The Perfect Pantry

Other People's Pantries #18

From Annie (Undercover Cook), in Brooklyn, New York:

I somehow manage to cook and bake up a storm in my studio kitchenette. My entire apartment is just 230 square feet; my kitchenette is actually something like 2'x6'. Mini fridge, mini oven, and almost zero storage space. I bought a vintage pantry cabinet thing (in the photo) for extra work surface and storage. And yes, that's the microwave being utilized as a tea/coffee cabinet. Enjoy!

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

Here's how.

Sesame oil (Recipe: squash and chicken soup)

The second of two posts about essential oils.

Sometimes you feel like a nut.

Sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you feel like a seed, which is just a nut without its hard shell.

Sometimes you feel like a seed that's been crushed and smooshed and toasted and pressed until the oil inside it dribbles out.

That's when you know how sesame oil feels.

There are two types of sesame oil: light (made by pressing raw seeds), and dark (made from hulled sesame seeds that have been toasted prior to pressing). Available in the Asian food aisle in most supermarkets, this dark (toasted) sesame oil is the one to use, as the flavor of the other is, well, nonexistent.

Sesame oil isn't often used as a cooking oil, though it does have a high smoke point of 450°F (compared to extra-virgin olive oil). This oil can take the heat, but its intense nuttiness and somewhat musky flavor makes it better suited to use as a seasoning towards the middle or end of cooking, in dishes like sesame-orange chicken, cold Chinese noodles or sesame noodles, swordfish with amandine lemongrass sauce,  sesame edamame salad and firecracker shrimp.

I'm partial to the Maruhon brand, which I can find at several local Asian markets for less than $3.00 per bottle. Kadoya is another good brand. A little goes a long way, and, once opened, a bottle will keep at room temperature for up to a year.

SQUASH AND CHICKEN SOUP
A dish from the pantry, with the last of the winter's stash of butternut squash. You can substitute ground pork for the chicken, for a more authentically Chinese soup. Serves 3-4.

1/4 lb ground dark meat chicken
1/4 lb shrimp, peeled, deveined, and minced
1 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp vegetable oil
2-3 chicken bouillon cubes OR 4 cups homemade or low-sodium chicken stock
1 butternut squash
Salt, sugar, black pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes, to taste

Marinate chicken and shrimp together, with cornstarch, sesame oil, salt, sugar and vegetable oil in a small bowl. In a large pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil; add bouillon cubes and stir to dissolve, OR bring chicken stock to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high.

Peel the squash and cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes. Add squash to the broth, and cook until tender. Form the chicken-shrimp mixture into small meatballs, and add them to the stock (a more rustic method is to stir the unmolded mixture directly into the soup). Cook 5 minutes more; season to taste with salt, sugar and lots of  pepper. Serve hot.

Also in The Perfect Pantry:
Bulgogi
Salmon fried rice
Asian slaw
Carrot-beet salad

Olive oil, and a very grand aioli (Recipe: roasted fennel with potatoes and onions)

Special thanks to Simmer Till Done, where you'll find a little interview with me today. And here is the first of two posts this week about essential oils.

Last weekend, in a cooking class in my home kitchen, ten students worked together to produce a Grand Aioli, a typical harvest feast held in villages throughout Provence.

I know what you're thinking.

A French harvest festival. In the middle of May.

In Rhode Island.

Oui, oui!

In Provence, traditionally, the farmers bring their vegetables, the bakers contribute bread, the hunters might bring rabbit, the fishermen bring... well, you know. And the women of the village make the aioli, the garlic mayonnaise that is the raison d'etre for the entire meal. And there is wine, and singing and dancing.

In northwest Rhode Island, the farm stand and supermarket provided most of the food. Bread came from a local artisan bakery, fish from the fishmonger, and herbs from my garden: beautiful chives, thyme and lemon thyme, tarragon and mint. There was music, but no dancing; it was too early in the morning for wine, and maybe for dancing, too.

Ted built a fire in the fire pit and we cooked our fish on a giant paella pan suspended over the ashes. And, at the kitchen table, everyone took a turn pounding the aioli in two stone mortars; it took almost forty-five minutes to incorporate all of the olive oil, drop by drop.

