The Perfect Pantry

Other People's Pantries #53

From Peter (Kalofagas), in Toronto, Canada:

Here are a couple of photos of my cellar, which acts as a pantry and wine storage. Its contents are an extension of whatever supplies and provisions are used in the kitchen.

 

I have a long wall of shelves full of kitchen ingredients and a new rack for my budding wine collection.

Dried goods, jarred and canned foods, pasta, rice, legumes, herbs and spicies, olive oils, baking trays, dishwashing liquids, towels and liquor, beer and wine are all stored in the pantry/cellar.

And I also use the pantry to dry and cure meats such as sausage, or as seen in the photo...pastourma!

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

*Other People's Pantries will be ending soon to make way for a new Saturday feature. However, we'll keep peeking in pantries as long as you keep sending your pantry photos. So, please send your photos as soon as possible.

Here's how.

Ground coriander (Recipe: curried turkey meatballs)

A favorite post from the earliest days of The Perfect Pantry, updated with new photos, recipe and links.

Once upon a time...

Our granddaughter Sabina knows that all good stories begin this way.

Once upon a time, the Sultan Schahriah, who had caught his sultana cheating on him, resolved to marry a different woman every day -- and to have her beheaded on the following morning, so no wife could ever get the chance to be unfaithful to him again.

(Sound familiar? It's the premise of The Thousand and One Arabian Nights.)

Scheherezade, daughter of the Grand Vizier, begged to become his next wife, so she could put a stop to this nonsense. To forestall her own death and the death of any other unlucky bride, she crafted a story-within-a-story so intriguing that, night after night, the Sultan spared her life.

In one tale, she told of a merchant, childless for forty years, who was "cured" by a love potion containing coriander. And though this story was very old (the tales were first published in Arabic in 850 AD, from stories handed down through generations before that), Scheherazade might have gotten the idea from the Chinese, who for thousands of years had used coriander as an aphrodisiac.

Pine nuts (Recipe: penne with roasted red pepper pesto)

When I look out the window in front of my desk, I see pine trees.

And out the kitchen window? Pine trees.

And from the windows in the living room, bedroom, porch? Pines, pines, pines.

Pine trees everywhere, but not a single pine nut to eat.

How is that possible?

Kencur/lesser galangal (Recipe: Balinese green beans)

Please welcome Julia, who with this post joins The Perfect Pantry as guest blogger. A trained chef, she has worked in some of the finest restaurants in the country, and for many years ran an innovative cooking service called Interactive Cuisine. A consultant to restaurants, farms and food businesses, and an avid urban gardener, Julia blogs at Grow.Cook.Eat, where you can read more about her cooking adventures in Bali and Vietnam, and in her own kitchen in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Guest post and photos by Julia of Grow.Cook.Eat., in Cambridge.

Ten years ago, I traveled to Southeast Asia –- to Bali -- for the first time. I didn’t know much about the cuisine before I went, but I discovered that this ruggedly beautiful island has its own cuisine, unlike that of any other part of Indonesia.

During my vacation I took a cooking course in Ubud, the cultural hub of the island. Even though my culinary school education had included two weeks of classes in Asian cooking, I quickly discovered how much I didn’t know.

The first hour of our class –- sitting in the garden under a thatched roof cabana, drinking fresh hibiscus iced tea -– was devoted to the Balinese pantry. A few of the ingredients I had used before: lemongrass, ginger, onions, garlic, chiles. Turmeric, which all of us have in our pantries in bright yellow powder form, was presented as a fresh rhizome.

Many ingredients were introduced as we learned the essentials of Balinese spicing. Most, like “torch” ginger, kaffir lime leaves and shrimp paste, were new to me. When kencur (also known as “lesser galangal”) was passed around, the distinct, pungent aroma immediately signaled its role as an essential ingredient in Balinese cuisine.

Other People's Pantries #52

From Mary (Quilting in Oz), in Pittburg, Kansas:

Couldn't resist digging out some pictures of the pantry I USED to have. At that time I had three sons still at home, and was living in the town where I grew up, surrounded by a large extended family and network of friends, any of whom were likely to drop by at any time, and I was always cooking. 

