Cooking ahead

carro6

I'm in the fortunate position to be buying all brand new appliances for my kitchen (my apartment has no kitchen at the moment, it's just been built, I'm in Portugal) and I don't have any pots and pans.

I want to "cook ahead".

I work from home, so could use a slow cooker, for instance.

What would you recommend, as an ideal setup for doing so?

My thoughts so far are a 50/50 fridge freezer, an induction hob and fairly large electric oven (78l if I remember correctly).

Glass square pyrex dishes with plastic lids, so I can move food from oven to freezer to oven.

A large stockpot, possibly tri-ply but I honestly don't know if it's worth the extra money versus one made of cheaper induction compatible material.

Should I instead of that buy a saucepan big enough for a meal, for reheating, or occasions where I'm not organized, and a slow cooker.

I've seen instant pots...

I like cooking stir fry, but I wouldn't cook this ahead as its quick anyway. Maybe I could prep and store ingredients though.

What items would you focus on acquiring if your aim was to cook 6 portions and store 2?

Healthy meal ideas also welcome.

Hope this is the right place.

maman

How many people are you cooking for?

carro6

There's two of us, and we sometimes don't eat together, but we rarely eat out.

joedenise

You will need a saucepan to reheat some meals. Also you will need a microwave to reheat some others unless you plan to put your big oven on just to reheat a meal which is very wasteful of gas or electric.

Denise

VfM4meplse

I think your cook-and-freeze repertoire should concentrate on soups and stews (although not convinced that it's what you'll want to eat in a warm climate?). A supply of bulgar wheat / couscous is useful to serve alongside if you cannot be running out for fresh bread all the time.

maman

Personally I find the slow cooker ideal for cooking for the freezer. It does mean you can go out and leave it but even if you're at home it doesn't need watching. Mine is just a basic one. Obviously a large saucepan can do the same job.


Often you can get a good deal on a set of saucepans rather than buying them individually so I'd get a set of 3.


Typically I use the SC for Bolognese, chilli (con carne and sin carne), savoury mince and soups. I freeze them in portions for 2 people. I prefer to do this and then make lasagne or cottage pie or whatever at a later date rather than freeze as meals but those Pyrex dishes are ideal if you want to do that.






I'd agree with denise that a microwave is excellent for a quick defrost if you haven't remembered to take something out early enough.

Grumpysally

I give my vote to the Instant Pot. Though it can take some getting used to if you are not familiar with pressure cooking.

However the 'Instant' part is a bit misleading, most 'headline' timings are actually the time taken once it has reached pressure, you also have to allow for the time taken to reach pressure and then the time taken to reduce pressure, which depending on what's being cooked can be anything between a minute or two or 20 minutes.

I wouldn't be without mine, it's very good for things like pulses, tough cuts of meat and I haven't cooked rice on the hob since I got mine. It's even made brown rice palatable.



Lots of information on the internet about them, though I recommend avoiding the USA sites at first as they seem to use some strange ingredients and a lot of stuff does not look very appetising.
This is Instant Pot UK website and FB page.

https://www.instantpot.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/InstantPotUKCommunity/
Hope this helps