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Jump on the batch cooking bandwagon

September 19, 2023 10:08 am Leave a Comment

Lacking weeknight motivation to cook up a healthy meal? Jump on the batch cooking bandwagon! Batch cooking is a method of preparing and cooking larger quantities of food at once, storing portions for future consumption. Here are 10 reasons and recipes to batch cook…

1. Time-efficiency

jump on the batch cooking bandwagon chilli BBQ explorers — Before

Batch cooking allows you to make the most of your time in the kitchen. By preparing multiple meals at once, you can save time on meal prep during busy weekdays. It’s especially helpful for those with hectic schedules, as they can cook once and have ready-to-eat meals for several days.

This BBQ Explorers Scottish Ale and Beef Chilli is the perfect batch cook. Make the most of a wonderful weekend BBQ by bulking up the ingredients so you can enjoy the dish again and again throughout the week!

2. Cost-effectiveness

Buying ingredients in bulk can often be more economical, as you can take advantage of discounts and reduce food waste. Additionally, cooking larger quantities can be more energy-efficient than preparing multiple smaller meals.

Jump on the batch cooking bandwagon — Ren Behan’s Turkey and Leek Meatballs with Tomato Tagliatelle

Ren Behan’s Turkey and Leek Meatballs with Tomato Tagliatelle is also a fab way to get kids involved in the kitchen and jumping on the batch cooking bandwagon too! Grating the cheese, or rolling the meatballs into fun shapes are both great activities for little chefs.

If you want to try another variation of meatballs, try our Swedish Meatballs too.

3. Convenience

Having pre-cooked meals on hand makes it easy to grab a healthy option when you’re busy or too tired to cook. This can prevent you from resorting to less healthy, fast-food options or skipping meals altogether.

Batch cooking isn’t just for whole meals; you can also bulk up side dishes! Maybe you want to cook up your protein from fresh but don’t have time to make a whole meal. Then why not consider batch cooking side dishes too!

Try our Sprouting Brocolli Gratin, a tasty alternative to Cauliflower Cheese! This serves 4-6 as a side dish so just double or triple the recipe as you need to. With a prep time of 5 minutes and a cooking time of 10-15 minutes, it’s also the epitome of convenient!

4. Healthier choices

Batch cooking enables you to plan and control your meals better. By preparing your own dishes, you can choose healthier ingredients, control portion sizes, and avoid added preservatives or unhealthy additives often found in pre-packaged foods. This Ultimate Chia Seed Pudding is full of antioxidants, omega 3, calcium, protein and fibre. You can soak the seeds overnight and make batches of the pudding in mason jars or bowls with different toppings! Check out our favourites below…

jump on the batch cooking bandwagon - chia seed pudding

5. A souper way to reduce stress

Knowing that you have meals already prepared can alleviate mealtime stress and the pressure of having to figure out what to cook each day. This can be especially helpful for parents, students, or anyone with a busy lifestyle.

Jump on the batch cooking bandwagon - cullen skink — Cullen Skink

There are many fantastic things about soup… for one, it’s a great way to use up your off cuts, it’s also easy to bulk up and batch cook, or freeze for another day. Soup is a light weeknight meal and you will find lots of great recipes on our website for soups to suit all seasons.

6. Portion control

By dividing your batch-cooked meals into individual portions, you can avoid overeating and maintain better control over your calorie-intake. So, if you want to cook up something higher in calories and more filling, like this Shin Beef Stew with Dumplings, then batch cooking can help you control your portion sizes. A great slow-cook dish, it’s very low maintenance too!

7. Customization

Batch cooking allows you to tailor meals to your specific dietary preferences and nutritional needs. It’s easier to accommodate dietary restrictions or food allergies when you cook at home.

2016 Masterchef Champion Jane Devonshire has created some wonderful gluten free recipes for us. If you find it challenging to come up with a variety of gluten free recipes then definitely check out Jane’s recipes on our website. These recipes are all easy to whip up, with minimal effort, and easy to batch cook!

