Recipe Book: Cull Your Magazines

Cooking magazines are a hit or miss affair.

Some months, I am overwhelmed with inspiration and close them feeling invigorated, brimming with good intentions.

Some months I close them feeling shortchanged and annoyed, no better off than I was before purchase.

Either way, I always close them.

And once I do, it is Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind.

Enter Catherine (again) with another brilliant idea that is already paying dividends.

1. Get your cooking magazines together.

2. Pull out all the recipes that looked good the first time you saw them (but then promptly forgot) and tear them out.

3. Give the harvested remains to the kids for collage or origami.

4. Sift through the pile and identify the ones you might actually make.

5. Slip into plastic page protectors and place in a binder.

I had so many magazines that I had to break the collection down into seasons - one binder for each.

Autumn is looking pretty delicious.

Thanks to this system, we've had two new dishes this week, both of them hits:

• Roast Tomato, Chorizo & Goat's Curd With Baby Spinach and Polenta Wedges; and
• Roast Pumpkin Soup With Pancetta & Parmesan.

Tomorrow night:

• Chestnut & Parsnip Soup With Pear Puree (which I've been meaning to try for a year); and
• Balsamic Mushroom & Goat's Curd Salad.

 Happy sorting.

Ice Queen

While we're on the subject of feeding people, let me share with you a recent revelation:

Food can be prepared ahead of time and then stored in the freezer.

Who knew?

Until now, my freezer was the place where I housed ice cubes, a container of something that may (or may not) be fish stock, and the two-year-old bag of peas that doubles as an ice pack.

And then my friend, Finola, told me about how each Sunday night she makes a slew of sandwiches, freezes them, and then grabs them as needed when filling school lunch boxes throughout the week.

I tried it and was amazed - not only by the quality of the result (high), or how quickly the sandwiches defrost (an hour, in warm weather), but by how much simpler this small change made my normally fraught mornings.

It was the beginning of a mini-revolution in my kitchen.

I began freezing everything that stood still long enough to be put in an airtight container (has anyone seen the dog?), and in a matter of weeks, my most underutilized appliance was catapulted from obscurity to stardom.

Mornings are less stressed without the competing pressures of preparing breakfast, making sandwiches and finding missing shoes.

Evenings are easier, too. I don't cook less, but I do cook less frantically, knowing that, on busy nights, I can reach for something I made ahead of time and save 'a la minute' dishes for times when I actually have a 'minute.'

Things are calmer. More relaxed. Okay, just plain lazier. Which is how I like it.

And my once near-empty freezer now spilleth over with:

• School Lunches. I crave variety, but my children are happy to eat the same lunch every day. In winter, this means a thermos of soup but the rest of the time it is sandwich city. Lately, I buy a dozen whole grain rolls (and G-Free bread for DB), leg ham and cheese. Make sandwiches as usual, pop into a reusable container, chuck in the freezer, and grab and go throughout the week. In winter, you may want to transfer them from the freezer to the fridge the night before.
• Breakfast. Two dozen muffins (12 blueberry and 12 zucchini) and one loaf of Coconut Bread, stored in slices, saw us through many breakfasts. Pull what you need out of the freezer the night before, and, in the morning, crank up the oven or toaster. Add a bowl of yogurt and some fresh fruit, and all you have to make is the coffee. A good way to kick things off.
• Gluten-free Baked Goods. G-Free baked goods normally have a shelf-life of one day. By freezing them, I am guaranteed a ready supply of homemade cookies, muffins and cake that DB (my gluten and lactose intolerant guy) can enjoy anytime. Eating G-Free takes a lot of advance planning, and this way I am less likely to be caught unprepared.
• Soup. Pureed soups, such as Tim's Tomato or pumpkin, freeze well and, stored in individual serving sizes, defrost quickly for a healthy snack, lunch or dinner. Chunky soups, such as minestrone, that contain whole pieces of vegetable do not freeze well as the veggies tend to go mushy.
• Cookie Dough. Somewhere in the recesses of my brain, I filed away a tip from Nigella Lawson, who said that whenever she makes cookie dough, she doubles the recipe and stashes half in the freezer, for future use. This is especially handy when it comes to shortbread or sugar cookies, which need to be frozen before you can roll it out and cut it into shapes. Other cookie doughs (eg chocolate chip) can be rolled into a rough log for easy slicing and baking later.
• Toasted Sandwiches. It took me 5 minutes to make 12 prosciutto and Fontina panini, ready for toasting for a quick, hot breakfast or lunch.
• Chicken stock. I am storing it in manageable, labeled units ('2 cups' or '1 litre'), which makes defrosting quicker and cuts down on waste.
• Things other people made. Little by little, I have been stocking up on food from the market that other people have made from scratch (not mass produced), such as lamb curry, pork dumplings and Lucia's meatballs, and stashing it in the freezer for easy eating later. All I need to do is make rice and steam something green, or boil pasta and toss a salad. Or maybe not even that, if the wheels have truly fallen off.

Notes: Advanced Freezing

I will never reach these organizational heights, but for those of you with powers greater than my own, I understand that one can also:

• fill ice cube trays with left-over wine (we've never had any), lemon juice, pesto, tomato paste, egg whites, etc;
• freeze overly-ripe bananas for baking later;
• buy berries and other fresh fruit when it is in season (and least expensive), and freeze for smoothies and baking later;
• buy meat and cheese in bulk (it's cheaper), freeze in portions and use as needed;
• make and store quantities of pastry, ready for impromptu quiche, tarts, etc;
• pick (or purchased) fresh herbs, freeze, and defrost as needed; or even
• take the "cook for a month" approach and spend one weekend a month cooking and packaging everything you need to produce thirty consecutive family meals. The mind boggles.

