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TO PETER, JAKE & ZARA
– THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.
COPYRIGHT
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020
Text Copyright © Suzanne Mulholland 2020
Suzanne Mulholland asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Hardback ISBN 978-0-00-837322-1
eBook ISBN: 978-0-00-837323-8
Photography: Danielle Woods
Food styling: Rosie Ramsden
Prop styling: Linda Berlin and Wei Tang
Design & Art Direction: Georgina Hewitt
Editorial Director: Kate Fox
Project Editor: Daniel Hurst
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
NOTE TO READERS
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Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008373221
The Batch Lady
Suzanne Mulholland
CONTENTS
Cover
Dedication
Copyright
Note to Readers
Title Page
Welcome
Introduction
WHAT IS BATCHING?
THE BENEFITS OF BATCHING
THE BATCH METHOD
10 MEALS IN 1 HOUR
THE BATCH LADY LARDER
ESSENTIAL KIT
GET ORGANIZED!
HOW TO USE YOUR FREEZER
USING CUPS
THE RECIPES
POULTRY
CHICKEN, ASPARAGUS & EMMENTAL PARCELS
CHICKEN, CHEESE & HAM PASTRY LATTICES
CHICKEN, TOMATO & CHORIZO PASTA BAG
’NDUJA PASTA BAG
MEXICAN TRAYBAKE
CAJUN PORK STEAKS WITH PEPPERS
THREE WAYS WITH CAJUN PORK STEAKS
THAI GREEN CHICKEN CURRY
THAI RED SWEET POTATO CURRY
CHICKEN & BROCCOLI TIKKA MASALA
CHICKEN, OKRA & PEPPER JALFREZI
10 CHICKEN MEALS IN 1 HOUR
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
WHEN YOU COME TO COOK
MEAT
AMERICAN BREAKFAST HASH
BREAKFAST QUICHE
FARMER’S WIFE’S SAVOURY PLAIT
APPLE & BLACKBERRY PLAIT
BAKED SAUSAGE ZITI
BAKED SPINACH ZITI
PEPPERONI CALZONES
BANANA, MARSHMALLOW & CHOCOLATE CALZONE
MOUSSAKA
LAMB & FETA BURGERS
THREE WAYS WITH LAMB & FETA BURGERS
PULLED PORK
THREE WAYS WITH PULLED PORK
PULLED LAMB
THREE WAYS WITH PULLED LAMB
LAZY LASAGNE
MOZZARELLA STUFFED MEATBALLS
THREE WAYS WITH MOZZARELLA STUFFED MEATBALLS
COTTAGE PIE WITH ROOT VEGETABLES
SHEPHERD’S PIE WITH SWEET POTATO MASH
10 MINCE-BASED MEALS IN 1 HOUR
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
WHEN YOU COME TO COOK
FISH
LUXURY SEAFOOD CHOWDER
EASY-BUT-LUXURY FISH PIE
SALMON FRIED RICE
CHILLI & GINGER SALMON FILLETS
THREE WAYS WITH CHILLI & GINGER SALMON FILLETS
THAI SWEET POTATO FISH CAKES
PANKO FISH GOUJONS
KATSU FISH CURRY
CHICKEN KATSU BURGERS
10 FISH MEALS IN 1 HOUR
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
WHEN YOU COME TO COOK
VEG
VEGGIE BOLOGNESE
CHILLI BEAN BURGERS
BROCCOLI & CAULIFLOWER CHEESE BAKE
LUXURY MACARONI CHEESE BAKE
THREE WAYS WITH MACARONI CHEESE
SPINACH & RICOTTA CANNELLONI
SPINACH & RICOTTA STUFFED CHICKEN
RUMBLEDETHUMPS
CORNED BEEF HASH
THREE WAYS WITH RUMBLEDETHUMPS
OVEN-BAKED MUSHROOM RISOTTO
PANKO RISOTTO CAKES
OVEN-BAKED PEA RISOTTO
PEA & MINT SOUP
10 MEAT-FREE MEALS IN 1 HOUR
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
WHEN YOU COME TO COOK
SIDES & SAUCES
CREAMED CORN
CHILLI GREEN BEANS
EASY ROAST POTATOES
MADE-IN-ADVANCE BAKED POTATOES
POTATO DAUPHINOISE
SPANISH OMELETTE
BASIC TOMATO SAUCE
TOMATO-FREE PASTA SAUCE
THREE WAYS WITH BASIC TOMATO SAUCE
WHITE SAUCE
CHEESE SAUCE
ALFREDO SAUCE
ALFREDO CHICKEN PASTA BAKE
ENCHILADA PASTA SAUCE
BAKED ENCHILADAS
THREE WAYS WITH ENCHILADA PASTA SAUCE
GREEN PESTO
RED PESTO
THREE WAYS WITH PESTO
DESSERTS
VICTORIA SANDWICH
SCONES
CHOCOLATE RAISIN SLICES
PEPPERMINT SLICES
ICE CREAM COOKIES
VANILLA ICE CREAM
FROZEN BISCOFF CHEESECAKE
BISCOFF ICE CREAM
Goodbye
List of Searchable Terms
Acknowledgements
About the Publisher
WELCOME
My name is Suzanne Mulholland but you might know me as The Batch Lady.
