If you are like me, your store of ingredients will probably expand to fill every inch of space you have available. A little bit of discipline goes a long way to keep this under control. My top tips would be:
- Keep similar things together – flours, sugars, rice and pasta, spices, dried herbs, vinegars etc. This means that you will know at a glance whether you have what you need for your chosen recipe and won’t double buy.
- If you can, find a way to make it easy to see what you have. I use labelled containers for frequently used items like flour or rice. I bunch together spices or baking ingredients in plastic containers that I can pull out of the cupboard easily. I also keep a shopping list on the fridge and immediately add any standard I use up when I am cooking.
- Invest in something to tie/seal bags, and some large sturdy Ziploc or similar bags into which you can pop open packets of sugar or other ingredients when the bag tears open too far.
- When you are buying stuff for a specific recipe and won’t use the whole packet try to work out in advance what you could use leftover non-standard ingredients for.
Basics (which assumes you will be baking):
- Plain flour
- Self-raising flour
- Wholemeal flour
- Baking powder
- Breadsoda/bicarbonate
- Cornflour
- Dried yeast
- Vanilla extract (not essence, please!)
- Vanilla pods (terribly expensive, snap them up if you see any good value)
- Caster sugar
- Icing sugar
- Treacle
- Cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)
- Maple syrup
- Honey
- Dried fruit – raisins, sultanas
- Porridge oats
- Long grain rice
- Risotto rice
- Basmati rice
- Pasta shapes of choice – one long, one short/tubular.
- Tinned tomatoes (more expensive is usually better, look for varieties made with San Marzano such as Mutti)
- Tomato paste/puree
- Passata
- White wine vinegar
- Red wine vinegar
- Balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil (good extr- virgin for salads and ordinary for cooking)
- Sunflower or Rapeseed oil
Flavourings and spices
- Black pepper – whole for grinding
- Salt – table, kosher, rock, sea salt (all of them if possible)
- Stock powder/cubes – I love Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon powder
- Cinnamon
- Cumin
- Turmeric
- Paprika (smoked and sweet)
- Whole nutmegs (they keep for years)
- Ground coriander
- Dried chilli flakes
- Chilli powder
- Cajun seasoning (excellent on roast veg of many types)
- Mustard (English mustard powder and a jar of Dijon)
- Saffron
- Garam Masala
- Fish Sauce
- Soy Sauce
- Sweet Chilli Sauce
In the fridge (stuff that will keep reasonably well – pick up other stuff as needed)
- Regular and unsalted butter
- Parmesan cheese
- Eggs
- Greek yogurt
Veg stuff
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Onions
- Butternut Squash (keeps for ages unpeeled and is a wonder for soup or roasted with some spice)
Herbs
- None, unless you can grow them. Unfortunately those little bags of fresh herbs have a tiny shelf life. Dried herbs (Oregano in particular) are probably useful to have, but most of them just don’t replace fresh adequately.