The Perfect Pantry®

Paprika (Recipe: roasted chickpeas with garlic, cumin and paprika)

As recently as ten years ago, if you looked on my spice rack you'd have found one paprika, the red-and-white rectangular tin of Hungarian sweet paprika imported from Szeged by way of my local grocery store.

One tin was all I needed. I never did anything with paprika except sprinkle it on pale foods to make them pretty.

You might say paprika was my rouge.

Though my spice rack today holds at least five jars of sweet, hot and smoked paprika, you'll still find one of those red-and-white tins, but now I know what to do with the spice inside.

I actually cook with it.

Peanut oil (Recipe: latkes/potato pancakes)

Rudolf Diesel had a dream.

When the German inventor and Utopian idealist demonstrated his new engine at the 1900 Paris World Exposition, it ran not on petroleum, but on peanut oil.   

In the perfect world, Diesel believed, renewable biofuels like peanut oil could power farm machinery and automobiles. In our imperfect world, my car still drinks gasoline, but peanut oil powers my frying.

Cashews (Recipe: Muhammara, a pomegranate, pepper and nut spread)

Sometimes you feel like a nut.

Sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you feel like a peanut, walnut, pine nut, or even an almond, but sometimes you feel like a cashew, and nothing else will do.

Even though it's not a nut.

Zahtar, a Pantry Special (Recipe: fattoush, a salad of pita bread, tomato and cucumber)

Pantry Specials are great ingredients that find their way into my pantry from time to time, but not all the time.

Zahtar, zatar, za'atar: what's in a name? Though the word means thyme in Arabic, the name also refers to a blend of sumac, sesame seeds, salt and dried green herbs (thyme, usually, but sometimes oregano, marjoram or parsley). Zahtar, a popular table condiment in the Middle East, is sprinkled on or cooked with meat and vegetable dishes. Most often it's ground in a mortar and pestle, so the texture remains a bit coarse. For a perfect snack, mix zahtar with a bit of olive oil, and smear it on pita bread or pizza. And don't worry: sumac, the dominant ingredient in zahtar, is not the poison sumac we're taught to avoid in the woods. This sumac, from the dark-red berries of a shrubby tree native to the Middle East and parts of Italy, has a tart, fruity, lemony flavor.