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

[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.

[Danni]

would love some advice on what to do with the last stash of cherry tomatoes we have. I had to pull them off the vine still green. They have been sitting in the window sill for about 4 weeks and som hav an orange tinge, and thats about it. Some have even gone rotten so I better do something with them quickly

If I cook them, will they taste like normal tomatoes?

[LimeSlice]

Mabello - try putting the in a bag with a banana...It may help them ripen a little, may not at this stage.
You could try making a green tomato chutney from them...

[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.

[Winter]

Do you have to roast the beef bones first?

[TheBear]

You don't have to roast the bones, but it will give a darker, richer flavour - same goes for chicken, if you fry the chicken off to get a nice dark amber colour before deglazing the pan.

[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!

[nagromeyk]

Sangie - I do a pasta sauce with evaporated milk, its kinda like a carbonara sauce and my DH loves it. It still has mushrooms and bacon in it but I also add onions finely chopped and soy sauce for a bit more flavour!

Bear - I have some wholemeal self raising flour and wheatgerm I want to get rid of - any recipes ideas? I thought maybe muffins or a cake???

[TheBear]

Tali - lol - Just buy a block of fresh stuff and grate it as you need it, it is a completely different taste! Make sure that store fresh cheese in a sealed container, it will go dry very quickly. Don't feel the need to lash out on tupperware - I just use zip-lock bags, if I'm freezing something liquid then I put the bag into a plastic box until it is frozen then take it out once it has frozen into a block.

Sangie - if you want the low fat option then just use the traditional recipe - I much prefer it, it just has a fresher feel in your mouth without the cloying cream taste.

[Rouge]

ewwwww @ the thought of jar carbonara LOL!

My kids are such snobs, they would't even consider eating it.

Asian cooking is really easy, especially something like black bean sauce. You will need in your cupboard for most asian dishes shaoxing wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornflour, palm sugar (yes you can use regular sugar but with thai cooking especially IMO its a necessity), for blackbean sauce you'll need good chicken stock (for asian stuff I love the stuff in the tin you get from asian grocer), ginger, cornflour, soy, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, salt sugar and salted blackbeans (roughly chopped). I've got a good recipe at home, but bear might have one off the top of his head.

I often cheat and make a baked carbonara which is great IMO and I use cream, milk, fresh cheese, bacon, onion and garlic I think I've posted it before will try and find it.