Frugal Foodies, thread 2! Favourite leftover dishes, avoiding waste, menu ideas.

[Ninkanink]

Hey everyone!

1st thread is here

Hope that link worked! I’ve never done it that way before...

💐 and 🍰 and ☕️ to all!

Thanks Weeds

@Xiaoxiong your baking exploits sound amazing, please do share a picture with us! The online class sounds enough to tempt me into Instagram!

We’ve had a fun morning making cupcakes with the children and I just made a kale and chickpea curry for lunch that turned out really nicely! Also discovered a whole bag of plain flour I had forgotten about! Result!

In the spirit of this thread I’ve retained the chickpea water to see what I can conjure up with it, so please do share any favourite recipes if you have any!

I’ve just hauled out all of my May magazines (monthly food inspiration ritual when I get time) and am looking forward to a quiet hour of recipe browsing with a pot of leaf tea!

Forgot the pictures!

Pictures attached! Next time I will try and adjust the temp - I baked in a cast iron pot so the bottom is very chewy and the tops ended up a bit soft, so a bit hard to cut. Internally the texture is excellent, really springy and spongy (in a good way). Bannetons arriving sometime this week which will help the shaping, I just used a tea towel in a mixing bowl this time.

Lunch was a lovely salad made from roast chicken leftovers, freekeh, watercress, blueberries and pistachios with a honey mustard dressing. The kids hated it!! And dinner will be smoked haddock and mussel chowder with fresh bread.

PurpleDaisies

What’s everyone cooking today?

I've had a good re-sort of the freezer and refreshed my memory as to what's there.
Hence, I've got some wild boar sausages flavoured with rosemary and garlic, half a bag of pre-cooked puy lentils and a few pre-cooked chestnuts defrosting.
Planning to combine them with some red wine stock and more rosemary* and will serve the ensuing dish with mashed potatoes.

Happy to have suggestions for tweaking that though; I recognise that there are some seriously good cooks here.

*S'pose we'll have to drink the rest of the bottle. Life's a bitch

**I read a myth somewhere that rosemary flourishes best where a woman is head of the household.
Ours needs hacking back regularly...

PS Please don't send me ideas about freezing the rest of the wine for other culinary uses or anything...
I'll just have to bite the bullet (and glug the wine). Sigh...

PPS Actually, you lot wouldn't, would you?
I knew I liked you

Oh I have a stonking recipe for baked sausages and chestnuts that is very forgiving, I have made loads of variations over the years and it always works and is total comfort food - from Cook Simple by Diana Henry (of course - she is my favourite). I'm sure you could throw lentils in there too as she has another recipe for sausages and lentils that is very similar (though it has a soffrito base).

8 sausages
200g chestnuts
300g field mushrooms cut in thick slices
1 large onion cut into half moon shaped wedges
1 whole bulb garlic, separated but not peeled
10Tbsp olive oil
4 sprigs rosemary
1 bay leaf
300ml red wine

Put everything except the wine together in a broad shallow casserole or ovenproof dish and turn over so they get coated in the oil, and season. Roast 25 mins at 190c, pour in the wine, and roast another 25 mins. Serve with mash, roast potatoes, or just some bread and a salad (eg. winter leaves like chicory, radicchio and spinach)

And hey, if you use 300ml red for cooking, what remains is one glass each which is good for your heart. Isn't that how it's supposed to work??

Xiaoxiong

That first sounds lovely! I've everything except mushrooms.

And I didn't think about a soffrito, but I've onions and carrots and the freezer excavation turned up a load of celery cubes.
(Sometimes I'll go a bit mad and get in grapes, figs and celery to go with cheese.
Always have celery left over, so I whizz it in the food processor and freeze it in ice cube trays).

Will probably use less than 300ml (just two of us), so, right there, we have refills!

Glad you like the sound of it! Here's the recipe for sausages and lentils with the soffrito base, if that is helpful: www.telegraph.co.uk/recipes/0/sausages-lentils-herb-relish-recipe/

Actually, that's perfect.

Dinner chez LaMars is sorted.

(And do you know what's really good? DH isn't all that keen on white wine...

Refill for LaMar a gogo!)

PS If it can be done with red...

I don't want to know

What's posted on the food thread, stays on the food thread

(Hey - catch me trying that later when I've hoovered up the "leftover" wine...
I'll probably dislocate my eyelid )

That looks great Xiaoxiong is it granary flour?
With the cast iron pot, did you take the lid off for the last 20-30 mins? That usually gets me a good crust.
I've ordered bannetons too, I've been using the colander lined with a tea towel
Lovely sounding set of ingredients LaMarschallin a few juniper berries in there would be lovely too.

