Spring Cleaning

Almost everything for the base of this dish comes from the pantry - spaghetti noodles, peanut butter, soy sauce (though some are supposed to be kept in the refrigerator). I do add fresh raw veggies like cucumbers, green onions, snow peas and bell peppers, and sometimes add chicken that I've either grilled or sauteed with a little bit of sesame oil and soy sauce, but who keeps chicken in the pantry, right?!?

Cook 16 oz. spaghetti or other long, thin noodles as the package directs. Drain, rinse (yes! rinse the pasta!) then toss with 1-2 Tbsp. sesame oil.

In a food processor, pulse about 5 cloves of garlic (sometimes I use more) until they are small pieces, then add 1/2 c. peanut butter, 1/4 c. soy sauce, 2 T. either honey or sugar, 2 T. rice vinegar, 2 T. chili oil,  and 1 chopped chili (like fresh jalapeno or Serrano, but if you don't have these on hand, the chilioil will still make it spicy). Puree until smooth.

Toss the noodles with the sauce. Topping with cooked chicken, julienned cucumber, green onions, peas, or bell peppers is optional, of course.

This bag of potato starch has been in my cupboard for about a year and a half. I know that because I bought it after seeing it used in a recipe for beef negimaki (scallions wrapped in seared beef and dressed with a soy-mirin-sake sauce) in the November 2004 issue of Saveur. Our Spring Cleaning day seemed the perfect opportunity to finally make use of it. There's a recipe similar to Saveur's over at Epicurious, one of the main differences being that Epicurious's sauce is thickened by reduction while Saveur's is thickened with the potato starch. In doing the latter, I was really impressed with how the two teaspoons of potato starch diluted in five teaspoons of cold water created beautifully thick glaze in a matter of seconds when I added it to the barely boiling soy, mirin and sake. There were no lumps, as I often find with corn starch, and no added flavors it seemed. There's a picture after the jump.

[Photos: Nick Vagnoni]

Essential to my pantry are cans of whole, peeled, San Marzano tomatoes. Whenever I hit up The Fancy Grocery Store, I stock up. To me, San Marzanos are the only tomatoes to use for simple tomato sauces where you want sweet tomato-y flavor to shine, and you don't have fresh ones on hand.

My marinara recipe is quick and simple, but once you've made a batch, you don't have to just serve it over spaghetti. Perhaps use this an opportunity to clean out both the pantry and the fridge.  Here are some of my favorite things to do with marinara:

• Use it as a base for seafood stew. Simmer it along with a little more wine or Pernod and orange zest. Then add shellfish, chunks of firm white fish, and prawns. Garnish with flat parsley.
• Use it to top grilled, flattened chicken breasts, then cover with thin slices of fontina val d'aosta, pop under broiler to melt cheese.
• Saute cannelini beans in garlic and olive oil. Add in several spoons of marinara and some chopped, fresh rosemary, for a quick side dish.
• Add it to beef stew instead of canned tomatoes.
• Use it as a pizza sauce or layer it into lasagne or eggplant parmigiana.
• Spoon it over soft, scrambled eggs and top with shredded basil.

Additionally, to the marinara itself you can add all kinds of things before tossing with pasta: halved, oil-cured black olives; orange juice and zest; flaked imported tuna packed in oil; chiffonade of basil; fresh parsley.

Almost anything goes!

What do you have the most of in your pantry? Because I like to bake, I always have a fairly large supply of baking ingredients, including different flours, baking powder, baking soda, and yeast, among other things, like chocolate chips and sugar. I also always have cereal and oatmeal to give myself some breakfast options. But there is one thing that I almost have more cans of than I can count: tomatoes.

Granted, I do use canned tomatoes a fair amount, especially when making dishes like soups and pasta sauces. I love tomatoes and it is much easier to reach for a convenient jar of them, especially when they’re pre-roasted or diced, than it is to fuss with fresh tomatoes. For some reason, though, I buy them in groups of twos and threes with complete disregard to the fact that I have at least 10 different varieties already in my cupboard. Addiction? Paranoia? I am quite certain that the world would not end if I ran out of my favorite canned tomatoes, and yet I can’t seem to help myself. That’s my pantry-stocking secret. What’s yours? Beans? Cereal? Jarred salsa?

Everyone's "basic" pantry really depends on what they like to eat, what they're cooking on a day-to-day basis, and what kinds of "surprise!" entertaining they may have to do at the last minute. However, there are a few general categories of things (in bold) that I see in almost every pantry, with differences in the specific type:

