Annabel Langbein

It’s time to get creative with the ingredients you have to hand

It It’s hard to believe the world could change so fast. In times of uncertainty like this, I find the kitchen provides a sturdy anchor. One of the brilliant things about cooking is that it forces you to be present and to engage your senses. If you’re in panic mode you can’t focus and it’s easy to cut your finger or burn yourself, miss a step in the recipe or overcook or burn it.

Turn off the news and all your social media threads, put on some cruisy music and get yourself into the kitchen. Cooking is such a soothing and therapeutic activity. Just the smell of something yummy cooking makes people feel nourished and safe.

When I started cooking, I was always a total slave to the recipe, thinking that if I didn’t have the stalk of celery or teaspoon of fennel seed that the recipe called for, it would fail. I now understand that unless I’m baking, there’s so much room for flexibility in any given recipe. Once you understand the principle or roadmap behind a recipe, you can alter “notes” that give a dish its particular flavour profile and texture.

I have chosen three useful base recipes today that you can play around with depending on your pantry and fridge supplies. The first is a Turkish flatbread pizza — a simple pizza base dough made with self-raising flour and yoghurt, topped with a spicy beef mince mixture, salad garnishes, hummus and yoghurt.

You can easily change out the mince for chickpeas and make a spicy chickpea topping. Vary the salad garnishes depending on what you have to hand — this is just about adding a note of crisp freshness. Alternatively, treat the dough like a regular pizza dough and top with the toppings of your choice.

The second recipe is for a cheesy vegetable gratin made with root vegetables and canned beans, which are simmered with aromatics and kale. You can use any kind of root vegetables or pumpkin, swap the beans for canned chickpeas, and use silverbeet or spinach instead of kale.

My third recipe is for baked kumara with a storecupboard salsa topping. You could also do this with baked potatoes, or chunks of baked pumpkin. Once you have baked your starch to tenderness (remembering too that vegetables like kumara, potatoes and pumpkin microwave well if you want to speed up the process) you can fill or top with whatever takes your fancy.

Resourcefulness is the mother of invention, and now is the time to get creative in the kitchen.