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So, these five cubes should save me about 20 hours of cooking time over the next few months of my life. Because each of them takes on the most labor-intensive parts of cooking: slicing, baking, searing, caramelizing, and instead of doing it every time I cook dinner, I do it once in a big batch and then freeze it all in cube form. So on a typical Tuesday night, instead of starting dinner from scratch, I can throw one or two of these cubes into a pan, add a little liquid, and boom- you have soups, curries, stews, and dozens of other delicious dishes. And I'll start with the cube that I think is the most versatile of the five, which is the mirepoix cube. So if you make just this one cube, you will already discover a multitude of delicious and
simple dishes. And for your information: all the recipes for today's five cubes and ready-made meals are below in a Google Doc, which you can download absolutely free. Now, a classic mirepoix, of course, consists of onions, celery, and carrots, and for me, now is the perfect time to make a big batch because it's all already grown and ready to be picked in my garden. Oh, yes. Okay, we have the basic ingredients and it's time to make this mirepoix. And instead of sitting here for hours chopping everything, I'll just run each vegetable through a food processor, which will cut down on prep time significantly. First comes the carrots, and I'll pulse them to get very fine shreds. I'll pour all of this into a large bowl.
Next comes the celery, which I chop to the same size as the carrots. And now, technically, a classic mirepoix is two parts onion to one part carrot and celery, but I prefer equal parts of all three. So I'll peel and chop the onion, which will go straight into the food processor. Garlic is not technically part of mirepoix, but since I add it every time I cook with mirepoix, I'll save a lot more time if I peel it now and throw it in with the onion. Right now I'm using the pan with the largest surface area I have. I'll add some good quality olive oil, a few large pieces of butter, toss in the vegetables, and add a little salt to season them and start drawing out the moisture right away. Before we get the real flavor from these vegetables, we
need to evaporate all the water, which will take time, but it's a fairly passive process. I just check on them every few minutes and stir to make sure nothing burns. And once the water boils, you will hear the vegetables start to sizzle in the fat. There's an incredible aroma here, and you can hear everything roasting. You need enough oil so that the vegetables are not just stewed, but truly fried. Now just taste it. This is incredibly delicious. This workpiece can be used in different ways. You can freeze it completely raw. You can simmer it for 3 hours to really bring out the sugars. In my opinion, this state is ideal now. I don't want to
overdo it because I'm making bolognese, so I might braise them in beef fat when I'm braising the meat. So I want to leave a little freedom of action and not bring it to the end. You can simply put them in a plastic bag, but I prefer vacuum packaging to extend their shelf life in the freezer. And the great thing is that I can open one package, take a cube, and then vacuum seal it again. You will see that when we create more of these "flavor bombs " and keep them in the refrigerator, the number of dishes and flavor combinations will be simply incredible.
Even if you only have this mirepoix cube, there are many things you can make, but I would definitely start with a chicken minestrone recipe. I'll put the pan on medium heat, add the oil, and start frying the chicken drumsticks. However, any dark chicken meat will do. While it's frying, I'll chop up some vegetables. I use zucchini, fresh asparagus, and green beans from my garden. Once the chicken is nicely browned, I'll remove it from the pan and immediately add the vegetables, which only need a few minutes to fry. And when the vegetables get a nice color, boom - add a mirepoix cube. I'll bring the chicken back. I soaked the beans overnight that I'm going to add, but for convenience, you can use already cooked or canned. I'll pour in some tomato
sauce, chicken bone broth, and add salt and pepper to taste. I cover and leave the soup on low heat for 30 minutes- just enough for the beans to cook and the chicken meat to start to fall off the bone easily. Good. So, it's time to add baked pumpkin cubes. You can use any type of pumpkin or squash. We grew exclusively the Khaninat" pumpkin variety, it is very unpretentious and has a concentrated sweet taste. But since we're cooking in large batches, to save time, I'll also add some butternut squash that I bought at the local market. Instead of peeling and removing the seeds beforehand, I find it easier to cut the pumpkins in half, place them on a baking sheet, brush with oil, and bake in the oven until they are soft and caramelized.
As soon as you remove the pumpkin, check to see if it is soft enough to be easily pierced with a fork. Thanks to the high baking temperature, the pulp has a pleasant additional flavor. Now we simply take out the seeds, which are very easy to remove after baking. If the pumpkin is well ripe, the flesh should easily separate from the skin. And if the skin is difficult to remove, like some unripe "khaninat" pumpkins, you can simply cut it off with a knife. After that, I transfer the entire baked pumpkin to a food processor, puree it until smooth, and pour it into molds. So, we already have two types of flavorings in the freezer, and this is where the system comes into its own: you
just throw the cubes into a pot-and an instant meal, like this pumpkin soup, is ready. I add one cube of mirepoix and two cubes of pumpkin puree. Then I just add some delicious bone broth from today's video sponsor, Kettle &Fire, which will give the soup that rich and nutritious flavor we're looking for. I blend everything with an immersion blender, sprinkle with croutons of sourdough bread, drizzle with a little cream-and that 's it, the soup is ready to serve. As you'll see later in this video, quality bone broth is an indispensable item for preparing nutritious and satisfying meals throughout the season. I personally always keep a few boxes of Kettle&Fire in my pantry because they are so convenient for adding extra flavor and protein to everyday meals. Plus, I really
trust the quality and taste of their bone broths. They are made with 100% grass- fed beef bones or free- range organic chicken bones and are slow- cooked to extract all the flavor and nutrients. So, whether you're making soups or stews, or just looking for a nice way to add flavor to your meals this season, I highly recommend trying Kettle&Fire, and you can get 20% off your order by using the code Mike G at the link below. Okay, and this next cube is probably my favorite in the whole video. I don't understand why they don't sell them in stores after keeping them in the freezer for a while. These are fragrant curry cubes, and they can change your life forever.
