Cooking with The Flying Apron
Have you found yourself spending more time in the kitchen lately? Are you looking for a few tips to make your latest dish stand out? Have you ever wondered how the pros cook at home? Join us for our new blog series as we talk to chefs and producers around the province to find out what they’re cooking at home.
For our first blog, we talked to Melissa Velden from The Flying Apron Inn & Cookery to learn some of their best practices for cooking at home. With people spending more time at home lately, Melissa shared how you can make meals that will not only highlight your local ingredients, but make ingredients last longer and assist with fewer trips to the grocery store!
Make sure to stop by the Flying Apron to experience how they feature local ingredients first hand at the restaurant beginning Saturday, June 6th as they reopen for reservations, walk ins and takeout!
Buy versatile, local ingredients
Using ingredients that can be used in different ways will help keep your grocery list affordable and reduce waste. Use whole or large cuts of meat and poultries by using different cuts for different meals. Whole chickens can be roasted, made into chicken salad, or enjoyed as stuffed breasts. Even the bones don’t go to waste, as you can make chicken stock from the carcass.
Similarly, seafood is a sustainable option. Nova Scotian lobster can be served whole, in a lobster pasta and the shells can be used to make bisque. Sustainable salmon can be served pan-seared, in salmon cakes, or in a salmon salad.
Other recommendations from the Flying Apron include local bacon (for breakfast, BLTs, chopped bacon in salads, etc.), sauerkraut (to serve with sausages, as a topping, in sauerkraut soup, etc.), and any local dried beans, soups, ham or sausages.
Use what you have
It’s the perfect time to use the ingredients that have been in the back of your fridge or pantry for too long.
“Chickpeas can be used in a salad, in a curry, as a base for a soup or for making hummus. We had an excess of milk early on so we made Indian Paneer as that recipe uses lots of milk to make the cheese,” says Melissa.
Having trouble figuring out what to make? On our recipe page, you can search by ingredient (perhaps ones you’ve been neglecting) to find a recipe.
Eat your leftovers
With reduced trips to the grocery store or bulk orders from online Farmers’ Markets or local producers, it’s important to make the most of what you cook.
“Cook in large batches so you have leftovers. Freeze what you don’t need now for later,” says Melissa. This way, you can eat more with less.
Try new things
Branch out in the kitchen and try something you’ve never done before.
“The willingness to try new things and give new techniques a try is key in the kitchen,” Melissa explains. “Buttermilk and nutmeg are my secret ingredients. We use buttermilk or sour cream as a substitute for milk and it gives so much more moisture than just milk.”
Make sure to stop by the Flying Apron to experience how they feature local ingredients first hand at the restaurant beginning Saturday, June 6th as they reopen for reservations, walk ins and takeout!