Coping in the Time of Covid-19 - New and Improved!
Firenze
Shipmate, Host Emeritus
What with shortages, and being obliged to Stay In, we may be put to some novel culinary shifts.
This is where we can share ideas, questions or discoveries on how to eat well despite it all.
I am fortunate in having milk, fish and eggs delivered, nor have my local butcher and corner shop shown much signs of scarcity as yet.
But dinner with friends has just been cancelled, and restaurants are out: and even supermarket runs could be a bit iffy (on account of Mr F needing to be careful).
This is where we can share ideas, questions or discoveries on how to eat well despite it all.
I am fortunate in having milk, fish and eggs delivered, nor have my local butcher and corner shop shown much signs of scarcity as yet.
But dinner with friends has just been cancelled, and restaurants are out: and even supermarket runs could be a bit iffy (on account of Mr F needing to be careful).
Comments
Put into blender:
1 cup (250ml) of oat meal/oat flakes, I don't ever get quick oats myself, usually "large flake"
4 cups water
1/2 tsp tumeric more or less
dried fruit: 3 or 4 dates, apricots, 1/4 cup raisins for sweetness
1 estimated tablespoon olive or other oil
choose a sweet spice, like cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom, and add a dash ?1/4 tsp
I like a dash of cayenne too
Whirl it for a goodly time. Then pour slowly through a sieve; you can tickle the sieve with a spoon to keep liquid flowing through. The solids left behind can be cooked up into a porridge or baked into something like muffins. There is talk of cheese cloth if you want it clearer of solids. I just stir it up and use.
Allegedly tumeric is anti-inflammatory. It gives the oat milk a great colour.
Perhaps oats aren't your thing. Sorry.
I am hoping/planning to make the most of what I now have in my cupboards and freezer. We are somewhat limited here, by virtue of the season (cold snowy spring) and being near the very end of the supply chain. Fresh herbs will not be in our meals until I can grow them!
That scuppers my plans to batch cook hearty stews and ratatouille for the freezer.
There's probably more than a little truth in this. I needed turmeric (as you do) the other day, and popped into a local Middle Eastern store, where spices are vastly better for value than in a supermarket. There was plenty of rice, plenty of assorted (dried) pulses, spices and so on - certainly not the devastation as seen in supermarkets. I'm beginning to think that choosing to be (mostly) vegetarian (though store in question is also Halal butcher, which doesn't bother me unduly) and visiting these stores as well as going for veg boxes from another local store (either pick-up or delivery) may be the way to go. At least as far as food is concerned....
It's Lent, and there is no panic buying or food shortages as yet in my country town, so I'm sticking with the usual veggie dishes (stuffed butternut, mushroom and barley soup, tomato passata and pasta) and end-of-summer traybakes with courgettes and eggplant. We've been warned gas cylinders may be in short supply (not good news given the power cuts) so I'm using a mix of slow cooker and wonder box to cook and keep food hot.
Older items in a chest freezer sometimes lose labels, and I've tried to make a savoury marinara sauce from frozen cherry preserve before!
Out of curiosity, how did the cherry marinara turn out?
A real shocker, sweet cherry sauce with sauteed onion, garlic and capers. Inedible. Though we had a lonely church deacon over for supper who said it was odd but delicious with custard on top.
I made many jars of mixed-fruit butters & cheeses with such elderly fruit from the freezer clear-out when we moved, four years ago. Quite a few are yet to be eaten. I started a new one yesterday - blackcurrant and gooseberry)
Sounds yummy...
Any suggestions as to what might work best?
Soupmix should do the trick. It's what we use for similar recipes.
Others may differ.....
Any (scrubbed clean) veg peelings stalk middles or bits and bobs here are being daily carefully saved and made into stock for soup....or at the very least , added to the main meal’s gravy or sauce.
Mercifully the fresh herbs are beginning to show as well.
Can't say it had a lot to recommend apart from the thrift.
I find it better to wait until it's roomish temperature -- don't pick it when it first comes out of the pot, and don't wait until it's refrigerator cold. The latter two hurt the fingers.
"The dwarf bread was brought out for inspection. But it was miraculous, the dwarf bread. No one ever went hungry when they had some dwarf bread to avoid. You only had to look at it for a moment, and instantly you could think of dozens of things you'd rather eat. Your boots, for example. Mountains. Raw sheep. Your own foot." (from Witches Abroad by the late Terry Pratchett)
We are running low on fresh fruit and vegetables (except for potatoes), but have plenty of tins, pasta and rice, and frozen stuff, along with a cupboard full of flour to make bread and cakes with.
