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.

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.

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.