The Perfect Pantry

Saffron (Recipe: lamb tagine with prunes and apricots)

In numerology, three can be lucky or unlucky.

Bad luck comes in threes, they say, but the third time's a charm.

For saffron, three is an auspicious number -- the number of stigmas, what we recognize as saffron threads, in each crocus flower.

Only three. Which is why it takes more than 70,000 flowers to yield one pound of saffron. Which is why saffron is the most expensive spice in the world.

According to the informative site Vanilla Saffron, Crocus sativus flowers in the Fall in many different countries, including Greece, India, Iran and Spain. Each flower contains three stigmas (the female part of the flower), the only part of the crocus that when dried become commercial saffron. Each bright red stigma is like a little capsule that encloses the complex chemicals that make up saffron's aroma, flavor, and yellow dye. In order to release these chemicals, you must steep the threads.

The male part of the saffron flower, the deep yellow stamens, are half the size of the stigmas and have no culinary value. Unfortunately, they are sometimes added to the red stigmas to increase the weight of commercial saffron. When you purchase saffron, look for the deepest red and uniform color; you want all-girl saffron.

In the kitchen, a little saffron goes a long way. To be sure it's evenly distributed throughout a dish, steep the threads in hot water for a few minutes, then add both the threads and the liquid to your recipe. Saffron pairs well with many foods, including almond, yogurt , rice and grains, cinnamon, pistachio, potatoes and tomatoes.

Store saffron in an airtight container, away from heat or light, and it will last for more than a year in your pantry. After that, the flavor will diminish somewhat, so increase the amount called for in your recipe. If you have the option, do not buy powdered saffron; the quality is often inferior, and the pungency degrades quickly as soon as the threads are ground.

Twice in the past couple of months, I've received the gift of saffron, from my traveling sister-in-law Jill and my traveling friend Candy. So, I now have three different saffrons in the pantry, from three different parts of the world (left to right in the photo above): Vietnam, India and Spain.

Could a pantry be more lucky than that?

LAMB TAGINE WITH PRUNES AND APRICOTS
It was such fun to prepare and serve this in my ceramic tagine, but a heavy Dutch oven also works well for this low-and-slow cooking. If you're going to cook in the tagine, start the recipe in a frying pan and transfer contents to the tagine base, as indicated below. Recipe adapted from Tagine: Spicy Stews from Morocco, by Ghillie Basan. Serves 4, with couscous.

1-2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp blanched almonds
1 large red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
A thumb-size piece of ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
A pinch of saffron threads
2 cinnamon sticks
1-2 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 lb boneless leg of lamb, or boneless lamb shanks, cubed
12 pitted prunes, soaked in hot water for 1 hour, drained
6 dried apricots, soaked in hot water for 1 hour, drained
3-4 strips orange peel
1-2 Tbsp agave nectar or dark honey
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Handful of flat-leaf parsley or cilantro leaves, for garnish

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or Dutch oven, stir in the almonds, and cook until they turn golden. Add the onions and garlic, and sauté until they begin to color (do not burn the garlic). Stir in the ginger, saffron, cinnamon sticks and coriander seeds. Add the lamb, making sure it is coated in the onion and spices, and sauté for 1-2 minutes.

If you are using a frying pan, transfer everything to the base of a ceramic tagine.

Pour in enough water to just cover the meat, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to lowest simmer, cover the tagine or Dutch oven, and simmer for 1 hour or until the meat is tender. Add the prunes, apricots and orange peel, cover the tagine again, and simmer 15-20 minutes. Stir in the agave or honey, salt and pepper, cover, and continue to simmer for 10 minutes, or until the sauce turns syrupy and slightly caramelized, but not dry. Stir in the parsley or cilantro, and serve with couscous or bread.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Lydia's Pie-ella
Risotto alla Milanese
Pomegranate fish
Paella a la Valenciana
Chicken with preserved lemon and olives

Dry bread crumbs (Recipe: chipotle meatloaf)

If fresh herbs are better than dried, why are dry bread crumbs sometimes better than fresh?

Dry bread crumbs, made from dry or toasted bread, are used to add bulk to meat dishes (think meatballs and meat loaf) and crunch to casserole toppings, which is why most of us have them in the pantry. They're easy to make, but even easier to buy, and they have an incredibly long shelf-life.

