Self Catering Tips for the Home Cook

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Mainly written as an aide memoir post a rainy week away in north Scotland.  A work in progress and hopefully something you might find useful.

For the home cook the prospect of a self catering holiday can be both exciting and daunting at the same time.  I love the idea of being able to explore the local area and make up ideas on the fly, for others I sure there is a sense of dread about that prospect.  There is also the challenge of an unfamiliar kitchen and the unknown that it brings.  This is my brain dump for the essentials that help make cooking easier hope you find something you can adapt or share your thoughts.

What should you take?

There is only so much space in the car, and in my experience you need as much stuff for one night as you do for seven.  Especially if you have young children.  So the idea of taking a bunch of cooking equipment is a no no.   I do think there are a few of essentials that can make life easier.

  • A peeler – typically there is one in the drawer, but it will have seen better days.  Bringing your own will put a smile on the sous chefs face
  • A tin opener – If it’s yours you will most likely understand how it works, and that it doesn’t mangle up your tin lid so it doesn’t become a lethal weapon
  • A knife – create your own carboard sheaf and you’ll be glad of bringing your own tool of choice, especially if you’re a diced onion with every meal kind of cook.  I have one that slots into the chopping board from joseph joseph, great for picnics and although not my first choice in my kitchen….it’s like night and day between the ones that will be on offer

Prep Up Front

For me self catering is about the adventure of the holiday and talking about it at the evening meal.  Lunch is usually something on the run with the day being spent doing something busy.  So evening meal needs to be easy to cook and cognisant of the unfamiliar surroundings.  I like to make a casserole the night before travel day, slow cook with enough for two meals.  Taking tubs to re-heat.

Sometimes though the run up to holiday is stressful, there is enough to do to get ready let alone think about the gourmet meals that you might need to prepare.  If that’s the case….take a few tins.  Pulses, Chopped Tomatoes and a good curry paste.  Weigh out a couple of family portions of rice or pasta.  Worst case you bring them home again.

The Treats

Then there is the magic to a self catering holiday food wise that I’d like to think adds a few memories to our time spent around the table.

Most places I’ve been to have some sort of oven to table ware, typically in the form of a Pyrex casserole dish

Chocolate Puddle Pudding.   Really easy to take in two tubs dry ingredient wise, the sponge in one and the puddle in the other.

Crumble of some shape or form, again take the dry ingredients in one tub (100g oats, 100g wholemeal plain flour, 60g sugar).  Just stir in 100g of melted butter nearer the time

A 250g block of butter will cover both desserts, and leave a little left for pancakes if you desire.

Help and Support

This is the time to rope people in, meals needn’t be fussy and dried pasta, doesn’t get any easier if your to combine it with say a pre-prepared Bolognese.  Get the kids to put it together.

Spaghetti or tagliatelle pasta and Hot Smoked Salmon, Crème Fraiche, a little lemon juice with some tinned lentils can go a long way and my 14 year old pulled this together.

Does depend on the size of the kitchen though…..too many people in a confined space….has been known to create frustration.

Cookbook suggestions

Jamie Oliver’s 5 ingredients…..simple and effective meals with 5 ingredients just watch out for stock cupboard items.

The Camper Van Cookbook by Martin Dorey Life on 4 Wheels cooking on 2 rings…..a good ethos around cooking in different surroundings.

Washing Up

Partly why I do the cooking 🙂

Not really the fun part of self catering, you definitely need to rope people in.  Put the Nintendo Switch down and agree a rota.

I don’t know what it is about self catering pans and this just might be me.  There typically isn’t a non stick pan in sight and food seems to stick so easily.  Take a pan scrub…it’s a definite life saver!

Research

This might seem obvious, Look up where your going on google maps, find the local food places.  Clicking on the pin’s will bring up a brief description along with opening times.  In times of lockdown knowing your favourite café is closed or has reduced opening hours can be a life saver if you’ve chosen to cycle there!

A Quick List

Mainly to summarise my rambles!

Kitchen Items:

  • Pan Scrub
  • Knife
  • Tin Opener
  • Peeler

Food Shop

  • Tinned Chopped Tomatoes
  • Tinned Chick Peas
  • Curry Paste
  • Crumble Fruit
  • Crumble Mix
  • Puddle Pudding (2 tubs)
  • Eggs
  • 250g Butter
  • Family Rice Portion
  • Hot smoked salmon
  • Crème Fraiche
  • Pasta

Pre cooked suggestions items

  • Chicken Casserole
  • Slow cooked Lamb curry
  • Bolognese

 

 

 

 

 

Porridge – Magic in a bowl

Magic in a bowlIn amongst the discussions about back bling, axes, seasons and battle passes, there is shared pan of porridge between a father and his son.  Over 8 weeks it’s become our little ritual on workdays.    He’s up around 30 mins after the house wakes and the timing is just right before I log in.

