The Perfect Pantry

Bookworm across the sea

Men are bookworms, too! Meet Ian, of Yorkshire Deli, who shares his reading list as this week's Bookworm in the Pantry (see his recommended food-related non-cookbooks, over there on the right). Ian's charming blog chronicles the evolution of his dream — to open a café. If you've ever fantasized about owning the perfect little eatery in the perfect town in the perfectly beautiful Yorkshire Dales (and who hasn't?), then settle in with a cuppa, and read about everything from choosing furniture to sampling foods from the area's many purveyors.

UPDATE. Ian recommended:

• Floyd in the Soup
• The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones
• An Omelette and a Glass of Wine
• Chocolat
• La Cucina

We'll have a new Bookworm every Saturday, at least through mid-May.

Want to be a Bookworm in the Pantry? Start here.

Roasted unsalted peanuts (Recipe: tofu with peanut sauce)

Whew. I almost forgot: March is National Peanut Month.

If it weren't for George Washington Carver, we wouldn't have a peanut month; in fact, we probably wouldn't have a peanut industry in the United States.

Peanuts originated in South America, where Spanish and Portuguese explorers discovered these legumes and brought them on trade voyages to Africa. With favorable climate conditions, peanuts grew well in Africa and became important in many local cuisines, and so they came back across the ocean to North America with the slave trade.

In the 19th century, Dr. Carver, an agricultural chemist, suggested that farmers in the South plant peanuts to replace their cotton fields that were destroyed by the boll weevil infestation following the Civil War. He invented more than 300 uses for peanuts, including peanut butter, cooking oil, margarine, peanut sausage and peanut punch, as well as linoleum, laxatives, scalp pomade and vanishing cream.

Today, in addition to the US, the leading producers of peanuts are India, China, Nigeria and Indonesia. And the cuisines of those countries reflect the peanut's popularity in recipes for chutney, cookies, stew and gado-gado.

Peanuts, which are more closely related to lentils than to nuts, are packed with heart-healthy monosaturated fats, as well as vitamin E, niacin and manganese. They are high in antioxidants, too. Peanuts do turn rancid if not stored properly. Once shelled, they should be kept in airtight containers in the refrigerator or freezer.

Baseball season opens on Monday, so stock up on peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and root root root for the home team — which, though I live in Red Sox Nation, in my family means the New York Yankees.

Oh, I can hear the groans from the peanut gallery ....

TAHU GORENG (tofu with peanut sauce)
When the World Cuisines Cooking Group "traveled" to Indonesia, this main course salad, adapted slightly from Savoring Southeast Asia, was a big hit. Serves 8.

Vegetable oil, for deep frying (we used rice bran oil)
1 lb extra-firm tofu
2 cups total of roughly chopped lettuce, tomato and/or cucumber

PEANUT SAUCE
4 serrano chiles, seeded and chopped
2 shallots, quartered
2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp brown sugar
2/3 cup tamarind water
2 Tbsp sweet soy (kecap manis)
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
8 Tbsp unsalted dry roasted peanuts, crushed
6-8 Tbsp water

1 English cucumber, finely shredded
1 carrot, finely shredded

Pour 2 inches of oil in a wok and heat. Meanwhile, pat the tofu dry, and cut into several large rectangles. When the oil is hot, lower the tofu, one piece at a time, into the oil, and deep fry, turning once, until golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Using a bamboo skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer the tofu to paper towels to drain. Repeat until all cooked, then cut into 1-inch cubes and set aside.

To make the sauce, in a blender combine chiles, shallot, garlic and salt, and blend to a paste. Add a tiny bit of water if necessary. Add the brown sugar, tamarind water, kecap manis, lemon juice, and 2 Tbsp of peanuts, and process to a coarse paste. Transfer to a bowl and stir in remaining peanuts, plus water as needed to dilute to the consistency of light cream. Taste and adjust seasonings.

To assemble, scatter lettuce/tomato/cucumber on a platter, top with grated cucumber and carrot, then the tofu, and top with peanut sauce. Serve at room temperature.

Mirin (Recipe: teriyaki tofu wraps)

It sounds like The Queen, though its origins are not particularly royal.

Mirin (get it?), Japanese sweet cooking wine, dates back more than 400 years. Made by combining and fermenting steamed mochigome (a glutinous rice), komekoji (rice yeast), and shochu (Japanese liquor), mirin is clear and light gold in color, and a bit syrupy.

