THE TRAVEL LARDER
Sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn't it? The word 'travel' evokes images of out-and-about, and the word 'larder' evokes images of stay-at-home. Well, what happens when you have booked a holiday in which you need to go out-and-about in order to stay-at-home? A fabulous self-catering villa, for example, or a space-challenged canal boat holiday?
This is what the Travel Larder is all about: a supply of low-maintenance, fabulous ingredients, just sitting in your holiday cupboard waiting for you to make culinary magic for your ravenous friends and family.
I'm a fresh, fresh, fresh kind of girl when it comes to food shopping. I can play happily in a fruit & veg shop with as much delight as children take over a ball-pond. But there's nothing quite as dispiriting as returning home from a holiday and discovering that your fresh greens have turned to sludge browns, and your dairy products have blue/grey mold pointillism effects dotted across them.
Enter the Travel Larder: a useful concept at home and away. I am going to list for you my favourite Travel Larder ingredients, and how you can use them. You may want to have them in your home for your arrival back from holiday; you may want to make them the substance of the first shop in your holiday location; you may want to make them the substance of a food shopping order, if your holiday villa provides such a thing. Depending on where you are travelling to, you could also pack many of these items, sealed in zip-lock bags to avoid potential spills. If you're flying, check to make sure what you can bring with you, and if anything is liquid, it has to be 200ml or less in your carry on luggage.
Life would be a lot easier with a small portable food processor, if you're interested in travelling with electricals, but it's not essential. I use a Moulinex Multi Moulinette which is a small food processor about the size of a woman's shoe. I bought it when I needed to blend baby food on holiday, when my children were small. I'm still using it, 23 years later; it's gentle little puuuurrrrr is quite reassuring.
N.B. I do think it's worth pointing out that I don't often see salt & pepper available at food establishments in Italy; maybe that's a regional thing. I wonder if maybe adding condiments is considered the chef's job in the kitchen and not the responsibility of the customer in the restaurant. If your family is dedicated to salt, pepper, and sugar the way mine is, then this trio tops the list of essential larder ingredients.
THE TRAVEL LARDER INGREDIENTS:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Always extra virgin. I know that more sophisticated larders have a variety of oils of different strengths and weights. If I had to choose one from the shelf it would be extra virgin, because I'd miss the flavour if I used anything lighter for drizzling.
Balsamic Vinegar
If I can get my hands on it, I love white Balsamic vinegar which I find more versatile in dishes where you don't want red staining, but red balsamic is still pretty versatile. If all you can find is Balsamic Glaze this is still a treat to have in your armoury of larder ingredients.
MARIGOLD brand Swiss vegetable bouillon powder. I first heard about this in a Nigella Lawson cookbook. If I don't have access to the major flavouring team of onion/garlic/carrot/celery then I sprinkle this bouillon powder instead. Consider it a powdered form of soup base, which it is, and it makes a super hot drink for family members toying with the idea of coming down with flu on holiday. (I'm not sponsored by MARIGOLD; I just like their product). I use it in quick pasta sauces, soup, and sprinkled on meat, poultry and fish before cooking.
Tinned tomatoes (with a flip top lid). If you're a chunky food person, buy chopped tinned tomatoes. If you're a smooth food person, buy passata, which is the pureed version. Chopped tomatoes can always be broken down into smooth, but smooth can't be made chunky again so really have a think about how you're going to be using them before you choose. Or get both. Go crazy. I tend to buy plain tomatoes, not in seasoned oil or with herbs; it limits my creativity.
Dried Pasta
Small pasta shapes can be used in soups and light salads, and for young children. Medium sized pasta shapes can be used for the same recipes as small pasta shapes if you bash them about a bit, and they can also be used for chunkier sauces like ragus and cheese dishes where you might have preferred a larger noodle, but if you're being minimalist then go for a middle-of-the-road sized noodle. No matter what size you buy, they stand a good chance of being bashed about on your travels anyway....
