Expedient Soup (and Opportune Bread) – Using What I Have
For more great Instant Pot recipes, please visit InstantPotEasy.com
It’s not even nearly an emergency, but my intention to go shopping for food was thwarted by the weather and road conditions (or …
I loved this, it was souper!
I love how you make the most of what you have! The vast majority of under 50's in this country have no idea how to do this because everything is so readily available but it only takes one bad storm or disaster or in my 96 year old grandmothers case, war to make you realise that this knowledge is important. My Great Grandmother (Nanda) was born in 1900 and was taught to survive using rations during ww1 – come ww2 she was teaching women how to cook to survive. The community would save their scraps to feed chickens which literally kept them alive.
7:12 I usually do only a small flour watering ceremony. Just a few family members and the local member of parliament.
This looks far more appealing than the Inopportune Bread I had the other day.
I love what I call bottom of the fridge cooking. I’ve done this twice in the past week. One with chicken thighs and cabbage leaves and stalks, a lonely old carrot, wrinkly peppers and some forgotten shallots. And just yesterday I made a soup with yellowing broccoli heads and of course the stalks. There is only the two of us and the soups do so many meals. I don’t have bread flour in because I don’t make bread, but I’m going to try something like this bread, it looked delicious.
Love these videos
takes spoonfull of mostly chicken fat – "oh that's really good!"
John always coming in clutch. 💜 PS I just assumed your name is John. 🤓
Is that like an insta pot?
I did something similar a few weeks ago, I took a few chicken thighs and made a beautiful pot of broth, removed the chicken and deboned it then added it back to the pot then added rice and veggies and I had a small packet of biscuit mix that made six of them so I took them and mixed it up and dropped small pieces into the soup and ended up with a beautiful chicken with rice and dumplings which I am still fighting my cat for ever time I pull a container out of the freezer
What a dolt!
How could you bin the skin?
I loved this you did great
A few tips as a pressure cooker user:
1: Make mashed potatoes in a pressure cooker. It's by far the best way to do them in terms of time, cost, flavor, and even nutrition (potato has a lot of vitamin C, but most cooking methods destroy it or leave it in water) which will quickly become the biggest use of your pressure cooker. I prefer Yukon Gold (the best thing to come out of Canada since John Garand), though lots of good mashing potatoes exist.
2: if you're using alcohol anyways, fry the biological seasonings (essentially everything but salts) in some cooking fat, then add the booze. Blooming spices is key to maximum flavor in liquid/semi-liquid dishes.
3: Look up "Rangiri". It's a very quick and easy method of cutting roughly cylindrical vegetables (like carrots and parsnips) that makes a lot of roughly even spoon sized vegetable chunks.
4: Electric pressure cookers don't reach as many atmospheres as a normal, stovetop, one. This will become noticible once you get into more advanced cooking.
I am sure you usually know this but you can make all purpose flour into bread flour using this guide:
1 cup all-purpose flour – 1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons vital wheat gluten = 1 cup bread flour substitute
Some of the best meals I've cooked have been scavenging around for odds and sods like this.
Have you considered doing a challenge where you have to make a full Sunday roast but exclusively with foraged things?
why did you leave the chicken skin on the thighs when you were using it for soup? ewwwww
Excellent! I wouldn't have thought to put some beer in the soup, but now that I've seen you do it I want to try it. And I like the idea of the cook enjoying a "quick half" while the soup cooks. Your bread looked, and sounded, delicious!
Lovely fun getting to see you cook something, especially without a plan ahead of time outside of "use what you have," a joy from start to finish! I agree with some of the other comments regarding new and interesting challenges in terms of your cooking/meal prepping videos, but this relative low effort exercise was charming, inspiring, and a lot of fun. Keep it up, your channel is one of the few I search every morning to see if there's something new!
:):):):)
Cooked chicken bones become brittle and can create sharp pieces when the dogs chew them that can at the "best" hurt them and at the worst puncture their digestive system which most likely will kill them. BUT frozen chick bones in for instance Chicken Wings are an exelent treat for a pupper especially during a warm summer day.