On the platters, along with sliced red and yellow peppers, chunks of tomato and lemons, and chives from the herb garden, we arranged:

• Potatoes, fennel, baby zucchini and red onion, roasted in salt, pepper and olive oil
• Chick peas, sautéed in olive oil, garlic, bay leaf and herbs
• Salmon and cod, rubbed with olive oil, salt and pepper, cooked over a fire pit
• Chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil, cooked on the grill
• Ditto asparagus, cooked on the grill
• Mussels, steamed in white wine, shallots, garlic, parsley, and a little bit of olive oil
• Broccoli and green beans, blanched, tossed with some salt, pepper and olive oil

Olive oil. The common denominator.

When I was growing up, my mother never cooked with olive oil -- we were strictly a vegetable oil, margarine and chicken fat family -- but in my kitchen, olive oil is most often the cooking oil of choice.

Nothing fancy, no extra virginity required. Just plain old olive oil.

For dressing salads, or when I want to add a fruity finish to a dish (i.e., the oil isn't going to be cooked, or will be heated only briefly), I use the best extra virgin oil I can afford, and I keep several varieties in the pantry.

For cooking or sautéing, I use blended olive oil, which has a higher smoke point (438°F) than extra virgin (375°F). Just as you needn't use your best wine for a long-cooking stew, you don't need the most expensive olive oil for cooking.

What's the difference between the different grades of olive oil? I've compiled this list from various sources, including the International Olive Oil Council:

• Extra virgin olive oil comes from the first pressing of the fruit of the olive tree, using solely mechanical or other physical means in conditions, particularly thermal conditions, which do not alter the oil in any way. It has not undergone any treatment other than washing, decanting, centrifuging and filtering. It must have less than 1% acidity. Most expensive; best for salads and drizzling on finished dishes.

• Virgin olive oil, made in the same way as extra virgin, has an acidity less than 2%, and has a good taste. There can be no refined oil in virgin olive oil. Good for cooking, and often good enough for salad dressings, in a pinch.

• Olive oil is a blend of virgin oil and refined virgin oil, containing at most 1% acidity. Mild flavor; great for cooking, but makes a mediocre salad dressing.

• Refined olive oil, also called pure oil, is a lesser grade than virgin. No real good use for this, except as part of a blend.

Olive oil draws its flavor and color from the particular variety of olives pressed, and from the terroir. Greek, French, Italian, Spanish and California olive oils reflect the quality of the soil, air and water of each region. Some olive oils are bright green and grassy, others are spicy and fruity. 

Taste to find oils that appeal to you, and keep several in your pantry, for ratatouille, lemon-olive oil ice cream, olive oil tart crust, and linguine with garlic and olive oil. Store olive oil in a cool, dark part of your cupboard; it should last for at least two years.

For cooking, I love Trader Joe's olive oil (only $6.99 per liter; TJ's also sells extra virgin that looks almost identical, so be sure to check the label). My current favorite extra virgin is Nuñez de Prado, a lovely Spanish artisan oil that's organic, mild and a bit fruity.

What's your favorite olive oil?

ROASTED FENNEL WITH POTATOES AND ONIONS
A few ingredients simply prepared, this dish is the essence of Provence -- and a perfect companion to aioli or grilled chicken or lamb. Serves 6-8 as a side dish.

2 fennel bulbs, trimmed quartered, cores removed
2 medium red onions, peeled and quartered
2 lbs baby red-skinned new potatoes or Yukon Gold potatoes, quartered
2-3 zucchini, cut into 3/4-inch chunks
8 oz large black pitted canned olives
Olive oil, a few tablespoons
Coarse sea salt and fresh black pepper

Preheat oven to 425°F. In a large roasting pan (I use a nonstick heavy roaster), combine all vegetables. Add olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss with your hands to make sure all of the vegetables are coated with oil. Roast for 40 minutes, stirring once during that time, until potatoes are cooked through and crusty on at least one surface. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Also in The Perfect Pantry:
Crusty roasted potatoes
Linguine with tomato-olive sauce
Cioppino
Pasta puttanesca

The Brazil 13 (Recipe: cheese-y cornmeal cakes)

Please welcome Peter, chef and co-owner of Pousada do Capao, who with this, his first-ever blog post, joins The Perfect Pantry as guest blogger. An American living in Brazil, he will share his stories, original and local recipes, and photos, once a month or so.

Guest post by Peter in Brazil

I live in the interior of Minas Gerais, Brazil, but a peek in my pantry would never give me away. Could be New York, could be California. I have a small obsession -- I am a pantry hoarder.

I always wanted to run an inn with a focus on great comfort food. I never ever thought it would be in Brazil. How did I get here? Let'€™s just say I was a misfit bank executive, almost empty-nester, with a knack for languages and a love for travel, who decided to celebrate his 50th birthday walking across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, and there I met a woman....

The region where I live has a centuries-old tradition of simple, hearty, working class food still slow-cooked in soapstone pots on wood-burning stoves and in wood ovens: rice and beans, squash and corn, cassava, greens, pork, beef, and chicken (with an occasional armadillo or mountain rodent), seasoned with the ever-present flavors of garlic, onion, salt, hot pepper and then innumerable breads, cakes, cookies, spoon sweets, and of course the famous cheese of Serro.

And so, the top 13 pantry items in almost any São Gonçalo do Rio das Pedras kitchen are almost without exception: rice, beans, sugar, soybean oil, salt, garlic, various grinds of cornmeal, coffee, wheat flour, manioc starch (polvilho), baking powder, hot peppers, and eggs.

If we went up to 21 ingredients we could add: onions, cinnamon, anise seed, urucum (Brazil's word for achiote), probably some pasta and some tomato puree, condensed milk, and coconut milk. Pretty normal, pretty universal, with a few exceptions -- and quite simply just about the whole gamut of what is to be had here in the boonies.

Of course my pantry features all these regulars. But it's just not enough.

Every few months when we go to the big city of Belo Horizonte (and it is big -- up to 5+ million if you include the total metro area), I am drawn to the Mercado Central. I get lost for hours just cruising the booths of herbs, spices, dried fruits, nuts, grains, salted fish, smoked meats, fresh cheeses, imports from all over Brazil and from all over the world. Hundreds of kinds of peppers, fruits you've never even dreamed of, roots and leaves and pods. And I go on a spree, stocking my pantry with black sesame seeds and tapioca and dried mushrooms and dates. And mustard seeds and pink pepper and gersal and guava paste. And tahini and monster pine nuts and candied fruits and turmeric.

Then there's the required stop at Verdemar, BH's upscale supermarket, Brazil's answer to Whole Foods or Dean and DeLuca. I fill the cart with olive oil and pelati, risotto and giant shells, kalamata olives and frozen phyllo dough, barley and quinoa. Who knows when we'll get back to civilization again? I promise I'll use it. And my mind is already spinning with so many permutations.

When we finally get home and unpack, Marlene, our cook at the inn, just looks at the spoils and smiles and kind of shakes her head. As a child, one of ten, she says she often ate nothing but banana porridge for weeks at a time. Or cornmeal one hundred and one ways. I try to remember to remove the price tags before I get home.

But my pantry hoarding doesn't stop there. Family and friends who send presents or smuggle in contraband on rare visits are the best contributors. I have Grandma's molasses, Skippy Superchunk, 100% pure Vermont maple syrup, real vanilla extract, wild rice, Gold's horseradish, Maille Dijon mustard, and so much more.

As an aspiring young chef who trained with Madeline Kamman in Boston in the '70€™s, I bought hibiscus and elderflowers and linden and orrisroot by mail-order. I explored Chinatown and the North End's Italian markets, and came home with dried sea slugs and star anise and candied angelica root and chestnut flour. And eventually I experimented with them all. Successes and failures both, but it was always exciting and always rewarding.

And, really, thirty-plus years of pantry hoarding later, not much has changed.

BOLO DE FUBÁ
A wicked simple and delicious cornmeal cake usually served for breakfast, this dish is pure Minas Gerais. The recipe uses 6 of the 13 basic pantry items, with the addition of that ubiquitous Minas cheese, and was given to me by Dona Zinha of Diamantina. She measures everything using a glass requeijão cup -- Brazil's version of a Welch's grape jelly jar (you should use an 8-ounce cup). She gives no baking instructions; we are just supposed to know these things. I ad libbed.

1 cup corn oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup fine cornmeal
1 cup grated cheese -- Monterey Jack or muenster or even fontina
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder

Blend until smooth in the blender. Bake 45 minutes or so in a small tube or loaf pan in a preheated 350°F degree oven until a toothpick comes out clean.

Also in The Perfect Pantry:
Polenta dome
Baked polenta with braised wild mushrooms

Other People's Pantries #17

From Annabelle, in London, England:

Here in London we are blessed with a superb range of ingredients on our doorstep... from all corners of the world. My store cupboard reflects this well with (among other things) Azafran Saffron from South Africa, Moderna Balsamic Vinegar from Italy, Le Saunier de Carmarge Fleur de Sel from France, Miso Soup from Japan, Tabasco from USA, etc...

I love cooking -- all done on my marvellous English Aga (seen in part in the photos of the tiny condiment shelves on either side of the hob). This is a particularly English method of cooking -- with the two ovens at peak heat at all times and two large hobs forever ready to boil a kettle for a good English cup of (Harrods English Breakfast) tea!

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

Here's how.

Unsalted butter (Recipe: cardamom shortbread)

Here in The Perfect Pantry, I don't always set out to explore the intersection of food and art.

However, there are times when I can't overlook the obvious, when doing so would do you a disservice.

This is one of those times.

Oh, I could have passed up the butter-art connection altogether, and just gone for the culinary. I could have debunked the myth that unsalted butter is always better quality, fresher, and superior for baking.

I could have skipped over the fact that, by law, in North America all butter must contain at least 80 percent butterfat, a maximum of 16% water and 2% milk solids, and that butter is graded according to flavor, color, texture, aroma and body. AA (93 score), A (92 score), and B (90 score) are the letter codes and numerical scores used.

And, really, do you need to know that unsalted butter -- free of preservatives and of the annatto sometimes used to color salted butter -- will keep in the refrigerator for three months, and that salted butter will last a bit longer, because the salt is a preservative? Is it important to tell you that the amount of salt added to salted butter can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, which is why bakers prefer to use unsalted butter, so they can control the amount of added salt?

And do you also need to know that, if your butter is fresh, it almost doesn't matter whether it's unsalted or salted, as they can be used interchangeably -- with a little tweaking here or there in the amount of added salt -- in most recipes, such as buckwheat cookies, butter prawns, apple-bluberry turnovers, green beans with garam masala butter, crispy sage and brown butter pasta, honey and sea salt caramels, and tomato sauce?

No.

What is important is that unsalted butter has been used as a sculpture medium by monks in Tibet since the 15th Century. That the Ohio State Fair has exhibited butter sculptures of astronaut Neil Armstrong, golfer Jack Nicklaus, and movie bad guy Darth Vader.

That the Iowa State Fair has featured a butter cow since the early 1900s, and at last year's fair, a butter sculpture of Harry Potter stood right beside the cow. (I've read all of the books, and I don't remember any scene where Harry meets up with a butter cow. Do you?)

It's important to know, too, that this year's Pennsylvania Farm Show displayed a 900-pound butter sculpture of three kids and a dairy cow boarding a school bus. All made of unsalted butter.

This is art. I kid you not.

CARDAMOM SHORTBREAD
Make sure you use very fresh butter for this shortbread; it really will make a difference in the flavor. Leave the butter out on the counter overnight, except in the hottest times of year. This recipe makes approximately 20 cookies.

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray a glass or nonstick 9x13 baking pan with baking spray. In a Kitchenaid-type stand mixer or large bowl with a hand mixer, beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the cardamom and vanilla, and stir in the flour just until the mixture combines (do not overmix). Put your hand inside a plastic bag, and press the dough into the baking pan, making sure it is firmly packed and evenly distributed. Lightly score with the back of a knife to mark out the final size cookies (approximately 20, depending on the size you want). Bake 20-30 minutes, until lightly browned. When the pan has cooled completely, snap the cookies apart along the scored lines.

Also in The Perfect Pantry:
Gwendolen's Scotch shortbread
Drop In & Decorate sugar cookies
Confetti spaghetti
Egg noodle, farmer's cheese and cauliflower gratin
Sweet potato pie
Green herb risotto

Hoisin sauce (Recipe: grilled tofu with soba noodles)

If you heard about The Perfect Pantry on Martha Stewart Living Radio today, and this is your first visit, welcome. This blog looks at what a professional food writer (me!) keeps in her refrigerator, freezer, cupboards and spice rack -- with a recipe for each item.

Authentic Asian cooking requires a pantry-load of smelly ingredients.

Fish sauce (also called nuoc mam or nam pla).

Fermented black beans.

Shrimp paste (also known as belacan or blachan, which always makes me think of blecchhh, the sound you make when you're trying to expel a bug that flew into your mouth, which seems totally appropriate when describing the taste of shrimp paste).

Smelly, one and all, but absolutely necessary to achieve the real taste of real Asian food.

And then there's hoisin sauce.

Blissfully not smelly. Not at all.

Sweet, thick and gloppy, just salty enough and completely addictive, hoisin (pronounced HOY sin) is made from sweet potato, fermented soybeans, sesame seeds, garlic, chile pepper, wheat flour, salt and sugar (and in most cases, sugar is actually the first ingredient listed).

Known as Chinese barbecue sauce or Peking Duck sauce, hoisin is both a dipping sauce on its own, and an ingredient in dishes like pork and broccoli stir fry, barbecued chicken, snow peas and red pepper, salad with hoisin vinaigrette, Asian-style ribs and Chino-Latino wings.

Look for hoisin in the Asian foods section of your regular grocery store; mine sells the Lee Kum Kee brand in handy-dandy squeeze bottles for less than $2.00 -- easy to use, and lasts forever in the fridge.

If you can't find hoisin in your market, here are two suggested substitutes that you can whiz up in your blender. I haven't tried either one, because I'm never without a bottle of the real thing, so let me know how these work for you:

• 3/4 cup pitted prunes + 2 cups of water + 1 tablespoon crushed garlic, then add 1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce + 1-1/2 tablespoons dry sherry.
• 1/4 cup soy sauce + 1/4 cup plum sauce + 1 teaspoon flour + a pinch of five-spice powder + a pinch of garlic powder + sugar or honey or agave nectar, to taste. Of course, if you can find plum sauce, you can probably find real hoisin, too.

With the official start of barbecue season just a few days away, why not make a big batch of hoisin barbecue sauce tonight?

It's delicious. And it smells great.

GRILLED TOFU WITH SOBA NOODLES
Inspired by several recipes in Nina Simonds' Asian Wraps, this dish can be served warm, at room temperature, or cold. It's perfect for picnics. Serves 6.

2 lbs extra firm tofu

For the marinade:
3/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup rice wine or sake
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1-1/2 Tbsp finely minced garlic

Five 10-inch bamboo skewers, soaked in water to cover for an hour, or other skewers

For the vegetables:
1 Tbsp peanut or canola oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp chili paste with garlic
1 small onion, peeled and cut into chunks
1 red bell pepper, cut into chunks
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into chunks
1/2 lb fresh snow peas, ends snapped and strings removed
1-1/2 Tbsp rice wine or sake

For the sauce, mix together:
3-1/2 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
1-1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil

1 lb soba, cooked according to package directions and drained

Cut tofu into 1-inch slices and place in a bowl. Add 2/3 of marinade to the tofu, tossing gently to coat. Let sit for an hour at room temperature. Thread tofu onto skewers, reserving remaining marinade in a bowl for basting.

