Flicking the Vs: 2020

Simple lockdown pleasures (with all manner of vegan treats, of course)

Lockdown is, so I'm told, the perfect time to do new things. I guess the people that say that don't have heavy duty jobs, or kids to...

Photo by Martin Lostak on Unsplash

When the coronavirus pandemic first started to make its way over here, I remember walking into our local supermarket and being taken aback by the empty shelves. There were massive gaps where all those things you need to make a good meal had just disappeared -- no baked beans, no bread, no tinned tomatoes (not to mention the disappearance of toilet roll!). Most of the fruit and vegetables had been cleared out too.

Happily, at the start of the year, I'd completely restocked my kitchen cupboards to healthy levels, expecting that the uncertainties around Brexit would disrupt food supply. That meant that for the worst of those first few weeks when coronavirus threw everything up in the air, I could dip into my supplies and dodge going to the supermarkets altogether. Given we don't really know how the rest of the pandemic will play out right now -- maybe there's a second wave on the way or perhaps a vaccine will solve our problems -- I thought I'd share my tips on keeping a well stocked kitchen that can keep you nourished throughout even the toughest of times.

Breakfasts

When I was a kid, my mum was always sniffy about UHT milk, but I'm a big fan. I always try to keep 8 or so cartons of UHT soy milk in my cupboards. It doesn't need to be kept in the fridge and it's got a long life, so you can stash healthy amounts safe in the knowledge you've got enough to last for weeks. Similarly, you need to make sure you've got a couple of packets or jars of tea and coffee, depending on your preference. If you like fruit tea or fancy tea of any kind, don't forget to put some of that aside as well. And then add a couple of cartons of fruit juice while you're there -- orange juice is a breakfast classic, but pineapple and tomato juice are not only good for breakfast, they're also handy for cocktails too. Just sayin'.

If you're a cereal eater, make sure you've got the biggest box you can find. I always keep a couple of packets of porridge in stores as well, because not only is it the breakfast of champions, you can also use it to make flapjacks and other sweet treats, as well as bread if you run out of flour.

I'd also recommend having a bag of gram flour -- it can make great vegan versions of eggy dishes like scramble and fritatta.

Basics for making meals

I'm vegan, so of course I'm going to say you need loads of beans, pulses, and lentils in your store cupboard. I always have as many types of each to hand as I can find: black beans for gallo pinto, pinto beans for refried beans, kidney beans for chilli (kidney beans in chilli sauce make a quick cheat chilli starter), black eyed beans for gumbo, haricot beans for soups, cannelini beans for pasta dishes, and flagolet for salads. Of course, there needs to be loads of chick peas for, well, everything. For lentils, red, green, brown and yellow are all great to have on hand for making Indian dishes.

Other things that I'd recommend stashing a couple of are packets of falafel mix, sausage mix, and TVP. Sure, they might make you think of old school veganism, but when there's no vegan sausages and mince on the shelves, knowing you can make some at home is a massive relief.

And... baked beans. Of course you need baked beans. You knew that already, right?!

Don't forget to have a stash of oil on hand for cooking everything -- I got one of those engine-oil sized tins when it was on special and it's lasted for a good few months.

Different sorts of carbs

Of course, you need rice. But a few different types of rice are a good idea if you've got space and inclination -- white rice for when you're pressed for time, and brown for a nice nutty flavour. (I've really been missing sushi since the lockdown, so I'd put a box of sushi rice aside too!)

Cous cous is handy too for tagines and salads, and I'm a big fan of noodles, so I've stashed packets of wheat noodles for stir fries, rice noodles for buns and pad thais, and udon for ramen. Polenta's a good standby too, not only does it make a nice side for rich tomato ragus, but you can use it for polenta chips and even in desserts too.

And, of course, you need pasta. If you've got room, a few different types are good -- spaghetti for your bolognaise, fusili for pasta bakes, and maybe orzo or something similar for salads. Wraps or tortillas are versatile too, and it's good to keep a couple of packets on standby for burritos and sandwiches.

