Store-cupboard Secrets

Store-cupboard Secrets
Clare Moran (Co-founder My Secret Kitchen)

I often gaze at the collection of packets in our kitchen cupboards and consider challenging myself to see how long I could feed our family of 4 on their contents – with a little help from My Secret Kitchen of course and the local village shop for back up. Split peas, puy lentils and polenta occupy our shelves, not to mention the obligatory cans of tuna, white beans and chick peas, just waiting to be transformed into something gorgeous to grace our table.

 The same goes for the freezer with home-made stock, white fish filets and little packets of cheese sauce squirreled away as well as lesser known ingredients that I couldn’t bear to get rid of – the spent sloes from Phil’s sloe gin (destined to be an addition for drunken Ultimate Chocolate Brownies one day), strings of authentic Thai black pepper, and grated pecorino cheese.

January can also feel a little glum and lack lustre in the kitchen department so what better time to put our creativity and store-cupboards to the test?

 The recipes and ideas that follow are the culinary equivalent of ‘make do and mend’ and aim to bring those dull packets that we all have in our cupboards to life with My Secret Kitchen. They all feature Tapenade with Smoked Garlic which is true foodie’s life saver and maybe in a few weeks, like Old Mother Hubbard, our cupboards will be the streamlined version ready to be filled with more secrets.

(Make your own substitutions and tweaks with the store-cupboard ingredients you have available)

Baked Coley with Tapenade & Pecorino Crumb Topping

Bake the fish in paper or foil with a sprinkling of olive oil, fresh herbs and a slice of lemon (or orange) at 190C  for 10 - 12 mins or until just cooked through (if frozen, add another 10 minutes to the cooking time). Top the fish with 1 tbsp Tapenade with Smoked Garlic and a crumb topping made from fresh bread crumbs, Lemon & Chipotle Spiced Sea Salt and grated pecorino (or parmesan or strong cheddar).  (Prepare ahead tip – these can now be chilled until needed) Place under a preheated medium grill until the top is toasted and the Tapenade warmed through. 

Tapenade & Tuna Bean Burgers

Makes 4 burgers

1 can (240g) borlotti beans, rinsed, drained and dried on a paper towel
1 can (130g) tuna fish, drained well
25g fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp chopped parsley
2 tbsp My SecretKitchen Tapenade with Smoked Garlic
½ tsp My Secret Kitchen Lemon & Chipotle Spiced SeaSalt, ground
1 tbsp My SecretKitchen Smoked Rapeseed Oil
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp semolina
2 tbsp olive oil

Mash the beans in a large bowl and add the tuna fish, breadcrumbs, parsley, Tapenade, Smoked Oil and Lemon & Chipotle Sea Salt.  Mix together (Prepare ahead tip: the mix can now be refrigerated for later). Form the mixture into 4 burgers (approx. 100g each). Mix the flour and semolina together on a plate and flour the burgers in the mixture on both sides. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the burgers for 1-2 minutes on both sides until golden. Place on a baking sheet and into a preheated oven (190C) and bake for 25 – 30 minutes.  Serve with another dollop of Tapenade and a green salad.  Alternatively serve in a toasted sesame bun with melted swiss cheese or form the mixture into nuggets (25g each) and serve with noodles and a simple tomato sauce of chopped tomatoes whizzed together with another tablespoon of Tapenade. These also freeze well – double the recipe and freeze half for another day.

 Gazpacho with Puy Lentils and Grilled Polenta Wedges

Serves 4

1/2 jar My SecretKitchen Tapenade with Smoked Garlic
2 tbsp My SecretKitchen Balsamic Reduction
1 can chopped tomatoes
½ cucumber, finely chopped
25g puy lentils, cooked and chilled
2 tbsp olive oil
My Secret KitchenLemon & Chipotle Spiced Sea Salt
Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
500ml cold water

Combine all of the ingredients together and serve very cold (put your servings bowls in the fridge for extra effect).  For the polenta wedges, prepare the polenta as instructed but substituting half of the water with milk and season with Lemon & Chipotle Spiced Sea Salt.  Rub a tray with Smoked Rapeseed Oil and pour the polenta onto the tray and smooth over – chill until set.  Cut the polenta into wedges, brush with more Smoked Rapeseed Oil and under a preheated grill until the polenta is golden and sizzling.