• Dried pasta - Pasta lasts along time, especially if they're made without eggs. You can't really go wrong if you have something long like spaghetti or fettuccine as well as something short like penne. From there, get fancy.
• Grains - Like pasta, these also last a long time on the shelf. The most common grain is rice. Mine is a mostly Asian household, so we have the Asian-style short-grain white rice. Since I'm trying to maintain some semblance of health, brown rice is gradually replacing the white rice, and we also have barley. A lot of people also like to have oats on hand for breakfasts and baking. Good idea.
• Beans and legumes -  I'm a huge cheater here. Long cooking dried beans are the way to go here, but I love the convenience of canned beans. I would say that black beans and whatever bean you put in soup (navy? pinto?) is good to have on hand, and of course, a can of chickpeas for an emergency hummus.
• Vegetables - Better to stick with frozen vegetables over canned, with the only exception being whole plum tomatoes. But for my Mediterranean bent, sun-dried tomatoes, brine cured olives, artichoke hearts, capers; bamboo shoots and water chestnuts for the Asian side.
• Meats - canned tuna (packed in oil, it tastes better). Canned salmon is good for a change, and of course, I love anchovies. I can eat those straight out of the can. By the way, Spam doesn't count as meat.
• Oils - Canola oil for deep frying, and olive oil for you know, everything else. I also have sesame oil. For reason, please see "Grains."
• Vinegars - Plain white vinegar at the very least, but I'd toss that for Balsamic any day. I also have rice vinegar for all the Asian cooking I do.
• Salt and pepper - obviously. I have Kosher salt, regular table salt, and soy sauce.
• Flours and other - all purpose flour at the very least. I also have whole wheat flour (in the freezer) and panko breadcrumbs.
• Stocks - for those times you don't have three hours to boil bones, chicken stock and vegetable stock, but not in cans

That should do it for a basic cook's pantry. Baking, on the other hand, is a whole different animal.

I can't say for certain how long this has been in my pantry - surely less than a few other slightly dusty bottles - but I will admit that I have no idea when I bought it. I am incredibly glad that I found it, though. Muir Glen's organic Chipotle Salsa is full of tomatoes, onions, spices and peppers. The chipotle flavor comes from powdered chipotle peppers, which concentrate the flavor without resulting in an unpleasantly large chunk of hot pepper on your tortilla chip. The salsa is just spicy enough, with the lingering heat of chipotle that makes you reach for a large second helping.

Jarred salsas are shelf-stable before being opened and  are a great thing to have on hand when a nacho craving strikes. The salsa can also be used to top anything from chicken to grilled steak and, when combined with a little sour cream or guacamole, can be tossed into some salad greens for a fantastic Mexican-flavored lunch.

This was just too quirky to pass up as something you might want to keep in your pantry: the Mayday Bar.

 

The Mayday bar is not your ordinary 250 calorie protein or snack bar. It is 3600 calories all packed up and vacuum sealed with a guaranteed shelf-life of five years. That's longer than anything else in your pantry right now. It promises at great apple cinnamon taste, and are pre-cut for convenience.

Alright, so the Mayday bar is actually survival food that has been approved by the US Coast Guard to be used in emergency situations. The entire 3600 calories is cut into nine 400-calorie squares, each one to represent one meal. So basically, you have three days worth of food in one Mayday bar to take with you boating, camping, or if you happen to be tagging along with the Candaian Transport Department (who also approve it).

But if you're ever caught in an entertaining "emergency" with surprise guests, I'd go with the olives.

 

This bag of dried Peruvian corn or cancha also turned up as a result of some spring cleaning. Truth be told, I was cleaning my car. My girlfriend left it in the back seat a few weeks ago, after a visit to our local Hispanic supermarket. We've always enjoyed the small bowls of cancha that our favorite Peruvian restaurant serves, so making it at home seemed like a good idea. (As an aside, yes, I know that these are probably not all that different than the Popnots that I spoke less than fondly of a few weeks ago.) Basically, these large dried kernels get popped just like popcorn, except that they don't really turn inside out, they just puff up and turn golden brown. The Goya website has a recipe, but really all you need to do is heat a little vegetable oil in a pot with a tight lid, add the corn and shake it until it pops, then drain it on some paper towels and toss with salt. It's a great snack by itself, with some hot sauce and especially with ceviche.

I like cereal as well as the next person, even the plainer kinds like Rice Krispies and regular Cheerios, which are not exciting enough to be "kids cereal" nor are they healthy enough (i.e. made to enhance "regularity") to be strictly for adults. Let's face it: they're pretty uninspiring as far as cereal options go. I'll buy a box on sale and eat it when I run out of other things. They will last quite some time when the box is unopened. This is an excellent feature since it is only rarely when I put plain-jane cereals to their best use: marshmallow cereal bars. With three ingredients, there is hardly any simpler snack and few more delicious. Since these involve no baking, prepared entirely in the microwave, a batch or two is a great way to clean out the cupboard and make room for newer, more exciting breakfast options. It's also a great thing to make with your kids.

Over time, some of the dry goods in the pantry will expire, from Bisquick to canned cranberry jelly. Most of these things will still be safe to eat in the weeks immediately following their “best by” date, but it is best to try and use them up before reaching that point. Spring cleaning is a great time to sort through all those cans and mixes and figure out what to do with them. Soups and chili recipes are a good start for most pantry favorites.

Another prevalent pantry item is chocolate chips. The Tollhouse recipe is a classic and one of the best, most reliable recipes there is, so keeping a bag or two of chocolate morsels on hand is common. All of these chips have a “best by” date on them, after which point they will still be usable, but their flavor will begin to decrease. I happen to have a lot of seasonal chips around – red and green white chocolate chips for Christmas and red and pink white chocolate chips for Valentine’s day – in addition to the specialty Milk Chocolate and Caramel Swirl Chips pictured above. Just use them in place of the regular chips in the Tollhouse recipe, or one of the other recipe on the back of the bags. It sounds obvious to say it here, but would we ever have leftover chips if we just disregarded the holiday that they are “supposed” to be for and used them whenever we wanted a batch of cookies?