The Perfect Pantry

Rice paper wrapper (Recipe: fresh Vietnamese salad rolls)

Every now and then, I realize that some people must confuse food writing with food styling. Why else would anyone, anywhere, ever think that I'd be good at making Vietnamese salad rolls? I'm a writer, not a wrapper.

Goi cuon (or nime chow, the Cambodian name that's more popular here in Rhode Island) are fresh (not deep-fried) spring rolls, typically filled with rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, lettuce, mint, cucumber, shredded carrot, and sometimes shrimp or pork, enveloped in a rice paper wrapper and dipped in nuoc cham or peanut sauce. Can you imagine a more elegant way to eat a salad?

Called banh trang in Vietnamese, the translucent wrappers contain ground white rice and water, and sometimes a bit of added tapioca flour; they are pressed flat, steamed, and dried in the sun on bamboo mats, which gives them a distinctive basket-weave pattern, before being cut into circles and packaged. Available in 8-inch, 5-inch and quarter-round sizes, the wrappers are brittle, and quite thin. They do get stale, so try and buy from a market or online vendor that has a lot of turnover.

Popular in Vietnamese and Thai cuisine, banh trang are practically tasteless and thus a good vessel for almost any type of filling. Grilled shredded barbeque chicken and arugula, tempura vegetables, steamed salmon with fresh herbs ....well, why not a hot dog with all the fixings?

Like me, you may create a few torpedoes before finding your salad roll groove, but remember this: if every roll comes out exactly the same size and shape, who will know that you made them by hand?

GOI CUON/NIME CHOW (fresh Vietnamese salad rolls)
Make as few or as many as you wish. With the components cooked, shredded and chopped, and stored in the refrigerator, assembling these restaurant favorites takes only a minute. Serves 6 or more, depending on what else you serve.

1 package rice vermicelli
1 package rice paper rounds

1 dozen cooked and cooled medium shrimp, optional

1 cup shredded carrots
1 cup shredded cucumber (European seedless cukes work best)
1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
Large handful of mint leaves
1/4 lb mung bean sprouts

Nuoc cham, for dipping

Fill a bowl with hot water. Soak the rice vermicelli for 15 minutes, until flexible. Drain. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the rice vermicelli, and cook for 45 seconds. Drain, rinse under cold water, and drain again. Set aside. Make sure all of your components are prepared and laid out on your work surface. Cut the cooked shrimp lengthwise through the center to make 2 flat halves. Leave mint leaves whole.

Spread a clean dish towel on the countertop in front of you. Fill a large shallow pan with hot tap water. Take one rice paper round and submerge it in the hot water for 20 seconds or until it is pliable. Transfer to the dish towel. Working quickly, take a small bit of rice vermicelli and place it in the bottom third of the round. Top that with a small amount of lettuce, carrots, cuke, bean sprouts, 2 halves of shrimp and a couple of mint leaves. Fold the bottom up over the filling. Fold the sides in, and roll to the top. Place seam side down on a plate, cover with a damp cloth, and continue until you have made as many salad rolls as you wish. They can be stored in the fridge covered with a damp cloth for up to an hour before serving. Serve with two sauces: nuoc cham and Chinese peanut dressing.

Fish sauce (Recipe: nuoc cham)

When you taste something wonderful in a restaurant, and you ask for the recipe, and the owner himself shares the recipe with you — and you've written it down, so you won't leave anything out — you expect to be able to recreate that wonderful taste in your own kitchen.

So why did it take me years to make nuoc cham, the mother condiment of all Vietnamese cuisine, that tastes like it does in a restaurant?

The answer is in the fish sauce, and, as I discovered, all fish sauce is not created equal.

Asian fish sauce, made from anchovies, salt and water, is called nuoc mam in Vietnam, and in Thailand, nam pla. It's salty, and smelly, and indispensable in Vietnamese and Thai cooking, where it plays the role soy sauce plays in Chinese cookery. The quality and taste of fish sauces vary widely, and I tried many before I found one that yielded the taste I was seeking.

Three Crabs brand is the one I've been using for years. It's a bit different from other fish sauces available in my Asian supermarket, because it contains fructose, which makes it sweeter and also smoother than the naturally processed brands. To me, all that matters is that Three Crabs makes authentic-tasting nuoc cham, an all-important condiment and dipping sauce for salad rolls (see tomorrow's post) and noodle salads.

