Cooking Fresh Food - breaking the jar/can/bottle habit...

[Janie]

Oh yeah Cai, having said I hate jars and packets, I couldn't live without tinned tomatoes LOL!

[paradise lost]

For me jars are usually too expensive. I have what i call my "emergency jars" in the cupboard - tinned spag bol (of the kind one might eat on toast) and tinned soups - they get used when i'm too tired or ill to cook for us. I generally use about 1 tin from the emergency a month.

I have 40 (literally, i took a delivery of 36 last week) tins of tomatoes (16 whole plum, 24 chopped plum) in my cupboard along with 2X butterbeans, 2X chickpeas and 6X kidney beans. I have the dried versions too, but unless i'm planning well ahead or using the pressure cooker (which needs no pre-soaking for small grains) i am notoriously bad at managing to pre-soak. So i can't claim i don't use tins! LOL. But i never buy a pasta sauce for example, i always make my own.

My basic sauce takes about 15mins BG, more if you're using fress toms, but i'll detail that too.

For fresh toms, begin by plunging into boiling water and removing the skins, then dice roughly into 2cm cubes.

To make a lot to freeze i generally use 3-4 cans of tomatoes (about 12-20 toms, depending on size) 2 onions, 4 garlic cloves, a big handful of basil and a generous pinch of herbes de provence, some olice oil, some tomato paste.

Finely chop or grate (faster but makes me cry more) the onions. Fry them gently in olive oil while you chop and add the garlic (if you crush it it's stronger and you'll need less) and the dried herbs. Let it all fry until the onions are softened then add your tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir together, simmer for 10 mins then boil hard (to reduce) for 5. Remove from heat, add chopped basil/herbs (if using fresh).

To this you can add later on:
chillis (for arabiata base)
meat or soya mince (for bolognese, tom part of lasagne sauce etc.)
chilli, meat (or soya mince), kidney beans, grated carrot (chilli con carne)
chopped grilled bacon, milk and flour (thickened tomato pasta bake sauce)
grated, boiled carrots and coriander and a dollop of creme fraiche (for tomato, carrot and coriander soup)
aubergine, zuchini, peppers (all roasted and then simmered in the sauce) for a ratatoui type thing
fish (i like mackarel or anchovies) and raisins (for a lovely fresh pasta sauce)
mint, peas, chopped roast lamb, paprika and spices (cinnamon etc.) (for a greekish dish that goes yum with potatoes)

I could go on, it's pretty versatile It's a great alternative to the "tin of soup" so many slow cooker recipes call for too.

My favourite salad dressings:
olive oil, balsamic, mustard
toasted sesame oil, lime juice, wasabi (great marinade for sashimi recipes too!)
groundnut oil, cider vinegar, smooth peanut butter (great with indian or thai food salads)

Raita recipe (for the cucumber) - 1 cucumber, 500ml unsweetened natural yogurt, 2 big handfuls fresh mint, 1 tablespoon mint sauce (from a jar! eek), little squeeze of lemon juice.
Grate the cucumber, squeeze some of the water out of it (i dump it in a clean tea towel and wring - if you dice it you don't need to do this bit) and set aside. Chop the mint. Put all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add salt to taste (i use none, depends on the yogurt i find, some has a saltiness to it already). It's a great accompaniment to hot hot hot curries and DD often begs for a spoonful of it whenever i open the fridge

Pumpkin and sweet potato stew-
Flesh of 1 small pumpkin
2-3 sweet potatoes
some of my tomato base (above)
beef or lamb (lamb works best, particularly the "bad" cuts like neck/breast as the fat adds a lot of flavour)
paprika, cinnamon, a little nutmeg, pepper, salt

Peel the potatoes and dice them up, dice up the pumpkin, i get my butcher to bone out and dice my meat for me, but you could stick it in whole and take the bones out at the end because it goes all melty anyway. Some people fry off the meat to brown it first, i do if i can be bothered but i often can't. Stick it all in the crock pot, add enough tomato base to almost cover it all. I cook on medium for about 9 hours but it depends on how fast/hot your cooker is and how hot the kitchen is... I have also had to add seasoning (spices as well as salt and pepper) at the end too, depending on how well i managed to do it in the first place.

Serve it up with a tomato salad made of chopped raw tomato, spring or red onion, red pepper (capsicum), chopped mint and some cider vinegar/olive oil dressing.

I'm looking for thai, japanese or chinese type recipes of any kind

Bx

[TheBear]

I should probably clarify something - I'm not suggesting that just because something is in a can or jar then it is bad - canning is an excellent way of preserving some types of fresh produce, tomato, beans and pulses are great examples of that.

The products I'm targetting are the processed foods, where the supplier is charging a premium for bulking the product out with other ingredients.

[Sair]

Not to mention that many of them contain preservitives that are carcenogens(sp?) icky stuff. Hence my veggie garden going in this next week or 2 and the fact that I also make most of my bread. I like the idea of knowing what is in my food.

