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Convenience food

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Re: Convenience food

Postby BelgianEndive » Fri Apr 03, 2015 11:40 pm

Bingo, Picard has the frozen artichoke bottoms and I do buy them. I'd forgotten about those, very convenient too. But then I can also buy them at the supermarket. How do you prepare them Sue? I usually blitz them and add some cream.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Apr 04, 2015 1:44 pm

I do lits of things with them

I quite often fill them with something - Jamie's tray baked artichokes are lovely

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/tray-baked-artichokes-with-almonds-breadcrumbs-and-herbs/#mdEo7zhJY8ai7jRG.97

Or I slice them, heat in a bit of butter & mix with broad beans

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Re: Convenience food

Postby BelgianEndive » Sat Apr 04, 2015 2:43 pm

:yum very nice thank you Sue. I'll try that for a variation, after the weekend, as I have lots of veg including lovely new asparagus!

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Dec 23, 2017 9:07 pm

Reopened an old thread for this. I've always wished that ready-fried onions were available as a convenience food, as so many dishes I cook involve them. I mean properly fried till caramelised, not limply sauteed but still transparent (those are already available tinned).

For a microsecond I thought I had found the solution in Tesco earlier, Gefen Sauteed Onions in the frozen Kosher section.

On closer inspection, the price is £4.19 for 180g.

That's £23.30 A KILO!!!!

NO NO NO NO NO.

Image

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Re: Convenience food

Postby mark111757 » Sun Dec 24, 2017 4:36 am

Joan

You were talking about cheese cubes. When I worked at the store, we would sell cheese trays along with slices pepperoni. Would sail out the door. Almost 1kg for $11.99. $6.00 for 500 g. They also sold them in bags. Flavours included swiss, mild cheddar, pepper jack, Colby jack. They were popular and it was easy. Convenient too


Hope this helps.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby mark111757 » Sun Dec 24, 2017 4:44 am

Sakks

Did you mean something like this that we would use on green bean casserole here in the states

460609.jpg
460609.jpg (149.4 KiB) Viewed 3824 times


$3.29 for 6 ounces/apr. 166g

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Dec 24, 2017 10:44 am

That's better, but it still works out £14.86 a kilo!!!!

I guess I'll have to live with the fact that the kitchen is going to stink of fried onions pretty much always :-(

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Gillthepainter » Sun Dec 24, 2017 11:07 am

Have you used ready chopped. Not totally convenience, but it saves one job.
If I'm feeling really lazy, I buy a double packet. And freeze one, as they pong the fridge out.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Badger's Mate » Sun Dec 24, 2017 11:23 am

The onions I do at home in the slow cooker come out like the tinned version, but it shouldn't be beyond any of us to make a proper caramelised batch and freeze it in appropriate sized portions. :D

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Dec 24, 2017 2:56 pm

Oriental stores sell crispy fried onions and shallots, but I've stopped buying them because I eat them

Waitrose will sell you a little po for £1.50

https://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Cooks-Ingredients-Crispy-Fried-Onions/293680011?ULP_CAMPAIGN_ID=52&gclid=CjwKCAiAvf3RBRBBEiwAH5XYqMPUmqKFjDDPL4rq4oVyPibLhfX3MTTBgLQf1T0h7jlAuNZIulNo5RoCiskQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLHRh4PYotgCFdgUGwodmsoKIA

Two things
1. Don't forget they are virtually dehydrated, so they weigh perhaps only a fifth as much as tge fresh slices

2. Some of the cheaper brands are more batter than onion so read the label

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Dec 24, 2017 3:06 pm

Although I DO use that type of crispy fried onion in my "cheat" pilau rice recipe (and like you eat them as a snack), it's not really a substitute for "wet" fried onions.

Or maybe they ARE and I've missed a trick.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2116&p=49981#p49981

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Alexandria » Sun Dec 24, 2017 3:18 pm

I buy Cuca Galician Brand Ventresca Tuna ( The White Belly of the Tuna ) packed in Natural Evoo, Siciiian Jarred Capers and a couple of the Knorr Swiss ítems, soups marked No Gmos and 100% Natural .. I sometimes like to have the Courgette Soup when I get home from work .. or the Leek ..

Obviously, we are all in need of some level of convenience items, however, very few on my part ..

Dijon Mustards as I do not have the time to prepare my own for a baguette ..

I do not use jarred Mayo ..

I prepare my own or prepare Ali Oli as needed for a specific dish or sandwich .. It takes 5 minutes ..


Good post ..

Merry Christmas .. :chrissytree1
Barcelona, soulful & spirited, filled with fine art, amazing architecture, profoundly steeped in culture & history, and it engages all your senses, and food fancies.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby karadekoolaid » Tue Dec 26, 2017 12:16 am

Mark's ready-fried onion photo made me laugh.

"MADE WITH REAL ONIONS"

I'd love to see what artificial ones look like 8-)

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Rainbow » Tue Dec 26, 2017 1:38 am

Well, they sell them on eBay!!

"Beautiful artificial garlic/onion strings are ideal for decoration the kitchen. Choose from 3 available flavours."!!!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Artificial-Oni ... 2538403680

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Fried onion strings

Postby mark111757 » Sun Jan 07, 2018 3:05 am

Sak


Was this something you were looking for


https://www.headcountry.com/recipe/fried-onion-strings/

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Re: Fried onion strings

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:37 am

Thanks for the link. In a way it was the opposite of what I was looking for!

In the previous thread I started, I was looking for "pure" fried onions: the batter here really makes it unuseable for the kind of recipes I wanted ready-fried onions as a cheat for (mostly curries: the flour would have a thickening effect and cause problems for creating a proper curry). Also most of the caramelisation with your recipe would be of the batter, rather than the onion.

In that thread, Stokey had already mentioned the bags of dry crispy fried onions. By coincidence I found them on sale in Asda (I'd not seen them in suoermarkets for some while), and from the ingredients listing that they are only 75% onion (ergo 25% flour). Imagine adding in a tablespoonful of flour for every onion to a curry from the outset...

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Renée » Mon Jan 08, 2018 11:33 pm

You might not have one, Sakks, but I'm wondering if a batch could be made in an air-fryer? That way, they would be low-fat, which the crispy ones from supermarkets have quite a high calorie content.

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Sakkarin » Tue Jan 09, 2018 1:13 pm

That's a thought Renee, so that's the question to anyone with an air fryer out there - do they make decent caramelised onions?

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Renée » Wed Jan 10, 2018 11:01 am

Apparently yes, although they need to be cut into rings rather than chopped:

http://www.hotairfrying.com/use-your-ho ... sous-chef/

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Re: Convenience food

Postby Pampy » Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:04 pm

The article says that you can saute onions but doesn't mention caramelising them. The actifry has quite fierce heat so I'm not sure that it would be able to provide the long, slow and gentle cooking needed for caramelising.

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