While my kitchen wasn't all that big, I did have LOTS of cupboards and they were full of food. Also had 2 freezers in addition to the one in the refrigerator and they were always full. And a basement full of home canned goods. But I still needed more space so I could stockpile enough staples to be able to cook for those spur of the moment guests. When we moved a bathroom from right off the kitchen I converted that space to a pantry with floor to ceiling shelves. I know somewhere I have better pictures but can't find them now. These show just a portion of that space.

But there was a downside to having this much food always on hand.

About a year after this picture was taken I had a fire and lost pretty much everything. Living in a small town, the local grocery store owner volunteered to come up the next day and do an inventory of my food and then priced it all out for me for insurance purposes. How nice was that?  But I was shocked to discover I had over $2,000 worth of food in my house, and this was in 1984 prices.

I've never stockpiled that much again... but then I also don't have kids at home anymore, don't live close to that big extended family and also don't have a pantry or lots of kitchen cupboards.

But boy, there was sure something comforting about looking at a stash like this. Now I have an equivalent stash of fabric for quilting... which is at least non-fattening.

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

*Other People's Pantries will be ending soon to make way for a new Saturday feature. However, we'll keep peeking in pantries as long as you keep sending your pantry photos. So, please send your photos as soon as possible.

Here's how.

Pilaf noodles (Recipe: lentil noodle soup)

Oodles of Noodles Week, Day Three. 

For years, I didn't know the proper name for pilaf noodles.

I lived down the block from a wonderful Middle Eastern market, where the owner knew me from my days as a food writer for the local newspaper. Whenever I would ask for those noodles, he knew just what I meant.

And when Ted would go to the store, I'd write pilaf noodles on his shopping list.

It wasn't until many years later that the owner of another market taught me the Arabic name: chayreyé.

Lovely, I know, but I'm kind of sweet on the name pilaf noodles, and I guess I always will be.

Pad Thai noodles (Recipe: rice noodle salad with shrimp)

Oodles of Noodles Week, Day Two.

There are noodles that tell you what to do with them, and there are noodles that leave much to the imagination.

Pad Thai noodles -- banh pho -- tell you exactly what they want to become.

Lasagne noodles (Recipe: four-cheese lasagne)

Welcome to Oodles of Noodles Week, Day One.

Lasagne noodles with an "e", or lasagna noodles with an "a"?

I have both in my pantry.

Is one right, and the other wrong?

Other People's Pantries #51

From Joan (Foodalogue), in Boynton Beach, Florida:

I don’t stockpile as much as other food lovers do. Yes, on spices, condiments, oils, vinegars, and a few dry staples like pasta, nuts, dried fruits. My refrigerator is almost never crammed except during the holidays, or when I’m entertaining. Anyway, here’s a peek:

Pantry, from the top down: cereals and breakfast products, bread crumbs, oil(s), coffee & filters; 2nd shelf: crackers, snack bars, assortment of nuts, peanut butter/jelly, honey; 3rd shelf: dried fruit, canned/jarred goods, boxes of chicken broth (I use it a lot).

Pantry, bottom half: assortment of vinegars, rice/couscous/stuffing bin, assorted pasta bin; next shelf where it starts to get messy is plastic containers, iced tea assortment, and wraps. Floor is for storage of water and, currently, Tequiza beer.

Another important corner in the kitchen is my storage cart (cookbooks in top basket/serving trays in bottom) and, most importantly, my wine storage on top!

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

*Other People's Pantries will be ending soon to make way for a new Saturday feature. However, we'll keep peeking in pantries as long as you keep sending your pantry photos. So, please send your photos as soon as possible.

Here's how.

Fresh pizza dough, and a birthday cookbook giveaway (Recipe: peachy mama pizza)

Never let it be said that Rhode Islanders don't know their pizza.

Pizza is a way of life here. On Federal Hill, the most Italian neighborhood in the most Italian state in the country, even the local bar grills pizza in a wood-fired oven. Thick crust or thin, from North Providence to Newport, you can find above-average pizza everywhere, including in our middle-of-nowhere village five miles up the road.

And, because we love our pizza, every market sells fresh pizza dough, often from the local pizzeria or from a comissary not more than a few minutes from the store.