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Anchovies | Bay leaves | Beans | Cinnamon | Cloves | Dried grapes | Flour | Garam Masala | Ginger | Honey | Mustard | Noodles | Nuts | Oils - vegetable | Olive oil | Paprika and cayenne pepper | Parsley | Pasta | Pepper - black | Rice | Rosemary | Sage | Salt | Soya sauce | Speciality oils | Stock cubes and powders | Sugar | Thyme | Tinned tomatoes | Tomato purée | Vinegar
Anchovies
Anchovies are a most useful kitchen ingredient with a piquancy that seasons other ingredients without giving a fishy flavour. Their distinctive flavour is welcome as a garnish for pizzas or cheese on toast. They are an essential ingredient in "salade Nicoise" and indeed within the dressing for the classic Caesar salad - try using anchovies in salads using potatoes, olives, pasta, or crispy lettuce leaves.
Bay leaves
Bay leaves are an aromatic leaf of a tree that is a member of the laurel family. It is an essential ingredient of the classic bouquet garni: parsley, thyme and a bay leaf. It is one of the few herbs that doesn't lose anything through being dried and indeed it is usually purchased dried although fresh leaves are becoming more available. Some herbs that are rich in oils, such as bay, taste stronger dried than fresh. Fresh or dried, though, the uses are the same. The bittersweet, spicy leaves impart their pungent flavour to so many dishes and ingredients, making bay a versatile ingredient for any store cupboard.
Bay leaves can be used to flavour vinegars, in pickling and marinades or to flavour pâtés. Long cooking draws out the aroma of this herb and most braised, poached and stewed dishes benefit from its flavour. Drop a leaf into soups and stocks. Add a bay leaf when braising red or pickled cabbage, to poaching liquid for fish or to infuse the milk for custard or rice pudding. Bean soups and stews are enhanced by a bay leaf and rice dishes like risotto or pilaf are too.
Beans - tinned or dried
Dried and tinned beans - in their many varieties - have been around for thousands of years and have always been a store cupboard essential and indeed a staple food in many parts of the world. They've become quite a fashionable ingredient of late - and no wonder, with all the varieties that are available. Dried beans need to be soaked, overnight preferably, before they can be used and even though they may be dried they shouldn't be kept for over a year as they toughen with age. Tinned beans are already cooked and only need rinsing and draining before using.
The flavour of each bean is different but they all share a wholesome, earthy taste. They can be served alone or combine well with other flavourings and foods and many cuisines have their own classic bean dishes: the French 'cassoulet', the Spanish 'cocido' and the smoked bacon or pork and bean stews of Romania and Hungary.
Beans are also great used to thicken winter soups and stews - cooked whole, mashed or puréed. Beans can also be mixed with pasta or rice in soup for a hearty dish. Falafel are a Middle Eastern delicacy of pureed beans mixed with garlic, onions and herbs and spices and made into patties. Beans are a good substitute for meat in burgers as protein as well as substance. Mexican fajitas wouldn't be the same without refried beans - pureed beans that are fried and spread on a tortilla. Cold, cooked beans are also excellent mixed with garlic vinaigrette for a salad to accompany fish or cold meats.
Cinnamon
Sold as dried rolls of bark or in powdered form, cinnamon is well known as an essential ingredient in many sweet dishes, but its warm, sweet flavour is also prized in savoury dishes too. You can try to grind your own cinnamon from the barks but it's difficult. It's best to buy the ground up spice when required, but remember to buy in small quantities as the freshness and flavour quickly disappear.
The use of ground cinnamon is great when it comes to baking - in buns, cakes, sweet pastries and puddings. Baked apples or apple pies wouldn't be the same without the flavour of cinnamon. Mexicans use cinnamon to flavour chocolate in cooking and in drinks. Its bark is used to flavour meat, poultry and vegetable stews and it can be added to spicy marinades or to spice up rice dishes. Break the stick in half and add to a poaching syrup for fruits like pears, plums and bananas or use it to infuse wine and punch.