I also put a bag of semolina aside. Not really worked out what to do with it though -- not every one of my stockpile staples has worked out completely!

Photo by Muradi on Unsplash

Long life fruit and veg

Vegetables are one of the hardest things to store in the long term, but there are ways around that.

Obviously, if you're preparing a lockdown larder, you need loads of tinned tomatoes, I don't need to tell you that -- you know they're super handy for making sauces among other things. But don't forget to put aside some tomato paste too, for boosting the tomato power.

If there's one thing I've learnt during lockdown, it's that canned veggies are actually really, really good. Tinned potatoes are great for just chucking into curries or stews, because they don't need any cooking, tinned spinach is perfect for vegan saag paneer and peppers in jars are great for adding to stews and casseroles. There are loads of great fancy veg in tins and jars too if you're feeling flush -- hearts of palm, artichokes, and asparagus are all good for adding variety to store cupboard meals.

And don't forget to put some tofu aside too: as well as the always-lovely silken tofu you can get in UHT cartons (great for mousses as well as adding to stir fries), if you can get your hands on some freeze dried tofu, it's a handy thing to have around.

As for fruit, I can totally understand why tinned fruit disappeared in the first weeks of the pandemic. I love tinned peaches, apricot, and fruit cocktail -- useful for puddings and cakes, and nice for just eating on its own too. Don't forget dried fruit though -- figs, prunes, and apricots are equally useful for cooking sweet dishes, or just for adding to your porridge.

Spices and flavourings

Now you've got your carbs and your meal bases, you need something to make them taste different when you're using them for meal after meal. Salt and pepper are a good start, and then add some of your favourites to your cupboard: for me, it's cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, chilli, bay leaves and curry leaves.

Ginger and garlic are also the cornerstones of many a dish, so keeping a long life supply on hand is great. Buy a couple of jars of both, and add other 'lazy' type jars as you like -- chill's not a bad shout too. I'm a firm believer in the power of soy sauce, so I have a litre around for flavouring.

And, for when you can't be bothered to put your own spice mixes together, keep some readymade mixes to hand, either in packets or jars. I reckon you can't go too far wrong with some taco type packet mixes, as well as some harissa. Most things taste great with harissa.

And if there's one thing to make sure you definitely have a good supply of, it's stock cubes or bouillon powder. Not only are they great for making soups and stews, they're really handy for adding extra flavour to your cooking. (Side note: yeast extract does the same job, and it's good on toast too! Why not add some to your store cupboards? It lasts for decades too.)

Making your own bread and cakes

I love making my own bread, and I came very close to running out of bread flour recently. I was not happy. At the start of lockdown, I had five or six packets in my cupboard, about half white and half wholemeal, and if I was restocking again, I'd put a couple more aside too. If you're feeling fancy, why not stick a bag of rye in the cupboard as well, just to add a bit of variety. And, above all, don't forget the yeast! Luckily yeast keeps for ages, so put a couple of tins in your cupboard along with the flour.

On the sweet side, self raising flour, plain flour and baking powder, cocoa powder, sultanas, vanilla essence or extract can all be configured and reconfigured to make cakes, biscuits, pancakes, and all things in between. Add them to your larder in generous amounts!

A few readymade treats

Custard powder, or readymade UHT custard (thanks Oatly!), as well as UHT cream are complete necessities for drenching your homemake cakes in, so a few packets of both are definitely a good idea.

And if there's one thing that I've learned over these last few weeks, it's that -- even with the best stocked larder -- sometimes you just can't be fussed to cook at all. Make sure you have supplies in to deal with that too. For me, it's Amy's chilli and soups, Mr Organic or Terra Vegane pasta in a box, vegan katsu sauce, Sainsburys tinned vegan spaghetti bolognaise, readymade pesto, and Oggs cakes have all kept me going when the idea of turning on the oven seemed a bit too much.

And everything else

Coconut milk. Just get loads. You'll definitely use it. Same with nooch. You need that to get through the dark times. And if you want to, why not get some miso and liquid smoke for good measure.

