The Perfect Pantry

Carnaroli/arborio rice (Recipe: three mushroom risotto)

My grandmother called her refrigerator "the frigidaire", and tissues "kleenex".

Though both were brand names, she meant them in the lower-case sense. The brand became the generic.

I can't remember when I first saw a package of "risotto" in the supermarket, but I remember groaning. When did carnaroli and arborio rice lose their identities to the generic?

Slow-roasted tomatoes (Recipe: corn, bean, and two tomato salad)

With any luck, the next time you see these tomatoes, they'll look like this:

Long grain white rice (Recipe: chicken and shrimp jambalaya)

Who will be the next Chef de Riz?

If you love rice, and you love to cook, and you get yourself to Crowley, Louisiana, in October, you could be crowned Chef de Riz at the 73rd Annual International Rice Festival.

To earn the title, you'll have to wow the judges with a dish that includes at least one cup of cooked rice, and the rice of choice in South Louisiana is long grain white rice.

Fresh herbs (Recipe: fava bean salad)

Would you call me a food snob?

I drink Fresca, sing the praises of Miracle Whip, and make a great chicken salad from a boxed rice mix. My pantry harbors no-boil lasagne noodles, curry powder, broccoli slaw and discos -- all convenience foods.

Yet, from April to October, I cook only with fresh herbs, from my summer pantry (also known as my garden), and no other herbs will do.

Nori (Recipe: vegetable sushi)

Adapted in part from an archived post, and updated with new photos and links. Bento Week, Day Two.

 

If I'd titled this post "Red algae from the Porphyra genus", would you still be reading?

Didn't think so.

In fact, if you told me there was algae in The Perfect Pantry, I'd probably reach for a disinfectant.

Nori -- yes, it's red algae -- is the Japanese name for various edible seaweeds, as well as the food products created from these sea vegetables. Consumption of seaweed in Japan dates back many centuries, but the nori sheets we use today were invented in Tokyo more recently, in the 19th century.

Preserved lemons (Recipe: Couscous salad with herbs)

In the deep recesses of my pantry, large wire racks hold the cookware I don't use every day: three stacks of dim-sum size bamboo steamers, two orange mini coquettes, a plastic box of sushi-making gear, a handful of Bundt pans, three paella pans, one red cast iron karahi, and six conical-topped tagines.

Before the day I bought, on super-dooper sale, my first tagine in a tiny store that was going out of business, I knew nothing about Moroccan cooking. The shop owner included one of her favorite recipes for a traditional chicken and olive stew.

One of the ingredients listed was preserved lemons. I had no idea what they were and asked whether I could substitute fresh lemons instead.

No, no! she replied. The preserved lemons are absolutely essential.

One taste, and I knew just what she meant.

Kecap manis (Recipe: nasi goreng/Indonesian fried rice)

An updated post from the archives, with a simpler version of the original recipe, plus new photos and links.

What does ABC mean to you?

Something fundamental, yes? A starting point. A building block.

In the world of food, ABC reminds me of two things.

First, an ABC I don't keep in the pantry: When Ted and Cousin Martin and I traveled through Malaysia, we tasted a dessert called ABC, air batu campur -- literally, "water stone mix" --  a mound of shave ice topped, improbably, with red beans, sweet corn, grass jelly and a drizzle of evaporated milk. Also called ais kacang, it looked like a kind of psychedelic sno-cone.

Second, an ABC I always have in my pantry: kecap manis, a wonderful, sweet soy sauce sold under the ABC brand and, in our house, known as "that ABC stuff in the cupboard."

The not-yet-perfect pantry: What's missing? (Recipe: white bean garlic dip)

My friend Bob sent me an email last week:

So...... what's going to be the 250th ingredient in your pantry?

I know what you're thinking.

Cannellini beans (Recipe: cannellini vinaigrette)

In 1988, the City of Boston, Massachusetts, unveiled Scheme Z, a series of bridges designed to cross the Charles River as part of a major highway relocation through the center of the city.

Whoever decided to call the bridge Scheme Z -- scheme anything -- was no marketing genius. Scheme Z became the rallying point for every community group that opposed the construction project. Nobody liked the implication that somehow the government was scheming to push through this design.

Today, the beautiful and architecturally distinctive Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, carrying the new roadway across the river, defines the Boston skyline.

What's in a name?

White bean doesn't really get me going.

Cannellini bean sounds exotic, interesting, and... well, romantic.

Chickpeas (Recipe: Chickpeas with sausage and peppers)

What the heck is a chickpea?

Does it have anything to do with chickens? Is it even a pea?

Were chickpeas (cicer arietum in Latin) named after a rather unattractive wart on Roman philosopher Cicero's nose, or was Cicero, born with a less-than-perfect nose, named after the chickpea?

Inquiring minds want to know.