Cloves - whole
Cloves are a versatile spice that can be used in drinks and in sweet and savoury dishes. The most aromatic part of the clove is the bud, so inspect your cloves before you buy them. The pungent, sweet flavour of the clove lends itself perfectly to meat like beef or venison, fruits like apples, oranges and plums and when pickling vegetables. Spike an onion with cloves and place it into a meat stew or casserole, add a few to chilli-con-carne, spice up boiled rice or pop one into a bouquet garni. When baking a ham, spike the ham with cloves once boiled so that the flavour permeates the ham during baking. Apples and cloves are a perfect combination and they're also an essential ingredient of mulled wine or warm punches.
Dried grapes
Sultanas, currants and raisins are all dried grapes of different varieties. Apart from being a healthy snack food on their own or with nuts, dried grapes are versatile ingredients in sweet and savoury dishes. In their dried form they're obvious ingredients for fruit cakes and Christmas pudding, biscuits, buns, cakes, muesli and in winter fruit salads and compotes.
When re-hydrated in water, tea or alcohol they can be puréed or stirred whole into mousses, fools or ice cream. Their natural sweetness is often an important flavour in savoury dishes, such as the Pakistani bread Peshwari naan, stews, stuffings, sauces, chutneys and rice dishes.
Flour
Plain and self-raising flour are just two of the many derivatives of wheat essential in the making of bread, pastry, pasta, cakes, pies and biscuits - few kitchens can function without it. White flour (plain flour) is wheat that has been milled and had most of the bran and wheatgerm removed, which gives it its powdery texture. Plain flour is used in pastry-making or to thicken sauces, soups, stews and casseroles. Raising agents are added to plain flour to make self-raising flour, commonly used to lighten and give an airy texture to cakes and sponges.
Strong white flour is ground from durum wheat which has a high protein and gluten content, making an elastic dough most suitable for bread and yeast-based cake-making. Cornflour is the powdered starch extracted from maize. It's best used as a thickening agent in stews, casseroles and sauces or in the making of biscuits.
Garam masala
Garam masala is an essential spice if you're a fan of Indian food. It's an mixture of several ground spices (recipes vary) that's added to a dish near the end of cooking to give aroma and flavour. The blend of spices in the garam masala varies according to the dish to which it's added so a spice blend for a fish dish is different to the spice mix for lamb.
Basic garam masala contains cumin, coriander, cardamom and black pepper. Depending on the ingredients of your dish, you can enhance the garam masala by adding other spices like ginger and turmeric (which would suit chicken or fish). Cloves and fennel seeds might be added to a mix for dark meats like lamb or beef.
Garam masala is readily available to buy already mixed, however you can grind and mix your own. You'll need a good variety of spices - cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, cloves, fennel seeds and dried ginger. Simply add your spices to a heated pan and dry-roast them until the aroma is released. Cool slightly and grind the mixture as much as possible with a blender or pestle and mortar. To add a spicy headiness to your Indian cooking blend garam masala with a little water and add to curries or just sprinkle it over the dish as a seasoning.
Ginger
The zesty crispness of fresh root ginger and the spicy warmth of ground ginger are just two aspects of this highly-prized spice - ginger can be dried whole, pickled and crystallised in syrup too. When buying fresh ginger look for plump, smooth-skinned tubers that are firm. The length of the root indicates maturity, and the longer it is, the hotter and more fibrous it will be. Fresh ginger can be wrapped and chilled in the refrigerator for up to a month or it can be wrapped and frozen. Just cut off how much you need and then peel before use (although peeling isn't always necessary, especially if you intend to grate the root).
Fresh root ginger is a favourite in Chinese and Indian cuisines. The Chinese chop, slice and grate it into stir-fries and dishes using pork, chicken, beef, duck, fish, prawn, crab and vegetables. It's also used to flavour poaching syrup for fruit. An Indian curry wouldn't be the same without the spiciness of ginger to complement all the other spice ingredients.
Ground ginger is the dried, powdered form and is quite different from fresh. The fresh root and ground ginger are generally not interchangeable but the root can be grated into cakes when baking. Like most spices, buy ground ginger in small quantities as its potency and flavour diminish quite quickly. Mainly used in sweet dishes, it's the flavour of ginger biscuits, gingerbread, parkin and brandy snaps. Add a pinch to stewed fruit for pies and crumbles or add it to spice mixes for marinades.
