Pantry Challenge 2024

[2024Hackathon]

A relative has downsized. I 'inherited' a mass of pantry items she couldn't take with her. They range from the exotic to the everyday. A lot of them are well beyond their Best Before date (some going back to 2012 like stock cubes).

However, I can't bear food waste. So, I'm making a conscious effort to use up the pantry items along with the contents of our freezer and minimise the need to purchase much beyond fresh fruit and vegetables (we do have a lot of dehydrated vegetables).

I know I'm going to run out of inspiration and find it easier to default to not rotating in the pantry items which is why I'm hoping to keep this here.

Note from 31 Dec. I used some dried whole egg when baking (I used half the amount of fresh eggs and the remainder was from dried) and it was (unexpectedly) fine.

01.01.24 pantry challenge

Breakfast: porridge, HM bread toasted, HM yoghurt (all pantry; I may need to try and shift yoghurt making to dried milk)

Lunch: yesterday's vegetable soup (pantry) with tomato salad (current stores)

Dinner: duck (freezer) with roast potatoes, vegetables all from pantry (red cabbage, rehydrated carrots and celeriac).

@pistachiosanscream I'd never had grits before, but I also have a huge bag of cracked hominy corn looking at me every time I open the cupboard that I also need to try and do something with!

@2024Hackathon casually mention 9kg of octopus... no big deal LOL

@2024Hackathon @HowDidThisHappenDinesh the cassoulet I make isn’t very traditional as I add tinned tomatoes but it is incredibly moreish. Bacon lardons, high quality sausages, beans ve arrots, celery and onions and the ducklegs. I also love to make extra bean mix to have later. We will have it this weekend with some champagne to celebrate nothing in particular

todays dinner was beef tacos with a black bean and corn salsa. A quick pivot considering I thought I had pulled pork in the freezer but didn’t. The beef had been pre seasoned for kebab but I added some more taco spices snd it was still lovely. The leftovers opens be taco salads tomorrow or can be combined with leftover cous cous for a Buddha bowl type thing.

My freezer—if the cold were not making them sluggish, I'm sure they'd be looking for the sea lettuce and seaweed as a bit of camouflage or home from home.

@2024Hackathon what does 9kg of octopus look like when it’s at home?

im guessing a paella might use some of it.

Tins of musky octopus in tomato sauce and some other octopus in oil and garlic. And when I say I have lots of tinned fish, it's mostly Icelandic, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish etc. rather than familiar brands.

The remainder of the octopus is in the form of coiled tentacles, in the freezer. They're not small like the ones in this recipe, they have girth to them.

https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/catalan-octopus-stew-recipe

@2024Hackathon Thats one ingredient I’m glad I don’t have to deal with. It is fascinating seeing what your relative had accumulated. I wonder what they had planned for some of the more exotic ingredients

12.01 All from stores and freezer.

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt/villi and granola
Lunch: mixed vegetable soup with added rehydrated vegetables or tomatoes on toast

Dinner: Mix of chicken or plant sausages with roast potatoes and an assortment of vegetables (cauliflower, green beans, mushrooms).

A friend has sent me this link. I have a feeling this may turn up as a present later this year.

https://www.souschef.co.uk/products/silikomart-polpo-professional-food-mould

13.01 All from stores and freezer.

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt/villi and granola
Lunch: mixed vegetable soup with added rehydrated vegetables or French toast (made with reconstituted dried eggs)

Dinner: Octopus in tomato and wine sauce with bread. Vegan option is palm hearts in the sauce.

I love octopus 🐙.

Think we’ll be having cheese and crackers this evening.

Last night's octopus was good despite lots of family misgivings.

14.01 All from stores and freezer.

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt/villi and granola
Lunch: Tomatoes on toast

Dinner: Kangaroo or (dried) chestnut Bourguignon with assorted vegetables and potatoes.

@2024Hackathon I thought the octopus couldn’t be topped but then out comes the kangaroo.

im so loving this thread. I actually love organising and sorting things so I love that I can virtually follow you in this journey.

the duck leg cassoulet was made and was as lovely as always. Still plenty of the bean and bacon/ sausage mix for a couple of lunches. Copious amounts of champagne were also drank. Last year was very hard so decided to celebrate little things like feeling happy for new reason. Snd I used the fancy champagne saucers.

however I feel DH will want a takeaway tonight as he’s not feeling great. I’m hoping to do a fakeaway. I’ve burgers, chips etc in the freezer and lots more so 🤞

the duck leg cassoulet was made and was as lovely as always. Still plenty of the bean and bacon/ sausage mix for a couple of lunches.

That's sounds delectable even without the extra mix for additional meals. Perfect Winter food.

I've managed to get a couple of cabbages to make freezer coleslaw (Amish recipe upthread). The cabbages are shredded, salting, and standing. I've made the dressing and it's cooling. The other vegetables (carrots and red bell peppers) will be dried ones but I'm not going to hydrate them before putting them into the vegetable mix and dressing them.