Tinned/Jar Cooked Vegetables
I'm quite conservative in my preserved foods choices as I dread opening a jar of something in marinade and finding a throat-clenchingly harsh liquid infusing the contents. Vegetables preserved in oil just taste richer to me, but are no more effective than foodstuffs in water or brine, although higher in calories. The following can be served plainly as an antipasti, blitzed in a food processor with stock powder for a quick dip, blitzed with liquid stock for a quick pasta sauce, and lobbed into a vat of meat or poultry for a healthy stew. Personally, I've never met a happy tinned carrot but I'm sure they're out there, somewhere.
Grilled peppers, artichoke hearts, pitted olives, aubergine, roast onions, spinach
Beans & Lentils
Cooked Cannellini Beans: are great in salads, soups, and served hot mashed with olive oil and garlic.
Cooked Puy Lentils: Merchant Gourmet does a lovely foil packet of cooked Puy lentils which I noted are prepared in exactly the same way that I would cook Puy lentils, so I may never cook Puy lentils from scratch again if I can find a steady supply of these.
Cooked Chickpeas: whole or mashed, they are very user-friendly.
Packet Rice
Microwaveable brown, wild rice, quinoa and mixed grain rice packets are very handy for soups, salads, in casseroles, mixed with the above vegetables, and plainly cooked on their own.
Dried Fruit
Lemon & Ginger herb tea bags elevate ordinary dried fruit to another level if you steep the fruit in the herb tea for a bit. Annabel Karmel came up with this idea in her cookery books for children. I have seen grown men weep when handed a bowl of poached dried apricots in a lemon & ginger tea reduction, with a dollop of something dairy in the middle. Pretty much all dried fruit poaches well with the exception of dates, which go all crumbly and yucky and are much better stuffed.
THE TRAVEL LARDER RECIPES: 'Recipes' is a bit of a pretentious word for the following....
Olive oil + vinegar in separate dishes = dip for baguettes
Tinned/jar cooked Mediterranean vegetables drizzled with oil and vinegar = antipasti
Olive oil + vinegar + tinned tomatoes + stock powder = pasta sauce
Olive oil + vinegar + pureed cooked Mediterranean vegetables = pasta sauce
Olive oil + vinegar + tinned tomatoes + liquid stock = tomato soup
Cooked cannellini beans + white Balsamic vinegar +olive oil = dip, served hot
Cooked lentils + cooked vegetables + olive oil = salad
Packet rice + cooked vegetables + olive oil = salad
Dried fruit poached in herb tea, or served plainly = pudding ( I haven't had much success using dried apple rings in this way I should point out; try apricots, figs, raisins, prunes, sultanas)
See how much you can do with this tiny little dry goods larder? Takes up about as much space in your luggage as an inflatable swan. Or a games console. Or a teddy bear. Please try to ensure you have room for both. I wouldn't want to be the parent stuck for luggage space, having to decide between bringing a tin of grilled mixed peppers or a games console, or teddy; it's just not fair.
Now, if after packing you find you have space left over, throw in a few of the following, and take things to the next level:
Small tinned ham, chicken, or fish
Anchovies, sardines, or capers if that is your thing and you like tang in your meals
Garlic puree or minced jar of garlic. Use sparingly unless your holiday destination is remote. These products are powerful and concentrated.
Part-baked wholemeal baguettes. These are so nearly part of the core Travel Larder because it is hard to imagine holidays without them, but if you didn't have them you could actually survive. But they are so nice.
Isn't it nice to know that you can feed a family on holiday without access to fresh dairy products, fresh meat, fresh fruit & veg, or ketchup? If you had to. This is such a help when you arrive at your holiday rental and discover the shops are all shut for a local bank holiday, or early closing, or late opening, or whatever life throws at you.
And always bring some chocolate. There is very little in life that can't be improved by a square of chocolate.
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