Sleepless parents, hard-partying students and anyone who works antisocial hours or is on a tight budget will know that a well-stocked kitchen cupboard is your best friend and that if you look after it, it will look after you. Now, however, the rest of us are getting a reminder, as the coronavirus outbreak forces thousands of us into self-isolation. Here are some ideas for what to cook if you are forced to rely on what you already have, rather than popping to the shops for ingredients.
Pilaf
Yotam Ottolenghi once pointed out that there are as many variations on pilaf as there are nations in south and west Asia, the Middle East, India, the Balkans and large swathes of Africa. He was focusing on rice cooked with broth and other ingredients, but the cookbook writer Vicky Boghal has an even simpler go-to using cooked rice. Sautee it briskly with whatever you have to hand: finely chopped veg (fresh or from a can), sliced leftovers, tinned fish or cured meat and a drizzle of oil. To flavour, add your favourite condiment (soy sauce, Marmite, fish sauce, ketchup), spices (cumin, coriander), pickles (capers, jalapenos), dried fruit or herbs (dried parsley, thyme, rosemary) and a splash of water, and cover to steam for 10 minutes. Finish with seeds (I like sesame), fresh herbs if you have any or chopped nuts. Just to prove how eminently adaptable this dish is, Nigel Slater makes a bacon and mushroom version with bulgur wheat in place of rice: even the grain can be replaced ...
Flatbread pizza
Caroline Craig and Sophie Missing have perfected cooking from basics. Their pizza base mixes 160g self-raising flour with 150g Greek yoghurt, some salt and some cumin. But the Awesome Green’s vegan version will do just as well – 230g whole wheat flour mixed with 125 ml water, 1 tbsp oil, salt and nigella or some other kind of seed. Knead into a dough, then halve and roll out to the size of an oven-proof frying pan (or else transfer once fried to a baking sheet). Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas mark 7, and heat your frying pan on a high heat. Once hot, add a tiny splash of oil and carefully place the rolled-out dough in it. Fry on both sides for about five minutes, then top with whatever you have on your shelves. Pesto, tomato paste, even ketchup will work; olives, capers, tinned peppers or aubergine; any grated cheese, any cured meat. Transfer to the oven and bake for five to 10 minutes.
Chilli
The writer and campaigner Jack Monroe is, of course, the undisputed queen of cooking with canned goods, and not out of affectation. Her resourcefulness is exemplary, as demonstrated in this bootstrap chilli (to serve four), adapted from a Gordon Ramsay beef dish. Drain and rinse two cans of beans (Monroe uses red kidney and baked beans – you could try any others, or cook your own from scratch. The website Serious Eats says you can cook 130g of dry beans in place of a standard 400g tin). Cover with water and boil for 10 minutes, then simmer until soft. In a pan, fry some chopped onion in oil with cumin and paprika (hot sauce and dried or fresh chilli would work, too). Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a stock cube and a splash of red wine. Add the drained beans and some dark chocolate and stir to combine. Serve with rice, or cold in a burrito, and any add-ons you have lying around: more hot sauce or salsa, jalapenos, sour cream or Greek yoghurt, fresh green leaves, grated cheddar …
Coconut milk bread pudding
Author Emily Han has made this with every kind of bread. Arrange torn pieces of bread in a buttered baking dish and sprinkle with your choice of dried fruit (candied ginger, golden raisins, dates, you name it) and nuts. Pour over a mixture of one can of coconut milk (or other plant milk), three eggs (3 tbsp flax or chia seeds mixed with 9 tbsp water are a handy vegan substitute), sugar (Han’s recipe says 200g, which is a lot; replace with honey, maple syrup, jam or date syrup to the quantity you are comfortable with), sweet spice (cardamom goes wonderfully with pistachios), vanilla if you like it and a pinch of salt. Bake at 170C (150C fan)/325F/gas mark 3 for 45 minutes.