Pandemic proofing your food stores: How to stock a larder to last any lockdown

Photo by Martin Lostak on Unsplash When the coronavirus pandemic first started to make its way over here, I remember walking into our ...

How are you doing, friends? I hope you're keeping well and as unbored as you can be in the circumstances. I don't know about you, but the days here are slipping into sameness. Time has become liquid to me -- when I think about something I did this morning, it feels like I could have been doing it days ago. I forget what day it is often. I can't remember what it was like to not work from home, and how long it was since I last saw a friend or family member in person. You get the idea. So, in order to try and dodge that encroaching sameness, I've been finding ways to try and introduce more variety into my long, listless days. But there are only so many levers I have to pull -- basically, it's food and entertainment, and entertainment is pretty much Netflix, reading blogs (have a vegan blog? Drop the link below!), and listening to the radio.

This weekend, I thought I'd try and make eating tea in front of the TV a little more interesting with a bit of a theme night (I know, I know, interesting is a relative term, but this is lockdown world, and not much is that interesting!) Me and Mr Flicking the Vs have been watching a lot (and I mean a lot a lot) of Money Heist on Netflix. If you've not seen it, it's a Spanish drama (called La Casa de Papel in the original Spanish) about a gang trying to pull off an audacious heist, by robbing the Spanish National Mint of billions of euros. It's a massive hit worldwide, apparently, but less well known in the UK. If you're in need of something daft, compelling, beautiful to look at and full of (gloriously unrealistic) plot twists, there are four seasons to treat yourself to.

With just a couple of episodes left until to the end of series two (and finding out whether they'll actually pull off the heist), I decided we needed a Spanish theme night: one course per episode, with a Spanish music playlist to cook along to.

Our first course was pretty simple, but delicious: padron peppers, fried and sprinkled with sea salt. Delicious! I love padron peppers -- they taste like the start of summer. There's also the added bonus of heat roulette -- you never know if you're going to get a mild one that tastes like a smooth green pepper, or a fiercely hot one that's from the same family tree as a chilli pepper.

I wouldn't call our main meal paella, but it was definitely inspired by the classic Spanish rice dish. Traditionally, paella has meat or fish in, but mine's a vegan version, so there was a feast of plant based goodies instead -- tomato, asparagus, red and green peppers and vegan chorizo sausages (the Linda McCartney ones). According to the source of all knowledge that is Wikipedia, paella's considered as Spain's national dish -- unless you're from Spain, that is, in which case it's thought of more as a local dish from Valencia. I was lucky enough to visit Valencia a while back and had some cracking vegan food, but no paella. I don't know if I've ever eaten a paella before (how terrible is that?!) so I was flying blind a bit on making it, but some stock, wine, and a spell in the oven pretty much makes most things good, and my Spanish-esque rice was exactly that.

I didn't use a recipe to make the paella, but I just picked up ideas from a few already out there, including this one and this one.

And for pudding: flan! It's a Spanish dessert that's similar to creme caramel: a soft, wobbly custard with a layer of dark caramel sauce. The one I made is from a packet mix, so I can't claim much credit to its deliciousness, but hey I did stir the contents of the packet into the some soy milk! Pretty sure that makes me a chef, no?

We also drunk Estrella Damm beer thoughout our Money Heist marathon. Once we spotted the product placement, we couldn't stop seeing the Estrella logo everywhere (an Estrella delivery truck even plays a key role in one scene!) and so we bought some in honour of it. Salud!

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Here, we're healthy. As lockdown drags on, I'm have time to work on finishing my degree, and I'm still picking up some freelance work. Apart from a lot of time spent indoors and seeing friends and family only online, I'm pretty much able to keep going without too much complaint. I have food, water, a roof over my head, and a decent internet connection. What more could I ask for?

As we creep up on our third week of lockdown, I'm grateful for a few things that have been getting me through the long hours in our flat. One of them is still having enough food around: we have vegetables delivered every week, and a store cupboard with just enough variety to keep food from getting too samey.

