What’s more, it uses many of our favourite ingredients from The Essential Ingredient Mexican collection, available from your nearest store and online.

You can serve the beef, salsa verde and coleslaw together as a complete meal, or leave them in bowls on the table with a hefty pile of tortillas or taco shells and let everyone build their own dinner.

Chipotle Beef
2 kg Wagu gravy beef
3 x Chipotle in Adobo, plus the sauce from the can (more if you like it hotter!)
2 teaspoons Mexican oregano
1 x can crushed tomatoes
2 brown onions diced
3 cloves garlic crushed
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Dice beef into rough 3-4 cm cubes and season with salt and pepper.

Heat approx. 50ml olive oil in a heavy based fry pan or casserole and brown the beef in batches.

Remove the browned pieces of beef and set aside.

Add a little more oil to the pan used to brown the beef and reduce the heat a little. Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft and translucent.

If using a slow cooker, warm it, add browned beef and onions and garlic, tin of tomatoes and roughly chopped chipotle and sauce. Turn up heat of slow cooker to high and bring to a slow boil.

If using an oven, preheat oven to 160, add remaining ingredients to cast iron casserole pot and add lid. Put pot in oven.

Then, for either cooking method: After approx. 1 hour reduce heat to low setting and cook for around 3 hours until with the lid on and then a further hour with the lid off (to reduce the sauce). The beef should be luscious and fall apart when you stir. Taste again for seasoning.

Serve with warmed corn tortillas, salsa verde, slaw, hot sauce and lime wedges.

Salsa Verde
794g tin of Tomatillos
1 x fresh Jalapeno
1 x small white onion chopped
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper.
½ bunch coriander chopped

Add all ingredients into a food processor and mix until no lumps are seen – around 1 minute.

Slaw
¼ purple cabbage
¼ white cabbage
100ml Japanese mayo
Salt & pepper
Juice of 2 limes
1 bunch red radish
½ bunch of picked coriander leaves

Using a mandolin or grating attachment in your food processor to shred the cabbage. Slice the radish into thin rounds.

Add the cabbage, raddish and picked coriander leaves to a salad bowl.

Pour over mayonnaise and lime juice, season with salt and pepper and toss to combine.

That’s why when we discover something new, we can’t wait to share it.

To our range of Exotic Peppercorns that has already proven very popular, we have added the remarkable Java Long Pepper.

This richly spiced pepper, distinguished by its catkin-like shape and size, is a native of Java,
Indonesia.

It has earthy aromas, sweet notes of nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and cardamom with strong eucalyptus flavours in the mouth – delicious with red meat in particular, and good at holding its own in strongly-flavoured dishes like a curry or a tagine.

It’s also often the pepper of choice in sweet recipes, for poaching pears or adding to whipped cream.

Long pepper can be finely crushed in a spice grinder, cracked in a pestle and mortar, grated like nutmeg or added whole to sauces to infuse its flavours.

One sniff of this remarkable pepper and you’ll be swept away to somewhere exotic. Imagine what it could do for your favourite dish.

The Essential Ingredient Java Long Pepper is available now from our online store, and also at selected locations. Contact your nearest store for more information.

When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs in the 16th century, they attempted to impose on the locals the ingredients and techniques of their empire. Due to the difficult South American conditions, and the existing agricultural nous of the locals, only aspects of the conquering cuisine stuck; chief among them, farmed animals such as pigs, cows, sheep and chickens.

Today, Mexican cuisine is so inexorably linked to the culture that surrounds it that UNESCO has added it to its list of items of ‘intangible cultural heritage’.

Of course, the influences of the Mexican cuisine have spread far beyond the country’s borders, with the South American flavours, ingredients and techniques being adopted around the world. Some find contemporary riffs and culinary fusions, while others adhere strictly to the traditions of the classic dishes.

However you prefer it, The Essential Ingredient has a large range of Mexican ingredients available across Australia.

Among the quality Mexican products are our range of whole dried chillies:

Ancho chilli: a sweet and smoky flavour, reminiscent of plums and sundried tomatoes. Perfect in soup, stews and salsas.



Chille de Arbol: A searing heat and a subtle smokiness.

