{"id":60871,"date":"2020-03-14T21:41:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T21:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/?p=60871"},"modified":"2020-03-14T21:42:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T21:42:33","slug":"cooking-in-the-time-of-covid-19-making-do-with-what-we-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentiallypop.com\/epop\/2020\/03\/cooking-in-the-time-of-covid-19-making-do-with-what-we-have\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking In The Time Of COVID-19: Making Do With What We Have"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you\u2019re in self-isolation because of COVID-19. Or maybe you\u2019re just wanting to do a bit of social distancing and are staying in rather than eating out. Perhaps you\u2019re like me you might have discovered that because of panic buying, you\u2019re unable to get any food into the house, so you have to make do with what you have on hand.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

If you\u2019re a cooking novice then the idea of having to make something edible out of a bunch of random ingredients might be a little scary, but never fear! I happen to specialise in simple cooking.<\/p>\n

This is what my store cupboard shelves look like at the moment.<\/p>\n

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You\u2019ll notice there\u2019s a lot of chickpeas, baked beans, and soup. Oh there\u2019s some Marmite, coconut flour, and the brown packet on the far left is kale powder, while below it is cacao butter. Sure your shelves more than likely won\u2019t look like this but even with this lot I\u2019m scratching my head as to what to do with them. Soup and beans, not a problem…but all those chickpeas! Anyway.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to be making anything from those ingredients tonight. Instead, I\u2019m going to show you a simple way to use up the veg that are quite possibly lurking in your fridge and turn them into something absolutely amazing.<\/p>\n

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Chances are you\u2019ve got some of these veg hanging about in your fridge, or in the case of onions, wherever you keep them\u00a0(ours are in a box). We\u2019re using courgettes\/zucchini, aubergines\/eggplant, and a green pepper\/capsicum, and onions, because that\u2019s what we had. This would work equally well with tomatoes, or even potatoes, sweet potatoes, or butternut squash. Spinach or cabbage would work too! You might not have onions, but leeks would work just as well…or leave them out altogether. Substitute whatever you\u2019ve got and \u201cmake do\u201d.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve got your ingredients together,\u00a0go wash your hands. Properly! The whole 20 seconds worth. Now take the onions, chop the top and bottom off (the sort of frilly bits) and peel the top layer of skin off. Apparently if you put a piece of bread in your mouth it stops your eyes watering – no idea if that\u2019s true or not! If you\u2019ve got a chopping gadget like me, you can have a little bit of fun smashing them to pieces…<\/p>\n

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Or…you could just chop them into fine pieces.<\/p>\n

Before you chop up the onions, pour a nice dash of extra Virgin olive oil into a wok\/frying pan\/saucepan, and heat it on the stove for a bit while you\u2019re taking all your tension out on your onions. Pour the onions into the pan, taking care not to be splashed by the hot oil.<\/p>\n

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Next, peel your courgette\/zucchini, and chop it into batons (thin strips).<\/p>\n

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Add these to the pan. You\u2019ll have also added some herbs and spices to the mix – doesn\u2019t really matter what sort, just what you\u2019ve got on hand really! We added coriander, dill, thyme, garlic granules, and maybe just a little bit too much fennel seed. You live and learn!<\/p>\n

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Stir stir stir. Get all those spices mixed in. Next you\u2019re going to chop up your aubergine\/eggplants. Same sort of deal as with the courgette\/zucchini, peel the skin off, then cut them into batons:<\/p>\n

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Pop them in the pan as well, stirring stirring stirring. Now cut up the pepper\/capsicum. I only had a green pepper on hand, but for this I\u2019d most likely have gone for a red pepper or a yellow\/orange pepper, not only because it adds some colour, but also because I prefer the flavour. Did you know that the so-called traffic light peppers are actually just the same variety (California pepper), just at different stages of ripeness? Green is mature, but not fully ripe, yellow or orange is intermediate, and red peppers are fully ripe. So there you go! The easiest way to chop up a pepper\/capsicum is to slice down between the ribs –<\/p>\n

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Once you\u2019ve done that, make sure to cut out the white bits, as they can be a bit bitter. Also make sure you remove all the seeds. You can put them aside and grow them if you like!<\/p>\n

Slice up the pepper pieces in the same way as you sliced the rest, and add to the pan. You\u2019re going to have to slosh a bit more oil in every now and again, but not too little and not too much – a \u201cGoldilocks\u201d amount.<\/p>\n

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Keep stirring and mixing. Now pour it into a casserole dish (or some other heatproof dish). We got this one with a jar of Dolmio pasta sauce a few years back, but you can pour yours into a baking tin, or whatever you have on hand. Basically it\u2019s just to warm it all together. You can even it it like it is.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a vegetarian pop it in the oven now to give it a quick warm through at about 200 degrees C (350-375 degrees F) for about 10 minutes. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Meat eaters follow me! If you\u2019ve got diced chicken, or mince of some variety to hand, make sure it\u2019s properly defrosted, then pop it into the pan. Mix a few more spices – we added some of the kale powder from our store cupboard:<\/p>\n

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Cook thoroughly – we don\u2019t want food poisoning! If you\u2019ve got diced chicken make sure there\u2019s no pink bits – the same goes for mince. Once you\u2019re satisfied it\u2019s all good, add it to the veg in the casserole dish and mix it all together. I added some apple cider vinegar at this point, but it\u2019s not necessary – I just like it! As with the veg instructions, cook for about 10 minutes at 200 C\/350 F. If you want, you can grate some cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan…) and sprinkle it on top before you put it in the oven.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve finished, pop it in bowls and eat. We served 4 quite easily.<\/p>\n

Let us know if you cook this! What did you think? Did you make any changes, or did you make some improvements? We\u2019d love to know!<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So you\u2019re in self-isolation because of COVID-19. Or maybe you\u2019re just wanting to do a bit of social distancing and are staying in rather than eating out. Perhaps you\u2019re like me you might have discovered that because of panic buying, you\u2019re unable to get any food into the house, so you have to make do with what you have on hand.<\/p>\n

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Performances are still a major source of income for most of them, and with lockdowns making a comeback, many might be concerned about what to do next. 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