The Sultana of Swing sounds like he's going great guns.
Not sure what I'm cooking tonight yet, probably a trawl of the fridge for "stuff" that needs using and go from there!

Lovely sounding set of ingredients LaMarschallin a few juniper berries in there would be lovely too.

I've got some, Weeds!

I think we'll eat well tonight.

(And, if we don't, I'll have had wine and won't care )

Love that insight about rosemary bushes! We’ve a completely wild one here that I’m extremely proud of, even more so now! LaMars

Enjoy your lovely sausage dish and bonus wine it sounds totally fabulous!

Oh no, my rosemary is really struggling 😂

@Weedsnseeds1 thanks for your kind words

@Xiaoxiong yes I've opened/used milk past date before, not weeks but a few days I have found is doable.

However as I now have scales, sieve and whisk it will be nice to get some baking done

I'm thinking cheese scones, banana loaf and fairy cakes (NOT cup cakes)

I'm so in awe of all of you doing soda breads I've never even had it so don't know if I like it plus I don't eat much bread anyway so probably wasted on me

What’s everyone cooking today?

Currently close to date/needing used are:

Milk
Brie
All my veg! Peppers, some very dry looking mushrooms, last courgette, 2 aubergines, mange tout, even cherry toms have a fairly short date

In fridge need using in next 10-14 days :

Eggs
Natural yogurt - planned to use in curry some may be used for baking
Quorn deli products - bacon, pepperoni, sandwich slices
Creme fraiche
Grated cheddar

I'm thinking a curry/spiced stew or oven frittata

I chopped and sautéed too much veg last night so not sure whether to use that mix in the curry or the frittata.

Curry would probably use more veg so probably go with that, maybe with plain cous cous or noodles

Weeds it was 700g strong white, 300g wessex cobber mix which is malted and gave it a nice texture as it has little rubbly bits in it. A friend just dropped me round a bag of spelt, so next time I'm going to do 70/30 white/spelt and see how it goes.

I didn't leave the lid off - I did lid on for 40 mins at 245c and it sounded cooked and the top seemed quite crusty. It was only after cooling for an hour that the top seemed to get much softer and thinner which is better for our jaws I guess but it was so spongy it was a bit hard to slice!

I just think sourdough is bloody magical - you bait a trap with flour and water for yeast floating in the air, and when you catch it you feed and grow it and it turns flour into bread!!

I'm feeling a little guilty about cooking chowder tonight as we have so many leftovers but they're all basically single portions of meals we have had in the last few days and none of them go together. Usually I save these kinds of things because I take a lunchbox to work but now we are all sitting down together for lunch I tend to make a whole meal. We need to have a leftover sweep up tomorrow probably.

The kids hated it!!  oh well more for you!

I've had a good re-sort of the freezer and refreshed my memory as to what's there.

I'm using the nest egg app (paid version definitely worth it). Takes a little time & effort to set up/inventory everything initially but then it works very easily.

You record where it's stored (you can even add your own quirks - eg I've put exactly what Shelf & cupboard store cupboard items are in to save dragging everything out! Eg "bottom cupboard top left shelf") and you can click "location" and the app will show you everything in eg the fridge

Leftover wine? @PurpleDaisies don't be daft I had a lovely wee Large glass with my dinner last night.

But if I'm having curry tonight it'll have to be a nice cold lager - sacrilege not to really

Loving the idea of "bonus wine" though - I usually call it cooks privilege

@Xiaoxiong love the look of that salad.

Getting my sourdough starter going again, had put it to err bed in the fridge for a few weeks as was just eating too much bread and butter but feel ready to get it out again now. Will post the eventual result.

Spelt is really easy to work with Xiaoxiong it rises beautifully.
I've used the Wessex cobber flour before, I think.
There's a shop that stocks Wessex flour near a friend's house and I have picked up a few interesting sounding ones when visiting over the years.

So I had a Tesco delivery today. Id ordered some forestiere mushrooms for a risotto, but they got subbed with not one but two punnets of chestnut mushrooms. I'd also ordered a punnet of chestnut mushrooms.

Any suggestions of what to do with my three punnets of chestnut mushrooms gratefully received.

@spam88
Will have to get googling on your behalf!

@Spam88 if you haven’t tried the mushroom stroganoff linked to on the thread, I highly recommend it. It’s just as nice without the mix of various mushrooms that the recipe calls for. Will be in the collated recipe lists.

Just popping in quickly to post yesterday’s dinner - sag aloo, lamb curry from the freezer, crispy fried curried aubergine, rice from a packet, plus yoghurt sauce, poppadoms and spicy naan (not pictured as still warming in the oven).