Honey
Honey is the oldest sweetener in the world, made by bees collecting nectar from flowers. Climate, season and flower type determines what the honey will look and taste like. Heather honey is deep in colour, rich in flavour and quite thick whereas acacia honey is light, soft and sweet and runny - each single flower honey has its own characteristics and is prized in quality. Don't cook with it but enjoy its exquisite flavour trickled over ice-cream, yoghurt or pancakes or just eat it straight from the jar!
Blended honey, honey from a variety of countries and mixed together, is not the finest but is best for most cooking purposes. It can be used as a substitute for sugar in baking buns, bread, pastries and cakes. Use it in mousses, ice-creams and to flavour creams and confectionery like fudge. Sweeten fruit salads, stewed fruits and hot drinks with it.
Honey is versatile on the savoury front too. Use it to glaze hams or in marinades for pork chops, ribs and chicken pieces. Add a little to a stir-fry or to a sauce for chicken or turkey. Glaze roast parsnips and roast potatoes with a little honey or roast lamb Welsh-style in a mix of honey and cider, and make a sweet gravy from the juices to accompany the tender roasted meat.
Mustard
Mustard seeds are usually ground and then combined with other ingredients such as salt, herbs and spices to make prepared mustard. The flavour and texture of the prepared mustard depends on the mustard seed used and what it's mixed with.
English mustard is based on a blend of brown and white seeds, flour and turmeric for colour. The hot, pungent flavour is excellent with cold meats, steak, roast beef, gammon or sizzling sausages. The uses of mustard are so various that it's worth keeping a few different types in the store cupboard. French mustards like the creamy, slightly hot Dijon, Meaux which made from mixed mustards seeds and the thick, dark brown Bordeaux (best known as French mustard) together with English mustard, are widely used as condiments but can be used to add piquancy to a sauce, dressing or a marinade.
Whole black, brown and white mustard seeds are used in chutneys and pickles and the ground seeds are used for seasoning meat, fish, in salad dressings, vegetable dishes and particularly cheese dishes.
Noodles
Noodles are a type of pasta made from flour, eggs and water - or just flour and water. They come in different shapes and sizes of strands, either fresh or dried and the flours used in their making vary according to the dish being cooked.
Far Eastern cooking uses many different types of noodles, made from wheat, mung bean, buckwheat, potato or rice flour - the staple foods of the area. Chinese egg noodles, made with wheat flour, can be used in soups, stir-fries or in sauces for dishes using shredded meats, prawns or vegetables. Mung bean flour is used to make thin bean cellophane noodles which can be served as a noodle dish with a sauce or served with rice. Rice noodles are used in soups or in meat and vegetable sauce dishes.
Whichever noodles you choose, they're perfect store cupboard ingredients - quick to cook and versatile in preparation.
Nuts
Old recipe books reveal that the almond has been around for a very long time - a veteran of the kitchen store cupboard. It's geographical origins are unclear - the Middle East, The Orient or maybe Europe - but it's now cultivated in so many areas of the world that it's no surprise that it's used in so many types of cuisine.
Almonds can come skin-on or blanched, whole, halved, flaked, chopped or ground and each has its own uses. Whole or halved almonds are used in Moroccan tagine dishes and trout with almonds is a classic dish. The Arab influence bought almonds to Southern Europe and from that we get nougat, praline, ratafia biscuits, panforte cake and almond flavoured wines and liqueurs. Indian cooking uses ground almonds in mild curries or flaked toasted almonds to garnish scented rice and curry dishes. Smooth sugared almonds are offered wrapped in lace or in baskets at Italian, Greek and French weddings and christenings, and caramelised almonds are sold at fairs and fiestas in Spain - easy to make at home!
Almonds are an important ingredient in many sweetmeats, pastries and cakes. Macaroons and marzipan, Bakewell tart and Stollen are almond-laden goodies. Ground almonds can be used in place of flour in pastry and cake making. Flaked, chopped or ground, the flavour of almonds go well with apples, apricots, lemon and orange, with vanilla and chocolate. Garnish a winter fruit salad with toasted flaked almonds or Indian pilau rice. Use almonds in the making of ice-cream, creams and custards or even a creamy almond soup.
Walnuts are such a welcome and versatile addition to the kitchen store cupboard. Not only do ground and chopped walnuts make wonderful cakes, biscuits, buns and breads, but the flavour is also exquisite in ice-creams, toffee, fudge and other confectionery like walnut brittle or praline.
