Old-fashioned tasty recipes......PLEASE!

PS. I thoroughly dislike tofu too.

I have a friend who has an allotment and arranges for a box of fresh veg to be delivered every week or 10 days. He's a specialist gardener by profession and grows all sorts of unusual veg. Sometimes I don't recognise the stuff in my box, so I have to Google it and look up recipes. I've discovered that most veg are edible with a cheese and mustard or pesto sauce with a bit of chorizo or cooking bacon thrown in or roasted with some olive oil and maybe a teeny bit of honey. Alternatively, soup is great, although I could never repeat my recipes because I'm never sure what I'm throwing in the pan.

My husband is Indian so, as you might expect, we have lots of spices in our kitchen. Not tiddly little pots, in most cases, but big jars of the stuff. I cook mostly English and Indian recipes but like to branch out into other cuisines occasionally, so I do end up with ingredients that I don't use very often.

The one thing that I just can't take to, is tofu. I have tried cooking it in different ways but there's just something about it that I find off-putting.

grandMattie

Most of those things are for the foodie Londoners who have “ethnic” shops by the dozen, just round the corner.

Bit of a daft generalisation there, isn't it? a) you can get all those in most supermarkets and b) ... well I hardly know where to start with "ethnic". Would one still use that term? This is a multi-cultural nation with all sorts of wonderful food shops all over the country!

Umm yes! I have all of them tho my tofu is firm rather than silken!! ?

A "Hello Fresh" recipe included katjap manis (we had a trial offer from them - really good). We liked it so much I decided to recreate it - the recipe was for Thai Style pork rice bowl. However I couldn't find it at Tesco or anywhere else in this dark corner of the North West! However a quick google assured me that oyster sauce and soy make a good alternative.
I take the Guardian and Observer papers and they are forever giving "simple" recipes that involve the most obscure ingredients. Main culprit Yotam Ottolenghi. Gochujang paste anyone? Mirin? Tef flour? Water keffir? Serves me right for reading the Observer I guess!

I do have carnaroli rice, we have had quite a few Italians staying with us over the years and I agree with them that it is the best for risotto, far less mushy than arborio. I only use chipotle paste, its fruity and delicious. We really loathe any kind of tofu though and not keen on Quark, we require texture and taste in our household! Also can't bear Nigella's style but that's another thread entirely, she seems to be a "love or loathe" for many people.
I'm sure that most ingredients have a good alternative really, I agree with others that buying something for just one recipe is a bit pointless, though I don't mind doing this for herbs and spices as they're relatively cheap.

I have them all except the tofu ... hate the stuff. I love cooking food from all over the world, my favourites being Indian & Asian so my cupboards are full of spices and unusual ( to some ) ingredients. By the way I’m not a “ foodie from London “ I live in Cyprus ... cooking is my passion, especially in lockdown.

Nannan2, it was Prima magazine, which usually has pretty good recipes. I was just craving some warming, home-comfort recipes when I read it, and got recipes which required some of the above! Love trying something new, but not when it requires spending £20 on ingredients I’ll probably never use again!

I remain interested by what people mean by 'remote' or 'rural', and suspect it may vary. I don't like to give my location, also I live in an area whose traditional industries attracted migrant workers from 19C on.
Just out of interest, these are my car journey times (twice a day bus now at stupid times, not allowing for shopping!)
Italian deli, Co-op supermarket, butcher, fruit & veg all 10 mins.
Asian shops, good market & farmers' market, wholefood co-op 20 mins
'Big' supermarket 25 mins
Chinese supermarket 30 mins.

Yes, I have 3 of the items mentioned,carnaroli rice, kicap manis and quark, all quite common items, kicap manis is just a version of Soy sauce.

I hadn't heard of most of these,let alone having any in the cupboard

Living in a kind of rural area lots of foodstuffs are unavailable. On occasion I have gone to the nearest University town as stores there cater for a multicultural community and are more likely to stock different items. Whilst interested in different recipes I won't buy items unless I know they will be used regularly.

I have just bought the Hairy Bikers Classic recipes , it’s full of basic old fashioned meals, no tofu ,no oomygoomy beans , no quark. And the herbs they do use are ones I always have in my cupboard ,
They make veggie meals using leftover veg but make them using herbs to make the tasty

For carnaroli rice you can just use risotto rice!!

As I’m a vegan my kitchen cupboard is full of silken tofu as I use it for many dishes. ? It’s a shame that supermarkets don’t sell tiny amounts of certain items to use just for a couple of dishes as we buy a jar of weird things that we’ve never heard of and then it sits at the back of the cupboard for years.

Missfoodlove,I was very interested to discover Avoca recpies I’d not heard of it before,thanks for the info. I looked on the link you sent for the brocolli chicken bake, the ingredients were there but not the method though I’m sure I could figure it out,but could you try and send another link that would include the method? Thanks

Got all those ingredients apart from truffle anything can’t be doing with it. Nothing is out of date plenty of time this last year to sort out the cupboards.

When I first moved in with my ‘now’ husband I decided to sort through the spice cupboard. I threw out a carrier bag full of OOD bits and bobs. The newest the oldest was 13 years old - older than his daughter. The cupboard now contains ingredients that are fairly new to me but my Tom Kerridge recipe book insists I must have them. They include: ras el hanout, sumac, nigella seeds, rose harissa paste, dried porchini mushrooms, white miso paste, tins of beef consommé, capers, truffle paste, lemongrass paste, and a spiraliser...

Thank you for giving me a good, much needed, laugh just now !

When I see stuff like that in a recipe I switch off. Creature of habit that's me. Perhaps I should try to be more adventurous.

At the moment I am shielding with my elder daughter so am chief slicer, dicer and peeler. I am trying some different foods ( cautiously)

Sorry lemsip

Have heard of all the ingredients, have only 2 in at the moment as I had a good clear out before Christmas.
lempsip I found a tin of condensed milk from 2010 that had to go. Never did make that banoffee pie, always dieting! ?‍♀️

I do have those ingredients in all the time as I hate bland food. My personal favourite is Malaysian Thai Chinese Vietnamese flavours. But ours is a kitchen with dishes from around the world I have cooked since I was young. The only thing I don’t buy is Italian risotto rice I use pudding short grain rice. I also make a risotto with barley that’s lovely too. I like to make dhal with lentils or split peas very nutritious. I make soups every other day as I love soups. I make steak pie occasionally only using a small amount of meat. If I make a cottage pie lasagna chilli or spaghetti bolognese I use veg and lentils as my husband does not eat red meat and its not worth making it for one. I make cheese and onion pie it’s a favourite of mine. I have Just made a batch of chopped liver and chopped herring for lunches.

mimismo

I'm the same. I bought a famous '5 ingredients' cook book but, living in the centre of Spain, I usually found that at least 2 of the 5 ingredients were impossible to procure locally. The book is gathering dust on my bookshelf!

Yes, I am very disappointed with this cook book. I live fairly remote and can’t get most of the ingredients

You can always freeze the ingredients, even in their jars!