Your best ever batch cooking and freezing recipes here please.

[donbean]

Im on annual leave next week and want to do a load of cooking and freezing.
So far ive got:
Carrot n parsnip soup
Tomato sauce for pasta.

what else could i do?

Bolognese sauce - freezes extremely well.

got that on my list Anna thanks,

any thing else????

boeuf en daube (ish)

stewing steak (normal size pack of)
packet of mushrooms, sliced
red wine 1/2 a bottle
chopped onions 1 or more depending on taste
good stock cube
worcester sauce (I know..)
fresh thyme , dried bay leaves, bouquet garni if you've got any
any root veg you like
couple of cloves
small bit of orange peel if you've gotit, or bit of orange juice, or leave out

fry off onions, brown meat, fry mushrooms.

add a bit of flour if you like quite a thick liquid (cook off if so)

crumble in stock cube, add wine, herbs, orange, cloves, worcester sauce if you have some.

Bring to simmer, cover, cook for 2.5 to 3 hours.

Spag bol too obvious?

Soo much better with lots of wine, I also use thyme and bay in this rather than oregano, and cook it for 2 hours (lots of recipes say an hour or so..) I put a whole pack of mushrooms in for each pack of mince. Also use mushroom ketchup if you have any, and definitely worcester sauce.

I often do these at the same time as they're pretty identical apart from the seasonings in the daube, and the tomatoes in the bol.

donbean - ?

Are you confusing tomato sauce and bolognese sauce?

If you're just looking for quick and easy, I'd rather have chicken bits or prawns in the freezer (defrost really quick in the microwave) and loads of fresh veg, for a stir-fry.
Or make up/buy some pizza bases for the freezer, cover in pesto sauce and cheese/meat/veg and bake from froz.
Or keep bags of veg (cauli/peas/sweetcorn - any or all) in freezer, fry an onion, chuck in chosen veg, cover with stock, boil until tender. Blitz, thin with milk/cream. SOUP! I love soup.

Chilli
Stew/Casserole
Root Veg Soup
Fish Pie
Daal
Pasta Bake
Meatballs
Pizza/Pasta Sauce
Pizza Bases
Cheese Sauce

Or if you really need frozen meals try;
chicken and onion/garlic cooked in a white sauce, mix in cooked pasta. Freeze. when baking, sprinkle crushed crisps on top for crunch.

yes sorry Anna, thats my version of pasta sauce.

oooh ooh wombling thats good good good.
tell me about your baked pasta and your chilli and your root veg soup...
tall me about thm all.

ah Fish pie Wombling!
Wombling do you have a good daal recipe? All mine always taste of each individual ingredient iyswim.

Here's what I do with a load of root veg:

chop onion, carrot, turnip, parsnip (whatever is in veg box really) and fry in oil in two big pans.

First lot - turn into vegetable soup with some veg stock, a handful of red lentils. Freezes really well.

Second lot - add some curry powder, a little stock and cook until veg are soft. I use these as the filling for veg pasties (sometimes add chick peas too) which I either make up and put in freezer to cook, or just freeze the filling in batches to add to pastry and bake when needed. Very nice served with baked beans.

Could also use as base for a meat stew...

Pasta Bake,

Pretty Standard Bolognese sauce: Onion, Garlic carrot and celery, chopped fine and sweated for flavour, pancetta and miced beef usually, or pork and beef mince mixed, bay leaf, tomato puree, redwine, stock, salt, pepper & herbs, sometimes I add fresh chilli, chopped fine, simmer for a long time until tender.

Mix with cooked pasta, top with cheese or bechamel sauce and cheese.

damn forgot the garlic in the daube

OBM,

Will post daal recipe later, am at work, and cannot remember all seasonings accurately.

Chilli: Not authentic, but everyone always raves about it, all my friends ask me to cook it for birthday tea:

Fry onion, garlic, when soft, add mince, brown on a high heat, add red pepper, soften, then kidney beans, sun dried tomato paste, salt, pepper, chopped fresh chilli & ground cumin & passata or tinned toms, simmer for a while and taste, add stock cube if needed for flavour, when cooked finish with lots of fresh chopped coriander.

