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

[briggsy's girl]

ooh, i think i made that sound bad - i don't hide vegies in that i think DH wouldn't eat them - i "hide" them withing casseroles and stuff that will allow them to heat up properly in the little travel cooker DH has in the truck! if he can heat a full meal in an oven bag while he drives, and then stop to eat, it's a lot easier than setting up numerous cookers and things on the side of the road. so yeah, i "hide" them for his convenience while he's driving. it's ultimately easier for him to eat like this than it is to stop and go into a truck stop. but only if it's all in one and heats while he drives - if he has to stop to cook, especially this time of year, i don't blame him for giving it the flick for convenience food (he still has a proper meal) in the truck stops. he also can't have masses of fresh food for cooking meals while he's away - he has to resort to tinned food from a storage standpoint...


it's also a lot cheaper! i work it out it costs between $3 and $5 for a meal when i cook in bulk (depending on the cut of meat and what veg we've grown, what we have to buy, and including things like the cost of oven bags, and the semi-disposable containers i don't care if he damages on the road).

a similar meal at a truck stop would be minimum $13, and only half as nutritious!

[sloane]

netix - thank you! i might try out some wedge type things tonight - as long as there's sweet chilli sauce DP will be happy!

and i was thinking of making cottage pie this week...too bad it isn't potato salad weather!

[TheBear]

Sloane - a few other quick potato ideas, for your little spuds.

Roast with rosemary - just split the little ones in two
Boil then dress with butter and lots of fresh black pepper
Warm potato salads
- mayo, red onion, capers
- balsamic vinaigrette, hard boiled eggs, green beans and grilled tuna
- warm goats cheese, bacon bits, curly endive and mustard vinaigrette
- olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, bacon, mustard and chives
Spanish Omelette/Frittata

My current favourite potato dish:-
Put a glug of olive oil into the bottom of pan, add a couple of finely chopped anchovies and place over a low heat, use a wooden spoon to mash them down until they have almost dissolved into the oil, then add slices of potato cut about as thick as a two dollar coin.
Increase the heat slightly and get the potato coated in the oil by stirring - once the potato has really started to release it's liquid and is starting to steam, turn the heat down again and put the lid on the pan. Wait for about ten minutes until the slices are soft, then remove the lid and increase the heat to drive off any excess liquid.
Just before serving stir through finely chopped parsley and raw garlic - the heat from the potato will cook the garlic and release the aromatics from the parsley.

Astrid - Chicken Nuggets

I'm not sure that would keep terribly well, a light crispy batter is a delicate thing - it's such a quick thing to do from scratch, I'm pretty sure that you would spend more time defrosting than making fresh. I've made for other people's kids a few times and I use an adapted recipe for a Wiener schnitzel - actually Veal works well for chicken nuggets, by the time it's battered it's not easy to tell the difference.
I make a light batter mixture using eggs, flour and milk and a crispy coating mixture using breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and parsley - I dunk them in the batter, then the coating before shallow frying - this method works really well as the meat steams inside the batter, but still leaves you with a crispy coating.
The bigger you make them, the better the ratio of batter to meat...see if you can convince kids to eat a whole mini schnitzel if sold to them as a really big nugget. You if you make them this way then they could be cooled and frozen, then reheated on an oven tray.

Kitchen Staples

Obviously these will vary from cuisine to cuisine - I tend to cook mainly European dishes - French/Italian/Austrian/Spanish and English influences, so my list of staples will reflect this.

Fresh Herbs - the price charged for fresh herbs is criminal, get a window box, or a planter in the garden and get some going - once they are established then they are pretty foolproof.
- Flat Leaf Parsley
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Basil (in the summer)
- Mint (not spear mint)
- Bay Tree
- Coriander
- Sage

Dry Herbs/Spices
- Whole Peppercorns
- Rock Salt
- Sea Salt
- Juniper Berries
- Whole Nutmeg
- Mace
- Paprika
- Cayenne Pepper
- Oregano
- Dried Chilli
- Star Anise
- Fennel Seeds
- Cinnamon Bark
- Black Cloves
- Green Cardamom
- Black Cardamom
- Turmeric
- Saffron
- Curry Powder
- Cumin
- Mustard Seeds
- Coriander
- Dried Porcini or Morel Mushrooms

