Grocery staples are to cooking what primary colored paints are to art. Even if you don't have precisely what you need, you can still pull something together if you know what the components are.
Staples are the things that live in your cupboard and you are rarely - if ever - without. You can make almost anything with the right mixture of staples. Most of the items in this list are common. You can add or take away depending on what you cook and how you cook. Try to keep from pulling too much from the list, however.
Common Staples List:
Milk
Eggs
Salt
Sugar
Black Pepper
Parmesan Cheese
Flour
Oil
Shortening
10 favorite spices or seasonings (this is a big deal, we'll hit it later)
Vinegar
Rice
Yeast
Molasses
Soy Sauce
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Butter or Margarine
Corn Starch
Corn Meal
Vanilla Extract
Bread Crumbs
Go look in your kitchen cabinets. If your parents cook, you will find at least 80% of these items in your cupboard.
Got yeast, flour, salt, sugar and water? You can make pitas, pizza dough, flatbread, bread, rolls...
No yeast? Just flour, salt and water? You can make gravy, batter, pasta or noodles for soup.
As you collect recipes and find the ones that work best for your family, you will start to notice patterns in the items you use. I have my own list of personal staples. It's a little beefy, but I've pulled miracles having these things jammed in the cupboard.
Tricksy Kitchen Hobbit Staples:
Flours : Whole wheat, maseca (corn flour), white wheat, semolina, white
White flour is my base flour but I mix it with other flours depending on the recipe. Semolina is for pizza dough or pasta dough. Maseca goes into my corn meal to make cornbread. I try to mix 2/3 white to 1/3 wheat flour in my doughs. Due to gluten content, you can't add too much whole wheat flour without it impacting the finished product.
Consomme or Bullion Cubes : Chicken, Beef and Ham
If I'm going to use salt, it might as well have a flavor. When I make rice to go with chicken, I use a chicken bullion cube rather than adding table salt to it. Making ham gravy or beans and rice? Goya Ham Bullion packets are the bomb!
Oil : Spray Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Sesame Oil, Peanut Oil and Canola
Canola is for baking with premade mixes or anything that is going to be cooked at a high temperature. Sesame is used when making Hummus or anything Asian. Olive oil goes with Italian foods, Salads or anything where you want your oil to have a flavor. Peanut oil is for deep frying. Trust me, it's amazing.
Cream of Something Soup: Mushroom, Celery, Asparagus
A can of any one of these soups can help create a hearty gravy, keep baked meat moist or add goodness to a rice dish.
Salad Dressing : Italian, Caesar, Ranch, Ken's Sweet Vidalia Onion
Italian and Caesar are super quick marinades to add flavor and increase tenderness in meat. Ranch and Ken's are sauces that I use in many of my recipes. They aren't just for salads. :)
Herbed Tomato Paste:
I prefer the herbed version to the regular tomato paste. I use it as pizza sauce or to tenderize pork.
Vinegar : White vinegar, balsamic vinegar, malt vinegar
White is used when I need a basic acidy vinegar. If I want a deeper flavor from my acid, I use balsamic. My family prefers malt vinegar to ketchup on fish and fries.
Lemon Juice
Another basic acid.
Spices
Fresh is better than dried, in spices. Most of us use thr dried stuff rather than fiddle with the care and upkeep of an herb garden. If you have a green thumb and a little bit of time, go ahead and grow what you use. I like mixed spices. One at a time can be handy, but why open 4 bottles when you can shake out of 1?
Five Spice : This is an Asian spice that I use in Dim Sum. It can be mixed with honey to make some super amazing chicken wings or pork ribs.
Adobo con Pimiento: This is a Spanish garlic salt with pepper.
Badia Completa Sazon : Another Spanish spice with dried veg bits in it. It has a green top.Smoked Paprika
Italian Spice Blend
Chili Powder
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Seasoning Salt : This is the stuff in the red shaker bottle.
Cumin : a flavor intensifier herb often found in Spanish dishes.
No comments:
Post a Comment