Haven’t mastered your lockdown cooking staples yet?
It’s true, supermarket shelves are steadily stacking up our favourite foods, but who wants to buy when you can chop, pickle or bake yourslef?! Well, at least while we’re still stuck at home… Here are our top five kitchen staples you can whip up at home (from scratch), to make fresh delicious meals with – to eat now, or for your pantry.
Fresh Pasta
Fresh homemade pasta instantly upgrades any pasta dish. With beautiful pasta to add to your homemade sauce, it makes the meal that much more special. While recipes vary, almost all rely on the key ingredients of flour, eggs, olive oil and salt. It’s easy to make – just pop the ingredients together and knead and knead until the dough is glossy, and then roll out. If you have a pasta maker, your job is even easier! If not, you can easily cut the dough into spaghetti, or even make little pasta bows! Let your pasta speak for itself and pair with a light tomato or carbonara sauce.
We recommend Gennaro’s Pasta Perfetto! to get you started.
Sourdough Bread
Making sourdough bread unsurprisingly requires a sourdough starter – and we think we have the perfect one for you. Renowned chef Kasper Christensen (Sydney Opera House, Danish Royal Family) has started a wonderful initiative, which provides you with a home-delivered starter kit, whilst raising funds to help a lifelong friend’s child with his cancer treatment. For just $15 you can help save a life and learn a new skill.
Homemade Pickles
Submit to a quarantine cliche and start pickling! Not only does it help pass time, but you’ll also end up with the perfect addition to your sandwiches and burgers! Better yet, if you package them up nicely you’ll have crafted delectable gifts to share with loved ones. The best thing about pickling your own veggies is the wild flavour combinations you can come up with! Traditional cucumber pickling involves vinegar, dill, garlic, sweet onion and salt – maybe some mustard seeds, but it’s really up to you!
We recommend The Joy of Pickling to get you started.
Homemade Pesto
Homemade pesto is quick and delicious, and relatively easy to make! It’s perfect to toss through your fresh pasta or to elevate a sandwich or pizza at home. The basic ingredients are fresh basil, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil, but you can vary this to make it nut-free or vegan, whatever you preference! Once you’ve made your own fresh and easy pesto for pasta and grilled sandwiches, you’ll never buy store-bought again!
We recommend the Pesto Cookbook, filled with 116 pesto combinations!
Homemade Olive Oil
Homemade olive oil isn’t too hard to make, and is a fun thing to do on a rainy quarantine weekend! It also makes a lovely gift when poured into sleek bottles with a sweet personalised label. While the main ingredient is, unsurprisingly, olives, you can choose what lovely extras to flavour the oil with, from fresh chillies to rosemary and garlic.
We recommend Olive Oil, so you can explore over 40 traditional and modern takes on the liquid gold.
