But let's start with the essentials. Despite my inability to cook, I do love cooking. I always make sure I have a large selection of herbs and spices, and sometimes like to be adventurous and try some new spices/vegs. This week I purchased some Star Anise to compliment my Chinese dishes. Star Anise is one of the ingredients for the Chinese 5 Spice Seasoning. You can make your own but there is one ingredient that is not so readily available - Cassia, a Chinese bud of the Cinnamon variety. So if anyone knows where they sell it in the UK, Leeds area, please holla me @twitter www.twitter.com/returnofthemaja
Back to the essentials. These are some more items needed for your kitchen if you want to make some more of the gems
Beef stock
Miso stock (instead of vegetable stock, it has more flavour than most of your vegetable stocks)
Pasta
Mozzarella Balls (not the dried or blocks of Mozzarella, but the balls that are soaked in some liquid in a bag. Perfect for pizzas
Dill
Basil
Pesto
British supermarkets are now selling a lot of Japanese products, so I have recently invested in some Shoyu Soya Sauce. This is actually tasty on its own with a hint of ginger in any stir fry with some fine beans and other crispy veg. If you dont want anything fancy and just a quick lunch or dinner, do a quick stir fry with any veg lying around in your fridge or cupboard and splatter in some of that Shoyu Soya Sauce. And if you have time, marinade some fresh salmon steak in Teriyaki Marinade for 10 minutes, and grill. Serve with your Veg that you just stir fried. NICE!!!
Other essentials
A rounded frying pan, not the flat ones. Especially if you use that smaller hob on your cooker.
Mortar and Pestle. Some of your spices that you can buy come in seeds/pods as well as fine powder, and if that is all they had available that particular week when you are desperate for that all important ingredient, mortar and pestle will save the day, cause you can crush the little blighters.
Fresh Live Basil
Fresh Liv Dill
Fresh Live Chives
Fresh Live Herbs
Herbs are being sold in fresh living pots for you to water in your kitchen. Sometimes i ended up not using them though as they make a lovely smell in your kitchen, especially the basil and fresh mint.
Mascarpone
Greek Yoghurt
Creme Fraiche
Fromage Fraiche
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
Ginger
Garlic
Mace
Red Wine
Sherry
Sundried tomatoes (small packs are sold in most supermarkets along in the section where you buy your colesaws
Jar of roasted peppers
Mayonaise
Sour Cream
Some of these ingredients I will explain further in later blogs. Yes, Sherry is perfect for most meals, and so is red wine. I am not an alcoholic! (do you know how hard that word was to type just then)
Freezer You purchased all these fine fresh foods and oops, nearly reaching their sell by dates, but your freezer will save you pennies/euros/cents. You can freeze almost anything, including that nice salmon steak you bought before the weekend.
This blog is in progress. I will add more essentil ingredients when I can.
But for now, here is something i created this week for Sunday's lunch.
Roasted Pepper Soup
I love my blue willow set. Anyway
Roasted peppers
Basil or pesto
Olive oil
Garlic
Passata
Tomato puree
Vine tomatoes
creme fraiche
sundried tomatoes (these were marinated in olive oil, basil and garlic before hand).
Veg stock
Most soups I tend to fry the vegs gently in butter, but for tomatoes and peppers i used a little olive oil and sunflower oil instead.
Add all your other ingredients into a pan and fry gently till the fresh vine tomtoes are softer. Add the stock.
Simmer for ten minutes or so, then add creme fraiche. Simmer for another minute or so, and voila.
Soup is ready.
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