What to have in your Store Cupboard

ÿWhen entertaining at home it is always important to have your store cupboard stocked up with all the necessities to cook most meals. Non-perishables can be brought at any point in your shopping trips, you never know when you might need them and you will always find it handy to have these ingredients available.

• Canned tomatoes can be used for many dishes, and many other ingredients can be added to them. They are now available ready-chopped and also with herbs. Make sure you buy good quality ones as they are richer in flavour. The cheap ones can be quite watery and can even ruin a meal.
• Cans of tuna can be used in many ways and keep well. They also come in different dressings, spring water, sunflower oil and brine. Tuna can be added to a lot of dishes like pasta, salads and sauces. Other fish are also good to stock up on like crab, salmon, mackerel, sardines and anchovies.
• All sorts of beans are now also available which you can make many salads with. They save you time as you will not have to be soaking raw ones. Some that you will find are butter beans, kidney beans, chilli beans, white kidney beans and chick peas.
• Canned fruits can be very handy, they come either in natural juice or syrup depending on what the dish is you're going to be serving.
• Dried breadcrumbs can be helpful for coating and binding food. If you don't have a blender to create your own they can be the easier option.
• A good selection of dried fruit and nuts. You can now buy dried apricots which need no pre-soaking. Nuts are useful for garnishes and decorations. Hazelnuts are available ready chopped and roasted in bags ideal for adding crunch and flavour to many dishes.
• Stock cubes now come in many flavours like lamb, vegetable, chicken, beef, pork and even spiced ones for oriental dishes.
• Oils come in many flavours infused with other ingredients including chilli, herbs and garlic. For healthy meals and salads use olive oil and extra virgin. For frying and deep fat frying sunflower oil would be best.
• Vinegars are usually cheap and keep well, red wine, white wine, cider, tarragon, malt and even raspberry.
• Dried herbs and spices can be very useful. In learning flavour combinations you can always add a few of these together.

Having essential equipment will speed up your preparations and cooking processes. A food processor has so many uses and it will rapidly chop onions, herbs as well as chopping vegetables, grating cheese, make purees and blend soups. A food processor will save you time when preparing meals if your having guests over.

All these ingredients and cooking equipement can be so vital to getting meals right, if your having a barbeque for instance your going to need a quality product like the Weber Performer to ensure your cooking is top quality or other possibilities are the Weber q320 and the Weber Ranch Kettle.

Make the right choices when buying equipment as cheap quality ones will not last you well, it is worth spending that bit more.