New season walnuts are delicious eaten with cheese - especially soft goat's cheese or cream cheese. Even younger walnuts, when they're still green in their shells, can be salted and pickled to serve with a cheese board or cold meats. These same young green walnuts can also be fermented with sugar to make a syrupy walnut liqueur.
Walnuts have a short shelf life once shelled and they're best kept in the fridge in an air-tight container. For long-term storage, it's best to buy walnuts in shells and shell them as you need them. If the shell is firmly sealed you can store them for a few months but never keep nuts from one year to the next as the flavour and quality quickly deteriorates.
Walnuts halves or roughly chopped nuts can add crunch to salads laced with walnut oil dressing. Add them to noodles or with chicken in Chinese dishes or chop them into stuffings. Push walnuts pieces into dates as an after dinner sweetmeat or just take a bowl of walnuts and a nutcracker and enjoy them with a glass of port.
Oils - vegetable
Vegetable oil can be made up of a combination of oils such as rapeseed, safflower, cottonseed, palm oil or soya in any proportions. This inexpensive all-purpose cooking oil is best used for shallow and deep-fat frying as it can heat up to a high temperature. It shouldn't be used in salads or in baking as it has its own flavour which other foods take on. Always good to have in the cupboard for crispy chips, frying chops and steaks or stir-frying vegetables.
Sunflower oil is tasteless and can be heated to high temperatures, so it is considered to be the best all-round oil. It's excellent for frying and sautéing and, as it's flavourless and light in texture, it's good for salad dressings, marinades and for making mayonnaise.
Olive oil
The virtues of olive oil range from the sublime flavours from different varieties of olive to the medicinal and health-giving qualities that it imparts due to the mono-unsaturated fats and level of vitamin A. Like a wine, olive oil varies from year to year depending on climate, soil and type of olive. Single estate olive oils are produced and bottled at source on the estate and are prized like a fine wine.
Extra-virgin olive oils come from the first pressing of the olive. They're expensive but worth it for their sublime fruity flavour. They should never be used in cooking as heat destroys the fine properties. Get the gastronomic pleasure of the flavour from extra virgin olive oil by using it to dip bread or to flavour a salad or as a marinade for poultry, meat, fish or vegetables.
There are many different labels for olive oil and it can get confusing; keep in mind that extra virgin olive oil comes from the first pressing of the fruit. All other olive oils come from second, third or fourth pressings and they may be combined or refined by means of heating to extract the oil - the more it is processed the lighter the flavour. All these other oils, from second pressing virgin olive oil to last pressing light olive oil, can be used for frying, in salad dressings, marinades or baking.
Paprika and cayenne pepper
These two spices are made from the dried red peppers of the capsicum family. Cayenne pepper is ground from dried chillies where both the pod and the seeds of very hot chillies are used making it very fiery - as such it should be used to taste. A pinch of cayenne over devilled kidneys or in a gravy for game birds adds piquancy and heightens the flavour of the dish.
Cayenne is also good used sparingly in vegetable or lentil soups, in curries or sprinkled over stir-fried prawns or crispy whitebait. If you like a little heat then add some to shepherd's pie, chile con carne or to fondue cheese.
Paprika is milder than cayenne. It's ground from sweet and hot dried peppers and is never fiery, just mild and sweet. It's a favourite traditional ingredient in European cookery: in Austria and Hungary it's a main flavouring in meat stews - namely goulash, of which paprika is the essence. Eastern Europeans use it to flavour venison stews and soured cabbage and other vegetable dishes. Spain and Mexico use paprika to flavour chorizo salami, which is eaten raw, and in fresh chorizo sausages, which are skinned and crumbled into dishes to impart a spicy paprika flavour to the recipe. Portuguese cooks uses paprika to flavour fish stews and salt cod.
Use paprika to give spicy depth to lamb, chicken and fish dishes. Egg mayonnaise is often garnished with paprika - try sprinkling a pinch over the yolk of a fried egg or adding it to creamy scrambled eggs.