They definitely changed mine. Because they will open up a multitude of Indian and South Asian dishes for you that are prepared almost instantly. And all the ingredients for this curry cube are quite easy to find in a regular supermarket these days. But what's really exciting about this cube is that for the first time in my life I can make an entire cube of curry completely from my garden. Mainly because we have been incredibly productive this year with fresh turmeric and ginger. We also planted a bunch of lemongrass in pots, which I'm going to collect. And I'm collecting a bunch of these hot peppers of different kinds. Then the last thing I need is some garlic and onions that we keep in the basement. So the first thing
I'm going to do is peel some lemongrass to get to the inner tender part. And I'll cut it into pieces that will be easier to grind. Both turmeric and ginger had to be washed well. If you have store-bought ginger and turmeric, you'll want to peel them. And finally I peeled and chopped the onion. a bunch of garlic cloves. And to make the curry taste balanced, I remove most of the inner seeds and pulp from the peppers. And I'll throw all the aromatic ingredients right into the food processor and just grind them as smooth as possible. At this point, you could definitely just freeze this fresh, flavorful paste and that would be beneficial. But this video is about doing things smartly so we can save as much time as possible in the kitchen.
And 99% of the time when I make curry, I simmer the curry paste to really bring out the flavors. So we're just going to do this with all of our curry paste now. So, I'm going to put all the pasta in a pot and add two cans of full-fat coconut milk. And I'll just start cooking it all over low heat. And the first 30 minutes will be spent on evaporating the water. There will be no special changes yet. But over time, during the cooking process, oil will begin to separate from the coconut milk, which is a very good sign. This means we are switching from boiling in water to frying the pasta in coconut oil. At this point, I will add a little salt to taste and continue cooking for another 30 minutes or until the volume has reduced by half. And you'll get an
incredibly deep and rich caramelized flavor from all of these flavorful ingredients. Now we have the most flavorful and delicious curry base in cubes. I intentionally didn't add any spiciness because I wanted everyone to be able to choose their own option. So, if you want something fresh and flavorful without the spiciness, you can quickly make this simple Thai coconut curry with just these cubes. But to improve the texture and sweetness, I'll add one of those butternut squash cubes. Then I'll throw in a few curry cubes. I'll pour a whole can of coconut milk, followed by some Kettle&Fire chicken bone broth. I also boiled dried chickpeas in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes until al dente. So, if I add it along with the green beans I have left in my
garden, all I need to do is simmer the curry for another 10-15 minutes to cook the chickpeas and let the flavors meld. A little fish sauce for flavor. So creamy. So Thai basil just took it to the next level. Just a little. Wow, what complex flavors. Yes. It's incredible how simple it is. Of course, after the cubes are ready. This, you know, is the basis of the weekly menu. This is so delicious. Now watch how I use these curry cubes to easily change direction to Malaysian by making a variation on the theme of beef rendang. I'll put some curry cubes in a pot and add some beef pieces. I use bavette, but any
tougher meat will do. I'm actually going to cook the beef in curry for about 15 minutes, using rendered beef and coconut fat to get a rich flavor out of the meat. Then I'll add the coconut flakes and fry them in the fat for a few minutes. I'll add my spices. I use a homemade garam masala blend and add a full can of coconut milk, in which I simmer the beef for about an hour until I get the most delicious, rich, and tender beef curry possible. You can also use these flavor cubes to easily give a dish an Indian twist. I'll add a few curry cubes to the pan. I'll pour in some tomato sauce, add some chicken broth, homemade garam masala, and red lentils that I soaked for an hour to swell well, and send
them straight to the pot. I'll add salt, and then cook it all for about 15-20 minutes, until the lentils are soft enough to And so we created an incredibly flavorful Indian- style dal with minimal effort. So, continuing to develop this system, let's move on to cube number four-this is the mushroom umami bomb. You can use any mushrooms for this technique, but I recommend using ones that are on sale or in season right now, as you'll need a lot of them- mushrooms shrink a lot when cooked. I'll start with the cremini mushrooms, put them in a food processor and chop them very finely, then pour them directly into the pan. For the next type of mushroom, I'll use shiitake; I had a few of them growing on logs outside, but had to buy more
since we make the cubes in large batches to save time. I'll remove all the stems, which are quite hard, chop them up the same way I would the cremini, and send them to the pan. Mushrooms are unique in that they don't burn as quickly as other vegetables, and they also contain a lot of water. So I'll cook them in a dry skillet first to evaporate as much moisture as possible, which will take about 15-20 minutes. And once the steam starts to evaporate and the mushrooms stop releasing moisture, it's time to add some butter and salt. And I'll continue to cook this over medium heat, which will completely change the flavor and bring out much richer umami notes. But to amp up the umami a little bit, I'll add a big spoonful of miso paste, which won't
necessarily make it taste like miso, but will just increase the overall depth of flavor in this mushroom cube. The flavor these mushroom blocks add is simply incredible for any super stew, but the easiest option is a quick cream of mushroom soup. I'll throw a cube of mushroom into a pot, add some chicken bone broth, a little water, and also some thyme from my garden, which I'll sprinkle on top. Then I just grate one clove of garlic. I'll add a little Worcestershire sauce. I will melt the cube. I'll add fresh cream and blend. And to make the soup very light, but still creamy, instead of adding a lot of cream, there is a great trick: just add some stale bread right into the soup.