Prepare a medium-hot fire for grilling, or preheat broiler. You might want to brush your grill with some canola or peanut oil, or spray with canola spray (do this before you heat the grill.) Place skewered tofu about 3 inches from heat source and cook 8-9 minutes on each side, turning once, basting occasionally with the marinade. Remove tofu from skewers, cut into 1-inch cubes, and set aside.

Heat wok over high heat. Add oil. Add minced garlic, chili paste, onion and bell peppers, and toss lightly for 1 minute. Add snow peas and rice wine; continue cooking, tossing lightly, until snow peas are tender, 2-3 minutes. Add sauce, and toss to coat.

Place cooked soba in a serving bowl. Spoon vegetables on top. Arrange tofu cubes on top and pour the reserved barbecue marinade over everything.

Also in The Perfect Pantry:
Asparagus wonton wraps
Moo shu chicken
Salmon and Asian pesto potstickers
Spicy peanut sauce
Vegetable dumplings

Instant coffee (Recipe: espresso sorbet)

The nice folks at Martha Stewart Living Radio have invited me to be on the "Living Today" show on Tuesday (more about that in a moment), so when I saw Martha Stewart's Quick Cook at a barn sale to benefit our local library last weekend, I had to buy it.

Call it research, though the truth is that I am genetically incapable of passing up a cookbook at a barn sale. (Yes, if you must know, I bought more than one cookbook. Maybe three. Or four. And a book on origami. And an adventure board game for ages 8 and up. And some ninja turtle action figures.)

The book cover features a photo of Martha circa 1983, all pink and pearls and bows, and inside, photography that wouldn't make the cut in today's world of Photoshop and food porn. But as I leafed through, I found myself marking many recipes that really did sound quick-to-cook and drew heavily on a well-stocked pantry augmented by seasonally fresh ingredients.

Her sorbet recipe, a true pantry special (I'm sure Martha has the most perfect pantry), takes just five minutes of work and calls for instant espresso, which I always have in the cupboard. I don't use it to make drinks; I use it for making desserts, because coffee coaxes the best flavor from chocolate in dishes like truffles, triple-chocolate cookies, chocolate-espresso cake, cupcakes and little mousse cups.

As I wrote in an earlier post, instant coffee is a relatively new invention, created in 1901 by a Chicago chemist. His invention languished for more than three decades until Nescafé, a collaboration between the Brazilian government and Swiss conglomerate Nestlé, was formed in 1938 to market a dehydrated coffee that would have a longer shelf life and could be reconstituted with water. However, with the outbreak of World War II, Nescafé didn't find a market in Europe, so it was exported to the US, where the government put it in soldiers' meal rations. That's how America became hooked on pretty bad instant coffee, which later became the norm in 1950s households like the one in which I grew up.

These days, you can find good quality instant espresso, in granulations from powdery fine to coarse, in almost every supermarket. With a forever shelf life, it keeps well in the cupboard or in the freezer.

You can substitute dark coffee for instant espresso in most recipes. Use the darkest coffee you have on hand; double the amount of coffee, but don't double the water.

Fast food, made from a well-chosen pantry and seasonal produce -- Martha was 25 years ahead of the rest of us.

-----------------------

Now, about the radio show. "Living Today" is on Sirius satellite radio, channel 112, starting at 1:00 p.m. That's when I'll be there -- on Tuesday, May 20, from 1:00-1:25 p.m., Eastern US time. You can get a free three-day trial subscription to Sirius on their web site, and listen to the show on your computer or car radio or (shhhhh.....) at work. And if you're halfway around the world, set your alarm clock, and you can listen to the show in the middle of the night.

"Living Today" is a live call-in show, and I'll be talking with host Mario Bosquez about The Perfect Pantry, and about the 23 things I absolutely, positively, have to have in my pantry.

If you'd like to say hi or join the conversation about your favorite pantry items, the call-in number is 866-675-6675. I'd love to hear your voice.

