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Cheap, cheerful, delicious family dinner.

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  • 07-08-2009 6:11pm
    #1
    mcaul
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,493 ✭✭✭


    Had a challenge between friends to do family of five dinner for about a fiver - this came tops.



    1 x Pk lidl ham off cuts 1kg (€1.99) (surprisingly lean & tasty)
    1kg potatoes (99c)
    500g frozen peas (1.25)
    500g carrots (50c)
    2 x medium onions (20c)
    tin chicken soup. (70c)

    Boil ham for 40min & strain

    Boil potatoes for 20min & strain

    Cut potatoes into 1" chunks
    Cut ham into 1" chunks

    Place together into pot with peas, onions, carrots & chicken soup.

    Simmer for 30min.


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    #2
    Fairdues
    Registered Users Posts: 257 ✭✭Fairdues


    Will try this. Thanks.


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    #3
    Fairdues
    Registered Users Posts: 257 ✭✭Fairdues


    We need more of these kind of ideas. So much money is wasted on processed foods.


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    #4
    LittleRose
    Registered Users Posts: 36 ✭LittleRose


    Cheap enough and very, very delicious: White wine is fine instead of vermouth and it's ideal for a cheapy chicken:



    Ingredients:
    50g butter
    2 tbsp olive oil
    Salt and pepper
    1 fine-quality, free-range 1.5kg chicken (dressed weight) with giblets, if possible
    130g pancetta or other bacon, cubed
    12 cloves of garlic, peeled
    2-3 generous splashes of vermouth
    1kg potatoes, washed, peeled and cut into large chunks
    5-6 sprigs of fresh thyme
    300ml good chicken stock
    Preheat the oven to 150C/330F/Gas Mark 2.

    Using a deep cast-iron pot with a lid (an oval Le Creuset is ideal), melt the butter with the olive oil. Season the chicken all over and inside, then slowly brown its surfaces in the fat, turning the bird over and around for about 15 minutes. Remove to a plate. Add the pancetta and garlic to the pot and allow both to sizzle and gild slightly, then pour in the vermouth, which will froth and splutter. Introduce the potatoes now and turn with a spoon through the fatty residue until well coated. Stir in the thyme sprigs and stock and return the chicken to the pot, burying it deep among the potatoes. Bring the whole affair up to a bubbling simmer over a low heat, cover and transfer to the oven.
    Cook for 1-1½ hours, until the potatoes are very tender indeed; the chicken will also be well cooked, but that is how it is meant to be in this instance.
    Serve direct from the pot at the table, carefully lifting the chicken onto a hot serving dish for jointing. Spoon some of the potatoes – together with copious amounts of juice – around each serving.


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