Batch cooking - Quality meals

[rjo333]

Hello,

I want to get out of the habit of eating processed foods and takeaways every night, so I am going to try and batch cook some quality meals and freeze into portions.

I am definitely going to do Creole Jailhouse Chilli - posted by Mobile Chicane here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Thinking of doing some traditional Scouse, and some nice Italian Ragu, perhaps using pork/turkey mince so I'm not eating beef every night.

In the past, I have cooked some very basic but fantastic Arabiata, just by slow cooking a massive pot of chopped tomatoes, garlic and mixed chillies for hours. I froze this in batches and added to penne pasta - or cooked spaghetti and clams with it etc.

Does anyone have some recipes or ideas to share?

To keep things exciting, let's not just suggest 'bolognese' or 'lasagne' - lets get some exciting, authentic variations that will get us interested in batch cooking!

[bint]

I'm currently doing this, admittedly on a smaller scale for a 9month old, but so far I've done;

Goulash
Liver casserole (discovered I now like liver too!)
Curries
Spinach & Cheese with pasta (a favourite of his)
Fish pies
Mash - potato, garlic, sweet potato & potato

I'd be interested in more ideas too!

[Mobile Chicane]

I think anything which takes time / is otherwise a bit of a faff to make is best made in bulk and batch frozen.

The advantage of this being if you have a ready-made sauce on the blocks, you can later add whatever ingredients you fancy / have to hand / are cheap on offer.

A good ragu for pasta being one of them; also basic curry sauce.

Here's my basic curry sauce recipe, from a Gujerati work colleague. It's a simple chicken curry, but you can use any meat or fish, and add peppers, more onion, mushrooms, spinach etc to vary, or just scale up the quantities and make the sauce on its own.

Ingredients for two:

4 chicken thighs, skinned (or any meat or fish)
1 tablespoon butter or ghee
1 large onion, halved and finely sliced
Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 whole green chillies, or more to taste, finely sliced (Indian ‘finger’ chillies are best, but Thai will do)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
small pinch garam masala

Method

Take a heavy based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. A Le Creuset casserole dish is perfect.
Fry the onion in the butter/ghee until translucent, stirring frequently.
Add the ginger, chillies and garlic, and cook for a minute or two longer, still stirring.
Add the tomatoes and stir.
Liquidise the mixture to a fine puree (a hand blender is perfect for this).
Add the cumin, fenugreek, turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt (but not the garam masala).
Add the meat and bring to a gentle simmer.
Simmer with the lid on, on a low heat for 45 minutes to an hour (or in the oven at 150C). Check it occasionally and stir.
The dish is cooked when the oil rises to the top of the sauce.
Add the pinch of garam masala right at the end of cooking.

[Griff Boy]

I must admit I also make a basic curry sauce up in large quantitys and then freeze it in batches.

I only make a basic curry sauce recipe and then when I defrost it to use, I'll then decide what I want. Ie chicken peppers, onions for more of a jalfrazi, or extra chillis, potatoes and lamb for a vindaloo style curry. Not 100% authentic, but quick and easy and tastes bloody good.

Basic recipe is use is

Make a homemade garam Marsala of toasted spices inc
Cinnamon
Black peppercorns
Cardamon pods
Coriander seeds
Fenugreek seeds
Mustard seeds


Toast until smells gooood.

Add to blender with salt, paprika, hot chilli powder, turmeric, and blend

Fry onions, garlic, chilli and grated ginger for at least 20mins until softened and nicely coloured.

Add spice mixture, and fry 2-3 mins

Add can of water and simmer for 10mins

Whizz with a hand blender, add a dollop of cream and cool, then freeze in batches.

As above, defrost when required and add different things to suit your fanc that night.

[rjo333]

That curry sounds interesting MC - I'll give it a go. I'll let you know how I get on with Jailhouse Chilli too!

Only thing is - I hate cumin. I'm going to omit the cumin from both recipes, hopefully they will still work out.

[Pferdestarke]

I can see the benefit of batch cooking, but you don't need to do it all the time.

What's wrong with a weekly shop where you buy a mixture of fresh fruit, veg, meat and fish, and cook your way through it with healthy, tasty and quick meals all week?

Meals based around fresh herb salads and grilled meats are simple and delicious, as well as low in calories. Make double and reheat the following night.

We both work full time yet eat in this way five times a week. Rarely do I spend more than 30 minutes making dinner on a week night.

I'm not looking for a pat on the back but I can honestly say we never buy a ready meal.

(The odd takeaway slips in though admittedly)

Our food bill for two is around £60/week eating good quality fresh food.

[FurtiveFreddy]

We've been buying Ox cheeks recently as they are currently good value and after slow cooking can be portioned up and frozen to enjoy during the week when there isn't time to do it from scratch.

I've also just got a whole pork shoulder (bone in) we're going to cook for 12 hours this weekend which will give us 7 or 8 portions of pulled pork which freezes very well and defrosts quickly for use in all sorts of mid-week dishes.

[Justin Cyder]

Try this. It's delicious, takes about 20 minutes & can be bunged in the freezer for a week's supply.

Chicken Leek & Mushroom pie.

Take three chicken breasts, dice them to suit & brown in a pan with a little olive oil.

Meanwhile chop two leeks & about 100g mushrooms - ceps, button, whatever you like & sweat gently in a pan with a little olive oil until soft. Drain any excess water form the pan but retain it for later use. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Once the chicken and the leeks & mushrooms are done, empty into a decent sized casserole dish. Add Oregano to the meat & vegetables.

Melt about 150-200gms butter or marge in a saucepan on a gentle heat. Add 80-150gms flour. combine & cook gently for a minute. Add the retained water from the mushrooms & leeks to a measuring jug along with roughly 200-300ml boiling water & two vegetable stock cubes. Slowly add the liquid to the flour & butter mixture until it's all combined with no lumps & place on a high heat, stirring all the while until you have a roux. As soon as the roux begins to thicken, take it off the heat & pour over the chicken and leek & mushroom mixture in the casserole dish.

Cover the casserole with a sheet of puff pastry, slice a couple of holes in it with a sharp knife to allow steam to escape & egg wash the pastry.

Stick it in an oven at 180 for twenty minutes or until the pastry is golden brown, serve with delicious spring greens or whatever you fancy. The reaminder you can portion out & freeze for up to a month or so.

[RizzoTheRat]

We tend to always cook for 4 when doing things like bolagnase or chilli and freeze a couple of portions. I'd aslo reccomend trying the Hairy Bikers casoulet recipy, and if you have a combi microwave pies reheat very well too.

[num2uk]

I tend to do this a lot as I don't have time to cook during the weekdays, so will cook about 12 serving of something across the weekend and freeze what we don't eat.

Here are some examples of what I've frozen successfully;

Jailhouse chilli - As above. Freezes very well
Sausage Fusilli - Just the sausage part not the pasta
Tagliatelle With Spinach - Again freeze the sauce not the pasta. I add some bacon to this as well which is really nice
Slow Cooked Lamb - Freeze this and either use it with pasta or put mashed potato on top for a quick shepherds pie

As you can probably tell I have a lot of Jamie's books :-)

Any type of curry freezes really well as well.

The other thing I have tried is freezing thai curry pastes. These freeze really well and it's possible to take the paste and make a chicken curry in 20 mins

[Boo152]

RizzoTheRat said:

We tend to always cook for 4 when doing things like bolagnase or chilli and freeze a couple of portions.

+1
When the kids left home (20 years ago!) we still cooked for 4 (and I polished off the extras and put on the weight!). Took a while to discipline myself to lob the extras in the freezer and create the extra meal.

[DocArbathnot]

Mobile Chicane said:

Here's my basic curry sauce recipe, from a Gujerati work colleague. It's a simple chicken curry, but you can use any meat or fish, and add peppers, more onion, mushrooms, spinach etc to vary, or just scale up the quantities and make the sauce on its own.

Ingredients for two:

4 chicken thighs, skinned (or any meat or fish)
1 tablespoon butter or ghee
1 large onion, halved and finely sliced
Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 whole green chillies, or more to taste, finely sliced (Indian ‘finger’ chillies are best, but Thai will do)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
small pinch garam masala

Method

Take a heavy based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. A Le Creuset casserole dish is perfect.
Fry the onion in the butter/ghee until translucent, stirring frequently.
Add the ginger, chillies and garlic, and cook for a minute or two longer, still stirring.
Add the tomatoes and stir.
Liquidise the mixture to a fine puree (a hand blender is perfect for this).
Add the cumin, fenugreek, turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt (but not the garam masala).
Add the meat and bring to a gentle simmer.
Simmer with the lid on, on a low heat for 45 minutes to an hour (or in the oven at 150C). Check it occasionally and stir.
The dish is cooked when the oil rises to the top of the sauce.
Add the pinch of garam masala right at the end of cooking.

Just tried this Best homemade curry I've had.

[AJS-]

I can't think of a use for turkey mince, but if you want a change from beef then lamb mince makes the most amazing bolognese, lasagne, ragu or what have you.

