Matt Preston takes stock of the perfect pantry ingredients

A well-stocked pantry means you can whip up a meal at any time advises Matt Preston. See his list of essential pantry items.

Matt Preston takes stock of the perfect pantry ingredients

So, here’s the thing. What’s your sign? Saucy Scorpio? Tactless but adventurous Sagittarian? Bossy Arian? Dreamy Aquarian? Practical Taurean? Uptight Virgo who likes to alphabetise their CD collection and always buttons up their lavender-coloured cardigan? Or maybe you are, or maybe you aren’t, an indecisive Libran? Me, I’m a Cancer, which means that I never travel without a packed lunch. I also hide my true feelings under a thick skin and move sideways when approaching something I want rather than approaching straight up – just don’t tell any of my bosses that.

The need to have food around is something perhaps that impacts on my waistline – at least when that food is a couple of bags of fun-size Mars bars and some yuppie chips in flavours like tom yum soup or wagyu shin.

Instead it seemed like a good idea to compile a shopping list of rather more virtuous things with which to stock your pantry so you can always knock together a decent feed without having to scramble through those takeaway menus.

Food every kitchen should have in the store cupboard:

• Pasta, dried barley and rice (sushi, brown, long grain and arborio)
• Cans of pulses like chickpeas, butter beans, green lentils or cannelini beans
• Canned tomatoes, tomato paste
• Dried pulses, quinoa
• Nuts and seeds – almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds
• Panko Japanese breadcrumbs
• Canned tuna, anchovies and pilchards
• Dried fruit
• Canned cling peaches and pineapple
• Condensed milk, coconut milk
• Flours, plain and self-raising, yeast
• Golden syrup, Vegemite
• Sugars – palm, caster, brown and icing.
• Chocolate, cocoa and desiccated coconut
• Salted capers, flake salt
• Spices, dried herbs, dried shrimp, dried mushrooms (porcini and shiitake)
• Vinegars (sherry, balsamic, red wine, rice), mirin, soy, sherry, red wine (for culinary purposes only) shaoxing wine, fish sauce, Worcestershire sauce
• Olive oil, vegetable oils and sesame oil
• Lemons and limes (which last quite well for juicing purposes in a dark place)
• Kombu seaweed, bonito flakes and dashi powder
• Packet stock or stock cubes
• Shallots, garlic and brown onions (in a dark bag)

In the fridge:

• Speck or a pack of smoked middle bacon
• Bottled olives
• Whole cabbage (red or drumhead/white)
• Tub of fetta in brine
• Chunk of parmesan, well wrapped
• Hoisin and oyster sauce
• Tube of miso paste

In the freezer:

• Butter
• Bread (for toasting and crumbs), flatbread
• Good vanilla ice cream
• Pastry, both puff and shortcrust
• Preserved fruit. Stewed and frozen apricots, plums
• Frozen vegetables – spinach, sweet corn, broad beans, peas, soya beans
• Ginger, chillies, curry leaves, lime leaves
• Frozen stock and citrus juices
• Range of meats and previously prepared meals

There’s everything here to make a tasty spiced North African sweet and sour tuna stew and a treacle tart, which is a brilliantly-simple peasant dessert.

Try my TREACLE TART recipe

Tuna stew

Ingredients:

• 2 red onions
• 1 tbsp oil
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 anchovies in oil
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cumin seed
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 sachet tomato paste
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 cup currants
• 400g can tomatoes
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• Salt, pepper and sugar for seasoning
• 425g can of tuna
• 400g can chickpeas
• 2 cups quinoa or brown rice

Method:
Fry the onions in the oil until they are translucent. Add the garlic and soften.

Mash in the drained anchovies. Stir in the sugar and the spices and cook down. Then add half the wine and deglaze the pan as it sizzles furiously.

Stir in tomato paste, lemon juice and a 4cm strip of lemon zest and cook down.

Use the rest of the wine to deglaze the pan again.

Add currants. Stir in tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes. Add vinegar. Taste. The sauce should be intensely sweet, tartly tangy and salty. Season with salt, pepper and sugar to achieve this balance.

Stir in tuna and chickpeas. Simmer for 10 minutes. Serve on quinoa or brown rice.

Matt’s tips:

Using quinoa: To cook quinoa, place two cups of the seeds into a fine sieve and wash. Place in a large saucepan and cover with four cups of water. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until the water is gone. Serve.

Spice it up: If you want to be fancy with the tuna pasta recipe, before you add the spices place in a dry pan on the heat and toast the seeds. Add the mixed spice. Stir until they become fragrant. Remove and crunch them together in a mortar and pestle. Then reserve them to add to the sauce base.

Follow Matt Preston on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mattscravat

Matt Preston writes for the taste section, available every Tuesday in The Courier Mail, The Daily Telegraph, and Herald Sun, every Wednesday in The Advertiser and in Perth’s Sunday Times.

Originally published as Matt Preston takes stock of the perfect pantry ingredients