You can tell when it's the day the veg box arrives, because I get a bit over-excited and start trying to use all the veggies in one meal. This sort of thing happens:

I've also been using up veggies in baking more than usual, for some reason. I made a cake using parsnips for the first time, using a non-vegan recipe and turning them into something entirely animal-free. It wasn't a complete success -- the texture was more fudgy than cakey -- but the parsnips had entirely melted away in the cooking. The taste was nice -- sure, there was a faint hint of the vegetable in the background, but it wasn't offputting. I'd make it again, with a little less parnsip! To balance things, I made an old favourite: courgette and caraway muffins. They're dinky and just the perfect thing to make a batch of and freeze. They make a really nice accompaniment to soup.

I've always been pathologically allergic to food waste (I blame my parents! They spent the beginnings of the lives under rationing, and they never let anything edible end up in the bin) but I'm especially aware of it now. I'm still not entirely relaxed about the food supply after seeing all the bare shelves and panic buying earlier this year. The upside of seeing that scarcity, if there is one, is that I've been working especially hard at using things up, and trying to turn odds and ends into something lovely.

Twice recently I ended up with a small chunk of tofu leftover -- once silken, once the standard type. The standard tofu I ended up using to thicken a soup of black beans and chard. Sounds weird, but actually worked decently. The silken tofu I turned into a couple of portions of chocolate mousse. I dug out some honeycomb from the cupboard, and it was heaven in a glass.

I ventured to the supermarket a few days ago, and was relieved to see the empty shelves beginning to ebb away. The freezers where the vegan sausages, burgers and other goodies had been bare for weeks, but I managed to pick up a pack of both on my last visit. I love cooking, but sometimes it's good to know you can just put something readymade in the oven and know there's a good meal to be had.

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If there's one meal that's guaranteed to make me come over a little peculiar, it's tofish and chips. When we were kids, if we were lucky, on a Saturday my parents would take us to the local chippy for a bag of fish and chips. I could take or leave the fish itself, I loved the chips and the crispy batter and the quite unncessary amounts of salt and vinegar, all soaking into pages of the local newspaper. I don't know if the chippy we used to go is still there, but I still think of tofish and chips as just as much as a celebration of the weekend in food form.

When was the last time I had fish and chips, I couldn't tell you -- decades ago maybe? -- but I could definitely tell you when I last had tofish and chips (can it really be 18 months ago?!) such is my love of it.

There's been a rash of new vegan product launches for Veganuary, but the one that caught my eye was the new addition to Marks & Spencer's Plant Kitchen's range -- tofish, chips and tartare sauce, all most gloriously vegan. Most of the Plant Kitchen stuff I've tried has been phenomenal (the mac and cheese is one of my favourites), so I was bascially powerless not to rush out and buy one.

You know when you buy ready made stuff and once you cook it at home, it looks a little sad and wilted, like a version of the picture on the packet but after a heavy night out? I'm happy to report this is not that. It comes out every bit as crisp and beautiful as you'd hope. Check it out -- just look at that batter:

It looks good, no? It was just what you'd hope for in tofish and chips. There are three good sized chunks of tofu in the sort of batter that shatters under your fork, and vegan tartare sauce. Vegan tartare sauce -- what a time to be alive! I used to love that stuff as a kid, but I only found that a vegan version existed last year. M&S' version is great, but tasted a bit like there's tarragon in there when it should be parsley, but it's not a load bearing problem -- it was still great, and there's a big enough portion to quietly drown all your chips, and your tofish and still have a bit left over.

Here's the bit that got me though: there's no fishy flavour in Plant Kitchen's tofish and chips. Most of the best tofish and chips I've had have used nori to give the tofu the taste of the sea, but there's no seaweed to be found. It's a bit of a surprise when you bite into the tofish and there's no fish -- it's just plain tofu. That doesn't mean it's not nice, but it's just not as tofishy as it should be!

Without any fishy flavour, it's not the tofish of my dreams, but it's still a good plate. I wish I could pop down to an all-vegan chippy in my neighbourhood and carry off a package of newspaper-wrapped tofish and chips, but until then, it's good to know I can always get a Plant Kitchen version to help squash my cravings.