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

[christy]

seeing as we've been talking about getting the food bill down...

I made some BBQ sauce today, I thought I'd share my recipe.

2 tins chopped tomato
1 brown onion chopped
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup golden syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup whorstershire(sp?) sauce (I'm too lazy to get up & read the label....)
1 tbsp hot english mustard (I used French mustard because I didn't have the hot english)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp chilli powder or 1/2 small chilli chopped and deseeded if you don't want it too hot
salt & pepper

Pop the olive oil and the onion in a large pot on high and stir for 2-3 minutes or until the onion starts to go slightly opaque. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Than turn down to low and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until the sauce thickens nicely. Cool to room temperature. I then put mine through the blender or the bar mix to get the obvious chunks out but that is only because our children hate chunks.... when its for adults I leave it chunky and I pop it into glass jars to share around.

This makes heaps, I often will use half for a BBQ chicken skewer night... and then jar some for later. Around Christmas I sometimes will buy up on jars and give this with edible presents....

[Astrid]

That sounds ymmu Christy, will have to make a note of that one.

We made a relish/chutney last week. We had a heap of cucumbers and tomatos that need using. Will let it sit for a bit before trying it. A neighbour dropped around some zucchini relish on the weekend as they had a glut of zucchinis.

It is quite interesting being creative with what veg we have growing, makes a nice change to a lot of the meals we were eating. Certainly helps to stop us from grabbing takeaway or some easy food from the supermarket as we don't want to waste what we have at home.

[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...

[Astrid]

Just waiting for our veggie patch to take off. We are getting lettuce at the moment, but not much else. Ooh and we now have chickens! So I am always looking at ways to use eggs.

I admit to still have the odd jar of ready made stuff on the shelf, it has come in handy for back-ups, but that should reduce as we will have a heap more homegrown food that will require preserving in some way.

It is intersting with the baking, I noticed that my eldest does not ask to buy biscuits from the supermarket, but she does put in requests for what I am to bake next.

[christy]

Vege frittata is always a good way of getting rid of eggs!!! If you have a friend who is crafty and does stuff you want, you can always exchange eggs for stuff I do that with a friend who helps me with sewing stuff... I give her 12 eggs a month.

[Astrid]

Been hoping to find someone willing to buy the excess, but most people have their own chooks here, or know someone who they already get them off. So I sometimes give them away. I find that giving away any of our excess produce often means something else will come our way later on

[sunshine_sieben]

Ways to use eggs:
Make your own custard - yummy
Spinach & Sheepsmilk Feta Filo pastry Pie
Quiche of course
Mayo
You can always add an egg yolk to Semolina cooked in milk for breakfast
Eggwhites can be beaten with a little water and added in a thin stream to soup (thinking Chicken & Sweet corn Soup)
I love adding hard boiled egg to potato salad
Sorry, can't really think of too much right now
Farmer's Breakfast: Fry off all the veges that you need to get rid off in a pan, some salt and pepper, maybe some herbs, then crack a few eggs over it and stir. it's easy, cheap and very yummy. You can add some bacon pieces for some extra ooomph.
You can add chopped omelette to stir-frys
Sorry, you have probably thought of all of those things already...

[Astrid]

Farmer's Breakfast: Fry off all the veges that you need to get rid off in a pan, some salt and pepper, maybe some herbs, then crack a few eggs over it and stir. it's easy, cheap and very yummy. You can add some bacon pieces for some extra ooomph.

I often do that one for lunch Thanks for the suggestions. I do love a home mayo.

[Netix]

I was looking for this thread the other day, and I couldn't find it! Thanks for bumping it!

[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.

[Winter]

Thanks! I'll give it a go!

[onthefly]

I have a recipe for butter chicken, if it hasn't been done already

(sorry, not sure on exact amounts... but don't stress, you can't really go wrong)

Ingredients:

~500g Chicken breast, cut into pieces
Tandoori seasoning
Small pot of natural yogurt

Hunk of butter (errr... maybe 50g)
1/2 ts garlic (crushed or chopped)
1/2 ts ginger (crushed or chopped)
1/2 poddle of tomato paste (or more if you want it more tomatoey)
~100-150 mL cream
1/4 ts chilli powder
1/2 ts garam masala

Marinate chicken in tandoori & yogurt (overnight or a least a few hours).
Cook chicken (fry pan will do).
Melt butter, cook in garlic & ginger, then stir through tomato paste. Add cream, and spices.
Add chicken (and yogurty stuff it cooked in) to sauce.
Cook through.

Eat!