storecupboard cookery

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storecupboard cookery
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Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 7:03 pm Post subject: storecupboard cookery

since it always seems a horribly long time til pay day in January, thought I'd start a thread for a collection of cheap dishes that can be made from storecupboard things or left overs.

(downsizing isn't just about what you buy its about using up properly what you've got!)

To start off the other night we had filled pancakes. I made a standard pancake batter using 1 egg, 4oz plain flour, and a 1/2 pint water and milk mix. Whilst it stood I sauted a handful of chopped mushrooms in some oil and then added some diced left over cooked gammon and a jar of passatta. As it was heating through I made up the pancakes. As they came out of the pan I quickly put a spoon or two of mixture in to each one and rolled them up. The filled pancake was then put into a lightly greased oven proof dish. Once they'd all been made I sprinkled the top with some grated cheese and popped the lot in to a moderate oven until it was all hot and the cheese was bubbling.

Of course you could fill the pancakes with all sorts of things, veggie mixes in a white sauce, a bolognese type mix etc, etc. a good way of using up alsorts of things!

Mrs Fiddlesticks

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 7:09 pm Post subject:

and a pud to use up that half jar of mincemeat (which avoids anymore tedious rolling out of pasty!)

Mincemeat shortcake (serves about 4)
sift together 3oz plain flour and 3oz fine semolina. Add 2oz castor sugar and rub in 2oz marg or butter. Put half this mix in to a greased shallow 7inch cake tin and press down. Spread two tablespoons of mincemeat over the top. Press the remaining crumble mix over. bake gas 4 20-30 mins. allow to cool for 5 mins and cut in to wedges to serve with cream, custard or evaporated milk.

You could use jam for the filling or 2 eating apples grated. It freezes well too!

alison
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 12918
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 9:53 pm Post subject:
One of my cheap favourites is tuna pasta bake. Served with hot veg, or salad and homemade bread.

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 10:01 pm Post subject:

Cos there's just the two of us, my storecupboard cooking generally involves cooking extra most times I cook so that we have ready meals. We do a lot of things like sauces, curry and chillis to go with rice or bread or pasta.

Perhaps favourite "storecupboard" recipe is lentil sauce/soup. I can look up the exact quantities if anyone wants to know, but it's basically a tom sauce as for pasta, with stock and red split lentils added. A thick version is a good base for shepherds-pie-alike or pasta bake, slightly thinned down with stock or wine for pasta sauce, and much more thinned down and if you like, slightly blended, for a really nice soup.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28238
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 10:05 pm Post subject:
There is something to be said for simple dishes at times. Some times a simple lentil dhal with some rotis, is quite an uplifting experience. jema

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 11:12 pm Post subject:
I like pizza for using things up - half an onion, or leftover tuna or ham and stuff. Anyone got any good recipes for egg whites (other than merange) I always seem to be chucking them having used the yolks in things.

Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 11:14 pm Post subject:
Make some mead, and use the egg white in it - it helps it to clear.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 11:18 pm Post subject:
Batter and pastry are good things to make and cheap. Not enough sausages become a generous toad in the hole. Chicken pie made with leftovers is always good. Otherwise, pulses, dried beans etc in soupy and/or stewy things.

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 11:24 pm Post subject:
Oooh! Hummous! You lot have just reminded me I've got a bag of chick peas somewhere...

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Thu Jan 06, 05 11:29 pm Post subject:
A good book for this sort of thing is The Pauper's Cookbook by Jocasta Innes. I should imagine it's out of print, but if you see a secondhand copy it's worth a punt IMHO.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Fri Jan 07, 05 10:25 am Post subject:
Mead is made with honey, right. Handy that, as I just happen to have about 6lbs of honey in the cupboard. Any chance of the recipe? Pretty please!

Sarah D

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 2584

Posted: Fri Jan 07, 05 10:33 am Post subject:

This is the way I make my mead, and it is easy and very successful; it needs quite a long time in the bottle before drinking, though, so don't rush it or it tastes the way old socks smell.

3 1/2 lbs clear honey
1 gallon water
1 tbsp yeast, activated
1 egg white

Put honey and water in pan, bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes or so. Allow to cool a bit, add lightly beaten egg white. When blood heat, add yeast, cover and leave 24 hours. Transfer to demi john and ferment out. Bottle and store at least 2 years if possible.

Metheglin is made in the same way, but herbs and lemon peel are added. I made this for the first time last year, but haven't tasted it yet; it's bottled and put away.

I make a lot of mead every year, and hopefully this year will get enough honey from my own bees to make some.

twoscoops

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1924
Location: Warwickshire

Posted: Fri Jan 07, 05 10:33 am Post subject:

Tinned pulses are good whizzed up for dips, with mayo or yogurt if you have some in the fridge. If you have some borlotti beans you can make pasta e fagioli (I never knew vegetarian food could taste this good).

Gently cook some chopped onion, carrot and celery in some olive oil in a pan. Add a couple of chopped tomatoes and cook for another five minutes. Add the beans. You can use dried borlotti beans, soaked over night, then simmered for two hours in fresh water, or tinned beans, rinsed. cover with water and simmer for 20 minutes, then add dried pasta of your choice. serve when pasta is cooked.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Fri Jan 07, 05 10:46 am Post subject:

Oh the subject of mead, that recipe is about as simple and easy as it gets, and it'll make a good mead. For more body, I sometimes add some grape juice concentrate, and I find that gives a better 'table wine' mead. If I do that I use 3lb of honey instead, the grape juice has a lot of sugar.

I also tend to use honey in place of sugar in a lot of flower wine recipes; orange blossom is cheap to buy from homebrew shops and makes a fabulous metheglin, and I normally make my coltsfoot wine with honey. Pear juice also blends really well; the little bottles of pear juice concentrate you get from wholefood shops, blended with 2lb of honey and water to one gallon, make a great basis for a mead (or is it then a melomel?).

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Jan 07, 05 10:51 am Post subject:
I've ust added Sarah's recipe but there's another one on here too: https://makeashorterlink.com/?N18C21E2A Last edited by tahir on Fri Jan 07, 05 1:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

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