I have for years hoarded and prized the most delicious potato bake recipe which I only bring out for special occasions as a treat. It is rich and delectable but is expensive as it uses half a litre of fresh cream. With the rising costs of food due to inflation, I wanted to find an alternative that was still tasty but didn't require taking out a mortgage. Here I'm going to include both recipes and a costing comparison.
Without giving away my age, I'm simply going to put it out there that I can remember a time when a pocket of potatoes cost R7 for 10kgs. They are now R55 for 7kgs. Granted that was a couple decades ago.
Rich, Creamy (and expensive) Potato Bake
1kg Potatoes
500ml Fresh Cream
50g Brown Onion Soup Powder
200g Grated Cheddar Cheese
Peel the potatoes, cut into halves or quarters (pieces approx 5cm across), put in a pot to boil and boil until soft (test with a metal skewer). Remove from the heat and place pieces on a chopping board, let cool so that the pieces form a skin. Once cool, chop into slices and make a single layer in a casserole dish.
Grate the cheese. Add the soup powder to the cream in a measuring jug and give it a brief stir. You don't want the soup to fully dissolve, just get it off the surface of the cream and evenly dispersed through the cream. Pour half of the cream mixture over the potato slices. Add a layer of grated cheese. Repeat these layers until all of the ingredients are used up and top with grated cheese. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes and then grill the top to make a crunchy crust. Serve hot and enjoy.
Still Tasty (but less expensive) Potato Bake
1kg Potatoes
500ml Fresh Milk
30g Margarine
30g White Bread or Cake Flour
30g Brown Onion Soup or Mushroom Soup Powder
200g Grated Cheddar Cheese
Peel the potatoes, deal with them exactly as with the other recipe : cut into halves or quarters (pieces approx 5cm across), put in a pot to boil and boil until soft (test with a metal skewer). Remove from the heat and place pieces on a chopping board, let cool so that the pieces form a skin. Once cool, chop into slices and make a single layer in a casserole dish.
Grate the cheese.
Make a white sauce by melting the margarine or butter in a saucepan over low to medium heat and adding the flour to form a clump. Add the milk a little bit at a time stirring constantly (I use a flat spatula, find it works really well for keeping the mixture from forming lumps), continue stirring and adding milk. Let the mixture cook a few minutes while stirring to remove the floury taste. Add the soup powder to the sauce mixture and continue stirring until you get a good consistancy. Remember that it is still going to cook in the oven for 20 minutes so you don't want it to already be a thick consistancy. Remove it from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the potato layer, then a layer of cheese and continue the layering until all ingredients are used.
Top it with grated cheese. Put it in the oven for 30 minutes and then grill the top to make a crunchy crust. Serve hot.
The verdict of comparison
When I made this last night I used mushroom soup powder as I didn't have any brown onion soup powder (which I usually have and use). This may have made the taste much more subtle, but it still tasted good. Definitely not as rich or as filling as the expensive version, but considering the cost saving, I reckon it's still a win. If I had to add a few herbs and spices to the mixture it probably would have made up for it. Alas, next time.
I almost fell over when I did the costing comparison of the two versions.
Rich, Creamy (and Expensive) Potato Bake
Cream R48
Soup Powder R4,80
Potatoes R13,50
Cheese R22
Total R88,30 (Approx $5,80 USD)
Inexpensive Potato Bake
Flour R0,50
Milk R5,90
Margerine R1,70
Soup Powder R4,80
Potatoes R13,50
Cheese R22
Total R48,40 (Approx $3,20 USD)
Taste comparison:
Rich, Creamy (and Expensive) Potato Bake: 10/10
Inexpensive Potato Bake: 8/10
I will probably only ever make the expensive potato bake for birthdays or Christmas from now on and even then it will depend very much on the price of cream. While the expensive version really is to die for and is also much faster to make as it essentially doesn't require you to make the sauce and it does it itself, I think that a cost saving of 45% warrants the extra bit of stirring.
Have you got any massive cost saving alternatives that you are now employing? Let me know in the comments.
Bon appetit!