Oh...it's great in other Asian recipes, too.

NUOC CHAM (Vietnamese dipping sauce)
Keeps in the fridge for a month or more. Makes 1-1/2 cups (approx.).

1/2 tsp chili paste with garlic (Lan Chi brand is best)
2/3 cup hot water
1/4 cup sugar (or less, to taste)
1/4 cup fish sauce (use Three Crabs brand with pink label to achieve best flavor)
Juice of 1/2 lime

Place all ingredients in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake!

Seasoned salt (Recipe: baked potato wedges)

Little-known fact: My mother did not invent seasoned salt.

I always wondered about that. Seasoned salt — specifically Lawry's brand — was the main spice in her kitchen and she put it on everything: tuna steaks, beef steaks, lamb chops, burgers, chicken breasts. Seasoned salt livened up almost every meal, and I loved it. I still do.

In 1938, Lawrence L. Frank and Walter Van de Kamp co-founded the original Lawry's The Prime Rib restaurant in Beverly Hills, and created Lawry's seasoned salt to flavor their famous prime ribs of beef. For years I had Lawry's on my spice rack, until I discovered Penzeys Spices.

Penzeys' seasoned salt is hand-mixed from salt, sugar, paprika, onion, turmeric, garlic, and spice extractives (including oleoresin of paprika, black pepper, celery, rosemary and thyme). Oleoresin sounds chemical, but it's not; it's simply an oily extract. Lawry's Seasoned Salt has a few more ingredients — no MSG, but it does have cornstarch, an anti-caking phosphate, and soy lecithin.

Penzeys now has a seasoned sea salt called 4/S (special seasoned sea salt), made with the same ingredients as the regular, but substituting coarse sea salt and extra bold black pepper for the standard S&P. I love the fresh flavor and the fact that there's more going on than just salt; you actually can taste the pepper, onion and other spices.

The words "seasoned salt" conjure up two taste memories for me: my grandmother's beef brisket (which gets rubbed in seasoned salt before browning and braising), and the lamb chops my dad used to cook on the grill. Reason enough to give this spice blend a place of honor in my kitchen.

BAKED POTATO WEDGES WITH SEASONED SALT
Here's a side dish that's good for picnics, or at any time of year. From Bon Appetit, June 2000. Serves 8.

8 large russet potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp seasoned salt

Preheat oven to 450°F. Cut each potato lengthwise into 8 wedges; toss in bowl with butter, oil and seasoned salt. Arrange in single layer on 2 baking sheets. Bake until tender and golden, turning potatoes and rotating sheets halfway through baking, about 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

Grandanina couscous (Recipe: vegetarian couscous with dried fruit)

When I first moved to Rhode Island, potluck ruled. It seemed like every weekend was another potluck occasion, and the pressure to come up with new dishes was intense (and entirely self-inflicted).

In our first full summer here, Ted and I offered to host a party for our local arts organization. We figured it would be a good way to meet people, so we sent out invitations and I started cooking for a huge buffet dinner that we planned to serve outside under the pear trees. The invitation asked everyone to bring a beverage to share — and their favorite bug spray. No potluck. Well, this caused a stir in our little community! No potluck? Indeed!

A few years later I learned how to turn grandanina couscous into a perfect potluck dish, and now it's always in my pantry.

Grandanina is a medium-size coarse ground couscous with a nutty flavor, made of durum wheat. Couscous often is called pasta, as it's made from the same ingredients, and in this dish you can substitute orzo, a small torpedo-shaped pasta, or Israeli couscous, which is a slightly larger grain, the size of tapioca pearls. I buy grandanina couscous at The Gourmet Outlet in New Bedford (Massachusetts), the retail arm of Sid Wainer & Son, wholesale purveyor of fine foods to restaurants, airlines, hotels and corporations all over the US.

Couscous originated in North Africa, and is prevalent throughout the cooking of Mediterranean cultures, often as a base for stews. So it's particularly appropriate that this recipe uses both apricots and orange, which are also cultivated throughout the hot climates of North Africa. I've brought this dish to many a potluck, but I also use grandanina as a thickener in soups, a base for stews, and in hearty salads.

VEGETARIAN COUSCOUS WITH DRIED FRUIT
This colorful and healthy recipe from chef John Verrier at Sid Wainer & Son serves 6 as an accompaniment to grilled chicken, fish or pork. One year for Thanksgiving, I bought a boneless turkey breast and stuffed it with this couscous, then glazed the outside of the turkey with pomegranate molasses. It looked like a giant football, but it tasted amazing.