There are so many variations on this simple dish and I think it really comes down to taste, over the years though I’ve come round to the overnight soak method.  I’m not sure I could tell the difference between those oats soaked overnight and those that were just added to the pan on whim, so if you forget to soak…don’t let it put you off.

In my case as I put a serving together for the 2 early birds I also put the ingredients for 1 into a microwave dish for the teenager of the house, as he makes his own in the microwave when he’s ready.   Something he’s been doing since year one at secondary school.  Keeps the cereal and cost of milk down as one bowl of porridge easily out ways the double bowl habit he has.


  Serve 1 Serves 2
Scottish porridge oats

Milk

Water

60g

300g

60g

120g

600g

120g

The liquid is weighed just so that I don’t create washing up with the jug

Topping Ideas

  • Banana and blueberries
  • Strawberries and Raspberries
  • A Teaspoon of honey
  • Raisins and a sprinkle of cinnamon
  • Chopped nuts
  • Nutella my sons favourite

Overnight Soak Approach

  1. Add all the ingredients into the pan, put the lid on, just before you go to bed and leave in a cool place.   We have a cool kitchen so on the hob for us.
  2. In the morning bring to simmer on a gentle heat stirring as you go, 5 mins or so.
  3. Will get to the point where it starts puttering to itself.  Turn the heat down, stir a couple of times to stop it sticking to the bottom.

The nuke it approach

  1. Lid off,
  2. 1 minute on full heat, stir
  3. 1 minute on full heat, stir
  4. 1 minute on full heat
  5. Leave for a minute or so.

Do it enough times and you’ll find your rhythm,  I’m sure 2 mins on a low heat and then another 2 mins on low heat would work as well.  The one thing you don’t need is specially branded microwave sachets.  Although I do understand the convenience.


 

This morning for some reason I’m taken back to the days of ready break and the advertising campaign of getting the glow!  Just did a quick check and you can still get it!  Also did a price comparison.  85p per 100g for a sachet approach and 12p per 100g for the supermarket brand of standard Scottish rolled oats.

Water not milk….I know the true traditionalists out there will use just water, and a bit of salt, splash of cream.  I can’t make that leap and it’s a case of finding your own balance.   The recipe is mainly for those folk who don’t have porridge in their lives.

And finally, porridge really is magic in a bowl……I once went to India from the UK, flew out on the Sunday and was back for the Friday.  In between travelled to Mumbai, Pune and then Chennai.  The food was amazing, but my stomach had been so bashed and battered, turned up on its head again…..the thing I craved when I got home was a bowl of porridge, soothing, comforting and something that added a sense of balance back into my world.

Hummus

Flattered to be asked by one of my co-weekend coffee sharers Gary Wilson.  I’m posting our recipe for Hummus. A weekend staple for pre dinner drinks with crudite. A way of getting a round of raw veg such as carrots, celery and pepper into the boys…​.sadly the crisps always go first!

You’ll need a food processor and a pressure cooker for this recipe.  The pressure cooker, removes the need for an overnight soak and reduces the cooking time from a good couple of hours and then some to 30 minutes.

 

Ingredients

  • 200g dried chickpeas
  • 750ml water
  • 160ml tahini
  • 60ml olive oil
  • 60ml lemon juice
  • 1 small clove of garlic, crushed
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)

method

  1. Give the chickpeas a quick rince and a once over, taking out any dodgy looking ones.
  2. Place the chickpeas and water into the pressure cooking bowl.
  3. Pressure cook for 30 minutes (ours is set at 80kPa – suggest you experiment).
  4. When cooking has completed, release the pressure, drain the chickpeas, reserving 125ml cooking water, and let cool slightly.
  5. In a seperate bowl whisk together the tahini and olive oil.
  6. Process the chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, salt, cumin, cayenne and reserved cooking water in a food processor until fully ground, should take roughly a minute depending on how smooth you like your hummus.
  7. Using a rubber spatula scrape down the bowl and give it another wazz.
  8. With the machine running, add the oil-tahini mixture in a steady stream through feed tube; continue to process until hummus is smooth and creamy and the oil has been mixed in, about 15-30 seconds
  9. Transfer hummus to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for at least 30 minutes before serving.

We have frozen this and used another time, I couldn’t tell the difference although the boss could. Need to arrange a blind taste test!