The Perfect Pantry

Red pepper flakes (Recipe: pasta puttanesca)

Peter Piper picked a peck of pizza pepper.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pizza pepper.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pizza pepper.

Wait a minute....pizza pepper?

Yes, pizza pepper -- that's what we call the crushed red pepper flakes that sit on the table in every pizzeria in the northeast United States. Call us crazy, but no matter what topping we choose, we like the option of bringing in some heat. When a server asks if you'd like pepper, he or she will produce not a terrifyingly large pepper mill, but a shaker jar of red pepper flakes.

By the way, red pepper flakes are a popular table condiment in Hungary, Turkey, Korea, Japan, and the Mideast, too.

Red pepper flakes are made by roasting chile peppers, and then crushing them. The high percentage of seeds that remain account for the heat of the final product. The peppers used, mostly California, cayenne, or New Mexico chiles, range from 16,000 to 20,000 Scoville units. (Green bell peppers score 0 Scoville units; jalapeños 3,000-5,000; Scotch Bonnets 200,000-800,000.)

In my pantry, I have both mild and hot red pepper flakes, locally grown and purchased by the bag in Chimayo, New Mexico. If you can't get to the wonderful roadside chile stand in Chimayo, you can order both mild California pepper flakes and hotter Pakistani pepper flakes from Penzeys. The mild flakes are much lighter in color, which is one way to tell which peppers are which on the spice rack. For safety, I always label the jars.

When it comes to red pepper flakes, freshness matters; stale pepper that sits around in your pantry definitely loses its kick. Store pepper in an airtight jar or in the freezer. After a year, you either need to replace the spice, or increase the quantity when you cook with it to compensate for the diminishing pungency.

Red pepper flakes, nicknamed diavolochino in Italian, give their name to pasta fra diavolo, but I love to spice up everything from scrambled eggs to escarole soup. Try a few shakes of red pepper flakes in hummus, roasted cauliflower, African peanut soup, lemon and honey glazed spinach, barbecue sauce, and an unusual orange-chili pepper ricotta cheesecake.

PASTA PUTTANESCA
It's hard to believe that it's been a quarter of a century since the publication of the original edition of The Silver Palate Cookbook, by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso. The recipes are still fresh and inventive, and the new 25th Anniversary Edition of the book is even better than the original. In the introduction to this recipe, the authors write: "This racy pasta sauce is named for Italian ladies of the night (the puttone). It's quick and cheap and we hope it offends no one to say so." Serves 4.

1 lb spaghetti, linguine, or other thin dried pasta
2 cans (2 lbs, 3 oz each) Italian plum tomatoes
1/4 cup best-quality olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste
1/2 cup tiny black nicoise olives
1/4 cup drained capers
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
8 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus extra for garnish
Salt, to taste (I use kosher salt or sea salt)

Bring 4 quarts salted water to a boil in a large pot. Stir in the spaghetti. Cook until tender but still firm. Drain immediately and transfer to four heated plates. While the spaghetti is cooking, drain the tomatoes, cut them crosswise into halves, and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Combine the tomatoes and olive oil in a skillet and bring to a boil. Keep the sauce at a full boil and add the oregano, pepper flakes, olives, capers, garlic, anchovies, and 1/2 cup parsley, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat slightly and continue to cook, until the sauce has thickened to your liking, 3 to 5 minutes. Taste and add salt, if desired. Serve immediately over the hot pasta and garnish with the additional chopped parsley.

Walnuts (Recipe: white chocolate brownies)

Two things I did not learn by watching Jennifer Lopez pretend to be a wedding planner:

In ancient Rome, a groom would throw walnuts to the wedding guests, much as we toss rice today, as a sign of his transition to manhood, and to bring good health and increased fertility.

In Romania, on the other hand, a bride would place one roasted walnut in her bodice for every year she wished to remain childless.

Walnuts -- Viagra or birth control?

Whatever their mythical powers, walnuts are just plain good food, and I always have a bag of shelled walnuts in my freezer. For years those bags would come from my friend Candy, whose mom would send them from Oregon along with an equally large quantity of prunes (not sure about the connection between the two). Though walnuts are indigenous to India as well as parts of North and South America, they are cultivated in California, Turkey, China, Iran and France.

Persian walnuts, often called English walnuts in the US, boast a relatively thin shell, large "meat", and mild taste, making them the all-around favorite for snacking and cooking. Black and white walnuts have a stronger flavor and are, literally, tough nuts to crack.

On the health front, walnuts provide an abundance of omega-3 fatty acids, up to 90 percent of the recommended daily requirement in just a quarter of a cup of nuts.

