Flavourings

Of course, there are all those other assorted store cupboard ingredients you need that add to the taste in cooking but aren’t herbs or spices. They are a bit of a ragbag, but probably principal among them for us are dried mushrooms, notably ceps. Dried wild mushrooms of all sorts can be extremely useful for those months when you can’t get them fresh. They may not have the texture of the original when rehydrated, but they still pack a powerful flavour, and the soaking water makes a useful stock.

Also fairly indispensable are some olives, usually stoned black, and those pungent little flavour-bombs, capers. Buy the latter packed in salt for an infinitely superior flavour to the brine-packed ones. Tamarind concentrate is also a useful flavouring to have, the intense sweet-sour fruity flavour being useful for curries and lots of Eastern dishes.