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Monday, August 22, 2016

What I cooked with evaporated milk

A neighbour of Mum's friend is eligible for food parcels from AC Care. She gets tins of evaporated milk in them and with no idea what to use them for she hands the tins to mum's friend, who gives them to Mum, who in turn hands them to me.

I am sure my mum lives for giving away food. If it's not homegrown veggies from her abundant garden, it's packets and cans of stuff she wont use.

I am not one to knock back free food. So I happily brought them home with me and they sat in the pantry until I hit google up for some ideas.

One of my pet hates is when hubby stands at the pantry, fridge or freezer proclaiming to all who will listen that he thinks we are running out of food. It gives me the shits! 

To prove that no, I don't need to go to the shops, it gave me the perfect opportunity to use up the three cans of evaporated milk keeping the pantry shelves warm, for weeknight dinners. I did not hear any complaints, from hubby anyway. The kids are a whole other kettle of fish, that continue to make me want to throw my hands in the air and order takeaway every night.




Bacon and egg pasta.
I used this recipe for ham and egg pasta on the Taste website. Instead of ham I used bacon. It's cheaper and I had in the freezer. It's a quick and easy recipe, tasty too.




Bacon, broccoli and sweet potato quiche 
This was another Taste recipe which I changed to use up ingredients I already had. 

The broccoli was from the garden, I substituted ham for bacon again, and instead of using tinned corn, which I didn't have, I cut up sweet potato in small cubes, about a cup, and microwaved them until soft.





Pumpkin and pea risotto
When you have a particular brand of food stuff that you have no ideas for, a great tip and one that I didn't do myself at first, is to head to the brands website for recipes. I found this recipe on the Nestle website, for Pumpkin and broccoli risotto

Of course I'd used the broccoli in the garden in the quiche, so used a cup of peas instead. 

This makes a fair bit of risotto, so if you have lots of left overs, you can try making arancini balls! I didn't, I just ate risotto for lunch three days in a row!

Here's how I made my risotto. You will need -

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 onion, chopped
2 cups short grain rice 
4 cups water
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
600 grams cubed pumpkin (about 1-2 cm cubes)
375ml can evaporated milk
1 cup frozen peas
Parmesan cheese, for serving

Heat oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add onion and garlic for a minute, add rice and stir to coat the rice with oil.

Pour in water, add thyme and pumpkin. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the can of evaporated milk and frozen peas, continue cooking for a further 5 minutes.

Serve with parmesan cheese.










17 comments:

  1. I thought you just used evaporated milk as a replacement for actual milk. I think I have no idea what it is...

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    1. It's milk that has had a lot of the water removed, so it's a little more creamier. I wouldn't use it as replacement for milk for drinking, but for baking and cooking, it's great.

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  2. Great recipes Alicia... they look delicious! Google is great for finding recipes to use leftovers... though, some are better than others I've found ;)

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  3. These all look real good and are making me sooooo hungry right now!

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  4. I frequently cook with evaporated milk and always have tins in my pantry. It's great in pasta sauces, soups and rice sauce dishes. These meals look great.

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    1. I've never kept it in the pantry, mainly because I had no idea how useful it was for these types of recipes.

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  5. Yummo...and what ingenuity there! It is amazing what inspiration you can get from one ingredient. I don't usually use evaporated milk but I can see what it would be good to have as a staple. I cook risotto for me and my Dad (he lives in Sydney) and I freeze it so I have mini meals at the ready!

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  6. Back again. Stupid me kept forgetting to link here. What I am like? Very bad at blogging. that's what. Oops.

    Those recipes look so good. I should try different things instead of the same old boring things. Who cares if my fusspot kids won't eat it? They can dig for worms!

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  7. That is it, I'm moving in! I swear I will appreciate all meals (as long as there are not mushrooms or olives, okay I'll eat them anyway). These meals look amazing and I am tempted to try some out on Mr Fusspot at my house. Kids are always like that, by the way. Mum tells us that that is how my Aunt coming for dinner tradition started. She was sick of cooking for a bunch of ungrateful brats who didn't know good food when it bit them on the nose. Okay, I'm sure we weren't really that bad. I love food to much to be that bad (my sisters on the other hand, particularly the next youngest). Anyway, thanks for the menu ideas.

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  8. Your recipes sound delicious. I don't cook with evaporated milk that often.

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  9. Oh I hear you. I don't have a husband but I have teenagers with insatiable appetites who often declare there is 'nothing in this house that we want to eat'. I find it handy to keep evaporated milk in the cupboard as it's useful if you run out of cream on those nights when you want to make something like - well, all of the above. If they will bloody eat it! These look yummy though.

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  10. Oh I love the risotto and I'm yet to have enough leftovers for Arancini balls

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  11. I have a yummy lemon ice cream recipe I make from evaporated milk; it's also great for making a low fat version of gnocchi, use it instead of cream!

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    Replies
    1. I did think of icecream when I was given the cans. Will have to try make some. Oh yummy, creamy gnocchi!

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