All nuts are perishable. Store walnuts in an air-tight container, in the refrigerator (for up to six months) or in the freezer (indefinitely), away from foods with strong odors like fish or onions. They'll be ready whenever you need them, to make candied walnuts for endive-and-pear salad, cherry-walnut banana bread, pasta with sage-walnut pesto, raisin-walnut scones, blue cheese and walnut biscuits, walnut-stuffed salmon, broccoli and walnut pizza, roasted lamb with tarator sauce, or a lovely cauliflower, walnut and parsley salad.

All of which would be delicious at a wedding, whether in Rome or Romania.

WHITE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES
This recipe comes from the Nantucket Open House Cookbook, one of my all-time favorite cookbooks by Sara Leah Chase. Only the nuts have been changed. Makes 20-25 brownies; can be made days ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator, but beware of nibblers.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
10 oz white chocolate, broken into small pieces
1-1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line an 11 x 9 inch pan with aluminum foil, leaving a little overhang around the edges of the pan. Butter the foil.

In a large saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat. Using a wooden spoon, stir the sugar into the melted chocolate, then stir in the eggs and vanilla. The mixture will look curdled. Add the flour, salt and nuts and quickly stir just until mixed. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake the brownies until the top is lightly golden but the center is still somewhat soft when pressed lightly, 30-35 minutes. Let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate at least 3 hours. Using the foil, lift the brownies from the pan. Cut into small squares.

Maple syrup (Recipe: maple glazed salmon salad)

In the 31 years that Ted and I have shared a life and a home, I have put up with a lot.

Fanatic devotion to the Montreal Canadiens, who've won the Stanley Cup six times and gone to the playoffs in all but five of the remaining years. Celebration of Thanksgiving in October. The occasional "Canada" or maple-leaf-emblazoned t-shirt wandering around the house. The appending of "eh?" to ends of sentences at the most unlikely times, eh?

But the worst, the absolute worst, thing about living with a Canadian is this:

Maple syrup on matzoh brei.

Talk about a clash of cultures. More than three decades, and I still shudder every time he pours syrup on my salt-sprinkled egg-and-matzoh masterpiece.

Of course I am kidding, but not about the fact that only in the home of a Canadian would maple syrup be considered a pantry must-have. Maple syrup comes from the sap of the sugar, black or red maple tree. The trees are tapped and a small funnel is inserted; the sap runs out the funnel into a bucket which hangs on the tree. You can see tapped trees, with their buckets appended, all throughout New England in early spring. A local farmer even taps the trees in our village's historic cemetery.

Initially, the sap is clear and almost tasteless; it needs to be boiled, often inside a specially-built sugaring house, to evaporate the water, leaving behind a viscous liquid, amber in color, with a sugar content of 60 percent. It takes approximately 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.

The USDA grades maple syrup into four categories:

• Grade A Light Amber, very light in color, mild, delicate maple flavor; usually made earlier in the season when the weather is colder. Best for making maple candy and maple cream.
• Grade A Medium Amber, a bit darker, more maple flavor. The most popular grade of table syrup, usually made after the sugaring season begins to warm, about mid-season.
• Grade A Dark Amber, very dark, with a stronger maple flavor; usually made later in the season as the days get longer and warmer.
• Grade B, sometimes called cooking syrup, made late in the season, very dark, with a very strong maple and caramel flavor; often used for cooking and baking.

Maple syrup is a good source of manganese and zinc. Unopened, it can sit on the cupboard shelf; once you open it, store the syrup in the refrigerator.

Try maple syrup in dishes sweet and savory, whether ice cream or muffins, baked squash or glazed carrots, roast chicken or mango-ginger tofu. Pancakes? Absolutely.

But please, never-not-ever on matzoh brei.

MAPLE GLAZED SALMON SALAD
A favorite in our Canadian-American household, this recipe works well with honey in place of maple syrup, and mango juice instead of orange juice. Mix and match, according to what's in your pantry. Serves 4.

5 oz baby romaine lettuce leaves
1/2 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries
1/4 English seedless cucumber, sliced thin
4 oz white or cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed, sliced thin
1 lb salmon filet, boned and skin removed
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp maple syrup
Balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil (optional)

In a large bowl, combine lettuce, cranberries, cucumber and mushrooms, and set aside.

