At The Essential Ingredient, we believe winter is a food-lover’s dream. Sure, it’s colder, darker and often much harder to get out of bed, but winter is also a wonderful opportunity to embrace some warming, comforting seasonal cooking.
Winter is the perfect time for hearty soups, steaming bowls of risotto, rich pasta sauces and all manner of slow-cooked masterpieces, and with the high-quality seasonal ingredients available in Australia, it’s also the ideal time to try something new.
A trip to your nearest The Essential Ingredient store, with our carefully-selected, internationally-sourced food products and our professional-quality cookware, can help inspire your winter kitchen.
Here are a few suggestions using some of our most popular products:
- Try a goat-shank tagine with preserved lemon and Spanish Mancha saffron, served at the table directly from the tagine. Graupera terracotta cookware, manufactured in Spain and available from The Essential Ingredient, can be used on gas or electric stoves and make creating rich, flavoursome casseroles and tagines simple. They also look beautiful, so there’s no need to get your serving bowls dirty.
- Using quality rice can mean the difference between a good risotto and a spectacular one. The Essential Ingredient’s imported Italian Vialone Nano or Carnaroli rices make it easier to avoid the mushy mess lesser grains can become. For a rich, complex flavour, try adding a combination of The Essential Ingredient’s dried funghi to your risotto; chose from porcini, trompete des Maures, chanterelles and others.
- Home-made pasta is simple, versatile and perfect for a cold evening, and the best results come from using 00 Grade flour, available from The Essential Ingredient. Create your own custom winter taste with home-made ravioli filled with a combination of other winter treats, such as braised rabbit and leek, potato and rosemary, or mushroom and red wine.
- Bring a touch of the Mediterranean to your winter with our imported Spanish La Dalia paella spice mix. Pick up a paella pan for best results and avoid burning the bottom of your paella, or leaving undercooked grains of rice in the centre. We also stock semilargo Perlado paella rice, the Spanish-grown short-grain rice used in traditional paella.
- A winter meal isn’t complete without a hot, rich dessert, oozing melted chocolate. Lindt Couverture from Switzerland, available at The Essential Ingredient, gives you the unmatched flavour and versatility for which Swiss chocolate is known. For a memorable finish to your dinner party, serve a chocolate fondue (simply combine carefully melted chocolate with an equal quantity of Crème Fraîche) with a selection of high-quality dried fruits.
Visit your nearest Essential Ingredient store for more winter inspiration. Our staff are on hand to help you find exactly what you need.
What are your favourite winter creations? Have you tried something new this winter? Leave a comment below and let us know.
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**The Essential Ingredient stores stock a large variety of food products, cookware, kitchen equipment and culinary books. To confirm the availability of a particular product, contact your nearest store before you visit.**
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