8. Minimize clean-up

Preparing one large batch of food usually means fewer dishes and kitchen cleanup than if you were to cook different meals every day. We recommend immediately handwashing and towel drying frying pans and milk pans with non-stick coating but all our other saucepans are dishwasher safe and have a lifetime guarantee. Regular batch cooking means you might even use the dishwasher less and save energy!

Check out our top tips for looking after copper cookware, stainless steel, and non-stick.

9. Experimentation and variety

Batch cooking doesn’t mean eating the same meal for days on end. You can batch cook different recipes, freeze some for later, and mix and match meals to keep things interesting. Why not try something different? Perhaps you love curries but want to change things up. We have lots of exciting curry recipes from our collaborators but here are three to get you started… click the links at the bottom of each photo for the recipe.

Marni Xuto authentic thai jungle curry with sea bas — Authentic Thai Jungle Curry with Sea Bass by Marni Xuto

seafood penang curry by jude kereama — Authentic Thai Jungle Curry with Sea Bass by Marni Xuto

10. Family and community sharing

Batch cooking can foster a sense of community and family bonding when shared with others. You can cook together with family or friends, share dishes with neighbours, or donate excess food to those in need. After a trip to Texas, we threw a Texas-inspired Hog Roast. Cooking so much meat in one go meant that we had lots left over, and so did our families and friends.

Authentic Thai Jungle Curry with Sea Bass by Marni Xuto

March 8, 2023 12:56 pm Leave a Comment

Chef and content creator Marni Xuto with a recipe at the Great British Food Festival

Marni Xuto grew up in the heart of Bangkok and her recipes are like love letters to Thai cuisine. She is a content creator and recipe developer, often found giving cooking demonstrations at top food festivals, or cooking classes at School of Wok. We are thrilled to be sharing this Jungle Curry with Sea Bass from Marni and hope you love it as much as we do!

Head to Marni’s website for more information here and follow her on social media for delicious recipes and top tips for cooking Thai food.

This recipe is inspired by Songkran or เทศกาลสงกราน (Thai New Year) which is celebrated on 13th April each year. It is also known as the Water Splashing Festival and marks the beginning of the Buddhist New Year.

Marni’s Authentic Thai Jungle Curry recipe is bursting with flavour. In fact, Jungle Curry is said to take its name from having so many vegetables and plant-based ingredients packed in that it’s like having a dish with an entire jungle in it! Originating from the Northern, forested areas of Thailand, this curry usually omits coconut milk because coconuts aren’t normally found in the rainforests.

Did you know: Jungle Curry was originally cooked mostly with wild boar! Nowadays it’s most commonly made with chicken or pork but Marni’s version is made with sea bass which is a great pescatarian alternative!

Serve : 2-3

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking times : 10-25 minutes

Ingredients for the Jungle Curry paste

50g of shallot, sliced
20g of finger roots, trimmed and chunkily cut*
10g of green British chilli, chunkily cut
10g of Galangal, chunkily cut
10g of coriander stalks
4g of dried medium-heat red chilli
3g of lime zest
1g of red bird’s eye chilli, chunkily cut (optional)
1 stalk of lemon grass, trimmed and chunkily cut
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tbsp of vegetable oil
1-2 tbsp of water
1 tsp of shrimp paste
2/3 tsp of sea salt

*Fun fact about Finger Roots: Marni says “Finger roots is an essential ingredients for a Jungle Curry because it helps eliminate the strong seafood smell. It is also packed full of remedial properties and some have said it is a Ginseng of Thailand. It helps to ease indigestion, as the original jungle curry is rather spicy which could cause dyspepsia.”

Are you struggling to source finger roots? Don’t worry because you can use a small amount of young ginger (7g) and then amend the galangal to 15g as a replacement.