Can I tell you a secret? I’m not a cook – far from it in fact. My transformation into The Batch Lady was not something I planned, but something that happened out of necessity.
As a busy wife and mother with a large extended family on my doorstep, I often felt like I was stuck in a kind of Groundhog Day – a slave to the kitchen who was forever trying to churn out tasty and nutritious meals night after night when, in truth, I would much rather be spending time with my kids or reading a good book. Add to this the fact that I live on a remote farm in the Scottish Borders with the nearest shop over 30 minutes’ drive away and you’ll start to get an idea of what a slog this could be. The worst thing was that I had always enjoyed cooking, but being chained to the kitchen day after day was starting to make me resent it. Something had to change. I had to get organized!
Luckily, organization is something I have been trained for. Literally. I had studied business and time management at university and have always used workarounds to get household chores done in the shortest possible time. With a new determination to apply these skills to mealtimes, I developed a system where I made batch-cooked meals in advance and stored them in the freezer. Soon, I was only cooking one day a week.
As time went on, I streamlined my system even further by pairing meals that had similar core ingredients together. This meant that I could, with careful planning and shopping, make multiple meals for the freezer at the same time. In no time at all, I found that I was able to reclaim time to spend doing the things I loved, with the added bonuses that we were also eating better, saving money and had very little food waste.
Liberated from the kitchen, friends soon began to notice how carefree and organized I was at mealtimes, so I started sharing some of my hacks with them. In no time at all, word had got out and people were asking for more tips and tricks, curious to see if they could use the same techniques in their own homes. I invited twenty curious friends around to my house and gave them a live demonstration of how to cook 10 meals in 1 hour. My guests were blown away by the demo and encouraged me to share a video of the event on YouTube and Facebook. The Batch Lady was born!
Looking back, it’s ironic that something that I started to save myself time has now become my full-time job! Standing in front of that group of friends in my kitchen I would never have believed that my message would resonate with so many people but, just two years later, I have been lucky enough to share my message with thousands of people through my website and social media channels, and now this book!
As our lives get ever busier, it can be harder and harder to find time for the things that really count. I hope that the tips, tricks and recipes in these pages can help you reclaim your time, alleviate your stress and fill the tables and bellies of you and your loved ones with tasty, home-cooked food.
Believe in the batch!
WHAT IS BATCHING?
To a lot of people, batching meals can seem complicated at first, but it is actually a far simpler way of cooking. With a little bit of planning, you can save yourself time and money every week, allowing you to spend more of your time on the things you enjoy. Here’s how …
BRINGING TIME MANAGEMENT HOME
On the surface, the phrase ‘time management’ sounds very impersonal and businesslike, and not at all like something that you want to worry about in your lovely, cozy home. In fact, the whole point of introducing this technique at home is to make more time for the fun stuff. Freeing you up to spend more time playing with the kids, more time snuggling up with a glass of wine and a good book, more time spent with friends and family. It’s about giving yourself time to exhale and process, and in today’s relentlessly busy world, that can only be a good thing. In practice, time management is simply looking at the many tasks that take up your time and working out how they can be streamlined to free you up for other stuff. The stuff that matters.