Cut salmon into two-inch chunks, and season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tsp oil in a deep saute pan over low heat, and add the salmon. Stir 2-3 minutes, to "seize" the outside of the fish. Add orange juice, soy and maple syrup, and cook, basting the fish with the liquid, for 5 minutes, until the fish is just cooked but not overdone. Remove fish from the pan and add it to the salad bowl. If necessary, boil down the pan juices to desired consistency, and pour over the salad. If you wish, or if you need more dressing for the salad, add a tablespoon or two of good balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil, and toss to combine.

Another great Bookworm

Cooking is easy and oh-so-democratic, as in anyone can do it, according to Shannon of Simply Cooking, this week's Bookworm in the Pantry. Shannon writes her fun-loving, recipe-oriented blog in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. She's an enthusiastic home cook by night, and an information systems development manager for a nonprofit organization by day. And, like all Bookworms, she's an avid reader!

UPDATE. Shannon recommended:

• Blue Jelly: Love Lost and the Lessons of Canning
• The Soul of a Chef
• Pot on the Fire
• The Botany of Desire
• The Tummy Trilogy

Browse through the eclectic library of previous Bookworm recommendations here.

We'll have a new Bookworm every Saturday, at least through mid-June. If you've already been a Bookworm but would like to share another reading list of five books, please do!

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

Kosher salt (Recipe: Moroccan eggplant salad)

Is kosher salt, the darling of chefs and cookbook authors, just another flaky food fashion?

Is it saltier than table salt, better for health or baking or taste?

Is all kosher salt the same?

Is it even kosher?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Kosher salt -- which really should be called koshering salt -- is a coarse-grained salt, named for its use in the production of kosher meats. (It helps to draw blood out of meat, much like drawing water out of eggplant or zucchini.) Unlike table salt, which since the 1920s has had iodine and starch added, kosher salt (specifically Diamond Crystal brand, which is the one I keep in my pantry) is additive-free.

It also differs from table salt in another important way. Table salt is granular, while kosher salt (again, I'm talking about Diamond Crystal brand) is shaped like a tiny, delicate, four-sided hollow pyramid; food scientist Shirley O. Corriher describes this in Cookwise as the difference between an ice cube and a snowflake. About 90 percent of granular salt dropped onto an inclined surface bounces off, she explains, while 95 percent of the "snowflake", or kosher salt, will stick to the surface. The kosher salt also dissolves in half the time that granular dissolves.

Morton's Kosher Salt, the other major brand available in supermarkets, is actually granular salt that has been pressed flat into snowflakes; in other words, it's a completely different type of salt than Diamond Crystal, though both are labeled "kosher salt." Please stick with Diamond Crystal; you can find it at your supermarket or online for approximately $2.00 for a three-pound box. Transfer the salt to a glass jar or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid; it will keep forever.

Kosher salt (which is kosher, as is nearly all salt) is a great all-purpose seasoning. I use it for all types of cooking and some baking, and I save my precious sea salts for finishing dishes. You'll need at least two tablespoons of kosher salt to yield the same amount of salt as one tablespoon of table (iodized) salt.

There's not a single dish in my repertoire that doesn't call for a tiny bit of salt, even those dishes that are fundamentally sweets. Whether in main dishes or dessert, breakfast or breads, salsa or salad, a pinch of salt brightens the natural flavors of food.

Here's a cooking tip that's taken me years to learn: Don't salt meat until just the second before you grill it. Salt draws moisture out, so if the salt gets a chance to get to work, the outside of your meat will get more brown, but the inside will be more dry as the salt draws the juices out. Best to grill first, and salt later.

MOROCCAN EGGPLANT SALAD
This recipe uses kosher salt two ways, to draw moisture from the eggplant, and to season the dish at the end. It's a wonderful, easy recipe for summer entertaining. Serves 4.

2 eggplants (unpeeled), ends trimmed, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds
Olive oil for frying
6 whole scallions, minced
1 tomato, minced
2 huge garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup minced fresh herbs -- a mix of parsley and cilantro
Juice of 1-1/2 lemons
1-2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Place eggplant slices in a colander, and toss with a generous amount of kosher salt. Set the colander over a bowl or plate, and let stand for 30 minutes, then rinse the eggplant and dry well.

In a frying pan filmed with olive oil, saute the eggplant until cooked through but not crispy brown. Drain on paper towels. Dice eggplant and place in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly (with your hands -- the eggplant should break down), and set aside to marinate for several hours at room temperature. 

Brown sugar (Recipe: Irish soda bread)

We have an elementary school science teacher in the family, so there is no excuse for the ignorance I am about to confess to you.

