Raclette Night

On Friday, we fed my brother and his girlfriend. We may have gone to the pub once upon a time or out for a curry, but truth be told, I have always loved eating in – sitting around a table, drinking, playing cards and talking into the night, so it is no great frugal hardship. However, the meal did need to be frugal and ‘funky’. Does that make sense? Funky as in – I didn’t want to be serving meat and two veg. On Friday night, I want to eat something ‘fun’. Pizza was out as we served that the last time. Nothing for it – I dug out the Raclette.

 If you haven’t come across one of these before, they are the best! Basically, participants interact with their dinner and cook it themselves on a little tabletop cooker. Veg such as peppers and mushrooms, sausage or ham, chicken or prawns all get cooked on the top grill – each guest has a little wooden spatula.

Then, underneath are little saucepans in which you grill (pre-cooked) potatoes and melt cheese over the top. Admittedly, this is something more appropriate for winter, when sitting around a hotplate is a bit more comfortable than in the middle of summer. But we don’t have a BBQ (or a garden conducive to relaxing around a BBQ) so this will have to do.

Here is what I bought in Lidl for the purpose:

Courgettes £1.12

Potatoes £1.19
Mushrooms £0.89
Peppers £0.89
Ham  £4.64
Cheese £2.78

Total: £14.51 = £3.62 each.

Just chop and serve and let the guests do the rest! The cost is fairly reasonable I think for a main meal which will last at least an hour and a half as we alternately talk and eat.

But, we needed dessert as well. In keeping with the Swiss Alps theme, I am made a chocolate fondue for dessert.  Ingredients:

Bananas 40p

Pineapple 65p
Cream 79p
Choc £1.40
Mallows 99p

Total £4.23 = £1.05 each

Sorry there aren't any photos - it was quite a tipsy evening and I am afraid I forgot. To make the fondue I melted the chocolate in a bowl suspended over a pan of boiling water, then slowly added the cream and some oil, stirring it in thoroughly. I didn't bother keeping it warm at the table as it was gone before it could set hard again! We dipped pineapple, mallows and chopped bananas in it - lovely.

 

Total cost including a bottle of wine =  £22.74 for a two course meal for 4.  Realistically £23 is only two rounds at the pub – so from that perspective it was frugal.

However, I could have been really frugal if I had say, made a goats cheese tart with mixed salads for dinner, or a curry from scratch. I could have made a trifle or fruit and ice-cream for desert.  But it is Friday night and unfortunately time is at a premium – so no time to cook from scratch.