I have tracked down some funky retro 50's style recipie cards and I have printed out hundreds so keep these recipes coming

[New Dawn]

ok Bear you asked for here is what I " cook " here is the list of JAR / Pkt I use....

Please excuse the spelling but I cant spell and havent done my food shop yet so have no Jars as refence...

Devilled Sausages
Taco mix
Spag bol
creamy country chicken
chicken cattachtorrie
almost all the chicken tonight jars....
rogan josh
butter chicken
karma ( i think thats what it called)
Hollandaise sauce BHL loves this stuff but havent found it in a jar yet that tastes the same as when he goes out...

I think that might be it I am a really borning cook as I said in the other thread I just dont find food exciting so cant be bothered cooking to much....

Please try to keep in simple as I am a mother to 3 winkies who's BHL is away more than he is home so will be doing this without back up to keep them out of the way....

[sunshine_sieben]

One of my favourite and really really simple salads is a cucumber salad with yoghurt & dill sauce.
Can't give you quantities as I jsut chuck things together to taste:
Thinly sliced European Cucumber (the long skinny ones, or Lebanese would work, too). A mandoline type slicer is really handy for that.
Dressing:
plain yoghurt (I use mostly greek style yoghurt)
salt
freshly crushed garlic
chopped dill (generous)
a dash of red wine vinegar (depending on how acidic your yoghurt is)
a little olive oil
combine all in a bowl with a small whisk or fork until creamy
Mix with the cucumber and let stand in the frisdge for 1/2 hour to let the flavours develop

This is really refreshing and goes well with greek dishes or comfort foods like lamb stew. And oh so simple.

Sasa

[Astrid]

How is everyone going??

I made a capsicum and tomato sauce the other week. It turned out very nice, expect DH though I should have added some chilli. Well I would have, but our chillies are not quite ready yet. We had been inundated with tomatoes and it was a nice way to use them up. We already had some jars of pasta sauce made and have just started to use them. They are really quite yummy.

Think it has been ages since I have bought biscuits for the house (have bought the odd packet if I have had to go somewhere last minute). Been baking cakes as well. For lunches rather than resorting to tins of spaghetti for the girls I have been whipping up veggie piklets with our home grown veg. The girls seem to really love them.

I have been feeling so much better for home grown veg and homemade food. Whilst it is not all time, it is most of the time. I tend to be snacking less and really looking forward to some of the dinners we have been having lately. Silverside with homegrown cabbage is quite good.

[Winter]

Home-made chicken stock using the left-over chicken carcass when I buy a cooked chook on the w'end. I list a lot of herbs etc, but just use what you have in your pantry, you don't need to go and buy anything for this. If you don't have the vegies, pop something else in or leave them out.

I do this in the slow cooker on low overnight & then freeze in the morning.

Chicken carcass
1 or 2 large onions
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
1/2 a head of garlic
3 bay leaves
1 whole chilli
parsely
mixed herbs
a sprinkle of whole peppercorns
top up with water

Basically rough chop everything, don't be fancy or fussy, place on the bottom of slow cooker, pop chicken carcass on top, fill up with water and leave on low overnight.

In the morning, use a soup ladle to ladle the stock out, put it through a seive into a jug and then pour the liqid into your containers for freezing. I use those fruit plastic containers with the screw top lids.

Makes about 3 litres and costs next to nothing - a couple of $ max. And saves buying stock at around $3 a litre for the Campells stuff or using stock cubes which aren't really that great.

If anyone has a recipe for beef stock, I'd like that too.

[sunshine_sieben]

Beef stock: just replace the chicken carcass with meaty beef bones and marrow bones. I also like to use beef osso bucco. The meat can be eaten with some horseradish and boiled/steamed vegies.

[Caz1971]

hi girls, made my own butter chicken tonight, using spices, tinned tomatoes and cream. none of this Pataks/Sharwood stuff. I work with indians and they said that stuff is not real indian. so I found a few recipes. I must say the dont call it 'butter' for nothing - it called for 10 Tablespoons of butter!!!

[TheBear]

Tali - Great, I'll start putting together a few ideas for you to try

Let's try a few simple pasta sauces - I'm going to start with those that can be cooked quickly and simply without long cooking processes.....before the slow cooking brigade pipes up, I'll come back to those soon.

To get things rolling, here are two recipes for one of the simplest sauces - Carbonara. The first recipe is the more traditional, the second uses cream which is how most Australians are used to eating it. I'm starting with this, because it's actually quicker to make this fresh than it is to reheat a jar of sauce.