Store Cupboard
- Flours
- Plain, low protein for pastry, sauces, pasta, etc
- Strong Flour for bread making
- CornFlour for thickening sauces
- Jar of Breadcrumbs (don't buy them, just stick a couple of slices of stale bread in a blender every now and again)
- Cans
- Tomato
- Beans - Cannelini, Borlotti, Kidney, Chickpeas, Green Lentils
- Smoked Mussels (instant snack food)
- Crab Meat (one my rescue items - pasta tossed with olive oil, garlic, chilli and tinned crab is a very sophisticated ten minute meal)
- Coconut Milk or Cream
- Olive Oil - EVO and a lighter oil
- Vinegar - White Wine, Red Wine, Malt and Cider
- Sugar - White (for DW's cup of tea), Icing, Soft Brown
- Honey (much prefer a natural sweetener if possible)
- Soy Sauce - Dark and Light
- Worcester Sauce
- Tamarind Paste (great secret ingredient)
- Capers
- Anchovies (we use these a lot, dissolved in oil to add a little salt to the start of a dish...see the potato recipe above)
- Home Made Jams and Marmalades
- Duck or Goose Confit (another quick rescue dinner)
- Rice - Long grain and a risotto or paella rice
- Pasta in it's various forms
- Red and White cooking wine - usually keep a box of chateau cardboard next to the hob


Freezer
- Chillis (keep well in the freezer and can be chopped and cooked directly from frozen)
- Frozen Peas and Beans (throw them into all sorts of dishes directly from frozen - Broad Beans are particularly good)
- Frozen Prawns and scallops - another thing that can be sliced directly into a dish from frozen with great results.
- Stocks - Never throw any bones away...always make your own stocks! Always have chicken stock and beef stock, occasionally duck, fish and lamb.
- Bones - If I've got enough stock on hand, then I'll freeze the left over bones in a bag until I need to make a stock.
- Prawn heads - same as the bones, these can be used to make fantastic sauces for fish, so they lurk in the corner of the freezer until needed.
- Instant Pastry - Short crust and instant - fits nicely in the top of the freezer and makes life easy if you are in a hurry.

Fridge
- Butter
- Double Cream or Creme Fraiche
- Eggs
- Mustard - Dijon and Wholegrain
- Cheese
- Hard Cheese - Parmesan or Pecorino
- Cheddar type cheese
- Blue Cheese
- Melting Cheese - Fontina at the moment, but Gruyere, Mozzeralla, etc most of the time
- Marinaded Vegetables - Eggplants, Zuchhini, Sun dried tomato, olives, etc
- Bacon/Pancetta - I usually have a tub of pork dry curing into bacon in the fridge, we will just hack off what we need for cooking along the way
- Chocolate - bags of dark chocolate buttons for cooking
- Milk
- Curry Pastes
- Miso Paste


Vegetables/Fruit

The base of many sauces is a mixture of Onions, Carrots and Celery - the french call it "mire-poix", the Italians "soffrito" - it's all the same thing. It's an essential part of so many things - cut it fine for a quick sauce, or chunky for a long cooking stew.
Onions - Red and White
Carrots
Celery
Garlic
Red Cabbage - we braise it with red wine vinegar, cinnamon and cloves
Potato
Lemons
Some form of salad leaf
Then whatever is in season...fennel, leeks, cauliflower are all great at the moment, some awesome capsicum are just starting to appear.

[Olive]

i often get passata frm Aldi!! its cheap, i also grab heaps of tin toms as well as the tom paste!

[Janie]

How much is the Aldi passata Jols? I get mine from the deli at Chirny for $2/bottle.

[ll80]

I find safeway/woolies have it cheaper than Aldi, shock horror.
Really you shouldn't pay anymore than around $1 f or it.
You can also pick them up at deli's or Italian supermarkets cheap.
Heaps of places in Melbourne you girls can go, I miss Melbourne Food!!!

[Sair]

Guess who paid $7 for 10 Fowlers 500ml jars with lids AND seals. I also got 4 other Fowlers jars with that and they have seals but no lids. Not sure if I need clips but with a bit of luck I can track them down anyway.

Now I just need ideas on what to preserve, I am more a veggies person then a fruit person. All I can think of is endless supplies of pasta sauce

I thought of another thing to add to the list of things to get a recipe for. We buy a lot of taco and burrito kits, I want to know how to make the taco seasoning for the meat. I tracked down a great salsa recipe but not sure what spices I need for the meat or can I use fresh ingredients?

[christy]

I did a mexican mince recipe earlier...? I think?

I use:
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika (sweet variety)
onion
cilantro or coriander (same thing....)
1 clove garlic minced
salt & pepper
1 cup beef stock
1/2 tin tomatoes or 2 tomatoes chopped

Brown the mince & add everything in. Cover & simmer for 20 minutes or so. I add beans or corn to the mince and jalapeno's.

