Show me your Pantry

James 007

All, I would like to build up a series of dry ingredients for both main meals, desserts, cakes etc. I would like to get into indian type cooking or similar for main meals, build up some baking skills for deserts and cakes. I would like to build up a stock of suitable ingredients in storage containers for the dry ingredients. Perhaps each poster could clarify the following:

1. What dry ingredients do you have
2. Do you have any recipies or links to suitable recipies
3. What containers do you use & where do you get them
4. Show us your Pantry!!! (or storage shelving units in your kitchen):D

McMurphy

I have a right mixture in mine.

At the bottom you've breads etc, then your seasoning (salt/pepper) vinegar and stocks.

Up above you've your more traditional spices, paprika/cumin/cayenne/cinnamon etc etc etc.

Top shelf is full of spices I pick up from the Ethnic shops, the likes of Garam Masala, cumin seeds, onion seeds, mustard seeds, lentils etc.

I've also some bay leaves there, and some saffron (bloody expensive but a little goes a long way)

Apart from that you've your spaghetti/passata/puree and dried noodles etc.

There's usually no excuse for not cooking from scratch in this house.

Give me some onion, garlic ginger and chilli with some tomatoes and there's a vast variety of dishes ready to be hashed together.

justfillmein

top left: tinned beans, chickpea's, tinned tomatoes, pasata.
top right: pasta, basmati rice, sushi rice, nori sheets, noodles & dried bread crumbs

middle left: white quinoa, red quinoa, red lentil, yellow lentils, corn meal, brown rice flour, couscous, sesame seeds and oat flour i made.
middle middle : tahini , coconut oil, miso, tomato paste, nutritional yeast, cornflour, veg bouillion & veg bouillon cubes.
middle right: apple cider vinegar, sushi vinegar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, himalayin salt, ground black pepper, worchestershire sauce & mustard.

bottom left: granola, cashew nuts, milled linseeds, hemp, walnuts, pecans, maca powder, cacao powder, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dates, raisins, coconut flakes, goji berries, maple syrup.
bottom middle: expensive supplements that i dont even use.
bottom right: peanut butter, almond butter, alcohol free vanillla extract, vanilla pods & herbal tea's.

the 'junk' press has cocoa powder, golden syrup, sugars, flour, chocolate spreads, & caramel sauces.

i've a spice drawer too with around 30 herbs and spices that i like. started off just buying the cheap ones in tesco. i've a few other things probably buried amongst all that aswel.

balsamic vinegar & sirracha sauce

i have a lot of them in glass jars too beacause it looks good and also because of spills.

Purple Mountain

Rick Shaw wrote: »

I have a right mixture in mine.

At the bottom you've breads etc, then your seasoning (salt/pepper) vinegar and stocks.

Up above you've your more traditional spices, paprika/cumin/cayenne/cinnamon etc etc etc.

Top shelf is full of spices I pick up from the Ethnic shops, the likes of Garam Masala, cumin seeds, onion seeds, mustard seeds, lentils etc.

I've also some bay leaves there, and some saffron (bloody expensive but a little goes a long way)

Apart from that you've your spaghetti/passata/puree and dried noodles etc.

There's usually no excuse for not cooking from scratch in this house.

Give me some onion, garlic ginger and chilli with some tomatoes and there's a vast variety of dishes ready to be hashed together.

Are the Organix Sticks for you or a child?!
I ask because when my little one was toddler age, they're quite yum!

McMurphy

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Are the Organix Sticks for you or a child?!
I ask because when my little one was toddler age, they're quite yum!

Lol, for a lil one.

James 007

justfillmein wrote: »

top left: tinned beans, chickpea's, tinned tomatoes, pasata.
top right: pasta, basmati rice, sushi rice, nori sheets, noodles & dried bread crumbs

middle left: white quinoa, red quinoa, red lentil, yellow lentils, corn meal, brown rice flour, couscous, sesame seeds and oat flour i made.
middle middle : tahini , coconut oil, miso, tomato paste, nutritional yeast, cornflour, veg bouillion & veg bouillon cubes.
middle right: apple cider vinegar, sushi vinegar, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, himalayin salt, ground black pepper, worchestershire sauce & mustard.

