Using Up and Using Spice

I recently had a conversation with a new acquaintance, Emma, from the Real Food Campaign, talking about herbs and spices and how to get people eating them. Nowadays it baffles me that many people don’t. … and don’t even know how to think about doing so. .. to the point that whilst I find Michael McIntyre hugely funny in the most part, I was totally perplexed by his sketch about the spice drawer – still funny, but to me total nonsense. (Michael McIntyre Spice Rack sketch) In our conversation the lovely Emma suggested that I could write something about how I use herbs and spices every day, and how and why they have become a staple in my kitchen. So here it is, and it is all about using up what’s left at the end of the week (or even using up what’s in the freezer because it’s been there so long and I’m not going to go shopping again until the freezer is nearly empty).

As I’ve mentioned before, on good weeks, and when life is stable I meal plan .. and yes spices come into my plans as, other than a traditional roast with lashings of good gravy, I just don’t really like plain food. But on busy / tired / unorganised weeks, I just go to the supermarket and get a joint of good quality meat, maybe a couple of portions of salmon or a pack of sausages, and some cheese and cream, along with the catfood and some seasonal fruit. The veg pitches up at my door on a Friday afternoon from my veg box delivery, and I then have a fridge full of random food. I understand that this is a nightmare for many people – fridge full of food but no obvious meals… what to do?

Early on in my cooking life when newly married but still at University, money was incredibly tight, and food wastage from the ‘random stuff in the fridge’ scenario was far too common a problem for me . So I developed what I call my “Using Up Using Spice” technique. I think the idea came to me in a rather roundabout way from learning that spices were often used either to mask the taste of food that was a bit past it, or to prolong the life of certain foods, along with the desire to create and maybe the desire to conjure up images of holidays.

This technique basically involves learning a few spice combinations and cooking methods that work to give a certain cultural “feel” to food and then using that as the basis of the meal, rather than using the main ingredients to try to drive a meal. It’s just an upside down way of looking at things, but (for me at least) it works.

Let’s say I roasted a large chicken on Sunday, but for various reasons only half of it got eaten and I now have enough to either serve again as roast chicken on a plate with veg for one meal, or to string it out for another 3 meal times if I’m more inventive. Along with this I have a slightly tired looking cabbage from last week’s veg box, some red peppers that came in the current veg box and some carrots ditto. In my cupboards I have some rice, some potatoes and a left over packet of wraps that are unopened and will be good for the next week or 2. I also always have coconut milk (I buy the condensed blocks you add boiling water to), tinned tomatoes, tinned beansprouts, tinned beans of various descriptions, tomato puree, frozen chilis (I buy fresh and bung them straight in the freezer) soy sauce, mayonnaise, lemons, salt and pepper, and a drawer full of herbs and spices from around the world.

So with the Use Up Use Spice method, there are options I see:

1. I feel in the mood for warming Carribean-style food
2. I want a real spicy zingy Thai / Asian-fusion type hit
3. I fancy easy comforting jacket potato but without the boring and sugar filled baked beans it’s easy to go to
4. It’s Mexican day
5. I want a summery sort of vibe and to think of the Mediterranean
6. Nothing but curry will do

Taking each one at a time here (off the top of my head as I write) is what I would do:

Carribean feeling food fuses creamy coconut with some chilli and often a bit of turmeric and maybe something sweet:

• so in this instance I would peel and roughly chop the cabbage, pepper and carrot, and add it to a pan with some oil / butter to saute (fry gently in oil with the lid firmly on so as to steam it at the same time). Then I would chop the chicken into chunks, add that and some rice and stir to coat. Then finally tip in coconut milk, maybe some chicken stock and the chilli and turmeric. Season with salt and pepper and boil until rice is ready … then serve in bowls, maybe topped with a few pieces of tinned pineapple if I had any. You could easily omit the rice from the main dish, cook it separately and ladle the soupy broth over it if you preferred. … or if you live in one of those wonderful towns with a big market, and had planned this in advance, you could treat yourself to some plantain and slice it, fry in butter and serve on the side.

Spicy Asian food has a hit of various flavours, but the ones that bring it out to me are ginger and wasabi for a more Japanese feel, chilli, garlic and lemongrass for a more Thai feel, ginger and soy for a more Chinese feel.

