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???

I tried frozen mash once after people raving about it. I didn't like it :( most of the bag got binned.

It was a funny brand though, can't remember exactly what, but not aunt bessies or tescos own.

Might try again...

Portions of freshly made mash freeze really well and heated through in a pan with a dollop of butter and creme fraiche, its better than the first batch. 2.5 kg spuds are what, £1.99. That's 6 portions of mash for four. Those little pots of it in Sainsburys are £1.50 for the middle range one I think. It's a no brainer for me I'm afraid.

Beaufort, it's the frozen mash we are talking about, it's £1 a bag.

I love cooking...but I'm starting to find it a thankless task! Putting three meals on the table a day for fussy eaters grinds you down! It is time consuming, makes a mess and my lovely meals are often looked at with disdain! I still cook but I love a shortcut...these include

Ready made mash (seriously mash from scratch has too many processes for me!)

Sachets of pre cooked rice

Frozen ready chopped onions

Frozen chopped peppers

Frozen garlic

Curry pastes

Mash isn't that hard to make is it?!

Curry from scratch, ditto.

I work and try and cook from scratch most of the time. When things are bad (I.e.manically busy) we will get a ready meal in or takeway but we much prefer from scratch cooking.

And by that I mean I make tomato sauce for pasta (5 mins prep), pizza bases (using a bread maker though) and curries.

As it gets colder I will crack out the slow cooker - makes life even easier.

Since we stopped using ready made sauces etc our tolerance for salt dropped right down.

You all need Made in India Cookbook it's fab and has been thoroughly tested in the MN cookery book club. Lots of quick, tasty curries from scratch, no jars to be seen, except those containing spices. Even quicker when you cheat with frozen onions, garlic, ginger and coriander . I regularly freeze ginger and herbs if I've bought too much and it'll go over before using up.

OP I'd get your OH to cook his own for a week if he keeps criticising, making sure he doesn't go over the budget you've used, divided accordingly, and no takeaways allowed.

Quick question- isn't making a roux harder than doing mash? I'd have thought that would be the obvious part to cheat on. Disclaimer- I don't like mash, so have never eaten fish pie even though I love fish. And DH is the other way round. So as a household, we are not fish pie experts! Anyway, tell DP to do the curry herself if she wants one from scratch. Presumably she knows where the kitchen is.

Also, good luck finding ingredients that aren't full of chemicals beaufort. I would say you'd be having to live on fresh air but, well, y'know...

Peas are different. They are one of the few veggies that are better frozen, unless straight-from-the-garden fresh. Frozen peas are perfectly acceptable to the Real Cook repertoire.

Agree that preparing mashed potato is a pain. Delia recommends whisking it; Heston takes 2 hours in one recipe...
I don't bother any more. I have a potato ricer and I just don't bother mashing it afterwards - add it straight to the top of the pie. I also grate it, when the urge takes me, or I finely slice and cover the pie with potato slices.

Or I let the kids do the mashing
They are charmingly enthusiastic and have a far greater tolerance of lumps when it's their handiwork not mine.

Mash is a nuisance. I give mine the poncey name 'crushed potatoes' to cover up for the fact I can't face getting all the lumps out. You need a potato ricer to do it properly and I just can't be arsed. Roux and white sauce a doddle in comparison.

I can only cope with mashing potatoes when I'm pissed off. Then they get well and truly mashed and lump free obliterated

at HoneyDragon I had a squirrel curry in Thailand once - was so hot I couldn't taste it. I did wonder for a moment what weasel would actually taste like...

... Like frozen mash I guess!

Jars of sauce are awesome, they taste better than anything I could make myself, plus I can't be arsed with pounding and grinding (oo-er) when most nights I have to cook three different things due to fussy children. I do make cakes myself, but I don't make my own butter or anything. What a cheat I am for not having my own churn in the scullery.

To be fair if I am making mash for everybody then I don't have a problem making it from potatoes rather than frozen ready made. The convenience of it for me is when I only need one portion.

Jars of sauce are awesome, they taste better than anything I could make myself

I couldn't disagree more. They taste factory made and are always rank.
I would rather eat plain spaghetti with a little parmesan and olive oil than a jar of sauce.

Why does it matter?

rofl at they 'like to skin and chop their own tomatoes'

What does it taste like?

Weasel.

I'm curious to try weasel now, just in case it really does taste of frozen mashed potato. However, I'm fishitarian and cannot pretend a weasel is a fish. Or a vegetable. Plus, the little blighters are fierce and I cannot imagine catching one and prepping it.

I get that if you cook from scratch you have a much better idea of what you're actually eating. But I don't get the idea that not doing so is "cheating". It's just good sense. Some times I want to make pizza (though I use a breadmaker for the dough so that might be "cheating"), other times I want to eat tortellini from a packet so that my dinner takes about 10 minutes to cook.

I wouldn't class the curry or fish pie as cooking from scratch.

Cooking from scratch isn't hard, just make more of things and freeze them! Mashed potato freezes really well. If you use a potato ricer you don't even have to peel the potatoes.

I know people who put tomato sauce into things and say it's cooked from scratch, when in fact I would view that in the same way as using a jarred sauce.

That said, there's nothing wrong with using convenience foods for things. It's an expensive way to cook if you use them all the time, but if you're short of time or just simply can't be bothered, then I don't see the harm.

"I would say you'd be having to live on fresh air but, well, y'know..."

Fresh air is about 78% nitrogen and the other 22% is chemicals as well. It's a dangerous world out there.

I have seen things advertised as "free from chemicals" and I think really, that's a quality I only look for in certain parts of a vacuum flask.

Am I missing some sort of mystical mash process? Mash is so fucking easy it's almost laughable.

Cook whole potatoes in microwave.
Halve.
Squash in potato ricer.
Season. Mix in butter/cream/milk/whatever preference.
Serve.

How the hell can Heston take two hours to improve on that?

If you use a potato ricer you don't even have to peel the potatoes

Really??? Tell me more. This could be life-changing news chez Wolpertinger

Cross-posted. Am off to buy potato ricer

You simply pierce the skins and cook them whole in the microwave, then cut in half, and put them in the ricer cut side down. The ricer squashes all the insides into perfect mash, leaving the skin inside it.