2 cups Grandanina pasta or Israeli couscous
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 red onion, cut in half and sliced very thin
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 cup each dried apricots and dried cranberries, diced
8 oz orange juice

In a medium stock pot, cook couscous in water according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

While the couscous is cooking, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan. Saute the garlic, red onion and green pepper until the onions are soft, about 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Put in a serving bowl. Add dried fruit. Add the cooked, drained couscous. Pour in the orange juice, and keep stirring until thoroughly mixed and the liquid is completely absorbed. Serve warm or room temperature.

Pie crust (Recipe: old-fashioned apple pie)

When I was growing up, my family didn't "do" dessert. I don't mean that we didn't eat it. We did, but dessert in our house meant one of two things: fresh fruit, or coffee-chip ice cream by the quart from Grunings, our local ice cream parlor.

There was no in-between.

And so, there was no pie, no making of pie crust, no learning how to criss-cross the lattice.

Eventually I learned to make a pie while working on an article about Little Brothers/Friends of the Elderly, an international community service organization that, among other programs, provides holiday meals to home-bound elders. It was November 1994, and I found myself in the kitchen with Rene Morrissette, the man in charge of getting hundreds of turkey dinners with all the fixings prepared, packed, and delivered by volunteers on Thanksgiving morning to more than 700 "old friends" in greater Boston.

A man who has to make 150 pies doesn't mess around with homemade crust, though he was a master baker who loved to do the from-scratch thing at home. No, Rene was a pragmatist who didn't want to sacrifice quality for quantity. He introduced me to Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust, which General Mills introduced to the marketplace in the mid-1950s.

Pie crust transforms humble fillings into quiche, empanaditas, calzones and samosas, and refrigerated pie crust occasionally transforms me into a baker. With both Canada Day and July 4th approaching, I'm planning menus, grocery shopping, and thinking I'll make a dessert that's as American as apple pie.

OLD-FASHIONED APPLE PIE
The classic. Serves 8.

1 package Pillsbury pie crust (2 crusts)
7-8 large tart apples, such as Granny Smith (or a mix with Empire or Macoun)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3/4 cup sugar
1-1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 8 small pieces
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 Tbsp water)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Press one pie crust into a 9-inch glass pie pan. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples, and toss in a large bowl with the lemon juice. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cornstarch, and stir into the apples. Spoon the apple mixture into the bottom crust, and dot generously with the butter. Paint the edge of the crust with a bit of the egg wash, or with water, and place the top crust over the apples. Press down lightly, and crimp the edges (make sure there’s a good seal). Using a sharp knife, make a small hole in the top of the pie. Brush the top crust with egg wash, then make 4-6 slits in the crust. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake 40-45 minutes. Apples should be tender and the crust a deep golden brown. If the crust is becoming too brown during baking, cover the edges with an aluminum foil "collar." Let cool on a rack for 1-2 hours before slicing, to allow the juices to set. Serve at room temperature.

Black pepper (Recipe: barbecued brisket)

Question: Why is black pepper worth its weight in gold?

"The history of the spice trade is essentially about the quest for pepper," Jill Norman answers in Herbs & Spices: The Cook's Reference. "Peppercorns and long pepper from India's Malabar coast reached Europe at least 3,000 years ago; trade routes were fiercely protected, empires were built and destroyed because of it. In 408 AD the Goths demanded pepper as part of their tribute when they laid siege to Rome; later, pepper was traded ounce for ounce for gold, and used as currency to pay rents, dowries, and taxes."

Today pepper is, in volume and value, the most important spice in the world. India and Malaysia produce the best black pepper varieties: Malabar, Tellicherry, and Sarawak. From Indonesia we get Muntok, considered the highest-grade white pepper. Brazil and Vietnam also contribute to the world supply.

More than any other spice in my kitchen, black pepper gets a workout every time I cook. (In the photo above, you'll see the three black peppers in my pantry: whole Tellicherry peppercorns, spicy cracked Sarawak, and coarse-ground Tellicherry).

For years I bought into the "fresh ground" way of life. I tried one pepper mill after another — the pretty ones that don't grind, the ugly ones that do, and the French ones that, like all things French, manage to look impossibly beautiful while getting the job done. In the end, I chose the affordable Oxo pepper mill with a clear glass reservoir and adjustable grind (Oxo has stopped making these, though you can find some on the market with different contents). I have several — one for black pepper, one for white, one for green — so I can see easily which is which, and which needs refilling.

