Things I learned recently and made my life easier

[user1471523870]

This place is awesome for finding out new tricks!

What I learned so far that I have also implemented successfully:

• you can buy chopped frozen onion. Revolutionary! I then discovered I can buy chopped shallot (feels very posh) and that I prefer the M&S chopped onions as cut finer than others.
• you can buy mashed potatoes and it tastes really good. Not as life changing for me, but super useful for when my toddler decides he wants his tea now, not in 20 minutes after I boil the potatoes.
• on the same trend, I now buy sliced frozen sweet peppers. Great for my fajitas. I always keep frozen chicken and a box or two of Fajitas kits for emergency.
• my latest frozen discovery is stir fry veg. We have a stir fry every other week-ish but I have to make sure to plan it carefully as the bags of fresh ready made veg only last few days. Not anymore now! Frozen veg, frozen salmon, packs of sauce/noodles and ta-daaaa.

Any other suggestions that work for you?

Frozen roast potatoes... I buy a 2kg bag of pots, peel the lot and par-boil for 2 mins. Do the shaking thing to get them fluffy on the outside and then - when they've completely cooled - bung them in the freezer. They cook perfectly from frozen with a roast.
My mum does this for Christmas lunch every year (freezes the required number of roasties a week or so before, just to save time/pans on the day), but I keep a bag in the freezer all year round.

If you want to do it 'properly' you should freeze them on a baking tray first, and then put them in a bag/container when they're frozen, so they don't freeze together. I don't bother, and just freeze them in a bag and when I first want one out of it I just give the bag a bash on the worktop and they all separate.

@ReviewingTheSituation

Frozen roast potatoes... I buy a 2kg bag of pots, peel the lot and par-boil for 2 mins. Do the shaking thing to get them fluffy on the outside and then - when they've completely cooled - bung them in the freezer. They cook perfectly from frozen with a roast. My mum does this for Christmas lunch every year (freezes the required number of roasties a week or so before, just to save time/pans on the day), but I keep a bag in the freezer all year round.

If you want to do it 'properly' you should freeze them on a baking tray first, and then put them in a bag/container when they're frozen, so they don't freeze together. I don't bother, and just freeze them in a bag and when I first want one out of it I just give the bag a bash on the worktop and they all separate.

That's exactly what I do - perfectly crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle

Iceland does frozen chopped garlic and chopped ginger. They last forever and nothing goes to waste.

Grate your block of Parmesan (or sometimes if I’m feeling lazy I reduce to fine rubble in the nutrininja) and freeze. Can be added straight on top of your bowl of pasta and defrosts on contact!

Shove old bread in food processor/nutrininja and freeze breadcrumbs.

@JumpLeadsForTwo - the taste is much stronger from a stock cube vs home-made stock, but that's not surprising when you look at the ingredients list... (knorr chicken cube)
Salt, starch, vegetable fats (palm, shea, sal), yeast extract, sugar, chicken fat (3%)[chicken fat, antioxidant (extracts of rosemary)], flavourings, chicken (1%)[chicken, salt, antioxidant (extracts of rosemary)], spices (turmeric †, pepper, CELERY seeds), lemon juice powder (maltodextrin, lemon juice), onion powder †, parsley †, caramel syrup, maltodextrin.

Over 90% of a stock cube is salt, starch, fats, sugar and yeast extract.

There are very few recipes that actually NEED stock - I almost always use water, and then season to taste (salt, pepper mainly). Most dishes don't rely on stock for flavour because you've already added spices or vegetables with flavour in their own right. It's just that we've become conditioned to using stock products (which are largely salt).

Very good point Reviewing

Frozen spinach is useful for a v speedy soup. More of a recipe than a hack, I guess, but if you fry off an onion, sprinkle and mix in a bit of flour, add stock and the frozen spinach (probably half a bag), bring up to boil and then use stick blender to whizz it up. Bit of milk, salt and pepper and Bob is your uncle.

I get Aldi’s stir fry packets, they don’t last much in the fridge but I normally get 4, cook them all on the same day (takes about an hour using just one wok) and put in tupperwares in the fridge so, I get 3 days when it takes 2 mins in the microwave to prepare dinner.

