The Perfect Pantry

Old Bay Seasoning (Recipe: New England shrimp boil)

When I was growing up in the metro New York area, my Cousin Martin was growing up in Maryland.

Several times a year, we packed up the car and drove south to visit. My father loved to drive, and, even more, loved to discover new routes to the same old places. A detour of 50 miles was perfectly acceptable, if the road proved interesting or scenic, or if we found a shack with great food along the way.

As we motored through Delaware into Maryland, the road stayed the same but the food changed.

We were driving through crab country.

Every little roadside eatery sold crab cakes, and every concession stand at the highway rest stops sold Old Bay Seasoning. It was the best souvenir of our travels, and my mother always picked up a tin on the way home.

Shagbark hickory nuts (Recipe: maple nut cookies)

Guest post and photos by Marcia in Rhode Island

Shiny chartreuse spheres, dropping in our woods, send the squirrels scrambling. 

Bucket in hand, I’ve joined the melee. We’re vying for the sweetest of all hickory nuts, the shagbark.

Other People's Pantries #35

From Heather (The Culinary Chase) in Bangkok, Thailand:

This is where I keep all my cooking essentials (other than the fridge). I live in Bangkok, where it's hot and humid all year round, so some things just need to go in the fridge. Yes, we do have central air conditioning, but I only use it when it becomes too hot or when I'm using my oven.

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

Here's how.

Ponzu sauce (Recipe: grilled chile-lime-ponzu chicken)

Do you know ponzu,

also spelled ponju?

It’s made from shoyu

mixed with yuzu.

Delicious with tofu.

And with shrimp.

Vanilla bean (Recipe: pears poached in vanilla)

When I was an easily-bored teenager (is there any other kind?), my friends and I called everything that bored us vanilla.

"Oh, that's soooo vanilla" described anything from physics homework to piano lessons, to a hair style or lipstick color or having to babysit on a Saturday night.

And what did we call people who bored us, the math teacher with the monotone voice, the boy who had a reputation as a bad kisser?

Vanilla beans.

We were so unkind. Vanilla deserved better.

Sherry vinegar (Recipe: gazpacho)

Updated post, new photos, new recipe, new links.

 

Every time I sit down to write, I start singing.

She-e-e-e-e-e-e-ry ba-a-by (Sherry baby)
She-er-rry, can you come out tonight (Come come, come out toni-i-ight)

Now you'll be singing, too.

Of all the vinegars I've known -- and I've known a few -- the newest and oldest addition to my pantry is sherry vinegar, which comes not from Frankie Valli, but from the Guadalquivir River Valley, in Andalucia, Spain.

Other People's Pantries #34

From Jan (Fresh Eyes), in San Jose, California:

Let's just say that I was motivated to "pantry polish" by family members' major moves (my parents' a few years ago after 40+ years in their home, for one). A move is a big job any time. Moves to smaller homes are a special challenge all their own.

Saffron (Recipe: pie-ella, improved)

Ten things I know about saffron (you'll be glad to know them, too):

Capers (Recipe: roast halibut with orange-caper gremolata)

If you're going to come back in your next life as a jar of capers (though you probably haven't planned on it), you'll want to be picky picky picky.

Make sure you are harvested first thing in the morning, before your bud opens to the sun.

Make sure you are still small, for small (less than one millimeter in size) is more highly prized.

Make sure you are pickled in a brine, or packed in coarse sea salt, but never dried.

Dill seed, dill weed (Recipe: stuffed cabbage)

Guest post and photo above by Peter in Brazil, chef and co-owner of Pousada do Capão

Dill is one of the few herbs that I've had success with here in São Gonçalo, ever since I put up a bamboo fence to keep out the rabbits. The very picky bunnies would single out the tender seedlings and nibble them right down to the ground. (I'll bet dill-fed rabbit would be delicious.)

Many of the other culinary herbs I've tried to grow here just don’t seem to have much flavor. It must be something about the climate, the sandy soil, the extremes of wet and dry, the seasons that I don’t yet understand.

The tarragon I planted is thriving -- in fact it’s invasive -- but it's tasteless. Time to pull it out. My garlic chives, oregano and marjoram have fared reasonably well until now, but six months of daytime heat without a drop of rain have begun to take their toll.

And then there's the dill that keeps coming and reseeding itself and coming again.