Culinary question

[chickenfeet]

I'm pretty much a cook from scratch kind of guy but there are canned/bottled/powdered things that I use on a regular basis. I'm curious about other people's use of such processed stuff. My list isn't especially long:

Canned tomatoes
Canned corn
Canned fishy things of various kinds; sardines, mackerel, clams, anchovies
Tomato puree
Coconut milk
Szichuan vegetable
Various Chinese or Thai condiments like preserved beancurd and chillibean sauce

How about you?

ETA: This is actually quite ironic given the amount of time I've spent involved with industrial scale food processing.

Comments

[lnr]

Kidney beans. Can't face dried ones.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I use beans of various kinds quite a lot but I always use dried ones. I don't like the texture of the canned ones.

[anayajay.livejournal.com]

Canellini Beans - I go through TONS of them.
Chicken Broth - Swanson's "Natural Goodness"
Corn
Coconut Milk
Curry Paste
Citrus Oils (http://www.boyajianinc.com/citrus.html)
Bayou Bang Seasoned Salt

[thidwick.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

canned tomatoes/tomato paste
artichoke hearts
capers
beans -- I am too lazy to deal with dried
various Asian condiments such as those you listed - we're also in the habit of buying things like hoisin sauce that we *could* make from scratch but choose not to


Assuming that things like ketchup and mustard and honey and soy sauce that sort of thing that only come canned/jarred don't count, that may well be it. We do keep jarred spaghetti sauce on hand for quick dinners when we're too lazy or too hurried to make our own, but that's the exception rather than the rule. And I admit that most of our vegetables we buy frozen, especially this time of year, because we find that we waste far too much if we buy fresh -- we have a tendency to let time get away from us and accidentally let it go bad.

[thidwick.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and broths/stocks. I can't be bothered to make my own.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I make stock if I need a lot or I just happen to have the trimmings on hand. I do sometimes use the powdered kind though. There's a pretty good Polish brand that we can buy here. I almost never buy frozen vegetables (except peas sometimes) which is a bit odd for a former Bird's Eye employee.

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of Birds Eye before. I'm actually heading there next week to deliver training.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

It's a bit odd. BE is owned by KGF in N.America but Unilever in the rest of the world. It's to do with the original Birdseye patents.

[jez-e-bel.livejournal.com]

hmmm... that's tough...

tomatoes (paste, crushed, sauce, peeled)
condiments (soy sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup, etc)
curry paste
dips (hummus etc - because I'm lazy)
pickles (kosher dills)
kraft dinner (because I was raised on it and sometimes you have to)
papadam
there's probably more but can't think of any right now...

[minx-minx.livejournal.com]

Canned beans of all sorts - I'm rarely organized enough to soak beans the night before
Canned green chiles
Stewed tomatoes
Capers
Olives

[karen2205]

Worcestershire sauce
Mustard
Garlic puree
Tomatoe puree
Tinned tomatoes
Soya sauce
Tinned peas
Tinned kidney beans
Tinned tuna
Stock cubes

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

Love your icon, btw!

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

Not counting condiments?

All things tomato -- Madhur Jaffray approves of tinned tomatoes :-)
Beans -- although I use dried if I've planned ahead
do baked beans count?
Green chilies (the mexican kind)
tomatillos
Nopalitos
stock
coconut milk
Thai curry pastes
water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, straw mushrooms, baby corn
assorted chutneys and pickles
crabmeat -- except I just realized that Dungeness crabs are on sale at the market through today for $2.99 a pound yummmmm.

I use a lot of frozen veg because my singleton eating habits are somewht haphazard.

Oh -- and there's usually a tin of pumpkin and a tin of enchilada sauce, because you never know. Also usually a couple of jars of Mr. Patak's sauces for emergencies, although I usually cook all my own curries from scratch.

Speaking of which, I usually have a block of paneer in the freezer.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I heartily dislike commercial Thai curry pastes. Most of them seem to taste of little but chillis and salt. I make my own in bulk then freeze them in ice cube trays.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

ooh -- that sounds good. I should ask you for recipes -- I've got most of the ingredients.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Tinned tomatoes
Tomato paste
Artichoke hearts
Bottled pickled sweet peppers
Chopped/minced ginger
Minced green coriander
Minced lemongrass
Minced galangal
Tamarind paste
Creamed coconut
A few jars of things like aubergine caviar that make good fast pasta sauces
Toasted chopped nuts for my muesli (but I make this up myself from oats, etc)
Tinned corn for fritters
Breadcrumbs (not the nasty orangey sort)

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and mustard. But does anyone, these days, make it up from yellow powder from little tins?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

only for accompanying Chinese BBQ I reckon

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

tomatoes (cruched, diced, paste)
coconut milk
beans, unless they're to be baked
lemongrass
garlic (I hate chopping garlic)
stock (I'd make fresh, but our freezer is too small to fill it with stock)
soy sauce
miso
canned tuna, salmon and clams
various sauces and chutneys
pre-made spice mixes (cajun, berebere, garam masala)

[pshtaku.livejournal.com]

Tinned Tomatoes - an absolute must
Tinned Tuna - too expensive to buy fresh for sandwiches
Tinned Beans - Baked, Kidney, Borlotti etc
Tinned Soup - only Baxters will do though...
Coconut Milk/Cream
Recently got into 2 minute microwave rice! (An expensive habit!)
Tinned Guava Halves
Lazy Garlic, Lazy Ginger
Hmmm... that's just from memory - can't be bothered to go look!

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

*wanders off to contemplate cupboards*

canned tomato products (crushed, paste, chunk)
canned bean - yes, I like the texture of dried and then cooked, but my utility bill trumps the texture issue.
condiments - mostly Asian, like hoisin, Sriracha, chilibean sauce, various forms of vinegar, various forms of soy sauce
bouillion cubes - I don't eat enough meat to generate stock makings
soy milk powder - I try to drink some every day 'cause it's good for me (and is a good morning start when I can't face breakfast).

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Canned tomatoes
Tomato puree in a tube
Canned corn
Stock cubes (esp. fish stock - mmmm! :)
Bouillon powder
Gravy granules

Mr Itchy has tomato ketchup but I rarely have it. We also buy mayonnaise in a jar, though my gran gave us a good recipe for it that we should definitely try.

I think everything else is pretty much from scratch.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I used to buy mayo in a jar but now I have a decent blender it's so easy that if i want mayo (which isn't often) I make it.

[nikkyb.livejournal.com]

Trassi (that stinky Thai shrimp paste)
Coconut milk
Fresh green pepper corns
Capers
A squeeze tube of 'fresh' giner
A bottle of Chinese cooking wine
Bag of lime leaves (in the freezer)
... and probably other random things that I can't do without

[nikkyb.livejournal.com]

+ Garam masala ... I make that once and a while to keep a bit on hand.