DS Forums

 
 

Cooks cheats.


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 26-06-2015, 09:06
earthling13
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 10,268

I'm looking for some recommendations. Despite being used to cooking most things from scratch, I'm not able to at the moment due to health problems so I'm looking for shortcuts. My hands are a particular problem so prep is not impossible but it is painful so I'm after some ideas. The sort of thing I want to know is are any ready chopped garlic products any good?

Thanks
earthling13 is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 26-06-2015, 09:17
molliepops
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: woking
Posts: 21,684
The frozen chopped herbs in most supermarkets are very good, you can get something called very lazy chopped garlic in jars which is excellent. Ready made pastry is great. I occasionally use jar sauces for quickness and many of them are fine too.
Frozen chopped onions are good too.
Hope you get back to full fitness soon !
molliepops is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-06-2015, 10:53
Shrike
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 11,481
I regularly use garlic paste where the recipe calls for crushed garlic - mainly for cost savings as I don't eat a massive amount of it. Its just the same. Though I do prefer to use chopped garlic when called for in Chinese recipes as it has a better mouthfeel.
You can get frozen ginger and herbs too - not tried them, but again the ginger will be best where the recipe wants it mushed down.
I generally scrub potatoes rather than peel. Tinned chopped tomatoes are pretty much the same as fresh in many recipes. Rather than making a tomato sauce I usually just use passatta.
Hope you're not out of action for too long!
Shrike is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-06-2015, 10:56
aggielane
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 4,431
I use frozen garlic and ginger from the world section of big supermarkets its brilliant and cheap.
aggielane is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-06-2015, 11:11
stud u like
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Sunny Side Of The Street
Posts: 40,106
Morrison's do ready peeled potatoes.
Morrisons do grated carrots or "shredded" as they call it.
Waitrose do lovely sweet potatoes peeled and cubed with butternut squash.
Sainsbury's do bottled egg white.
Most supermarkets do ready chopped onions.
Waitrose does chopped up garlic in oil which is miles nicer than the tart vinegar one. Very Lazy Crushed Garlic In Oil.
Sainsbury's do a massive bag of frozen chopped onions. They also do some frozen herbs.
stud u like is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 26-06-2015, 12:57
degsyhufc
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Up North
Posts: 58,791
Most supermarkets in the World Aisle or Asian section will have jars of Garlic paste and Garlic & Ginger paste which are great for Chinese/Indian dishes.

There's also the tubes of garlic paste.
degsyhufc is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-06-2015, 13:47
Miss C. DeVille
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Folkestone
Posts: 1,648
You can usually get frozen chopped or diced peppers in supermarkets. I've found them very handy and there's no waste.
If you grow your own herbs you could always chop and freeze them yourself in ice cube trays.
I sometimes use garlic or onion salt to add some extra flavour to things as well.
And of course even chefs recommend ready made pastry.
Miss C. DeVille is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-06-2015, 14:20
callmediva
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,773
I have a similar problem, so when I found it was difficult to use fresh, I searched long and hard to find the best.

Flavour pots work very well, garlic, lemongrass & Ginger and peppercorn are the ones I use most of
Bisto do a couple of nice ones, too.

Wander down your world foods isle, buy a few different makes and try them out, one after the other, back to back testing works well and once you've found the one you like best, you can stick to it

Good luck
callmediva is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 29-06-2015, 10:18
earthling13
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 10,268
Thanks for the replies. Looks like we're finally going to have some good weather so I'll be eating lots of salads which will make life easier but I'll bear all your suggestions in mind for the future.
earthling13 is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 17:40.