The "What do I cook with this stuff..." thread

Lazy_Liz

MatyMoo's Italian Hamper
1 x Artichoke Cream - No idea
1 x Traditional ‘Tajarin’ Egg Noodles - Open to ideas, stir fry? Use as normal pasta
1 x Rustic Meat Ragu - With pasta? Use with the noodles above for a real Spaghetti Bolognais which should really be noodles with ragu sauce
1 x Peaches in Syrup - Umm, with cream? On ice cream
1 x Baci di Dama - No idea what this is! Little biscuits or sweets
1 x Black and white sweet truffles - I do know what to do with these!
1 x Panettone Tradizionale - Was once told to slice these and layer with whipped cream. makes an ace bread pudding
1 x Lentils - Help, never cooked with these, cook with the cotechino, put lentils and cotechino in a pan, add stock or watrer and bring to boil, simmer gently until the lentils soften, eaten traditionaly at New Year, th elentil represent money
1 x Cotechino al Barolo - Looks to be a sausage that needs heating Made of pork along the same lines as a suasage or pudding (haggis, white pudding etc)
1 x Torrone Tenero del Nonno - Don't know what this is! A soft nogat made to Grandmother's recipe

Hope that helps a bit

BAGGY

Pannetone is really noce toasted for brekkie

Toxic_Lemon

Savvy_cash wrote: »

Hi-I find coconut milk is a staple ingredient for a thai green/red curry You only need some chicken/veg and some thai curry paste (which lasts ages as you only need a spoonful)
Only thing is I'm not sure about the fat content in coconut milk?
Hope that helps xx

Coconut should be treated the same as avocado in that they're both healthy fats as opposed to unhealthy. Still quite high in calories but there's a lot of evidence that suggests consuming both can help lower cholesterol.

Toxic_Lemon

cheeswright wrote: »

hi - just wanted to revive this thread as I've been spring cleaning my kitchen cupboards and have come up with a load of stuff I must have bought for something but cant remember what so suggestions please...oh and we're all on a diet...which dosnt help

cornmeal 2kg - can I make polenta with this ???
tinned chestnut puree x 2
vacuum packed chestnuts
coconut milk 2 tins
creamed coconut 3 packets
packet of dried fenugreek leaves
dried limes
pickled lemon slices - big jar
cardomon pods
dried turtle beans
a whole pound of cloves!

cornmeal 2kg - can I make polenta with this ??? Yes, although cornmeal tends to be finer than usual.
tinned chestnut puree x 2 - someone asked about this yesterday and was given a recipe on here
vacuum packed chestnuts - cook with Brussel sprouts, classic at Xmas
coconut milk 2 tins - use in curry (korma) or Thai curry
creamed coconut 3 packets use in curry (korma) or Thai curry
packet of dried fenugreek leaves - use in curry
dried limes - pass
pickled lemon slices - big jar - use in Moroccan lamb tajine
cardomon pods - use in curries, spiced rice (both sweet and savoury)
dried turtle beans - use in Chilli con Carne
a whole pound of cloves! - use in curries, spiced rice (both sweet and savoury)

Oscar_the_Pug

To the person who asked about using borlotti beans there is a really good Delia recipe for Tuscan bean soup which I normally use substituting tinned borlotti beans for the cannellini beans she has stated: http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/soups/tuscan-bean-and-pasta-soup.html

j-lu

cheeswright wrote: »

hi - just wanted to revive this thread as I've been spring cleaning my kitchen cupboards and have come up with a load of stuff I must have bought for something but cant remember what so suggestions please...oh and we're all on a diet...which dosnt help

cornmeal 2kg - can I make polenta with this ???
tinned chestnut puree x 2
vacuum packed chestnuts
coconut milk 2 tins
creamed coconut 3 packets
packet of dried fenugreek leaves
dried limes
pickled lemon slices - big jar
cardomon pods
dried turtle beans
a whole pound of cloves!

cheeswright, I can think of a couple of recipes that would help you use up some of your excess food and which are not too bad for you, although they will require buying some more ingredients so not very ms...

My hubby loves this dinner and apart from a little olive oil, it's really healthy (NB - I'm not good at following/remembering recipes so have used all different quantities of these ingredients over the years, but pretty much anything works so please taste as you go along):
Whole bunch spring onions
6 - 12 cardamom pods (to taste)
chicken breast (I use one large for 2 people but my husband has rice with this dish so it spreads further)
One large tub Total 0% fat free greek yoghurt
A little flour (any type)
Olive oil (approx 1 tbsp)
Salt & pepper to season

For accompanying chutney (necessary):
whole bunch fresh coriander
garlic cloves (recipe called for 1-2 cloves but I tend to use more)
lime juice (I use Jif-style in a bottle but can use fresh)
Chilli sauce, chopped chillis or dried chillis (have used everything from tube to dried and all works)
dessicated coconut


You'll need a deep frying pan or sauteeing pan, a sieve or strainer and preferably a mini chopper or food processor. You can chop by hand, but with a mini chopper this recipe takes around 10 mins in total!

