Two-faced foodie-ism : if you're a 'foodie', do you have loopholes?

[snigger]

This is in direct response to a thread title in chat about Dolmio/Chicken Tonight. (Before you say it, yes, judgey pants were hiked to 9.3)

I instinctively went 'Eurgh' ...... then looked at the now empty jar of pesto I'd recently smeared on some fish as a quick after-classes late meal, justifying myself with a grind of pepper, some freshly grated parmesan, and home-made pilaf.

Is that any different?

No.

Yet I brush it off and move on because it suits me hey-ho, it's only food.

I hate the thought of additives and processing and ten-steps-removed-from-actual-food, but at the same time, I have so much to do with limited resources.

What are your acceptable foodie cheats?

Puff pastry. I do not understand why an amateur would make it. Home made pasta, ditto. Both are readily available, cheaper, and take hours to make.

Good stock cubes are a must. I do make stock when I have a chicken carcass but can't say it's that often. Tinned lentils. Dried pasta because I'm told it is perfectly acceptable in Italy. I have dirty food loves too like Ikea hotdogs (gasp!) and a McD's sausage & egg mcmuffin on the occasion of a hangover (double gasp!).

God, yes, puff pastry.

God yes Confessing nowt on the hangover breakfast front......

Another defining (imo) line : everyone accepts that canned tomatoes are a need-to. Do you buy them with extras? (garlic/onions/basil/full ragu treatment)?

I'm a 'no' on this. How far is a bridge too far

pastry, not that we use it alot. Curry sauces, found an excellent company and will have a jar in to use if tired and can't be arsed to cook.

I'm a plain tinned tomato girl myself. Oh, and I have fishfingers in the freezer for kids and grown ups alike for when only a fishfinger sandwich will do.

I'm the same with curry sauces - if it's ground spices in oil I feel like I can let it go....

... and yet I feel no shame at strolling the supermarket aisles/farmer's market as a fully-fledged real food zealot.

How many 'foodies' are real foodies, and how many do what they can?

Pastry, curry paste, sundried tomato paste, chargrilled frozen vegetables, ready chopped onions/garlic/shallots (do those count as cheats or just time saving?), stock (also porcini stock cubes which are fantastic).
Cheat cheese sauce - mascarpone cheese with grated cheese added

I never use jars of sauce though.

I love food, and I love cooking if I have the time mainly at weekends. DH is a good cook but a follow the recipe cook, DD has massive food issues, DS is definitely more adventurous. I guess we would cook from scratch most nights, but if I do cheat I am a food snob and I am really particular about what I buy. I will confess to hating shop mayonnaise so will make my own if I am doing potato salad/coleslaw. I also hate ready made salad dressings.

I regard things like pesto, passata (never with extra crap), thai green curry paste, stock cubes or hot pepper sauce as 'ingredients/condiments' and, as long as they're fairly traditional and the list of contents on the label is relatively short, I'm fine with them. I think the most un-foodie thing in the cupboard at the moment would be a packet of Angel Delight!!

I use Sainsbo's ready crushed lemongrass from a jar, otherwise I'd never have fresh lemon grass in for curries or Thai meals.

Good stock cubes too and puff pastry.

No time for home made mayo/jam etc, so all shop bought.

Clarissa Dickson Wright said there was absolutely no need to make puff pastry when you could buy it.
I do use jar curry sauce/paste but I don't eat it :) I'm not faffing over making korma from scratch for the kids!

pastry, curry pastes, good stock cubes, occasionally stir fry sauces (chinese sachet type ones - but bar the marketing, they are jar sauces), mayo are all fine in my book (well, maybe not the sauces, but I use them anyway).

There are also a selection of seriously junk foods which one or more member of the household likes - including salad cream (not me), SPAM (bleugh), and frankfurters (OK I confess).

Cartmel sticky toffee pudding, puff pastry, phyllo pastry, demi glacé stock pots and coulis are my cheats.

Curry pastes (Thai in particular) tomato purée etc are IMO ingredients as they would be used in authentic cooking IYSWIM.

Tinned cherry toms are brilliant!

I use curry paste, not sauce, plain passatta, ready chopped frozen herbs, garlic, ginger etc. I also use mint sauce as an ingredient instead of fresh. Waitrose frozen stone bake pizza bases with passatta already on are great too. I have never made mayo, I hate Hellmans type but like French and have recently discovered Stokes which is lovely. Make own jam and pickled onions from scratch (ie do my own spices in

I have been known to use E-z onion, it's fine for spag bol or similar.