Mirin comes in two types: hon mirin and shin mirin. Hon mirin, which is naturally brewed, contains nearly 14% alcohol. It's often used as a ceremonial drink, especially during the period around the New Year. Shin mirin has less than 1% alcohol but has the same flavor as hon mirin, so it's commonly used for cooking, and it's the type most of us have in our pantries.

Among the benefits of using mirin are these: (1) It adds a sheen to sauces and glazes; (2) it helps mask the smell of fish and seafood; (3) it has a bit of a firming effect, making it a good partner to dishes using tofu; (4) it can be stored without refrigeration for up to six months or longer after opening, though the flavor will begin to deteriorate; and (5) because it has a strong flavor, a little goes a long way.

Mirin is the magic ingredient in authentic teriyaki sauce. And with a good teriyaki sauce in your repertoire, you'll always be the queen, or king, of the hill — oops, the grill — and your family and friends will eat like royalty.

TERIYAKI TOFU WRAPS
Cooked on the grill or under the broiler, these wraps are wonderful as a main dish or appetizer. Serves 6.

2 packages extra firm tofu, drained, cut into strips

For the vegetables:
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 yellow bell pepper, julienned
1/2 lb fresh snow peas, ends snapped and strings removed
12 thin asparagus, ends trimmed

For the teriyaki sauce/marinade:

1 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 cup sake
1/2 cup mirin
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp fresh ginger, grated

12 flour tortillas, brushed lightly with sesame oil and warmed slightly in a dry frying pan.

Place tofu and vegetables in a large bowl, and cover with the marinade. Let stand at room temperature for up to an hour.

Preheat broiler. Place everything on a shallow rimmed sheet pan lined with aluminum foil, and broil 5-6 minutes until lightly charred. Serve rolled up in tortillas, with any leftover marinade on top.

Herbes de Provence (Recipe: Mediterranean red snapper)

"Herbs from the sunny province of France can change your cooking."

So says the tag on this little pot of herbes de Provence, a classic blend of thyme, basil, savory, fennel seed and lavender flowers.

Herbes de Provence combines the vigorous, resinous herbs that grow on hillsides in the summer in the south of France. As with garam masala, there are many formulations that can include, in addition to the herbs in my pot, tarragon, dried orange zest, celery seeds, white pepper, dried mint, oregano, rosemary, chervil and bay leaf.

In The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, Craig Claiborne wrote:

[In the early 1970s] I first noticed packages of dried herbs bearing the name herbes de Provence at Fauchon's on the Place Madeleine in Paris. Within recent years, of course, numerous food specialty shopes in Manhattan and across America have been selling what is labeled "herbes de Provence," and I'm sure the packagers and purveyors have made a good deal of money by using that lure. Whether any of this has been to the greater glory of the American kitchen, I cannot say. I suspect one would do better by adding one's own "herbes de Provence" depending on the recipe.

Whether you buy it in the cute ceramic crock, or make your own, you'll want to use it in an elegant chateaubriand, delicious butternut squash soup, a sauce for pork tenderloin, an earthy pomme de terre or — surprise! — kimchi de Provence.

If you do want to mix your own, here's a traditional recipe. And once you have this justly-famous spice blend on hand, herbes de Provence surely will change your cooking, just as the tag promises.

MEDITERRANEAN RED SNAPPER
Every year, Sequim, a small town on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, hosts a lavender festival (July 20-22, 2007, if you're planning ahead). A few years ago, my friend Candy brought home from the festival a small paperback cookbook, Northwest Provence: Cooking with Lavender, by Cynthia Pinsky. The package of culinary lavender that came with the book is long gone, but herbes de Provence make a perfect substitute in many of the recipes. Serves 4-6.

1-1/2 lb red snapper filet (or other flaky white fish)
1 rib celery, sliced thin
1 medium onion, sliced into thin rings
16 oz chopped canned tomato
12 each Kalamata and green olives, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp herbes de provence
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Olive oil for drizzling
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Layer the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish with onion and celery. Top with fish filet. Pour the wine over the fish and sprinkle on the tomatoes, olives, herbes de Provence and red pepper flakes. Drizzle with olive oil, cover and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover, pour on the lemon juice, and bake, uncovered, 15 minutes more. Serve over rice.

It's Bookworm time

This week's Bookworm in the Pantry, Karen, a native Rhode Islander, blogs from St. Louis, Missouri. On FamilyStyle Food, Karen chronicles the healthy and delicious food she prepares for her family. General Tso's chicken? Pasta fagioli? Orange-almond muffins? I wish my mom had been such a good cook.

UPDATE. Karen recommended:

• Murder Alfresco (Nadia Gordon's Napa Valley mysteries)
• The Whole World Over
• A Cordiall Water
• On Persophone's Island
• Adventures on the Wine Route
  

We'll have a new Bookworm every Saturday, at least through mid-May.

