7 family recipes from less than £3

Place foil over the whole lot and cook for 40 mins, After 30 mins, turn the oven up to 220C for a good blast of heat.

Jane Skinner’s Lamb’s liver with mushrooms

“Let’s hear it for offal. Properly prepared, lamb’s liver, kidneys and so forth are delicious and worthy of attention. Full of goodness, too, they contain many essential nutrients, notably the B vitamins that may be lacking in today’s processed meals.”

Cost: £3.70

Ingredients

6-8 evenly cut slices of lamb’s liver - about 500g.

A box of mushrooms

Flour

Flat leaved parsley, chives or spring onion.

One clove of garlic

Rice

Lemon

Method

Finely chop the mushrooms with your choice of herbs and crushed garlic clove. Dust the liver in seasoned flour.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan with 1 oz of butter and quickly fry the slices of liver each side. Then add the herb and mushroom mixture, shaking the pan to make sure the liver does not stick.

Turn onto a hot serving dish, adding a squeeze of lemon just before serving. Accompany with plain boiled rice and the juices from the pan.

Adapted from Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking

Angela Cable’s Cassoulet

“As with all stews/casseroles this is better the next day. Since it has a long cooking time, why not make use of the whole breast of lamb, make the dish for eight and freeze the leftovers?”

Cost: £4.35

Ingredients

250g haricot beans soaked overnight or the equivalent (4 ordinary tins)

110g smoked pork sausage, thickly sliced

½ a breast of lamb (about 1.5kg)

500g pork belly

2 cans chopped tomatoes

100g tomato puree

2 large onions chopped

1 bulb garlic

rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano/

marjoram or dried mixed herbs

2 bay leaves

salt, pepper

Method

Soak haricot beans overnight or for 8 hours. Drain, cover with water and boil for 90 minutes until tender.

Chop the lamb and pork into one inch pieces. In a non-stick pan fry the lamb and pork for about ten minutes. Add and fry the onions and garlic. Transfer to a saucepan/casserole and add the beans, tinned tomatoes, herbs, tomatoe puree and season.

Add the bean cooking liquor. Mix ingredients well and cook in a slow oven (170C/Gas3) for 2 and a half hours. If too fatty skim off. Some recipes add breadcrumbs as a topping 30 minutes before the end.

Rick Morgan’s L’Oignee du Midi

“Inexpensive ingredients, easy to make and tastes really good.”

Cost: £4.83

Serves 6

Ingredients

450g waxy potatoes, We use Red Desiree potatoes which are not waxy but work very well at a cost of 50p.

1.5kg large onions

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

675g premium chipolatas at a cost of £3

Salt, black and white pepper

Method

Heat oil in a cocotte or large heavy pan over a gentle heat and cook onions for 10 minutes or until blond stage is reached - stir frequently. Peel and cut the potatoes into coarse slices, dry thoroughly and mix into the onions. Season with salt only,cover and leave to simmer until the vegetables start to render their juice. Bury sausages deeply into the onions and season generously with white and freshly ground black pepper. Cover and continue cooking gently, mixing from time to time very carefully to avoid breaking the potatoes. Remove the lid so that the excess moisture evaporates and when the potatoes are tender empty the mixture into a deep gratin dish and place under a hot grill - serve when brown and crusted. Serve with coarse wholemeal bread if needed.

Adapted from Eileen Reece’s French Cooking.

Shona Malcolm’s Lentil Stew

“You can add cooked chick peas and other vegetables including fresh tomatoes, celery, squash and sweet potatoes, which are all treated in the same way as the other vegetables.”

Cost: £2.76

Ingredients

500g green or brown lentils 92p

200g carrots chopped 14p

200g sliced mushrooms 58p

1 large onion chopped 17p

2 red peppers chopped 66p

500g sieved tomato passata 29p

1 or 2 cloves of garlic chopped

Method

Cook the lentils until soft but not disintegrating. Soften the garlic, onions, carrots and peppers in a little oil.

Put the lentils and softened vegetables into an flameproof casserole or pan, add passata and sliced mushrooms and cook until thick and the mushrooms soft. Season to taste.

Fiona Bird’s Ladybirds in nettle pesto pie

“An eking out the budget idea: top it up by foraging.”

Cost: about £5

Ingredients

To make the pesto:

50g young nettle leaves

25g Parmesan cheese

clove garlic

25g toasted pine nuts

Few twists freshly ground black pepper

Aprrox 100ml rapeseed oil

Method

Put all of the ingredients apart from the oil in a food processor and blend. Slowly add (with the machine running) enough rapeseed oil to make a thick paste.

Ingredients

For the pie

Butter for greasing

25g butter

Large leek, washed and finely shredded

2 tbsp nettle pesto

14-15 cherry tomatoes halved

125g mozzarella cheese cut into 1cm cubes

250g puff pastry

Flour for rolling

3 olives chopped

Method

Oven 220C/Gas 6

1. Grease 18 x 14 rectangle shallow ovenproof dish.

2. Heat the butter in a frying pan and add the shredded leeks. Cook for 2-3 minutes but do not allow them to brown. Add the pesto to the pan, stir well and remove from heat.

3. Put the cherry tomato halves, skin side down in the greased dish. Scatter the mozzarella over the top. Add the leeks and pesto and spread evenly.

4. Roll the pastry to roughly fit the dish and place over the mixture. Turn the edges in; to make the pastry fit the dish.

5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

6. Turn the dish upside down onto a serving dish and decorate the tomatoes with chopped olives to resemble ladybird spots.

Shona Malcolm’s Bacon Hotpot

Cost: £3.25

Ingredients

1 packet- 250g of streaky bacon chopped

1 (or 2) onions sliced thinly

9 good sized potatoes sliced thinly

1.5 pints of milk

Butter, flour, nutmeg

Method

Sauce- béchamel sauce made with 3 oz butter gently melted, add 3 oz flour to make a roux. Cook for a few minutes also gently, take the pan off the heat and add 1 and half pints of milk gradually stirring or using a hand whisk all the time. Bring to the boil stirring all the time with a wooden spoon until smooth. Season well and grate in some nutmeg.

Layer the sliced onions bacon and potatoes in a “lasagne” type oven proof dish and pour over the hot sauce. Bake in oven until cooked (spear to check the potatoes are becoming mushy) and browning on top - about 1 and half hours.