Day 158: storecupboard comfort

I’d consider myself more than proficient in the art of storecupboard cooking. (I think you need to be when you’re as disorganised as I am and absolutely terrible at planning your weekly shops). The thing I find with storecupboard assets, however, is they don’t always present you with everything you need for a specific recipe - unless, of course, you’ve specifically stocked your cupboard with that particular recipe in mind. Whilst everyone probably finds themselves in this situation, I take it personally and see it as one of life’s vendettas against me, and only me; fooling me into believing I have everything in my cupboard for a specific recipe, get excited about it, then realise I’m missing one key ingredient (that can’t be subbed)!

I had planned to make Nigella’s Blackberry Galette, but our local shop had no vegetable shortening and I didn’t have time to go out and pick the blackberries. They are perfectly sweet right now and I refuse to buy them from the supermarket when we have a generous supply growing wildly nearby.

At the moment, life continues to be (what seems) unmanageably busy - and I feel that certain aspects of this cookalong are beginning to suffer (falling behind on the day count, shorter blog posts, less creativity in my writing due to overhanging pressure, more mistakes and inappropriate usages of punctuation!), but it’s true that no challenge is without its obstacles. I just need to adapt and find a way to fit it into a busier life - and, believe you me, it’s only going to get busier!

I had sausages thawed for dinner and, in fear of falling behind even further on the cookalong, took to nigella.com to look for potential recipes I could make with them. What got me on to the topic of storecupboard cooking just now, is that the recipe I found is basically comprised of just that: tinned and jarred foods (except for the sausages, of course). I was therefore delighted to discover I had (versions) of everything I needed for Nigella’s Sausages with Beans and Peppers. I must have been on my best behaviour recently for karma to have sided with me on this one.

Nigella’s Sausages with Beans and Peppers

I used a British kind of sausage, from the butcher, here; plump, dense and flecked richly with coarsely-ground black pepper. In absence of other aromatic herbs, typically found in Italian sausages, I added in a few teaspoons of fennel seeds. Instead of just spooning them in whole, which I would probably do for slower-cooked casseroles (where the flavour has time to permeate through everything), I bashed them up in my - recently lost, now found - molcajete. I then added this coarse aniseedy fairy dust to the garlic oil and browned the sausages VERY slowly and over a very low heat; giving the flavours chance to penetrate the skins and go deeper into the dense meat. I was actually surprised how well this worked! A good alternative if you ever have sourcing issues.

Flavour musings

A storecupboard comfort, and everything I needed to blast away yesterday’s grumps. Smoky, supportive, aromatic and warming. Served with a dollop of (very) buttery mash potato, because I also needed butter and potatoes my life yesterday.