Doing a big roast is great for this. I did a lamb leg a few weeks ago and as well as the roast dinner had lamb sandwiches for lunch on Monday, a kebab in the evening and then stew on Tuesday. All low hassle meals that are delicious.

[Cheese Mechanic]

Mobile Chicane said:

I think anything which takes time / is otherwise a bit of a faff to make is best made in bulk and batch frozen.

The advantage of this being if you have a ready-made sauce on the blocks, you can later add whatever ingredients you fancy / have to hand / are cheap on offer.

A good ragu for pasta being one of them; also basic curry sauce.

Here's my basic curry sauce recipe, from a Gujerati work colleague. It's a simple chicken curry, but you can use any meat or fish, and add peppers, more onion, mushrooms, spinach etc to vary, or just scale up the quantities and make the sauce on its own.

Ingredients for two:

4 chicken thighs, skinned (or any meat or fish)
1 tablespoon butter or ghee
1 large onion, halved and finely sliced
Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 whole green chillies, or more to taste, finely sliced (Indian ‘finger’ chillies are best, but Thai will do)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
small pinch garam masala

Method

Take a heavy based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. A Le Creuset casserole dish is perfect.
Fry the onion in the butter/ghee until translucent, stirring frequently.
Add the ginger, chillies and garlic, and cook for a minute or two longer, still stirring.
Add the tomatoes and stir.
Liquidise the mixture to a fine puree (a hand blender is perfect for this).
Add the cumin, fenugreek, turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt (but not the garam masala).
Add the meat and bring to a gentle simmer.
Simmer with the lid on, on a low heat for 45 minutes to an hour (or in the oven at 150C). Check it occasionally and stir.
The dish is cooked when the oil rises to the top of the sauce.
Add the pinch of garam masala right at the end of cooking.

Must say, this does sound delicious. My problem with curries is that I like the flavour, but cannot stand much heat, I hate food making me uncomfortable. So on a basis of 1 to 10 can anyone say where this recipe roughly lies? If it is on the hot side, what ingredient could be easily reduced to curb the heat without unduly affecting flavour, if thats possible, of course ?

[Mobile Chicane]

Cheese Mechanic said:

Mobile Chicane said:

I think anything which takes time / is otherwise a bit of a faff to make is best made in bulk and batch frozen.

The advantage of this being if you have a ready-made sauce on the blocks, you can later add whatever ingredients you fancy / have to hand / are cheap on offer.

A good ragu for pasta being one of them; also basic curry sauce.

Here's my basic curry sauce recipe, from a Gujerati work colleague. It's a simple chicken curry, but you can use any meat or fish, and add peppers, more onion, mushrooms, spinach etc to vary, or just scale up the quantities and make the sauce on its own.

Ingredients for two:

4 chicken thighs, skinned (or any meat or fish)
1 tablespoon butter or ghee
1 large onion, halved and finely sliced
Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 whole green chillies, or more to taste, finely sliced (Indian ‘finger’ chillies are best, but Thai will do)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
small pinch garam masala

Method

Take a heavy based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. A Le Creuset casserole dish is perfect.
Fry the onion in the butter/ghee until translucent, stirring frequently.
Add the ginger, chillies and garlic, and cook for a minute or two longer, still stirring.
Add the tomatoes and stir.
Liquidise the mixture to a fine puree (a hand blender is perfect for this).
Add the cumin, fenugreek, turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt (but not the garam masala).
Add the meat and bring to a gentle simmer.
Simmer with the lid on, on a low heat for 45 minutes to an hour (or in the oven at 150C). Check it occasionally and stir.
The dish is cooked when the oil rises to the top of the sauce.
Add the pinch of garam masala right at the end of cooking.

Must say, this does sound delicious. My problem with curries is that I like the flavour, but cannot stand much heat, I hate food making me uncomfortable. So on a basis of 1 to 10 can anyone say where this recipe roughly lies? If it is on the hot side, what ingredient could be easily reduced to curb the heat without unduly affecting flavour, if thats possible, of course ?

I'd say it was on par (perhaps slightly less) with a ready meal Madras. Reduce the number of green chillies to one, and have some yogurt at hand in case it's still too much.

If making the above for other people, I stick with two chillies and add more sliced chillies to my own portion. If making it for myself, I add four.

[Cheese Mechanic]

Mobile Chicane said:

I'd say it was on par (perhaps slightly less) with a ready meal Madras. Reduce the number of green chillies to one, and have some yogurt at hand in case it's still too much.
If making the above for other people, I stick with two chillies and add more sliced chillies to my own portion. If making it for myself, I add four.