Guajillo Chilli: Delicately mild, with delicious scents of dried berries and green tea. Perfect for sauces, salsas, stews and more.

Pasilla Chilli: A medium-hot chilli with notes of raisins, cocoa and tobacco that is a traditional ingredient in many Mexican sauces.

Chipotle Chilli: Smoke-dried jalapenos that add a meaty depth to stews and soups.

The Essential Ingredient also stocks many of the harder-to-find Mexican ingredients that you may come across in a recipe. Chipotle Chillies in Adobo sauce are a staple in Mexican stews and salsas, but are also perfect added to mayonnaise and slathered over freshly grilled corn.

Tomatillos have a fleshy centre and a uniquely tart flavour that is essential in a traditional Mexican salsa verde.

Our range of flour and corn tortillas are soft, fresh and perfect for countless dishes. If you prefer to make your own, however, we’ve got the yellow corn masa flour you’ll need for that too.

A selection of The Essential Ingredient’s Mexican products are available for delivery to anywhere in Australia through our online store. For an even greater selection, and to speak to our expert staff, visit your nearest store.

Ingredients:
800g lamb, finely minced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp dried mint
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Sea salt and white pepper
2 tbsp olive oil, for frying
½ bunch flat leaf parsley, picked, chopped, to garnish
1/3 bunch coriander, roots removed, picked, chopped, to garnish

Sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
3 medium onions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 long green chillies, deseeded, sliced
6 vine-ripened tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
10 strands saffron
2 cinnamon sticks
½ tsp cayenne pepper
Sea salt and white pepper
500ml chicken stock
8 small free-range eggs
6 pickled artichokes, in oil
150g goats’ cheese
View conversion table

Preparation:
To make the meatballs, in a large bowl, combine the lamb, onion, parsley, mint, cayenne, salt and pepper. Mix well. Using wet hands, take a tablespoon of the mixture to form a walnut-sized ball. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil, add the meatballs and cook until brown. Drain on kitchen paper.

To prepare the sauce, heat the oil in a heavy-based casserole dish. Add the onion and garlic. Sauté until the onions are translucent. Add the chilli, olive oil, tomato, cumin, coriander powder, saffron, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt and pepper. Stir well. Add the stock, stir, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until it has reduced to a very thick gravy.

Add the meatballs to the sauce and continue cooking for a further 10 minutes. Carefully break the eggs into the sauce, add artichokes and goat’s cheese. Cook, covered, for 5 minutes or until the eggs are just set.

Garnish with the parsley and fresh coriander. Serve with Arabic bread to mop up the runny egg yolks. Alternatively, serve with plain buttered couscous and a dollop of thick natural yoghurt.

A large range of quality spices and spice mixes- including the Malouf’s Spice Mezza range- are available for The Essential Ingredient stores and online.
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Learn how to cook the perfect steak, how to bone a chicken and more in our collection of Essential Ingredient videos…

Authentic pan sauces capture the flavour of the meat it will be served alongside, including any marinades, herbs, crusts or stuffings, and even the flavour of any vegetables cooked alongside.

Once your meat leaves the pan, whether it has been roasted, grilled or pan fried, a collection of darkened meat juices should be left behind, often stuck to the bottom of the pan.

These deposits, known as ‘sucs’ (from the French word for ‘juices’) are made up of caramelised sugars, carbohydrates and proteins, and are full of concentrated flavour.

Generally, non-stick cookware does not create the same result, the juices instead burning into lumps at the bottom of the pan. For this reason, most chefs prefer to use aluminium or stainless steel trays and pans.

The best way of collection and utilising these juices is with the classic technique known as ‘deglazing’, and it couldn’t be simpler.

HOW TO DEGLAZE A PAN

First, remove the meat and any vegetables from the pan. The meat will need to rest, and this will give you ample time for sauce-making.

Next, remove as much of the rendered fat from the pan as you can. With some pans or trays this can be done by carefully pouring off the top layer, though usually it is far easier (and far less messy) to remove them with a spoon.

Choose an appropriate liquid. Your choice will depend on the type of sauce you wish to create, and every chef has their own preference, but options include wine, vinegar, stock, verjuice or a spirit.