This method can be applied to everything from the way you get dressed in the morning, how you organize your laundry or do the housework to what you are making for dinner in the evening. Streamlining my life like this has saved my sanity and allowed me time to feel like me again – rather than some kind of cooking and cleaning automaton!
I apply this approach to every aspect of my life but the thing that has made the biggest difference, by far, is time managing the food that I cook for my family on a daily basis. Something that used to dominate every evening can now be accomplished in just an hour a week. Cooking in this way has allowed me to reclaim my evenings and my enjoyment of cooking – and it can do the same for you!
HEADSPACE NOT PERFECTIONISM
Batching is not about perfectionism. It’s about headspace.
I get asked by people all the time if I’m a perfectionist, to which I usually respond with a burst of laughter, because I am far from this. Being organized and managing my time is not about everything being perfect, it’s about giving myself a break from constantly thinking about those chores that have to be done day after day. Instead, my week is planned and I feel freer to enjoy the fun things, like spending time with my family and friends.
THE BENEFITS OF BATCHING
Batch cooking isn’t just about saving time in the kitchen – it also saves time on all the related chores like planning, shopping and washing up, too.
How many of us get to three in the afternoon and start to panic about what we’re going to have for dinner that evening? We swing by the supermarket on the way home and browse the shelves for inspiration, torn between the convenience of a pizza or ready meal and the pressure we feel to put something homemade and nutritious on the table.
My way of cooking does away with this stress. With a little planning, you can streamline your shopping so that you can buy all the food for the week in one go. All of the planning is done in advance, so your daily mental load is lightened and you are only buying the food that you really need, meaning that there is no waste, all of which is far better for you, your wallet and the environment!
When it comes to cooking, you can pretty much batch anything – if I’m going to be making a mess in the kitchen, I’d rather make five meals at once and have one big mess to tidy up as opposed to having to clean down the kitchen every night of the week. If the recipes are made using a lot of the same ingredients and techniques, all the better.
The old-fashioned image of batch cooking is often centered around creating a huge vat of one meal, say a large pot of soup or a huge curry that you will be eating for weeks, but, for me, batch cooking is about cooking food that uses similar ingredients to create very different meals. For example, in one batch you can create a Moussaka and some Lamb & Feta Burgers, or even a Potato Dauphinoise and a Spanish Omelette – recipes that use many of the same ingredients, but offer great variety in your weekly meal plan.
THE BATCH METHOD
The recipes in this book are all for fuss-free midweek meals. Nothing fancy or unachievable, just real food for the way real people cook, every day.
When planning the food for this book, I put a post on my social media channels asking for my followers to share their weekly meal planners with me. What quickly became very clear was that people were looking for simple food that tasted great and could be prepared with minimum fuss. With that in mind, I planned the recipes in this book around family favourites that, with a little batching magic, can be on the table in a jiffy.
Each recipe is pared back to its basics – this will save you time and, I promise, I have only cut corners where it doesn’t impact on the final result.
If you are cooking for a special occasion or just want to dress up your dinner a bit, I’ve suggested some ways you can zhuzh (my favourite word!) up some of the recipes, and you’ll see these marked on the pages as you work your way through.
If a meal contains spices, I have erred on the side of caution and opted for delicate rather than ‘blow-your-head-off’ hot, as my meals are designed to be family friendly. If you like more spice, simply adjust the levels to your tastes. As a general rule, it’s good to remember that spice can always be added, but never removed!
WORKING IN PAIRS
All of the recipes in this book are paired-up with another. These are dishes that lend themselves to being prepared together, and throughout the recipe methods you will find tips on how to save time by jumping between the two. Sound complicated? I promise you it’s not! Each of the meals can also be made as a standalone dish, serving 4–6 people, so it’s up to you if you want to batch it with the other meal.
Once you’ve got the hang of batching two recipes together, you can start doubling up and making four full meals at once!
