The Pantry

When I first started to try Western cooking, I really had no idea what kind of spices, herbs, condiments should I stock up in the pantry. Because there's a lot of herbs and spices on the store shelf. Do you have the same problem? Well, after lots of cook books reading, cooking show watching, and of course, the hand on practice, I found that there's some essential ingredients in the western cooking.

Fresh produce:

1. "Mirepoix" - the French name of the combination of chopped onion, carrot & celery. They are the base ingredients of the soups & stews. "Trinity" - the combination of chopped onion, celery & bell pepper that used as the base of Cajun or Louisiana Creole cuisine. Carrots & celery are also good for juicing, just combine with apples and little bit of lemon juice. These items can stock up a bit and store in the fridge. If you have half of the onion left, wrap it with cling wrap and a piece of aluminium foil. That onion would not dry up and no strong onion smell would fill up the fridge.
2. Garlic and shallot should be kept in a dry place, like a garlic jar. During the high humidity days, you can think about using the crushed garlic in the jar (soaked with oil). But the taste would not be as good as the fresh ones. Garlic is widely used in marinade, roasting poultry, meat and vegetables. Shallot is under the family of onion. It is slightly sweeter than onion. Sometimes, I will put half of a finely chopped shallot in the salad dressing.
3. Italian (flat-leaf) parsley and coriander (cilantro) give a great final touch for soups, stews and casseroles. I use Italian parsley with other fresh herbs to roast chicken. In Mexican, Chinese, Mediterranean, and North African cuisine, coriander is one of the essential ingredients of the cooking. How to store them? Use a kitchen paper wrap around the fresh herbs, put into a plastic food storage bag and keep in the fridge. It can keep the fresh herbs last for 10 days.
4. Lemon is one of my favorite citrus fruit. The zest and the juice give a fantastic taste for desserts, salad dressings, marinades and even savory food. In the summer, add slices of lemon and cucumber into a jar/pitch of water. It tastes so fresh and you would not go for soda anymore!

Dried herbs & spices:

1. Rosemary, thyme, bay leave, oregano are commonly used in Italian, French, Mediterranean cooking. If you don't have fresh herbs around, use dried one, just put half of the amount.
2. Herbs de Provence is another favorite mixed herbs that used in the Southern French cooking. It contains thyme, rosemary, basil, marjoram, sage, fennel and lavender. You can use it in poultry, meat, fish and soup.
3. I love to use Kosher salt. It is an additive-free coarse-grained salt. It's used by some Jews in the preparation of meat, as well as the gourmet cooks/chefs who prefer its texture and flavour. You can find it in gourmet grocery shops and big supermarket. It costs a little bit more than the table salt but really worth it!
4. Black pepper is also a must to have in the kitchen. It's good to use the freshly ground from the mill. If you don't have a mill or pepper grinder at home, try to look for the ground pepper comes with the plastic grinder, like McCormick or Trader Joe's one.

Canned food:

1. Tomato is a key ingredient in a lot of Italian, French, Mediterranean and Moroccan cuisine. The canned tomatoes are convenience and time saving. I usually get the 14-oz or 28-oz can diced tomatoes, preferably the no or low salt ones.
2. Tomato puree (paste) can help intensify the taste in the stew or casserole. I love the one in the tube because it's easy to add in the cooking and no messy at all.

Pasta & grains:

1. Linguine, spaghetti or capellini (Angel hair) is great with some pesto, Marianna, meat sauce...
2. Some shaped pasta like Pene (Mostaccioli), Rotini (Rotelle), Farfalle, Cavatelli are good to go with cream sauce or as a pasta salad.
3. Jasmin rice, long-grain rice, basmati rice or brown rice provides a hearty feeling. Cook the rice according to the instruction on the package. Brown rice takes longer time to cook but it provides better nutrition than any white rice. It can be a side dish to go with the main course or an appetizer/salad.

Others:

1. Vegetable and chicken stock. The stock is used for making soups, stews and sauces for pasta or any meat dish. You can find the ready-use in the can or box. But I prefer the stock cubes. It's because it has longer shelf life and space saving. Better to get the low or no salt one because it is more easy for you to control the saltiness.
2. Extra virgin olive oil is used for making salad dressings, marinades and low- to medium- heat cooking. it's not desirable for frying temperature since the flavour of extra virgin olive oil tends to break down. Then it will be a waste for an expensive great quality of olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil can range from crystalline champagne colour to greenish-golden to bright green. In general, the deeper the colour, the more intense the olive flavour. Canola oil is another good choice of oil. It contains more cholesterol-balancing mono saturated fat than any oil...so as olive oil! It's good for cooking and salad dressing.
3. Vinegar is one of the ingredients for salad dressing. Red wine vinegar has a a pleasantly pungent flavour that French would prefer to use in the salad dressing and sauce. Balsamic vinegar is made from white Trebbiano grape juice and has a dark colour and pungent sweetness. Usually be used in Italian dressing and cooking.
4. Dijon mustard is originally from Dijon, France. It's know for the clean and sharp flavour, which can range from mild to hot. I use it for making salad dressing, marinade for lamb, beef, rabbit and other meat. And also it's a good condiment as well.

It's not difficult when you start checking some recipes with only 5 ingredients or less. Read the recipes couple of times and follow the steps. After a lot of practicing and your confidence built up, you can create your own recipes. Bon appetit!