Happy freezing.

image: free-standing freezer unit from Smeg's aptly named "Fab" range

Cupboard Chaos

I wish I had a "Before" picture, but really it's probably best that I don't.  Picture a cupboard in such disarray that it was worthy of an Oprah-style intervention, where a trusted friend, accompanied by a camera crew, exposes your deficiencies on national television, all in the name of getting you the help you so desperately need.  

Happily, my supremely organized friend and neighbor, Catherine, is all about help, not exposure.  Her pantry is legendary.  Her ability to juggle domestic, professional and social demands, all while raising four children, is extraordinary.  If she wasn't so nice, I'd have to hate her. 

After watching me dodge falling bottles of oyster sauce and tinned tomatoes as I prepared dinner on successive occasions, she took action in the form of a text message:

"Are you ready to take our relationship to the next level?  Your pantry.  

1 pm Tuesday.  Catherine xo"

Was I ready?  I risked concussion every time I opened the cupboard doors.  I was ready.

 

So at the designated hour, Catherine came over, threw open the cupboards, pulled every last can, jar, box and packet off the shelves, dumped it onto my kitchen floor, and left.  Leaving me no way out, physically or metaphorically.  

Hours of sorting, three trips to the supermarket and $300 later, I had this.  

Catherine's Transformational Pantry Organization Tips

Before leaving me surrounded by my own chaos, Catherine threw me a lifeline in the form of the following guidelines:  

1)  Use square or rectangular containers only - no cylinders.  Why?  Because you lose precious space with round containers, as they do not sit flush against one another.  You will free up approximately 30% more space by switching to straight sides.

2) Chose one brand of container and stick to it.  This way, you are guaranteed that everything will stack neatly on top of and beside each other.  The uniformity also makes for a more streamlined look.  

3) Which brand to choose?  Consider how frequently you go through your ingredients.  If you expect to keep things like crackers and biscuits fresh for extended periods of time, then you probably want to go with a more expensive brand, such as Tupperware, because of its superior seal.  However, if you have a high turnover, as I do, you can get away with using a less expensive alternative such as Decor, which, for me, has the added bonus of being regularly available in my supermarket.  

4) Measure your cupboard before purchasing.  Consider what you use and buy accordingly.  If you shelves are shallow, you may need tall, skinny containers; if they are deep, you may be better off using short, long containers.  Also, consider what you are storing.  For example, when I buy self-raising flour, I usually buy a 1 kg bag, so the container has to be large enough to hold at least 2kg to allow for overlap, whereas cookies, which we seem to burn through, go in a much smaller container because even when I am refilling, it rarely holds more than one packet at a time.

5) Keep a small notepad and pencil near your pantry.  Keep a running shopping list and as you notice stocks depleting, jot them down.

6) Sort into categories.  All oils and vinegars together in an un-lidded box.  Asian sauces, vinegars, etc in their own box.  Baking items (cupcake liners, birthday candles, piping bags and tips, matches, etc) in a large "Birthday" box.  Cookie cutters have their own box.  Sushi mats, nori, and sushi rice go into a "Sushi" box.  

7) Most Used = Most Accessible. Pasta, flour and sugar should be placed within easy reach, ideally at eye level, while pantry exotica, such as tamarind paste, is resigned to the uppermost shelves. 

8) Stick to the system.  Transfer food from their original packaging into permanent contains as you unload groceries. Otherwise, you wind up with an overflowing mix of packages and containers.  Not good.  

Worth it?

I acknowledge, it was expensive.  Even my six year old, when he spied the bags and BAGS of containers in the car boot, said, "Why did you waste so much money on this stuff?"  Apparently my lectures on the virtues of thrift were backfiring on me.

I saw an opportunity to rehearse the little speech I had mentally prepared for his father as I drove home from the supermarket.  

"Yes, it did cost a lot of money, but it's going to save us a lot of money, too, because I'll be able to see what we do and don't need, so I won't make anymore duplicate purchases."  

Silence.

"I had FOUR jars of oyster sauce and I didn't even know it."

No response.  

"I'll be able to find things easily, which will save time.  And I'll be able to see what we're running out of, so we'll never be surprised to find that we're missing an ingredient when we want to make, oh, I don't know - a cake! Or cookies!"

The baked goods ploy failed.

  

My charms, which are admittedly few yet somehow still enough to occasionally cajole his father, would not work on WB and, in view of the size of the expenditure, I couldn't risk noisy dissent.  

Luckily, I know his weakness for buttons.  

Put an electronic label maker in the hands of a child who knows his letters, and you have just bought yourself two hours of peace worth every penny spent on those containers.  True, the results were variable.  

The container labeled "Ground Giner" sounds more like something that would send you running to the gynecologist than the principle ingredient in gingerbread, but you can't expect perfection.

And as the last spice box was carefully put in place, I got all the buy in I needed, when WB stood back, neck cranked, and a emitted a long, slow "wooooooooooow" before pronouncing:

"That was so worth it."

Ditto for me.