Put kettle on, once boiled put around half a cup of dessicated coconut in a cup and just cover with boiling water. Put to one side and leave. Chop sping onions. Crush cardamom pods and keep the seeds, throwing the shells away. The original recipe called for 6 pods but I love the flavour so generally use 10 - 12 pods for 2 people.
Warm up a small drizzle olive oil in the saute pan and gently fry spring onions, whilst chopping chicken breast into chunks. Before the onions change colour (they should be bordering on translucent), add the chicken and cardamom seeds from the pods. Fry gently until chicken is cooked through.
Meanwhile, put coriander, lime juice, garlic and chilli into mini chopper (or chop very finely then add ingredients to lime juice) and blitz until fine and mixed together.

Once chicken is cooked through, sprinkle a little flour into the pan and stir to dry up any juices keeping it on a low heat (you'll need somewhere between a teaspoon and a dessert spoon full).

Separate the coconut from the water, putting the water into the chicken pan, and add the coconut to the coriander mixture with a drizzle of the remaining olive oil. Blitz again until desired consistency required (I like mine quite thick and dry but you can make it more sloppy by adding more lime juice and olive oil). Finally, add the fat free greek yoghurt to the chicken pan and stir whilst warming through, before adding salt and black pepper to taste and serving with the chutney. As mentioned earlier, I serve this for my hubby with rice but since I don't eat rice I'll eat it with toasted pittas (or roasted pittas drizzled with olive oil and dill or rosemary). The chutney adds a lot of flavour to the sauce so it's a necessity in my opinion, I tend to mix it in to make the sauce a lovely green colour rather than white.

The second recipe requires a slow cooker but you could as easily use a lidded casserole and cook on very low heat in the oven for a long period.

Lamb neck fillet
LOTS of garlic cloves
Lemon juice (Jif bottled or fresh) and pickled lemons (you could probably use your limes in this as well)
Seasoning (salt & pepper)

Chop neck fillet and slash into fleshy parts with sharp knife. Finely slice garlic (I cannot overemphasise how nice this tastes if you use plenty of garlic so use lots) and insert into slashes in the lamb.
Put chopped up neck fillet into slow cooker (the recipe said to wrap in greaseproof paper but I never have it so put it straight in)
Pour in lemon juice (the slow cooker doesn't reduce liquid much so although I cover the bottom of the dish well, I don't pour in so much that it's swimming in it - remember that you may need a little more if putting dried limes in as they'll soak up some of the liquid though).
Add lemons (and limes if using) and season. Then cook on auto or high for 10-20 mins followed by low heat for however many hours you want. I usually serve this with roasted potatoes with rosemary (and more garlic if I'm avoiding vampires) or a few veg. Would be nice on the bed of cornmeal/polenta though to soak up the juices!

Hope you enjoy!

sabbscat

I have a huge sack of Potatoes, and I'm running out of ideas of what to do with them...

Help please!

billieboy_2

sabbscat wrote: »

I have a huge sack of Potatoes, and I'm running out of ideas of what to do with them...

Help please!

Peel, parboil for five minutes, cool, spread out on baking tray and open freeze. When frozen put in freezer bags and they're ready to roast!:D

Cut into wedges, put in saucepan, drizzle with oil and season (salt, pepper, cajun seasoning or whatever you fancy), put lid on and shake, tip onto roasting tray and cook in oven for about half an hour.;)

Tina20

Hiya, my grandma-in-law gave us some tins, and one is 'tuna chunks in mayo with sweetcorn'

I love tuna mayo, but HATE it with sweetcorn. I can't even take out the sweetcorn cause it would still taste like it *ew*

My other half can't stand it either, so we won't use it in a sandwich or baked potato. What could I do with it? Maybe drown it in a pasta sauce? Would the mayo blend in ok?

I don't want to bin it!

pink_princess

Tina20 wrote: »

Hiya, my grandma-in-law gave us some tins, and one is 'tuna chunks in mayo with sweetcorn'

I love tuna mayo, but HATE it with sweetcorn. I can't even take out the sweetcorn cause it would still taste like it *ew*

My other half can't stand it either, so we won't use it in a sandwich or baked potato. What could I do with it? Maybe drown it in a pasta sauce? Would the mayo blend in ok?

I don't want to bin it!

I would take the sweet corn out, add a pinch of curry powder. That will get rid of the sweet corn taste then either put on a jacket potato or mix with mash as a fish cake with a grind of black pepper. Lovely with home made bread crumbs also.