Yesterday's bread has turned out OK. It was a little under-proved for my liking but I got impatient to bake it and did it for my convenience rather than waiting for it to finish proving (which is a good extra 2-3hrs in these temperatures).

I still haven't made the granola. I soaked the almonds yesterday but I need to dry them today before I can include them in the granola. It will be oats, almonds, buckwheat groats, apple puree and maple, sunflower seeds, warm spices: people can add the dried fruit to their liking when serving. I never like including fruit in the recipe because I think it overcooks.

@2024Hackathon Is it maple syrup you use in your granola? I’ve never used apple purée before. I once tried a low sugar granola which used mashed banana for the sweetness and it was horrible. I like it a bit sweet so using maple syrup and apple purée might work for me.

I had the cassoulet beans for lunch and have another portion for tomorrow’s lunch. We had chicken satay skewers, soy garlic broccoli and noodles for dinner. All from the freezer or pantry. I make a big batch of satay sauce and freeze it in large ice cube trays for easy dinners.

I also made a revised menu plan taking into account my days working In the office and the fact I’ve a decorator coming tomorrow so my headspace for cooking will be minimal some days. Good time to use up the freezer bounty and avoid a takeaway.

Is it maple syrup you use in your granola?

It was maple syrup with some Golden Syrup (I did it tonight).

Nigella's granola recipe uses apple puree (which is where I got that from). This works well for me, I used the maple because I'd inherited it with the Golden Syrup as I normally just use the latter to replace the brown rice syrup in that recipe.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/andys-fairfield-granola

15.01 All from stores and freezer.

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt/villi and frui compote
Lunch: Tomato soup

Dinner: Mince (beef or Quorn) onions, carrots, and potatoes with cabbage (green and red) and mushrooms.

16.01 All from stores and freezer.except for potatoes

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt/villi and frui compote
Lunch: Tomato soup with smoked tomato

Dinner: Roast chicken, onions, carrots, broccoli and roast potatoes with mixed mushrooms. Vegan option is mushroom pie.

17.01 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt/villi and fruit compote
Lunch: Tomato soup with smoked tomato

Dinner: Sardines (or seitan) in tomato sauce with noodles, roast broccoli in vinaigrette and stewed red peppers.

Oh wow - what an extraordinary adventure! You’ll have so much fun.

Don’t have time to concentrate right now but in the past I’ve used linseeds in granola (obvious) and in olive oil pastry for an onion tart. Very delicious.

I am currently discovering how useful cheap distilled vinegar can be; to draw out flavours whilst preserving the ingredients. Even for a few days, then season to the main ingredient (sweet/sour/or both), baste, bake or stir fry.

Works really well with the tinned fish, for eg, and beyond.

18.01 All from stores and freezer

Breakfast: porridge or yoghurt/villi and fruit compote
Lunch: Mixed mushroom soup

Dinner: Cottage pie (beef or adzuki beans) with green and red cabbage, caramelised onion, carrots.

Given the low temperatures, and the fact that this family is not accustomed to thinking of octopus stew as comfort food, I opted for a classic Winter Warmer dinner.

😁"octopus as comfort food"

well, maybe it is somewhere, but the cottage pie certainly suited to this weather!

Todays dinner was a random mix of curry leftovers. Win win as it gets containers out of the freezer and we feel we got a treat.

yesterday I wasn’t feeling great and was tempted to let DH get me sausage rolls from the shop. Instead I baked some of the ones I had made in the freezer. For dinner I mixed some prepaid chilli from the freezer with rigatoni and cheese for a Mexican rigatoni. Only thing was I mixed some leftover black bean salsa I had in the fridge and would have paired well. It will possibly be dumped now if I don’t use it asap.

Cottage pie hit the spot (nobody raised even a token objection to the 2 types of cabbage).

pistachiosanscream - nicely done for both days. Some good fusion of meals and leftovers there.

I'm thinking of a fish pie or stew for tomorrow. There's some white fish in the freezer that is a little bit on the old side to be cooked individually but it will be fine in a tomato and wine sauce. I think I'll might be able to sneak a tin of the musky octopus in there without it being too obvious (much smaller than the substantial frozen tentacles).

I don't have fresh garlic so won't be able to put up a rouille. But I've got some black garlic that I could put into mayonnaise and I could serve that with the stew/pie and bread.

I’d be making either a fruit cake with some of that dried fruit and nuts or a panforte.

I'm enjoying reading all these concoctions you are creating! I am also on a use up mission but nothing as exotic or exciting in my cupboards!

I really loved the teacakes idea, I've just used a bar of dark chocolate to make some with the fluff I was begged for and some peanut butter cups with my giant tub of peanut butter. I have to eat gluten and dairy free so very excited to have treats I have havent had in forever 😊

Dark chocolate teacakes sound delicious, @SootspriteSearcher - whether you meant chocolate chips or chocolate dough?

Do you use any of these gluten free ingredients? I honestly don’t work for them but completely love the adventure of trying new flours. (People I bake for now know my cakes always have an interesting texture.)

https://hodmedods.co.uk/products/gluten-free-bundle?_pos=2&_sid=0f182ea3c&_ss=r