ODD ONES OUT
When pairing recipes, it sometimes makes sense to match a savoury dish with a sweet, or a meat dish with a veggie. If you take my Plait recipes as an example, you’ll see that both recipes use the same technique, which is why they are paired together, but this does mean that you’ll find a sweet recipe in the middle of the meat chapter! To help you identify this, all of the recipes are colour-coded and marked with a symbol in the top corner so that you know exactly what kind of recipe you are looking at. The symbols are:
TO COOK. TO FREEZE. TO COOK FROM FROZEN
Every dish in this book can be cooked fresh, or made in advance and stored in the freezer until needed. At the bottom of each recipe you will see the headings ‘To Cook’, ‘To Freeze’ and ‘To Cook from Frozen’, so all you need to do is follow the instructions according to how you want to prepare the meal. Simple!
Some meals can be cooked directly from frozen and others need to be defrosted first. Full instructions on the various ways of defrosting meals can be found here, but the simplest way is simply to transfer it from the freezer to the fridge the evening before you want to serve it and leave to defrost slowly overnight.
NO-COOK MEALS
Throughout this book you will see no-cook meals – these are meals that are assembled from entirely uncooked or frozen ingredients and then stored in bags in the freezer until needed. No cooking required! (At least until the day you want to serve them.)
The benefit of these meals is that they take very little time to prepare and freeze. Preparing the food in this way also means that when you take the bag out of the freezer, the food is being cooked for the first time – great for things like fish and chicken that can dry out when reheated.
I often pair a no-cook meal with a cooked meal, as you can easily prepare your no-cook meal while your other recipe is bubbling away on the stove or baking in the oven. For example, while your Luxury Seafood Chowder is simmering away, you can spend 10 minutes assembling a no-cook Easy-but-Luxury Fish Pie to pop straight in the freezer. The two dishes use similar ingredients, so the extra prep is minimal, and you have created two full meals in the same time it would have taken to make just the chowder alone.
THREE WAYS WITH …
Within the recipe chapters you’ll see features titled ‘Three Ways With …’ – these pages show you how, with a little bit of additional prep, one meal can be served in three different ways. There are some recipes that lend themselves particularly well to this treatment, and in each chapter throughout the book you’ll find a few. A great example of this is my recipe for Pulled Pork here. Cooking one large shoulder of pork will yield enough meat for several meals, so it’s nice to have different options for how to serve it. Here you’ll see that one delicious batch of Pulled Pork can be mixed with sweetcorn, spring onions and cheese and used as a delicious topping for baked sweet potatoes, spooned into fluffy brioche buns and served with a topping of apple sauce and crunchy fresh apple or spiced up with jalapenos and used as a delicious filling for quesadillas.
The recipes for sauces in the Sides & Sauces chapter are another example of where this feature is used, as once you’ve made your Basic Tomato Sauce, Pesto or Enchilada Pasta Sauce, it’s useful to have a variety of options on how to use them. In this way you’ll be able to use the recipes in this book time and again and they’ll feel fresh and different every time.
10 MEALS IN 1 HOUR
Are you ready to move to ultimate batcher status? Once you are used to using the paired-up recipes and doubling up on ingredients, the next stage is to move on to making even more meals with similar ingredients all at the same time.
At the end of every recipe chapter you will find a special section on how to cook 10 meals in 1 hour. The only exceptions to this are the Sides & Sauces and Desserts chapters – mainly because I couldn’t be trusted to have 10 desserts at once!
Though it sounds like an impossible task, once you’ve got the hang of cooking this way, you’ll never go back. And I’ll tell you a secret, it’s actually pretty simple! With a little organization, you will be amazed how many family meals you can make in such a short space of time.
The meals in these sections are all made using similar base ingredients, so you probably won’t want to eat them every night in succession, but if you put two in the fridge for the week ahead and the rest in the freezer, you’ll be well stocked with tasty meals that are a ready to go at a moment’s notice – and all with just 1 hour’s investment of your time!
Here’s how it works: In each of the four sections (Poultry, Meat, Fish and Veg), I give you a list of ingredients for each recipe, a full shopping list for the entire batch and one long method to make the five meals, each one scaled up to serve eight people.