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

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This thread is making me so hungry!

Just thought I would add my two cents in on pasta forno (pasta bakes) and pasta sauces.
Being Italian I can't go more than a couple days without pasta.
There are heaps of quick sauces out there that you can make but I love the long slow cooked ones.

Bolognese Sauce

Olive oil, enough to cover at least 1cm of the pot, 2cm even, heaps.
Half quantities of beef and pork mince about 500g
Onion, diced
Garlic, if you like it, I add about 6 odd cloves, I like it :D
salt, pepper
Passata, couple bottles
Water if needed

Just warm the oil in the pot, add the onion and garlic, cook them really slowly, don't let them brown, keep them transparent. I cook them for about 20 mins sometimes less if I am pressed for time.
Add the minces, fry til brown, but not over too high a heat.
Add your passata and salt. pepper to taste.
Simmer for at least a couple hours, the longer you cook the, the better it tastes. If it's getting to thick and dry just top up with water.
Serve with parmasen and as Bear said not the pre grated crap. I won't tell you what I call it as it's crass and I'll probably offend someone.
Growing up we used grana padana on pastas, we would have been shot if we put the good parmasen on it, That was strictly after the meal, mind you it was the awesome Reggiano.
If you haven't tried it BUY IT, expensive but you will never go back to pre grated!

As for pasta bake
I use that sauce, with some cooked pasta, al dente, a couple eggs and some pecorino, or mozarella or parmasen, or all three.
Bake it for about half an hour on 200. It's awesome and lasts for ages.

if you make a heap of the sauce you can freeze it and use it to make a quick pasta bake, I do that sometimes.

ETA If you are PG be careful with the Italian cheeses as most of them use unpasturised milk. I'm dying for some good parmasen right now!!

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i made your bolognese sauce on saturday and it was awesome! i used same 1/2 jar passata and made up some, tin of toms and tom paste blended together, actually used the sauce to make cannalloni !! thanks will be making it again this way!!

i make a mean chicken pasta bake in the slow cooker Janie - diced chicken breast, tomato based sauce (which you can do from scratch), whatever veg you want, cook it up - when it's almost done, throw in par cooked pasta and let it finish cooking. freeze in meal sized portions, then when you want it, defrost over night, throw in the oven topped with cheese - beautiful!!

i also do the same with a vegie only bake with a creamy sauce - saute finely chopped veg in garlic butter (i tend to do onion, carrot, spud, swede, turnip, parsnip, zucchini), throw in some cauli and brocolli that's been blanched (and cut up small). make a creamy cheese sauce, mix it all through. mix through some pasta (and if you're wanting some meat, some diced chicken breast that has been browned). again, freeze in meal sized portions, defrost, and throw in the oven to heat/brown the top. you can top with extra cheese if you want, but i tend not to as i throw a fair bit of cheese into the sauce as i make it. i've dished this up to really fussy kids who won't eat anything other than spud and carrot and they hoover it down - the veg is all finely chopped so they literally have no idea how much they're eating in there!

Oooooh yeah, I have to kick my Reggiano habit :redface: It's getting too expensive, back to the old Padano for us I think! But the Reggiano is sooooooooo good mmmmmmmmmm :D

ETA Thanks BG, they sound great!

Janie, the best thing with them is that i always cook in bulk, and freeze probably a dozen meals at a time (for one person - love chinese take out containers - stack nicely in the freezer!). i also "hide" lots of vegies in stuff like that. it's not that DH doesn't like vegies (far from it) but if he doesn't have something like this while he's away in the truck, he doesn't, IMO, get enough veg. as "convenient" as the average truck stop is, steak and chips, or whatever (even if they throw a grilled tomato on the plate) just isnt a substantial meal to be eating on a regular basis!!

i hide masses of vegies in everything i cook in the slow cooker for him to take away - have not had a complaint yet... lol

i really just need to get back to basics for things like the sauces and stuff (which i'll be starting soon - but i'm not gonna waste what is in the cupboard already)

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i made your bolognese sauce on saturday and it was awesome! i used same 1/2 jar passata and made up some, tin of toms and tom paste blended together, actually used the sauce to make cannalloni !! thanks will be making it again this way!!

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my pleasure, glad you enjoyed it!
I often use tin tomatoes as well if I am out of passata.
I just buy the cheap no name brand, I don't find it makes any difference at all to the sauce and they are only 49c.

