The Perfect Pantry

The gift of wok hay (Recipe: garlic eggplant)

A short series of posts about wonderful pantry gifts, and the recipes that spring from them.

This is the story of how a beautiful hand-hammered, carbon steel, fire-iron Chinese wok came into my life.

The story is too good. And, really, I am the wrong person to tell it.

My friend Marcia, who gave me this incredible cooking tool and with it the gift of wok hay, the sometimes-elusive spirit of culinary harmony that comes with a well-seasoned and properly-used wok, will tell you about the wok. First, though, please go to your cookbook shelf and look at the cover of Grace Young's stunning book, The Breath of a Wok. Then turn to page 27.

Ah, yes, now you understand. And this is Marcia's story:

The gift of cookbooks (Recipe: sweet potato bread)

A short series of posts about wonderful pantry gifts, and the recipes that spring from them.

Almost every Saturday, my friend Laura visits yard sales. Her "finds" are the stuff of legend.

A real diamond ring forgotten in a box of junk jewelry. A set of mid-century modern patio chairs and table for $10.

A car.

To me, though, her most exciting finds are cookbooks (well, perhaps not quite as exciting as a diamond ring), classic and contemporary, the relics of other people's culinary whims, sometimes with notes penciled in the margin or recipes cut from newspapers and used as bookmarks.

Wonderful friend that she is, Laura often passes those cookbooks on to me.

Mexican oregano (Recipe: chipotle-balsamic salad dressing)

Twigs and leaves.

At this time of year, just a few days past peak foliage season in New England, I'm surrounded by twigs and leaves, shed by the maple, oak, pine, cherry, sassafras and birch trees on our land.

When I pulled this bag of Mexican oregano out of the freezer last week, I realized I've got twigs and leaves in The Perfect Pantry, too.

Foliage it might be, but oregano it is not. Mexican oregano, also called Mexican wild sage or Tex-Mex oregano, actually is a member of the lemon verbena family, not related to the more familiar Mediterranean oregano, stronger and sweeter but with a similar lemon-licorice aroma. I first sought out this herb when I started reading Diana Kennedy's and Rick Bayless' cookbooks; their recipes, both traditional and contemporary, often called for Mexican oregano, and I knew nothing about it.

Olives (Recipe: chicken with preserved lemon tagine)

A few nights ago, Ted and I walked over to Foodie's Urban Market in Boston's South End to pick up a few provisions for a quiet night of dinner and a DVD.

We didn't have anything particular in mind; we were following our cravings. Grapes. Cheese. Chips. Chocolate. We wandered up and down the aisles. Just as we passed the artisan breads, my little eye spied a hand-lettered label...

"Venetian olive rolls."

Oh boy! The last time we'd had those was in Venice, when we'd rented an apartment near the Galleria dell'Accademia, around the corner from a bakery. Every morning Ted would buy rolls that were warm and purplish with chunks of Kalamata olives, and we'd get cheese at a market a few doorways down the street. It's the only time I've ever had olives for breakfast, and it was a wonderful way to start each day.

Table salt (Recipe: sweet potato pie)

It's not Hawaiian, French or Portuguese. Not grey, not pink, not black.

It's not sea, and not Kosher with a capital K.

In fact, it's so ordinary that the label just says "plain salt".

I call it table salt, because that's what my grandmother called it. When she said "put salt and pepper on the table," this is the salt she meant.

Rice paper wrappers (Recipe: salmon and Asian pesto potstickers)

Sometimes, in the pantry, you've got to be ruthless.

Ted and I just designated for our upcoming yard sale an enormous platter with a turkey embossed on the bottom; we never use it for anything other than Thanksgiving turkey -- which we only make once every few years (and I think it was designed to hold a 25-pound bird). I'm also parting with a wok that's too big to fit on the stove (will we really use it on the fire pit some day?) and some of the extra whisks and spatulas I picked up at someone else's yard sale for almost nothing. And maybe a few springform pans, none of which seem to be exactly the right size for ... well ... anything.

When it comes to food in the pantry, I have a much harder time letting go. (The same can be said about cookbooks, but let's not go there.) So, as I travel through my pantry with you, looking carefully at each item and learning more about it, I've been asking myself, "Is this something I use in more than one way, in more than one dish, more than once a year?"

In the case of rice paper wrappers (banh trang), the answer is yes, yes and yes. Although associated almost exclusively with fresh Asian spring rolls (also called summer rolls or salad rolls), this ingredient passes the "more than one" test and earns its place on the pantry shelf.

Lentils (Recipe: spiced lentils with squash and raisins)

What's brown, and green, and black and yellow and pink?

What's high in fiber, protein, potassium and folate?

What has the same antioxidants found in tea, fruits, red wine and cocoa beans?

What's low on the glycemic index?

What's fast and cheap, and available absolutely everywhere?

Lentils, of course.

Parsley (Recipe: tzatziki)

Simon and Garfunkel would feel right at home in my herb garden.

I have it all: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Can you see them in this photo?

I have lemon thyme and lemongrass, Thai basil and purple basil, chives and garlic chives too, but for some reason, I've never been able to grow dill.

Fresh herbs are an important part of The Perfect Pantry, even though they are only available from the garden for five months of the year. Of the four herbs of song, parsley will be first to go, as night temperatures begin their descent into winter. (Most of the tender basil has bid farewell for the year, though there is a fresh batch of pesto in the freezer.) It's a shame, too, because this year my parsley field produced the most glorious plants, rich in color and flavor, and, for the first time, I began to use my flat-leaf parsley not only as a garnish, but also as a valued ingredient in my cooking.

Bookworms in the Pantry 2007: The Complete List

Imagine my surprise when, back in February, I discovered Bookworms in my pantry. It started with one -- my friend Marcia, who lives up the road -- and spread from Rhode Island to The Philippines to Michigan to Washington DC to Wisconsin, to North Carolina, to England ... well, it turns out that there are bookworms everywhere! More than twenty-five Pantry readers shared their favorite reads.

Each Bookworm recommended five food-related non-cookbooks to add to our collective library. On this list you'll find Michael Pollan and Julia Child, of course. Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain. Calvin Trillin, Nigel Slater, Lewis Carroll, MFK Fisher, Kermit Lynch, Dr. Seuss. There's something for everyone.

More or less alphabetically, here's the entire list for 2007 (books mentioned more than once are indicated in parentheses), including suggested additions that arrived by email.

