Your one store cupboard 'must have'?

[PapaLazaru]

I am not talking about salt and pepper and basic stuff, but one thing that you have to have in your kitchen cupboard?

Can be a cooking item or a foodstuff.

Mine is really easy and it is crushed chilli flakes. I may well over use them for some tastes, but I prefer it to using pepper in many dishes that need pepping up. In fact, I kind of use them on most things to a certain degree. A few flakes on roasted veg as part of Sunday dinner for instance.

Love them.

 

[Ahleckz]

Garlic. A World without garlic doesn't bear thinking about!

 

[GhostlyPea]

Spring Onions. I'm actually out at the moment but I love them in loads of my cooking

- GP

 

[Noxia]

Yeah dried chillies/flakes.

 

[FrenchTart]

I tend to agree with most of the above - Garlic, and to a lesser extent chilli, are both absolute musts.

 

[J1234]

Garlic!

 

[Glaucus]

One how can you pick one. Everything listed is useless without other ingredients. I probably have hundreds of must haves which are 99.99% always stocked in my cupboards.

If your forcing me to choose one. Then probably chopped tomatoes. Can pretty much throw anything in with it and end up with pasta/rice/stew dish.

 

[glitch]

One how can you pick one. Everything listed is useless without other ingredients. I probably have hundreds of must haves which are 99.99% always stocked in my cupboards.

Presumably he means the one ingredient that you'd most often reach for in the cupboard when cooking your regular selection of dishes.

I too would be tempted to say garlic, but it's become such an integral part of my cooking that it's a store-cupboard staple like salt and pepper.

I'm going with (occasionally home-made) Umami Paste. That gets added to a lot of my cooking in one way or another.

 

[FrenchTart]

Presumably he means the one ingredient that you'd most often reach for in the cupboard when cooking your regular selection of dishes.

I too would be tempted to say garlic, but it's become such an integral part of my cooking that it's a store-cupboard staple like salt and pepper.

I'm going with (occasionally home-made) Umami Paste. That gets added to a lot of my cooking in one way or another.

Hmm.. What's your recipe for home made umami paste?

 

[glitch]

Hmm.. What's your recipe for home made umami paste?

Double-concentrated tomato paste, black olives, parmesan, anchovies (fillets or ketchup), mushrooms (rehydrated porcini or ketchup), sugar, salt, black pepper, white pepper, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar, white wine vinegar and olive oil.

Whack all that into a pestle and mortar or a food processor and you get a nice thick paste which is full of umami. Quantities are never really exact and it's a right bugger to make, but it does taste really good.

I tend to keep 'ends' of things (the last squeeze in a tube of tomato paste, the broken bits from a packet of dried porcini, the ends of a parmesan block, etc) and make a pot of the stuff with that. I'm getting better at it, but it's still not quite like the Santini stuff.

 

[FrenchTart]

Sounds really good nonetheless I'll give it a try soon I reckon.

 

[glitch]

I think I've written that list in order of decreasing quantity, but I'll try and remember to jot the running order down the next time I make some.

The tomato paste, black olives and parmesan work as thickeners, especially if you end up using mushroom and/or anchovy ketchup, and I've tended to resort to balsamic glaze instead of the usual vinegar if I need to firm the mixture up. Likewise, the olive oil is used to loosen things a little, if necessary.

I guess it's very much like making pesto!

 

[Muban]

Smoked paprika, lovely stuff. Garlic of course too, but I consider that a basic like salt and pepper. Honey is another staple I always have in the cupboard, good for sweet and savoury dishes and also use it when I'm making bread.

 

[Jegethy]

Garlic. A World without garlic doesn't bear thinking about!

Exactly this.

I normally have a tube of crushed garlic (Good quality stuff, not that crappy oil based rubbish) and 2 large bulbs of fresh garlic. I use it in everything.

 

[Swordfish]

Crushed chilli flakes and for a utensil I have to say my potato ricer.

 

[Stan_Lite]

Knorr stock pots.

I make many more dishes that use stock than I can make stock for and the Knorr pots are far better than any stock cube. Obviously I prefer to make my own stock when I can but the stock pots keep me going when I can't.

 

[Swordfish]

Knorr stock pots.

I make many more dishes that use stock than I can make stock for and the Knorr pots are far better than any stock cube. Obviously I prefer to make my own stock when I can but the stock pots keep me going when I can't.

I take it you mean the jellied versions rather than the horrible cubes?

 

[Indigo]

I take it you mean the jellied versions rather than the horrible cubes?

I normally use oxo cubes at the moment (probably rubbish I know) but to make a litre of stock you have to use something stupid like 5 cubes.

How many jellies would you have to use to make the same amount?

Oh and in the answer to the original question I'd probably have to say chopped tomatoes.

 

[Stan_Lite]

I take it you mean the jellied versions rather than the horrible cubes?

Absolutely.

How many jellies would you have to use to make the same amount?

Two pots. One pot makes 500ml of stock and it tastes so much better than cubes.

 

[JRS]

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce. I use it in pasta sauces, stir-fry dishes, burgers, marinades, stews....