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Convenience food

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Gillthepainter » Fri Mar 20, 2015 8:00 pm

Easy tigers.
I've never bought ready made mash before. So I've no idea what it tastes like.

Husband cannot stand mash or any pureed food. I don't use it.

I just thought the article comment that making mash wasn't time consuming, was incorrect. It is a bit of an all round drag.



I do need crushed spuds sometimes, for fishcakes and potato cakes. And my quick way is peel and microwave for 7/8 mins.
I never boil potatoes, always into the microwave.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby BelgianEndive » Fri Mar 20, 2015 10:27 pm

I'm reassured Gill! I thought it was odd you'd buy that, but I misunderstood you! Soorrrrryyyy :?

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Gillthepainter » Sat Mar 21, 2015 9:21 am

Nay bother, Elisa.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Dena » Sat Mar 21, 2015 3:01 pm

I misunderstood too Gill - sorry!! Couldn't understand it either, just didn't seem like you.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Joanbunting » Sat Mar 21, 2015 3:31 pm

Afternoon all.

Some French shoppers seem to buy a lot of dried pommes purée. It occupies a fair amount of spave on the supermarket shelves.

Jeral. I was in Lidl today and absolutely no sign of the ready cooked eggs though I did buy a couple of cartons of so-called "Funny Egg's" (sic) for the kids next door because they look like and ordinary carton of 6 eggs and this is the family who own the chooks with us.

There was one thing that puzzled me. Prepacked cubes of Gouda "for aperitifs" Why????

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Dena » Sat Mar 21, 2015 3:55 pm

Hi Joan, I assumed we were talking about ready made mash, not that awful powder.
https://www.ocado.com/webshop/getSearch ... hed+potato.

Quite surprised that there seems to be a lot of the powder sold :shock: Maybe for thickening something, surely not served as mash.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Joanbunting » Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:10 pm

No Dena,

I mean the awful powdered stuff! Never seen any in the chiller shelves, though Picard do sell various varieties of frozen puréed spud, including truffle and parmesan. never tried it, I actually really like making both mash and purée since I got my ricer.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Dena » Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:43 pm

HI Joan, we're going round in circles here :lol: When I said assumed it was the ready made mash, I was referring to Gill's mention of potato mash

"The ready bought mash is the most convenient of the list and makes complete sense to buy it."

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Re: Convenience food

Postby BelgianEndive » Sat Mar 21, 2015 6:02 pm

There was one thing that puzzled me. Prepacked cubes of Gouda "for aperitifs" Why????


Containers packed with cut cubes or individually packaged cubes? There is a difference :D It is for people who feel it is too much to get a slab of Gouda and cut it. Gouda cubes are great with beer. I don't like beer but I love old Gouda.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby jeral » Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:22 pm

Is it just that Gouda is sold as wedges so is the wrong shape for making equally sized cubes?

Are the funny eggs those bouncy balls (so not eggs at all)? I imagine it's great fun for little 'uns to try to catch a bounced one when you can't anticipate the trajectory :P

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Re: Convenience food

Postby pcdennis » Sun Mar 22, 2015 7:14 pm

Strikes me a fresh egg is the ultimate convenience food with its own packing and simple to cook.

At one time I bought chicken wings and beef bones to make my own stocks and gravy, when the farmers’ market fish man filleted my choice I asked for the frames to make stock. Waitrose sell 500ml of ready made chicken stock for £1.89 and I happily pay that. Fish stock is dearer but don’t often need it. My days of baking lobster/crab shells to make a bisque are no more.

Still make a simple salad dressing but no mayo - Helman’s is fine. We eat so little marmalade (still haven’t finished 2013 yet, let alone ’14) and jam I don't really bother anymore, but happy to make bramble liqueur by shaking method.

At one time I was happy to spend the time making puff pastry from scratch and brioche but too easy to buy now. I dont' think I'm lazy, hours on my feet - no thank you. No problem hand mashing potatoes but then there’s only two of us and we have small portions anyway.

Generally we both still grate cheese though occasionally if doing a large pizza I’ve bought ready made. To be honest couldn’t tell the difference. Slicing an onion, carrot and some white cabbage for coleslaw I still do.

I do want to have another go at making my own pasta but somehow never get around to it.