Want to be a Bookworm in the Pantry? Start here.

Dried chile peppers (Recipe: mushrooms and peppers in puff pastry)

On our first trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, Ted and I fell in love.

Not with each other — that had happened years before — but with the daily markets in every city, town and village.

With Oaxaca as the hub of the wheel, Ted and I and my cousin Martin, our traveling companion, would set out every morning in our crusty-dusty rented VW Beetle, along one of the "spokes" to another market in another town: the shoe market, the livestock market, the markets known for produce, the ones famous for textiles and ceramics.

Everywhere, in every market, we found dried chile peppers. Sometimes they were piled several feet high, pyramids in shades of red, brown and black, on sun-bleached blankets spread on the ground. The air smelled spicy, if you can believe it, and I couldn't help but buy bags full to smuggle home (don't tell!) in my backpack full of laundry.

Fresh chile peppers are more and more common in our local grocery store; I used to have to go to the Latino markets to find poblanos and serranos. Harder to find are good-quality dried chiles, which have a completely different taste profile — so different that, when a fresh chile is dried, it often gets a new name (ancho is a dried poblano, chipotle is a smoke-dried jalapeño, pasilla is a dried chilaca, and so on).

Native to Central and South America and the Caribbean, chiles (or chilies or chillies) are today the world's largest spice crop, with Mexico, China, Turkey, India, Spain and Nigeria among the largest commercial producers. Thanks to Columbus and Magellan, chiles traveled to every corner of the world. Though the Mexican dried chiles are most common in the supermarket (the peppers pictured above are guajillo), don't overlook fiery Thai and bird chiles, moderately hot mirasol from Peru, and the mild Spanish ñora.

High in vitamins A and C, and high in dietary fiber, chiles contain capsaicin, which has been recognized as an anti-inflammatory (in spite of the heat they generate in your mouth), a treatment for osteoarthritis, an aid in weight loss, and an immune system booster.

With a stash of dried chiles in your pantry, you can make this mole or this one, this chili or this one, enchiladas, curries,  barbecue rub or this unusual ragu.

Choose dried chile peppers by color: the more vivid the color, the fresher the pepper. Though they will keep forever, they will lose potency over time. Store dried peppers in a tightly-capped jar, away from direct sunlight, or they will fade just like living room curtains.

MUSHROOMS AND PEPPERS IN PUFF PASTRY
Adapted from Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain (2007), by Penelope Casas, this elegant dish would make a perfect party appetizer. Thank goodness for frozen puff pastry. Serves 6-8 (makes 18).

1 package purchased puff pastry dough, defrosted
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp minced piquillo pepper
1/4 lb cremini or button mushrooms, brushed clean, finely chopped
1/2 medium-hot dried red chile pepper, such as guajillo (in the photo above), seeded and crumbled
Kosher or sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp grated cheese, such as manchego or Parmigiano-Reggiano

Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the onion and garlic until the onion is wilted. Add the piquillo pepper and cook for a minute, then add the mushrooms, chile pepper, salt and pepper, and sauté until the mushrooms are softened. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese.

Roll the puff pastry to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 1-3/4- inch circles (you should get approximately 36 circles out of the dough), and place 1 tsp of filling on half of the circles. Moisten the edges with water (use your fingertip or a small pastry brush), cover with the remaining pastry circles, and press the edges with the tines of a fork to seal. [May be prepared ahead up to this point, and refrigerated. If you do this, let the pastries warm up at room temperature for 15 minutes before baking.]

Preheat oven to 425°F. Place the pastries on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a silicone mat (Silpat) or parchment paper. Bake on the upper rack of the oven for 7-10 minutes, or until golden.

Evaporated milk (Recipe: coconut flan)

Why would a self-proclaimed bake-o-phobe and skim-milk addict always have a can of evaporated milk in the pantry?

Hmmm...

(I suspect my husband, the resident baker, might know something about this.)

Evaporated milk is fresh milk from which 60 percent of the water has been removed by evaporation. It's then homogenized, chilled, fortified with Vitamin D and stabilizers, and sterilized. It comes in whole, lowfat and skim; the whole-milk version must contain at least 7.9 percent milk fat, the lowfat has about half that and the skim version 0.5 percent or less.

Sweetened condensed milk is made the same way, except with sugar added. It's easy to confuse the two products, as the packaging is often quite similar.

