What meals can I make from all this?

cyantist

Hello!

We are having our kitchen refitted. We have an oven (but not much else) until Monday, after that we will have 2 weeks of no kitchen at all although we have a microwave, slow cooker, rotisserie, two health grills, deep fat fryer, steamer. We also have no prep space apart from a dining room table, and only about half a metre of worktop to put any appliances we're using on.

Although we've been running the freezer down for a while there’s still stuff left but we only ever really cook in the oven, or on a hob so I just don't know what to do with this stuff and need inspiration!
We have:
5 salmon fillets
2 whole dover sole
4 monkfish fillets
2 bags crayfish tails
2 tuna steaks
1 plaice fillet & 1 haddock fillet
Langoustines
Bag king prawns
Sprats
4 coley fillets
4 hake fillets
Bacon lardons
Beef stir fry strips
2 gammon pieces
6 chicken thighs
2kg chicken hearts
Ox cheek

We also have some frozen veg, as well as spring roll pastry sheets. There's loads of frozen fruit and veg for smoothies so can get 2 of our 5 a day that way. We have lots of carbs like pasta, risotto rice, normal rice, gnocchi, pearl barley, bulgur wheat, quinoa, couscous but how can I cook these other than boiling? We also have about 120 eggs - can I freeze these?

We don't want to (and can't really afford to) live off take-away or eat out all the time, so if anyone could suggest interesting meal ideas that use the above, can be cooked without an oven/hob and require minimal additional ingredients that would be amazing.

P.S. I won't eat Indian or Mexican food

elona

How about turning the ox cheek into a stew in the slow cooker?

You could cook the chicken pieces, gammon or thighs in the health grill and add steamed veg.

The slow cooker could be used to do a fish, veg and sauce with cous cous etc.

Could you swap some eggs for the chance to borrow someone's oven and make several quiches that could be frozen and eaten hot or cold with salad or a microwave baked potato.

I might be in the same position in a couple of months so have been racking my brains.

elona

Forgot to add that you can cook pasta, rice, grains in the microwave.

cyantist

I never thought about cooking pasta/grains in the microwave - thanks, that would really help. I can google cooking times to avoid food explosions (I'm not great with microwaves).

Ox cheek will definitely go in the slow cooker, maybe with some of the bacon. But I have never cooked fish in a slow cooker and didn't even know you could. With the amount of fish I have that will be a massive help.

I don't really know anyone locally at all, apart from the neighbours on our one side. If there's anything I really need an oven for I'll ask them, though I suspect that may well end up in an invitation to dinner (which would solve the problem for one evening).

Anne_Marie_2

I made great use of my electric steamer when we last had our kitchen done up. You can use it for your chicken and fish, as well as vegetables and rice, quinoa and couscous. You can make up any sauces to go with in the microwave.

Freezing eggs, several ways to go about it. This link explains all.
http://www.incredibleegg.org/eggcyclopedia/f/freezing-eggs/

cyantist

Couscous in a steamer?!?! That's amazing!

Thanks. I did google freezing eggs, but all I could find was IVF results :rotfl:

Anne_Marie_2

cyantist wrote: »

Couscous in a steamer?!?! That's amazing!

Thanks. I did google freezing eggs, but all I could find was IVF results :rotfl:

You put couscous into the rice bowl of your steamer with added water or stock (150g couscous with 300 ml of liquid according to my steamer instructions). Takes about 5-6 mins.

Happy to help with freezing eggs of the chicken variety. That is a scary amount of eggs that you have! :eek:

cyantist

We have 10 chooks and they are laying an average of 8 eggs a day, but with me being away for 2 weeks with work, and me and hubby having a weeks holiday in between they have built up ridiculously.

A girl at work has asked for 12 tomorrow though so that helps reduce the stash and will add a couple of quid to the chicken treat fund.

Feral_Moon

Couscous doesn't actually need cooking. I just pour over boiling water (after adding any herbs/flavourings) then place a plate over the bowl and leave it to steam itself. Once it's cool enough to eat then add any fresh ingredients/herbs.

Fish can be cooked in a steamer too and served as fillets with steamed veg/rice, although I'd be tempted to make fish curry with some of the meatier fish (monkfish, prawns etc).

Pre-cook dishes such as lasagne, fish pie, shepherds pie etc which can be frozen and re-heated in microwave. Mashed potato also freezes well and can be reheated in microwave to go with ox cheek stew. You can also make Hungarian goulash type dish with the chicken hearts in the slow cooker. Chicken thighs can be used in curry or slow cooked casserole too.

Hope that helps

ETA: just noticed you've also got a grill you can use so grill the beef strips and make a sort of fajita with wraps, salsa and salad. The langoustines can be grilled or added to a fish stew. As can the tuna and salmon steaks - grill and serve with salad, steamed veg, noodles (soften in boiling water) couscous etc.

milasavesmoney

We crack the eggs and stir the yolk and white together well. Then the mixture can be frozen in ice cube trays (does anyone still have these?) or portioned and frozen in small plastic containers. I then thaw just enough to pop them out and store in freezer bags. YouTube has some good videos on this subject.

[Deleted User]

I know it may seem a waste but could you not go to a local pop-in parlour and see if some of the pensioners could use your eggs.Better than binning them. Or stick a cardboard notice on the gate dozen eggs for a couple of quid and make some small amount of cash for the chiken feed