What secrets have you found in your cupboard?  We'd love to hear from you so do get in touch,

Enjoy!

Clare

New products round the corner

Hi all!

Well we're just round the corner for the exciting time of the year for us. In two weeks we will officially be announcing the new products for the season and we've worked hard! Can't tell you what they are but we will be launching the first of what we hope will be a new range of products that will be with us for quite a while. We will also be launching another product that is a first in it type for us, so we really have tested ourselves this time. Products we feel are on trend, have a huge number if uses to them and the main thing.... very very tasty!

National Conference Success

What a day we had on Saturday! A celebration of a great year for 2011 with a good number of consultants in a great setting in Coombe Abbey. We had some lovely food, some inspirational talks from consultants, management and a guest speaker and got to learn all about the new products that will be launched at the beginning of Febrary. Thanks to all!

Preparation for the National Conference

Hi all,
Here at The Willows we're busy preparing for the conference tomorrow where we launch the new food products!
Lot of new recipe ideas and we think we'll be setting the trend once more.
More news to follow.....

Top ten food predictions for 2012

We've pondered and thought rather hard about what we reckon is going to be the next big foodie thing. Our educated guesses are below. Comments?

As we predicted last year, money will be a key factor in the food trends for 2012:-

1 Price Increases on food – At the back end of last year the manufacturers supplying the retailers realised that they needed to force the raw material increases through the chain if they were going to survive and understandably so. Anything grown in the ground has increased, especially the basics so expect people to think even more carefully about what they put in their shopping basket.

2 Granny’s cooking – Retro was big in 2011 and the desire for security and safety in an uncertain environment will steer cooking towards old family recipes. People still have egos and pride and what better way to show off than by resurrecting that old recipe that was handed down through the generations? – Could there be a rise in dumplings, suet puddings and the like?

3 More of the Grain – Home baking and cooking is a hot trend and people want to know more about what they are eating but without spending a huge amount. Whole grains are great value for money and the likes of Quinoa, oats and cornmeal could see a surge in 2012.

4 Forage, forage, forage – we predicted hedgerow flavours for 2011 and this will continue but expand into the general wild. Expect to see a rise in types of mushrooms, herbs and berries in people’s diets. Wild garlic anyone?

5 Whatever Twitter says – As social networking becomes viral, people want to share the good and bad things in food. In the past it was all about what Delia said, going forward it will be a lot more about that latest blog report, that Twitter comments and that facebook photo. And we can’t predict what ‘that’ will be.

6 The rise of the minor celebrity chef – following on from the previous comments, there will be a big rise in passionate cooks moving into doing video blogs on recipes, and these will become so much more accessible through the social media movement. So it won’t be Delia’s goose fat as the big thing next year, it will be a Youtube special chef. My Secret Kitchen will be jumping on this trend with a new video blog starting soon.

7 Moroccan – Full of Spices and flavours, a healthy diet with grain and greens and a little different with not too many expensive ingredients, Moroccan has been hovering around for a while. Expect 2012 to see a full blown launch of all things North African.

8 South American – We were wrong last year. We stuck our neck out with predictions that this continent would be big in 2011. It grew but not how we thought. Peru is widely predicted to be the big flavour country in the ‘States for 2012 so we expect this to jump over to the UK along with Brazil for 2012. And if the food goes superbly with Caipirinhas we won’t be complaining.

9 French Macaroons – 2011 was the year of the Whoopie Pie, an attractive and fun filled cake. One of the key reasons for it’s popularity was it looked cute. We think French macaroons will be big for 2012 for a similar reason, so expect to see gaudy shop windows full of ‘em. Whoopie pies will also get a makeover and remain popular but with alternative flavours and styles becoming big.

10 Back to the Dinner Table – As family values become ever more important, there will be a push to get more social interaction into the family dinner table which has declined over recent years. More family get togethers and more group meals will mean recipes involving more members of the family. What better way of bring a family closer together than cooking.. unless it goes pear shaped…

Happy New Year!

May we wish all of you a very Happy New Year and here's to a prosperous and enjoyable 2012