(Contrary to what you read, dry bread crumbs don't last forever, so here's a tip: after you open the canister, mark the date on top. If you don't use them within six months, toss them out.)

Almost any bread can be used to make bread crumbs, though more flavorful bread will make -- you guessed it -- better crumbs. When you slice a loaf of fresh bread, save the heels and leftover slices in a bag in your freezer. When you need bread crumbs, take out those bread bits. Let the bread sit out (no bag) overnight to get a bit stale, or, when it's defrosted, slice into 1/2-inch slices and bake in a slow oven (200°F) until very dry. When the bread is completely cooled, process the slices in a food processor fitted with a metal blade, and grind to desired consistency.

Mixed with minced fresh herbs, parmesan or romano cheese, salt and pepper, dry bread crumbs make a perfect topping for baked pasta dishes or stuffed chicken or fish croquettes. And, though cauliflower is one of the two things banned from my kitchen, I think bread crumbs would make a fine topping for a cauliflower gratin.

CHIPOTLE MEATLOAF
Adapted from the Parish Café, Boston (via the Boston Globe, January 2006), this meatloaf can be a little bit spicy -- or a little bit more spicy. Serves 4-6.

Olive oil (for the pan)
1 lb 93% lean ground sirloin
1 lb 80% lean ground beef
1/3 cup ketchup
1 egg
1-1/2 tsp each kosher salt and ground black pepper
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 Tbsp canned chipotle peppers in adobo, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp shredded romano cheese

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly oil a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix together lightly with your impeccably clean hands. Press mixture into the loaf pan and cover with foil. Set the loaf on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil, and continue baking for 10 minutes, or until browned.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Turkey meatloaf with fig gravy 
Florida crab cakes
Jennifer's Criminal Crab Cakes
Sicilian-style spaghetti

Limes (Recipe: lime curd)

Persian limes (also known as Tahiti limes) come from Mexico.

And Argentina.

And India and Brazil and Spain and Turkey and Chile and, yes, from Iran (also known as Persia).

Talk about an identity crisis.

Key limes and kaffir limes, both wonderful, aren't regular inhabitants of my pantry. It's a treat when I have either one.

Persian limes, on the other hand, have a designated parking space on my countertop. Not only are they indispensable for ceviche, but also they're fundamental to papaya-coconut cupcakes, tortilla chips, sweet chili lime prawns, ginger-lime-sweet potato soup, lime roast chicken and lime-honey madeleines. A squeeze of lime juice tops every fruit salad I make, too.

When choosing limes, look for fruits that are firm, bright green, and heavy for their size. Although limes turn more yellow as they ripen, they are at their peak of flavor when they're most green.

Store limes at room temperature for up to a week, or in the refrigerator, in a plastic bag, for up to two weeks. You can freeze lime juice (most conveniently in an ice cube tray), or lime zest; be sure to dry the zest for a bit before freezing it in a plastic bag.

To extract the most juice from a lime, either roll it back and forth on the countertop with the palm of your hand, or place it in a microwave for ten seconds. Warm limes give up more juice than cold ones, so this is especially helpful if your limes were stored in the refrigerator.

Limes are famous for preventing scurvy and cleansing infections, and slightly less famous for triggering margarita dermatitis.

I'll think I'll stick to limeade.

LIME CURD
After extensive testing, Ted proclaimed the original version of this recipe, sent to me by a Pantry reader, the best he'd ever made. So, I thought, why not try it with lime? Use this sweet-tart curd as a filling for mini phyllo shells, slather it on pound cake or waffles, or eat it right from the jar with a spoon.

1/2 cup butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
Grated zest of two limes
6 eggs, lightly beaten

Put all ingredients, except eggs, into double boiler over simmering water. When butter has melted and before mixture is too warm, gradually whisk in the beaten eggs. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened to consistency of instant pudding, at least 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for a while. Then place in a container, cover, and store in the refrigerator.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Tom yom koong
Egg curry
Coconut flan
Teeny tiny lime tarts

Other People's Pantries #4

From Mary (Sweet Mary) in Providence, Rhode Island:

My current apartment is in a house that is almost a hundred years old and has a lot of character. The big old sink and glass cabinets are actually separate from the rest of the kitchen in a small room that feels like a pantry unto itself. Nothing but shelves and drawers in there. So, I have tons of space for all of my stuff, as well as incredible light all day long. It's a funky old kitchen that I really enjoy working in.

On Saturdays, we peek into Other People's Pantries.

Come on -- show us your pantry! Here's how.

Cowboy ketchup (Recipe: Southwestern spicy pulled pork)

I'm not really a cowboy kind of gal.

Neither the films of John Wayne nor the books of Louis L'Amour do much for me. Ask me the difference between a lasso and a lariat, and I'll have to check my dictionary.

So, when I tell you that if -- when -- you visit Oklahoma City, you absolutely, positively, must get yourself to the National Cowboy Museum, you'll know that this is one seriously cool place. The size of a football field, the museum greets hundreds of thousands of visitors each year with galleries specializing in the rodeo, art and sculpture, history, cowboy clothing and equipment, and music. There's even a library of barbed wire styles.

It's a spectacular and comprehensive museum, yet there's one thing missing.

Cowboy ketchup.

In the great tradition of cowboy storytellers, I'd love to spin a yarn about this amazing condiment, how it was invented by accident, when stampeding buffalo kicked over bottles of ketchup, mustard and barbecue sauce, and all happened to land in the same pot of beans cooking slowly over a campfire.

The truth is that it was invented not in some home on the range, but in a small kitchen here in Rhode Island, by chef Linda Kane of Sauce on the Side. Linda's idea -- brilliant! -- was to take everything you'd want to put on a burger, and combine it into a single condiment.

Indispensable though a pantry full of condiments might be, The Perfect Pantry only has room for items used as ingredients. Cowboy Ketchup, which contains tomato, mustard seed, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, lime, garlic and more, turns out to be a great addition to meatloaf and chili, and other recipes that might call for the flavors of smoke, sweetness, and tomato. It's delicious in split pea soup, too.

The original formulation of this sauce contained high fructose corn syrup, but Sauce on the Side has worked with its co-packer to reformulate their product, which this spring will appear on store shelves without the dreaded HFCS. With no trans fats, Cowboy Ketchup has only 20 calories and five carbs per tablespoon, slightly more than plain ketchup -- but nobody would call this plain.

Available in supermarkets and specialty stores throughout Rhode Island, Cowboy Ketchup can be yours by ordering directly from the web site, or from Only in Rhode Island, which carries a whole range of foods created right here in the Ocean State.

Yippee-i-o-ki-yay.

SOUTHWESTERN SPICY PULLED PORK
A great recipe, adapted ever so slightly from the Sauce on the Side web site, for sandwiches or a main dish with rice and cornbread. Serves 10.

2 lbs pork shoulder roast
1 bottle Cowboy Ketchup
Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper, to taste
Rhode Island Red Hot Sauce, hot or mild, or other Tabasco-type hot sauce, to taste (optional)

Place the meat in a slow cooker, and add remaining ingredients. Cover, and cook on low for 10 hours. Shred meat and remove fat.

Serve the shredded pork on a sandwich, topped with shredded cheddar cheese and cole slaw, with extra Cowboy Ketchup on the side.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Floribean chicken chili
Everything-from-the-pantry bean soup

Peanut butter (Recipe: African-inspired squash and peanut soup)

For a short time, before The Beatles won my heart, Elvis Presley rock-'n-rolled my world.

Graceland, blue suede shoes, 31 films, 81 record albums that went gold or platinum, the pelvic wiggle that shocked Ed Sullivan, mystical sightings in the supermarket, and a bunch of skydiving look-alikes all became part of our cultural zeitgeist.

For food lovers, however, at least one part of his culinary legacy -- fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches -- ranks high on the list.

Give or take a bit of mechanical assistance, peanut butter is made the same way it's been made for a hundred years -- and the same way you can make it at home. Peanuts are roasted, and then cooled by fans. Rapid cooling stops the cooking, sets the color, and aids in retention of the natural oil. Then the peanuts are skinned by rubbing them together (at home, you can rub the warm peanuts in a clean towel). The kernels are split, the hearts removed and cleaned. After this, the peanuts are ground (commercially this happens in two stages, because a single long grinding would produce too much heat that would adversely affect the flavor). In the second grinding, oil and salt are added to keep the peanut butter from separating.

If you make peanut butter at home, in a small batch in the food processor, plan to use it right away, or store in the refrigerator in an airtight container; you can float a thin layer of oil on top, if you wish. Store commercially produced peanut butter on your pantry shelf for up to three months after opening; beyond that, refrigerate to maintain freshness and flavor. Natural peanut butters that contain no stabilizers should be refrigerated immediately after opening to prevent spoilage.

By law, peanut butter must contain a minimum of 90 percent peanut. What's in the other ten percent can vary. Jif, the most popular supermarket brand in the US, contains an unspecified amount (two percent or less) of molasses, soybean and rapeseed oils, and salt. Whole Foods unsweetened organic peanut butter has no additives, preservatives or salt.

Find your favorite peanut butter, or make your own, and use it in cookies, brownies, ice cream, pie, muffins -- and stew, for the times when you'd rather go savory.

Remember: March 1 is National Peanut Butter Lovers Day.

SQUASH AND PEANUT SOUP
Peanuts were introduced to Africa in the 16th Century, and today many African cuisines include dishes that combine peanuts with squash or pumpkin. This hearty soup serves 10-12.

5 winter squash of mixed pedigree (I usually use a few butternuts, plus acorn, blue hubbard, or kabocha)
2 large sweet potatoes
2 tsp olive oil
8 onions, thinly sliced
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 hot pepper (jalapeño or Thai chile), chopped fine, or red pepper flakes
Large pinch of hot curry powder
3 Tbsp peanut butter, or more to taste
Fresh squeezed lemon juice, kosher salt and coarse ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 425°F. Cut the squash and sweet potatoes in large chunks (do not peel), arrange in a large roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil and roast until soft (1 hour, at least). Meanwhile, drizzle a large frying pan with olive oil and cook the onions over low heat until caramelized, 30 minutes or more. Put most of the onions (save enough for garnish) in a large stock pot. Scoop roasted squash and potatoes out of skins and add to pot. Sauté with chopped hot pepper and curry powder. Add enough chicken stock to cover. Bring to a simmer. Add peanut butter. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Process with an immersion blender until smooth. 

To fry the sage leaves, heat a couple of inches of peanut oil in a pan. Drop in the sage, a few leaves at a time, and fry for a minute or so until they are crisp but not burned. Remove with a skimmer, and drain on paper towels to remove excess oil.

Garnish soup with reserved caramelized onions and sage leaves.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Spicy Chinese peanut sauce
Vegetable potstickers
Spicy peanut sauce
Bun gao
Peanut dip

Curry leaves (Recipe: mulligatawny soup)

A couple of months ago, when I asked readers to help fill in the gaps in The Perfect Pantry, you responded with wonderful suggestions.

Aleppo pepper, yes!

Ponzu sauce, yes!

Canned whole pimientos, oh yes!

One reader inquired about fresh curry leaves -- did I have them in the pantry? -- and I confessed that I didn't even know how to use them, and had a hard time finding them in the far-between Asian markets here in Rhode Island.

A few days later, a box arrived, from Jaden of the fabulous Steamy Kitchen; in it, nestled among dozens of candies, was a bag of beautiful, bright, glossy, fresh green curry leaves, along with her amazing recipe for Malaysian Coconut Prawns with Cognac.

I'd been expecting something yellow, aromatic, and reminiscent of the ubiquitous Madras curry powder that graced the spice rack in my mother's 1950s suburban kitchen, and which was the all-purpose spice for turning any dish "Indian." How mistaken I was.

Curry trees, which grow wild in the Himalayan foothills, have been cultivated in southern India and, more recently, in Australia. Although the tree is deciduous, leaves are picked throughout the year. Curry leaves taste vaguely citrus-y and slightly bitter; their mild aroma becomes stronger when the leaves are bruised, crushed or heated. And they are definitely not the telltale yellow-gold of curry powder (which, of course, is actually the turmeric that's part of the blend).

Add the leaves at the beginning of cooking, quickly fry in ghee or oil, or chop into a coconut chutney or pickles; or add later in the cooking, to give a more subtle flavoring. Like the bay leaves they resemble, curry leaves often are tossed into fish, lamb, and lentil dishes, and vegetable soups.

Curry leaves have a short shelf life. Store them in the refrigerator for up to two weeks, in a plastic bag or, even better, freeze them. Do not remove the leaves from the stems until you're ready to use them; the leaves in my photo began to dry out the moment I pulled them off their branches. I learned my lesson, and left the rest of the leaves attached.

Though impossible to find fresh in any of my local supermarkets, curry leaves are available in the frozen food aisle of Asian and Indian groceries. Look for vacuum packaging, which does the best job of preserving the texture and bright color. Purchase online here and here.

Thanks, Jaden, for introducing me to curry leaves. They're very happy in my pantry.

MULLIGATAWNY SOUP
Invented in Madras more than two hundred years ago, this soup's name means "pepper water." From Favorite Indian Food by Diane Seed, this recipe serves 6.

7 oz split orange lentils (masoor dal)
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
3-1/2 oz potato, sliced
3-1/2 oz apple, sliced
1-1/2 tsp vegetable oil
3-1/2 oz onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 inch square of fresh ginger root, minced
1 fresh hot green chile pepper (jalapeño or Thai bird chile), seeded
1-1/2 inch stick cinnamon
5 whole cloves
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
5 fresh curry leaves
2 oz creamed coconut mixed with 8 oz boiling water
2-1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp chopped coriander leaves

Wash and pick over the lentils. Put them in a saucepan with the stock, and bring to a boil. Slice the potato and apple and add to the lentils. Cook for 20 minutes or until all are soft. In a frying pan, heat the oil and gently fry the onion, garlic, ginger and green pepper. When the onion is soft, add the spices and curry leaves. Cook, stirring continuously, until the oil comes out of the spice mixture. Remove the whole spices, and purée the mixture. Pureé the lentil, apple and potato mixture, and stir in the coconut 'milk' and the puréed spice mixture. Add the lemon juice and salt, and taste for seasoning. Before serving, garnish with the chopped coriander leaves.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Egg curry
Curried squash, apple and pear soup
Pineapple-shrimp curry
Sag paneer
Prawn fried rice
Punjab Five Jewels

Other People's Pantries #3

From Rachel (Coconut & Lime), in Baltimore:

I wish I had a perfect pantry! When we were on Take Home Handyman, one of the major goals was to help us with our food storage problem. That didn't happen, but they did install cool magnetic strips to one wall and attached a bunch of containers that we have since filled with easily identifiable spices. The rest of our spices and dozens of varieties of sugars, cocoas, flours, rices and baking supplies is in cabinets, on a shelf above our butcher block or on the counter next to our stove. One day I will have a real pantry!

On Saturdays, we peek into Other People's Pantries.

Come on -- show us yours.

Here's how.

 

Sugar (Recipe: famous chocolate chip cookies)

According to Mary Poppins, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

According to The Sugar Association, the sixteen calories in that spoonful of sugar can be offset by seven minutes of styling your hair, fifteen minutes of socializing, eight minutes pumping gas, eight minutes taking a shower, eight minutes playing an accordion, or a thirteen-minute nap.

So, please excuse me.

I'm off to find some pink hair curlers, an accordion, and a couple of chocolate chip cookies.

From ancient Persia to Wall Street, people have bought, sold and traded sugar for hundreds of years. The Chinese were first to process sugar cane, as far back as the 7th Century. When Marco Polo traveled to China in the late 13th Century, he brought word of the Egyptians' success at manufacturing an exceptionally white "sugar frost", and emperor Kublai Khan sent for experts from Egypt to help the Chinese improve their technique.

Of course, sugar has become big business since Kublai Khan's day. Though there is much to be said on the down side (the politics of production, and the deleterious effect of too much sugar in our diet), it's an essential ingredient and, when used in moderation, one that enhances both flavor and "mouth feel" of baked goods and breads, custards, jellies and preserves, and frozen desserts.

Today is a day for all things sweet, so I'm happy to introduce you to a sweet new blog -- From Argentina with Love -- where Rebecca writes about the wonderful food traditions of her husband's family, and their home town of Bowen, in the Mendoza region of western central Argentina. I've "adopted" Rebecca, a young mom and former teacher who lives in Denver, through the wonderful Adopt-a-Blogger program created a couple of months ago by Dine and Dish to match experienced bloggers with those who've joined the food blogging community more recently.

Rebecca's interests lie in food writing and photography. She's a natural storyteller and a keen observer of the culture she shares with her husband.

My role is to help my adoptee in any way I can, with advice and technical support (golly... I hope I know enough to be helpful), and by introducing her blog to you.

Please pop over to From Argentina With Love. Leave a comment, offer the encouragement you've been kind enough to share with me, bookmark and visit often. If this photo of Rebecca's dulce de leche doesn't make your mouth water, I'll be very surprised. Read more about Bowen and you, too, will want to hop on a plane -- or, at the very least, beg for an invitation to her husband's family's dinner table.

In the meantime, make some cookies in your own kitchen tonight, and share them with your sweetie. I'm sure you can think of a way to work off the sixteen sugar calories, and if not... well, there's always the accordion.

TED'S VERY FAMOUS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
The secret to Ted's cookies, by all accounts the very best chocolate chip cookies anywhere, is in the tasting. You must taste constantly, at all stages of "dough-hood" and beyond. This recipe, which is my interpretation of Ted's version of the one found on the Toll House chips package, is supposed to make three dozen small cookies, and yet, not all the dough seems to make it to the oven. I wonder....

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
6 Tbsp white granulated sugar
6 Tbsp light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp unbleached all-purpose white flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt, or less
6 oz chocolate chips

Preheat over to 375°F. In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with the paddle beater, cream the butter and sugars. Add vanilla and egg, and mix thoroughly. In another bowl or on wax paper, mix the flour, baking soda and salt, and add to the sugars. Mix with a wooden spoon (or on the low speed of the mixer) until thoroughly combined. Add the chips, and mix gently. Taste the dough. Refrigerate for 5 minutes. Taste again. Refrigerate for another 5 minutes, and taste again. Repeat until cookies have been refrigerated for 30 minutes. Taste one final time.

Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, and bake for 9-11 minutes, until lightly browned.

Taste each batch as it comes out of the oven. Tasting makes all the difference!

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Drop In & Decorate sugar cookies
Aggression cookies
Ice cream chocolate chip cookies
Granola cookies

See my post today on The Daily Tiffin.

Honey (Recipe: mango lassi)

Oooooooooooooooh!
Sugar pie, honey bunch
You know that I love you
I can't help myself
I love you and nobody else

When I saw this squirt jar of Canadian honey in our village grocery store, I knew I had to write a little valentine to my resident Canadian honey bunch.

Then I started to wonder, "Are there really honey bees in Canada? Isn't it too cold?"

Ha! Not only are there bees, but, according to the Canadian Honey Council, the government actually has invested in the long-term sustainability of the honey bee population. Which, of course, makes me wonder why the US government is investing in war, while Canada is investing in bees.

War and bees...

(I know. I can hear the groans.)

Honey, a natural sweetener with anti-microbial and antioxidant properties, has been made exactly the same way for 150 million years. Bees, which travel up to two miles from their hives, collect flower nectar in their mouths. The nectar mixes with an enzyme in the bees' saliva, and it becomes honey. They carry the honey back to the hive and deposit it into cells in the wall. The fluttering of the bees' wings creates sufficient ventilation to cause evaporation of excess moisture from the honey.

Stored in a cool, dry pantry cupboard in an airtight container, honey will keep for months. If it has crystallized, place the jar in a bath of hot water for a few minutes to loosen things up. To measure, coat a glass measuring cup with canola spray before you fill it, and the honey will slide out easily.

With honey in the pantry, you'll be ready to try frozen honey mousse, cardamom honey chicken, gelato, apricot honey nut cookies, honey-toasted fruit muesli, apple honey challah, garlic grilled eggplant, or glazed salmon.

Or you can make a sugar pie, for your own honey bunch.

MANGO LASSI
It's not mango season here in New England, but Ted loves mangoes, and I found some wonderful ones at Trader Joe's a couple of weeks ago. Frozen mango -- or any other flash-frozen fruit -- works well in this recipe, too. Makes 2 quarts, approximately 8 servings.

3 cups diced fresh or frozen mango
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup ice cubes
1/4 cup honey
2-1/2 tsp rose water
3 cups plain yogurt (regular, low fat, or nonfat)

Combine half of first 5 ingredients in a blender, and process on high until well combined, approx 30 seconds. Add 1-1/2 cups yogurt and process until frothy, 45 seconds. Pour into a pitcher. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Serve immediately.

More recipes in The Perfect Pantry:
Honey gingerbread cookies
Honey-roasted beets
Honey and lemon green tea cupcakes
Sweet potato pie