Lets talk about shopping. I get a lot of emails always from people asking me how do i manage and arrange the shopping list all the time so i have the right ingredients all the time in my fridge. So its time to answer all of those questions!!!
Well, ok i need to be honest, no one has ever asked me that question, and i don’t think anyone has ever send me an email about anything other than some advertising spam mails… Nevertheless, i thought it was a nice way to start this blog, so that’s what we will pretend it happened!!!
So, first of all lets make something clear. I work , Monday to Friday usually 9 to 6. So most of the times when i finish work, i want either to go to the local pub or if the weather is bad ( which in London is common) go straight home. What i mean by that is that there isn’t much time or will for shopping , every time…. Which is quite normal i guess everyone has the same feeling…
What do we do?
First! Find the local store that is close to you! Yes that it is important, there must be some local grocery that is close to you that has the vital things. Onions, vegetables, coffee, or whatever else.
There will be some time that you will try to cook something and realize that there is only 1 ingredient that is missing. I hate that moment….but it is good to know that most of the times you can get it really fast.
You don’t wait until the last chance to decide what you want to eat. Programming is everything here. I still have on my mind to cook cod with skordalia sauce at some point in the next week…
The main thing is always to have into your fridge the main ingredients so you can always have the opportunity to create based on them. And what are they? That’s an easy question, fish and meat and some basic vegetables. Nothing ground breaking huh? So lets make it a bit more clear.. Every week, or every second week if i am bored, i always find a chance to go to the local butcher or fishmonger to buy some the main ingredients of what i want to cook in the following days.
Pasta is the easy thing, always have enough for those times that you want something easy. Fish that can be put to the freezer. If not you will have to cook it the same day, as it is always ideal for fish to eat it fresh in order to enjoy them better. But sometimes, fillets can be easily stored.
For example if you have cod already in your freezer then it is really easy to add some small ingredients and cook it rather than going and buying them the same day.
So, take away:
Always make sure to have some basic ingredients in the freezer. 500gr of lamb, 500 gr of beef or pork, chicken breast, is always a good start
But what next? Do we eat it as it is? Of course not. Well, if you have noticed most of the recipes over here, there are some basic ingredients that are always repeated.
- Onions!
- Garlic!
- Tomatoes!
- Olive oil of course
- Feta cheese maybe also?
After that there are some vegetables that are always good to have as they can be used in different recipes or as standalone.
- Aubergines
- Courgettes
So you have those, and you have the basic ingredients for example to cook that or maybe that or a very traditional of that
And then again there are always the famous lentils and the beans. The whole idea behind is that with a minimum of 6-7 ingredients you can have quite a few different recipes and make quality dishes. Obviously if something is missing, you can always improvise and that again is the essence of cooking.
Obviously, there are other things like salt, pepper, oregano and other famous spices used in the Greek kitchen but the point is always to have into your kitchen the basic ones in order to be able to do the rest. That will always make things much easier, when you are at home with a big headache and the weather outside is cold and miserable… then again you could always order a pizza! 🙂 Which i have to admit, i have done a lot of times but… eventually its much more fun to create it by yourself.
