October batch cooking: cook one afternoon and eat all week

Yesterday we lived in a bikini and with a sarong as the only clothing and look: in just over 11 weeks it will be Christmas. I suppose that Jorge Manrique was talking about this sensation with “how life passes, how death comes so quietly”, in a much more refined version but just as crushing as this one: the days go by like hell.

Although the idea of ​​turning on the oven these days -despite the Iberian exception, soon also European- can be a bit scary, the advantage of batch cooking is that you are going to prepare everything at once: approximately with a couple of hours in the oven you will have food ready for the whole week. You can do almost all of the reheated ones in the microwave or in a pan; what I would recommend heating in the oven is the quiche, so that the dough recovers a crispy point (but it is not mandatory either).

If in this batch we put pepper, aubergine and onion, the first thing that occurs to us to do with them is to peel them, make strips and dress everything with oil, vinegar, garlic and salt to make an escalivada, but it has many other applications. We can keep them chopped in a container to make an omelette or a scrambled egg, grind them with a little oil to emulsify and make a pasta sauce, improvise a savory tart with puff pastry and a little cheese or make quick savory flans if we grind them with cream, egg and cheese and set in the microwave.

For the sauce on the turkey breast tonnata hold perfectly in the fridge without making us suffer from bacteria and pathogens derived from the raw egg, we will pull a trick that we recently tried with success: replace it with a well-beaten boiled egg, until we achieve a creamy consistency similar to that of the original sauce. If you keep it in a jar, stir it well for a few seconds before serving it so that it re-emulsifies well in case the elements have separated a little. If your head explodes when you read hummusmole I hope you’ll forgive me: it’s basically a puree of chickpeas in which we use avocado to get the emulsion, and topped with coriander and minced onion marinated in lime. The result is a tasty, silky cream with a touch of flavour, acidity and crunchiness from the pickling and aromatics.

Almost all the dishes of this batch cooking can be frozen: the loin and the turkey, better in a whole piece, before cutting them, so that they do not dry out in the process (and always bagged or filmed on contact). From the calamarata we can prepare more sauce and freeze it, and the stew and cream also tolerate cold well (the sweet potato, unlike the potato, comes out exactly the same as it goes in and does not suffer in the process).

We still do not include breakfasts, snacks or snacks in the weekly organization, since these are not necessarily cooked. Again, we recommend leaving some of the basics —in each house they are different— prepared on a tray in the fridge so you don’t have to think too much while you’re still struggling to wake up. Yogurt or kefir, milk or vegetable drink with oat flakes to drink hot or cold -as is or with a little 70% chocolate, grated coconut, cocoa or raisins, dried apricots or chopped dates, raspberries or blueberries-, fresh cheese or quark , roasted and sliced ​​turkey or chicken breast, hummus or any other spread that we have prepared here, seasonal fruit or avocado, hard-boiled eggs, fresh cheese, cucumber or cherry tomatoes to eat on toast or as a sandwich.

Dinners

• Quiche of peas and goat cheese + tomato seasoned with olive and pistachio vinaigrette
• Loin with mustard and beer + potato, carrot and Brussels sprouts roasted with soy and honey
• Escalivada + canned mackerel + spicy and spicy hummusmole + wholemeal bread
• Autumn stewed chickpeas with sweet potato, mushrooms and cod + hard-boiled egg
• Turkey tonnato without mayonnaise + brown rice + escalivada

Foods

• Pumpkin, lentil and orange cream + mustard and beer loin + brown rice
• Autumn stewed chickpeas with sweet potato, mushrooms and cod + hard-boiled egg + tandoor broccoli
• Calamarata pasta + tomato seasoned with olive and pistachio vinaigrette
• Turkey tonnato without mayonnaise + spicy and spicy hummusmole + whole grain bread
• Pumpkin, lentil and orange cream + Calamarata pasta