Parsley
No kitchen should be without a good supply of this multi-purpose herb. It can be used not only as a flavouring, but in abundance as a vegetable as wel. There are two main varieties - the common curly leaf and the flat leaf. Both can be used for the same purposes although flat leaf parsley has a stronger flavour and tends to be favoured in Mediterranean cooking. Parsley can be used in almost any savoury dish and it's a shame to limit it to a garnish. It's especially good used in great quantities in fresh salads or in soups and sauces. Chop or shred it and mix with butter to melt over fish or glaze vegetables.
There's just as much flavour in the stalk as in the leaf, and both are used in bouquet garni to flavour stews and stocks. It's delicious briefly deep-fried and served as a vegetable to accompany chicken, veal or fish. Used in marinades, stuffings, in omelettes - the list goes on and the kitchen should never be without it!
Pasta
Pasta - like macaroni, spaghetti, vermicelli and lasagne - is simply a mixture of flour and water combined into a paste which is then kneaded and cut into shapes. Not only a feature of Italian cooking, pasta is also common to Spain, Greece, China, Southeast and East Asia, Arab countries, Russia and other East European countries.
In Italian cooking, whether fresh or dried, made of pure durum wheat or egg or flavoured with spinach, tomato or beetroot, the shape of pasta used depends on the dish being cooked as there is pasta for soup, for boiling, for baking and for stuffing.
There are many pasta shapes. For thin soups, tiny pasta shapes or vermicelli are good. More robust soups like minestrone take pasta like macaroni or bits of spaghetti. Spaghetti is perfect boiled for a bolognese sauce or meatballs. Ravioli and tortellini are examples of stuffed pasta and the fillings can vary from meat to cheese and vegetables like the classic ricotta and spinach. Lasagne sheets and cannelloni are good pastas used in baked layered meat or vegetable dishes like lasagne al forno. Every store cupboard should have a pasta shape or two - the cook would be lost without it!
Pepper - black
This is not only a condiment but a spice with a strong and fragrant aroma. Black peppercorns are actually green peppercorns that have been picked just before ripening and then allowed to dry whole. Pepper is one of the most important spices, fundamental to many of the world's finest cuisines. Used whole as a spice, peppercorns can be added loose to stews and soups or within a bouquet garni. You will often find them whole spicing up salamis or sausages.
Black pepper tends to be favoured above white pepper. White peppercorns are ripened and then the skin and outer flesh is removed. They're hot but without the intense spiciness and aroma of black pepper. When ground or crushed, black pepper adds a flavour of its own and also enhances the flavour of other ingredients. Lightly crushed or cracked peppercorns can be used to spice up a creamy sauce or to coat fillet steak or chicken breasts. The light crushing releases the fragrant spiciness that complements meat or poultry or fish - however, using ground pepper in this way would just release too much heat!
The intense aromatic qualities of ground black pepper are best used as a condiment according to taste in all manner of dishes. Although it may seem odd, grinding fresh black pepper over a bowl of strawberries enhances the flavour of the fruit releasing a very subtle pepper flavour - what could be more versatile than that!
Rice
Rice is the staple food of about half the world's population so it's no wonder that it should be a store cupboard essential. Such a versatile, inexpensive easy-to-cook foodstuff, rice provides a bland base accompaniment for dishes like curry or is an integral part of others like risotto or pilaf. It can take on flavourings such as herbs and spices very well. There are many varieties, and some types are specific to certain dishes and are cooked in certain ways.
Different types of rice have different levels of absorption and they're distinguished by the size of the grain - long, medium or short.
There are now so many varieties available we're spoiled for choice. White long grain rice is best when dry separate grains are needed, as for salads, and its absorbent qualities go well with sauces or casseroles. Risotto rice has an incredible capacity to absorb a great amount of cooking liquid and still retain bite, just like paella rice. When cooked, basmati rice gives light, fluffy separate grains perfect to accompany curries or in biriyani and pilaf dishes. Rice can replace breadcrumbs in stuffings and a few grains can be added to soups to thicken the broth.
Rosemary
This is a most versatile herb with a flavour that complements a wide variety of dishes and ingredients. Native to the Mediterranean, its bittersweet, green leaves are similar to pine needles and when used sparingly, its flavour goes well in subtle and delicate dishes like ice creams, sorbets, fools and fruit salads. The robust and highly aromatic flavour of rosemary is perfect when used within a bouquet garni for soups, stews and casseroles or whole sprigs are added to flavour roasted vegetables. Meat, poultry and game can be spiked with rosemary or it can be chopped and used in stuffings and sauces for fish, lamb or chicken. Italian breads are often flavoured with rosemary leaves.
