What do I need?

[Living My Dream]

Tell me...

I am trying to become more natural in my home, we have always preferred to make things from scratch but heavily relied on packets to make sauces. For a while I blended veg and added herbs and spices to make sauses etc

but I jsut wondered for sauces and all things to do in cooking, what basic stuff should I have in my cupboards? I'd like to have a list compiled so i can make all my food from scratch.

:thankyou

[DanceThen]

This list isn't going to be totally comprehensive or inclusive (I have omitted baking standards like sugars and vanilla), but I think I do a pretty decent job of cooking healthily for my family.
So reader beware! :)

In the Pantry I Keep:
salts (I keep table, kosher, sea, and popcorn salts on hand)
ground black pepper
various vinegars (apple cider, red wine, white, rice wine)
chicken and beef bouillon (I KNOW these contain MSG but I cannot find a MSG-free substitute! anyone??)
basil
sage
oregano
chili powder
thyme
nutmeg
cinnamon
ginger
cumin
rosemary
curry powder
garlic salt/powder
onion powder
dried ground mustard
ground cayenne pepper
crushed red pepper
honey
a couple cans of "cream of" soups (more MSG)

In The Fridge I Keep:
soy sauce
worcestershire (another MSG offender, grrrrr)
mayonnaise
yellow mustard
brown/dijon/spicy mustard
lemon juice
sour cream and/or plain yogurt
milk (whole and skim)
half and half (it's mostly for my coffee tho)
garlic (I buy a giant jar of minced to save time and energy)

That's kind of a quick snapshot. The obvious omissions are parsley and paprika -- neither one does much for me in the way of flavor, so I omit them and sub basil/oregano and cayenne, respectively.

Do you want to know about rice, pasta, eggs and the like? I keep those around too. Is this what you're looking for? Let me know if this just brings up more questions. :shrug

[Living My Dream]

WOW! :jawdrop Thats well impressive. Just what I was looking for. yeah Im up for hearing everything tbh. I need to stock my kitchen well and feed better than i already do.

I need a course in herbs though - any ideas? Online anywhere tells me whateach should be used for?

[emmalouise]

I keep all of the same things as DanceThen. :yes I thought seeing as she took the time to list everything I would build on that and separate things out into what I use them for.

I know that for Indian dishes, what helped me to learn about spices was following recipes, and buying ingredients for each separate dish, slowly building up a store cupboard. I borrowed an Indian cookbook from the library and just made my way through (I did this before I was married with a child though! I think it would be less straightforward these days).

So for Indian spice dishes I keep ground cumin, cumin seeds, ground coriander, ground cinnamon, garam masala, ground cardamom, ground fenugreek, ground pepper (black and white), ground chillies, fresh garlic (I have a press for this), fresh ginger (I use a small, fine grater for this), unsweetened yoghurt, coconut cream, fresh lemons, sometimes fresh limes.

I also keep curry powder and a thai spice paste (red or green curry paste, or tom yum paste) on hand for quick dishes.

But for sauces - for pies, etc. I keep
- milk powder (whole) - it's often cheaper than fresh milk, and most sauce recipes do well with a warm liquid being added, rather than a cold one, so making up milk with powder and warm water is easier than heating it (unless you microwave it, which I try to avoid).
- plain wheat flour or corn flour (you might call this maize starch or something?) for thickening
- butter or oil
- onions
- dijon mustard
- salt
- sugar
- hard, sharp tasting cheese like parmesan (for cheese sauce for mac and cheese or casseroles, etc.)

for salad dressings I keep
- balsamic vinegar
- olive oil
- wholegrain mustard

for pasta and pizza sauces I keep
- tomato paste
- canned tomatoes
- dried basil, oregano, thyme, sage
- fresh parsley (this just grew like a weed at my parents' house, but I buy mine - I find it's the cheapest fresh herb here, and high in iron and vit. C).

We did find some bouillon cubes at the organic store without MSG once, but they tended to flavour everything the same way. Now, for soups and sauces I just add plain sugar and salt to taste, maybe a little pepper - with other spices like cumin, and fresh garlic, ginger and onions, things are still pretty yummy.

The worcestershire sauce we buy doesn't contain MSG - we get the Lea and Perrins brand from the UK. :)

I make everything from scratch in our kitchen, I think seven years as a vegan kind of beat me down into the habit. I'm not a vegan anymore but I got used to doing things from scratch, and lots of things become second nature so it doesn't feel like a lot of work.