A few months ago, Ted and I found a jar of hard-as-a-rock brown sugar on the shelves of The Perfect Pantry. (This is not the embarrassing part. Well, okay, it is embarrassing, but not from a science point of view.)

How could we get that solid sugar out of the jar? Chip away at it with a knife? Dangerous. Melt it in the microwave? Hot sugar — very dangerous.

And then I remembered that there was something which, when placed in a jar of hardened sugar, would restore the sugar's moisture and fluffiness.

Eureka! I put a slice of whole wheat bread into the jar, sealed the top, and left it overnight. In the morning, the bread was hard as a rock, but the brown sugar was light and fluffy, completely restored to health. To me, this was a miracle. How did the moisture pass from the bread to the sugar? Would something else (an apple? a damp paper towel?) do just as well? I can't explain how or why, but I can tell you that the bread trick really works. (Science teachers and other readers, please help!)

Brown sugar — the type we buy in the supermarket — is nothing more than granulated, usually refined, white sugar with molasses added (or containing residual molasses from the refining process). Light brown sugar contains 3.5 percent molasses; dark brown has up to 6.5 percent. The darker the color, the stronger the taste. You can substitute one cup of firmly packed brown sugar for one cup of granulated sugar in most recipes.

In my pantry I keep three types of brown sugar: light and dark (Domino or no-name store brand), from my local market, and turbinado, a chunkier raw sugar which has been partially processed, where only the surface molasses has been washed off. It has a blond color and mild brown sugar flavor, and is often used in tea and other beverages, and as a crunchy topping for cookies. In England we've been served demerara sugar, a light brown crystal, with tea and on oatmeal.

Use the light brown for s'mores cupcakes and flourless banana cake; dark brown for balsamic fudge drops and fruitcake; and whatever you've got for glazed fish, barbecue sauce, and muffins. And do keep a slice of bread handy, just in case your carefully stored leftover brown sugar decides to turn to stone.

IRISH SODA BREAD
My cooking friend Pauline, a faithful Pantry reader, came to visit last week and brought The Book Club Cook Book, by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp. Each suggested book group reading is matched with a recipe. This one accompanied Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, a powerful book about growing up poor in Ireland. Add half a cup of currants, if you wish. Makes 2 loaves.

3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour (we like King Arthur flour)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp light brown sugar, mixed with 1 Tbsp water
2-1/4 cups buttermilk

Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat to 325°F. Place flours, baking powder, baking soda and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Add the buttermilk and stir until a soft dough is formed. Knead the dough in the bowl, then empty onto a countertop and knead a bit longer. If the dough seems wet, use extra whole-wheat flour. Knead until dough comes together.

Divide the dough into two portions and shape each into a round loaf. Press down just to flatten a bit. Place the loaves on an ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle some additional flour on top of each loaf. Using a sharp knife, make an "x" on the top of each. Allow to rest for 10 minutes, covered with a cloth, then bake for 40 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and done to taste. Allow to cool, then serve with butter and jam.

Shao hsing wine (Recipe: stir-fried garlic lettuce)

Today, the second of two posts about pantry items with hard-to-pronounce names.

SHAO, pronounced shou (as in ouch).

HSING, pronounced shing.

Shou shing wine. Shao hsing wine.

Voila!

As a rule, you shouldn't cook with any wine you wouldn't drink, and you should never ever buy cooking wine in the supermarket. And yet, here I am, telling you do that, to buy Chinese shao hsing (or shao xing) wine, because without it you will never be able to recreate authentic Chinese dishes.

According to The Encyclopedia of Asian Food, shao hsing wine, also called "yellow wine", is named for the town in the northern Chekiang province of China which produces it. Blended from glutinous rice, millet, a special yeast and local mineral spring waters, the best shao hsing (not what's in the bottle in my pantry, but I'll explain) is fermented for at least 10 years, and is used both for drinking and for cooking. Shao hsing comes in three varieties: shang niang, which is robust; chu yeh ching, which owes its pale green color and delicate flavor to young bamboo leaves added during fermentation; and hsiang hsueh (fragrant snow), which is sweet and pale.

What I find in my Asian grocery is not the type of shao hsing wine that is long-aged and mellow (and what would you expect from a $1.65 bottle of wine?!), but it is perfect for cooking and adding a touch of authentic flavor. You can substitute dry sherry in equal amounts for shao hsing wine, but it's not quite the same. Shao hsing keeps forever in the pantry, stored at room temperature.

Try shao hsing wine in stir-fried beef, longevity noodles, steamed fish, Peking chicken, or a refreshing cold asparagus salad.
 

