Batch Cooking

neuro-praxis

I'm planning to spend a day batch-cooking large meals to portion out and freeze for reheating. I'm a bit stumped for recipes though.

I'm definitely going to do a huge chilli. Lasagna is another obvious option. I don't like spag bol so I won't be doing that. Will a Thai green curry freeze ok? I've never reheated coconut milk.

If you have any suggestions they'd be greatly appreciated, particularly suggestions around chicken or fish. I do like beef but I don't want to eat it every day.

Please include your recipes for your suggestions too. Thanks!

olaola

Cottage pie - you prob know how to do this already!
I cheat on this one, it's really easy too, it's actually on the side of the can of soup.

Mince
Can of Campbells Vegetable Soup
Onion
Potatoes
Cheese
Frozen peas

Fry mince until browned, add onion until soft. Add in soup and simmer. Meanwhile boil spuds, make mash. Add cheese and assemble. Lash into oven for 25 mins at 180, until it bubbles up. I serve with homemade coleslaw and brown sauce. NYOMS! Add peas either into the mix, or serve with the meal when cooked.

I'd say regular, tomato based curries would work really well too.

bonkey

With chicken, pretty-much any sort of stew would be OK.

Depending on how you use batch-cooking, you could consider making a "basis" of chicken in white wine & cream sauce, which you could then doctor in minutes in any number of directions....so adding saffron, or mushroom & herbs, or pretty-much any sort of root veg, onions, etc.

This would give you most of the convenience of a frozen meal, but with waaaay more flexibility.

Alternately, if you want to just have a "take it out and heat in the microwave" type of thing, then make one/several of the variations and freeze them that way.

bonkey

Oh...while I think of it...you neither ruled pork in or out.

Assuming you eat pork...sweet & sour pork should work.

Susie_Q

Don't know about freezing coconut milk but you could make an Indian-style curry (using tinned tomatoes instead of coconut milk) which would freeze very well.

Don't forget about soups - they freeze brilliantly and are really handy to have around. I think it's Aldi that do a packet of specialised plastic containers for freezing soup, they're very cheap and really durable.

Alun

Fish cakes are another good one for freezing.

olaola

Chorizo stew!

neuro-praxis

Your own recipes for these suggestions would be really welcome!

the beer revolu

Do a beef stew with chorizo and some smoked paprika!
Freezes extremely well for long periods.
I find chicken doesn't taste so good after a few months.

Fanny Cradock

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Will a Thai green curry freeze ok? I've never reheated coconut milk.

It freezes just fine. I've often used half a can in the past and stored the remainder in the freezer.

It might be a good idea to cook and freeze just the sauce and not the veg. The latter should really be fresh and crunchy - sugar snap peas are a great addition, for example, but don't really handle cooking and freezing and reheating all that well.

It might be obvious, but have you considered doing a simple tomato sauce? Sweat off onions, garlic, courgette and some chilli flakes and set aside. Get a load of fresh tomatoes (cans are fine but make sure to get whole tomatoes and don't break them up until close to the end to avoid making the sauce too acidic) and reduce over time. Add a little sugar/ honey of you want to cut through any sharpness. Mix the onions together and season with salt, pepper and some fresh oregano or basil. Boom! It give you the basis for a lot of other meals.

What about dhal? It's a great side dish that is easy to make.

I usually cook off the basics in a pot. Start by grinding the spices - cumin, turmeric, chilli flakes, coriander seeds, curry leaves or whatever takes your fancy - and cooking them in ghee (:pac:) or ordinary butter/ olive oil for a minute or so. Then add onions, garlic and ginger.

Get your lentils (orange split lentils are the quickest to cook - but the "beefier" varieties are better, IMO) and boil them in water/ stock until cooked. I would put them in the same pot that you cooked the spices etc. in. Make sure to wash the lentils before and check for any bits of grit or whatever. During cooking remove any of the scum that appears at the top.

When the lentils are cooked mix the onions etc. together and cook for another fer minutes. Add lemon juice and serve.

bonkey

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Your own recipes for these suggestions would be really welcome!

Chicken in Honey & Thyme
Pork & Chorizo stew
Sweet & Sour Pork
Red cooked beef w. tomatoes
Viennese goulasch

Dinkie

• Pizza dough and tomato sauce (seperately)
• Cut up potato / sweet potato wedges divide into portions and freeze in zip lock bags
• Breadcrumb fish put in seperate bags to freeze
• Moussaka
• Red lentil dahl (can freeze naan to go with it)

neuro-praxis

Thanks everyone. I am going to make:

Lasagna
Chilli con carne
Thai green curry
Beef in red wine
Chicken and chorizo in tomato sauce
Pizza bases
Basic staple tomato sauce
Dhal

There are some other suggestions here that sound good, like fishcakes or sweet and sour pork, but unfortunately the hubby is a little fussier than I am and I don't want to end up throwing things out for lack of eating!

Should set us up nicely for a bit! Cheers. I'll be doing the shopping and cooking one day next week so any further ideas welcome in the mean time.

CJhaughey

I like doing Baked Spaghetti and Moussaka as once a month dishes.

Fanny Cradock

neuro-praxis wrote: »

T
There are some other suggestions here that sound good, like fishcakes or sweet and sour pork, but unfortunately the hubby is a little fussier than I am and I don't want to end up throwing things out for lack of eating!

Distract him from the food by starting a discussion on Karl Barth.