One thing I want to note, in this thread Mike and myself have both touched on something that I really think more people should try. Making your own base ingredients from scratch. Mike loves to make bread, this may be a bit much for some, but if the time and effort involved intimidate you, just remember that more yeast means less time. Feel free to add 50% more yeast and complete a bread in just an hour or two, instead of 4-6 hours.
I enjoy making sugo (whole tomatoes cooked in oil then crushed) and passata (concentrated, sieved tomato puree) which is minimal active cooking and even with store bought pasta really elevates a dish.
The compound butter I made from scratch, if you have never made butter before, you really don't know what you're missing. 1 ingredient, heavy cream (heavy whipping cream is fine, too). I like to make my own fresh garlic paste on the cutting board, but thats a bit of learned technique where store bought garlic paste works perfectly fine as a substitute. Put some garlic paste and a pinch of salt in a small dish, cover with lemon juice. Pour heavy cream in a bowl, use a hand held mixer or stand mixer and beat with whisk on medium high speed. You'll get whipped cream first. At this point turn speed up a bit, it'll start to break down and get wet again, turn down mixer to medium high again. Continue beating it until it becomes definite solids and liquids. The solids are butter, liquid is buttermilk. I find about 50/50 yield, i.e. 2C cream yields about 1C butter, 1C buttermilk. Strain butter from buttermilk and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Squeeze and wring out as much liquid as possible (this improves shelf life). Now fold in garlic paste, add salt, black pepper, finely chopped fresh rosemary. Can add a bit of heat from cayenne pepper if you like, but go easy.
I like this butter for nearly everything, bread, fish, rice, veggies, steak, squash, etc. Basically, anything you would butter for a dinner. Not ideal for toast with coffee, lol!
But, I think if everyone picked one base ingredient and tried making it from scratch, you would be amazed. Pasta (flour, eggs, salt), bread (flour, eggs, salt, yeast), sauces, condiments (mustard is very easy to make), spreads, just pick one and try it, you might be amazed!
Homemade pasta in pesto sauce, lamb and micro greens.
