Top 10 Pantry Items (for before, during, and after a pandemic)

8 April, 2020 Anne Klumpp 0 Comments 1 category
  1. Rice – In the past, Brian has made fun of me for my “collection” of rices, but these days, he’s encouraging it.  I like to keep a variety on hand for different dishes.  Currently, in our pantry, you’ll find long-grain jasmine rice (perfect for fried rice, Spanish rice, or plain white rice), short-grained arborio rice (used to make risotto), and bomba rice (another short-grained rice used to make paella).  Did you know that the Chinese character for “food” or “meal” also means “rice?”
  2. Beans – With beans high protein and fiber content, they are a natural way to add nutrition to a meal.  Are you looking for a way to thicken your soup or stew without adding flour or corn starch?  Try mashing some beans before stirring them into your pot of soup or stew. 
  3. Flour – Did you know that you can make bread with very little yeast and with no kneading?  You do need time to allow the yeast to work and flavors to develop, ideally about 24 hours.  My favorite recipe for this is from Mark Bittman: https://www.markbittman.com/recipes-1/no-knead-bread
  4. Dried Pasta – There are so many things you can do with pasta!  You may want to have more than one shape so you can add it to a soup, make pasta salad, or have traditional spaghetti dinner.
  5. Tomatoes – Having tomatoes around means you have acidity to add to your food.  I stock our pantry with canned diced, canned whole San Marzano, and a tube of tomato paste. 
  6. Oil – I mostly cook with olive oil, but I also keep vegetable oil on hand.  From making a simple chicken paillard to roasting potatoes or vegetables to making stovetop popcorn, you won’t want to run out of oil!
  7. Chicken, Beef, or Vegetable Stock – Of course, you can use this to make soup, but it’s also a great flavor addition for a sauce or in place of plain water to steam rice or cook vegetables.  I generally keep a quart of chicken broth in the pantry and I also keep beef and roasted chicken Better than Bouillon in the refrigerator.
  8. Tuna – We are fortunate to have a residential refrigerator in our motorhome.  If we didn’t have this, tuna or canned chicken might play a bigger role in our lives.  While I usually have a can of tuna on hand, I did buy a little extra during the pandemic shopping frenzy.
  9. Popcorn – This may be a personal requirement, but I highly recommend you consider it on your list.  I can easily make a meal out of popcorn, particularly if it’s popped on the stovetop.  Plus, it seems that there’s lots of time for watching movies and T.V. during a pandemic!
  10. Salt – You might have lots of food in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, but if you don’t have seasoning, your food won’t taste so good.  I have multiple kinds of salt on hand:  Kosher for seasoning during cooking, iodized for baking, and sea salt for finishing a dish or seasoning at the table.
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Category: How We Do Stuff

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