The Perfect Pantry

Kasha/buckwheat groats (Recipe: kasha varnishkes)

The Ninecooks World Cuisines Cooking Group — yes, nine of us! — gathers in my kitchen every six weeks or so, to explore the cuisine of a different country or region.

This week, we were off to western Russia, with recipes from Moldavia, Byelorussia (aka "White Russia"), and Georgia. And, though most of the recipes were new to me, I included one from my own family's heritage: kasha varnishkes.

Kasha is buckwheat kernels that have been stripped of their inedible outer coating and crushed into smaller pieces, and then toasted in oil to bring out the nutty flavor. While many people think that buckwheat is a cereal grain, it's actually a fruit seed related to rhubarb and sorrel.

Oregano (Recipe: posole)

In the 1960s, I was in high school, and I was cool.

I had long hair, bell-bottom pants, love beads. I listened to Phil Ochs, played guitar, marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. I edited the school newspaper, where I published Lawrence Ferlinghetti poems and artsy photos of trees. On Saturdays, I worked at a "real" job on the city's big-time newspaper, where I learned to write obituaries and a consumer help column ("My clothes dryer exploded and the store where I bought it won't take it back. Can you help?").

And I smoked oregano. Once.

A friend gave it to me as a joke, and we decided to try it. (I admit that I tried the other stuff, too, and yes, I inhaled.)

If I'd been a cook, instead of a trying-to-be-hip high school kid, I would have put that oregano to much better use.

Green tea (Recipe: honey and lemon green tea cupcakes)

In August, my dear friend Rika and her family visited from Japan. They live in Mihama, a tiny fishing village on the west coast, a couple of hours by train from Kyoto. Though Rika had been to visit us years before, this was the first trip to the US for her husband and three children, and it was the highlight of our summer.

After a whirlwind of sightseeing in Boston and an all-too-brief stay in Rhode Island, they went on to see a bit more of America, leaving behind memories, photos, and green tea — in tea bags! — which I promptly added to The Perfect Pantry.

Pearl onions (Recipe: root-vegetables-with-beef stew)

When Ted and I first started dating, a hundred million years ago, he seduced me with a very romantic dinner of beef bourguignon. Chunks of beef, mushrooms, pearl onions, red wine sauce....

One bite, and I was smitten. (Truth? I was smitten long before that, but I'm not sure he knew it.)

I've never made beef bourguignon, and Ted's never made it again, either — after all, he got the girl — but over the years we've experimented with many variations on beef stew.

The only thing I don't like about making stew is peeling the dozen or more little onions that, for some reason, absolutely have to be in there. My eyes start to burn, and the onion skins get stuck to my skin. I love Ted, and he loves stew, so we've both struggled for years to peel through the tears.

Honey (Recipe: honey gingerbread cookies)

Do bears really love honey, or was that just Winnie-the-Pooh's thing? And what about honey bears? Do they love honey, too?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Pilaf noodles (Recipe: rice pilaf)

If these pilaf noodles and I were dating, I'd be embarrassed to say this:

"I've been buying you for years, but until last week, I never knew your name!"

Oh my.

The packaging — in French which, sadly, I do not speak — calls them Cheveux d'Ange (angel hair). After a market tour and cooking lesson with Georgette Hallak, owner of Hallak Middle East Market in North Providence, I now know that their proper Arabic name is chayreyé. I can't pronounce it correctly — I can't pronounce it in French, either — but at least I no longer have to say "hey you pilaf noodles" when I want to get the noodles' attention.

Ground coriander (Recipe: peanut dip)

Once upon a time...

(Our granddaughter Sabina knows that all good stories begin this way.)

Once upon a time, the Sultan Schahriah, who had caught his sultana cheating on him, resolved to marry a different woman every day — and to have her beheaded on the following morning, so no wife could ever get the chance to be unfaithful to him again.

(Sound familiar? It's the premise of The Thousand and One Arabian Nights.)

Scheherezade, daughter of the Grand Vizier, begged to become his next wife, so she could put a stop to this nonsense. To forestall her own death and the death of any other unlucky bride, she crafted a story-within-a-story so intriguing that, night after night, the Sultan spared her life.

In one tale, she told of a merchant, childless for forty years, who was "cured" by a love potion containing coriander. And though this story was very old (the tales were first published in Arabic in 850 AD, from stories handed down through generations before that), Scheherazade might have gotten the idea from the Chinese, who for thousands of years had used coriander as an aphrodisiac.

Reduced-sodium soy sauce (Recipe: salmon fried rice)

Light, dark, thick, sweet.

Tamari, shoyu, mushroom, shrimp.

Black, green. Chinese, Japanese.

Kecap. (Ketchup?)

Are you confused? Is the distinction in name only, or are different kinds of soy sauce really different?

And is there one perfect soy sauce for the perfect pantry?

Vanilla extract (Recipe: ice cream chocolate chip cookies)

Chocolate and vanilla, the culinary Romeo and Juliet: grown in different areas of the world, stored in different parts of the pantry, but they find a way to be together in the end.

All the great chocolate desserts — ice cream, brownies, cakes and cookies — depend on vanilla to enhance the chocolate flavor. The Aztecs may have discovered this synergy, but the first people to spread the word were Spanish conquistadors, who got hooked on a chocolate drink flavored with vanilla at the court of Moctezuma, and sent vanilla pods back to Spain.

Onions (Recipe: French onion soup)

Soup week comes to an end.

When you think of a pantry, what comes to mind?

Tins of tuna?

Cans of Spaghetti-O's?

Big boxes of cereal from the big-box store?

For me, pantry means any ingredient used frequently in the creation of other dishes. Beans, pasta, sugar, flour, spices, oil, vinegar, vanilla, mustard and mayo — all belong in a cook's pantry. I stock frozen items, too, like peas and pearl onions, that feature in recipes for stews and soups. And there are the perishables that I use in many of my recipes: lemons, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, yogurt, garlic, and onions.