If your home cooking isn't bog-standard British, which shortcuts do you use?

[WinterDeWinter]

Following on from this brilliant thread, I thought it would be really interesting to hear about 'acceptable' cooking shortcuts from people who often cook authentic food from their culture of origin.

For eg one poster said that her generation will happily use ready-ground masala mixes rather than grinding from scratch as their mothers would have done, but they wouldn't use Patak's pastes for eg.

I've been using frozen crushed garlic and ginger recently for curries and Middle Eastern food - I'd love to know if I'd be considered a terrible slattern or whether it's considered a useful shortcut.

Also very interested in any batch cooking and pre-prepping tips - for eg the same very helpful poster said that some friends pre-prep the onion/spice base and freeze, then defrost to speed up weeknight cooking.

I'm interested in all cuisines but especially Asian, Chinese, Mexican and the various Middle Eastern ones, and anything vegan-ish.

Indian tips here -

1. Use stock cubes to add additional flavour to any curries. Doesn’t do any harm at all.
2. invest 1 hour one slow and lazy day and learn how to make Naans. Just use the BBC naan tutorials The knowledge itself is a lifelong short cut and budget cut in a way store bought just isn’t the same.
3. Diced onions - either ready diced or diced by yourselves and kept in box. Fried onions to start off curries gives them depth and colour.
4. Indian grocery shops curry powder mixes.
5. use cheaper bone in cuts of chicken and meat. Bones add super flavour.
6. Have ginger garlic paste ready. They are the essence of curries. Add ginger garlic paste to your ready mixes and paste to oomph them up.
7. have a tub of tandoori powder in the pantry. Tandoori chicken easy peasy.
8. always have plain yoghurt in the fridge. Marinade meat with it and tandoori powder. Make raita with it. Add to curries.

Gah. Just read you wanted vegan recipes. Ah well. Try all I said with tofu if you wish although no reason some of the tips won’t be useful

Yes these are brilliant @Beaucoup ! (And in any case I suspect I might not be vegan forever .
So the jarred Nishaan ginger/garlic paste is fine? Woo hoo! And are there any particular spice mix brands you'd recommend?

I don’t usually used jar pastes but why not - handy tip - if using jarred garlic pastes always chuck in crushed 1 single clove garlic towards the end :)

East End will do for the mixes

If you are making chilli, the packet spice mixes are fine and can also use the kidney beans with chilli sauce for extra flavour. A level teaspoonful of cocoa powder and the same of sugar also adds some depth to flavour as well as a gorgeous colour.

So many dishes, from all cuisines, start off with a fried onion base. This is never the 5-10 minutes the recipes state.
I prepare a lot of onions cut into half-moons, fry very slowly in a neutral oil for a long time until soft, sweet & lightly golden. Remove some, & carry on cooking the rest until they are caramelised.
Freeze in portions, some recipes want a darker coloured base, & it's easy to mash them into smaller pieces if necessary.

Waitrose do a frozen soffrito mix; great when you discover that the celery at the back of the drawer is not fit for purpose.

I agree with the ginger & garlic pastes. I discovered them when I saw a young woman put them in her basket, & asked about them. "They're great, but I don't tell Mummyji I use them."

Look out for supermarkets' "world food" aisles.
Things like spices, pulses etc are much cheaper than on other shelves - often for the identical product.
A package of spice can easily be less than half the price of a dinky little jar.

I use a food processor to mix the dough for chapattis/parathas and have done since I was little. DM started doing it but whenever we go back to our home country we mix by hand.

@Georgyporky what a great idea - i do precook onions and freeze but I hadn't thought of keeping some lighter and others more caramelized. and yes to World Food aisles! I live in a v diverse area and have Pakistani, Chinese, Turkish and Algerian shops close by - all have mixes and packets of things that might be amazing but I don't know what to do with them and have to walk sadly by...

@Beaucoup ooh I will try the fresh garlic at the end, that's a nice sneaky tip.

@WhatsInAMolatovMocktail do you mean the standard UK supermarket spice mixes for Chilli? My big discovery for Mexican has been ancho and chipotle either ground or paste, and Allspice (which apparently is a pepper, who knew?) Add amazing depth. I hadn't thought of adding cocoa but that's a brilliant idea, I can't have chocolate in the house any more .