Evaporated milk was popular in the early 20th Century, when fresh milk was not as safe to drink as it is today. Mixed with an equal amount of water, it can be substituted for fresh milk in recipes; as it comes from the can, it is used in baking and to enrich soups, stews, pancakes, ice cream, brownies and drinks.

Canned evaporated milk can be stored at room temperature until opened, after which it must be tightly covered and refrigerated for no more than a week; I'd recommend taking it out of the can and storing in a glass jar. When slightly frozen, evaporated milk can be whipped and used as a substitute for whipped cream.

I think flan, which is one of Ted's most favorite desserts, is the very best use for evaporated milk.

What do you make with it?

FLAN DE COCO (COCONUT FLAN)
When I travel, I always try to find locally-published cookbooks to bring home (along with, I must confess, a wooden spoon or two). This recipe is adapted from Rice and Beans and Tasty Things: A Puerto Rican Cookbook, by Dora Romano. It's one of several popular cookbooks I found, in English, in Puerto Rico. Serves 10-12.

1 cup sugar
2 cups freshly grated coconut
12-oz can evaporated milk
1-1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp grated acid lime rind, or regular lime rind
4 lightly beaten large eggs

Flan mold, round, 7x3 inches
Larger mold or pan to hold the flan mold (in a bain-marie)

TO CARAMELIZE THE FLAN MOLD: Put 1 cup sugar in a heavy stainless steel, straight-sided saucepan over low-moderate heat. Str continuously with a wooden spoon until the sugar is completely melted. Continue cooking until you reach the desired color. Do not make it too dark, though, as it will taste bitter. Slowly and carefully pour the caramel into the flan mold. Tilt the mold around with your hands, working rapidly until the bottom and sides are covered with caramel. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. In a mixing bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in the milk. Add the lime rind and eggs, and mix well. Add grated coconut, and mix well.

Set the caramelized flan mold inside the larger mold. Pour in the filling. Place in the oven, and fill the outer pan 2/3 of the way up the height of the flan mold with hot water. Gently close the oven door. Bake 1-1/4 hours, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let flan cool in the mold for 5 minutes. Separate the sides from the mold with a thin knife and invert onto a platter with a short rim (the rim will keep the liquid of the flan from escaping!). Wait 5 minutes before removing the mold from the flan. Then, let cool before refrigerating. Serve cold.

Preserved lemons (Recipes: lentils with spinach and preserved lemon)

When the universe conspires to teach you about something, you have to learn to ... well, learn.

That's what happened with preserved lemons, which are now a permanent fixture in my pantry.

I can't remember which came first: Bob's desire to create some tagines in his pottery studio, or Jessica volunteering to teach The #1 Cooking Group how to make preserved lemons, or the going-out-of-business sale at a small Moroccan shop down the street from our house.

No matter. I bought three clay tagines at the sale, brought them to Bob's studio where we designed new tagines based on traditional forms, and took Jessica up on her offer to teach us to make our own preserved lemons and to use them in some interesting recipes.

A fundamental ingredient in North African cooking, preserved lemons have a mild, pickled, almost caper-like flavor, not at all like raw lemons. They're sold loose in the markets in Morocco, where they are used in tagines (stews) of chicken, lamb, and vegetables. Don't substitute fresh lemons for preserved; the taste and texture are completely different, and preserved lemons are super-easy to make. All you need is patience, a clean glass jar, and lots of salt.

If you're not the patient type, try Paula Wolfert's five-day preserved lemons. Not quite the same as the long-cured ones, and they won't keep, but they'll get you through any recipe.

You can keep the juice after you've used the lemons, and start a new batch of lemons in the same jar, or just toss in leftover chunks of lemon as I've done here. The pickling juice can be used two or three times over the course of a year, and then should be discarded. You might see a kind of lacy white substance in the jar as the lemons mature. This is harmless and should be rinsed off for aesthetic reasons before you use the lemons. You'll be rinsing the lemons anyway, to remove the loose salt.

Experts differ on whether to use the flesh of the preserved lemons, or just the rind. I cook with the rind only.

JESSICA'S PRESERVED LEMONS
These take just 10 minutes to make, and last for six months or more. Adapted from Paula Wolfert. Use a plastic jar lid, so you can mark the date on it.

4 large lemons (preferably fairly thin-skinned), scrubbed (about 6 oz each)
2/3 cup kosher salt
1 cup fresh lemon juice (from 5 large lemons)
Olive oil

Dry lemons well and cut each into 8 wedges. In a bowl toss wedges with salt (it will seem like a lot of salt), and pack them into a sterilized glass wide-mouth canning jar (with a plastic replacement lid, available in the grocery or hardware store where you buy canning jars). Once the jar is full, add enough lemon juice to cover the lemons (don't use bottled lemon juice, or water). Make sure the rim is free of salt or juice, and that the lid closes tightly. Let lemons stand at room temperature for seven days, shaking the jar each day to redistribute the salt and lemon juice. Then, add oil to cover lemons and store in the refrigerator, covered. The lemons will ripen in 30 days and can be stored up to six months.

