A well stocked pantry is a great thing. Without it, whipping up a great meal is almost impossible. Generally, if you don’t keep a well stocked pantry you’ll find yourself buying every little ingredient to make a recipe, which adds up very quickly. We want you to skip those fashionable oils with herbs floating in it and nevermind the endless spice mixtures with cute names. Were here to talk about function ingredients, the truly hardworking and often forgot items crucial to any serious cooks day-to-day. Most of these ingredients are cheap, easy to find, very shelf stable and most importantly versatile.
Now lets see how your kitchen pantry stacks up against a professional chefs!
Part One | Brendan’s Top 10 Pantry Items
1) Kosher Salt: Kosher salt people and nothing else! Please buy some, cook with it, and savor the results. Learning how to season by hand will help you greatly at this point.
2) Whole Black Peppercorns: People always ask us “How did you season that amazing fish/roast/etc.?” The answer almost always surprises them. Kosher salt and freshly cracked black peppercorns. Experiment with grinding it finely, medium or just cracking it. Black pepper will take on renewed and well deserved importance in your kitchen. Next, you can experiment with those specific and expensive varieties sold at your local gourmet market.
3) Allspice: The base for many Turkish dishes as well as the famous Jerk spicing of Jamaica. Allspice lives in that middle ground between black pepper and cinnamon. My favorite sweet spice for savory dishes. In a pinch it can even replace cinnamon in some pies.
4) Vinegars: I love a good red wine vinegar and find it to be the most versatile of all vinegars. This world is much like that of olive oils and it gets expensive quickly. Find something affordable with solid flavor that matches the cusine types that you cook. I also suggest having apple cider vinegar and rice wine vinegar on hand.
5) Dried Chilies: Beyond red pepper flakes and Spanish paprika try purchasing some dried poblano, cascabel and Aleppo chilies. Doors will open as you experiment with a spectrum of fruity smoky and spicy chilies.
6) Extra Virgin Olive Oil: I cook everything at home in either Extra Virgin Olive Oil or butter depending on mood and season. Find a versatile olive oil that has enough flavor to dress salads but can also be used to sauté or shallow fry in. I like 100% arbequina olive oil, not surprisingly the arbequina is used as both a table olive and for pressing into oil. To my mind that is the perfect combination.
7) Canned San Marzano Tomatoes: If you buy these or put them up yourself a nice firm and ripe canned tomato is an easy addition to any stew, soup, braise or sauce. Buy whole canned tomatoes as the chopped and pureed tomatoes tend to consist of those tomatoes that had bruises and flaws and therefore could not be canned whole.
8) Dried Legumes/Beans: I am mad for chickpeas and lentils but the world of beans and legumes is a large and delicious one. Keep them at hand for soups, salads, purees and frittatas. I don’t need to point this out but beans and pork have a natural affinity one for the other. Next time you roast pork chops try rubbing the chops in black pepper and lemon and serving them over cannellini beans with diced red onion and parsley sauce.
9) Assorted Flours: This means All Purpose, Bread Flour, and Durum Semolina Flour. With these 3 flours you can make pie dough, cake and pancake batters, home baked breads, fresh pastas, and pizzas not to mention many varieties of turnovers, empanadas and the like. Look for the unbleached, unbromated…basically the unadulterated flours.
10) Fresh Herbs!!! Nothing will elevate your cuisine more than using fresh herbs and lots of them. Don’t be shy and stop wasting money buying those little four dollar packets. Grow pots of your own parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, and rosemary. Fresh herbs enliven a dish and pull together separate ingredients while keeping the overall palate both light and refreshing.
Stay tuned…
for part two, where Jay shares his top 10!