A few years ago I discovered Penzeys coarse-ground Tellicherry pepper. I buy 8-ounce bags for less than $6.00, and keep a working supply in a lovely recycled mayo jar. With four cooking groups and countless friends and family using the pantry, that jar empties every few weeks.

And, honestly, I love the look of coarse-ground pepper in my food.

PEGGY'S BARBECUED BRISKET
This recipe came to me from my friend Mary's sister Peg a decade ago. I think it's based on a Lee Bailey recipe, but to me it's always been Peggy's incredibly delicious, crowd-pleasing, never-fail, knock-your-socks-off brisket. Serves 12, at least, and can be made ahead.

9 lbs flat-cut beef brisket, in one or two pieces, most fat removed
1 tsp minced garlic (good quality from a jar is fine)
1 tsp celery seeds
3 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground ginger
4 large bay leaves, crumbled
12 oz tomato paste
1 cup dark soy sauce
½ cup Worcestershire sauce
1 cup tightly packed dark brown sugar
2 medium onion thinly sliced
1 bottle beer

Preheat oven to 350°F. Trim brisket and rub all over with the garlic. Combine celery seeds, pepper, ginger and bay leaves, then rub into all sides of the brisket. Mix the tomato paste, soy, Worcestershire and sugar, and smear this all over the meat. Score the fat side of the brisket and place the onions on top, and place the meat in a heavy nonstick high-sided roasting pan. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Cook for 4 hours.

Open the foil to expose the onion-covered top, and cook for another hour. Remove meat to a heated plate and keep warm. Place the roasting pan on the stovetop over medium-high heat, and degrease sauce with some beer until the sauce has reduced to a pleasant consistency. [Note: Improves if cooked a day ahead; refrigerate in the sauce, and slice cold.] Serve at room temp or reheat.

Red wine vinegar (Recipe: beet-cucumber relish)

Last April, after a cooking class in my kitchen for the 16 women in my friend Laura's book group, I found two large unfinished bottles of wine, one red, one white. I'd read about making wine vinegar by simply exposing wine to air for at least three weeks, so I popped the corks, marked VINEGAR on each bottle, and let them hang out in the kitchen.

It worked!

Red wine vinegar, the go-to vinegar in French cuisine and a popular choice for salad dressings everywhere, is made from matured red wine, so it stands to reason that the better the wine, the better the vinegar. When the ethanol in the wine is allowed to oxidize, or is in contact with a starter (yes, just like sourdough bread), it forms acetic acid (vinegar).

You can buy good red wine vinegars in any market. Cooks Illustrated conducted a tasting of ten brands, and discovered a couple of supermarket vinegars, including Pompeian (above), that passed muster with their two dozen testers. I have both homemade and store-bought in the pantry.

My homemade vinegar started life as a 2004 Beaujolais Villages, but a few weeks into the process, I added another bit of leftover red wine, and then, a few weeks later, a cup of yet another vino. So now my vinegar is a mutt — a mildly acidic, pleasant blend, perfect for my summer panzanella and the chutney we make when our pears ripen in the Fall. I'll decant most of my vinegar into another bottle and cork it to stop the oxidization, but I'll leave a quarter cup in the bottle to act as a starter for the next batch.

BEET-CUCUMBER RELISH
Wayne Hansen, our local organic farmer, brought two varieties of baby beets to market this weekend. These first-of-the-season beets were the size of chocolate truffles — a harbinger of the beautiful striped Chioggia, Golden Globe, Detroit Dark, and cylindrical beets to come later in the summer. This recipe makes 3 cups of relish, a perfect accompaniment to grilled chicken, salmon or flank steak.

4 large or 6 medium beets, scrubbed, peeled, and diced
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
10 scallions, minced
2-1/2 cups red wine vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp minced fresh dill weed
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in a stainless steel or other nonreactive saucepan over low heat. Stirring occasionally, cook uncovered for 45 minutes, or until the beets are easily pierced with a fork. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. Relish will keep for 7-10 days, or, while still hot, pack into sterilized jars and process in a boiling-water bath for 20 minutes.

Chipotle peppers in adobo (Recipe: spicy skirt steak)

Cruising the aisles in a local Latino market some years ago, I spied Frida Kahlo, sitting on a shelf.

