Well Stocked Kosher Kitchen

Falling Into My Pantry

2016-11-04T13:53:00.001-04:00

As fall is here I am doing two things: reading new cookbooks and restocking my pantry which was decimated by the holidays. With the colder weather comes my favorite type of food, comfort food. What could be better than a big pot of chili, soup, cholent, a good roast chicken or some stew on a cold, dreary day?

Cooking is about either doing so because you need to or because you want to, love to and there is just the day that you feel like making a big pot of something. When that urge strikes, you want to make sure you have on hand what you need to satisfy it, so time to think and restock. Here are some of the things I am checking in my pantry:

Beans – I like canned as I do not always have the time to soak them first and these days you can get low-sodium canned beans. I keep chickpeas, black, kidney, pinto and cannellini. Stews, soups, chili and cholent all use them. Mashed or pureed cannellini beans make a quick dip if you need a last minute something and beans and rice or any kind of starch are good veggie/no meat options. While they are not quite in the same category, I always keep some lentils and split peas on hand as well.

Tomatoes – I like a variety of canned ones, paste, whole, crushed, diced, pureed, finely chopped and fire roasted. The fire roasted ones come with garlic, adobo and chili and can add a lot of flavor to a dish without a lot of fuss. Fire roasted tomatoes with artichoke hearts over chicken are a Shabbat favorite in my house and it takes minutes to make.

Pasta – I always keep this on hand: penne, elbows, spaghetti, fusilli, rigatoni, orzo, ditalini (something small to go into soup), or the ready to bake lasagna noodles. Add some cheese, sauce, veggies or tofu scrambles and you have a quick and hearty meal.

For other starch option I keep faro, quinoa, all sorts of rice, barley and both the regular and Israeli cous cous. I am a cous cous fiend, I can always eat it and there is nothing quicker to cook.

Sauces – I like to keep a broad range of these as you can always mix or toss them over pretty much anything. I have Dijon, whole grain, deli and honey mustard, red and green salsa, your basic tomato/pasta versions, chili sauce, shiracha, olek sambal, ketchup, soy, mirin hoisin or chimichuri (I have found a good Kosher ready made one that over turkey is really tasty). The Oxygen brand makes a variety of sauces that are really good. Walk the aisles of your grocery store and look, you will be surprised by what you find. Just read the labels for both sugar and salt content.

Since I mentioned that I do read cookbooks, I wanted to talk about the two I am reading now:

Ina Garten’s cooking for Jeffrey - This is all about her husband, their life together and what she cooks for him. Cooking is love and what says love more than cooking for the person you love the most. Beyond that her recipes are simple and easy to make. A lot of them are “make ahead” or slow cooking, perfect for Shabbat. Yes, some of them you may need to adapt as they have milk and meat or other non-Kosher items but that sometimes is the fun of cooking; you take something, it inspires you, you tweak it and make it your own. If for nothing else, the brisket recipe is reason enough to buy this book.

Alton Brown’s EveryDayCook - His approach to food and cooking includes thinking about the ingredients, tools and techniques. The book breaks it all down, listing equipment (who else would think to use a whip cream siphon for pancakes), ingredients, his ratio for spice blends and how to make the prefect tomato soup in a pressure cooker. While it not may be not your everyday, he certainly covers a few of mine.

As I make my way through my pantry there will be more staples I check, cookbooks and TV shows that inspire me. The clock changes this week and that means it’s time to change the way I cook for Shabbat as well. I will post about how I use my pantry, make it work for me and actually cook.

Pantry Staples

2011-06-19T12:00:00.082-04:00

There is nothing you can't cook as long as you have the following on hand when you ask yourself the question, "What should I cook?" Not to mention that many recipes call for these ingredients.

Oils

Olive
Vegetable or Canola
Sesame

Vinegars

Balsamic
Red Wine
White
Apple Cider
Rice Wine

Citrus Juices

Lemon and/or Lime
Orange and/or Grapefruit
Tomato
Pomegranate

Sauces

Soy
Worcestershire
Tomato
Duck
Hoisin
Chili
BBQ
Steak

Grains

Rice (white, brown or basmati)
Couscous (instant or Israeli)
Pasta (a variety)
Quinoa
Bulger Wheat and/or Taboli
Polenta
Barley
Lentils