Let it soften and then just blend to get the perfect consistency without a lot of Oho. I think miso just makes it taste more mushroomy. I forgot about the miso because it's not noticeable at all it's just But now that you said it, I'm like, "Oh, there's something umami-y about this. True. That was the goal. This is something I wouldn't normally dare to cook. It seems that when you hear " cream of mushroom soup," you immediately think of canned food. Which are also not bad. about two tablespoons of cream.
Yes. That's all you need. It's so creamy. Oho. So delicious. Now, see how easy it is to make an incredibly flavorful beef stew. I'll season some nice pieces of beef and fry them in a cast iron skillet until they're browned. Then I'll add one mirepoix cube and one mushroom cube. I have a cube of tomato paste from my previous video. And I'll simmer this for about 2 hours, until the beef starts to fall apart. Oh, wow. So, we're going to complete this system and make some incredible dishes with this fifth cube, which contains roasted peppers and corn. And this thing will open up a whole spectrum of Mexican, Central American,
and Southwestern flavors. You can use any bell pepper for this. Everything you can find at hand. I have a bunch of green peppers in my garden right now, and I'm not sure if they'll make it to maturity in time. So I just collect a whole bunch. And I also picked up a lot of local sweet corn, which is in season right now. It is very cheap. So, not only do you save time with these cubes, but you can also buy produce when it's cheap and plentiful, preserving its quality and freshness for months. I'll shell all the corn and put it all on the grill to slowly toast until it's crispy. This process does not require constant attention. Every 10 minutes I'll just come over to turn the vegetables. When a nice crust and aroma appear, I will remove all
the vegetables and place the peppers in a container or bag for 15 minutes to steam. After steaming, the skin will be much easier to remove. I will also remove all seeds and stems. And if the skin doesn't come off very easily, I don't worry. I don't mind a little pepper skin at all. Then I cut all the roasted corn off the cobs right into a large bowl. Finally, I'll dice the peppers so that they're the same size as the corn kernels. I mix everything well, put it in molds, and put it in the freezer. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, now that I have those toasted notes of corn and pepper, I'm going to fry the ground beef in a pan until crispy. Then I'll add a
mirepoix cube as a base and one of those cubes with corn and poblano. I'll add tomato sauce, beef bone broth, and beans that I soaked in advance. Finally, I'll season it with a homemade chipotle blend, and that's basically it. All I had to do was cook this for about 25-30 minutes until the beans were tender. The flavors will meld, everything will thicken a little, and you'll have a great chili, made with almost no effort, that's as good as any other chili you've ever had in your life. At least that's how it worked out for me. And finally, I'll show you how to easily make tortilla soup using a few of these cubes.
Mirpoise, butternut squash, bell peppers, chicken broth, tomato paste, water, pepper, rice. I'm going to clean up, uh, half of this. We got a nice texture with chunks. Here are the tortillas, let's tear them up, and then mix everything together. Add the thick part and taste. You need a little salt and pepper. And that's it. Good. This is actually a fresh calamondin from my greenhouse. Crispy tortillas, pickled onions, cilantro.
It was a real " just mix it all up." It's a bit like mashed corn soup. Yes. Which I really like. Whipped corn. Mm. It's amazing how rich the flavor is. The roasted pepper flavor is very good. Yes, that was actually the goal. You know, if you just add pepper to soup, you won't get that flavor. But with grilling, you instantly get those Southwestern or Mexican notes. How does it taste. Mm. One of the most important things I've learned in cooking is creating layers of flavor. Yes, it's like This is how soup becomes delicious. But my grandmother would just make chicken noodle soup, throw a bunch of everything in it, and it would all have one
overall taste. Soup is an easy dish to learn because it teaches you to create layers and add seasonings at each stage. But we're just cheating. We are cheating. Yes. That's what this video is about. We created layers, and now we have accelerated time, because time is embedded in development. Yes. layers. I mean, it literally took you 3 minutes. Yes, and this is the best tortilla soup I've ever made. And if you want more videos from Cube, click on Carly's face.
