Recipe ideas with less ingredients?

Brie

Green_hopeful said:

There are recipe books for small numbers of ingredients. I think Jamie did one. 

I recall I looked at the Jamie one.  5 Ingredients.  Or maybe it was the Hugh FW Three Good Things.  The problem was that the one I looked at had 3 or 5 main ingredients and then was dependent on you have a fully stock fridge and spice rack and all the oils and vinegars.  So yes maybe you could make pork and mussels with red peppers (or whatever) but you needed the oil for frying, herbs for spicing up, rice to serve with it.

All that said I found that maybe 3 or 4 herbs are used for most my cooking and I can do without the fancy stuff.  White wine OR cider vinegar might be needed.  A cooking oil (rapeseed) and a dressing oil (decent olive).  Salt and pepper.  Yes if you get into Chinese stuff you might want 5 spice mix etc but most of us can live without it.

Alternative - sign up to your community fridge where others are giving away their excess spice purchases.  

DiamondLil

I can recommend Jamie Oliver's Five Ingredients books - the recipes are truly only five ingredients.

E.G. Garlic Chicken:

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 x 150g skinless free-range chicken breasts
• ½ x 700g jar of chickpeas
• 250 g baby spinach
• 1 heaped teaspoon sumac

I used tinned chickpeas as don't have jarred.

Longwalker

@CurlySue2017, you need to understand that herbs and spices and vinegars and fermented sauces dont go off.

Im using from a gallon jar of soy sauce that I bought back in 1993 - its fine 

I do use a lot of herbs and spices because we dont have takeaway , if we want Indian or Chinese  or fried chicken I have to cook it. I also cook every meal from scratch so they all get used, some quicker then others ( Ive white pepper here thats got to be 20 years old ) As long as herbs and spices are kept in air tight containers,  and definitely not left in sunlight, they will last years - if you dont use them up The only ones Im forever throwing are garlic salt and granules - they take the moisture in and go hard. I have so many that I actually have a pull out spice drawer in my larder

Jaimie Just 5 ingredients is just that - 5 ingredients and if you watch his programme ( on all4 ) he says if you dont have this that or the other - use this that or the other 

I never have limes for example, lemon juice works, white vinegar can be used for some dishes instead of either. You dont NEED smoked paprika , basic bog standard paprika is grand. As matt has already said, dont be afraid to use spices/herbs/vinegars in dishes. Nutmeg is lovely in mashed swede ( turnips) , wine vinegar adds a bit of something to a spag Bol , Worcestershire sauce is amazing in baked beans, balsamic is lovely on fish and tomatoes , thyme on chicken or in peas and leeks - you just find the ones you like and add away 

When you build a wee collection up, the choice of meals really opens up 

Jd seasonings sell spice mixes in small sizes if you dont want to buy individual spice - go take a look/

CurlySue2017

Thank you everyone for your replies, there's some brilliant tips here!

@Longwalker - it's good to know that these things use by dates can be generally ignored - I'm happy to build up a little stock of these various things if they can be used up and now I know that they can be, I'll start to build them up.  We have plenty of cupboard space to store them out of the sun so that's not a problem.  We are looking to start experimenting with so called 'fake aways' so that we feel like we are having a 'treat' without paying take away prices, so we will see how that goes 
I'll certainly take a look at JD seasonings, thank you!  

bouicca21

It’s really a question of looking to see whether there is a substitute that’s as good as or lasts longer. As others have said, dry Sherry is a good substitute for rice wine; personally I use Sherry vinegar rather than wine or cider vinegar.  I keep my spices in a dabba tin; dried herbs are in a cupboard but I grow a few to use fresh.  The one ingredient that I find does not keep long enough (being a singleton) is fresh ginger, so I buy lazy ginger and kept it in the fridge.  It’s also about planning - if I need fresh coriander for a curry  I’ll use what’s left for carrot and coriander soup.

JIL

I also recommend the takeaway secret cook book. That uses herbs and spices and the results are very good.

I do use jars of curry sauce and packets but I do also have herbs and spices which I do use when making stir fry, or dahl,  I know what I use so the collection is not a huge one but its useful and definitely worth having. 

Brambling

I freeze fresh ginger and grate it from frozen including the skin, it also makes it less fibrous, i also freeze fresh chillies as i find i rarely use the pack or when i grow my own i usually have a container of them. 

We are lucky to have a small shop in town where some items are stored in bins and you buy what you need he also has a large selection of herbs and spices he has decanted into small bags which means you don't have to buy a jar it is usually round 40p for a bag ideal if you are not sure if you are going to use it that frequently.

-taff

Jackie, if your garlic granules go hard, just stick the end of a knife in there and wiggle it around, it'll go back to powder Yeah, white papper, it's the everlasting spice in my cupobaord too, must have had it five ish years now [ not a huge fan of pepper so I rarely use it]

I have a jar of cardamom seeds that I've had for a while, the outsides hav gone very dry now but I use them anyway [ think bay leaves, you use them dry] or if I fancy, I take them out of the pods and just use the seeds crushed up. I think the only ones I've thrown away are things that are a mix of ready made spices, like chicken seasoning or that kind of thing, because I prefer mixing my own now.

DiamondLil

@bouicca21 - I puree root ginger in my mini electric chopper thingy and freeze in ice cube trays. I don't peel it, just wash it.

Same with garlic, although I do peel the garlic first.

Wraithlady

Balsamic vinegar is good used in a marinade for pork or chicken - used 1/3 balsamic to 2/3 cooking sherry (try 1/4 to 3/4 if you're not sure of the taste) - I tend to add ginger and garlic paste as well, but then again I add that to practically everything savoury.

I find tubes of garlic paste really useful as well, will keep for years unopened, once opened will keep in the fridge for months and you only use what you need.