Am I "cooking from scratch".....

[Janeymoo50]

or not...

Curry - brown onion, garlic, chicken, add jar of paste/sauce?

Shep pie - brown mince, onions, carrots, add tomato paste, stock, flour, marmite, seasoning, herbs, etc

Fish pie - put frozen salmon and cod fillets (Iceland bargains) in bit of milk, butter and dried herbs, then make proper roux with the liquid, top with frozen mash (with added butter and good shake of black pepper)

My DP says I cheat, I might concur on the frozen mash (but it works better on fish pie).... But I've always thought this was ok....am I really cheating???

Meh ..... Peeling and cooking potatoes to a mashable state doesn't count as cooking. Therefore frozen mash to chuck on stuff is exempt from any cooking from scratch rules.

Tick - yeah exactly. is lasagne from scratch if you didn't make the pasta? It is such a random concept 'from scratch '

Freshly roasted and ground spices certainly taste better but often you don't have time - make your own judgements about what's important.

Anything that comes out of my kitchen is "home made". I cook from scratch if I can be bothered but I've never proclaimed to my family "oh did you know I cooked that from scratch". They'd look at me like if I did that. Why does it matter to you OP?

I use curry paste (not sauce) and would argue that it's just spice in oil. Everything else is fresh ingredients. I'm claiming it as 'from scratch'.

Your teas sound very nice.

And rearing and dismembering the chicken, building several ponds for a variety of waters for the fish. Smoking your own haddock. Weaving your lentils and building s tiny mill in your garden for flour for the roux.

Then you Queen of the Scratch and Supreme leader of Mumsnetland.

I grow and mash my own spuds; I grow and peel my own tomatoes. Hell, I even breed my own tomato seed.

But if my OH accused me of cheating by using curry paste, tinned tomatoes etc; I'd flip my lid and he would not be getting any more of my food.

I need to buy some frozen mash, it means we can have fish pie on a work day.
What does it taste like?

at 'building a tiny mill in the garden'.

Curry no, Shepherds pie yes, fish pie no, although I never knew you could buy frozen mash!

In our house,we have proper scratch,or packet scratch. Shep pie is proper scratch,curry and fish pie are packet scratch. It all sounds lovely though,OP!

Frozen mash tastes a damn sight better than my home made mash; it doesn't come with all the lumps, for a start. And I can serve it up without being driven towards contemplating suicide, which is always nice too. I fucking hate mashing potatoes.

I'd agree with others: it's not really 'from scratch', so I guess you could say you're cheating.

But it's dinner not the Tour de France, so I wouldn't worry. It all sounds tasty and healthy.

I need to buy some frozen mash, it means we can have fish pie on a work day
What does it taste like?

Weasel.

Shep pie and fish pie I would say are from scratch with the frozen mash being a short cut. Curry not from scratch.
It sounds like basic, homecooking and they are good meals. I like the sound of your dinners.

I use frozen mash.

Or if I make it myself I use a potato ricer.

Because I am a pretentious kitchen tooled up twat.

But I'm a sensible ponce and like to cut all the corners on a school night.

I propose that this week we all buy and experiment with frozen mash. Reporting back in 7 days.
Except Janey who should feed her DH microwave meals all week so that he apologises for being unreasonable and appreciates that she cooks from nearly scratch.

I wanted to make a New York style baked cheesecake the other day.

Till I realised that even buying value cream cheese at 40 pence it would cost me £2.00 for just the cheese, then another quid for the mascarpone factor in the butter and digestives and I thought FUCK IT, and got a posh co op on for £2.00

Paste counts as from scratch in my book. It's normal to use pastes and masala mixes in South Asia.

Honey I know instant mash tastes of weasel, but this thread had my hopes up for frozen.
I never ate potatoes as a child as my mum was allergic, I think they are a real faff to peel, boil, mash and then put in the oven on a pie. I hoped this would be a way to fill DH's vast tummy forward.

We're another lot that bake most our bread and cakes, grow our own veg and pots also hunt (for eating) and fish but like fuck do we do everything from scratch. Who would and why?
Love an easy chips and sausage or curry sauce and cous cous now and then.

Shepherd's pie, yes.

Curry - no, the jar of sauce is not fresh food.

Fish pie - is the mash, mash that you have frozen or bought from the frozen food counter. If the former yes, if the latter no.

What sort of mash do you use for the Shepherd's pie though. Am hoping you peel, cook and mash the spuds and prepare twice what you need and put a serving in your own freezer for the next dish you make that needs mash?

Out of interest, do you make the mash for the top of the shepherd's pie or use the frozen?