Those gifts and impulse buys
- 9h
- 6 min read
"You shouldn't have anything in your pantry that you wouldn't want to cook with." Alison Roman
I have two lovely daughters-in-law and two lovely sons, who, because of my love of food and cooking, often give me foodie gifts and hampers. This year for my birthday I was given this glorious Italian 'hamper' - which also included a Graham Swift novel in Italian that the local library had serendipitously been throwing out, and a bottle of Italian pinot grigio - but my husband got to the gift before me, opened it and started removing things, so they're not in the picture. Why did he do that? And just look at those beautiful roses - two days old and still perfect.
I love getting these kinds of gifts, and giving them too, but I am also aware that some of the things in these hampers might get forgotten - either in my reserve supplies drawers, or on a dark shelf, or overcrowded basket of 'special' things in the pantry. When something is a gift - even if it's just a gourmet version of an everyday ingredient - like - as in this case - pasta or a special tomato paste - I tend to regard it as super special - well it is - and therefore put it away for a special occasion.
Big mistake because some of them actually go off, although not as many as you might think really, and some are definitely beyond their best, but even these are still usable. Even if they are on display - a jar of a chocolatey ice-cream sauce from Maggie Beer, a duck pâté are two that spring to mind, they make me feel guilty every time I open the fridge. And yet still don't use them.
Then there's the similar problem of the impulse buy - Woolworths has a special on an Ottolenghi spice mix, so I buy it, and then wonder what to do with it. Or I buy an ingredient I need for one recipe and then don't know what else to do with it, or just buy an ingredient because it seems to pop up everywhere - miso, gochujang, crispy chilli oil ... Then they lurk on the overcrowded top shelf of my fridge along with the things I do use on a regular basis - capers, mustards, olives ...
As usual I tried to find relevant articles, that might have something interesting to say on the subject, of this disreputable hoarding problem, or quotes that are pertinent, but no matter what kind of search terms I used all I found was what to buy as gifts or what to make.
Along with ways to avoid the problem in the first place;
"Stop shopping for a while. Pretend it’s the end of the world and all you’ve got to eat is in the pantry." ontarioparent/reddit
"Older items at the front, newer items at the back. Simple, but surprisingly effective."
Both of which are really good ideas - Felicity Cloake once had a month of not buying anything. Although it seems to me that this exercise would mean that by the end of the month you may not be getting any fresh fruit and vegetables. Although I suppose there is always frozen.
The older items at the back idea is just too virtuous for someone like me. I'm pretty sure you'd actually have to be a bit anal to keep that up. You don't think when you put things away. Well I don't anyway.
So I've decided to start another occasional series, whereby I shall take one of these special jars, packets, tins ... and do something with it.
This lady called Kristin Dolan Peek - American of course, with a name like that - dreamt up the idea shown here which is worth thinking about when I embark on this exercise. Mind you I'm really not good about planning in advance unless it's for a dinner party kind of thing - then you do indeed need to plan. For everyday meals I do plan a day ahead sometimes and I do think about what I can make with what I've got - mostly in the fridge. I may even think about it overnight, but the ideas are never recorded anywhere. Perhaps my idea of blogging about this might be the actual writing down recipe suggestions thing. Although it's probably not very different to what I ramble on about anyway.
Where to start though, and how to fit it into my normal cooking routine - looking in the fridge to see what needs using up and then throwing something together? Because as well as those gifted special things, there are the half jars already in the fridge. If I decide to - say - use up that jar of curry paste in the back of the fridge do I only focus on that for a week? Surely that would be a bit boring? Or would it actually be interesting to see how differently it could be used. I do think I should probably set a time limit though. And only apply it to the 'special' open things in there. The things I use all the time - cornichons, mustards, passata, sun-dried tomatoes, surely don't count in this experiment.
And what about those use by dates. Do I adhere to them? For example I opened my impulse buy of Ottolenghi harissa for Sunday's birthday feast and noticed that it said to store in the fridge and use in two weeks. Two weeks? Surely it would keep longer than that? Especially if you cover it with some olive oil. And I've defintely used some classy Maggie Beer chocolate sauce which was really old with no bad effects. Well it was mostly sugar probably.
I'll end with this recipe from Alison Roman - an American cook I have become increasingly aware of, and whose book Something from Nothing I have just bought myself as a treat. She calls it Pantry pasta and it's not a recipe really, as she says:
"This is what I made that day and was, if I do say so myself, very pleased with. Would strongly recommend anyone follow this recipe, but equally recommended you going rogue and adding your own pantry flair. "
It's the kind of dish that anyone could make - even if all you have is butter, cheese and some kind of herb or spice - or a jar of tomato sauce.
Maybe I could even use some of that curry paste with pasta. I might try that as my first experiment later this week. Italian/Indian fusion. Now is that another idea for a blog? I once made a quiche with leftover tandoori chicken and it was one of my best experiments I think, so why not curry paste in pasta? I bet somebody has already done it.
POSTSCRIPT
I'm still struggling with my problem with my blog post notification emails. Yesterday I had a long chat with Wix's chatbot which certainly clarified a few points, but not all of them. I grudgingly admit that it was actually a pretty impressive chatbot. It even remembered that I had three questions. I did what was suggested but I suspect the problem is not solved. It seems to hinge upon how many emails I send out a month - which hasn't changed much over time, so why it should be a problem now I don't really understand.
Hopefully you should start getting reminders next month - tomorrow - but if not I recommend you just drop into the Blog home page to check what I've been writing about (or not) of late. If it continues to be a problem I will try to think of another way of giving you regular updates of what I've been writing about.
YEARS GONE BY
June 30 - Happy birthday David and happy end of financial year for the rest of you.
2025 - A Jamie book - Jamie's America - which is very current - America that is - not Jamie.
2024 - Nothing
2023 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2017 - On holiday
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