The all new using what you have from your Freezer, Cupboard or Shed (Barn)

otb666

i am gonna chuck my beetroot in microwave for 12mins and then make a salad

carinjo

I got a massive L1dl box with mainly potatoes, onions and easy peelers. 
I am planning chutney with the onions and citrus marmalade with the easy peelers. 
Question: does one have to have the seeds of the citrus tied in a muslin cloth to help with the setting of marmalade? One comment i read was to just blitz it and add to mix...
Lost track of what went in and what went out. I am however working on emptying the freezer and dry store. 
Out: sweetcorn soup, mystery tub soup. Bulgar wheat for Levantine platter, including jars: olives, artichokes, pita bread (toasted wedges). It looks and taste amazing. Also done a baba ganoush yesterday on bbq, made a great centre for the platter.

carinjo

Cherryfudge said:

I 
The fruit and veg box was great - there were more potatoes than we could use so some of those went to the foodbank box, but I still have a bag of King Edwards, a bunch of beetroot (not my best buy as the last two bunches have ended up planted in the garden because I couldn't think what to do with them!), a couple of leeks, a lemon, a cauliflower and a punnet of pears. Excellent for £1.50.

Leek and potato soup is planned, but I don't like borsch... what else can I do with beetroots apart from brownies? 

I got gifted some big beetroot end of last season. I steamed, peeled and sliced into very thick slices. They stayed in the freezer for a bit. Defrost and can be used as is as a side, no further work required. The last few slices i made a dip with that included tahini ( a variation on hummous). I used the leftover dip as a coating for a pasta. Not going to lie, it looked proper weird the pink coated wholemeal spaghetti. But, it tasted amazing! 
3 different ideas from 4 big beetroot. It definately was worth it. 

Cherryfudge

Pink spaghetti! The beetroot I got the other day are small but I like beetroot so I will get through them one way or another. I have no objection to interestingly-coloured pasta so perhaps that's where some will go!

I was going to try the honey-roasting idea today but ended up making a soup instead. Lidl had several boxes of £1.50 fruit and veg again this afternoon but I couldn't carry any. I understand the Lidl in this area hasn't been as popular as they'd hoped but I'm certainly taking advantage of it. I wait till late in the day to go bargain hunting as I don't want to use things others need more, but I do love it when I get a bargain, especially a vegetable box.

Today:
Out: 2 leeks, cream cheese
In: bacon, 3 portions leek and potato soup

carinjo

In: 3 portions cooked bulgar wheat

DawnW

carinjo said:

I got a massive L1dl box with mainly potatoes, onions and easy peelers. 
I am planning chutney with the onions and citrus marmalade with the easy peelers. 
Question: does one have to have the seeds of the citrus tied in a muslin cloth to help with the setting of marmalade? One comment i read was to just blitz it and add to mix...
Lost track of what went in and what went out. I am however working on emptying the freezer and dry store. 
Out: sweetcorn soup, mystery tub soup. Bulgar wheat for Levantine platter, including jars: olives, artichokes, pita bread (toasted wedges). It looks and taste amazing. Also done a baba ganoush yesterday on bbq, made a great centre for the platter.

I use any citrus to make marmalade, of one kind or a mixture, and save up any languishing fruits in the freezer for this purpose. You don't have to tie seeds up in muslin (some easy peelers don't have seeds) but I wouldn't blitz any seeds. I squeeze the juice out first, and put any seeds in with the juice, then blitz the skins / pulp. The juice gets tipped in with the rest of it once cooked till soft, and it is easy to scoop off any seeds afterwards, as they float to the top, The marmalade will take longer to set, and will be a softer set, than the seville orange type, but is delicious. I use Marguerite Patten's recipes for marmalade (not sure if they are online but I recommend her little book if you can get a copy, Basic Basics Jams, Preserves and Chutneys (I have just looked and you can buy new or second hand from the Big River site, not expensive as it is just a little paperback). Not sure if her recipes are online as they are a bit old school.

Your meal looks gorgeous by the way.

carinjo

I'll go shopping tonight. Thank you @DawnW! 

Wraithlady

C_J said:

@carinjo : I don’t really follow recipes, I just chuck things together! 

I split the hot cross buns in half and buttered them using Aldi’s Butterlicious buttery spread, and then placed half of them butter side up in a square Pyrex baking dish which was also liberally ‘buttered’. I sprinkled them with a dessert spoon of white sugar and a couple of handfuls of sultanas, and topped with the remaining hot cross bun halves, butter side up. I then beat together four eggs and about half a pint of milk, and poured this over. 

The trick is to leave this for a couple of hours to really let the buns soak up the eggy mixture - mine has been sitting in the fridge all day, and every now and again I squish them down into the egg mix. I will bake it tonight when I have the oven on for some other things - it will take about 30 mins in a medium oven. I keep it covered for most of that so the top doesn’t burn, and just whip the foil off for the last 10 minutes to let it go golden.

In true MSE style, I wash the square of foil and use it again another time 😀

Sounds pretty much like the recipe my Nan taught me, rather more decades ago than I care to admit! 

Actually, I have several stale buns in the cake tin, leftover from Easter. Think I may have to make a bread and butter pudding tonight!

joedenise

In:  bread
Out:  chicken breasts; grated butternut squash

Cherryfudge

In: bread, small pork joint.
Out: two portions leek and potato soup.