Might you say that bread was not very “needy” ?
Great now I'm really up for some soup, why do I watch these kinds of videos at 1 am…
Ah, Sage. Great stuff. I get why you like it. Consistently in the top 5 when they do a test on seriouseats.
Get some barley in there next time.
I’m a fan of Mr Shrimp’s spaghetti tin at 2:35
Love your videos like this – not many people do tasty, thifty cooking of this ilk and you do it so well. Really want to make something kind of like this but without meat – how could I tweak it?
When you poured yourself that glass I turned to my wife and said "Chefs privilege, wait for it!" And you didn't say it haha 🤷🤦 keep up the good work mike ☺️
As a 25 year old I can't honestly say I hope one day I meet my "jenny" and can be as wholesome and authentic as shrimp! I love this channel so much!
Another great vid mate thank you! ..I have emailed you mate, Id like to send you a book? let me know if you want it. Cheers Ian (Bilko)
Thanks Mike. I love these videos. Over the last couple of years, they've really given me the confidence to 'invent' my own dishes using my slow cooker or stock pot on the hob, using whatever ingredients I have in the kitchen. I'm going to try growing my own herbs this year too, using a windowsill kit my son got me for Christmas.
This was great, more please. Love trying your recipes at home.
0:45
Even something wrinkly and sad looking can rise to the occasion if proper care and attention is given.
Eva says 'Yes!? You gots something for me, Boss?'
I used my pressure cooker today to make a batch of broth with a ham bone and some vegetable scraps. It's hardly any trouble and is very satisfying, almost like conjuring up free meals out of nothing.
Those electric pressure cookers are awesome. I got one as an anniversary present just over a year ago and it's so much fun to use.
Actually, pressure cooked bones can be fed as long as they crumble when you pinch them with your fingers. When they're that soft, they don't splinter, they crumble. Bones just cooked in the oven will, indeed, splinter and are a hazard. Anything that comes out of my instant pot goes to my pups 🙂
I would be interested what you could do with a £25 budget for 2 people .
That's one week ( 7 days ) , three meals each per day with drinks .
You could do a lot with that budget .
It might look easy from your prospective but may be just what's needed by some !
I'm thinking quick , simple , tasty , hassle free & economical recipes .
Keeping one eye on energy costs as you did in this video .
Obviously spending £3 or more cooking £1 of food is nonsense .
The solid gold unicorn is obviously the traditional Sunday lunch .
It's probably only gold plated now but still a problem if you keep it .
One can dream …….Free gold unicorn…..boiled , baked or roasted…..LOL
Is it okay to freeze the chicken again once cooked? I didnt think you could once defrosted?
Sitting there bored, wondering what to do and then remembering you haven’t watched atomic shrimp for a while so there should be loads of videos to binge is the best feeling 🙏
a bread like that looks like it would make a great pain perdue for tomorrows breakfast.
Given the cost of things nowadays, this is the type of cooking i love learning. I'm looking forward to planting veg in March, we finally have a garden, and I've never grown anything other than tatties in a bag. Will you be planting anything this year?
Good eating that, we have a similar soup but we add bacon scraps to our soup base and have to include potatoes
Have a missed a Scone episode?
My mother swears on her life hers always turn out crap- but as a kid i loved them, she's refused due to not being able to make them properly for years to try her hand at it again, i'd love a good video from an honest source about Scones and a brit is clearly the person to go to about that subject!
I perhaps need to try my own hand at it, because yum!
These are my favourite type of video that you do. I learn tons!
Really love these videos, specially good during these hard times. It's kind of reassuring also. I've been trying to save money and do the same. It can be sad sometimes, but it doesn't have to. I have my own challenges too, my wife is celiac.
Some home made noodles would go perfect in that soup…..looked yummy right up my street and the bread, well, everyone should make bread at least once a week….
My favorite sort of videos! Thank you 😊
If garlic powder clumps, I usually put the jar in a warm place to dry and then poke with a skewer and empty the jar into a mini food processor and blitz back to a powder. Another option is to use a micro plane grater on the lumps. But, I buy in bulk bags and store in wide neck jars