I steered my grocery cart in for a closer look. Not Frida after all, I realized, though she holds the kind of mythic place in the art world that Elvis holds in the music world, and people claim to see Elvis in the supermarket all the time.

No, it wasn't Frida. 'Twas the lovely señorita on a can of La Morena chipotle peppers in adobo sauce who had caught my eye.

Chipotles (pronounced chee-POT-lays) are smoked jalapeño peppers, originally from Mexico and used extensively in the cuisines of Mexico and the southwestern United States. The husky flavor of the chile hints of chocolate and coffee, and the adobo sauce, originally used as a preservative, typically contains tomato puree, paprika, salt, onions, oil, vinegar, garlic, bay leaves and oregano.

In the hands of a creative cook chipotles in adobo spice up tacos, salsas, even molés. Chicago uber-chef Rick Bayless, in Mexican Everyday, adds the sweet heat of chipotles in adobo to a balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing. In The Global Grill, one of my all-time favorite summer cookbooks, Kathleen Sloan offers a marinade made from chipotles in adobo and frozen lemonade concentrate. For me – not a pork person – the smokiness of the chipotles takes the place of ham hocks in bean soups and stews.

If you prefer smoke without fire, scrape the seeds and ribs from the chipotles in the same careful way you'd approach a fresh chile pepper. Wear gloves, don't rub your eyes, and wash your hands after handling hot chiles.

Store unused chiles in a plastic container in the refrigerator; they will keep for months. And when you've used all the chiles, save the leftover adobo sauce. Julia Shanks of Interactive Cuisine gave me this idea: mix 1 tsp of adobo sauce with 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, a tsp of chopped fresh cilantro, and a bit of chopped sweet onion, to make a spicy tartar sauce alternative that's great on everything from crab cakes to turkey burgers.

SPICY SUNDAY SKIRT STEAK
An assertive marinade! Grilling the steak accentuates the smoky flavor of the chipotles, but this recipe tastes great made under the broiler, too. Serves 6.

2 chipotle peppers in adobo
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1/4 cup orange juice
Juice of 1 lime
3 Tbsp brewed coffee
1-1/2 Tbsp honey, or more to taste
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp Mexican oregano
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
pinch of kosher salt
1-1/2 lb skirt steak
2 green peppers, sliced in 1-inch slices
2 large onions, sliced in 1-inch slices
1/4 cup olive oil

Combine first 10 ingredients in a blender, and process until well incorporated. Place skirt steak in a flat, high-sided, nonreactive (glass, ceramic or stainless steel) dish, and pour on the marinade. Turn the meat a few times to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4-8 hours.

Heat grill to high heat. Remove steak from marinade and dry. Brush grill lightly with vegetable oil. Grill steak for 5 minutes per side. Let meat rest before slicing. While the meat is resting, toss peppers and onions with olive oil, and cook on the grill until evenly charred. Serve with sliced steak, with salsa and warm tortillas.

Allspice (Recipe: garlic chicken on skewers)

Do you think it's easy deciding where to start?

I was this close to logic and predictibility, beginning at the beginning with the quintessential pantry items: salt and pepper. And then, this morning, the universe sent me a sign. Two signs, actually.

First: While Ted was watching the World Cup soccer matches on TV, I entered all of the pantry items willy-nilly into a database on my computer, and kicked out an alphabetized list of more than 200 items that are always in my fridge, freezer, spice rack and cupboards.

Top of the list? Allspice.

Hmmm.

Second: We'd vowed to "eat down" our pantry and leftovers this weekend, so i needed to forage. In the freezer I discovered a deeply-buried package of Empire kosher chicken breasts (another pantry staple). On the counter sat a couple of lemons that were a day away from relegation to the compost bucket. I always have garlic, and olive oil, and allspice. In my kitchen that adds up to one thing: garlic chicken on skewers.

Hmmm.

Until I decided to try my hand at food writing, I'm sure I'd never ever bought allspice, nor did I have a clue about how to use it. However, my desire for the recipe for the absolutely heavenly garlic-lemon-allspice chicken kabobs made by Elias "Louie" Aboujaoude at Cedar's Restaurant in Boston propelled me into a food writing career, so perhaps it is the best place to begin our pantry exploration.