• In this example I would thinly slice the cabbage, carrots and peppers, and stir-fry, adding garlic if I had it. I’d then add some finely chopped chilli, lemongrass if I had it (you can get dried, or lazy paste, doesn’t have to be fresh) and / or ginger (fresh if you’ve got, but ground will do) to the pan and then tip in the chicken at the end. If there are enough veg this would be a whole meal in itself for me, and I would just serve it with lime to squeeze over if I had one on the fruit bowl (I usually do because of this way of cooking) and or some soy sauce, but I guess serving it with rice or noodles would be more common.

A good jacket potato to me is a) about getting the skin well cooked enough to scoop out all the potato and eat the skin with a knob of butter melting in it, and b) about making the filling the main part (or topping, as I have already scooped out the flesh onto a plate and need to just pile things on top of it).

• With the ingredients we have today I would finely slice some cabbage and very quickly blanch it (as it’s a bit tired it would be chewy if eaten raw and blanching it will help), then either chop and roast the carrots and peppers, or just chop and leave raw. I would then mix all this with the chicken and some mayonnaise and season generously with paprika, black pepper and lemon juice, before spooning over my potato.

Mexican food is spicy and fresh tasting with flavours of chili, lime, avocado, cilantro, (in this country we usually just call it coriander … but it’s the leaf, a herb, not the the ground seed you get in spice jars, so I have recently started using the 2 words to differentiate which I am talking about)

• Starting with the peppers and chicken I’d bung them in a frying pan with a little oil some chopped chili, fry up on high for a minute or 2 to start charring the edges. Then add some tinned tomatoes – although I think I’d drain the juice off a bit for this one. I’d sizzle fast for just a few minutes to reduce it down but keep it fresh and turn the heat off.
• The cabbage and carrot I’d slice / grate / push through the grater on the food processor and tip into a bowl with a handful of cilantro (you can buy partially dried packets in the fresh herb isle, that last in the fridge for about 6-8 weeks), then add some mayonnaise and a large squeeze of lime, stirring to make a fresh and zesty coleslaw
• I’d then grab the wraps out of the packet, wrap them in tin foil and put in the oven at 180C for about 5 mins whilst getting the table ready. … put everything out and everyone can help themselves. If it looks a bit short heat a tin or 2 of whatever beans you have, with added chili and fresh tomatoes or tomato paste (unless you are using baked beans) and add that to the mix. .. and if you happen to have an avocado, some cheese (grated) and/or some sour cream around put those out to.

Curry, by which I mean “generic Indian-feel food” – remember this isn’t the day you are making an authentic Indian feast with recipes – requires base ingredients of turmeric, cumin, coriander (spice), cinnamon, ginger and usually cardamom. These are all staples of my spice drawer, and as I have got more comfortable experimenting, I have added to the range with fenugreek (gives the pungent “it’s curry” smell), mustard seeds, cloves, fennel seeds and a variety of others – but they are additions.. not needed for this “Use Up Use Spice” kind of cooking. In this example I would have 2 or 3 pans going:

• pan 1 – I’d heat some cumin seeds (and mustard seed as I have them) until fragrant, chop up the cabbage, add it with a bit of oil and stir to coat, then I’d add a tin of tomatoes a teaspoon of turmeric, and a whole chili (maybe pierced or sliced in half to give a stronger kick) and simmer for a few minutes then turn the pan off and leave to sit.
• pan 2 – I’d heat some oil and add half to one teaspoon of each of the basic ground spices (not cardamom), then chop the chicken and stir in. I’d then stir in some rice, some garlic if I have it and some chicken stock and make a very plain biryani type dish.
• pan 3 – I’d grate up the carrots finely, and check some online recipes to make Halva – in essence I think it is made by boiling carrots with milk, cardamom and a touch of sugar until soft and porridge-y .. this would be pudding.

Wow I’m hungry!

Sorry it is such a long post… rather a rambling look through my kitchen, or maybe my mind. I hope it helps if you are stuck using up food, and not letting things go to waste … and hey, I love doing this, so if you have a few random ingredients and don’t know what to do, feel free to ping through a comment and I’ll try to come up with something.