Jessica adds: "No surprise — I have never weighed my lemons or measured the salt and lemon juice... I just toss a bunch of lemon chunks in the salt and start packing them into a pint jar. Once the jar is full, I fill with enough fresh lemon juice to cover. The plastic tops for wide-mouth canning jars are excellent. They are much less likely to corrode from all the salt and acid."

Use a wooden spoon to remove lemons from the jar.

LENTILS WITH SPINACH AND PRESERVED LEMON
My adaptation of Jessica’s adaptation of a recipe from Paula Wolfert’s Mediterranean Cooking. Serves 6.

1 turkey kielbasa
1/2 lb brown or black lentils
1 cup sliced onion
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander or parsley
10 oz frozen spinach leaves, completely thawed and roughly chopped (or fresh baby spinach)
2 medium Yukon Gold or red-skinned potatoes, peeled and sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chopped rind of preserved lemons

In a frying pan, brown the kielbasa until very brown. Set aside.

Wash and pick over the lentils. Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil. Cook, covered, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown the onion in oil in a large casserole or Dutch oven. Stir in the garlic and coriander/parsley. Add the spinach and sauté 5-6 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the potatoes, lentils, and enough cooking liquid to cover. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, lower the heat, and cook at the simmer for 1 hour, or until thick and soupy, about 20 minutes. Stir in the chopped preserved lemons and the sausage. Serve hot, lukewarm, or cold.

Another Bookworm!

Nupur, this week's Bookworm in the Pantry, writes a popular blog about Indian regional cooking . I always learn something new when I visit One Hot Stove, especially from her ongoing series, The A to Z of Indian Vegetables. My list of must-have pantry items grows every time I read her recipes! Nupur grew up in central India, and now blogs from St. Louis, Missouri.

UPDATE. Nupur recommended:

• Interpreter of Maladies
• Toast
• On Food and Cooking
• Like Water for Chocolate
• Garlic and Sapphires
  

We'll have a new Bookworm every Saturday, at least through mid-May.

Want to be a Bookworm in the Pantry? Start here.

Wasabi sauce (Recipe: ginger salad dressing)

Our friend Matt — artist, designer, and carpenter extraordinaire — helps Ted with construction projects from time to time.

One Saturday morning, as they were working on the mega-bookcase that now houses 350 of my cookbooks, I overheard the following snippet of conversation. I don't know who started it, or why.

"What's that Japanese word? You know, for good design, or beauty. It's kind of like wasabi."

"Wasabi??? No, no, that's the spicy stuff for sushi."

"Hmmm. Maybe it's wabi-sabi? Could that be right?"

"Sounds right, but I can never remember which is which."

I'm still giggling. And they didn't even get around to Wasabi, the Jean Reno movie (tag line: Quite possibly the greatest French-Language, English-Subtitled, Japanese Action-Comedy of all time).

Real wasabi, a member of the cabbage family, has a root that's ground into a spice, much like horseradish — which often substitutes in the wasabi served in American (and many Japanese) restaurants.

Horseradish subs in my favorite Gold's Wasabi Sauce, too. This bright green slather isn't the healthiest thing in my pantry (sometimes it's best not to read labels too closely), but it's absolutely delicious. People who fear wasabi — too strange! too spicy! too green! — love this sauce, which contains no wasabi at all. I often use it when making sushi, both as a dip mixed with soy sauce, and as an ingredient inside the maki rolls. It's also a great topping for a cold roast beef sandwich, or mixed with yogurt for a veggie dip. The flavor is mildly hot, with a noticeable kick of ginger, and it's mildly addictive, too.

There are lots of wasabi sauces on the market, and Trader Joe's makes a wasabi mayonnaise that's pretty darned good. You'll find Gold's Wasabi Sauce in the seafood section of your regular grocery store, or online.   

GINGER SALAD DRESSING
If you use another brand of wasabi sauce that doesn't have ginger, add 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger to this recipe. Serves 8.

2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp + 2 tsp soy sauce
2/3 lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger root
1 tsp Gold's Wasabi Sauce (with ginger)
1-1/4 tsp honey
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Place all ingredients in a jar with a screw-top lid, and shake until emulsified.