Store cupboard noodles
Dried noodles are the perfect quick fix, as Fuchsia Dunlop puts it. All you need is something to make a sauce (oil, salt and heat), and something crunchy to put on top. She has an excellently simplified version of a Sichuan sauce (to serve four) mixing 4 tbsp peanut butter (in place of sesame; you could easily substitute with tahini or another nut butter) with 2 ½ tbsp soy sauce and a dash of vinegar (she uses Chinkiang, but says red wine vinegar works fine, too). She mixes in oil (chilli and sesame; olive would work just as well, with chilli flakes, chopped fresh chilli or a dash of hot sauce) and minced garlic, and whisks with enough stock or water to get the consistency of single cream. Cook four servings of noodles to packet instructions, then drain and divide between four bowls, top with the sauce, chopped chives or spring onions if you have any and a sprinkling of sesame seeds or chopped cashews. Tinned fish would add bulk, as would any finely sliced salad vegetables (cucumber, tomato, celery, lettuce).
Squash stew
Slater does an excellent pumpkin dish that could work just as well with butternut squash or sweet potato. Fry 800g of chopped squash with some oil until golden brown. Remove then fry a chopped onion until brown, stir in some tomato puree, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a canful of water and season with the spice or dried herb of your choice (he uses oregano; thyme, parsley, rosemary or fennel would be lovely, too, as would cumin, coriander etc) and salt and pepper. Return the squash to the pan and simmer until soft – about 25 minutes. Serve with some kind of grain (bread, pasta, rice) and top with what you like: a dollop of something creamy, hot sauce or chilli flakes, fresh herbs, green leaves, a squeeze of lemon …
Patties
One of the most adaptable things around : you need a base (cooked potato or sweet potato, mashed carrots or beans, tofu), bulk (cooked grains, more veg, chopped nuts, breadcrumbs) and flavour (spices, cheese, herbs, onion, garlic, lemon zest, seeds). Mix to obtain something that holds together nicely, then shape into balls and flatten before refrigerating for one hour. Heat some oil in a pan and fry for three to four minutes on both sides. Serve as you would a burger pattie.
Chocolate and olive oil cake
Meera Sodha’s vegan take on the sticky Swedish kladdkaka is mouthwatering. Being vegan, it uses dry goods and longlife or make-your-own milk substitutes: to 160ml heated olive oil you add 100g dark vegan chocolate to melt. Then mix in 200g plain flour, 200g caster sugar, 60g cocoa powder, some salt, some vanilla extract, 175ml almond milk and some fruit. Sodha uses the pulp of three passion fruit, which is about 3 tbsp; I would try with the same amount of mashed banana, orange juice, yoghurt or nut butter – or just omit it entirely and see what happens; kladdkaka is famous for being forgiving. Mix until smooth then pour into a lined cake tin and bake for 25 minutes at 200C (180C fan)/400F/gas mark 6 or until a knife comes out clean.
Chickpea and bread soup
Ottolenghi makes this from scratch, cooking dried chickpeas with some cinnamon and dried chilli. You could just as easily make it with drained canned chickpeas, and add the spice with the other ingredients: garlic, cumin and coriander seeds, tomato paste, harissa (or other chilli paste), some olive oil and season with salt and pepper and some water. Bring to the boil then simmer until the chickpeas are as soft as you would like – add water as necessary. Before serving, add some lemon juice (fresh or bottled; vinegar works too). Serve with poached eggs (I would just as soon add feta or some other fresh cheese, if I had any), bread to dip and extra harissa and olive oil.
Puy lentil spag bol
It is worth remembering how you can make a good spag bol without any meat. Anna Jones adds canned puy lentils to a tomato sauce made with onion, garlic, celery, carrot and one tin each of chopped tomatoes and tomato soup. To which, as she says, you could add pretty much any veg you find in your fridge. Serve with grated parmesan, fried breadcrumbs or fresh herbs.
