A thread of food where there's just NO point trying to MAKE it yourself

mejonaNO12 aka riskit · Mar 27, 2015

Right, I like a little go in the kitchen.

I will, 99% of the time, make my own rather than buy a jar etc.

But there are SOME things where you simply can NOT make it better than the original.

I'll start:

GNOCCHI. Why on EARTH would I bother trying to MAKE these little fiddly potato DELIGHTS, when for £1 I can pick up a pack and have LOVELY italian goodness in about 2 minutes?

I tried once. Bloody nightmare

Titanic · Mar 27, 2015

Puff, flaky and filo pastry.

Guinness Boy · Mar 27, 2015

Any pudding or fancy cake.

Gwylan · Mar 27, 2015

Titanic said:
Puff, flaky and filo pastry.

This. I have made them all but filo is the devil's own job and never to be attempted again

Sushi

Publius Ovidius · Mar 27, 2015

Pizza.

Laura is brilliant at baking all sorts of stuff...but I struugle to make toast

Tom Bombadil · Mar 27, 2015

Sometimes the point is the satisfaction of a difficult job.

Notters · Mar 27, 2015

A good (Indian/Bangladeshi) curry is the only thing I've not managed to make myself, despite having been on a course. I did an OK biryani, but have not managed anything else half as delicious as the best take-aways. I can make a reasonable thai curry and most other things I enjoy making.

Having said that there is VERY little point in making pasta, except for ravioli.

Tom Bombadil · Mar 27, 2015

granny weatherwax said:
Pizza.

Laura is brilliant at baking all sorts of stuff...but I struugle to make toast

Homemade pizza is easy and so much better than the shop bought stuff

Publius Ovidius · Mar 27, 2015

Voroshilov said:
Homemade pizza is easy and so much better than the shop bought stuff

Au contraire.

Marrocco's pizzas are a million times better than any home made ones I have ever eaten. I am not a great fan of frozen ones, preferring fresh ones. But maybe you are a better cook than people I know.

Bozza · Mar 27, 2015

Almost everything we eat is home made, but our desserts rarely are. I need to change that.

Gwylan said:
Sushi

We make our own sushi most weeks. It's not difficult and it means your sushi is really fresh, unlike the packets you'd buy from a supermarket. (We're suckers for Yo! though, and can spend a small fortune in there.)

granny weatherwax said:
Pizza.

We used to make a lot of home made pizza, using the bread maker for the dough, but haven't for ages now. We've got lazy and get pizza from the supermarket or Dominos.

Machiavelli · Mar 27, 2015

RE pastry: I made bun scrolls from Justin Gellatly's recipe once, and they worked a treat -- and there was enough to see us through a weekend's worth of breakfast:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/17/justine-gellatly-baking-recipes

RE pizza: you can make pretty decent pizzas, although they can be bettered

RE sushi: [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] is fancy. Any recipes? And do you use raw fish in them; if so, where do you get it from?

RE curry: two things. The first link is to a good curry base, which I make in a big batch (four times the amount shown in the recipe), and freeze. It works well. The second link is to one of the best things I cook -- the halibut dish, although I always use different white fish (the veg curry is good too).

http://www.curryhouse.co.uk/recipes/currybase.pdf

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/apr/17/vivek-singh-indian-recipes

Notters · Mar 27, 2015

Bozza said:
Almost everything we eat is home made, but our desserts rarely are. I need to change that.

We make our own sushi most weeks. It's not difficult and it means your sushi is really fresh, unlike the packets you'd buy from a supermarket. (We're suckers for Yo! though, and can spend a small fortune in there.)

We used to make a lot of home made pizza, using the bread maker for the dough, but haven't for ages now. We've got lazy and get pizza from the supermarket or Dominos.

Where do you get your sushi-grade fish from? It seems pretty hard to get hold of and a lot of fishmongers don't seem to know what is required.

Machiavelli said:
RE sushi: [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION] is fancy. Any recipes? And do you use raw fish in them; if so, where do you get it from?

FYI it should be frozen to -35oC...

Bozza · Mar 27, 2015

Notters said:
Where do you get your sushi-grade fish from? It seems pretty hard to get hold of and a lot of fishmongers don't seem to know what is required.

I'm a veggie.

The kids seem happy enough with salmon from the Tesco fish counter.

Gwylan · Mar 27, 2015

Bozza said:
We make our own sushi most weeks. It's not difficult and it means your sushi is really fresh, unlike the packets you'd buy from a supermarket. (We're suckers for Yo! though, and can spend a small fortune in there.)

Kudos to you: I could never get the rice sticky enough to stay together and the seaweed would keep breaking.

On the other hand, I can make decent pizzas, gnocchi and curries

Seagull kimchi · Mar 27, 2015

Baked beans - my guilty processed pleasure. A cheap, runny but surprisingly tomatoey brand that comes from Malaysia for 900won - about 50p.

brighton_girl87 · Mar 27, 2015

Notters said:
A good (Indian/Bangladeshi) curry is the only thing I've not managed to make myself, despite having been on a course. I did an OK biryani, but have not managed anything else half as delicious as the best take-aways. I can make a reasonable thai curry and most other things I enjoy making.

Having said that there is VERY little point in making pasta, except for ravioli.

I've heard good things about this book - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curry-Secre...id=1427457082&sr=8-5&keywords=indian+takeaway

Seagull kimchi · Mar 27, 2015

Cheese like paneer is a bit of a pain and hardly cost effective.

Goldstone1976 · Mar 27, 2015

Baked beans - tried a few times and they're just rubbish to those from a can.

Tomato ketchup - ditto, but replace can with bottle.

Foie Gras - all that faffing about with a goose for weeks on end. Just buy it already. Provocative? Me?

Sushi - the local chippie to my place in Cambridge makes daily early morning trips to Billingsgate and sells sushi grade fish. He even gets uni from time to time. I kid ye not.

Tom Hark Preston Park · Mar 27, 2015

Haggis - for reasons too many to mention :moo:

Greyrun · Mar 27, 2015

Houmous.

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