Five great family meals for under a fiver

Five Great Family

Meals for Under a Fiver

The weather’s getting chilly and the summer clothes are packed away for another year – in Autumn we return with pleasure to comforting foods. And it’s easy to cook family meals on a tight budget in this area as we have many farms selling vegetables and sacks of potatoes, and great local butchers selling top quality meat at excellent prices. Here are just 5 classic British recipes that can easily be made for a family of 4-5 for under £1 a head.

Laranja by C&J

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Roast a medium chicken (approx 2kg) in the centre of the oven at 190C for 20 minutes per lb (450g) plus 10- 20 minutes extra – around 2 hours. No extra fat is needed, but the chicken benefits from salt and pepper and being basted with its own fat 3-4 times during cooking.

A roast chicken can be turned into many meals – chicken soup, chicken pot pie, chicken pasta bake, chicken curry..............or at least the leftovers can!! However, a roast chicken dinner with roast potatoes, sage and onion stuffing, vegetables and gravy is hard to beat.

Beef In Ale

2 medium onions Garlic (optional) 2 sticks celery (optional) 2 carrots (optional) 8 mushrooms (optional) 500g Stewing beef Flour 500ml ale or stout 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes Seasoning 2 bay leaves

In a large, heavy-based pan fry the onions and garlic for a few minutes in oil then add whichever vegetables you want and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the beef, brown and then add the flour and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and then either put in a low oven (120C) for 3-4 hours or transfer to a slow cooker and cook on low for 5-6 hours. Thicken the gravy with cornflour mixed with water if needed. Make the mixture into a pie if you wish, add dumplings or just serve over buttery mash.

Toad in the Hole

8 Sausages 285ml milk 115g plain flour 3 large eggs Seasoning

Heat your oven to 220C. Put the sausages in an ovenproof dish with some oil and cook in the oven for 10 minutes. Whisk the remaining ingredients into a batter and pour over the sausages, then put the dish back in the oven and DO NOT TOUCH for 20 minutes. Serve with mash, peas and gravy.

500g firm white fish fillets cut into strips. 2 eggs, beaten Plain flour Breadcrumbs 1kg potatoes Sunflower oil

Pat the fish dry with a paper towel, then dip each piece first in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. When all are done they can either be shallow fried or baked in a hot oven (200C) for 15 mins. For the chips, peel and cut the potatoes into evenly-sized chunky chips. Bring to the boil in a pan of salted water then drain and allow to sit in a colander for 5 minutes while all the steam dissipates. Put onto baking trays and brush all over with oil and bake in a hot oven (200C) until golden and crisp, turning over after around 20 minutes. (Variation: Use chicken breast the same way as the fish for home-made chicken nuggets.)

Shepherd’s Pie

1 large onion 2-3 medium carrots 500g frozen lamb mince 2 tbsp tomato puree 500ml beef stock Seasoning 900g potatoes

Chop and fry the onion and carrots in a pan with some oil for 2 minutes (you can add some garlic here if you wish!), then add the mince and continue to fry until brown, spooning out any excess fat. Add the tomato puree and cook for 2 further minutes before adding the stock and seasoning (some chopped or dried mint at this point is lovely) and simmer for 40 minutes, with a lid over the top for the first 20 minutes. In the meantime, make your mash. When both the mince and mash are ready, put the mince into an ovenproof dish with the mash on top and ruffle the mash with a fork, then bake at 180C (160C fan) for around 25 minutes.

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