Adding this liquid to the pan, still over heat, helps you to scrape all of the caramelised material from the bottom of the pan. Use a wooden spoon, wooden spatula or whisk for best results.

This resulting liquid, known as a ’fond’ (French for ‘foundation’) can be passed through a sieve and served as it is, once seasoned to taste.

Alternatively, this fond can be used as a base for many other sauces, whether by adding flour, corn flour, butter or cream.

It can also be reduced to create a rich jus.

As with every other cookery technique, the finished product is only as good as the ingredients that go into it. The Essential Ingredients stocks a wide variety of vinegars and verjuice from around the world that are perfect for deglazing (we recommend a good red wine vinegar for beef!), as well as the highest quality roasting trays and frying pans.

Find quality stainless steel frying pans, verjuice, whisks and more in our Online Store, or visit your nearest Essential Ingredient store to find out more.

Flawlessly set with exquisitely matched plates, cutlery, glassware, implements of service and more, the table is a thing of beauty long before the food arrives.

The Essential Ingredient holds these traditions- and the philosophies governing them- dear, stocking a wide variety of traditionally-inspired pieces of tableware.

In many cases, these pieces are still produced in the areas and by the companies responsible for their original creation.

For example, The Essential Ingredient’s collection of white-handled cutlery is not only manufactured in the ‘Old English’ pattern, but is produced in the town of Sheffield, the home of English cutlers since the early 1800s.

The English table has, of course, evolved over time, with trends appearing and disappearing.

The Edwardian era brought with it the emergence of highly decorative china, often gilded with gold, that reflected the indulgent fashions, cuisines and entertainment of the time.

It wasn’t until the 1990s that the popularity of this colourful tableware began to subside, largely in favour of the sleeker and more informal and ubiquitous white china.

Open a food magazine today, however, and you will see the re-emergence of colour and decoration across the table, as we forgo sleek simplicity for bolder statements.

It seems we are embracing elegant tea and coffee services as we further enhance our appreciation of better coffee and quality teas.

Our collection of fine Vista Alegre porcelain from Portugal captures this return of colour, with elegant tea and coffee services and gold-rimmed fine china plates and bowls.

Of course, we also appreciate the understated, classic simplicity of white china, with a large collection of quality pieces, including beautiful cake stands and china platters perfect for serving high tea or petit fours.

The hand-painted Gluggle Jug

The home of decorative china tableware in England has always been Stoke on Trent, with its many producers of hand painted china plates, tea services and table accessories.

From the same factory that created and produced the famous Toby mugs (colourful faces on small, decorative mugs), The Essential Ingredient now stocks a collection of ‘gluggle’ water jugs.

These highly decorative, hand-painted jugs are produced make a whimsical ‘gluggling’ sound as the water pours from the delightful fish-shaped vessel.

Your guests will be entertained with the renewal of playful childhood memories when they see Gluggle jugs return to the table.

Whether you simply want to add a touch of colour to your table or are keen to recreate the full traditional spread, The Essential Ingredient has all the inspiration you need to create your own English table.

A selection of Sheffield cutlery, Vista Alegre fine porcelain, white china and Gluggle Jugs and more are available for delivery around Australia from our online store or, for the full range, visit your nearest store.

Cassonade is one such ingredient. This raw cane sugar has long been a secret of French desserts, and is now yours to use in Australia.

Produced to retain enough molasses to ensure consistent toffee results, then carefully dried into fine, free-flowing grains, this exceptional sugar is simply perfect for baking.

Sprinkle a thin layer on top of your crème brûlée and flambé with a gas kitchen torch for a crisp, glossy, golden toffee.

Cassonade sugar can be used to the same remarkable effect on any pastry, providing a sweet, golden crunch with nuts, fruit, custard or any other component of your baking repertoire.

Saint Louis has been producing quality sugar products in France since 1831, perfecting their processes and providing professional and home cooks alike with sugar for every purpose.

For quality French cassonade sugar in Australia, contact your nearest The Essential Ingredient store or buy online today.

A free-flowing powder made from the glucose-reduced and spray-dried egg whites of quality farm-fresh eggs, egg white powder has many advantages over fresh.

Egg white powder is commonly used in baking, found in recipes for pavlova, meringue, soufflé, curd, marzipan, icings, ice creams and sorbets.