Traditional Recipe

For 4 people you will need:-
120g of Pancetta or bacon cut into small pieces
2 cloves of garlic - minced or cut into small pieces
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt - preferably Sea Salt
2 Fresh Eggs
1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese...don't even think about using the pre-grated stuff
1/4 cup of finely chopped flat leaf parsley (scrunch it up into a ball so that it is easier to chop finely)
500g of Spaghetti

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil - use the biggest pan you have and add plenty of salt to the water. The bigger the pan, the less likely the pasta is to stick together.
2. While it is coming to the boil, place 3 tablespoons of olive oil and pancetta in a saucepan on a very low heat for 5 minutes...then add the garlic. Keep giving it an occasional stir so that everything gets evenly coated with the hot oil and nothing burns.
3. The pancetta should brown very slowly for another 5 minutes, keep stirring occasionally until the pancetta is crisp.
4. While the pancetta is cooking, beat the eggs together with the parsley and cheese in a mixing bowl. The add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook according to the directions on the packet - when it is getting close to done start testing the pasta by fishing strands out and biting into them - you want the pasta to have a little bit of bite left into it, don't overcook it until it is mushy.
5. Turn off the heat under both pans, drain the pasta quickly and put it back into the warm saucepan, pour in the pancetta, garlic and oil from the other pan, then add the egg/cheese/parsley mixture and toss it thoroughly through the pasta quickly.
The idea is that the heat from the pasta is used to cook the egg mixture, as the egg cooks it will stick to the pasta - so everything should now be coated in the sauce.
Serve immediately with a fresh black pepper

Another recipe using cream for completeness....but try the traditional way first

For 4 people

500g spaghetti, cooked according to the directions on the packet
2 tablespoon olive oil
250g bacon, diced
1cup sliced mushrooms, optional
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
250ml thickened cream
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1/2 cup grated parmesan

Heat the oil in a deep pan, add the bacon and fry until the bacon becomes brown and slightly crispy.

Add the mushrooms and cook until softened. Add the garlic and saut? for another 30 seconds.

Add the cream and bring to the boil.

Add the pasta and mix thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove from the heat and stir in the beaten eggs and chopped chives.

Serve immediately topped with parmesan cheese.

[New Dawn]

1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese...don't even think about using the pre-grated stuff

What you can read my mind now too LOL I so buy the pre- greated stuff PMSL


Thank you so much..... As you can tell I need a LOT of help.... Are you sure this way is cheaper jars just seem so much easier and cheaper to me but I will give this way a go and let you know hown I fair.... I guess this means I will now have to go and buy myself some tupperware stuff the freeze all the extra....

I really like Chicken and mushroom linguini with a creamy sauce do you know how to make that... I think it normally has bacon but I dont eat that so I would just leave that out...


O my goodness how embarassment I just realise that I could used the recipe above

[sangie]

Our favourite salad dressing is so simple - just some good quality olive oil, vinegar and a dash of sea salt! We use it all the time!

Hhhhmmm carbonara! I've never tried it without cream but I might give it a go! Would it work if you substitute the cream for evaporated milk for a lower fat option?

I don't buy many packet mixes but occassionally have some because I think they are quicker (but maybe not reading this post?).

Does anybody know how to make a black bean sauce? DH loves beef and black bean sauce and I have tried it once but it tasted terrible!

[Olive]

To get things rolling, here are two recipes for one of the simplest sauces - Carbonara. The first recipe is the more traditional, the second uses cream which is how most Australians are used to eating it. I'm starting with this, because it's actually quicker to make this fresh than it is to reheat a jar of sauce.

Traditional Recipe

For 4 people you will need:-
120g of Pancetta or bacon cut into small pieces
2 cloves of garlic - minced or cut into small pieces
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt - preferably Sea Salt
2 Fresh Eggs
1/3 cup of freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese...don't even think about using the pre-grated stuff
1/4 cup of finely chopped flat leaf parsley (scrunch it up into a ball so that it is easier to chop finely)
500g of Spaghetti

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil - use the biggest pan you have and add plenty of salt to the water. The bigger the pan, the less likely the pasta is to stick together.
2. While it is coming to the boil, place 3 tablespoons of olive oil and pancetta in a saucepan on a very low heat for 5 minutes...then add the garlic. Keep giving it an occasional stir so that everything gets evenly coated with the hot oil and nothing burns.
3. The pancetta should brown very slowly for another 5 minutes, keep stirring occasionally until the pancetta is crisp.
4. While the pancetta is cooking, beat the eggs together with the parsley and cheese in a mixing bowl. The add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook according to the directions on the packet - when it is getting close to done start testing the pasta by fishing strands out and biting into them - you want the pasta to have a little bit of bite left into it, don't overcook it until it is mushy.
5. Turn off the heat under both pans, drain the pasta quickly and put it back into the warm saucepan, pour in the pancetta, garlic and oil from the other pan, then add the egg/cheese/parsley mixture and toss it thoroughly through the pasta quickly.
The idea is that the heat from the pasta is used to cook the egg mixture, as the egg cooks it will stick to the pasta - so everything should now be coated in the sauce.
Serve immediately with a fresh black pepper
.

i made this tonight!!!

yummo!! i just made sure the egg was well cooked, will try pancetta next time instead of bacon for more flavour

[Janie]

That's how I've made my carbornara for years Jols........I use prosciutto, and it's devine! The number one fave dish with everyone in our house. Pancetta is good too Glad you enjoyed!