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Store cupboard ideas please


LadyG

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As title, just prepping for escape to Northern parts, The weekly shop with  one quick top up has taught me one thing. I soon run out of ideas for a decent meal.

Here are things I find useful.

Cheddar cheese in a bag.

Stockans oatcakes

Eggs,I might spray them with oil in a spray can [cooking oil, not engine].

Oat Milk as I find it works well with Alpen.

Alpen, no sugar, large bag.

Porridge oats. 

etc

I always run out of meat / fish in small cans. I would  buy a  kilo or so of real Italian/ York smoked ham un-sliced, but hard to source. 

The Polish shop sell very fatty smoked pork, a little goes a long way, but I have not tried their sausage, yet.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by LadyG
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When the fresh stuff runs out, it's on to the tins - fruit, veg, stews. Now I have managed to get the yeast, the bread making is the most important basic item I can make. Keeps me away from the supermarket for weeks. 

 

 

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I'm OK  on bread making, but not keen on using the oven in hot weather, I tend to buy sliced brown and make toast or french toast, as I only really like the yolk in fried eggs!

Melba toast made by drying on top of stove should keep for ages in a sealed container as all the moisture has been removed. I also like crackers and oatcakes.

 

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Ryvita type crispbreads

Cheese truckles,  wax coated last for ages

Cured sausage, most supermarkets sell these whole nowadays 

Butter, kept cool lasts for ages

Good quality olive oil, great on home made bread, potatoes etc.

Balsamic vinegar, again great to dip bread into.

Hot dog sausages bottled in water, surprisingly ok

Tinned ham, again surprisingly ok

Quality bouillon powder

Flour/yeast

And all the normal tinned stuff, I'm sure I can come up with more

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That stalwart of the "emergency ration corner"  Fray Bentos pies, a small tin of new potatoes and a small tin of sweetcorn (avoid tinned peas at all costs).

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1 hour ago, LadyG said:

Eggs,I might spray them with oil in a spray can [cooking oil, not engine].

As oil might go rancid I would err towards Vaseline rather than the spray oil but if you have a little freezer compartment in your fridge you can freeze eggs. The whites freeze fine with out any palaver but the yokes are a little different. Once frozen and defrosted the egg tend to separate so to stop that happening you have to lower the temperature at which they freeze by adding a pinch of salt of a little sugar dissolved in water. 

 

My aunt used to do it years ago when she did a lot of baking, and I see that now we're in lockdown it's making a come back on the interwebs. 

 

The trick is (I've found anyway) is you crack and egg into a cup gently stir to mix yoke with white, add a tiny pinch of salt, the whole time being very careful not to add any air because the air bubbles will get freezer burn, then pour into a silicone baking case and place in the freezer til hard then pop out of case and into a freezer bag. 

 

 

I'll see Monkey his butter and raise you ghee. Ghee is brilliant stuff, stupidly expensive to buy but very easy to make (once you get the hang of it), because you have removed the milk solids from your butter it is much less likely to go off, it will last months longer than actual butter, and has a much higher smoking point when used for frying, in a lot of ways it's much better to use for frying than oil. It also has better consistency than oil and better health benefits over butter and other cooking oils. 

 

I always keep a healthy stash of Al'Fez Humous, it's much tastier than the stuff you get in the likes of Tescos chilled section and has a really long shelf life because it comes in a sealed jar. 

 

https://www.alfez.com/houmous/

 

Lidls do packets of cooked potatoes that keep for a really long time too. Boxes of potato gratin for example in the chilled section, they last about a month or so, possibly longer. 

 

Miso paste is brilliant stuff and amazingly versatile, it can be mixed with butter, used as a broth base, or coated on meat and fish before cooking. Miso and tamari are a reach for staple in my kitchen. Add tamari to scrambled egg instead of milk for something yummy and different. 

 

Not to everyones taste but biltong is great stuff to take boating, it is quite expensive but lasts on the shelf for months (years) and is really tasty, salty so you can't eat too much in one go but sooo yummy. On a serious note I keep biltong in my emergency rations pack because it's light, easily carried and does what you need it to do, it's not a meal but it is handy for what it is. 

 

Never leave home with out at least a hundred tubes of tartex pate cos that stuff never goes off.

 

Another staple is Engevita yeast flakes which are great on a baked potato or added to a pasta sauce to make it go further. 

 

Chia seeds are also a good one to keep on hand as they can make a nice pudding or can substitute for an egg if baking. 

 

Banana blossom, jack fruit and tofu also have long shelf lives and are good to keep on hand; I know they're used a lot as a meat substitute but I like them for what they are in their own right and then I'm not disappointed expecting then to be something they're not. If nothing else they are handy for a worst case scenario. 

 

Couscous is always handy because it stores well and needs no actual cooking, add a bit of bouillon or miso or even lemon/lime juice to the hot water you use to soak it and that makes it much more interesting. 

