John Torode's My My Chicken Pie is a recipe from his cookbook, My Kind of…
My Top Ten Store Cupboard Ingredients
If you ask a foodie what their top ten store cupboard ingredients are, you will get a wide range of opinions. Some of them will swear by the very best olive oil, the one where the olives are picked at moonlight to get the best taste. Others will go for different herbs and flavourings and you will end up with a very long list.
I had a rummage though my store cupboards and came up with a list of my top ten store cupboard ingredients. To me store cupboard ingredients are the things that I could not do without, that add flavour and taste to a meal or allow you to create an emergency meal when you have nothing else in. These are the things that are on my list.
I don’t tend to buy particular brands, I go more for the product itself. Lets have a look at what made my list and why.
1. Flour
I always have different varieties of flour in my cupboard. Not only does it come in handy when you want to make a cake, you can use it to make emergency pancakes when you are hungry or whip up a quick batch of scones. I also use it for thickening sauces and casseroles when needed.
2. Caster Sugar
I always have some caster sugar in my cupboard. Again I use it when baking but it is also handy when I run out of granulated sugar and have someone who would like sugar in their tea or coffee. I also use a pinch when I make salad dressings and it also is added to a lot of sauces for a bit of sweetness.
3. Tomato Ketchup
When you have kids tomato ketchup is one of those must have ingredients, it goes on chips, fish fingers, with shepherds pie and alongside all sorts of different foods. It is also really good in barbecue sauces and when mixed with mayonnaise makes a great burger sauce or prawn cocktail sauce.
4. Mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise is really useful for adding a bit of taste to a sandwich, using in salads as a dressing, adding to a curry to make a creamier sauce and using with ketchup for a great burger sauce. It is also lovely mashed into potato with a bit of butter and served alongside chips.
5. Tinned Tomatoes
Tinned tomatoes are a really great ingredient. I use them for all sorts, for making spaghetti bolognese or cottage pie. They can be added to pasta to make a pasta bake and boiled up with onions to make a tomato sauce for homemade pizza. They are also great used in stews. I always have a few cans in my cupboard for emergencies.
6. Baked Beans
I love baked beans, there is something comforting about baked beans on toast served for breakfast or lunch. They are also great for a quick vegetable alongside fish fingers and chips and other meals. I also use them a lot when cooking, recently I used them in my cowboy pie and they are also great for a quick and easy mince recipe. I have also been known to make a baked bean lasagne which is really tasty.
7. Pasta
I usually have penne pasta in my cupboard which is great used with so many different things. It can be used in a pasta bake, as the base for a bolognese or covered with pesto for a quick meal. If you have pasta in your cupboard you can be sure that you can make something to eat, even if you have nothing else in.
8. Stock Cubes
I use stock cubes a lot. Recently I have been making a lot of soup, like this potato soup. If you have stock cubes in your cupboard you can easily make a soup with whatever vegetables you have in. They are also useful for crumbling into stews, cottage pies and for making gravy.
9. Black Pepper
I am a black pepper addict. I sprinkle black pepper on top of a lot of things. It is lovely added to soup, mixed with mayonnaise in a sandwich, sprinkled on pasta dishes, mashed into potato. There are many other uses for it as well and I would be stuck without it.
10. Chilli and garlic flakes
These are something I only discovered recently and like black pepper I am guilty of sprinkling them into a lot of different meals. They are brilliant mixed with mayonnaise in an egg sandwich as well as adding flavour to lots of different dishes.
Those are my top ten store cupboard ingredients. Would you choose any of these or are your picks totally different?
Jane Willis says
Mine would be very similar to yours, except I’ve ditched stock cubes in favour of bottled stock concentrate and my chilli flakes would be just that, with no garlic. The one thing I would drop completely, being diabetic, is the caster sugar. I’d have to toss a coin to decide whether to replace it with dried yeast or Dijon mustard. Can I keep both?
Dragons and Fairy Dust says
ooh I shall have to look for bottled stock concentrate, that sounds really handy