Save on waste when a recipe calls for ‘egg whites only’. One tablespoon of egg white powder combined with two tablespoons of water creates the substitute for a single egg white. No yolk wasted.

What’s more, it’s always on hand. Egg white power does not require refrigeration and features a shelf life infinitely greater than that of fresh eggs.

Egg white powder can even assist in reducing cholesterol and fat in recipes that traditionally call for whole eggs, such as quiches, muffins and cakes, and as a negative for salmonella bacteria, it’s also safer.

The Essential Ingredient’s Egg White Powder is a completely natural product with the convenience and low cost storage characteristics of a powdered product, plus the whipping and aeration properties of fresh egg whites.

Even Adriano Zumbo’s extremely popular macaron recipe specifies the use of egg white powder, due to its more reliable stiffening qualities.

Get reliable results, waste less food and make your baking better for you with The Essential Ingredient Egg White Powder, available at your nearest The Essential Ingredient store, or buy online for delivery to anywhere in Australia.

Tip: Try using The Essential Ingredient Egg White Powder in your tempura batter.

Use this red curry paste with fresh seafood, organic poultry (duck is particularly ideal) or seasonable vegetables.

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Ingredients:
15 red chillies medium, dried
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp mace
1 tsp white peppercorns
½ cup shallots or onion, peeled & diced
8 garlic cloves, peeled
2 lemongrass stalks, tender inner core only, finely sliced
1 Tbl galangal, peeled & diced
2 Tbl coriander root, cleaned & scraped
1 Tbl lime zest
1 tsp salt
2 tsp shrimp paste, roasted (see note)

Method:

1. Snip the ends of the chillies & shake out excess seeds. Place in a bowl & cover with boiling water. When softened (this will take approximately 15 minutes) chop very finely.

2. Place the coriander seeds & cumin seeds in a frying pan & gently dry roast for a few minutes until the spices smell fragrant & colour slightly.

3. Grind the roasted spices, mace & white peppercorns in a mortar.

4. Add the remaining ingredients & pound to a smooth paste.

Note:
To roast shrimp paste; wrap the shrimp paste in a few layers of aluminium foil & cook either over a very low gas flame, turning often for about 5 minutes or place in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes.

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About Annette Fear:

In 1995 Annette joined Spirit House as their first Restaurant Head Chef where she created a Thai inspired food style that set the standard for all the Spirit House chefs who followed in her footsteps. Her gift for creating recipes which reflect her deep understanding of Asian flavours put the Spirit House on the Queensland culinary map.

She now runs Spirit House’s cooking school.

Widely traveled in S.E. Asia for over twenty years, Annette delights in imparting her knowledge and love of Asian food to her students. She continues to travel annually to Asia, each time expanding her knowledge of ingredients and repertoire of recipes.

Used ostensibly in Portuguese cuisine and ideal for enhancing the flavours of seafood, the cataplana consists of two metal clam-shells that clamp together creating a tight seal. This creates a cooking environment in which ingredients combine and cook without losing the natural liquids through evaporation.

Previously very difficult to find in Australia, The Essential Ingredient is thrilled to exclusively stock the highest-quality cataplana available, from one of the world’s most beloved cookware manufacturers.

Silampos has been producing stainless steel cookware in Portugal since 1951, and their focus on innovation and quality has remained at the core of their operations.

This Silampos cataplana is generously sized, sturdily constructed and modestly priced. It is stocked exclusively in Australia by The Essential Ingredient.

For a delicious cataplana, prepare a classic sofrito by finely dicing red capsicum, tomato flesh, onion and chilli. Fry it off in the cataplana with a splash of extra virgin olive oil, before adding a diced chorizo sausage. Season with salt and pepper, then add a bay leaf and a few handfuls of fresh, uncooked mussels.

Seal the cataplana and keep over medium heat. After a few minutes, the mussels will be tender and full of flavour, their juice combined with the chorizo and sofrito to create a stock that is perfect with roughly-sliced crusty bread.

Season with roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley and enjoy!

To add a cataplana to your kitchen equipment collection, visit your nearest The Essential Ingredient store today, or buy online for delivery around Australia.

The Silampos Cataplana