Gourmet grub on a skinflints budget.

granby burgers on toast, amazing

El Weirdo wrote: »

Homemade pizza and homemade chips.

Just fed a family of 4 for well under a tenner and way healthier and tastier than any of that frozen, packaged muck.

likewise, i did mash, veg and chicken halfs for 4 adults today for under a tenner

Depends on what you buy, what meal it is. Can be more, can be less(obviously) Tesco at around 9 in the evning is great for the old bargains. Got 12 doughnuts in there last night for a euro, the proper ones like.

If you invest in some spices from your local indian/chinese supermarket you can make extremely delicious meals for very little. I always look out for beef steak or mince in the selling-off section of my local supermarket since it's always useful.
If you do have beef mince and are sick of bolognese or cottage pie, consider Keema Mattar - an indian curry based on minced meat. I've made it out of lamb and beef and both were really good.

The Ingredients
Serves 3-4
1 tablespoon cooking oil/ Ghee if you have it (ghee tastes a lot better hur hur)
1-2 medium onions, chopped
5-8 cloves garlic, chopped
500g minced lamb or beef
A 2 inch cube of ginger, peeled and grated
As many or as few chillis as you like
2.5 teaspoon ground coriander seeds (get whole and mangle them with a mortar n pestle
2 teaspoons ground cumin / 1 tsp whole
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 squirt of tomato puree
1 cinnamon stick
250ml water
300g peas (frozen are fine)
About 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon garem masala
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
The Cooking
Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over a medium flame. When hot, add the onions and cook for 5-7 minutes or so until they’re starting to turn brown. Don’t worry about under or over cooking them too much, this dish is quite forgiving. Add the garlic and fry for one more minute, giving it a bit of a shake and stir so it doesn’t burn. Add the whole cumin and fry til it starts to pop.
Now add the minced meat, ginger, chillis, ground coriander seeds, ground cumin and cayenne. Give it a good stir.
Fry for about 5 minutes or so on a fairly high heat, breaking up any lumps as you go.
When it’s nice and brown, add 150ml water and the stick of cinnamon. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and leave it to simmer for 30 minutes. Check it every now and then and use the power of your brain to assess whether it’s too dry and needs more water or it’s fine. Taste often and adjust the spicyness as needed - be warned it may seem a bit bland since there is no salt at this stage.
Now add the peas, salt, garam masala, lemon juice and maybe a bit of water if it seem like it needs it. Mix it all in and bring it back to a simmer – cook until the peas are done (about 5 minutes). Taste it. Add more salt if you feel it needs it.
Serve with bread/rice/dhal.

Millicent wrote: »

Have you ever fried it? Or cooked in a stew? It's bloody lovely stuff.

Yeah, fried chorizo is amazing stuff.

Great things can be done with a pack of mince and a tin of tomatoes. And you get a really large quantity too. Add some onion, a little garlic and whatever else, and whatever herbs or spices you have.
You can make a bolognese and cook some pasta or something more like chilly with some rice. If you don't want to use mince and things are a bit tight for chicken fillets you can always dice a few rashers and fry them up with a diced onion and make a spicy bacon tomato sauce. It's lovely, and the fun thing is you'll have a bit of variety depending on whatever is in the house.
And obviously whatever you make you bang some cheese on top. Serve with a glass of the finest half price wine you can find in Tesco to really shwank things up. Pure class.