I also cook twice as many portions as we need, half of it goes in the freezer for lazy days.

Yy to freezing fruit for G&T. Had forgotten you could freeze ginger, need to start doing this again!

@JumpLeadsForTwo

Is freshly made stock really worth the faff compared to stock pots? I've never made it!

It does make a difference but the only thing I find it’s really worth using home made for is clear soups - like noodle soups or other broth based soups - where the broth is the main flavour.

Bit niche, but you can freeze fresh yeast and it works fine (polish grocers often have it).

I freeze my own sofrito (check out maangchi on youtube - watch her chop carrots and stuff - revolutionised how quickly I get small cubes of carrot/celery), peppers, onions etc. - just have the chopping board out and do bits while I'm waiting for other bits of dinner to cook. I don't bother with the single layer thing, just go and shake the bag/box in the freezer every hour or so until they're frozen.

Frozen garlic, ginger etc from the world foods section, jarred peppers also world food section.

[quote sashh]@Limerto be a bit more environmentally friendly you can wrap it in newspaper - I learned that from an elderly Pakistani lady, useful if you get the bunches from the Indian grocer where you get a huge bunch for £1.[/quote]
Wow - that's brilliant, thanks! I do get the huge bunches, I love the stuff.

Another thing I do is that when I need breadcrumbs I toast few slices of bread and put them in the Nutribullet. No need to buy ready-made breadcrumbs ever.
Also, I normally buy the big 800gr bread but after 2-3 days if not finished I put it in the freezer and just take out a slide to toast at a time. It works perfectly and I never through away mouldy bread.

If a recipe calls for melted chocolate and your chocolate comes in a plastic wrapper, just put it in a pan of water, wrapper 'n all. No need to mess around with Bain Marie type efforts. Melts perfectly uniformed and then just squeeze it out like a tube of toothpaste.

@JumpLeadsForTwo

Is freshly made stock really worth the faff compared to stock pots? I've never made it!

It isn't faffy.

I bung all the veggie scraps into a pan with water and salt/pepper etc. Boil it and leave to simmer for a couple of hours.
Drain and done .

From the secret recipes thread. Cheese and spring onion toasties in a hot dry pan. Coat the outside-facing slices of bread with mayonnaise before placing in pan and building your sandwich / flipping them over. You get no mayo taste at all, but the egg in it crisps and browns the outside while the cheese melts inside....... You're welcome.

When I bake loaf cakes I usually make double so I can freeze one for a later date. They don't take up much space. I had lots of frozen loaf cakes ready before I had my children so I could serve homemade cakes to their first visitors. When I bake biscuits I often freeze some of the dough when it is shaped, then when the oven is on for our evening meal we can all have a freshly baked biscuit for pudding.

I just bought frozen shallots and white onion and butternut squash thanks to you great lot.
X

@Dogissue

If a recipe calls for melted chocolate and your chocolate comes in a plastic wrapper, just put it in a pan of water, wrapper 'n all. No need to mess around with Bain Marie type efforts. Melts perfectly uniformed and then just squeeze it out like a tube of toothpaste.

Genius!!

@squishee

From the secret recipes thread. Cheese and spring onion toasties in a hot dry pan. Coat the outside-facing slices of bread with mayonnaise before placing in pan and building your sandwich / flipping them over. You get no mayo taste at all, but the egg in it crisps and browns the outside while the cheese melts inside....... You're welcome.

Oh pan toasties - yes we do this but with tomato puree and mozzarella to make pizza toasties! I put butter on the outside and weigh the toastie down with a heavy pan to help it stick together. Any kind of toastie filling would work.

JumpLeadsForTwo Why thank you adjusts jacket lapels

dogissue give those lapels another adjusting as that is an excellent hack!

I freeze leeks. Just slice lengthways to wash, then slice into half rings. I put in to freezer bags and then cook from frozen as it doesn't clump together.

Agree re the tubes of garlic puree and ginger puree.
Also you can freeze limes (best cut in half).
Pasta parcels are the quickest meal ever, ie pasta containing fillings . They seem to have a long shelf life (or fridge life i should say), and generally take no more than 3 minutes to cook.