Ingredients for the Jungle Curry

180g of sea bass fillet, pat dried
100g of bamboo shoots, sliced
80g of red pepper, chunkily cut
80g of green beans, trimmed and cut
80g of Thai eggplant, trimmed and quartered (can be substituted for aubergine)
60g of baby corn, sliced
60g of brocolli, trimmed and cut
15g of holy basil leaves
10g of fresh, young green peppercorn
10g of butter
4 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
2 tsp of sugar
450ml of water
1 pinch each of salt and ground black pepper

Equipment

Marni uses our Copper Base Range in this recipe. Check out 7 things we love about our Copper Base Range!

Cooking Method

Blend the curry paste ingredients in an electric blender or pound them in a pestle and mortar until smooth.
Next, gently fry the paste with two tablespoons of the vegetable oil in Copper Base 26cm Sauté Pan over a medium heat until infused and stir it regularly.
Onto the vegetables! Add the bamboo shoots, red pepper, green beans, broccoli, baby corn and then gently stir them in for approximately 1 minute.
Pour in the water and then bring it to a boil.
Add Thai eggplant and fresh peppercorn and then simmer it for approximately 20 minutes.
In the meantime, gently fry the sea bass fillets (with the skin side down first) with the rest of the oil in a Copper Base 24cm Non-Stick Frying Pan over a medium to high heat.
Season the fish with salt and pepper and then add the butter. Once it has stopped spitting, you can then baste the fish as it fries.
After the skin has turned golden and crispy, carefully flip the sea bass and then cook it for approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute.
Continue to baste for a better colour on the skin (if required).
Next, remove the sea bass and then rest it on kitchen paper.
Scatter holy basil on top of the curry and fold it into the mixture.
Transfer the curry into a serving bowl and then place the fish fillet on the top.
Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Seabass Jungle Curry served in a ProWare 26cm saute pan — Serve up and enjoy!

Marni says: “For me… I just place the fish fillets on top of the curry in the sauté pan and serve. Enjoy this aromatic Thai Curry with Thai Jasmine Rice.“

Beef Cheek Roly Poly with Roasted Tomatoes and Caramelised Onions

November 7, 2019 12:40 pm Comments Off

What a wonderful recipe for the colder months when we turn to slower cooked cuts of meat. The tender braised ox cheek is slow cooked for a few hours with vegetables and seasoning then easily shredded before being rolled with suet pastry and steamed to perfection.

Recipe Courtesy of Leslie Buddington Head Chef at Brocco on the Park

Serves: 12 but can be adjusted to suit guest requirements

Cooking Time: 4 hours

Equipment

Ingredients

Beef cheeks

Vegetable oil
4 ox cheeks
3 carrots
3 white onions
1 leek
2 celery sticks
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp tomato purée
½ bunch of thyme
1 bay leaf
½ stick of cinnamon
2 star anise
1 large glass of red wine
2 litres of beef stock

Suet Pastry

1kg self-raising flour
5g salt
500g suet
600ml water

Roasted tomatoes

400g cherry tomatoes
4 sprigs of thyme
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Caramelised onions

3 large onions
Olive oil
Pinch of salt
3tbsp caster sugar
2tbsp white wine vinegar