[Sair]

Cool Christy, I am trying this tonight on nachos! Thanks so much!!

ETA I have bought another 25 jars with lids, seals and heaps of clips!!!! I just need to find a pressure canner now!!!

[Sair]

Operation nachos was a success!!! The mexican mince recipe from Christy was perfecto, pretty close to the El Paso taco kit flavour. I did add some cayenne for extra spiciness.

So I layered my nacho chips, the mince, the salsa and cheese and put in the oven at 160 or so until the cheese melted.

The fresh salsa recipe I tried was the following

2 spring onions, finely sliced
4 tomatoes (about 650g), seeds removed, finely diced
1 each of red, yellow and green capsicum, seeds removed, finely diced
4 tbs (1/3 cup) roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus extra to sprinkle
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
Juice of 1 lime

I didn't have spring onion so used brown onion. I only had green pepper and I forgot the oil I added in jalepeno peppers for added spiciness.

Now that I have tried to break the bottle habit by making something from scratch I see that it is actually just as easy. Now if only it didn't make more of a mess I would be uber happy!!!

[christy]

WOOT Good job

My Salsa:

2-3 tomatoes
1 lime juiced or 2 tbsp lime juice
salt & pepper
1 red capsicum and 1 green capsicum
1/2 red onion
1 tbsp coriander
1 jalapeno
1 ancho chilli
1 clove garlic minced

I chop everything up, sometimes I take the seeds out of the chilli's if we are having friends over to play... ehem I mean eat. I chill it after stirring it all together and pop it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so. Sometimes I drain it after it has another stir & time to marinate all the flavours together. Sometimes I use the bar mixer to make it more smooth.... whatever I feel like at that moment.

[Olive]

janie it was i think $1.60!

[Kazbah]

My fave "jar" meal is ... enchiladas.

I can make a salsa, but what about the simmer sauce for the chicken ?

[Astrid]

Sterilise the jars and lids first, then put the jars in the oven and heat until over 100 degrees.

I have a plastic funnel with the bottom cut off that fits nicely into the mouth of most jars, so I take the tray of hot jars out of the oven and fill them immediately with scalding preserve, then seal them immediately.

Most things benefit from being stored in the fridge once they have been opened, but if you get a good sterile seal then many things are fine in the back of the cupboard.

You can use any jar, the real difference is the quality of the seal that you get - most jar lids will only seal 2-3 times before they need to be replaced - that's why I use preserving jars for things that will be frequently opened.

Have come across a supplier of jar lids that fit onto most jars (Dolmio, IXL, Continental etc). There are different sizes depending on the opening of the jar. So you can reuse the jars many times, just buy new lids. Seems to be about $10 for 25 lids, or $18 for 50 depending on the size.

[Netix]

Tch, tch, tch to me.

Yesterday I was naughty. I made potato salad with dressing from a jar. I didn't really like it all that much.

My excuse is that it was my birthday (well, on Saturday), and we were having a bbq with Dad and his wife, and I didn't have time to make it from scratch. I stayed at my Mum's on Saturday night, and went shopping for the bbq on my way home! Again, .

Does anyone have a nice potato salad recipe? I had never made it before at all, and probably didn't even use the right spuds (don't think they were waxy enough). I have a nice mayo recipe, but what else do you put with it?

I am trying really hard to get away from packaged things. I have even bought pickles (but I'm eating those already!) and capers to make tartare sauce when we next have home made fish and chips. Now I just need to make my own mayo, and get my own fresh herbs (which I will have to tell the Man I would like, he hasn't been able to get me anything for my birthday yet!).

[Sair]

I gave Noah a Heinz Graduate meal that I brought back from Canada and he loved it! It was pasta and peas with chicken in a creamy chicken sauce base. How can I re-create this chicken base. It tasted like cream of chicken and I often use cream of chicken soup cans undiluted to make chicken pot pies so a homemade version would be very nice.

[Rouge]

I make mine by caramalising some veg (celery, carrot, onion, garlic) then removing from the pan. Add your cubed chicken breast and cook off in the pan flavours add the veg back to the pan and add some white wine, cook off then add the white sauce (a typical roux), I have made this with cream for something extra decadent but its not so good for the waist line You can add fresh herbs like tarragon (If I don't have this I use dried mixed herbs) then towards the end add some fresh (or frozen) baby peas. Then you can make it into a pie or serve with rice and salad. You can experiment with flavours, I've added bacon, mushroom and truffle oil before.

[Sair]

Can you avoid the white wine? If I am feeding it to Noah I am not too keen on giving white wine to him even though it mostly gets cooked off. Is there enough to cover a pasta dish?