ESPRESSO SORBET
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Quick Cook, this simple recipe needs a few hours' head start, and an ice cream machine (I have the kind with a canister that you freeze ahead of time). If you're feeling incredibly indulgent, serve a scoop of this sorbet on top of a chocolate brownie, or make it elegant in a puff pastry cup. Makes 1 quart.

1/2 cup espresso beans, finely ground, or instant espresso
2-3/4 cups water
1 vanilla bean
3/4 cup sugar

Make espresso coffee with the ground beans or instant espresso and 2 cups water. Add the vanilla bean, and chill in the refrigerator.

Combine 3/4 cup water with the sugar in a straight-sided saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from the heat, swirl to make sure the sugar is dissolved, and combine with the coffee. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

Discard the vanilla bean, and freeze the espresso mixture in an ice cream machine, according to manufacturer's directions.

Also in The Perfect Pantry:
Outrageous brownies
Chocolate truffles
Coffee spice cake

Other People's Pantries #16

From Karen (Family Style Food), in St. Louis, Missouri:

I stopped by your blog again recently and became inspired to post about the awful state of my spice cabinet. After seeing your neatly arranged spice rack, I was a little pink in the face.

Anyway, I'm happy to share this photo and link -- maybe I will get the help I need!

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

Here's how.

Allspice (Recipe: rhubarb-apricot chutney)

Next time I reorganize my spice rack, I'm abandoning my usual system.

Next time, I will not group the little jars into peppers, salts, baking spices, warm spices and leafy green herbs.

Next time, I'll sort my dried herbs and spices this way:

1. aphrodisiacs
2. miracle cures
3. brings prosperity and good fortune
4. used for embalming pharoahs in ancient Egypt

That covers just about everything on my spice rack, including allspice (a triple whammy: numbers 2, 3 and 4).

The dried berry of a myrtle tree native to the West Indies and Central America, allspice was discovered by Christopher Columbus, who, thinking it was pepper, named it pimienta. Subsequently it became known as Jamaican pepper, because most of the best quality crop grew there; the English gave it the name "allspice", because it mimics the aroma of several spices, including cloves, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg.

According to Herbs & Spices by Jill Norman, "allspice is the only important spice that still comes almost exclusively from its region of origin — which also makes it the only one grown almost exclusively in the New World." Today the majority of the world allspice harvest goes to the food industry, for use in commercial ketchups and other sauces.

One of the so-called warm spices, allspice is the star component of Jamaican jerk seasoning, and often features in ras-el hanout, Syrian spice and the American inventions apple pie and pumpkin spices.

Whole allspice berries should be a dark reddish brown, and rounded, with a rough surface and no musty smell. Ground allspice should be a rich, dark brown with a warm aroma. I always have ground allspice in the pantry, and occasionally there are some whole allspice berries, too, which I use to mix up a pickling spice.

If you prefer to grind your own, five whole berries equal one teaspoon of ground allspice; if you have to substitute, try equal parts cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg.

Properly stored in a cool, dry place, allspice will keep for more than a year (whole allspice berries will keep longer, up to three years). Good thing, too, because you'll use it over and over, in muffins, fish in escabeche, grilled pork chops, potato dumplings, arugula pesto, and of course jerk chicken.

And if it brings you a bit of prosperity and good fortune... well, there's nothing wrong with that.

RHUBARB-APRICOT CHUTNEY
I love chutney -- it's sweet and tart and a little bit spicy, and is a great way to add fruit to savory dishes. A perfect accompaniment to roast chicken, grilled fish or pork, this recipe is adapted from Magic Spices: 200 healthy recipes featuring 30 common spices, by Donna L. Weihofen. Makes approximately one quart.

2 cups diced rhubarb
2 cups dried apricot halves, diced
1 small red onion, minced
1 cup honey
1 cup golden raisins
2 cups cider vinegar
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

In a heavy saucepan, combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve warm or cold. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator (if using a canning jar, replace the metal lid with a plastic one, so the acid in the chutney won't corrode the lid).

Also in The Perfect Pantry:
Shish taouk (garlic chicken on skewers)
Cocoa-cumin-allspice rub
Countertop dill pickles
Pumpkin pie
Tomato-nectarine chutney