I always buy ready made puff pastry, I have made it before but my life is too short.
I also have the Knorr touch of taste bouillon liquids to use as stock rather than make my own and I like the mr Huda curry pastes as a shortcut.
I find pesto quicker to make myself and I like a good jam session. Mayo has to be one of about 3 brands and never Hellmans but I will homemake if it's for something special.

I use curry paste, not sauce, plain passatta, ready chopped frozen herbs, garlic, ginger etc. I also use mint sauce as an ingredient instead of fresh. Waitrose frozen stone bake pizza bases with passatta already on are great too. I have never made mayo, I hate Hellmans type but like French and have recently discovered Stokes which is lovely. Make own jam and pickled onions from scratch (ie do my own spices in plain vinegar)

I have been known to use E-z onion, it's ok for spag bol or similar.

I use curry paste but I doubt this is used in authentic Thai or Indian cooking, pastes would be made from scratch.

I'm feeling placated by the 'treat them as ingredients' line.

So funny that there seems to be a "this far and no further" line forming : curry paste, ok, tomatoes, ok, freeze dried herbs ok, decent stock ok, but no extraneous crap.
Chargrilled frozen vegetables raise a micro-shudder in me CVB - are they any good? Is this a frozen pea situation, where they're actually better for being frozen quickly?
I really have no credentials at all as a foodie because DH loves Bisto gravy so there's always a jar of chicken flavoured guff in the cupboard, despite my best efforts, and on occasion, serving up real gravy for the girls & I, and jar gravy for him.

Heinz tomato soup is another one. I always have a can around, because every six months or so I just get The Need and have to dip a cheese toastie in it. I'm classing that as regression to childhood and necessary to my emotional health, so that doesn't count.

I don't make pastry as I'm shit at it.
I rarely bake, as I'm shit at it.
I don't make passata, who the fuck does?
I don't do anything that needs kneading atm, as my Kenwood is broken and I can't (breathing issues).
Other than that, most things are from scratch if I want them to be, and I generally do.
I don't call myself a foodie though, as most people I know who do, are just up their own arses about food.
I love food, all food, and if I want to eat a vesta chow mein or a munchy box, I will, but if I want to eat Japanese food, or American food, or Vietnamese food, then I'll cook it myself, and I do.
DD was away all last week, I didn't cook for myself once, as I realised I just can't get motivated for myself, and I loved my dinner of cheap pie with beans and waffles!
I also loved the black pudding and paprika sausage roll bought from the artisan bakery.

Like I say, I'm not a foodie, I just love food, I really do think there's a difference.

Curry paste some of the time, but I actually like making it. I live in SW London and have a gazillion amazing Oriental, Indian and Arabic grocers, so have an abundance of wonderfully exotic ingredients at the end of my road which all cost about 2p each.

I use tinned cherry tomatoes to make a Napolotana sauce for pasta or pizzas; and I have the Knorr stock pot wotnots, which I use a fair bit if I haven't made any stocks.

Tomato ketchup - gosh I use that in lots of things. But then the Steak Tartare in Le Gavroche has ketchup in it, so if it's good enough for a Roux then it's good enough for me.

When we lived in Spain I used to make a cwt of marmalade every year, but now that I don't have several orange trees in my garden I will have to start buying it when this lot runs out!

That's about it really. I love cooking with an absolute passion and can spend hours and hours pottering about in the kitchen making this that and everything. So I do

I do eat Heinz tomato soup, the squeezy tubes are great for taking to work and make using water from the kettle. I also love salad cream, although I don't actually eat it all that often, the smallest bottle lasts me several months. Oh and I give the DCs tinned fruit (in juice), especially in winter, they love it.

I tell you when all the principles go out of the window for us - camping, especially as the DCs are fairly fussy eaters and we never have enough room in the car for big pans etc. Out come the Pot Noodles, pasta in a cup, Angel Delight etc.

I don't really think there is a difference though.

If you love food, you're automatically saying you consider it to be more than fuel. If it was just fuel, we'd all just eat anything to stay alive, but food can be such a pleasure.

I agree, if vesta curries float your boke boat, crack on, but most genuine food-lovers, I contest, are automatically foodies.

Maybe it's just the people I know who call themselves foodies?
I find them snobbish about food, and have rigid rules about what is and isn't ok, whereas I just get pleasure from food, and will eat what I want.
It's generally homemade, as I love to cook, but if I want crap, I want crap and I'll eat it, and admit to it.
I have a food blog, and I put my junky purchases on it, and my disasters too.