reducing monthly food spend

danlightbulb

Weve got the chunky bloomer bread to have with it so I'll leave the dumplings. I don't like much gravy really, I'd like it to come out a thick mixture more like the thickness of a curry sauce?

springdreams

Adding cornflour will make it thick like curry sauce. But as another poster has said, you need to add it gradually after you have made a paste first otherwise you will end up with blobs of cornflour in water rather than a nice thick gravy. Keep adding some cornflour every 10 minutes, and stir it into the casserole, until you get the thickness you want.

What happens is that you add the cornflour paste mix, stir it into the casserole, then after a few minutes it should start to thicken up. If it is not thick enough for you then add more cornflour paste.

Feral_Moon

I'm not a fan of using cornflour, other than to coat sweet potato fries to make them go crispy.

As I said earlier, either coat the beef in seasoned flour and fry off, or if wanting to thicken say a sausage or chicken casserole whereby you can't easily coat in flour, then I add a spoonful of flour whilst cooking off the onions in oil/butter.

It has the same effect of creating a roux to thicken any sauce or stock then added to it. It also gives much better flavour.

danlightbulb

Ive never heard of seasoned flour. Is that something you buy or make?

NewShadow

Feral_Moon wrote: »

I can't believe you even ask the question. Do people really not know how to season with salt & pepper & herbs?

You knew what you meant, but if the OP hasn't come across the term then it's a good thing they ask.

Dan - you can coat beef chunks in flour with added salt and/or pepper before browning them in a pan for something like this (I wouldn't as I prefer to season my food after it's cooked and I find browning floured meat makes mess of the pan for no discernible flavour improvement - in my opinion).

If you're making fried or grilled chicken - I dip chicken fillets in flour seasoned with all sorts of flavours paprika, chilli, BBQ - and for those you can buy seasoning packets or use mixed herbs.

Regarding thickening with flour or corn flour - traditionally people used flour - we had it to hand in the kitchen and corn flour and corn meal were post war imports.

From a chemical view, both are starches, but cornstarch is pure starch, while flour contains gluten. The gluten reduces the thickening power of flour, so lacking gluten, cornstarch has 'twice' the thickening power of flour.

From an aesthetic view, sauces thickened with cornstarch will be clear, rather than milky/opaque, so you're less likely to end up with 'grey' gravy as with flour-based sauces, and it doesn't tend to cause lumps like flour - as long as you add it slowly.

Just my opinions and I would encourage you to ask questions and experiment to figure what works for you.

Pollycat

Feral_Moon wrote: »

Oh my days, it just flour with whatever seasoning you want to add to it.

I can't believe you even ask the question. Do people really not know how to season with salt & pepper & herbs?

Feral_Moon wrote: »

It's no wonder people can't cook basic cheap meals, they've never been taught how! I wanna rectify this. I wanna teach people how to cook home foods. But where do I start?

Well, you could start by not being so patronisng to someone who asked a question that you (and a lot of other people) knew the answer to but Dan clearly didn't.

For all Dan knew, it could have been a special kind of flour.

Dan - re your question about thickening, I coat my meat in flour but I don't brown the meat, it goes straight into the slow cooker as it is.

Well done for trying to change your eating habits.

danlightbulb

Thanks guys, not to worry about the comment it wasn't patronising, I've just never learnt this stuff. At school we made cakes in cooking at that was about it. Not my favourite subject.

I've been to the butchers and got 2kg steak for £8.80/kg which I thought was pretty good. Already sliced. Have frozen 2/3rd of it and put the rest in the fridge to eat over the next couple days.

And my 6 year old just helped me put the diced beef, potatoes and stock in the slow cooker which we are all having for tea.

Pollycat

danlightbulb wrote: »

And my 6 year old just helped me put the diced beef, potatoes and stock in the slow cooker which we are all having for tea.

That's great - you're giving your kids a better start in cooking than you had.

Maybe think about my suggestion of making your own burgers - my nephew enjoyed it and thought it was great that he was eating something he'd made himself instead of it coming out of a box from the freezer.. Or you could make meatballs.

Dustyblinds

I thicken my stews with pulses, usually broth mix, if I'm doing a stew in the slow cooker I boil the pulses in a pan for about 10 minutes then rinse them before adding to the stew. I also add a tin of tomatoes for flavour.

Goldiegirl

danlightbulb wrote: »

Thanks guys, not to worry about the comment it wasn't patronising, I've just never learnt this stuff. At school we made cakes in cooking at that was about it. Not my favourite subject.

I've been to the butchers and got 2kg steak for £8.80/kg which I thought was pretty good. Already sliced. Have frozen 2/3rd of it and put the rest in the fridge to eat over the next couple days.

And my 6 year old just helped me put the diced beef, potatoes and stock in the slow cooker which we are all having for tea.

What I'd suggest is that you get a cookery book, that starts right at the beginning, like how to boil an egg or make an omelette (eggs are the ultimate convenience food). Then you can learn all the cookery terms, build a repertoire of recipes and gradually build on a solid foundation.


I understand that Delia Smith's How to Cook is very good. It's pricey, but maybe you could pick up a second hand one