A whole aisle of things I normally buy was quite empty, but there was plenty of fresh fruit, veg & salad, so I have enough greens to last until the end of next week, if I plan the menu carefully. What happens after that I have no idea, as the shops are either so full of people that I won't go in, or empty of everything I'm wanting to buy.
We are OK for tins and packets, as I had built up a B****t Emergency Stock at the start of the year, and for various reasons (like laziness, and both if us having emergency hospital admissions) I had not got round to fetching it in from the garage. No need to, while the local shop was well stocked. Today I brought in all the things with a 2020 use-by date, and will put the 2021 and 2022 things back in store in date order.
We live almost next door to a Sainsbury's Local. It is usually empty of customers first thing in the morning, so I thought it would be easy enough to pop in after my morning walk and pick up a loaf - but it was absolutely heaving! I went back a couple of hours later, when it was quieter, but there was no bread - at least, no wholemeal. There were a couple of uncut white bread. I suppose I should have bought one of them, and just added more wheatgerm and bran to my porridge! No skimmed milk, either
I'll try re-routing my walk to go past the Co-op tomorrow and see if I have better luck in there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzyzlkouXsM
AFF
However he is very rigid in his diet, partly because diabetic, partly through choice, and we shall soon run out of some of his staples. He needs regular carbs, and whereas we have lots of pasta which he reckons send his blood sugar sky high, we are nearly out of potatoes.
But it is more a matter of overcoming his mindset than looking for recipes.
Nairn’s oatcakes keep well, and have a low glycemic index.
We're running out of eggs, have one left - the egg stall wasn't on the market on Monday - and non-dairy milk, not so low. But the local dairy is selling boxes with milk, bread, eggs, butter and optional fruit and veg in varying sizes - 1 person, 2 person, and etc. and optional extras, which include non-dairy milk. I like supporting local businesses, and it's really local, easy walking distance away. In the meantime I'll be experimenting with aqua faba made with gram flour or if that doesn't work, the soaking water from chick peas.
There is some meat and fish in the freezer and a few tins of tuna, a multi-pack bought cheap in Tesco's as they are discontinuing plastic wrapped towers. Starvation won't happen yet, although the meals may get a bit odd. And it may mean I empty the freezer and defrost it.
Does anybody know of something like this? It’d come on really handy just now.
They've stopped taking on new customers. Fortunately, we've used them for the last 20 years.
It's called The Internet. I do this all the time. You'd be amazed at the things that actually exist - including btw chickpeas + strawberry jam (chickpea cookies topped with).
Even if you don't get an exact match, there are sufficient near-enoughs to provide a workable blueprint.
Usually quite a lot of sites, depending on just how random your ingredient selection is.
But why can’t my husband see that he needs to be more flexible? He insisted on having his Saturday treat of a small portion of fried potatoes with his lunch AND mash tonight. For him that means 8 small potatoes, butter and milk. I had pasta.
We will be out of potatoes and milk on Monday and because of his health conditions we are too vulnerable to go out to shop. Neighbours will help, but I wish he would be more reasonable. I am quite keen to try new recipes.
Though please God, don’t let us still be in this ghastly situation come December!
Per 1 cup of flour (250ml), 1 tsp baking powder (5 ml), 1 T (15ml) oil or butter. 1 t to 1 T sugar (optional), salt if you must.
Optional: raisins, nuts, oats flakes, other dried fruit about 1/8 to 1/4 c per cup of flour. I usually add oats and whatever we have.
Spices, just play with spices I've added everything from garlic to cinnamon to oregano and cayenne. Maybe 1/2 t depending on what spice.
Note: guessing quantities a bit is fine and usual.
Add water but slowly. Until you get a dough which hangs together. If you over do water, add flour. Heat oil in pan on stove, low-medium . Roll or squish out rounds quite thin. They can be any size. Fry with lid on pan. Flip back and forth. Golden brown.
I make about 3c flour worth at a time. Nice to have leftover.
We've been having our milk delivered for years, and get eggs and orange juice from the milkman too.
Nice to have flour. That's one of the things missing from the shops and supermarkets round here
It's local here. Grown and milled. Its one thing we'll not run out of. We're out of green fresh things. Winter not over and transport into is restricted. But we'll always have flour and lentils (we grow more than 50% of world lentils).