bottom left: granola, cashew nuts, milled linseeds, hemp, walnuts, pecans, maca powder, cacao powder, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dates, raisins, coconut flakes, goji berries, maple syrup.
bottom middle: expensive supplements that i dont even use.
bottom right: peanut butter, almond butter, alcohol free vanillla extract, vanilla pods & herbal tea's.

the 'junk' press has cocoa powder, golden syrup, sugars, flour, chocolate spreads, & caramel sauces.

i've a spice drawer too with around 30 herbs and spices that i like. started off just buying the cheap ones in tesco. i've a few other things probably buried amongst all that aswel.

balsamic vinegar & sirracha sauce

i have a lot of them in glass jars too beacause it looks good and also because of spills.

You seem to have a lot of ingredients. I must study this more in detail thanks for posting. Also Just fill me in!, can you spice things up a bit and show me your pantry:rolleyes:

James 007

Rick Shaw wrote: »

I have a right mixture in mine.

At the bottom you've breads etc, then your seasoning (salt/pepper) vinegar and stocks.

Up above you've your more traditional spices, paprika/cumin/cayenne/cinnamon etc etc etc.

Top shelf is full of spices I pick up from the Ethnic shops, the likes of Garam Masala, cumin seeds, onion seeds, mustard seeds, lentils etc.

I've also some bay leaves there, and some saffron (bloody expensive but a little goes a long way)

Apart from that you've your spaghetti/passata/puree and dried noodles etc.

There's usually no excuse for not cooking from scratch in this house.

Give me some onion, garlic ginger and chilli with some tomatoes and there's a vast variety of dishes ready to be hashed together.

Rickshaw thanks for that, like the way you turn the spice containers sideways, interesting ingredients there too. Must build up a list of suitable cooking dishes first and then collect all those ingredients.

justfillmein

can you spice things up a bit and show me your pantry:rolleyes:[/quote]

Sounds much more glamorous than it actually looks. I must put an effort into doing my press & drawer some justice

justfillmein

Picture didn't send last time..

sorry i dont knowhow to send picture. phne keeps saying file too big, and im waaay to impatient to keep trying

confusticated

James 007 wrote: »

Rickshaw thanks for that, like the way you turn the spice containers sideways, interesting ingredients there too. Must build up a list of suitable cooking dishes first and then collect all those ingredients.

I don't know how much you cook at the moment, but you're probably better off trying a new recipe with maybe one or two ingredients you don't have, and then building on that one with further experiments if you like it, or changing direction if you don't. Otherwise you have a big outlay on lots of ingredients, some of which you might never use.

For my "pantry" I have pasta, rice, noodles, popcorn, nuts and wraps on the top shelf, then a small shelf with biscuits and anything in small bottles like vanilla essence, and then bottom shelf has all tins, jars, bottles of sauces (soy, Worcestershire, fish, sweet chilli...), eggs, and a little tub of stock cubes and garlic. Have a separate tall narrow press for all my baking ingredients, and a big spice rack on the counter cos I'd never fit them all in the cupboard too.

Shenshen

Oh, wow, that's a question!
I don;t just have one pantry, I've got one large and several small presses. And I'm not sure I can actually even remember all I've got in them.

Let's start with the large one :

At the bottom, there's the big bag of dry cat food (probably not THAT interesting to you), and a 20kg bag of basmati rice.
Next shelf up are more types of rice (brown, mixed wild rice, and arborrio), stored in glass jars. Next to that are the dried lentils and beans, in glass jars as well. Currently, I have red lentils, green (puy) lentils, split yellow lentils, black turtle beans, black eye beans and kidney beans. Great stuff to have around for stews and curries.
Next shelf up are pastas - spaghetti, linguini, farfalle, macaroni and spirelli as well as cannelloni. And next to these are couscous, quinoa and some buckwheat.
Next shelf up from that is where the husband stores his fizzy drink cans, and I store my home-made jams.

Across from that is the cupboard with the baking stuff - plain flour, chickpea flour, corn flour, baking powder and baking soda, vanilla paste, chocolate chips and hot chocolate powder, raisins, almonds (whole and grated), desicated coconut, black treacle, sugar (white, brown, icing), custard powder and some cans of condensed milk.