Good on you for asking!! You will have such a great time doing everything yourself I reckon, it's much easier than it seems and it's very rewarding! :)

[Raspberries]

Some basics I keep on hand:

Large cans of diced or whole tomatoes (preferably organic)
Broth (homemade or even store bought)
Whole Wheat Flour
Unbleached all purpose flour
Cornmeal
Pastry Flour
Coconut Oil
Olive Oil
Canola Oil
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Agave Nectar
Honey
Sucunat
Yeast
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Oregano
Basil
nutmeg
cinnamon
allspice
peppercorn
coriander
Thyme
Rosemary
Parsley
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Bay Leaf
Celery Seed (good for sauces)
Chili Powder
Sesame Seed
Flax Seed
Bulk Oats
Bulk Nuts
Bulk Cocoa powder
Dry beans
Bulk Brown Rice

[DanceThen]

Oil!! I totally forgot oil.

I keep:
EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil)
canola oil
sesame oil (THE BEST for Asian stir-frys)
:duck shortening. I know, trans-fat city. Iuse it for pie crusts but I'm going to try not to buy it any more.
cooking spray

Also butter. I recently stopped buying margarine.

[4MKfam]

:duck shortening. I know, trans-fat city. Iuse it for pie crusts but I'm going to try not to buy it any more.


All of the above, give or take a few details here. I cook a lot out of More-With-Less cookbook and LLL's Whole Foods for the Whole Family. Oh --and on the shortening, coconut oil is a GREAT shortening sub. Works great for everything I've used it in so far. ...and it makes fabulous popcorn!

[Living My Dream]

Thankyou ladies. I have alot of this stuff but its good to know the bits i dont have. I love making things from scratch - very rewarding. :yes

[jenny_islander]

I started married life with only a handful of scratch recipes mastered, mostly laborious special-occasion dishes. Here's how I taught myself to cook a hot dinner every day:

1. Bought box dinners. Looked on the back for the things I had to add and bought them too. Served those for a while. Did the same for instant noodle and rice side dishes with "suggested recipe ideas" on the back and branched out into canned-soup-label recipes as well. This taught me how important it was to control temperature, watch my timing, etc.

2. Started reading the ingredients and adding more of anything that was actually food. This taught me how important it was to watch serving sizes: if the box of Rice-a-Roni serves 2.5 and includes bits of 3 veggies, you need to add only a TOTAL of 2.5 servings of those veggies. Same for cheeses, etc. I also got a handle on basic seasonings by adding more garlic, paprika, parsley, or what have you and noticing the effect.

3. Finally opened my late mother's intimidating pile of cookbooks and searched for recipes that looked like what I was making, but without the expensive box of noodles and powder. Found some! Did you know you can make spaghetti in a skillet? Or stovetop mac'n'cheese with actual cheese? And I had no idea that rice pilaf was so easy! What's the point of Rice-a-Roni anyway? (<--me, years ago)

4. Quit serving box dinners. By this point, I had built up a collection of staple ingredients for main dishes. Box dinners and their ilk may be lousy, but the stuff you can make out of them is good basic Middle American cuisine.

[emmalouise]

I wanted to add palm shortening as a substitute for shortening - I'm not sure if it contains a lot of trans. fats or not - it might depend on whether it is hydrogenated? I've bought non-hydrogenated from the organics store and it was pretty good.

With coconut oil, do you use the deoderised stuff? I have bought two different kinds, one smelled very strongly of coconuts, which was lovely, but not so great for pastries for things like apple pies, whereas the deoderised stuff kind of freaked me out a little bit, I couldn't figure out how they would get the smell out?

For oils we keep EVOO (such a funny abbreviation! :giggle), cold pressed organic sunflower oil, sesame oil (I'm assuming it's cold pressed and organic, we buy from the bulk section at the organic store), and flaxseed. Flaxseed I can only handle in bircher muesli or oatmeal (we stir chopped dried fruit through both, which is probably why :giggle).

I was a huge canola user because I thought it was high in the good omega-3 fats, but when I did more reading into it, after seeing at a forum that some didn't use it, I didn't feel comfortable with the amount of processing involved. Now I eat more fish, which I feel bad about because it's not sustainable, and try and get a bit of flaxseed oil in, here and there. I also take a fish oil supplement.