OH bought a plum and hoisin sauce the other day and mostly buys in sauces and ready made pastry cases for the quiches she does so well. Shame really, ‘cos she’s really good at pastry and cakes but, like me there’s a little problem of standing for too long.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby BelgianEndive » Sun Mar 22, 2015 7:57 pm

I'm with you all the way pcdennis! I can't stand at all for very long and I have now taken to sit down when doing time consuming things in the kitchen that allow me to do them sitting down (such as cutting fresh half frozen tuna for tartare). And let me tell you, pasta can be bought fresh if you've got a good Italian shop and for dry pasta I use Di Cecco. It is a lot of work to make it from scratch and good ready made pasta can be found. :)

Jeral you can cube Gouda wedges pretty much into equal bits, besides it doesn't matter, as long as it tastes good! ;)

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Mar 22, 2015 9:12 pm

Just for the record

I bought 500g of extra mature grated cheddar yesterday - £3 :o - if you buy 2x 250g packets at Morrison's you get a discount :D (you can mix and match with other cheses and indeed sliced cheese - that's sliced, not processed, makes nice toasties)

The ingredients are cheese and a tiny bit of potato starch, with which the surface is dusted, which is why (unlike home made) it freezes and stays free-flowing. The potato starch is really a trace amount, and undetectable even just nibbling the cheese raw and without further processing

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Dena » Sun Mar 22, 2015 10:25 pm

I've just remembered another convenience food I always have in - ginger puree. I find it very useful.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby elderberry » Mon Mar 23, 2015 11:54 am

I suppose 'convenience' is all a matter of degree. I mean, I find it more convenient to buy wedges of cheese rather than buy a whole one; is that so much different to buying smaller chunks of cheese?

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Re: Convenience food

Postby pcdennis » Fri Apr 03, 2015 6:23 pm

BelgianEndive wrote:And let me tell you, pasta can be bought fresh if you've got a good Italian shop and for dry pasta I use Di Cecco. It is a lot of work to make it from scratch and good ready made pasta can be found. :)


:thumbsup I know you're right but ... At a five day cookery school I made pasta using a hand cranked machine. So we bought one, my first effort somehow didn't work so it's a little dream of mine to one day make my own - just once, then i'll get rid of the machine. Somehow OH manages to buy some before I can get around to making it. :lol:

As for simple, couldn't help noticing jars of chopped garlic in Waitrose - £2.69 for 145g dry weight. :o At the moment I'll pass on that one.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Sakkarin » Fri Apr 03, 2015 6:51 pm

You must try again till you perfect it, it's rewarding to eat homemade pasta. It is quite hard to knead by hand, but I don't think quite as much kneading is kneaded, sorry needed, when you use a machine.

Having said that, I can't usually be bothered...

EDIT: I will make homemade linguine for my veal tomorrow, although I can't guarantee it will work, as I broke my pasta drying gizmo long ago..

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Re: Convenience food

Postby BelgianEndive » Fri Apr 03, 2015 6:56 pm

Right I see why you would want to make your own, after a class and buying a machine, you'll just have to! ;)

The supermarket nearby sells frozen chopped garlic, as well as chopped shallot and chives. I'm guilty of buying the shallots and chives, as it makes it easier on my hands. For a tartare, whether beef or fish, I will chop a shallot or onion myself. The bags of the frozen stuff contain 200g and cost around 2€.

The other day I bought a bag of fresh peas that you can steam in the microwave for 4min. did that, then took them out, put them in the blender with 2tbsp chopped chives, 1 1/2 tbsp thick cream, 1/4 cube of crushed vegetable stock and blitzed it. Made long strips of white courgettes in a little olive oil, and fried those in the pan. Heated up the peas puree and topped with the browned courgette slices. It was great. It is the only way I can get OH to eat peas as he's not fond of them. This accompanied tiny lamb cutlets.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Sakkarin » Fri Apr 03, 2015 6:59 pm

I often use frozen garlic puree and ginger puree these days, and they are forever selling them for silly prices on special offer - even full price they are only 95p a pack, for the equivalent of maybe four quid's worth of garlic...

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/ ... =265761689

Image

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Apr 03, 2015 8:04 pm

Turkish Food Centres sell frozen prepared artichoke bottoms - bloomin marvellous in my view, it's not just the convenience, they are £1.99 a pack of around 10, In other words about the same as 1 or 2 fresh artichokes.

I'll look out for those Sakkarin, I bought another brand but the little bits of puree were so dinky they were a pain - it was like trying to extract tablets from a foil strip

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