Foodie Friday: Always on Hand

I enjoy playing in the kitchen, and we keep a well stocked pantry. We could eat well for a couple of weeks with what is on hand at any given time. With few exceptions such as shopping for a special holiday meal, I don't go shopping with a list or a plan for what I am going to make, I go shopping, see what looks good, bring it home and then decide what I will make from it. Often, I don't know what I am going to cook for dinner, until I open the refrigerator and look in the pantry and see what inspires me. 

There are a handful of core ingredients that I always have on hand. Here are a few. 

Onions: There is a joke around here that every dinner starts with peel and chop an onion. Not always, I don't use onion when I am cooking fish, but many savory dishes start with onions. So there are always a few in the basket. Storage onions come in four varieties.  Yellow onions are my go to universal onion. They store well, 2-3 weeks most of the time. Red or purple onions are sweeter, I prefer them if the onion will be uncooked such as in a salad. White onions are less common than yellow onions and I find them to be somewhat interchangeable. Sweet onions are well sweeter, the increased sugar content yields a much shorter shelf life. If you buy them, use them within a week or so. I find all of these to be interchangeable. Use what you have, don't fuss or worry that the recipe calls for one variety and you don't have it, use what you have. 

Carrots: There are always carrots in the refrigerator.  They can be cooked as a stand alone vegetable, raw in salads or used as a flavor base in soups, stews, braises, stocks.  While the exotic rainbow colors are tasty and fun to look at, the stock standard cheap orange carrots work well. Carrots store very well, a month or more in the refrigerator. Carrot trivia, wild carrots are a pale yellow almost white in color, the standard orange carrot were created by cross pollinating carrots with beets. 

Celery: I know the jokes, celery has the texture of hair stuck together with water.  For a salad I chop them fine.  They provide a great background flavor in soups, stews, braises, stocks. Wrapped to prevent evaporation, celery stores for 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator.  I always have it on hand.  

Sweet Peppers: There was a time when this ingredient of the trinity of cajun food was included in my always on hand list, but it tends to cause digestive difficulties for us. I have to be very careful with it. When I do buy sweet peppers, I generally by the small varieties. 

Butter: We have come to prefer Irish butter, here in the USA, Aldi has the best price. We keep a couple of pounds in the freezer most of time.  

A few pantry items:

All purpose flour.

Bread flour (higher gluten content - strong flour in England.) 

White granulated sugar.

Powdered or icing sugar.

Brown sugar (light or dark, or a mix of the two.) 

Kosher salt

Pepper corns and a good pepper mill (grinder) 

Extra Virgin Olive Oil 

Red Wine Vinegar, 

White Wine Vinegar

White distilled vinegar 

Canned tomatoes, chopped, sauce, paste, pureed. 

Canned beans

Dried beans 

Rice

Chicken stock

There is nothing earth shattering or exotic on my list. I am always surprised when someone says that can't make something because they don't have these simple staples in the house.  Keeping a well stocked pantry and refrigerator makes it easier to play in the kitchen. Cook what is fresh, seasonal, and preferably local.