Cooking in a Time of Coronavirus

It does seem that our world has taken an unprecedented turn over the last few weeks. Who could have imagined a few months ago that we would be spending these weeks of February and March obsessing over stocks of toilet paper, facing massive job uncertainty and worrying about the lives and the health of those who are dear to us? For the first time in my life supermarkets have introduced rationing: rice, pasta, flour, hand sanitiser, tissues, and of course, toilet paper sales are being limited to one or two items per customer. I think this is an excellent measure, as we don't want all the available food stocks in the country to go only to those who are able to afford to stock up on a year's worth of pasta at once. Still, I can understand the impulse on the part of those stocking up. Families want to protect their own, and in an environment where a mysterious, untreatable virus lurks waiting to pounce on the vulnerable, one of the only ways to wrest back a measure of control is to stock up and retreat from the world. Still, resisting that impulse and remembering that we are part of a wider community will lever us up over concern for self and give us back a measure of compassion and kindness instead, which is an excellent antidote to fear. Now, for instance, would be a very good time to check in with the vulnerable to see if they need errands doing, and it is very much time to donate to the local food bank, as times will get tougher over the next few months. Another community-building project when shopping is to go to the smaller shops - the bakers, butchers, greengrocers and whole food shops. I can foresee a time very soon when most people will be ordering their groceries on-line from the big supermarkets and the little fellas are going to get hammered.
As for me - well, I am a squirrel, and always have been. I always have a sack of flour, rice, lentils and chickpeas in the pantry or stashed under the bed. I shop at the flour mill, the Indian grocer, the bulk food supermarket, the bulk bins at the wholefood shop. When you make your own jam, passata, chutney and salsa, you always have half a year's worth of condiments hanging around. Right now I am preserving the bounty of autumn - picking and freezing blackberries, and drying a dehydrator's worth of apple chips every day. And it did occur to me recently, that it is one thing to have a pantry full of rice and beans, and quite another to know what to do with them when you have them. So I have made a little menu of dishes that can be made up from only pantry items.

Vegetarian Chili - rice, beans, canned tomatoes, spices, onions and whatever vegies you have to hand. Sour cream is optional - I eat this topped with salsa.

Mujadara - rice, lentils, onions, spices - again, topping with yoghurt is optional. I like a green salsa with this one.

Hummus - chickpeas, olive oil, tahini, lemon juice (bottled is fine), spices. I double the amount of chickpeas in this recipe because I prefer a thicker, drier hummus. I use this a a butter substitute for anything savoury. Tahini makes a good butter substitute under jam and it is shelf stable so can be stashed in the cupboard until opened.

Chocolate Cake - flour, cocoa, oil (I often use sunflower oil for this), sugar, vinegar. This is a vegan cake, and very yummy. For baking with pantry items only I suggest looking up vegan recipes - from chickpea brownies to applesauce cakes, there are endless possibilities. And if we are home for an extended period, there are worse things than experimenting with baking new kinds of cakes..

And remember that the best bread has just four ingredients - flour, salt, yeast, water. Three ingredients if you make sourdough:)

What dishes do you make that use only store cupboard ingredients?
Stay well, and look after each other xx