Your Best Cook n Freeze Dinners and Lunches.

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Mr SSOAP is arriving in a weeks time and I have a lot to do this week so I want to cook something special but due to the kitchen here being minuscule, being busy this week and wanting to achieve the holy grail of lovely food AND a tidy kitchen I'm after those dishes that freeze and defrost without degradation. However after three weeks apart I still want it the be something a bit special.
A curried dish is the obvious choice but I cook a lot of curry dishes so I'd like to do something different and the old grey cells are not inspired.

I have the pud decided. Mary Berry is so confident of this recipes ability to rebound from the freezer she used it for her own daughters wedding.
Mr SSOAP loves lemon meringue and I love that she uses the meringue yolks to make lemon curd rather than let them go to waste.
So this ones a definite, the Swiss roll tray is winging it's way here as I type

Mary Berry's Lemon meringue roulade recipe

What's your favourite cook ahead recipe? If it can't be frozen but can at a pinch survive three days in the fridge (soz refrigerator ) thats ok too.
Help!

 

[JAS_OH1]

Bolognese pasta sauce! It will still require you cook pasta, but that's pretty simple with very little cleanup after. Of course you could make a lasagne with the sauce. Either will hold up quite welli in the frig for several days or can be frozen.

 

[PabloLerntKochen]

Same here, Lasagna is the first thing that's popped up.
All kinds of stews are easy to prepare (chili, goulash) and as the veggies loose their bite, I would prepare them fresh before dining. Also quiches/pies, Risotto + sauces, potato gratin, the list could get long....
I wouldn’t freeze veggies, short fried meat like steak or tenderloin and mushrooms

 

[TastyReuben]

Shepherd’s/cottage pie - those both freeze well. Steak and ale pie filling (or chicken-ham-leek) freeze well, and if you have ready-rolled pie dough from the supermarket, that’s easy enough to do.

Meatloaf, of course, beef burgundy…most of that isn’t really “special” as in elegant, but I’m a boy who loves his heavy comfort foods, so that’s what I’d be looking for.

 

[badjak]

Almost everything I cook.
I still haven't worked out how to cook for 1
Coq au vin, curries, babi kecap, bean dishes, pasta sauces, Thai red pumpkin/(sweet) potato curry, peanut soup, meatballs, burgers (uncooked), quiche, etc etc

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

These are all lovely suggestions but some are maybe a bit everyday to be special?
Although he does really like a pie and I rarely make his favourite steak and kidney because my boys don't like it so thats a contender. Wonder what kidney is in Spanish?!

Or maybe the Coq au vin because that's one of the first things I cooked in our first house back in 1994.
It was out of my 'Food and Drink' recipe book, anyone remember that series on BBC 2 in the 80's and 90's?

Twenty one years old and thinking it oh so sophisticated to have my own kitchen, the latest cookery book from the BBC TV series AND cooking food with wine in it!
I'll have another Gimlet please daaarling, light on the lime if you don't mind

 

[JAS_OH1]

I guess my lasagne bolognese is so spectacular I don't think of it as ordinary, lol.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I guess my lasagne bolognese is so spectacular I don't think of it as ordinary., lol.

I love lasagne and do think of it as special but I like to make my lasagne with rich dairy and top it with lots of strong cheese. Mr SSOAP's dairy intolerant. He'll eat dairy every now and then but there are always some unpleasant consequences so sadly I can't use it as a welcoming dish.

It would be more of a "don't you want me here?" dish

 

[TastyReuben]

Cassoulet would freeze ok, right? It’s French, so it at least sounds elegant!

 

[JAS_OH1]

I love lasagne and do think of it as special but I like to make my lasagne with rich dairy and top it with lots of strong cheese. Mr SSOAP's dairy intolerant. He'll eat dairy every now and then but there are always some unpleasant consequences so sadly I can't use it as a welcoming dish.

It would be more of a "don't you want me here?" dish

Oh that's awful. I would be so unhappy if I could not eat cheese and ingest cream, etc.!

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Cassoulet would freeze ok, right? It’s French, so it at least sounds elegant!

Yep the give it a French name thing still works on me

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Oh that's awful. I would be so unhappy if I could not eat cheese and ingest cream, etc.!

He does sometimes, we have lactase pills that work to an extent.
Spain is good on the lactose free stuff (much better than the UK) and produces one of my favourite cheeses lactose free but even so load him up with it and it's not good.
GI upsets aside it gives him asthma which is distressing and big red painful lumps will break out somewhere, usually on his legs.

I have lactose free whipping cream for the lemon meringue roulade and don't ask me how because I have no idea why it works but drinking white wine at the same time as eating dairy mitigates the nastiest side effects very well so I'll HAVE to buy in plenty of white!

 

[JAS_OH1]

I love lasagne and do think of it as special but I like to make my lasagne with rich dairy and top it with lots of strong cheese. Mr SSOAP's dairy intolerant. He'll eat dairy every now and then but there are always some unpleasant consequences so sadly I can't use it as a welcoming dish.

It would be more of a "don't you want me here?" dish

I am big on the rich dairy as well. My husband likes it less so I usually load up one side of it with thick layers and less on the other side.

I guess that rules out Cordon bleu!

The Bolognese sauce is made with lamb, beef, and Italian sausage. I save lamb bones from rack of lamb (chops) and ribeye steak bones in the freezer and then when I get ready to make a batch of Bolognese, I stew the bones and scrape the meat off them. Then I add additional beef and the Italian sausage to the tomato sauce (with roasted garlic, crimini mushrooms, onion, and dry red wine). I cook it low and slow. I add fresh herbs at the end before serving. No cheese going on there (though I add plenty of parm to my plate of pasta).

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I am big on the rich dairy as well. My husband likes it less so I usually load up one side of it with thick layers and less on the other side.

I guess that rules out Cordon bleu!

The Bolognese sauce is made with lamb, beef, and Italian sausage. I save lamb bones from rack of lamb (chops) and ribeye steak bones in the freezer and then when I get ready to make a batch of Bolognese, I stew the bones and scrape the meat off them. Then I add additional beef and the Italian sausage to the tomato sauce (with roasted garlic, crimini mushrooms, onion, and dry red wine). I cook it low and slow. I add fresh herbs at the end before serving. No cheese going on there (though I add plenty of parm to my plate of pasta).

Reading that has made my mouth water!

 

[JAS_OH1]

Come to think of it, lamb chops cut from rack of lamb are fairly quick and easy to prepare. You could butcher them the day before he arrives and put them in an herb, roasted garlic, and olive oil marinade the same day of arrival, then it only takes about 2-3 minutes to cook them on the grill/BBQ or even pan seared until rare, then rest in a warm oven 180F/82C in the marinade for a few minutes. A side of rice pilaf and briefly cooked thin asparagus with butter, salt, and pepper makes it an elegant meal.