The Perfect Pantry

Paprika (Recipe: salmon tagine with chermoula)

In the house where I grew up, paprika was the curly parsley of my mother's spice rack.

She used it to "fancy up" a dish like egg salad.

Or to "color up" a dish like flounder.

Or to cover up a blooper.

My mother never used paprika as an ingredient, at least not that I can remember, though the red-and-white Szeged tin, ubiquitous on supermarket shelves, was a fixture in her pantry.

If only she'd put that paprika in contact with some heat, she would have realized that paprika is more than just a pretty red spice in a pretty red tin...

Dried fruit (Recipe: sweet potato, lentil and raisin stew)

For a short time during high school, I was an addict.

A fruit leather addict.

An apricot fruit leather addict.

After tennis practice, on my way home from school, I'd dig into my backpack and pull out a roll. Every bite tickled the back of my mouth, and I couldn't get enough of it.

My addiction to apricot leather lasted only a few months, but I loved -- and still love -- almost every type of dried fruit, and I always have raisins, craisins (Ocean Spray's clever name for dried cranberries), dried cherries, prunes, figs and apricots in The Perfect Pantry.

Water (Recipe: bailout bean soup)

Guest post and photos by Marcia in Rhode Island.

Times a gettin’ hard boys,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.   
                ~1930s dustbowl tune by Lee Hays

Ours is a town of rock and water. Underground streams and pockets of water secreted within granite ledges supply our wells. Our water is pure, delicious, and abundant -- a fact which is appreciated by much of urban Rhode Island.

Today, in the early morning mist, I walked along the banks of a brook until I came to the river.  This river feeds the reservoir, which in turn supplies the drinking water for much of the state, though not for our town.

The essential ingredient of my pantry is not in a cupboard; it’s stored a couple of hundred feet underground. When asked, it races to the house at a breakneck pace of 22 gallons a minute.

Other People's Pantries #39

From Teresa, in Burlington, North Carolina:

I enjoy cooking very much and find that a well-stocked pantry and freezer allow me to make a pot of soup on the weekend without making a special trip to the store or stir up a stir-fry dish for dinner when I get home and decide that is what I want to eat.

Recently I remodeled my kitchen pantry in my 1910 brick bungalow. After the remodel, I have two deep shelves left up high for extra kitchen "stuff" and new smaller, narrow shelves in an L-configuration for pantry food storage. The wall on the left has no shelves, but has hooks for hanging the stir-fry pan, strainers, colanders, roasting pan, and aprons.

The 46" across and 34.5" deep space is big enough that I can walk *into* the pantry and even turn around if I want!

The shelves were already covered with a white laminate and did not need painting. I did paint the old bead board wall covering a clean white to brighten up the interior. I like to use large glass jars to store oatmeal, rice, barley, etc. and tins with tight fitting covers to store tea, cocoa, pasta, etc. Baskets hold onions and brown paper bags hold potatoes.

It took 2 carpenters one day and $300 to re-do the pantry and a few other odd jobs around the house. Best money I have spent in a long time!

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

Here's how.

Oyster sauce (Recipe: chicken lo mein)

The walking route from our first apartment in Boston to my job at a publishing company in the Leather District took me right through Chinatown.

I didn't know how to cook, so the temptation was minimal.

Every day I walked past half a dozen markets, some with produce spilling into the street, others that sold only noodles, or barbecued duck suspended in the window. I never stopped at the bakery that made moon cakes and fortune cookies. I passed up the housewares and cookware.

Seriously.

Today it takes me hours to cover the same few blocks I used to speed through in minutes. And I come home lugging fresh and dried noodles, bamboo steamers, every imaginable variety of choy (greens) and chile peppers, and bottles of condiments, like my very favorite oyster sauce.

Canned tomatoes (Recipe: cioppino)

You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto;
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
Let's call the whole thing off!

Are you a member of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Rainy Sunday Afternoon Romantic Comedy Movie Club?

Okay, there is no such club, but if there were, I would be its president. And if you were a member, you'd surely recognize this classic song from Swing Time.

It's a love song, and it's not really about potatoes and tomatoes.

But if there were a love song about tomatoes, I'd be singing along.

A New Orleans pantry giveaway (Recipe: red bean and cheese burritos)

Laissez le bon temps rouller!

Although I don't speak Parisian or Provencal French, or Cajun French, or even the taxi-driver French my husband learned in Montreal, I know what this means.

Let the good times roll!

I still remember everything about our first visit to South Louisiana, where I learned the true meaning of laissez le bon temps rouller. Street life in the French Quarter. Zydeco, and jazz at Preservation Hall. The streetcar named Desire. Voodoo, plantation houses, and the pervading aroma of vinegar on Avery Island.

And the food? Oh, yes, the food: a beignet at Cafe du Monde, a muffaletta from Central Grocery, an oyster po' boy. Waiting on line for hours for shrimp etouffee at K-Paul's. Waiting on line in the middle of the street, with businessmen and politicians, for lunch at Galatoire's. Squeezing the crawfish tails and sucking the heads (or is it the other way around?) at Hymel's with the LSU game on the big-screen TV.

There is no more vibrant regional food culture in America than in New Orleans, and the nice folks at Zatarain's have offered a great New Orleans pantry giveaway to introduce you to some of the traditional foods of their home town.

Other People's Pantries #38

From GZ Tai-Tai (GZ Tai-Tai), in Guangzhou (Canton), China:

Basically my pantry evolved over the years out of necessity. Living in China where many things were not available in our first year here (1996), I found myself shopping for many items in Hong Kong, bringing them back for the family to enjoy until our next trip to Hong Kong. Then we went through the days of "If you see it buy now or it won't be there the next time." This still happens once in a while. These days I can get most everything I need here in China, at a price of course, but it saves the trip to Hong Kong.

I have been looking at the pantries for a while on your blog, and finally had the courage to unveil mine. (Read more here.)

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

Here's how.

Adobo seasoning (Recipe: turkey-chile rotini)

The second of two posts this week featuring ground turkey and pasta, together in our favorite recipes.

Where do you stand on adobo?

We're not talking politics here. No left or right, red state or blue state, alternative energy or education. No defense spending, no financial bailout, no leaving anyone behind.

I mean where do you stand -- because where you are has everything to do with adobo.

In The Philippines, adobo is the national dish, pork or chicken cooked in a sauce made of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic and pepper.

In Mexico, or New Mexico, adobo is the vinegar-based, smoky-hot, tablecloth-staining sauce in which chipotle chile peppers are packed.

In The Perfect Pantry, adobo is often both the vinegar-based chicken dish and the sauce that envelops those wonderful chipotles, but it's also something else -- a dry spice blend, including garlic, onion, black pepper, Mexican oregano, cumin and cayenne red pepper, and sometimes salt.

Ground turkey (Recipe: turkey-escarole soup)

The first of two posts this week featuring ground turkey and pasta, together in our favorite recipes.

When I was a child, I thought I was one of a kind -- the kind of person who loves chicken, but doesn't love turkey.

My mother indulged my taste in poultry, and instead of insisting I make a meal out of side dishes, for every holiday she'd cook two main courses. Turkey and brisket. Turkey and meatballs. Turkey and....

As I've grown older, my tastes have grown up. I still don't love roast turkey, but I love ground turkey and always have some in my freezer.