Cooking Method

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
Place a little vegetable oil in a hot sauté pan and seal the ox cheeks on both sides until well browned, then remove from the pan.
In the same pan cook the carrots, onions, leek, celery and garlic until golden brown then add the tomato purée and cook for a few minutes.
Add the thyme, bay leaf, cinnamon, star anise, red wine and reduce the liquid by half.
Transfer the ox cheek, vegetables and wine into a stockpot and add the beef stock.
Cover the dish with greaseproof paper and tin foil then place in the preheated over to cook for 3 hours until the meat is really tender and falling apart.
Take the cheeks out of the liquid and shred the meat into pieces.
Strain the cooking liquor through a fine sieve into a saucepan, place on a medium heat and reduce the liquid by half.
Add some of the sauce to the shredded beef cheek and leave to cool.
While cooling make the pastry by adding all the ingredients together and kneading to make a dough.
Roll the dough out to thickness of a pound coin and spread the cooled beef cheek mixture evenly over the dough.
Roll the pastry and beef cheek up to form the roly poly.
Wrap the roly poly in greaseproof paper and then tin foil and steam for 40 minutes.
For the tomatoes, coat with the oil and season with salt and pepper and sprigs of thyme, roast at 180 degrees for about 6 minutes until soft and tender.
For the caramelised onions, thinly slice the onions and add to the oil.
Cook slowly on a low heat until the onions are soft and golden.
Then add the sugar and the vinegar and cook for a further 5 minutes whilst stirring.

Chicken and Apricot Bellotines with Mushroom and Tarragon Sauce by Great British Chefs

September 24, 2019 1:19 pm Comments Off

This is a wonderful way of jazzing up boneless chicken thighs and is sure to impress your guests. The mushroom and tarragon sauce combines beautifully with the chicken and apricot bellotines to create a delicious dinner party dish.

Recipe Courtesy of Great British Chef

Serves: 4

Cooking Time: 2 hours plus 1 hour for the bellotines to set

Equipment

26cm Copper Base Sauté Pan
Heatproof bowl

Ingredients

8 boneless chicken thighs
8 slices of Parma ham
100g of dried apricots
olive oil, for frying
5 button onions, halved
3 garlic cloves, crushed
10 button mushrooms, any larger ones halved
1 handful of dried porcini mushrooms
150ml of white wine
300ml of chicken stock
2 tbsp of créme fraiche
1 tbsp of tarragon, chopped
6 Swiss chard leaves, halved lengthways
200g of basmati rice, or wild rice, cooked

Cooking Method

Start by making the ballotines. Lay the chicken thigh fillets skin-side down and place 2 dried apricots in the middle of each. Roll the chicken around the apricots, creating a cylindrical shape, then wrap each one in a slice of Parma ham, ensuring the ham covers the seal of the chicken.
Wrap each ballotine tightly in cling film, making them as neat and cylindrical as possible. Transfer to the fridge and leave for at least 1 hour to chill and set.
Meanwhile, place the dried porcini in a heatproof bowl and pour over boiling water. Leave for 20 minutes to rehydrate, then drain and reserve both the liquor and the mushrooms.
Place a sauté pan over a medium heat and add a drizzle of oil. Take the ballotines out of the fridge, unwrap and fry them until crisp – start by cooking the seam of the Parma ham, as this will help seal them, then roll them around until crisp all over. Once golden, remove from the pan and set aside.
In the same pan, add the button onions cut-side down and cook until golden, then add the garlic and porcini mushrooms. Cook for 3 minutes, then add the white wine and scrape up any stuck bits with a spatula.
Simmer the white wine until reduced by two-thirds, then add the ballotines back into the pan followed by the chicken stock, the reserved mushroom soaking liquor, any leftover apricots and the button mushrooms. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, then remove the lid and simmer for another 20 minutes.
Once the chicken has cooked through, remove them from the sauce and set aside. If the sauce needs reducing further then cook for another 5 minutes, then add the chard leaves and stir in the crème fraiche.

To Serve

Return the chicken to the pan, check for seasoning, finish with the chopped tarragon and bring the pot straight to the table with the cooked rice.

7 Things We Love About Our Copper Base Range

September 28, 2018 7:52 pm Comments Off

If you love cooking, there’s nothing like the lure of a new set of pans to make you want to hotfoot it to the kitchen!

