to family! We were taught that you should never use parmesan on a mushroom risotto for example, which still resonates with me even if I LOVE parmesan on mushroom risotto. And of course I would DIE before putting cheese on a fish pasta, especially something with clams or mussels, but then again happily eat tuna melt in tomato sauce (tinned tuna chucked in tomato sauce and covered with grated cheddar), because I have learnt to eat it here as an adult. Go figure

For the latinists here: De gustibus non est disputandum LOL

lostinrates

Caterina wrote: »

So true! I have lived in the UK for the last 30 ish years now and I still get a bit of a shiver when I see people use garlic and onion in the same recipe LOL (because it is NOT the done thing in real traditional Italian cookery). Of course you are so right, that the "real" recipe varies from village to village, even from family to family! We were taught that you should never use parmesan on a mushroom risotto for example, which still resonates with me even if I LOVE parmesan on mushroom risotto. And of course I would DIE before putting cheese on a fish pasta, especially something with clams or mussels, but then again happily eat tuna melt in tomato sauce (tinned tuna chucked in tomato sauce and covered with grated cheddar), because I have learnt to eat it here as an adult. Go figure

For the latinists here: De gustibus non est disputandum LOL

Thanks for this confirmation Caterina!

It's no different here of course...how can one answer what the 'perfect' fruit cake is, and variations in hot pot, or pasties, or ...whether cream should be under or over the jam on a scone:rotfl:

Food should be good. And that's it.

Sometimes ofcourse, the simplest thing is to not use a name like 'carbonara' and instead say this is 'pink's pasta' because it saves a lot of heated debate.

Btw, to truely horrify, my favourite carbonara ever, the cook told me their secret...a dash of vermouth. Dh almost died at the thought, but it was delicious.