Waitrose & Partners have a series of new products in its Cooks’ Ingredients range. Presenting a host of new shortcuts and ingredients to help home cooks experiment with key culinary trends, new to the range is a cuttlefish ink. This is a supermarket exclusive, which is a popular ingredient in risottos and pasta. Similar to squid ink, it gives dishes a distinctive black hue and subtle briny flavours, which work particularly well with seafood, is great in paella, risotto, pasta and even pizza dough. Cuttlefish Ink is £3.50/90g. Other items in the range include Barbecoa Seasoning.
A common Mexican cooking technique, barbacoa traditionally refers to steam-cooking food underground. More recently, the term has applied to slow-cooking meats for use in tacos and tortillas. This versatile spice blend is a mix of smoked paprika, ancho chilli, Mexican oregano, chilli, chipotle and cloves. It also works just sprinkled over a steak. Also new is Tinga Seasoning, a smoky seasoning hailing from Central Mexico, which is made with ancho chilli, chipotle, tomato, cumin and lime.