The copper base pans are one of our most popular ranges and we’d like to share the things we love about the collection with you. Read on to find out why cooking with copper-based pans makes perfect sense…

Proware 7 things we love about our copper base

1. Lighter Construction, Efficient, Durable and Great Value for Money

The copper base range is made from a single sheet of stainless steel which has been deep drawn before sheets of aluminium and copper have been impact bonded onto the base. This construction makes them noticeably lighter than our other ranges. The combination of copper and aluminium in the base of the pan means that heat spreads evenly and efficiently throughout the base for an even cook.

The pans use less material than their triple layer counterparts and so they cost less but, just as with the other ranges, the pans have been carefully specified and engineered and they have been put through their paces in the test-labs and kitchens. As such we are proud to offer a lifetime guarantee on everything except the milkpan (which carries a guarantee against manufacturing fault but unfortunately not on the non-stick coating).

2. Glass Lids

There are so many reasons to use a lid – from heat efficiency which achieves a quicker boil to keeping the walls & hob top clean! This is our only range with vented, glass lids meaning that you can easily keep an eye what you’re cooking.

3. Great Capacities

Unlike competitor items our copper base pans are nice and deep so you really can cook for a crowd (or just a hungry family!). The milkpan holds over a litre; the 16cm saucepan holds just shy of 2 litres; the 20cm holds over 3.5 litres; and the stockpot holds a massive 6 litres!

4. Thoughtfully Designed

The comfortable soft grip handles are extremely practical and easy to handle. The silicone wrap means that they will withstand exposure to high temperatures (e.g. in the oven). A steep arch in the handle helps to keep it away from the heat source; and allows the pans to nest efficiently in cupboards or drawers. An eyelet where the handle meets the pan body disperses heat to ensure handles don’t get too hot and there’s a hanging loop if you want to make a feature of them. We also know that larger pans can be very heavy when full so we’ve added helper handles to the 18cm and 20cm saucepans, and the 24cm sauté pan.

5. All-Rounder

These pans work on every hob type except induction; they can go in the oven up to 200ºC; and the fact that they are dishwasher safe means that they are very easy to keep clean.

ProWare's Hereford Cider Chicken

6. What’s Cooking Good Looking?

Sure, your pan has to be practical. But what if it could look great, too? You’ll be pleased to know our copper base pans more than look the part. The contrast of their copper bases and the stainless steel makes for an eye-catching set of cookware. Well, who said pans had to be tucked away in the cupboard, anyway?

Proware Copper Base pans on hob top

7. 5 Star Reviews

We sell through our own website and Amazon Prime. Our trust pilot rating is 4.9 out of 5 so don’t just take our word for it, check out the numerous customer reviews here.

Want to know anything else about our copper base pans? Just get in touch and we’d be happy to assist.

Tag Archive: copper base

Jump on the batch cooking bandwagon

1. Time-efficiency

2. Cost-effectiveness

3. Convenience

4. Healthier choices

5. A souper way to reduce stress

6. Portion control

7. Customization

8. Minimize clean-up

9. Experimentation and variety

10. Family and community sharing

Authentic Thai Jungle Curry with Sea Bass by Marni Xuto

Ingredients for the Jungle Curry paste

Ingredients for the Jungle Curry

Equipment

Cooking Method

Beef Cheek Roly Poly with Roasted Tomatoes and Caramelised Onions

Recipe Courtesy of Leslie Buddington Head Chef at Brocco on the Park

Serves: 12 but can be adjusted to suit guest requirements

Cooking Time: 4 hours

Equipment

Ingredients

Beef cheeks

Suet Pastry

Roasted tomatoes

Caramelised onions

Cooking Method

Chicken and Apricot Bellotines with Mushroom and Tarragon Sauce by Great British Chefs

Recipe Courtesy of Great British Chef

Serves: 4

Cooking Time: 2 hours plus 1 hour for the bellotines to set

Equipment

Ingredients

Cooking Method

To Serve

7 Things We Love About Our Copper Base Range

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ProWare is a small family organisation based in Sheffield, UK. Our cookware is carefully specified and manufactured using high quality materials to ensure it delivers a lifetime of satisfaction.