 

Of course those are the sort of things I like and keep on hand they might be of no use at all if they're not your cuppa tea. :D

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21 minutes ago, Tumshie said:

As oil might go rancid I would err towards Vaseline rather than the spray oil but if you have a little freezer compartment in your fridge you can freeze eggs. The whites freeze fine with out any palaver but the yokes are a little different. Once frozen and defrosted the egg tend to separate so to stop that happening you have to lower the temperature at which they freeze by adding a pinch of salt of a little sugar dissolved in water. 

 

My aunt used to do it years ago when she did a lot of baking, and I see that now we're in lockdown it's making a come back on the interwebs. 

 

The trick is (I've found anyway) is you crack and egg into a cup gently stir to mix yoke with white, add a tiny pinch of salt, the whole time being very careful not to add any air because the air bubbles will get freezer burn, then pour into a silicone baking case and place in the freezer til hard then pop out of case and into a freezer bag. 

 

 

I'll see Monkey his butter and raise you ghee. Ghee is brilliant stuff, stupidly expensive to buy but very easy to make (once you get the hang of it), because you have removed the milk solids from your butter it is much less likely to go off, it will last months longer than actual butter, and has a much higher smoking point when used for frying, in a lot of ways it's much better to use for frying than oil. It also has better consistency than oil and better health benefits over butter and other cooking oils. 

 

I always keep a healthy stash of Al'Fez Humous, it's much tastier than the stuff you get in the likes of Tescos chilled section and has a really long shelf life because it comes in a sealed jar. 

 

https://www.alfez.com/houmous/

 

Lidls do packets of cooked potatoes that keep for a really long time too. Boxes of potato gratin for example in the chilled section, they last about a month or so, possibly longer. 

 

Miso paste is brilliant stuff and amazingly versatile, it can be mixed with butter, used as a broth base, or coated on meat and fish before cooking. Miso and tamari are a reach for staple in my kitchen. Add tamari to scrambled egg instead of milk for something yummy and different. 

 

Not to everyones taste but biltong is great stuff to take boating, it is quite expensive but lasts on the shelf for months (years) and is really tasty, salty so you can't eat too much in one go but sooo yummy. On a serious note I keep biltong in my emergency rations pack because it's light, easily carried and does what you need it to do, it's not a meal but it is handy for what it is. 

 

Never leave home with out at least a hundred tubes of tartex pate cos that stuff never goes off.

 

Another staple is Engevita yeast flakes which are great on a baked potato or added to a pasta sauce to make it go further. 

 

Chia seeds are also a good one to keep on hand as they can make a nice pudding or can substitute for an egg if baking. 

 

Banana blossom, jack fruit and tofu also have long shelf lives and are good to keep on hand; I know they're used a lot as a meat substitute but I like them for what they are in their own right and then I'm not disappointed expecting then to be something they're not. If nothing else they are handy for a worst case scenario. 

 

Couscous is always handy because it stores well and needs no actual cooking, add a bit of bouillon or miso or even lemon/lime juice to the hot water you use to soak it and that makes it much more interesting. 

 

Of course those are the sort of things I like and keep on hand they might be of no use at all if they're not your cuppa tea. :D

An interesting list, apart from tofu, tried it all sorts of ways and frankly I've never liked the stuff.

 

Oh and chia seed, BSP uses them and I've still to see the point of them :)

 

forget about the pate, used to use that all the time, good call

 

banana blossom, What?

 

Canned custard/fruit and coco powder, instant pud if you need a sweet treat

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OK, I think I am allergic  to tofu, but will try Biltong. 

I will try those pots of fruit 'n jelly, Kiplin Battenburg cakes are on offer at Tesco. I will buy some Birds Custard powder.

Is there a tinned chicken in jelly, I seem to remember them years ago when we sailed salty water, with anchors and the Clyde Cruising Club Handbook was in bible format.

We also had a whole tinned chicken, not seen them for years.

Sadly,  Frey Bentos tinned pies are not what they were.

I remember ten days under the trees in Tobermoray, all chain out, the local fishermen used to supply us with fish, bacon, and potatoes as we could not get ashore [force 10, small boat, rubber dinghy, no outboard. Eventually we were on a bottle of gin a day, we paid the locals in half bottles of whisky, we had no showers, so after ten days, we badly needed a wash, times was 'ard. 

 

Edited by LadyG
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5 minutes ago, LadyG said:

OK, I think I am allergic  to tofu, but will try Biltong. 

I will try those pots of fruit 'n jelly, Kiplin Battenburg cakes are on offer at Tesco. I will buy some Birds Custard powder.

Is there a tinned chicken in jelly, I seem to remember them years ago when we sailed salty water, with anchors and the Clyde Cruising Club Handbook was in bible format.

We also had a whole tinned chicken, not seen them for years.

 

 

Not custard powder, tinned custard, instant pudding mix with coco powder and you have choc custard. 

Tinned custard is actually OK, the problem with custard powder is you need other stuff to add to it to become edible 

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10 minutes ago, tree monkey said:

banana blossom, What?

Both jack fruit and banana blossom are fruits but they are big meaty fruits. Vegetarians sometimes use them to give a meatiness to a meal, they're not sweet at all and are good to use in place of chicken in some recipes, I like to add them to salads. It doesn't necessarily look particularly appetising when you first lift it out the tin but it's works in the end. 

 

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