Within a week of moving to the South End more than 25 years ago, Ted and I settled ourselves at a window table at Cedar’s to watch our new neighborhood stroll by. For the first few months, we tasted our way up and down the menu of traditional Lebanese dishes, moving from the familiar shish kabob and falafel to kibbie bi syniyeh and kufta balls.

Then we discovered the garlic chicken, listed on the menu as “#25 chicken on skewer,” and life changed forever. We began to have garlic chicken cravings, and to bring friends to the restaurant to taste the dish and help us figure out the ingredients. In my own tiny kitchen I began to experiment. Each attempt was, as they say, “close but no cigar.”

By July 1993, I’d been tasting and trying to recreate Cedar’s garlic chicken for 13 years (at two skewers per serving, that’s more than 400 skewers!). I knew the time had come to ask for the recipe, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. And then it occurred to me that others also might like to learn the secret. Wouldn’t it be fun to share recipes, and stories of the lives of neighborhood cooks, in the local newspaper?

So that's how I became a professional food writer.

And that's why there's always fresh ground allspice in my pantry.

The dried berry of the evergreen pimiento tree, allspice, native to the West Indies and Central America, was discovered by Christopher Columbus — who thought it was pepper, hence its Spanish name, pimienta. Subsequently it became known as Jamaican pepper, because most of the best quality crop grew there; the English gave it the name "allspice", because it mimics the aroma of several spices, including cloves, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. According to Herbs & Spices by Jill Norman, "allspice is the only important spice that still comes almost exclusively from its region of origin — which also makes it the only one grown almost exclusively in the New World."

Today the majority of the world allspice harvest goes to the food industry, for use in commercial ketchups and other sauces. Allspice is an essential ingredient in jerk spice blends, barbecue sauces and rubs, chutneys, and sausages. Bakers often incorporate it into spice cakes. The whole berries add important flavor to the pickling spice mix I use for my half-sours every summer.

SHISH TAOUK (GARLIC CHICKEN ON SKEWERS)
Serves 6-8.

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2-4 cloves garlic, sliced, plus 4 cloves mashed (or from a jar)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil

Wash chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Cut into 1-inch pieces. Add remaining ingredients, and mix well (with your hands). Marinate, covered or in a zip-loc bag, in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours, or overnight.

Heat grill to high. Place chicken on skewers, or on a barbecue grid, and cook over direct heat for 10-15 minutes, turning frequently. Serve with rice or in pitas, with chopped iceberg lettuce, tomato and cucumber.

Introduction

 

In an imperfect world, can there really be a perfect pantry?

Of course not.

So what's this blog all about, and who am I to be writing about "perfection"?

My name is Lydia Walshin, and I'm a contributing editor and food writer for Rhode Island Monthly, a big glossy magazine in the smallest state in the US. My column, Local Flavor, explores food and equipment sources, local products, farms and fishing, shops and chefs. I learned how to cook by watching Julia Child on television; by hanging out in my grandmother's kitchen, I learned why we cook — to feed our families, to give joy to our friends, to strengthen our communities, to share with those in need.

My husband and I live in a log house in the woods, where we have a kitchen large enough for groups of friends and family to come and cook together. In fact, as I write this, I should be setting up the kitchen for the arrival later this morning of the Wednesday Lunch Group, one of four cooking groups of adults and kids that have been meeting in my kitchen every 5-6 weeks for the past five years, to try new recipes, improve their skills, and giggle.

Every group starts with Pantry Raid, a menu featuring four recipes that each rely on one great item from a well-stocked pantry: balsamic vinegar, frozen raw shrimp, puff pastry shells, instant couscous. And I start that first cooking session by handing out a list of The Perfect Pantry, including dry, wet, frozen, preserved, and concocted basics that I use over and over again.

A bit subjective, you say? Uh-huh. What's perfect for me will not be perfect for you, and each group proves that by adding its own bits of perfection (instant coffee, yes, though whipped cream in a can will never be part of my personal perfect pantry). We're not talking about semi-homemade anything, by the way. Pantry items are the staples that enhance the best fresh ingredients, and make great cooking possible.

When I first set about creating The Perfect Pantry checklist for Ninecooks' cooking groups, I realized I had to justify every item on the list, which made me think about why it's in my pantry, and how I use it.

And that's what this blog will share with you, one condiment, one spice, and one package of rice noodles at a time.

Please share your own favorite recipes as we explore each pantry item, and let me know what's in your perfect pantry.