I also use this sauce for lasange I just add a fair amount of water to it so that the pasta cooks. I tend to use the dried pasta if I haven't been bothered to make my own.

Astrid, great article. Confirms a lot of what I already thought. Maybe I could get the Man to read it, and he will stop buying me cake mixes and learn to just ask or point out something in one of my books....
Chicken nuggets.... tempura batter is very crispy yes? What about crumbing small pieces of chicken in the corn flake crumb sort of thing? Would that work for you? Then they could still be frozen raw, and cooked as needed. I don't imagine a batter would thaw and cook well, unless it was put into a deep fryer. Yuk. (Yuk for me atm)

Bear, I had to read your bit a few times before it dawned on me that you actually do mean opening the jar 2 or 3 times, not filling the jar :doh:. I can see the need to use proper preserving jars. Are they expensive?

I am building up my stock of different herbs and spices, and desperately trying to get rid of other things. Like onion and garlic. I can't eat them atm, so think I will just hand them to my Mum.

I must be very lucky with my family, I don't have to hide veges. Most of the plate is taken up with veges every night, and my Mum can't believe how many veg our family eats. Even if they are just steamed, they all go.

Ok, dumb question. What is passata?

I do feel a bit guilty after posting the article as I do have some packet mixes in the cupboard :redface: I have though in the past couple of months been building up some more baking basics.

my mum uses farmers direct (i think that's what they're called) & they get a parcel of whatever is fresh that week. at the moment they're getting loads of small potatoes & she keeps passing them on to me.

DP doesn't like plain boiled potatoes (and it would take us around 8 days of eating them every night to get through them) & now i have about 1.5-2kg of small potatoes (about the size of an egg) to use up....can anyone help me with some ideas of what to do with them?!!! :help:

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Ok, dumb question. What is passata?

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It's just pureed tomato basically, like tinned tomato only smooth. You can get it at the supermarket, don't go by price though as the cheap stuff is just the same if not better than the $$ ones.

• Mashed potatoes (I put an egg or two in mine, along with butter, salt, pepper, and a dash of milk if needed) or try mashed with another vege, like pumpkin/sweet potato/carrot
• Fritters/croquettes (with corn/ground meat (good way to use left over meat)/carrot, etc)
• Gnocchi (have lots of recipes, very simple but a bit time consuming)
• mashed as topping for sheperds pie (sprinkle with nutmeg before putting in the oven)
• Jacket potatoes (you know, cooked in foil, serve with grated cheese, bacon bits, sour cream, homemade chunky tomato sauce/salsa, corn kernals, herb or garlic butter)
• Chunky wedges sprinkled with herbs or spices and a bit of oil done in the oven, serve with sour cream or chilli sauce

hope that helps...
I love spuds, will definately be cooking some tonight!

Thanks ll80, I really had no idea! I just use the tins of diced tomatoes (yep, the el cheapo ones). Thanks again!

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!

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!

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.

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

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

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!!!

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. :dance::dance::dance:

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 :lol:

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?

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.

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!!!

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 :lol: 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!!!

WOOT Good job :D

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.

janie it was i think $1.60!

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

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

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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.

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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.

Tch, tch, tch to me.

Yesterday I was naughty. I made potato salad with dressing from a jar. :redface: 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, :redface:.

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!).

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.

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.

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?

Cai - You'll get a more intense chicken flavour if you start by browning the chicken pieces in the pan, then remove them whilst you caramelise the veg before deglazing with the wine.

LMS - The condensed chicken soup is just a reduced chicken stock thicken with double cream.

If you just want to have the stock base to store in the fridge/freezer then make a fresh stock then chill/freeze it until you want it - I'd suggest leaving the cream out until you actually want to use - frozen cream just doesn't work quite as well.

Chicken Stock
Put a big, thick bottomed pan on a high heat with a splash of oil
Add some chicken wings and/or some bits of chopped chicken carcass - (I like to use wings, as they are cheap and have a lot of flavour)
The goal here is to get lots of brown, sticky bits of almost burnt chicken to stick to the bottom of the pan - so stir occasionally so that as much as possible of the chicken gets in contact with the bottom of the pan.
Once the chicken is well browned then add some chopped onion, carrot, celery and leek and stir to coat in the hot oil for 2-3 minutes, then add half a glass of white wine (or water) and use a wooden spoon to scrap hard at the gungy bits on the bottom of the pan - once the wine has almost boiled away add 2-3 liters of cold water, some whole black peppercorns and a few bay leaves.
Bring the whole thing back to the boil and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes - fish out the chicken bits and veg with a slotted spoon, then pass the remaining liquid through a sieve to remove any remaining debris.
The stock is now ready to store, or you can put it back into a clean pan and gently simmer it until it has reduced by half to concentrate the flavour.

