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"Gourmet" cooking doesn't have to be expensive. Almost all of the recipes that you will find here will cost under $50, but much more like $20 or even cheaper if you have a well stocked kitchen, which you will have over time if cooking becomes a hobby.

You will also be amazed how you sort of know what you have and what you don't. So when you go to the grocery store it becomes easier and easier to see what's on special, think about what you have and what you don't, and then pick up a few odds and ends and make a really nice dinner without spending much money.

One of the real cruxes of any recipe that you're going to use for entertaining guests is cost. You might spend $50 but if you can feed 10 people and the quality of the food far surpasses what you could get for the same budget from a high end restaurant... well, people will quickly prefer to eat what you cook than what they can get at a restaurant.

For this first recipe there are quite a lot of ingredients, but almost all of them should be common to any kitchen that gets a lot of use. You will want to pay particular attention to your spice cupboard and any time you have a few extra dollars to spend look to see what spices are on sale.

Spices used in ethnic dishes such as cumin, or saffron, can quickly run up the cost of making a recipe however they are usually used sparingly and you will be able to make the recipe multiple times without having to purchase more.

Cooking wine is also necessary. Look for a good price on a large bottle and throw it in your pantry. Vinegar, flour, and oil are also items that you will want to purchase in advance, always keeping them on hand so that you can take advantage of sale prices.

Removing all of these items you will find beef, butter, milk, breadcrumbs, potatoes, garlic, an onion, and eggs. Olives, capers, and raisins can be completely omitted - bringing the total for a recipe like this up to approximately $20. Considering the yield was about 30... it could serve 10 people as part of a meal, or up to 15 people as an appetizer.

An added bonus is that it really isn't much work to double this recipe, and it really doesn't cost much more because you're only going to need more potatoes, and more beef. So instead of spending $20 to make a yield of 30 you could spend ~$30 to make a yield of 60, or ~$40 to make a yield of 90.

If you have milk, and butter, and eggs you can quickly see how cheap a recipe like this is, and once you get a little practice in you'll see how easy it is as well.