Store Cupboard Cookery

Sometimes you get back from work and you look in the fridge... what about that rather dried out piece of cheese and crackers? Damn, the milk's off, so cereal's out. Takeaway again?

It needn't be that way! We can give you a list of staples to keep in the cupboard so you can still pull together a delicious meal in a reasonable period of time, using things that you can keep on hand in either the freezer or cupboard, or buy in your corner store, along with lots of useful cooking tips!

We can have a lot of snobbery about using canned and frozen ingredients. But it's SO much better than eating takeaway and actually, canning doesn't usually use any preservatives; freezing even less.

To be honest, this lesson is inspired by some salmon fishcakes that I haven't made for years, but thought to teach at a lesson at Crisis, after finding some tinned salmon down the pound store (and it's good for you). I typed out the recipe and cooked it for the first time in 15 years right in front of the students - and rediscovered how delicious it is. I needn't be ashamed at using tinned salmon!

After this I went and stuck my head into my store cupboard to see what else we can manage to make with very few other ingredients, just some basic long life vegetables like onions, potatoes, garlic and eggs.

So in this lesson we'll learn to make a nice international selection of stuff: