Alternatives for when the supermarkets sell out....

Lucy5781

I've seen that, if you can get eggs, and have plain flour you can make your own pasta....
Also that Ann Summers has lots of penis shaped pasta still avaiable online

chirpycheap

Lucy5781 said:

I've seen that, if you can get eggs, and have plain flour you can make your own pasta....
Also that Ann Summers has lots of penis shaped pasta still avaiable online

My eighty year old mum asked me if I could get some pasta for her today. I would have to decant them into another container and tell her that it's a speciality pasta and then hope that she's not wearing her glasses 😁

GaleSF63

gettingtheresometime said:

Can someone help with an alternative to yeast please? 

I've got a couple of bread mixes which are out of date, but I've read that if yeast is added, it's ok.....but I've failed to buy yeast.

Any suggestions gratefully received 

I also have out of date bread mix and no yeast. I'm planning on using it to make potato scones. Or chapatis which don't need potato even. 

Bogof_OAP

Using a nylon body puff with shower gel makes it go further, just a little squirt does your whole body.  I'm even running the loaded puff over my face in my morning shower now, to save my face wash for bedtime.

Can we incorporate into this thread people's views on what can be used when it's out of date?  We will all be excavating the deepest recesses of our cupboards soon, and I imagine we will probably find various things that are maybe a couple of years out of date.  I know most tins are okay but not sure about things like instant mash, sugar etc. 

-taff

jbkmum said:

My main issues are passata and pasta for which I am not sure if there are alternatives. I do have a small amount of 00 flour so I could try to make some myself. I reccy'd the cupboards and freezer and reckon we could do perfectly fine, but if I've got no ruddy pasta our meals are going to be dry as a bone! I've got tinned tomatoes but every time I try to make a spag bol with tinned tomatoes it comes out awful. Not entirely sure what to do there....
We've got plenty of red pesto and coconut milk as well, so we can have curries as I have an entire cupboard full of rice, but same again - no pasta, what do I use the pesto for!

For a spag bog sauce mix, I use two tins of toms, preferably whole ones but chopped will do, onions, a small bit of dried porcini [gives it a meatier flavour but optional], mince, onions, garlic [ red wine too but that's optional], a squirt of veg puree or tomato concentrate, a stock cube [never EVER oxo] , and another can or two of water to rinse out the toms. Cook for a few hours.

Cornucopia

Some useful "make do" recipes that are quick and easy if you can't get hold of things from the Supermarket:-

Spinach Pici Pasta

This is a traditional home made fresh pasta made only from spinach and flour.  It doesn't require a pasta maker, as the pieces are hand-rolled.    It's especially easy to make with a food processor.

It's made in the first two steps of this recipe:
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/spinach-pici-pasta/ 

Simple Flatbread

There are lots of flatbread recipes around the Interweb that don't need yeast or much kneading.   The most basic are based on only flour and water.   The photos in the recipe below look so appetising that I went for this commercial recipe listing.  
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/skillet-flatbreads-recipe

Banana Bread

Again, there are many Banana Bread recipes out there, but I've honed this one into a fully-fledged fruitcake alternative that has no processed sugar, barely any fat and no flour.

- Blitz a handful of dried Apricots, Dates and/or nuts in a food processor. 
- Add 2-3 Bananas (ripe or ideally over-ripe) and an egg, and combine.
- Add sufficient Oats (usually c. 150g) to make a batter consistency.  Blitz to grind down the oats into a coarse flour.
- Add other dry ingredients from the cupboard (coconut, ground almonds).
- Add spices (ginger, cinnamon and/or nutmeg - 1/2 to 1tsp each).
- Add 2tsp Baking Powder, and 1tbsp of coconut oil (or any suitable fat).
- (Optional)  Add 1tbsp of Honey, Sugar or the equivalent of artificial sweetener suitable for baking. 
- Combine the above.  
- Stir in more dried fruit (sultanas, mixed fruit, chopped nuts etc.) and (optional) add orange zest.

Bake in a greased loaf tin for c. 20mins in a medium oven, or until cooked through (skewer test).

Can also be baked into soft cookies if laid out on a flat baking sheet.

Greenglockenspiel

Bogof_OAP said:

Using a nylon body puff with shower gel makes it go further, just a little squirt does your whole body.  I'm even running the loaded puff over my face in my morning shower now, to save my face wash for bedtime.

Can we incorporate into this thread people's views on what can be used when it's out of date?  We will all be excavating the deepest recesses of our cupboards soon, and I imagine we will probably find various things that are maybe a couple of years out of date.  I know most tins are okay but not sure about things like instant mash, sugar etc. 

I've got a bag of brown sugar so old the date has rubbed off (but I suspect some time in 2016) and it still tastes fine!

On another note, I've noticed a lot of places are sold out of liquid hand soap but still have the less fashionable bar soap. Bar soap is more hygienic as it is self-disinfecting unlike the outside of a plastic bottle!

-taff

Sugar might go hard but it won't go off because it's a preservative, same with honey, it can still be used even if it's crystalised, just plonk the jar in a bowl with hot=ish water [ bviosuly not boiling because you'll run the risk of cracking the jar] and leave it till it's returned to runny stage.

Vinegar also will not go off. Pasta also unlikely to go off unless it's egg pasta, but you can laways boil a little bit to try.

Anything in  jar that doesn't have oil in it is probably going to be ok. Jams/ marmalade won't go off and if you do get mould on them, just scrape it off, the rest is fine to use. The sugar acts as a preservative.

Spices may lose a bit of potency, but they will usually be fine to use, sniff them, if they smell OK, they're OK.

DUKE

Tigsteroonie said:

Too many people read the thread. There's now no evaporated milk in our supermarket either. 

I know, I wanna share but I'm scared the greedy bulk buyers will be snooping.

We bought a few big tubs of Coffee Mate when it was on offer in Iceland quite a while ago, we still have one in stock.  Do they still sell St Ivel 5 pints?  I usually buy cartons of milk but I do believe that people are stock piling these too.

I buy Paloma tissues & up until recently they were only 59p for 100 3 ply, they've now gone up to 69p.  They're in packs of 10, but work out a good buy for me as only I use them.  

GaleSF63

"Pasta also unlikely to go off unless it's egg pasta, but you can laways boil a little bit to try."
I once found some 5-years-past-its-sell-by-date pasta at my mother's. It was "chewy". Fixed the rest by cooking for about twice the recommended time.
Marmite doesn't go off either. My present jar is best-before 2007.  (I don't have it very often and I had another jar.)