Batch cooking tips

I have to admit that the concept of batch cooking and/or batch baking confuses me. Everything seems to need a different temperature, especially baking. And in baking it's doubly hard because sometimes opening the oven door means that things sink rather than rise and if things take different lengths of time to bake then the door has to be opened.

Any more tips anybody? Or suggestions on what to cook together, plus recipes (or pointers to the recipe thread), or how to adjust cooking times or temperatures...sorry I know I ask a lot....but I would be v.grateful.

However I'll eat anything (as long as it's actually food of course!) including vegetarian food as per LizD would like advice on.

LizD, sorry if I am hijacking your thread.

LizD wrote:

Hi

I'd like to try batch cooking - can you suggest ideas?

I'm a vegetarian, but eat eggs and dairy products. I want to try and eat healthily, although on a budget. Currently spend about £25 a week on food, am sure i can cut this down.

What ??? :eek: £25 a week on food
The Oh wants to know if you grow your own veg :rotfl:
We're only joking ! :beer:
We spent ....or should I say....I spent £125 on the weekly shop and the OH has topped that off to around £200 during the week on foood and bits and pieces.
When you say food budget....I presume the spend is a lot more but includes toiletries and other stuff. The actual food part of the bill is £25 ?
I've never disected my weekly shop...but I bet we spend at least £15 a week on tomatos :doh: me and the kids love 'em :rotfl:

rob

Oooo In My Wellies, that is so blinking annoying when that happens!!! Somebody suggested typing long posts into Word first then you can save every now and again, then just copy and paste into MSE. Saves a lot of air turning blue...

I haven't got the hang of baking in batches yet, because of the 'oven door' issue raised earlier, but every now and again I cook batches of different but similar types of foods (usually on the hob) for freezing my own 'ready meals'.

Here is an example of what I do, but I'm afraid it isn't vegetarian - though you can easily make veggie versions of each, eg veggie bolognese, cheese and potato cakes, etc)

This morning in about 2 hours (including lots of faffing and popping on the internet...), I made:

Salmon fishcakes x 6 (and cooked salmon portions to freeze x 4)

Shepherds Pie x2 indiv portions

Spag bol x 4 indiv portions

Salmon first ...

I had 6 portions of uncooked salmon in the freezer so, after defrosting in the fridge overnight, I baked them in the oven and at the same time baked half a loaf of brown bread to dry it out for bread crumbs.

At the same time I put on a pan of potatoes and swede to boil.

When really cool I will freeze 4 x portions of cooked salmon to use later for packed lunches (thanks to advice on an earlier thread about whether this was safe!).

I used the remaining 2 to make fishcakes. First I took out about half the potato from the pan and mashed these with a little butter, salt and pepper (but left all the the swede behind with the rest of the potatoes).

Then I whizzed the bread to make breadcrumbs in the blender, flaked the salmon into the mash, added an egg, shaped the mix into fishcakes and rolled in the breadcrumbs. I put these on an open tray in the freezer for now, but when frozen solid will transfer them to freezer bags.

Then Shepherds Pie/ Bolognese sauce starter mix....

I had a good rummage around in the fridge so this isn't a hard and fast recipe, just happens to be what I had in!

Firstly I browned 1lb beef mince in a big wok and then set aside to drain off the fat.

Then I whizzed through the blender until quite finely chopped :
3 small onions
3 cloves garlic
1/2 pepper
1/2 courgette
about 8 mushrooms

I sauted all of this in the wok until softened, added back in the mince and then added 2 tsp mixed herbs and mixed thoroughly over the heat. Then I transferred about 2/3 of the mix out into a separate dish on one side to use later for the bolognese,

Shepherd's Pie

To make a rich meaty sauce, I first stirred 1 dsp plain flour into the meat/veg and cooked for 1 min. Then I added a small squeeze of tomato puree, added an oxo cube, lots of black pepper and about 1/2 cup water and cooked for a few mins till thick and rich. I transferred this to 2 small dishes and then topped in with mash made from the swede/potato reserved from earlier.

And finally the bolognese
I threw the rest of the meat mix back into the wok (no need to wash it!) and to make a rich tomato sauce I added a really good squeeze of tomato puree and a tin of chopped tomatoes and cooked for a few mins. And that's it! Just transfer to freezer bags/boxes and leave to cool.


I'm sure that others are much more experienced and could have cooked for a fortnight in the time it took me to make this little lot, but since I'm only cooking for me, and since I am having a lazy cleaning and de-cluttering Bank Holiday, this was enough for now...