When did you last really clear out your food cupboards?

Not just the tins of beans at the front, but that collection of bizarre edible products lurking in the shadows behind your ketchup.

Our inherited belief that chucking out food is ‘wrong’ can bind us to some odd foodstuffs.

As Judith Wills, author of The New Home Larder (Eden Project Books, £20), points out, we’ll happily chuck away half the contents of our fridge before we touch that bottle of curried fruit from Thailand.

Having ruthlessly transformed her chaotic larder into an efficient storage system, the cook has come up with recipes that’ll help you find a use for all those jars and tins.

Here are just two of her suggestions.

TAPENADE

(Serves 6) 150g black stoned olives; 2tbsp drained and rinsed capers; 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed; up to 5ml robust olive oil.

Blend the first three ingredients in an electric blender with one tablespoon of the oil, then add more oil little by little until you have a black paste, not too runny. Transfer to a container, cover and chill, or serve.

To this basic tapenade recipe, you can add a small can of anchovies, drained, rinsed and chopped, at stage one.

You can also add a dash of lemon juice, and if you have any fresh parsley add two tablespoons, finely chopped, after blending.

Tapenade is a superb dip or starter served with crusty bread. It is also good thinned down with some olive oil as a salad dressing, or will work as a pasta sauce.

CHICKEN SATAY WITH PEANUT SAUCE

(Serves 4) 1 small to medium whole chicken; lime juice (optional); coriander leaf (optional).

For the marinade: 1tbsp soya sauce; 1tbsp runny honey; 1tsp each ground turmeric, cumin and coriander; 2 cloves garlic, well crushed; 2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated; juice of 1 lime; 1tbsp groundnut oil.

For the sauce: 5tbsp crunchy peanut butter; 1tsp Thai red curry paste; 120ml coconut milk; 2tsp soft dark brown sugar; juice of half a lime; handful coriander leaves, chopped (optional).

Cut each chicken breast and leg into two so that you have eight pieces and remove much of the skin.

Pierce the chicken pieces several times each with a knife and put them in a shallow glass or china bowl.

Mix all the marinade ingredients together and stir into the chicken. Leave it for at least two hours.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200°C.

For the sauce, place all the ingredients, except the coriander, in a small pan and bring to a simmer. Cook for a couple of minutes, until thickened, stirring occasionally, then set aside.

Transfer the chicken pieces to a roasting tray with the marinade and bake for about 30 minutes until golden.

Serve with the peanut sauce (stirring in the fresh coriander if you like) and some Thai fragrant rice.