Cooking for one (Mark Three)

PasturesNew · 6 February 2018 at 10:55AM

I completely forgot I'd intended to make a SC stew today! Usually I'll put the SC out on the worktop the night before so I don't forget - and sometimes get a lot of the ingredients out too in a pile.

It's on now though. Beef bought in Nov/early Dec; a large Xmas parsnip; 3 sprouting spuds bought 31 December; 2 sticks of the Xmas celery bought in November, an onion ... that tin of butter beans and some other stuff.

So that's used up the lurking celery, those sprouting spuds, that lurking parsnip .... stew's a winner on that front! And it's ideal weather for it

moneyistooshorttomention · 6 February 2018 at 12:07PM

Yesterday's main meal was frying pan sweet potato hash (from that cookbook again that I'm currently working my way through).

So it was sweet potato/cauliflower/onion/a bit of red pepper/mushrooms/canned black beans etc. Verdict = okay. Not a "visitor meal" - but passable. Having the rest of it today.

The other meal will probably be braised tempeh and bok choy with spicy ginger sauce (same cookbook). I do hope I like tempeh - as I decided I'd better find out if I do some time back and bought a pack and put it in the freezer. Followed by forgetting I'd done so - so I bought another pack and put it in the freezer as well - whoops!

Right - off to test if my olive oil is genuine or adulterated. I've seen a list this morning of adulterated ones and it includes Felippo Berio and Bertolli (both of which I know I've bought before:mad:).

The test is apparently to put the bottle in the fridge for 30 minutes and it should solidify a bit (courtesy of the fats in it). If it doesnt solidify = it's adulterated with cheaper oils.

PasturesNew · 6 February 2018 at 12:20PM

My kitchen smells..... bloody lovely. It's a nice idea to think of great smells wafting through the house until you realise that it's cold, so the windows are remaining shut ... so you'll end up with stinky knickers and all other clothes and bed linens in the bedroom as the smell permeates....

bouicca21 · 6 February 2018 at 12:29PM

Money let us know how you get on with the tempeh. For reasons I don't understand, since it is surely out of season, the f & v market has had huge quantities of cheap bok choi, so I'm expecting to be tempted to get more on my next visit.

[Deleted User] · 6 February 2018 at 12:45PM

I got rid of my jar of tempeh, it looked just like brains

I am making my casserole now, in a pressure cooker, for lunch and a couple of ready meals for the freezer. Small amount of turkey strips, whole jar of flageolet, tin tomatoes and a whole cubed celeriac plus a couple of other veg. I added half the thin garlic soup as stock, so this is going to end up as a meal in a bowl. Pressure cooker is awfully full, the frying pan size, I was waiting for something to give when it was getting up to steam but it is nice and steady. Reassuring to know it has multiple safety devices

Yay and I have apple/blackcurrant pie to look forward to as well as a strip of dark chocolate

[Deleted User] · 6 February 2018 at 1:47PM

ooh a tin of tomatoes makes all the difference, made the casserole slightly tarty, was lovely and so many different things in it that I will be having it again tonight and keeping some back for tomorrow, rest will go into the freezer with most of the liquid, will make a nice meal with added pasta. I have half the garlic soup left so will freeze for another casserole in a week or so

I am happy with my food today, a nice variety of good stuff and I still have fruit pie

and a bowl of berries

Farway · 6 February 2018 at 3:56PM

PasturesNew wrote: »

Stew's bubbling/smelling great. I think it's definitely a dumpling day
This stew smells perfect for dumplings....

Not sure when I'll serve it, between 4-6pm depending on how I feel, how it looks and when I can be bothered to go in there and sort it all out/serve.

I hope your stew, and dumplings, turns out as tasty as mine was. I used same Lild beef as you have, on offer at the time. I was pleasantly surprised how lean it was, no hidden grotty bits added as make weights

Cold and sunny, still icicles in the shadows

Nothing YS inspiring in Lild this morning, and they have run out of kg packs of frozen chips, but I spotted a lot of empty spaces, better luck on Friday mooch

Lunch was back to Black Forest ham + salady bits sarnie
Dinner, plenty of my pie left, but I have some LO stew so will probably chuck that bit in with a tin of beef & veg soup for dinner, just pleby dunk bread in, CBA to make croutons

The C + O pie will do for tomorrow, next time I will cut back on quantity but because it was first time I stuck to the recipe. I think the recipe could be used to make a nice pasty

Hollyharvey · 6 February 2018 at 4:08PM

I've made a lasagne for dinner and will have that with some garlic bread. There is enough for two meals so I'll have it again tomorrow with some salad.

Talking of salad, I seem to have quite a lot of salad bits that need using up, so I had a cheese salad sandwich for lunch to get rid of some of it.

I'm still on the porridge for breakfast as it's so cold out at the minute, and porridge is nice and warming. I cut a banana to put in it this morning as well.

moneyistooshorttomention · 6 February 2018 at 4:22PM

McCulloch - still feeling a bit puzzled by you commenting that the cookbook that's coming out (very belatedly) later this year by A Girl Called Jack contains a recipe with crab in?

The puzzlement being as to whether I'm thinking of the same book as you were reviewing? - as I thought the (very belated) "Cooking on a Bootstrap" book was going to be a vegan one.

Have I got that wrong? Is "Cooking on a Bootstrap" vegan and it's some other cookbook of hers that you've been reviewing?

(I know if it's supposed to be and isn't - then she wouldnt be the first cookbook writer to say a cookbook was vegetarian or vegan and the next thing you know you spot recipe/s in it that most definitely arent so). Thinking of a cookbook (of a slightly older era) that said it was vegetarian on the front and I was going through it counting the number of recipes that included fish in them.

pineapple · 6 February 2018 at 6:02PM

This is my second stew day. I might take a leaf out of Pastures New book and make dumplings. :T

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Cooking for one (Mark Three)

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