Over the last few weeks, I’ve been posting Notes to my Facebook page about my adventures in cooking. I’ve reading the Julie/Julia Project blog online, and when I got some terrible news about a friend of mine, I threw my energies and focus into cooking ridiculous meals from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Since those notes had nothing to do with small-space living, I spared you ll the details. Until now, of course.
One of the charms of Julie/Julia is that Julie Powell had the kind of NYC apartment that makes parents’ hair turn gray. As crappy as the neighborhood was, though, and inasmuch as she often had no water and had holes in her ceiling, she had a big kitchen. (At least it sounds like she did.) I don’t. And if you’re reading this blog for any reason other than entertainment, I assume you don’t have a big kitchen, either. So here’s my combo food/space blog: keeping a well-stocked pantry in a 42′ square feet of kitchen.
Pantry cooking, to clarify, is planning your next meal by saying, "What have we got?" instead of "What do we need?" At its purest it’s leftover reinvention, an art in which David has a black belt. We don’t have the luxury of a chest freezer, or, indeed an actual pantry, and keeping certain items in stock all the time is vital to our sanity. (Fortunately, we do have the option of walking across the street when we’re out of some staple–as opposed to loading up the car and driving 15 minutes to get milk–so urban living does have its bonuses.) Last night, for instance, David went to run some errands and brought home a box of fresh cheese ravioli from Lucca, a delightful surprise. A half hour later, we had their fantastic cheesiness, dressed in a bechamel sauce with white wine, pancetta, peas, and lemon zest, atop a bed of arugula. And, of course, topped with crunchy salt.
At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all (something I risk every time I open my mouth), I thought I’d offer advice on keeping a well-stocked pantry for such meals on the fly. Keep a group of harmonious ingredients on tap at all times, and you can make a harmonious meal. Of course, yours will differ, as it depends on your favorite cuisine. We lean toward American, Italian and Mexican food, but if you’re a big fan of cooking Chinese food, you’d be much more likely to keep, say, star anise in the house instead of fennel seed. But you get the idea.
Here’s my recommendation of When It’s Running Low, Buy It Now Staples:
IN THE REFRIGERATOR
Also known as "perishables."
- Milk
- Eggs
- Unsalted butter
Yes, UNSALTED. You can add salt, but you can’t take it away. - Sliced wheat bread
- Large flour tortillas
We often use last night’s leftovers to make a wrap of some kind for lunch.
- Cheddar cheese
- Parmesan cheese (ungrated – it stays moist longer)
- Boxed white wine
Boxed, indeed! Boxed wine has come a long way since Franzia. I cook with it so frequently (I don’t actually drink much white) that having an easy-pour spout is convenient; plus it’s in a vacuum bag so it stays useable much longer.
IN THE CRISPER
These four items are non-negotiable. I don’t often eat celery and carrots on their own, but they end up in almost everything.
- Celery
- Carrots
- Romaine (washed and in a tupperware container lined with paper towel)
- Italian parsley
ON THE FRIDGE DOOR
These condiments are what’s truly Mediterranean-specific–someone who’s really into cooking Indian food will likely not find capers a required item on the door. That said, this is probably the most important of all these little lists. Condiments last a long time, so if you’ve really got an empty refrigerator, but you have an array of items below, all you need for a delicious dinner is, say, eggs.
- Capers
- Olives
- Cornichons
- Pickled jalapenos
- Pepperoncini
- Dijon mustard (for vinaigrettes, it’s indispensable!)
- Mayonnaise
- Ketchup
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- A tube of tomato paste: If you EVER use tomato paste, GET THE TUBE.
- Any, or all, of the following hot sauces: Hunan Chili; Cholulua; Tabasco; Sriracha
- Jam
IN THE FREEZER
Our freezer is not large, but it has room enough for these goods. When I buy meat, I always separate the pieces into individual servings and separate them with waxed paper before freezing. OK, not always, I didn’t do that with the sliced pancetta recently, and last night spent five minutes cutting a hunk of sliced frozen pancetta from the larger hunk of sliced frozen pancetta.
- Pancetta
- Bacon
This we cut to half-strips and store in stacks of six. - Frozen peas
- Frozen pearl onions: Beats the hell out of peeling them.
- Frozen corn
- Hot Italian sausage
This is the ultimate shortcut. No time? Squeeze the meat out of an Italian sausage link, sautee it with some canned diced tomatoes, and serve it up with the pasta. Delish! - Frozen bread rolls
This was a recent discovery at Whole Foods. Usually I’d buy six dinner rolls from ACME bread company, and we’d wrap them individually in foil and freeze them for the nights when we didn’t have fresh bread in the house. - Ground beef
- Chicken breasts
ON THE SHELVES
We don’t have an actual pantry, but we do have plenty of shelves.
- Yellow onions
- Shallots
- Garlic
- Lemons
- Limes
- Potatoes
- Apple
- Tomatoes
Note: we usually get hothouse roma tomatoes out of season, and only occasionally.
- White wine vinegar
- Red wine vinegar
- White vinegar
- Spray canola
- Spray olive oil
- Olive oil
- Boxed pasta
Usually it’s farfalle, orzo and rotini that we keep on hand.
CANNED
Don’t let the food nazis fool you. Canned food is indispensable, unless you always plan meals 24 hours in advance and thusly have time to soak the beans.
- Tomatoes
Most cooking magazines and chefs recommend getting canned tomatoes out of season–they’re picked at the height of freshness, and as long as you don’t expect to slice them, they’re perfect for sauces, salsas, etc. We usually have a few cans of diced and whole on hand, always packed in juice, never in sauce. - Black beans
- Pinto beans
- Kidney beans
- Cannellini beans
- Tuna packed in oil
SPICE RACK
The spice rack is the backbone of pantry cooking. When you have a good spice rack, you can make anything. Like I said, we tend toward Mediterranean flavors, hich is pretty obvious in the list below.
- Oregano
- Dried basil
- Tarragon
- Thyme
- Fennel seed
- Fennel flower
- Red pepper flakes
- Herbes de Provence
- Dill weed
- Dill seed
- Celery salt
- Cumin
- Coriander
- Cayenne pepper
- Chili powder
- Paprika
- Fresh ground black pepper (ALWAYS fresh ground!)
- Kosher salt
- Large-crystal kosher salt
- Fleur de sel
That’s not everything, but that’s just about everything we need for a spontaneous Italianish dish. I’d like to expand in favor of some East Indian spices (garam masala, for instance) but these are our standards.
BULK
We buy a lot of items in bulk, right from the bin, and it’s a great way to stock long-term staples.
- Flour
- Rice
- Arborio rice
- Sugar
- Brown sugar
So that’s it, folks. We keep all those items on hand, at all times, in our tiny kitchen. The list looks really long (and boring) now that I’ve typed it up, but it’s only half of what we have at the moment. From this list, you can make mac and cheese; burgers and fries; all-day meat ragu; or Gateau de Crepes, if you’re so inclined.
And just to end with an especially know-it-all bang, here’s a recipe for tuna salad, my favorite "I have ten minutes to cook and eat" meal:
- 2 cans tuna in oil, drained
- 1 can cannellini beans, drained
- 1 finely diced carrot
- 1 finely diced celery stalk
- Chopped parsley
- 1/2 finely diced apple
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
- The following herbs to taste: fennel seed, dill, dill seed, and celery salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Large-crystal kosher salt
- 2 large flour tortillas
Combine all the above ingredients, ending with the salt to taste–taste carefully on the herbs and salt! Wrap in a tortilla as you would a burrito. Presto: pantry lunch!
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