• A Cordiall Water, by MFK Fisher
• A History of the World in Six Glasses, by Tom Standage
• A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
• A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
• Adventures on the Wine Route, by Kermit Lynch (2)
• Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: the Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution, by Thomas McNamee
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll
• American Diner Then and Now, by Richard J.S. Gutman
• The Anatomy of Dessert, by Edward Bunyan
• Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard (includes "Babette's Feast), by Isak Dinesen
• Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, by Barbara Kingsolver (2)
• An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, by Elizabeth David
• Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses, by Isabel Allende
• The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen, by Jacques Pepin
• Are You Really Going to Eat That? Reflections of a Culinary Thrill Seeker, by Robb Walsh
• The Art of Eating, by MFK Fisher (2)
• Back Story (and the Spenser mystery series), by Robert B. Parker
• Becoming Whole: The Story of My Recovery from Breast Cancer, by Meg Wolff
• The Belly of Paris, by Emile Zola
• The Big Oyster, by Mark Kurlansky
• Blessed Are the Cheesemakers, by Sarah-Kate Lynch
• Blue Jelly: Love Lost and the Lessons of Canning, by Debby Bull
• Blue Trout and Black Truffles, by Joseph Wechsberg
• The Body in the Bouillon: A Faith Fairchild Mystery, by Katherine Hall Page
• The Book of Salt, by Monique Truong
• The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan
• Bread Alone, by Judith R. Hendricks
• Bread of Three Rivers: The Story of a French Loaf, by Susan Mansfield Taber
• The Century in Food: America's Fads and Favorites, by Beverly Bundy
• Chocolat, by Joanne Harris (2)
• Cod, by Mark Kurlansky (2)
• Comfort Me with Apples, by Ruth Reichl (2)
• Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasure and Politics of Local Food, by Gary Naban
• Consuming Passions: A Food-Obsessed Life, by Michael Lee West
• Cooking for Mr. Latte, by Amanda Hesser
• Crescent, by Diana Abu-Jabar
• The Day Everything Tasted Like Broccoli (Maximum Boy #02), by Dan Greenburg
• The Dead, by James Joyce
• The Debt to Pleasure, by John Lanchester (2)
• Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood, by Jennifer Traig
• The Devil's Larder, by Jim Crace
• Dictionnaire Gastronomique, by Bernard Luce
• Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell
• Eating Between the Lines: The Supermarket Shopper's Guide to the Truth Behind Food Labels, by Kimberly Lord Stewart
• Extra Virgin, by Annie Hawes
• Extremely Pale Rosé: A Very French Adventure, by Jamie Ivey
• Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser
• Fat Land, by Greg Critser
• Feeding a Yen, by Calvin Trillin (2)
• Floyd in the Soup, by Keith Floyd
• Food in History, by Reay Tannahill (2)
• The Food of France, by Waverly Root
• French Lessons, by Peter Mayle
• From Here You Can't See Paris, by Michael S. Sanders
• Garlic and Sapphires, by Ruth Reichl (4)
• The Gastronomical Me, by MFK Fisher
• The Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier
• Gluten-free Girl, by Shauna James Ahern
• Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss
• Havana Salsa, by Viviana Carballo
• Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford
• Her Fork in the Road, edited by Lisa Bach
• The Hills of Tuscany, by Ferenc Mate
• Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin
• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, by Marjorie Priceman
• Hungry Planet, by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio
• In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust
• Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
• I Will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato, by Lauren Child
• Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, by Julie Powell
• Killer Calories (Savannah Reid Mysteries), by GA McKevett
• Killer Pancake, by Diane Mott Davidson
• Kitchen Confidential: Notes from the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain
• The Kitchen Diaries, by Nigel Slater
• La Cucina, by Lily Prior (2)
• The Land was Everything, by Victor Davis Hanson
• The Life of Hunger, by Amelie Nothomb
• Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel (2)
• The Magic of Provence, by Yvonne Lenard
• The Mammoth Cheese, by Sheri Holman
• The Man Who Ate Everything, by Jeffrey Steingarten
• The Measure of Her Powers: An MFK Fisher Reader, by MFK Fisher and Ruth Reich
• The Mistress of Spices, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2)
• Monsieur Pamplemousse series, by Michael Bond
• More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin
• The Mortdecai Trilogy, by Kyril Bonfiglioli
• Mostly True, by Molly O'Neill
• Murder Al Fresco, by Nadia Gordon
• My Life in France, by Julia Child
• The Nantucket Diet Murders (Eugenia Potter series), by Virginia Rich
• The Nasty Bits, by Anthony Bourdain
• The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
• On Food and Cooking, by Harold McGee
• On Persephone's Island, by Mary Taylor Simeti
• On Rue Tatin, by Susan Hermann Loomis
• One More Day, by Mitch Alborn
• The Oysters of Locmariaquer, by Eleanor Clark
• Oranges, by John McPhee
• Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin', by Paula Deen
• The Physiology of Taste, or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy, by Brillat-Savarin
• Pomegranate Soup: A Novel, by Marsha Mehran
• Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of MFK Fisher, by Joan Reardon
• Pot on the Fire, by John Thorne
• Road Food, by Jane and Michael Stern
• Salt, by Mark Kurlansky
• Second Nature, by Michael Pollan (2)
• The Secret Life of Lobsters, by Trevor Corson
• The Seven Silly eaters, by Mary Ann Hoberman and Marla Frazee
• The $64 Tomato, by William Alexander
• The Short Stories of Saki, by HH Munro
• The Soul of a Chef, by Michael Ruhlman
• Spice: A History of Temptation, by Jack Turner
• The Supper of the Lamb, by Robert Farrar Capon
• Sweets: A History of Candy, by Tim Richardson
• Take Big Bites, by Linda Ellerbee
• Talking with My Mouth Full, by Bonny Wolf
• Tender at the Bone, by Ruth Reichl (2)
• The Tequila Worm, by Viola Canales
• Thunder Cake, by Patricia Polacco
• Titus Andronicus, by William Shakespeare
• Toast, by Nigel Slater (2)
• Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World, by Theodore Bestor
• The Tummy Trilogy, by Calvin Trillin
• Typical American, by Gish Jen
• Under the Jaguar Sun, by Italo Calvino
• The Van, by Roddy Doyle
• Vie de France, by James Haller
• Vineyard Blues, by Philip R. Craig
• Voice of the Violin (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries), by Andrea Camilleri and Stephen Sartarell
• The Way Life Should Be, by Christina Baker Kline
• The Whole World Over, by Julia Glass (2)
• We Could Almost Eat Outside: An Appreciation of Life's Small Pleasures, by Philippe Delerm
• Why We Eat What We Eat, by Raymond Sokolov
• Women Who Eat: A New Generation on the Glory of Food, by Leslie Miller
• The World is a Kitchen, edited by Susan Brady and Michele Anna Jordan
• The Zen of Fish, by Trevor Corson

If this isn't the very best list of food-related non-cookbooks anywhere, I'll eat my hat. And if there's no hat in my pantry (after all, it's not really perfect), I'll eat something else.

Eggs (Recipe: albornia de chayote)

The last of three posts for my friend Peter, an American chef who's running a beautiful inn and restaurant in the mountains of Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil. I'm revisiting some favorite posts this week on The Perfect Pantry, featuring recipes that he might adapt to local ingredients.

A few years ago, while working on a magazine article (never finished) about "designer eggs" (never found them), I interviewed a woman in our town who's  both a licensed veterinarian and a holistic practitioner. I needed a chicken refresher course, and she invited me to her farm for a lesson in which-came-first.

Of all the things she told me, the one I remember is this: you can tell what color an egg will be by checking the ear lobes of the chicken.

I'm not kidding.

White ear lobes, white eggs. Brown-ish ear lobes, brown eggs.

Anyone who's lived in New England knows the famous advertising jingle: "Brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are fresh!" But if, as they say, you're not from here, you might not know that brown eggs are the norm in this part of the country, thanks primarily to our very own state bird, the Rhode Island Red — a brown hen, with brown ear lobes.