Rosemary is an evergreen shrub and is available fresh all year round - it is ideal to have a pot on the window sill. If fresh is not available then dried rosemary is a good to have in the store cupboard but replace it often as it soon loses its potency and flavour after a few weeks. Remove leaves or sprigs after cooking as much as possible; it is a good idea to crush dried rosemary before adding it to your dish as the sharp leaves can be difficult to remove after cooking.
Sage
Sage is native to the Mediterranean and this could account for the fact that it marries very well with other Mediterranean flavours like ripe tomatoes and pungent garlic. The colour of the downy leaves and the flavour varies but in essence it's a very strong herb that can withstand long cooking times and still retain flavour.
The strong flavour of sage means that a little goes a long way, especially if you're using dried, so use sparingly. Its uses stretch way beyond sage and onion stuffing. It goes well with pork, beef, duck and chicken recipes. In Italy it's commonly served shredded in a butter sauce for pasta or gnocchi and also fried with liver or kidneys.
Use a cocktail stick to pin a couple of sage leaves to a chicken breast wrapped in Parma ham for a herby flavour. Try dipping sage leaves in a light batter and deep-frying them as a vegetable or to eat as canapés with drinks.
Salt
Salt is probably the most important store cupboard essential. Knowing how much salt to use and when is a skill - when cooking you must 'season to taste' as some like food more salty than others. Too heavy handed with the salt usually means it's impossible to rectify your mistakes. Apart from its uses as a seasoning to heighten the flavour of food, salt is the essential ingredient in the preserving of foods like hams, bacon and fish and is used with vinegar when pickling.
Crystal rock salt can be milled or used as is. Cooking salt is refined rock salt; table salt is finely ground; refined rock salt has magnesium carbonate added to make it free-running and damp-free. Low sodium salt has a reduced level of sodium chloride for those who are on a low sodium diet.
Sea salt comes from salt pans where waves wash over rocks and recede leaving pools of water. The sun evaporates the water and leaves the salt in the form of crystals that can either be used in cooking or preserving, as whole crystals or ground. Good quality sea salt, such as that from Maldon in Essex, is now more widely available and even though it's more costly, less is used because it has a very salty taste.
Soya sauce
Soy sauce is an essential ingredient in Asian cuisine and is made by the fermentation of soya beans with salt, water, and barley or wheatflour. There are many varieties of soy sauce that vary in consistency and in strength of flavour - light and dark are more commonly used. Light soy sauce is quite thin and has a saltier flavour than dark soy. It is used to give flavour to dishes without darkening them, when stir-frying vegetables or chicken for instance.
Dark soy is thicker in consistency and richer. It gives good colour to noodle dishes and its sweetness is good for a dipping sauce. Soy sauce is not only essential in Japanese and Chinese cooking when stir-frying or used as a condiment, but it's good to have in the store cupboard for use in a marinade, splashed into a stew or in BBQ sauces for meat and vegetables.
Speciality oils
If you're a fan of Oriental cooking then sesame oil is essential for your store cupboard. It has a nutty, strong flavour and a little goes a long way when used for marinating poultry and fish or flavouring noodles and vegetables. Its fine flavour should be used as a condiment after cooking has finished. It is not suitable as a cooking oil as it burns at a low temperature and heat destroys its fine properties.
Walnut and hazelnut oil are both expensive but again, only small amounts are needed to add their flavour in salad vinaigrettes, marinades or even in baking to flavour biscuits or pastry. Not good to cook with as heat impairs their flavours.
Stock cubes and powders
Chicken, beef and vegetable - there are many varieties of stock cubes and powders but the main ingredients are herbs and spices, yeast extract, caramel, sugar, salt, onion, celery, fat and MSG - monosodium glutamate - a salt of glutamic acid. If you want to avoid MSG, check the product ingredients before you buy, as there are some powders and cubes without it. They're great to use when there's no time to make fresh stock but care needs to be taken in their use as they can be quite salty.