STIR-FRIED GARLIC LETTUCE
Lettuce is an auspicious vegetable to stir-fry for the Lunar New Year; the word for lettuce in Cantonese, saang choy, sounds like “growing fortune.” Iceberg (which, I confess, I absolutely love) is most commonly used for stir-fries, but romaine or any crispy lettuce work well in this recipe. Inspired by a recipe in Breath of a Wok by Grace Yang, this dish serves 4.

1 Tbsp shao hsing rice wine or dry sherry
1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
3/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
5 medium garlic cloves, smashed and roughly sliced
1 lb iceberg or romaine hearts, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
1 tsp sesame oil

In a small bowl, combine the shao hsing wine, soy sauce, sugar and salt.

Heat a wok. Swirl in the vegetable oil, add the garlic, and stir-fry 5 seconds. Add the lettuce and stir-fry 1-2 minutes or until the lettuce is just limp. Stir the sauce, swirl it into the wok, and stir-fry 30-60 seconds or until the lettuce is just tender and still bright green. Remove from the heat and drizzle on the sesame oil.

A Big Apple Bookworm

Born in my home town of New York City, Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook is this week's Bookworm in the Pantry . On her wonderful, relatively young blog, you're as likely to find recipes for Ethiopian doro wat as for Mexican salsa verde. Susan and her husband, Scott, who also cooks from time to time, can be found at their dinner table in the metro New York area, discussing everything from politics to Pop Tarts!

UPDATE. Susan recommended:

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
• Feeding a Yen: Savoring Local Specialties, from Kansas City to Cuzco
• Girl with a Pearl Earring
• The Van
• The Dead
  

Browse through the eclectic library of previous Bookworm recommendations here.

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

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

Behind the Pantry doors

Special thanks to Liz Crain for a lovely profile of me on Culinate this week. To learn more about some of the projects originating in the Ninecooks kitchen, home of The Perfect Pantry, check here and here.

Quinoa (Recipe: quinoa pudding)

The Pantry's open! Thanks to everyone for your good wishes and good humor, which surely helped speed my recovery. Today, the first of two posts about pantry items with hard-to-pronounce names.

KEEN WAH.

That's how you say it — keen wah. Whew. First hurdle conquered!

When a reader recently invited me to teach a class on gluten-free cooking, I remembered that I hadn't yet written about the quinoa (keen wah) that's become a staple in The Perfect Pantry. One of the ancient grains (along with spelt, amaranth, millet and teff), gluten-free quinoa is enjoying its fifteen minutes of fame, and there are many good reasons why we should hope its fame lasts longer.

Though it sounds like a stir-fry dish on a Chinese restaurant menu, quinoa actually hails from the mountainous Andean regions of South America; since 1978, it has been cultivated in Colorado as well. Grown primarily for its edible seed, quinoa is not really a grain; it's a green, from the same family of leafy greens (goosefoot) as spinach and Swiss chard. The quinoa seed, which is the part we eat, has a mild, somewhat nutty taste and texture, more substantial than couscous; when cooked, it acts like rice and tastes like barley.

If beauty sometimes equals fame, then this is one beautiful superfood poised for stardom. Quinoa contains all nine essential amino acids, making it a "complete" protein without the need to combine it with other grains or legumes or meats. High in antioxidants, fiber, and minerals, quinoa provides a wide range of health benefits, including helping to lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and prevent migraines.

Cook quinoa as you would cook rice, adding two parts liquid to one part grain. I am a lazy rice maker who prefers to use a rice cooker, and the quinoa works oh-so-nicely in my automatic rice cooking device. Marry it with vegetables, turn it into a pilaf, make a spicy Mexican salad or a lovely rice pudding.

Quinoa is increasingly easy to find in my local supermarket, often in the rice and couscous aisle. And now you know how to ask for it. Keen wah!

QUINOA PUDDING
From Raymond Sokolov's Against the Grain, this rich pudding adapts well to the inclusion of pretty much anything you can imagine: dried apricots, walnuts or slivered almonds, or how about small chunks of peanut brittle? Serves 4-6.

1/4 cup raw quinoa, well rinsed
4 cups milk (skim milk, heavy cream, or anything in between)
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
3/4 cup raisins or chopped dates
Grated nutmeg or cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300°F. Stir together the quinoa, milk, salt and sugar in a greased 6-cup soufflé or other ovenproof dish. Set in the oven and bake for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to work the "hide" that collects on the top of the pudding back into the rest of the dish. Stir in the vanilla or almond extract and raisins or dates. Return to the oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon. Serve lukewarm or cold.