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

Cherryfudge

Does that mean it's time for soup, @Frugalistamama? Or a big veg curry? 

Hope the house move comes together soon.

carinjo

@Frugalistamama, might be an idea to pause the veg box till after the move?
@Cherryfudge could you advise if it possible to make a (no added sugar) jam? I am trying to be healthier (loose weight).
Out: last night: pastry swirls and edamame beans, sumac, for easy dinner. Today: venison burgers for bbq. We both off tomorrow, so why not! 

Ms C discovered a pile of oranges, lemons and limes in back of kitchen freezer and asked what i am planning to do with them?! Marmalade as soon as i have time. They do take up a bit of space and it never too early to plan christmas presents!

Cherryfudge

carinjo said:

@Cherryfudge could you advise if it possible to make a (no added sugar) jam? I am trying to be healthier (loose weight).

Apparently it is! I've never tried it but I Googled 'no sugar jam' and it's out there. I think one of the main functions of sugar in jam is as a preservative, so older jam recipes are sometimes super-sweet. Nowadays there are fridge jams and freezer jams which are lower sugar and absolutely gorgeous, but they rely on cold as a preservative (and you will always need to sterilise jars and lids to stop them infecting jam, but it's not a difficult as it sounds - let them air dry after dishwashing or use residual heat in the oven after handwashing, for instance).

So I can't recommend no-sugar jams from my experience but they are certainly around. Lower-sugar jams are ace though. Incidentally there's a thing called 'jam sugar' which helps jam to set as not all fruits like being made into jam - it's still sugar but with added pectin, which is the gelling agent found in  certain fruits.

Frugalista

Cherryfudge said:

lunch will be Coronation chickpeas (like chicken, but chickpeas), a delight I discovered while visiting friends recently and which will use up half a tin of chickpeas that are taking up space.

Oooh!  Tell me more - do you have a recipe, pretty please!

Cherryfudge

Frugalista said:

Cherryfudge said:

lunch will be Coronation chickpeas (like chicken, but chickpeas), a delight I discovered while visiting friends recently and which will use up half a tin of chickpeas that are taking up space.

Oooh!  Tell me more - do you have a recipe, pretty please!

It's super-easy. Cooked, drained chickpeas (tinned ones are good because they're soft), a small handful of sultanas, mayo and curry powder or paste (I used a mild one but you could experiment with others. How much depends on how big a portion and how strong you like it so try half a teaspoon then taste and add more if needed). Just mix thoroughly. It would probably be best done in advance to allow the sultanas to soften.

Yesterday, I layered up the blackberries with sugar and left them to soak overnight. Today I'll add apples and make it into jam. It's going to be a big batch so I feel a bit trepidacious! It's too easy to end up with something you have to finish but which has burnt or gone rock-solid. Patience, girl, patience. Hurrying a jam has never worked for me yet.

I also have the sugar and ginger in to transform three goodly-sized marrows into marrow and ginger jam. I'm fairly sure I haven't enough jars, which led me to looking at the larder shelves and pulling out the various dried pulses. I don't think there are any ready-cooked pulses in the freezer at the moment but if I soak a batch now I will free another jar and save a few pence on tinned beans. There are kidney beans that have been there a while so they need to move on and DH likes chilli...

I've also taken a couple of chicken chasseur portions out to defrost. I'm a bit sick of it but DH likes it and we need to make freezer space. It will have to go with courgettes because everything needs to go with courgettes for the next few days.  

carinjo

By the time i got around to work the plums, there was just enough left to make a small batch of "fridge jam". The rest went off very quickly. Lesson learned: only harvest if you have time to process. 
Out: ciabatta loaves for anti-pasti sandwiches. More ice cream. More chocolate. Swear ms C has a hollow sugar leg!
In: 0.

Cherryfudge

carinjo said:

By the time i got around to work the plums, there was just enough left to make a small batch of "fridge jam". The rest went off very quickly. Lesson learned: only harvest if you have time to process. 

Trust me, you are far from the only one.  :':smile: I hope it's turned out well, though. Strawberry fridge jam is so amazing that it's worth the investment but the same problem applies: if the berries go over, which they do as soon as your back is turned, it's a waste.

I now have a huge batch of marrow 'jam' but I thought it was just being fussy when it specified 'preserving sugar' - I've got away with it before, but not this time. 7 ordinary jars and 4 small ones of lemon and ginger cordial with bits of marrow in. 

I've also had to throw out an unopened bottle of lemon juice which had gone very weird, and I've soaked and cooked up a batch of kidney beans. They were well out of date but still appeared okay so I gave them plenty of extra time.

My reward is a semblance of space in my kitchen storage.

carinjo

The olio user that gave away loads of aubergine a while back, posted again. I could not resist. Now have a box of about 30 that were too small for the supermarkets. Will give some to neighbours and batch prepare the rest.

carinjo

Ms C asked what i was planning on doing with the bits of bread in the freezer. Had a look, there was a LOT of bread ends! And already found 5 frozen bananas! Time for a tidy i think

rtandon27

carinjo said:

Ms C asked what i was planning on doing with the bits of bread in the freezer. Had a look, there was a LOT of bread ends! And already found 5 frozen bananas! Time for a tidy i think

Haha - we've discovered both in our freezer as well! I turned the bread ends into crumbs to add to meat/veg balls, fake fried chicken (oven) & pangrattato. - No clue what to do with the bananas - we gave up on banana bread a couple of years ago, though I'm sure home baked goods would go over well at the office so that might be an idea.