Make Better Pantry Meals With Theo Michaels
Getting the most out of canned and jarred cupboard staples comes down to technique.
Theo Michaels wrote Cypriana, Orexi!, and Rustica to share recipes inspired by his Greek Cypriot roots. But his latest cookbook, The Kitchen Cupboard Chef, zooms in on the pantry, making the most out of canned and jarred staples like beans, tinned seafood, and shelf-stable vegetables.
In our conversation for this week’s episode of The Dinner Plan podcast, I begged him for pantry organization advice. “If you’ve got all your canned tomatoes, put them in one column,” he says. “When you add to it, keep putting them in front of the other one so when you look at that cupboard, you can sort of go, right, that’s my tomatoes. That’s my soups.”
Otherwise, he warns, “It’s just a mosh pit of canned mayhem.”
(Picture me, waving at you from my mosh pit of canned mayhem.)
The recipes in this new book are simple, but Theo’s full of smart tips for helping your pantry stash really shine. Take the canned mushrooms he uses in a risotto:
“The thing is, mushrooms in general store a lot of liquid.” Even when you’re cooking with fresh mushrooms, “you want to get rid of all that extra moisture because that’s just diluting flavor. And canned mushrooms,” Theo says, “they’re like the sinking ship of mushrooms. They have absorbed loads of water.”
He opts to press them—the way you’d press canned or frozen spinach, to “literally, physically expel the water from them…Put them in a sieve, weigh them down, push them out, get rid of the water.” Then he fires up a pan on high heat with plenty of oil, letting them spit and spatter until the moisture starts to disappear. That’s when you’ll start to get some caramelization in the sear, and “that’s where we’re suddenly going to get the flavor of mushrooms.”
Theo’s been on TV quite a bit, first on MasterChef and regularly on BBC Morning Live, but perhaps the most memorable of his appearances were the series of live cookalongs he hosted with his kids during the spring of 2020.
I asked him if he had any advice for making cooking with kids actually enjoyable for everyone involved. His answer: “Absolutely not.”
“Let’s make no bones about this,” Theo laughs: “This is going to be traumatic for everyone involved.” He describes the experience of the cookalongs as “carnage.”
One minute, you’re telling your kid not to lick the bowl. “And then you turn around,” Theo says, “And when I watch the video back, it’s just like, he’s in there doing it. His hand is, like, scratching his bum. And then you see him mixing stuff.”
Still, while Theo warns that it’s not going to “be unicorns and rainbows,” he feels that teaching a kid to cook is one of the best things you can offer them.
Tune into the full episode for the number one lesson Theo has learned as a chef, and the ingredients he always stocks in his pantry now for quick, improvisational meals at home.
Got some canned beans on hand already? Scroll down for Theo’s recipe for Greek-style butter beans baked in a rich tomato sauce. Theo likes to add a little feta on top: “I can annihilate a bowl of that with a bit of nice bread,” he says, “It’s so incredibly simple to make, it’s so frugal to make, and it’s just utterly delicious.”
Win a copy of The Kitchen Cupboard Chef
There’s nothing more affordable than shopping your own pantry, and The Kitchen Cupboard Chef will show you how. This week, we’ve got one copy to give away.
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Theo mentioned:
Theo’s Spanakopita parcels
Thai-style rice noodle salad (Theo added steak)
Raymond Blanc’s Chicken Fricassée
Vefa Alexiadou’s Greece: The Cookbook (Bookshop here)
Raymond Blanc’s Foolproof French Cookery
Larousse Gastronomique (Used on AbeBooks here)
From the ad break:
Heyday Canning Co.: Get 20% off Saucy Bean variety packs with code DINNERPLAN20
Made In Cookware: Head to madein.cc/dinnerplan to unlock your discount offer.
Aunt Fannie’s cleaning supplies are available on Thrive Market and Amazon
Maggie mentioned:
Lamb and sausage ragu from The Four Seasons of Pasta by Nancy Harmon Jenkins and Sara Jenkins (Used on AbeBooks here)
The Dinner Plan’s Cookbook Hall of Fame
A NOTE FROM OUR SPONSOR
You know LaBelle Patrimoine for their exceptional heritage breed, pasture-raised chickens. But did you know they recently introduced Ancestral Blend Ground Chicken, which which mixes in a little organ meat for even more savory depth?
Try it in meatballs or quick tacos, or cook it up with goat cheese and aged cheddar for a delicious cheesy dip.
Greek Gigantes Plaki
Excerpted with permission from The Kitchen Cupboard Chef by Theo Michaels, published by Ryland Peters & Small.
These giant baked beans in tomato sauce are a firm favourite throughout the Aegean. In my book Orexi! I included an indulgent recipe for this dish, slow-cooked dried beans, lazily simmering away over an entire afternoon, but these will be good to go within the hour! A great alternative if you are pushed for time. A nice touch is to crumble some feta cheese over the top just before serving—its tangy saltiness complements the sweet tomato sauce really well.
Serves 2 as main; 4 as a side
1 onion, diced
a splash of olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ tablespoon coriander seeds, crushed
1 teaspoon paprika
10½-oz can sliced carrots, drained
1 tablespoon tomato purée
14-oz can cherry tomatoes
14-oz can butter beans, drained
½ teaspoon sugar
a few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 350°F/160°C fan/180°C/Gas 4.
In a heavy-based, ovenproof frying pan/skillet, fry the onion in a splash of olive oil for 5 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in the cinnamon, crushed coriander seeds and paprika followed by the carrots, and then mash with a potato masher—this is quite easy and quick. Add a splash more oil if needed but keep on the heat, and add the tomato purée, can of cherry tomatoes including all the juices and the butter beans. Using the cherry tomato can, fill it halfway with water, swirl and pour that into the pan (this will be about 250 ml/1 cup water). Finally, season generously with salt, pepper and the sugar and place the whole pan into the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Once done, remove the pan from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes before serving. If it’s too thick, add a little water to loosen. Serve hot or at room temperature, with a final drizzle of olive oil and freshly chopped parsley scattered over the top.
I loved every minute of this ep. I could listen to him talk all day!
Excited to listen to this!