Others

Honey
Ketchup
Dijon Mustard
Mayonnaise and/or Miracle Whip
Stock and/or Soup-In-A-Box
Pickle Relish
Jam or Jelly
Sesame Paste and/or Peanut Butter
Salsa
Dried Soup Mix or Powder (onion, etc.)
Fresh Chopped Garlic
Tomatoes, Sun Dried and Canned (or Boxed)
Horseradish
Tunafish
Beans (red kidney, black, cannelloni, chick peas)
Crackers (Saltines, Ritz, Carrs)
Coffee & Tea
Cocoa Powder
White Sugar
Brown Sugar
Sugar Substitute (Sweet & Low, Splenda, etc.)
Agave
Hearts of Palm
Artichoke Hearts
Canned Mandarin Orange Slices
Preserved Lemons
A Jar of Roasted Red Peppers
A Jar of Marinated Mushrooms
Olives
Pickles and/or Cornichons
Water Chestnuts
Bamboo Shoots
Baby Corn
Flour
Cornstarch

My kitchens feels empty without any of the above. You never know what culinary challenge you will face and like the proverbial boy or girl scout, you always want to be prepared.

You can walk into my kitchen right now and all of these items will be there.

Spices I Can't Live Without

2011-06-16T23:37:00.001-04:00

I tried to make a list of the spices I cannot live without and keep it to just ten, but in reality, there are sixteen of them (if we count the three varieties of salt as one).

Salt
Pepper
Garlic (fresh or dried)
Basil (fresh or dried)
Oregano
Cumin
Chili Powder
Cinnamon (ground and sticks)
Ginger (fresh or dried)
Rosemary (fresh or dried)
Tarragon
Dill (fresh dried)
Thyme
Red Pepper Flakes
Curry Powder
Nutmeg

Many of the recipes I will post use one or more of the above spices. It is amazing what chili, cinnamon, cumin and garlic can do to a piece of london broil or chicken. Having these in your well-stocked Kosher kitchen will enable you to become your own creative cook.

We will be talking about each of these spices and the different ways they can be used, both sweet or savory, in the coming weeks and months.

P.S. If you don't already know, the three varieties of salt are Kosher, Sea and Iodized.

Sides and Leftovers for Any Time or Temp

2011-06-13T22:56:00.005-04:00

The point of the Well Stocked Kosher Kitchen is to be able to walk into your kitchen and take what you have and put it into a creative, simple, quick and delicious dish (or dishes) that can be used to feed your family and friends on multiple occasions, whether it’s Shabbat lunch, Sunday dinner or a quick weeknight meal.

So in these recipes, I took chicken, potatoes, string beans and a variety of condiments and put them together to make a meal that can be served hot or cold. Leftovers can be used creatively to make a second meal.

I made the string beans by bringing a pot of well-salted water to a boil, putting the fresh string beans in for 2-3 minutes (until they turned bright green), draining them and then running them under cold water to stop the cooking and make sure they stay bright green. This is something that can be done before Shabbat (Thursday night or Friday morning) and then served for lunch Saturday.

To make the potato salad, I cut up red, yellow and purple potatoes into equal-sized pieces one-quarter to one-half an inch in size, placed them in a pot of cold, well-salted water, brought it to a boil and let them cook for 15-20 minutes until fork tender. I then drained the potatoes, placed them in a bowl in which I had already mixed two tablespoons of Miracle Whip, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, lemon juice (to taste), along with salt, pepper, a little olive oil and dried tarragon. I tossed the still warm potatoes in this mixture so they soaked up the flavors of the dressing. This too, makes a great “make ahead dish” to serve cold for Shabbat lunch.

Hint: After you cook the string beans, just take them out of the pot of water and put the potatoes in the same pot. This way, you don't have to bring two pots of water to boil or, more importantly, wash two pots!

As for the leftover chicken (which was even better cold the next day), it can be shredded and put in a green salad, used to make chicken salad, added to the potato salad or you can get really fancy and put some in soft tortillas with some salsa, guacamole, beans, shredded lettuce or other greens and roll them up and eat them!

In future posts, I will talk about what you should keep in your kitchen pantry, cabinets, fridge and freezer so that when you ask yourself “Oh my gosh, what am I going to make for __________???” you will be able to answer that question quickly and simply and throw together something delicious.

WSKK: The Trailer!

2011-06-13T18:07:00.001-04:00

While editing our first test movie, we played around a bit with iMovie's trailer feature and put this together for fun!

Yum!

2011-06-12T19:34:00.000-04:00

In Production!

2011-06-12T17:18:00.000-04:00

We're working on our first "test movie" and will have the companion blog piece posted shortly. Check out our Facebook page for some "behind the scenes" pics!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Well-Stocked-Kosher-Kitchen/198970070148771