When putting together a kitchen store cupboard, you can’t go wrong with the following basics:
Oil
Vinegar
Flour
Sugar
Beans
Pasta
Rice
Canned Tomatoes
Salt
Spices
It’s always worth having a few different oils in your kitchen. Extra virgin olive oil is made from the first pressing of the olive. It should have a rich, fruity flavour and should never be used for cooking as heat destroys its properties. Use instead for dressings and marinades. It’s also worth having a mild olive oil, which will be both lighter in colour and flavour. Taken from further pressings of olives, it can be used for shallow frying and roasting as well as for marinades and dressing.
A bland oil such as sunflower or groundnut oil is useful for deep frying or stir frying - as it can be heated to high temperatures - and for recipes where you don’t want the oil to impart any flavour to a dish.
VINEGAR
No kitchen should be without a variety of good quality vinegars. More expensive red wine vinegar and sherry vinegar have a rich flavour that’s perfect for cooking - either for dressings and marinades or for deglazing pans towards the end of cooking. White wine vinegar has similar properties but no colour, so it’s useful for light dressings and sauces. Balsamic vinegar is thicker with a rich, sweet-sour flavour. Although expensive, a little goes along way. Use for dressings and marinades or add a few drops to a small dish of extra virgin olive oil - perfect for dipping fresh, crusty bread.
Plain flour is an essential ingredient for any kitchen. Use for all types of baking - from cakes and biscuits to bread and pastry - or to help thicken sauces and stews.
Self-raising flour has special raising agents added to give a light, airy texture to cakes, and is particularly useful if you plan to do a lot of baking.
Strong white flavour is made from a special kind of wheat which has a high gluten content. It makes a good elastic dough which is vital for pasta and bread making.
Cornflour is made from maize and is best used for thickening liquids.
SUGAR
Ordinary white caster sugar can be used for a host of recipes - such as cakes, biscuits, meringues, custards, puddings and pies. But it’s not just desserts and baking, sugar is also useful for adding sweetness to vegetables as they cook or even perking up a tomato sauce for pasta. For additional flavour, use unrefined caster sugar.
Light brown muscovado sugar is a soft, toffee-flavoured sugar that can be used for baking and also in chutneys, and for making marinades, sauces and glazes for meats and poultry.
BEANS
A range of different beans are essential for wholesome winter stews and soups, main meal salads and middle-eastern dishes such as falafel. Keep some dried ones and a few cans handy. Cannellini beans, butter beans, borlotti beans and chick peas are useful varieties to start with. Dried beans will need to be soaked in overnight in plenty of cold water to soften the skins before cooking. Canned beans are already cooked and only need rinsing before using.