I KNEW this would be a good thread.

ZOMG that's incredible @Anotherdayanotherdisappointment ! That would change everything. Can you give a really quick recipe? and do you mean with a dough attachment or with the chopper thing - presumably the attachmetn?

Do you ever have a recipe for traditional cooking?😂

Atta + salt + slowly add water until it feels right. When it's nearly the right consistency use the pulse setting to mix. I use the metal blade.

This is an example of something that was fantastic from the Algerian shop

Haha yes that's the problem when it's not your tradition, I need it all VERY CLEAR 😁
That's fantastic, I will do that tomorrow with a smoky aubergine masala. Thank you!

I love this thread, thanks OP!

My revelation was learning how to make pitta bread. I batch make and freeze the dough and then just let it defrost in the fridge for a day and it's ready to just roll and bake in a hot oven for 5-10 mins.

I am a bit scared of yeast @Baystard ! I did do them once, from the Honey and Co cookbook, and they were incredible. Maybe time to be brave again!

Tonight I did homemade falafel Haifa-style (also Honey and Co) and cabbage salad and the cook-from-frozen parathas that @Etinoxaurus were recommended on the other thread because I'd run out of flatbread. They were amazing. I also made tahini sauce and a garlic sauce with cashews (vegan) and I was very. pleased. with. myself. indeed.

Ooh more shortcuts which I'm not sure but suspect would be okay with locals - I served the falafel with jars of Ezme and Zhoug from the new range by Belazu which were really good value at around 2.99 each. (They do a vegan nduja paste as well which is a bit ersatz but great on pizzas.)

I served with parathas because I'd run out of these Dina Lavoush which are incredible and taste pretty authentic to me and crucially are available from morrisons.

@WinterDeWinter honestly yeast isn't scary but it took lockdown for me to realise this, and I now make most of our bread and pitta/naan etc.

The trick is to use powdered yeast (mine is a big red and gold packet bought online which lasts ages and is much cheaper than tiny supermarket tubs or sachets).

I put 1kg of strong bread flour into a big mixing bowl and add 2 tsp yeast, 2tsp caster sugar, and 2tsp salt. I mix this then add 600ml very warm water and 2 tbsp rapeseed oil. Then I mix it with a knife until it all comes together then use my hand to work it for up to 5 mins (I do this in the bowl, I sit it on a teatowel and have a turn/knead pattern). Cover with cling or a damp clean cloth, let it sit and puff up for a good hour, then knead again for a few minutes divide into chunks, wrap and freeze. For four people I'd divide into about 3 pieces but you soon work out what's best for your family. It's exactly the same dough as I use for pizza so you can use the frozen dough for pizza or pitta interchangeably.

That's brilliant - I have ordered the yeast! Sometimes I think you just need someone to tell you what's what so you can do things with confidence and elan 😁.

I've just found this site for Indian ingredients and the frozen section looks incredible. Bombaybasket.co.uk.

And I'm just adding here so it's all in one place for me - @JanisMoplin on the Indian week thread said that she happily buys ready-made batters for Dosas and idli (which I've never had but look delicious) - you just add water and dry fry. Fudco do one and that's how I came across the Bombay Basket site. I am definitely going to try those!

@Baystard just wondering, have you tried any brown-ish flours with that recipe? This whole project started with DH and I looking for ways to eat more healthily/lose a bit of weight so I'm trying to sub in wholegrain stuff when I can.

@WinterDeWinter not tried wholemeal pitta but I don't see why you wouldn't have a go? I use the same recipe but using malted heavily seeded flour to make loaves, the recipe is the same but I knead it more thoroughly with a full 5 minutes each time and give it a second prove in a loaf tin.

Do you knock it back again after the second prove?

As you can probably tell the whole process is mystifying to me and makes me a bit anxious!

I use frozen onions, garlic and ginger cubes all the time for asian/ desi food

If its bread I prove once, knock back and knead, then let it second prove in the tin for a good hour and into oven once it's risen. If it's pitta then I don't bother with second prove - prove once, knock back and roll out (or freeze).

Ah thanks @Baystard - I will report back!
@wizzywig that's good to hear! Do you add the cubes at the same point that you'd add fresh, or do you treat them differently?