Preparation

1. The day before, paint a pork loin of approximately 1.3 kg with a mixture of mustard, oil, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. Cover and let rest in the fridge. Take out about an hour before cooking.
2. Also the day before, brush a medium broccoli with a mixture of garlic, oil, a splash of lemon juice, salt, pepper and tandoor spices. Take out about an hour before cooking.
3. Turn on the oven at 200 degrees with two trays. Put four aubergines, four red peppers -both smeared in oil- and five onions in one. Also put in a tray four chopped potatoes, 400 g Brussels sprouts cut in half lengthwise and three thickly sliced ​​carrots. Season with soy, honey and sesame to taste, stir well and bake. Remove after 20 minutes.
4. In the other tray put a pumpkin open in half lengthwise.
5. Prepare two papillote with two turkey breasts of about 700 g each, seasoned and painted with a little oil, salt and pepper. Bake for about 35 minutes and leave 15 more once out of the oven to finish cooking with the residual heat. Do not cut until the moment of consumption (to prevent bacteria from proliferating).
6. Cover a mold with the quiche dough, put parchment paper and a couple of handfuls of dried chickpeas. Cook for 15 minutes, remove and rest for 10 minutes without removing the legumes. Meanwhile, prepare the filling by beating five large eggs well with 100 g of whipping cream, salt and pepper. Add 300 g frozen snap peas and 150 g coarsely chopped curd goat cheese and return to the oven for about 25 minutes. Rest and unmold once it is warm.
7. After approximately 45 minutes from when we put them, the vegetables with soy, honey and sesame will be ready. The peppers, onions and aubergines from the escalivada will take approximately 60 or 70 minutes.
8. Sear the pork in a frying pan for about 10 minutes, turning it over. When there is room in the oven, add the loin in a tray, on top of two finely sliced ​​onions and pour a can of beer into it. Cook for about 35 minutes, turning halfway through, and let stand for at least 10 more until it is tempered (if the juices are dissociated, you can finish reducing it without the loin for a while longer in the oven). Like the turkey, wait until the moment of consumption to chop it.
9. When they no longer burn, peel and chop the vegetables for the escalivada. Reserve two onions for the cream. Dress the escalivada with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic and vinegar to taste and reserve in the fridge.
10. After approximately 80 minutes from when it went into the oven, the pumpkin will be ready. When it no longer burns, remove the meat and place in a saucepan with the reserved peeled and chopped roasted onions, 600 g of cooked lentils with their preservation liquid, 500 ml of vegetable broth or water and 400 ml of coconut milk. Add herbs or spices to taste (from curry to herbes de Provence, sage or basil, nothing goes wrong with this cream). Boil everything together for 10 minutes, add 150 ml of orange juice and blend until you get a fine cream. Serve with pumpkin seeds and a splash of coconut milk on top.
11. When there is room in the oven, put the broccoli and cook for about 50 minutes. It has to be a little golden on the outside but not soft. Cut into pieces when lukewarm, dress with its cooking juices and a little more oil, lemon and salt if necessary and place in the fridge: it can be eaten hot or at room temperature.
12. Peel and chop two spring onions or sweet onions and leave to rest for half an hour with salt and the juice of one lemon. Put three medium avocados in a plastic container -about 300 g without skin or pit-, 600 g of chickpeas, two tablespoons of tahini, dried or fresh chili to taste, a clove of garlic and about 75 ml of ice water. Blend well and add the onions with the lemon and coriander chopped to taste (from here on mix with a fork, so as not to blend the onion). Put a splash of oil, cover with kitchen film making contact and take to the fridge.
13. Cut two cucumbers, four carrots and a bell pepper into sticks. These crudités in a well-sealed silicone jar or bag will hold up well for three days in the fridge: at that time you will have to repeat the process with the rest to accompany the spread for the rest of the week.
14. Prepare a vinaigrette with 150 ml of olive oil, apple cider vinegar to taste, salt, pepper, 100 g of chopped pitted olives and 50 g of chopped shelled pistachios. Store in the fridge to dress the tomatoes at the time of consumption.
15. Cook 12 eggs for nine minutes and cool them well to stop cooking. Reserve eight and mash four together with three small cans of tuna in olive oil -with the oil included-, two tablespoons of capers, four anchovy fillets, a splash of vinegar and salt and pepper to taste (try before salting once shredded, and adjust at that time). If it is too thick, add a splash of ice water. Reserve the sauce in a closed jar in the fridge and serve over the turkey at room temperature cut into thin slices, capers to taste and more pepper.
16. Prepare 500 g of brown rice according to the manufacturer’s instructions, strain, cool and reserve.
17. In a pot, brown two chopped onions and two cloves of garlic with a little oil and salt. Add 300 g of sliced ​​mushrooms and four medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced. When they take on a little color, add 1.4 kg of cooked chickpeas with their cooking liquid, 400 g of desalted cod crumbs and a little fresh or dried thyme. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the sweet potato is tender (if necessary, add a little water so it does not dry out).
18. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, brown four minced garlic cloves in a large saucepan with a little oil. Add about 900 g of defrosted chopped squid and cook for about five minutes over high heat. Add 200 ml of white wine, a large can of chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cover the pot and cook for another 15 minutes or so, or until the tomato pieces have turned into a sauce. When there is one minute left, add a couple of tablespoons of chopped parsley. While the sauce is making, cook 800 g of short pasta two minutes less than what the manufacturer indicates. Drain and pour it, still wet, into the sauce pan. Sauté over high heat for between one and two minutes and add a splash of raw extra virgin olive oil. Serve hot with a little more chopped parsley.