what's in your pantry?

One of the papers in Boston - I forget which one - occasionally does a small feature column on local chefs, and they always ask them what they have in their cabinet. It's the sort of put 'em on the spot tabloid inquisition that foodies and gourmands find risqué. Outside of the kitchen we're an easy lot to satisfy, generally, and just reading about what someone else uses in their weekly cooking is to us exotic, sensual & erotic, bordering on pornographic. I mean, really, really spicy.

Now and again, when I open my own cupboard, I fantasize about being asked the same question in an interview.

We keep a well stocked stash of spices & etcetera that most people might find a bit unusual. I've come to consider them nearly indispensable to have on hand. So, too, does Cheryl. Despite that I don't label my spices & she often has to call me over to locate or identify something for her, today I got a surprise package in the mail which contained four moderate sized baggies of fresh powdery spices. Talk about pandering and procuring - I felt like a drug fiend on a red letter day.

What Cheryl bought for me - for us - was a new supply of smoked paprika, urfa bebir pepper, chinese chile & something even I have never encountered before in powder form -worcestershire. Apparently it can be gotten as a dry rub or to mix as a baste or marinade. Who knew?

I like that gal. She's sly, mischievous, surprising & she's an enabler.

To commemorate the surprise gift I immediately grabbed the camera and took a photograph:





She found these online at World Spice Merchants in Seattle, WA. I've already pored over every picture of their spices, reading each description, savoring the pre-endorphinic ecstasy that they create with my vulnerable, weak & poor willed imagination. I realize it's a problem but I can't decide if I need to form a support group or a rock house...

For your own bemusement, here is how I would answer the question "What is in your cupboard?" To me, they are inessential essentials: I could get by without them, but why should I? There is often a use for them in something I am interested in creating.


In addition to the standards - pepper, salt, basil, oregano, thyme, etc. - here's the list:

Smoked Paprika
Urfa Pepper
Aleppo Pepper
Marjoram
Sage
Cardamom
Curry Leaf
Lemon Grass
Kaffir Lime Leaf
Tamarind Paste
Pomegranate Molasses
Rose Water
Rose Paste
Za'atar
Grains of Paradise
Sumac
Espazote
assorted dried spicy chiles, mostly extremely hot
Smoked Salt

Chocolate

and some curious & useful ingredients such as Bolivian Rose salt, Coconut & Lime Smoked salt from Bali, and Mango powder, which we found was great to put into smoothies.

I won't bother explaining what they are here or how you might use them - I'll leave that up to your own imagination & for your own discovery - but I did want to mention a few books that you will find worth checking out.

Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean by Anna Sortun, the owner & chef of Oleana Restaurant in Cambridge, MA.

Cheryl received this book belatedly for her birthday in 2006, and it came so close to my own birthday that I saw it as a highly auspicious arrival. We haven't tried too many of the recipes yet - we are slowly savoring the joy of discovery and exploration - but Cheryl did make me a wonderful birthday meal using several recipes from it. Auspicious, I tell you.

Ethnic cuisine: The flavor-principle cook book by Elizabeth Rozin. This one may be a little hard to track down, but it is a great book to use for getting started in better understanding the correlation between spices & cuisine. She has also written several other books including Crossroads Cooking: The Meeting and Mating of Ethnic Cuisines - from Burma to Texas in 200 Recipes & Ethnic Cuisine: How to Create the Authentic Flavors of Over 30 International Cuisines.

Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook by Joetta Handrich Schlabach. This book has a great selection of simple to make recipes from cultures all over the world. I believe there is a companion cook book published as well. It can also be found at 10,000 Villages.