Cooking with what you have

Now that we are all home and cooking up a storm, there is a surge of people trying new recipes.

There is also a plethora of live cooking videos. I follow a bakery in London that is doing some lovely live demos  and I noticed the comments are either praise for their products or desperate pleas for how to get by when they don’t have an ingredient.

After seeing all these cries for help, I thought I’d offer a list of substitutions you can use in the kitchen. Things that will help in case you couldn’t find something at your local grocery store when you did get out, or if you found a recipe you like but you don’t want to go out again (and you shouldn’t – do stay home.)

I wanted to share virtually since we can’t be together in the kitchen, so I hope you’ll consider this my way of offering a hand.

First of all, how about some conversions? Maybe you have an app on your phone, but in case you don’t, there is a wonderful reference on a site called Cookie Rookie. 

She offers plenty of details about equivalent amounts in Imperial (cups and teaspoons) and Metric (millilitres and grams). She also includes temperature conversions for your oven (in Europe they use Celsius – if you use that number in Fahrenheit, your dish will take forever to cook).

Pan size equivalents are there, too and they come in handy for baking cakes and loaves.

Secondly, a few tips about terms used that you might not know:

• Convection or fan oven: this is a setting some ovens have that uses a fan to distribute the heat more evenly. It works especially well when you want to brown and/or crisp what you are cooking. If you don’t have this setting, don’t worry, you can still achieve success. You might just cook a pie or loaf of bread an extra five minutes to brown the top crust if you like.
• Silicone mat or parchment paper: these are used to help things not stick to your baking pan, and using them means you might not grease a pan (with some cakes, the recipe might still say to butter parchment placed in the bottom of a pan). They are useful to cut down on the fat and make clean up easier. One piece of advice: when cooking bacon, use tin foil and then parchment on a pan, not silicone. Any burned bacon fat is almost impossible to clean off silicone mats.

And now for some ingredient substitutions. This is the meat of the matter, right? First a few chemical recipes to transform everyday items:

• Buttermilk: for 1 cup buttermilk, add 1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup. Fill to 1 cup with milk and let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. (FYI this doesn’t really work with non-fat milk)
• Baking powder: for 1 tsp baking powder, substitute ¼ tsp baking soda + 5/8 tsp cream of tartar
• Baking soda: ¼ tsp baking soda = 2 tsp baking powder
• Baking chocolate: for 1 ounce or square of unsweetened baking chocolate, melt together 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder + 1 tbsp butter.
• Pumpkin spice: (this one isn’t chemical, just a blend) 1 tsp pumpkin spice (sometimes called “mixed spice” or “pie spice” = ½ tsp ground cinnamon + ¼ tsp ground ginger + 1/8 tsp ground allspice (this is a spice, not a blend) + 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• Self-raising flour: this is flour with baking powder added – to make 1 cup, use 1 cup MINUS 2 tsp all-purpose flour + 1-1/2 tsp baking powder + ½ tsp salt

Run out of something? Or perhaps someone you cook for is allergic? Try these alternatives when baking.

• Sour cream or thick yogurt (Greek style) can be a substitute for buttermilk, or each other, in equal proportions. 
• Applesauce or mayo can sub in for eggs; 1 egg = ¼ cup applesauce or 3 tbsp mayonnaise. You can also use 1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water instead of 1 egg.
• Corn syrup is the same as golden syrup. You can substitute light molasses in equal proportions. In the same vein, treacle is the same as molasses; or you can use maple syrup instead.
• Coconut oil can be used in place of butter or margarine, in equal proportions. Be mindful of its form – liquid coconut oil is like melted butter. If your recipe calls for just soft butter, chill your coconut oil to the right consistency.
• Fresh herbs versus dried? 1 tbsp fresh is the same as ½-1 tsp dried, depending on how flavourful/old your dried stuff might be.
• Seeds can be substituted for nuts. Pumpkin seeds work great in or on carrot cake instead of walnuts or pecans, tahini (made from sesame) can sometimes work instead of peanut butter. 
• No yeast for bread? Make a sourdough starter (link: https://amzn.to/3dk488P ) It will take a few days to get going, but you’ll love the taste of what you make.
• Don’t have the right kind of sugar? For 1 cup brown sugar, you can use 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 tbsp molasses. If you need icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar) you can try blitzing your granulated sugar in the food processor – this works to help it dissolve better, for say a cake frosting.

The real key here is to think positive and be open to new ideas. If you are interacting with others in a virtual group, get their input to broaden your horizons.  You can also follow your nose and your palate.

Maybe a spice blend you have in the cupboard will be just the thing to jazz up that chicken you’re cooking or the dip you’re making for chips with your next Netflix binge. 

We can’t head over to the neighbour’s and ask to borrow a cup of sugar or a dash of cinnamon, but we can make do.

Who knows, maybe after this is all over, we will be more likely to get to know the neighbour? Or perhaps we will just ask Amazon to stock cinnamon. 

Happy cooking at home. 

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.