JHB West - Feb 22
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The missing ingredient<br />
South Africa’s celebrated All Sorts Cook and bestie in the kitchen,<br />
Chantal Lascaris shares her secrets on quick-fix substitute ingredients –<br />
and the one (maybe two) ingredients you can never ever replace.<br />
“I once made a delicious butter chicken recipe<br />
for a group of friends and left out the rice - by<br />
accident. You can imagine my horror! Don’t<br />
judge. It happens. Even the most experienced of<br />
us in the kitchen can trip up – and that’s okay.”<br />
Cooking, for Chantal Lascaris, has always<br />
been about experimenting with flavours and<br />
different ingredients, and, she says, most<br />
importantly cutting yourself some slack when<br />
you get it wrong.<br />
“As a professional cook, the aim of course is<br />
to not get it wrong as best as you can and so<br />
I’ve learnt over the years how to switch things<br />
up. You may not always have the correct<br />
ingredients in your cupboard – or you may<br />
over spice or under spice a pot of food (or,<br />
hey, leave out the other half of your meal<br />
altogether!). When this happens, we tend to<br />
believe there is no way out. Oh, but there is.<br />
There always is.<br />
“Believe it or not the cooking process comes<br />
with forgiveness. They’re called Substitutes<br />
– and they work. Just when you think you’re<br />
doomed to fail because you’re missing an<br />
ingredient that the recipe calls for, think again.<br />
Most often, you’ll be able to replace a missing<br />
ingredient in the pot with a little something<br />
else that’ll do just as well.<br />
“Parsley. Lime. Walnuts. Even Sumac. They’re all<br />
replaceable. Except garlic. Garlic and – wait for<br />
it – love. In my book, these royal two are THE<br />
only ingredients you can never replace. You’ll<br />
always - always -) need an extra stash of these<br />
lying around, because they matter more than<br />
you think. Firstly, garlic is not only the king of<br />
flavour but its immune boosting properties<br />
are essential to our health. And secondly, love<br />
is the queen of everything.”<br />
Our lives, says Chantal, are incredibly<br />
frenetic. And with a million things to attend<br />
to and business as usual, we hardly have<br />
time anymore to think of dinner or to shop<br />
ingredients. So it’s comforting to know that<br />
more often than not, when there’s something<br />
missing in your bag of tricks, there’s always<br />
another chef’s trick you can reach for.<br />
Chantal’s quick-fix substitutes for missing ingredients<br />
Shallot<br />
Red onion<br />
Parmesan Pecorino Romano (easily available)<br />
Fresh parsley Dried parsley or celery leaves<br />
Nutmeg Cinnamon<br />
Greek yoghurt Double thick yoghurt<br />
Red onion Chives or shallots<br />
Soy sauce Worcestershire sauce<br />
Sumac<br />
Lemon pepper or lemon zest<br />
Lime<br />
Lemon<br />
Bacon<br />
Pancetta<br />
Chilli Flakes Fresh chopped chillies<br />
Corn Kernels Frozen corn or tinned corn or mange touts<br />
Spaghetti Zucchini spirals<br />
Honey<br />
Brown sugar<br />
Walnuts Pecans<br />
Dried Mint Fresh mint or dried marjoram<br />
Love<br />
There is no substitute. Irreplaceable.<br />
Garlic<br />
No substitute. See Love!<br />
20 Get It Magazine <strong>Feb</strong>ruary 20<strong>22</strong>
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