Sugar
Sugar is found naturally in every fruit and vegetable, occuring in large quantities in sugar cane and sugar beet from which it is processed for use, raw or refined. All white sugar is refined where all the impurities and molasses (sticky syrup) are removed. Brown sugars are usually unrefined being only part purified with some molasses left in. The colour, texture and taste are determined by how purified and how much of the molasses are removed.
We know sugar as a sweetener in custards, puddings, meringues and pies but in addition it's also an essential ingredient that performs vital chemical and physical functions. It is a setting and preserving agent for jams, jellies and chutneys. It has a stabilising effect on the texture of some frozen desserts like sorbet and ice-cream. It helps in the rising and aerating of cakes and bread and aids the thickening of sauces, soufflés and custards. It also adds important taste and flavour to savoury dishes - a pinch of sugar lifts a fresh tomato sauce or adds to a casserole.
Thyme
Thyme is an all-purpose herb, the heady, aromatic flavour of which no kitchen should be without. There are many different varieties both cultivated and wild but the most widely used is the common garden thyme.
Its intensely pungent flavour complements all meats, chicken and game. Its robust nature means that it can withstand long cooking times - it's essential in slow-cooked dishes like stews and daubes. It is one of the herbs of a bouquet garni along with parsley and bay, and its flavour also marries well with other robust and heady herbs like rosemary and sage.
Chop it up in stuffings for poultry or lamb or use chopped in a marinade for olives. Add sprigs to marinades for meat, fish or vegetables or tuck a few sprigs with half a lemon and an onion inside a chicken before roasting. Thyme is best when fresh but you can buy it dried or freeze-dried.
Tinned tomatoes
Tinned tomatoes, whole or chopped, are a store cupboard essential. It pays to keep plenty to hand, although it pays to shop around as some products are better in quality than others. Tinned whole tomatoes should be in a thickish tomato juice. Chopped tinned tomatoes should be a thickish pulp rather than pieces of chopped tomato in a thin, watery juice.
When you've found a good source, the uses for tinned tomatoes is almost endless. They are invaluable in the making of sauces for pasta dishes using pork, lamb, beef or fish. Use tinned tomatoes for soups and sauces for chicken and offal, in ratatouille or in vegetable and meaty casseroles.
Tinned tomatoes are great used as the tomato base for home-made pizzas or as part of the sauce for a curry or simply heat a tin with a little basil and garlic and serve on toast with grated cheese on top!
Tomato purée
This is an unseasoned concentrate of tomatoes and water. It has a dense texture and a highly concentrated flavour which, when added to soups, casseroles or sauces, gives an intense tomato flavour and helps to thicken the dish. Tomato purée is an important ingredient in Indian and Mediterranean - especially Italian, Greek, French and Spanish cuisines - and it complements vegetables, meat and poultry dishes.
Vinegar
The word vinegar comes from the French 'vin aigre' meaning sour wine. Wine turns into vinegar when exposed to the air and the alcohol reacts with a bacteria to make acetic acid. This bacteria is known as vinegar 'mother' and can be used to start off a new batch. Vinegar is also produced from other alcohols like cider, brandy, sherry, Champagne and beer.
Wine vinegar is made from any wine that has not been chemically treated. The French town of Orléans is the home of the wine vinegar industry and the vinegar produced there is superior and expensive, as is sherry vinegar - these should be used alone. Red and white wine vinegar are plentiful and inexpensive. They can be used with other ingredients flavours and can be flavoured with herbs and spices, chillies, peppercorns and garlic.
Balsamic vinegar is made in the region of Modena, Italy, and has a smooth sweet-sour flavour. Balsamic vinegars made by the traditional method are aged over years and years and some are over 100 years old. These vinegars are very expensive but exceptional in flavour. Balsamic vinegar made on a commercial basis is still fairly expensive but affordable and luckily a little goes along way. Use with a little olive oil for a subtle salad dressing or add a few drops to meaty stews, when frying steak or chops, in marinades, or unusually, you can sprinkle sliced strawberries with it - this brings out the flavour of the fruit.
Malt vinegar is made from sour unhopped beer. Commonly used in pickling and bottling, especially onions and vegetables, it's also used in the making of piccalilli, chutneys and, of course, fish and chips wouldn't be the same without it!
