Dining In – The New Eating Out – Indian Family Feast

Our post about our Mexican Family Feast has been one of our most popular recipes ever. The boys continue to like Chilli and this month they have also come to love a good curry – albeit a mild one!

The Fakeaway

As supermarkets continue to report a surge in sales of ingredients for home takeaways, including Indian food, that we are rustling up ourselves, these ‘fakeaways’ can be less salty, cheaper making them fresher and more frugal.

And can also help get over the guilty desire for a tasty Indian meal, especially on a weekend.

Before going straight for a curry. We introduced chip shop style curry sauce first, the youngest actually liked it first but after trying one of my curry dishes once the eldest then decided he liked the idea of this new cuisine too. We decided to have a family curry night, with all the trimmings!

Not only was it cheaper than a takeaway, I also had a fair idea of what was in most of it – and the boys also got involved in the shopping, preparation and cooking, so it was a win, win situation all round.

As you will see below our family of four enjoyed an Indian style family feast this week, cooking some of the food from scratch and adding accompaniments from the supermarket and it cost less than £4.00 per person. 

To order the equivalent from a local takeaway delivery service would have cost over £40.

 The Indian Style Family Feast:

• Quorn & Vegetable Korma with sweetcorn peas, carrots and potatoes
• Pilau Rice & Naan Bread
• Mini Poppadum’s & Large Poppadum’s with Indian style dips
• Vegetable Samosas & Bhajis
• Side dishes: Bombay Potatoes, Saag Aloo, Tarka Dal

Method: Home-made Quorn Korma

1. Par-boil  a handful of small potatoes and chop in half or into bite size chunks
2. Chop one onion and fry until lightly cooked in a pan on the hob.
3. Add chopped garlic the Quorn pieces and the Korma sauce simmer.
4. Add water if necessary.
5. Add par-boiled potatoes and some frozen vegetables
6. Continue to simmer for 10 – 15 mins.

Additional preparation: 

Cook the rice in the microwave.

Cook the side dishes in the microwave

Cook the samosas, bhajis and naan bread in the oven.

Place all other ingredients on the dining table and serve to a hungry family.

  

Cost: Less than £12 for four people and there was enough left over for a meal the following night.

• Quorn Chicken Pieces £1 (on offer at the time in Morrisons - and often are I find)
• Korma Sauce 67p
• Frozen sweetcorn peas, carrots 20p
• Small potatoes 20p
• Onion 10p
• Pilau Rice 67p
• Mini Poppadoms 88p
• Large Poppadoms 81p
• Dips – mango chutney, lime pickle and raita £1
• Naan Bread 50p
• Vegetable Samosas & Bhajis £1.15
• Sharwoods Bombay Potatoes £1 (now £1.77 but were on offer at the time)
• Sharwoods Saag Aloo £1 (now £1.77 but were on offer at the time)
• Sharwoods Tarka Dal £1 (now £1.77 but were on offer at the time)
• 4 cornetto style ice-creams £1

 Total: £11.53

Not only was it fairly inexpensive, but again just like with the Mexican feast it was a lovely family meal. We all sat together around a table sharing food. We ate the poppadoms with raita, mango chutney and lime pickle (the mango chutney was everyone's favourite), we also used the dips with the samosas and bhajis and got very full eating the curry, rice and naan bread. Then finished it off with an ice-cream (again).

The boys have described it as great, fantastic and fabulous and when can we have it again!.

Cost: Under £12 for four people
Time: Half an hour to prepare and cook - a 

My Boys Club Rating: The boys were really keen to try out Indian food, the result is that curry sauce, in particular, is now the flavour of the month in our house.

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What's your favourite fakeaway?

Deb x