Root Veg Soup

In a casserole, chop up variety of root veg into 2 inch chunks : carrot, swede, parsnip, sweet pots, beetroot, butternut squash, whatever you want. Cover with 2/3 pts of veg stock, I use Marigold, bring to a simmer on hob, shove in low oven for 2/3 hours, liqudise, season, cool and freeze. Serve with yoghurt or creme fraiche swirled on top.

Womble pleasae post dhal recipe - i have loads of cookery books but none of the dhal recipes seem, well, like the local takeaways.

MOONG DAL

200g yellow moong dal, or yellow split peas if you prefer it thicker
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2 green chillies, chopped
2.5-cm-square piece of ginger, chopped
3 plump garlic cloves, chopped
quarter teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped
8 curry leaves
1 tablespoon butter or oil
salt

Wash the dal well and soak for 15 minutes.

Bring 5 cups of water to the boil in a cooking pot. Add the dal, plus the tomatoes, chillies, giner, two-thirds of the garlic and the turmeric powder. Return to the boil, then add salt to taste. Cook for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk gently with an egg beater until the grains are completely mashed [I used a liquidiser] Add the coriander and the curry leaves, and cook for five minutes.

Heat the butter or oil in a ladle, add the remaining garlic and fry until golden. Pour into the dal, which is now ready to serve. The consistency should be like a creamy soup [but I prefer it thicker than this. My sister-in-law also advises adding burnt onion at the end]

That's not wombling's recipe obviously, I'm just sticking my beak in. It is tasty though.

Shepherds pie

Cook plenty of jacket potatoes and they freeze well

lasagne

curry

hot pots

stews

yorkshire puddngs

basically anything with moisture in it. Anything dry tends to become a hard mess or creamy tends to split (chef for a hubby!!)

why thank you pol. I'm thinking curry leaves might be the missing ingredient and def the extra garlic/onion at the end.

Daal Recipie,

There are loads, I think PW's is a bit diff from mine, but sounds delish.

This is my mum's recipie for Tuver Daal. Boil Tuver with double the volume of water in a pressure cooker with some salt. In a separate pan, heat some veg oil, when it is hot, add half tsp of mustard seeds and half tsp of fenugreek seeds and some curry leaves, when they start to pop, add the tiniest pinch of asfoteida, immediately add in a couple of cups of chopped fresh tomatoes, or a tin of chopped tomatoes, season with salt, tumeric, ground fresh ginger and fresh green chilli, then add either daal masala or I often use ground cumin and coriander, 1tsp each. Simmer for 10 mins, add this to the cooked daal,and keep simmering until the daal thickens up, add tamarind paste, brown sugar and fresh coriander, chopped.

Serve with rice and veg curry.

bump for OBM

Lasagne, definately. I never ever have time to cook this from scratch the day I want it, so when I get the chance I make up two really big ones, then when cooked portion into foil containers (like you get indian take-outs in) and freeze. Then I have lots of individual portions ready for when I need them if DS and I get home late from work, like tonight!

you make your DS work OMDB?

Wombling ..
What is Tuver? and daal masala is special spice mix for daal? Sorry

Lamb stew - MILs recipe and lovely. Freezes really well.

Neck of lamb diced, onion, carrot, swede, parsnip, pots, veg stock, bouquet garni, 2 bay leaves, small amount of chilli flakes.
Brown meat in olive oil and remove from pan
Fry onions
Add veg and stock
Bring to boil and add bay leaves/garni and chilli, and then the pots (cut into large chinks)
Return meat to it and put in casserole in the oven for ~1hr on 180.
Tis gorgeous, warming, back to roots satisfying

Cottage pie is a good one to freeze

fish pie (easy recipe from Good Food mag
with Philly with garlic and herbs, stock, fish then topped off with swede mash). Cat me if you want full recipe - it's a sinch and will freeze.

Homemade meatballs - jsut add a basic tom sauce with pasta to them
I'll try to think of more.

Does anyone know of a good cookbook for this sort of cooking? I have some fab cookbooks but they never say if the recipe is freezable and those that do don't say at what point or whether to cook from frozen or defrost first etc etc.

Donbean - if you make anything with chicken in bulk buy a whole chicken and get your meat from that (either direct from the raw chook or roast it first) then boil up and simmer the carcass(es) plus some odd veggies for fab stock to freeze. A good stock does wonders for a meal and the best thing is homemade stock need not be really salt laden so very good for LOs