Thanks for that. Sounds like it may be a bit warm for me, never say never though, have to give it a go

[Mobile Chicane]

DocArbathnot said:

Mobile Chicane said:

Here's my basic curry sauce recipe, from a Gujerati work colleague. It's a simple chicken curry, but you can use any meat or fish, and add peppers, more onion, mushrooms, spinach etc to vary, or just scale up the quantities and make the sauce on its own.

Ingredients for two:

4 chicken thighs, skinned (or any meat or fish)
1 tablespoon butter or ghee
1 large onion, halved and finely sliced
Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 whole green chillies, or more to taste, finely sliced (Indian ‘finger’ chillies are best, but Thai will do)
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
small pinch garam masala

Method

Take a heavy based saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. A Le Creuset casserole dish is perfect.
Fry the onion in the butter/ghee until translucent, stirring frequently.
Add the ginger, chillies and garlic, and cook for a minute or two longer, still stirring.
Add the tomatoes and stir.
Liquidise the mixture to a fine puree (a hand blender is perfect for this).
Add the cumin, fenugreek, turmeric, cayenne pepper and salt (but not the garam masala).
Add the meat and bring to a gentle simmer.
Simmer with the lid on, on a low heat for 45 minutes to an hour (or in the oven at 150C). Check it occasionally and stir.
The dish is cooked when the oil rises to the top of the sauce.
Add the pinch of garam masala right at the end of cooking.

Just tried this Best homemade curry I've had.

Glad you liked it. However try this:

Keema Peas

Ingredients (for 4 as a side with rice)

6 tbs 'Mellow Yellow' cold-pressed rapeseed oil (any oil will do but 'Mellow Yellow' has a mustardiness which works really well in curry)
2 bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
2 onions, finely chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped (take the green shoot out)
1 can chopped tomatoes
300g mince (preferably lamb but any meat will do, or you could use paneer)
2 cups frozen peas
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Method

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, add the bay leaves, peppercorns and onions and fry on a low heat until golden brown.

Add the ginger and garlic and give it another few minutes.

Mix in the chopped tomatoes and simmer on a low heat until the oil rises to the top of the sauce.

Add the mince, peas, cayenne pepper, turmeric, garam masala and salt.

Simmer on a low heat until the mince is cooked through.

Sprinkle over the coriander and serve with rice.

[rjo333]

Just finished a batch of Jailhouse Chili - I think it may be the best thing I've ever cooked!! Link to recipe in first post in this thread.

I made a few alterations. I used chopped beef shin instead of stewing steak (Mobile Chicane - try this if you have not yet already!)

To cut down on red meet, I used pork mince. My brown ale was Hobgoblin. I left out cumin as I don't like it. Instead of adding the ale, tinned tomatoes and stock at the same time, I let the meat and onions gently cook in the ale for about 5 mins before adding the rest.

I can't recommend this enough. Gonna do a diet version with chunks of pork and turkey mince - wont be as nice but it will be a low fat healthy meal. Might add some grated carrot too. Maybe add a small amount of beef shin so some fat can melt in to give it that 'shine'.

[Pothole]

FurtiveFreddy said:

We've been buying Ox cheeks recently as they are currently good value and after slow cooking can be portioned up and frozen to enjoy during the week when there isn't time to do it from scratch.

I've also just got a whole pork shoulder (bone in) we're going to cook for 12 hours this weekend which will give us 7 or 8 portions of pulled pork which freezes very well and defrosts quickly for use in all sorts of mid-week dishes.

I made an ox cheek casserole for the first time the other week and while I was unimpressed with the state of the meat when I cut it up, the result was outstanding! So thick and juicy and great flavour!! I am a convert. Do you get it from the butcher's and if so what do you pay per KG?

[Mobile Chicane]

rjo333 said:

Just finished a batch of Jailhouse Chili - I think it may be the best thing I've ever cooked!! Link to recipe in first post in this thread.

I made a few alterations. I used chopped beef shin instead of stewing steak (Mobile Chicane - try this if you have not yet already!)

To cut down on red meet, I used pork mince. My brown ale was Hobgoblin. I left out cumin as I don't like it. Instead of adding the ale, tinned tomatoes and stock at the same time, I let the meat and onions gently cook in the ale for about 5 mins before adding the rest.

I can't recommend this enough. Gonna do a diet version with chunks of pork and turkey mince - wont be as nice but it will be a low fat healthy meal. Might add some grated carrot too. Maybe add a small amount of beef shin so some fat can melt in to give it that 'shine'.

Shin, skirt, flank, ox cheek: all's good for Jailhouse Chili.

The cheaper and gristlier the meat, the better the result, cooked looong and looow.