Store cupboard ingredients to transform your dishes

The chef and food writer, and BBC Saturday Kitchen’s resident food trends expert, says the key is to keep your cupboard stocked with a few ingredients that act as a shortcut to big flavour – “for absolutely minimal effort”.

He wants to “demystify the whole idea that flavour is difficult to achieve” in a home kitchen.

Saying: “I think the pantry is the most incredible resource that we have as home cooks. For me, [it’s] a shortcut to full-flavour food.”

Using more of these store cupboard ingredients could save money too, he reckons. “These flavour powerhouses can revive whatever you happen to have in the fridge. I wanted to show people that if you invest in a capsule of pantry superheroes, you can create incredibly flavourful, tasty food with the most basic ingredients” – like butter beans, chickpeas or any veg.

“When you have a capsule pantry, you can mix the ingredients. You can combine things like harissa and mango chutney, or tamarind and maple syrup – you kind of then create these wonderful flavour combinations really quickly.”

Chipotle hoisin chicken wings

Ingredients

(Makes 14 wings)

6tbsp baking powder

1tsp Chinese five spice

2tbsp fine polenta (cornmeal), ground to a powder

1tbsp onion powder

14 chicken wings, skin on (about 1.25kg)

6tbsp hoisin sauce

3tbsp chipotle paste

3 fat garlic cloves, crushed to a paste

3tbsp apple cider vinegar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

2. Prepare a coating by whisking together the baking powder, Chinese five spice, ground polenta and onion powder in a bowl.

3. Pat dry each of the chicken wings using paper towels so that no moisture remains on the skin. Dredge in the coating, ensuring that they are covered all over and in the crevices. Place on two baking sheets, spaced well apart, and bake for 40–45 minutes until crispy.

4. Meanwhile, prepare a glaze by whisking together the hoisin sauce, chipotle paste, garlic and vinegar in a bowl.

5. Remove the cooked wings from the oven, brush liberally with the glaze, then bake for a final 3 minutes. Serve hot from the oven, brushing with more glaze if you like.

Fennel sausage, gochujang and vodka paccheri

Ingredients

(Serves 2-3)

2tbsp olive oil

1 large red onion, finely chopped

2tsp fennel seeds, crushed

350g fennel sausages, cases removed

2tbsp gochujang

200g Tenderstem broccoli, ends trimmed

2tbsp tomato purée (paste)

4tbsp vodka

3tbsp balsamic vinegar

1tbsp caster (superfine) sugar

200g baby plum tomatoes, halved

125g soured cream

200g paccheri or rigatoni

Fine sea salt

For the pangrattato topping:

35g butter

2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste

2tsp herbes de Provence

50g panko breadcrumbs

2tbsp finely grated Parmesan

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, then gently fry the onion with a pinch of salt over a medium heat for 4 minutes. Next add the fennel seeds and sausage meat, and cook for 5 minutes until the meat starts to take on a little colour. Stir in the gochujang and cook for another minute.

2. Next, add the broccoli and 1¼ teaspoons of salt, cooking for 4 minutes until tender. Now stir in the tomato purée, vodka, balsamic vinegar and sugar, combining well.

3. Add the plum tomatoes, cover with a lid and cook over a medium heat for 5–6 minutes until they start to collapse into the sauce. Finally, stir through the soured cream, and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for 30 minutes to let the flavours develop.

4. Meanwhile, make a crunchy pangrattato topping. Melt the butter in a frying pan, then add the garlic and dried herbs and fry for 1 minute. Add the breadcrumbs and Parmesan, and cook over a medium–high heat for 5 minutes until toasty and golden. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool completely and crisp up further.

5. Cook the pasta in a large pan of well-salted boiling water following the packet instructions. Drain, reserving a little of the pasta water.

6. Reheat the sausage sauce over a low heat, adding a little of the cooking water if needed, then stir through the pasta. Serve in large bowls with a very generous sprinkling of the crunchy pangrattato on top.

Treacle, mocha and blonde chocolate brownies

Ingredients

(Makes 16)

Olive oil, for brushing

5 large eggs

200g caster sugar

250g dark chocolate (at least 60% cocoa), snapped into pieces

225g butter

2 heaped tbsp instant espresso powder

65g cocoa powder

125g black treacle

125g blonde or white chocolate

75ml soured cream

150g plain flour

¼tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp fine sea salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C fan/195°C/385°F/Gas mark 5½. Brush a deep-sided 23cm (9in) baking tin with olive oil, then line with baking paper.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together four of the eggs and the sugar for 5–6 minutes until the mixture has doubled in volume.

3. Put the dark chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water to melt together, stirring to combine. Remove the bowl from the pan, then stir through the cocoa powder and treacle. Leave to cool for 2 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, melt the blonde chocolate in another heatproof bowl over the same pan of hot water. Remove the bowl from the heat then stir through the soured cream. Cool for 2 minutes, then crack in the remaining egg, whisking thoroughly. Set aside.

5. Slowly pour the dark chocolate-butter into the stand mixer bowl, gently folding it by hand into the whisked eggs using a spatula to retain as much air as possible.

6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add a quarter of the dry ingredients to the batter, folding it through fully, then add the rest, a quarter at a time.

7. Pour half of the batter into the lined tin, drizzle over half the blonde chocolate cream and swirl with a cocktail stick. Then pour in the rest of the batter, drizzle with the remaining blonde chocolate cream, again swirling into a nice pattern.

8. Place the tin on top of a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes until cakey on the rim and puffed up in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin to room temperature. Then chill for at least 12 hours, allowing it to turn from molten-gooey to fudgy. Slice into 16 squares and enjoy!