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

Cherryfudge

The loaf does sound good, @carinjo. I was thinking I'd bear it in mind for next autumn but it's possibly something that could be made with butternut squash?

I took a joint of lamb out of the freezer and roasted it with Moroccan spices over a bed of all sorts of vegetables, but didn't manage to use anything up apart from the lamb and a whole bag of potatoes that were sprouting. The best of the potato sprouts are put aside to plant and the remains of the joint are going in the fridge with a tub of roasted potatoes (making the most of having the oven on and not wasting potatoes!)

I've just cleaned out the fridge and come to the conclusion that I need to use up some little jars of oil from antipasto. DH isn't keen as there were capers in them - does anyone have any ideas what I could use the oil for? I started saving it last year when it was hard to buy cooking oil and it seems a shame to waste it now. I also rediscovered a jar of mint sauce - what does it go with apart from lamb? (I know I could eat it off a teaspoon, but not a whole jar full!)

Out: asparagus, lamb, potatoes, yogurt.

In: sausages, cold joint and vegetables, roast potatoes.

carinjo

Need some advice please. Got loads of small apples from veg&fruit box, so bought some aluminium pie dishes, the plan was to either freeze the prepared apple in the dishes, or do with pastry and freeze uncooked. But the W W W is giving me confusing info. Any ideas or recipes would be great pls i also got ready rolled pastry 

Cherryfudge

Personally, I'd cook and freeze as portions, partly because some apples turn themselves into a puree which takes less space, and partly because you can still choose what to do with the results (pie/crumble/mix with other fruit/serve with roast pork) if it's not got a topping. If you have access to a juicer, you can juice them and freeze blocks of juice.

Some apples stay as slices when cooked, it just depends on what variety they are. If they are 'eaters' rather than 'cookers' (cooking apples tend to be larger, but all apples can be cooked), you might find it best to cook first then taste to see if some sugar is needed. Some are sweet enough without.

I don't know how apple does if frozen raw: I'd imagine it would break down rather as cucumber does but still be cookable.

Apples also keep quite well unfrozen as long as they are spaced apart so any bruises don't go bad and spread mould. They can be left in a shed or garage if there's one available, or in a loft or on top of kitchen cupboards... just check them every now and then, especially commercial ones which probably had their natural protective waxiness washed off.

I always think it's a huge shame that people don't use the apples on the trees in their garden if they are lucky enough to have them. I once stayed at a house in Switzerland just as the generous apple tree in the garden was ready to harvest, and had a whale of a time rescuing apples and cooking them! I froze vast quantities in freezer bags but made a traditional apple crumble which the son of the couple who own the house seemed to think was totally delicious. Well, if you like cooked apples, I suppose a crumble is up there among the ultimate comfort foods, along these lines .  The basic ratio for crumble is equal quantities of fat and sugar, and the weight of the two together in flour - that way you can make any size you like. It can also be done with margarine and white sugar, it doesn't need to be 'proper' butter/brown sugar. You could also mix a handful of oats into the topping if you like them.

Sweet(ened) apples go really well with things like blackberries, or some sultanas and 'Christmas' type spices. Even the peel can be cooked to make apple jelly which in turn can be served with meat or sweetened and used to bulk out other fruit as a jam.

I will stop now before this gets long enough to publish! Have fun with your apples.

carinjo

Haha, i'm going to copy and paste the above for future reference, thank you @Cherryfudge. I have used some with celeriac and parsnip pureé to go with lamb yesterday. 
A big shop today. 
In: thai chicken and rice, chicken and chorizo paella stirfries. Fishfingers, cod fillets, yellow sticker sausages. Baked beans and sausages (ms C's new favourite). Selection of nuts and nibblew, jars of antipasti, toaster.crumpets, loads of eggs, brown rice.

Cherryfudge

P.S. If you google 'apple puffs' there are ways of using your apples and your pastry together - I can see there are recipes on the websites of pastry companies too.

Cherryfudge

Out: 2 slices pork, bag of cauliflower, portion of lentil and mushroom casserole.
In: sausages, spinach, pastry.

Nelliegrace

I have little plastic pots which hold one lightly beaten egg, they were in packs from Sainsbury’s. @Cherryfudge They keep well and are fine for cakes and scrambled eggs. I have frozen eggs in large ice cube trays and then stored them in freezer bags in the past but it took more space to freeze them, and I needed to add a teaspoon of water when I thawed them. 

One year we left buying the Autumn pullets until September and they didn’t start laying until the end of January, instead of supplying our usual few fresh eggs through Winter. The older hens stopped laying early because of the bad weather, and I hadn’t frozen enough of their eggs. 

We had three elderly quail living in a rabbit cage by the window in the garage, and with a rechargeable light to add a few hours extra in the evenings, they carried on laying all through Winter. We had quail eggs fried, in omelettes, hard boiled, and in cakes. 

Cherryfudge

I think I might need to look out some of those pots @Nelliegrace, as I hate wasting eggs. My parents used waterglass to overwinter eggs and it seemed very successful, so if and when I get chickens, I may do this but while I'm only getting through eggs slowly, it makes sense to use the freezer. I'll remember about the teaspoon of water too, as I can't help thinking it may be needed.

The only thing I remember freezing in the last few days has been chillies. Someone told me they freeze well if chopped, and they are another thing where I have some left over after I've cooked and the poor things tend to end up in the compost.

Nelliegrace

Our three hens have been earning their keep. We take a box of surplus fresh eggs to meetings and friends are happy to buy them, we ask for £1 towards their layers pellets. I don’t want to put a sign at the gate to attract thieves, and there are too many regulations if I want to give them to the food bank or community kitchen. I give eggs to the neighbours and the delivery drivers who were our lifeline during lockdown. 

I bought another garden trug of apples in from the garage this evening. There are two mushroom boxes of our foraged apples left. I checked through them and had to put a few in the compost. The cold weather has helped them keep well this year. I am slicing one a day to share with breakfast and using a few for stewed apple every day to finish them. In a good year we have free apples for eight months, and I make a variety of apple jellies, and Pam Corbyn’s apple and orange peel marmalade. The freezer gets filled up with foraged blackberries and damsons, so there is no space for freezing apples.
My parents saved 2 pint milk cartons to freeze apple juice, and they froze masses of prepared apples from the trees in their garden. Anyone who visited was roped in to the peeling and coring of pounds of little apples. 

Cherryfudge

I found a recipe for rosemary and sausage soup in the Tesco magazine (it's on their website too) and decided to give it a go tomorrow. I checked to see if we have cannellini beans, which we haven't but I found two big jars of dried chickpeas so I have some of those soaking overnight. It will also use some of the pasta shapes from the larder, and we already had most of the other ingredients.

While I was in the depths of the larder (it's not very accessible as the freezer's in the way), I found half a bottle of fizzy lemonade which will have lost its fizz. Neither of us likes it, but before I chuck it out, I wonder if it can be used in recipes other than fizzy jelly (which we don't really like either)?