The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

WeegieWumman

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I have a home made wonderbag which works very well and is the modern equivalent of the hay box.

Mrs LW,
Can you cook stews in a wonderbag? May I ask where you obtained the pattern for the bag?

[Deleted User]

Yes you can cook stews, soups, rice puddings, if you search Wonderbag Recipes online you can find many different things that cook well in it. I found the pattern on you tube along with some tutorials for making it. Two shapes round and rectangular and I made the round one which has a separate padded 'lid' a round cushion which is positioned over the top of the pan before the outer body of the bag is pulled up round it and the drawstring round the circumference is pulled tight with the cord round the outside of the bag in a casing.. They recommend using furnishing grade cotton material and the bag is stuffed in segments with the tiny polystyrene balls used for bean bags, we found them in big bags in Hobby Craft but I think they're available at most craft outlets. It took a morning to make the bag with DD1 and I working together and needed a sewing machine for making the segments on the circular bag halves and the two of us to put in the stuffing but was not hard to do, just fiddly. Hope that helps.

happydays89

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Today in Morrissons I found packets of dried onion and dried country vegetables at 54p a pack. About the size of a packet of stuffing and not weighing much but at that price a couple of packs of each have gone into my preps cupboard for when all the fresh, frozen and canned are used up, with a couple of stock cubes and some herbs they'll make soup if we need something hot.

Hi,if you have dehydrator you can dry your own,I buy bags of mixed frozen veg from Aldi which is about 85p for 900grams.I let it defrost then drain it ,spread it on some kitchen roll and pat it to dry it a bit.Spread on your dehydrator trays ,I do 10 bags a time .When dried they are very tiny ,I pour them into a Kilmer jar and just add a handful to soups etc.

DigForVictory

I do love my dehydrator but I have been remiss in prepping with it. Must try harder & does dehydrated frozen veg "count"/is it as healthy as the frozen stuff would be without the ongoing energy payload?

Saw this article on canned food & thought interesting but not one I'd go for as I'd be missing the leftovers, the fresh and growing things. Does the experiment being done by a bloke without a medic or nutritionist monitoring devalue the article much? (I liked it when Giles Coren & Sue Perkins chomped their way through decades, "properly dressed", and were hauled before the medics as part of that - good Reithian stuff!)

nannywindow

Hello all.
DH and I are still playing with our vacuum sealer . We did a pile of veg yesterday, including swede, cabbage and peppers and we are still in "trial and error" mode with some other things. Nevertheless we are having fun and learning too :j. Now I'm eyeing up a dehydrator and all because of this thread :T
We are due a lot of snow tonight if the weatherman has it right, but we are prepped and ready to hunker down as we do get cut off regularly for up to a week at a time.

DigForVictory

Dear me. Of all the things I wasn't expecting Unilever to stockpile, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and Magnum bars is up right there. Soaps of all sorts, washing powder, washing up liquid, yes. Frivolities I (personally, I do appreciate others may see it differently) can live without, even on the hottest day, not so much.
After all, if you can make ice cream at home, without a machine (and here's one webpage of dozens with glorious photos & sensible sounding how to) then surely to stockpile a brandname is just so much electricity on something you might cope fine without?

OK I haven't figured out how to include assorted loathed beans in it but I'll bet someone could convert them into a dilly of a pud somehow...

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Sweetened Aduki bean paste? Most common use of the things in Japanese cuisine - especially in my favourite sweet thing ever, which is Strawberry Daifuku Mochi. I think the paste is made by gently cooking up the beans and when they are cooked, blitz/sieve, returning to the pan with an equal volume of sugar to the dried beans and boiling until thickened. Once cool, wrap a layer around a strawberry and then cover with a layer of Mochi (sweet sticky rice paste), steam/microwave and dust with icing sugar when cool.

It's got a similar flavour profile to chestnut puree (which I think you make in a very similar way) and, as I don't actually like 'sweet things' much, it's got a lovely mixture of sweet, slightly savoury, depth and lightness from the mochi. And it's a lot more filling/nutritious than a lot of European sweets.

(You don't have to add a strawberry and there are desserts that use it as is).

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Here's how to actually make it - I think I might get a few recipes out of this site now I've found it.

https://www.justonecookbook.com/daifuku/

WeegieWumman

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Yes you can cook stews, soups, rice puddings, if you search Wonderbag Recipes online you can find many different things that cook well in it. I found the pattern on you tube along with some tutorials for making it. Two shapes round and rectangular and I made the round one which has a separate padded 'lid' a round cushion which is positioned over the top of the pan before the outer body of the bag is pulled up round it and the drawstring round the circumference is pulled tight with the cord round the outside of the bag in a casing.. They recommend using furnishing grade cotton material and the bag is stuffed in segments with the tiny polystyrene balls used for bean bags, we found them in big bags in Hobby Craft but I think they're available at most craft outlets. It took a morning to make the bag with DD1 and I working together and needed a sewing machine for making the segments on the circular bag halves and the two of us to put in the stuffing but was not hard to do, just fiddly. Hope that helps.

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to give me such a wealth of information, Mrs LW. I'm grateful.

DigForVictory

Himself brought home a british made with German solingen blade bacon slicer - proper reliable thin meat for jerky is now possible!

Although strawberry daifiku mochi has my imagination sounds glorious!