THE BIG SWITCH

Don’t panic over scarce ingredients – Xanthe Clay shows you how to be crafty in the kitchen

Scarcity is the mother of invention in the kitchen. As shops run low on staples like pasta, flour, eggs and fresh meat, making supper can feel like a Krypton factor of 10. Time to get clever, and make a few switches. The only caveat is don’t expect a dish to be exactly the same once you’ve made a substitution. Many of them simply aren’t – the recipe will turn out a little bit differently, but not necessarily worse. Maybe even better.

See a recipe as a starting point, and enjoy the fact that you aren’t going to follow it slavishly. Think about the flavours – sweet, sour, salt, bitter, savoury – and add something that matches. Some are obvious: yogurt instead of sour cream, wine vinegar instead of cider vinegar or lemon juice. Onions seem to be in short supply (they are generally imported at this time of year) but leeks have an even better flavour.

Think about what the ingredient is doing in the recipe, too. A handful of grated parmesan in a sauce will add a little richness, but its chief role will be to layer in savoury flavour. So use another hard cheese, but consider adding a dab of Marmite (other yeast extracts are available) or even a sprinkle of soy sauce, both great umami vehicles. The same parmesan on top of a gratin and baked in the oven will add savoury flavour, but just as importantly a rich crispness, so the right substitute is a layer of pangrattato, the southern Italian mix of fried breadcrumbs, salt and garlic.

This could be a time to broaden your repertoire. Look out for freekeh, a Middle Eastern smoked wheat that makes a fantastic alternative to rice or couscous: in fact it’s so good, you may never go back.

Chicken joints have vanished from many supermarkets, so it could be the moment to experiment with more unusual meats. That piece of rosé veal could turn out to be a revelation. Or invest in a whole bird, and look on YouTube for instructions on how to joint it.

I’ve got used to not wasting anything. Parsley stalks go in with meat bones to make stock, or are chopped very finely and used instead of celery, in the classic onion-carrot-celery soup base. Every time I need lemon or orange juice, I start by grating off the zest – before I cut the fruit in half, as trying to zest a cut fruit is messy and frustrating. The zest goes in a jar with a sprinkling of salt (for savoury dishes) or sugar (for sweet baking) – it’ll keep for a good couple of weeks in the fridge.

Improvising and making do, it turns out, is really fun. No one minds if the results aren’t exactly what you planned: you aren’t on MasterChef now. And there is plenty to hold on to when this period is over. My current silver lining is the Ciambellone all’Acqua shared here, a simple, thrown-together cake which is so light it is bound to become my default quick bake. Champion stuff.