If you are making a pie, then you can follow a similar process in the pie dish:-
Start by browning the chicken wings along with the chicken meat that you want to use in the pie, (I prefer thigh as it has a better flavour and benefits from the slow cooking) in the pie dish, then discard the wings and put the meat to one side.
caramelise the veg in the dish then sprinkle over a little flour - this saves making a roux, and will make the flavoured oil stick to the veg. Stir the flour through the veg so it is evenly coated and no lumps of flour remain.
Return the chicken to the pan along with some liquid (wine/stock/water) and scrape the base of the pan with a wooden spoon as the liquid comes back to the boil, then stir through a little double cream and any desired herbs or seasonings, add the pie top and put it into the oven to cook.

My mouth is watering. I can't believe I am starting to get vegetarian tendancies again!

I buy chicken wings to feed my dog already so I have heaps of them. It shouldn't be too far a stretch for me to accomplish after a quick grocery shop. I sure wish my veggie patch was full of veggies instead of seedlings.

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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
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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

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!

Excellent, glad to see someone is getting some use from this thread.

Try this about a week before you want to do it again:-

You will need:-
200g of salt
100g of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of black peppercorns
1 tablespoon of juniper berries
5 star anise
a 6-8" piece of pork belly

Grind up the spice in a mortar and pestle and mix thoroughly with the salt and sugar - find an airtight container to store the mix in.

Rub a handful of the mixture into the pork belly, try to work it well into the meat and leave it covered with the mixture - then seal into an airtight container and place in the fridge.
Once a day, for the next five days - take the belly out of the fridge, drain off the excess liquid and apply more of the spice mix.
On the fifth day, wash the excess spice mix off, then soak the belly in cold water for 3-4 hours - then dry thoroughly and store in the fridge wrapped in kitchen paper.

This home made pancetta has so much more flavour than all but the best professionally made product - and that is sold for over $30/kg....this should cost you less than $12/kg.

After you have rinsed and soaked it can you use it straight away or do you need to let it cure a bit more?

I've made my own salami and prociutto before but this is easier, well quicker.

It's good to use straight away, the soaking isn't strictly necessary, but I find it a bit too salty otherwise - it really benefits from being allowed to cook down slowly to render out all the flavour. It's a very easy, simple cure and it's very difficult to go back to commercial pancetta afterwards - we usually have a box curing away in the back of the fridge.

I'd be interested in having some more recipes for curing meat, I'm experimenting with some old traditional english cures at the moment. (Stout, brown sugar, malt vinegar, cinnamon and cloves)

I'm sorry but your wife is going to have to clone you Bear :lol:

Sorry LMS - he's one of a kind! LOL

That he is! I just need him as a teacher chef though :D We can stand to learn a few kitchen things from him that is for sure!

Hmmm I wonder if they will clone Gordon Ramsey :inlove:

LOL Bear you sound just like my DH between eating and cooking "natural" and the areoplanes and what not, you sound like you could be twins.

Anyway..
I will see if i can dig out my curing recipes, I think they are still packed away (i'm in the middle of unpacking) but when I find them I'll post them up.
They are my dad's Italian curing recipes.

Bear, that sounds like a wonderful recipe. I didn't think that pork would keep for that long in the fridge before going funky? :dunno: (Or is that "growing" funky? :doh:)

LL, how do you make prosciutto?

By the way all, I have been a very good girl and not used very much prepackaged nasty stuff. For the last two weeks, I have also been and done my shopping once for the week. I will admit I ran out of fresh veges this week (so bought lots today to see if that will cover the next week), and had to resort to using the frozen variety. Aside from that, I have been planning meals for the week (roughly in my head) and trying to write the shopping list accordingly, as well as using things from the cupboard. Yay me. Now if I could just keep it up, better than my Domestic Goddess practices... :redface:

And I planted my first lot of fresh produce today! Garlic. Why, only because I had it in the cupboard, and it was looking a lot worse for wear, so rather than throw it (or eat it - bleh!), I though I would plant it and see if it grows (eight cloves).