Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

bugslet

Dashing past here, paperwork coming out of my ears, but you absolutley have to try porridge with tahini, just a smidge and it's gorgeous!

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

The first problem is having to buy a raft of new packets/ingredients. Then you use a tiny bit of each (1 teaspoon, a squeeze, a pinch) - so then your cupboards full of stuff you've never bought/used before (at great expense).... and having done that if you cook something for yourself and hate it in the first mouthfull.... you're stuck with a whole bunch of stuff in the cupboards you're likely to never use.

You cook for one - but have the option of foisting those ingredients onto others at some future point, or not feeling guilty at binning them. For me it's just me. I have to eat/use everything I bring into the house, alone. It's hard enough getting through the basics I do buy, never mind a bunch of stuff sitting in the cupboard (taking up space and mocking me) that I might never use again.

Neither is right or wrong IMO, when catering for oneself (as opposed to kids). But it is a matter of priority. E.g. I have no tobacco spend at all. Spices never go off really, just lose pungency.....so you might have to use more...but some of mine are....not new, far from it.

I tend to know something will be 'tolerable' at least fom the ingredients I use. If there is something that reads like I will no
T like it, sure, I wouldn't cook it for my self.

But there is a lot that can be done with few ingredients or spices really. Like herb salads (not the cheapest experiement maybe, but cheaper than buying five different spices/other new ingredients. I think I probably started with a wide 'palate' anyway, from living about the place a bit, but to go out and fill up with loads of alien stuff would be a dangerous technique. You know though, for example, you like Indian food, and some of those spices....so some a coue of the indian soices could jazz up a lot in your repertoire. I make a potato and egg curry ( I think its a m. Jaffrey recipe) that can be made with chips at a push instead of chopping potatoes:rotfl: Baked eggs are pretty good one person dishes and don't require much special that cannot be incorporated in to a weeks usage!


And yes, it is all dramatically easier with people to feed and a freezer. A huge difference is even when single I socialised a lot, much, much more than now, and some people will eat anything. . Or dogs will.

PasturesNew

I wish I understood oats.... when I want to make flapjacks and get to the supermarket I don't know the difference between all the bags/boxes and so am unsure which ones I could use.

I mean.... what is muesli and could that be substituted? What's the difference between the cheap bag of oats and the instant oats.

I used Dorset something or other in the end..... took a chance on that sort being right and it worked. But, when looking at their range, they also have a "fruity porridge".... so would that have been the same?

Recipe just says: 7oz (200g) oats

I chose the Dorset range as it had "bits in it that sounded nice" - and saved me having to additionally buy X bags/boxes of other stuff .... which'd all have been a problem space-wise and a disaster if I'd not liked the flapjack. Flapjack turned out fine.... made it twice, but there's a lot of it and a lot of calories so might not make it now for another 5 years

lostinrates

bugslet wrote: »

Dashing past here, paperwork coming out of my ears, but you absolutley have to try porridge with tahini, just a smidge and it's gorgeous!

Oh, really? Now I want to try that.

Love tahini anyway.

Bizarrely I discovered in Milan that cats love tahini. We lived near a Jewish takeaway and the owner insisted each time on giving us some for the cats saying they loved it. Who knew he would be right?

GDB2222

But it has to be really large oats! I am perhaps a bit of a porridge snob, but instant porridge reminds me of wallpaper paste, and about as palatable.

Edit: PN, the oats we buy are all pre-cooked to some extent, and the instant porridge is chopped up really fine, so it has no texture. Large oats take about 5 mins to cook, but they have much more texture and they are much nicer to eat - you have something to chew on.

Edit again: Never thought of tahina with porridge. Sounds interesting.

PasturesNew

I bought a jar of tahini once, thinking I'd make some dip with it ..... never did get round to using it and lobbed it about 2-3 years later unused.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

I wish I understood oats.... when I want to make flapjacks and get to the supermarket I don't know the difference between all the bags/boxes and so am unsure which ones I could use.

I mean.... what is muesli and could that be substituted? What's the difference between the cheap bag of oats and the instant oats.

I used Dorset something or other in the end..... took a chance on that sort being right and it worked. But, when looking at their range, they also have a "fruity porridge".... so would that have been the same?

Recipe just says: 7oz (200g) oats

I chose the Dorset range as it had "bits in it that sounded nice" - and saved me having to additionally buy X bags/boxes of other stuff .... which'd all have been a problem space-wise and a disaster if I'd not liked the flapjack. Flapjack turned out fine.... made it twice, but there's a lot of it and a lot of calories so might not make it now for another 5 years

Cheapest oats are fine.

You can make muesli with any combination you like, funnily enough I am doing that today:eek:. I am using: oats, almonds, hazel nuts, some dried cherries and some dried strawberries this time. (But any dried fruit, or freeze dried fruit is fine, any nuts, you could add other cereals and seeds...dh's has lots of sesame, poppy seeds and some weird grain puffs he doesn't like much but is using up, and he likes walnuts and Brazil nuts in his muesli) I keep it low on fruit because I might have it with fruit juice instead of milk. You can grate an apple pr a hard pear into it the night before too, put the milk/juice in to is and leave it in the fridge for a sort of .....heavier gloop.

To make granola you back the mixture with 'sugar' (usually in the form of maple syrup or honey at home, honey is cheapest). This is obviously less healthy.

The cheaper the oats the less nice of a texture, but tbh, with that sort of thing the texture doesn't really bother me much.

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

But it has to be really large oats! I am perhaps a bit of a porridge snob, but instant porridge reminds me of wallpaper paste, and about as palatable.

Edit: PN, the oats we buy are all pre-cooked to some extent, and the instant porridge is chopped up really fine, so it has no texture. Large oats take about 5 mins to cook, but they have much more texture and they are much nicer to eat - you have something to chew on.

Edit again: Never thought of tahina with porridge. Sounds interesting.

Large oats are nicer, but more expensive. For me, the benefit is not worth often 4 pr five times the cost.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

I bought a jar of tahini once, thinking I'd make some dip with it ..... never did get round to using it and lobbed it about 2-3 years later unused.

See...you might have loved it! It's bitter and unctuous but also smooth and rich and mellow. It's a sort of ...food coffee. .

silvercar

Tahini views everyone!

I hate tahini, but love homous. Tahini is made from ground sesame seeds and homous from ground chick peas. I even have homous with falafel, so really fried chickpeas with ground chickpeas.