Then I've got one of those pull-out cupboards, in which I keep mostly sauces and liquids:
Bottom is olive oil, vegetable oil, sesame oil, pumpkin seed oil, vinegar (red, white and balsamic)
Next one up is soy sauce (light and dark), sweet chili sauce, vegetarian worchestershire sauce, and a big pack each of vegetable bullion paste and gravy powder.
Next one I've got a jar of peanut butter, a jar of tahini, a few jars of chutneys.

I've got another cupboard for tins - that's currently full of chickpeas, tinned tomatoes and mixed beans and kidney beans.

My spices and herbs sit on separate small shelves on the wall right next to the hob, within easy and quick reach. I've got them in those round little jars from Ikea.

kylith

Kitchen cupboards (tiny)
Left: Asian - Rice, Miso soup, noodles, mirin, dashi powder, brown sugar
Middle: General - ketchup, teas
Right: spices

Cupboard under stairs (Pantry)
L-R
Flour (plain and self raising), sugar, cornflour, tins coconut milk, tins tomatoes, tins chickpeas, tins mixed beans, Spaghetti, Fusilli, Green lentils, red lentils, cous cous, onions (red and white), sweet potatoes

Gloomtastic!

I wish I had a pantry. We have four cupboards and three wooden boxes - 2 x baking, flours, pastas, rices/grains, sauces/condiments, tins, tea/coffee - scattered throughout the kitchen/diner.

I remember my granny had a proper walk-in pantry with the metal sieve window to keep the moisture and temperature down. All the foodstuffs were stored in there.
The kitchen was just a table, a delft cupboard and an enormous Aga that took up half the room.

rubadub

James 007 wrote: »

I would like to get into indian type cooking or similar for main meals

3. What containers do you use & where do you get them

I keep mine in glass jars, I just reuse sauce jars, glass is easily cleaned and does not absorb smells. Some jars of sauce, e.g. strong curry, might absorb smells so jars of carrots or tomato sauce have less tainted lids. You can also buy new lids in some places, they can be soaked in baking soda water to neutralise. With spices the big packs often cost just a little more, I often just buy them and give away amounts to family & friends -some asian shops appear to break open the big packs and repackage into varying sizes and charge per kg, one on georges street in dublin did this which was very handy.

I have a wood "muddler" I got free with some spirits for doing mojitos, but it is great for compressing down spices into jars. Not only can you fit more spice into a small jar but it is forcing air out the jar too, which should be better for long term storage.



People go on about spices losing flavour over time. I do not doubt it, but do doubt the extent of some of the claims, and wonder if any have done actual blind tastes on it. I know I have still have some ancient extra hot chilli powder which is still extremely potent, unlike some mild chilli from the start it was always just "pure heat" to me. Some spices/herbs might suffer more than others of course. With some you might get away with simply using more, so in the long run it might be cheaper.

It would not surprise me at all if some preferred the taste of "old" spices/herbs -while having to use more, of course the spice companies would never admit this, as would some chefs afraid to go against the grain.

Rick Shaw wrote: »

I have a right mixture in mine.

Sort that jar of oregano out! :eek: its about to burst out of the press, the jar of crushed chilli too. It's like jenga or something! Have to say mine is often similar looking, and am often grabbing falling jars!

James 007

Many thanks for all the posts. Just to give you guys a feel for what I have at the moment:

Cooking Ingredients:
Rapeseed oil
Extra Virgin olive oil
Sweet Chilli Sauce
Balsamic vinegar
Light and dark soy sauces
Tins of chopped tomato
Tins of peas
Tins of pineapple
Tins of sweetcorn
Pasta, Spagetti, Egg noodles, brown, white rice, cashew nuts (G)
Jars of pesto sauce
Jars of beetroot
Jars of wholegrain mustard
Curry powders
Herbs & Spices in jars (Cumin seeds, paprika, chilli powder, parsley, oregano)
Herb plants (rosemary, sage)

Baking Ingredients:
Brown, white and caster, icing sugars (G)
Plain flour, self raising flour, white flour, wholemeal flour, coarse wholemeal flour, cream plain flour, rye flour (G)
White & Brown Chocolate bars
Walnuts (G)
Sunflower seeds, seaseme seeds (G)
Fruit mix, raisins etc (G)
Spices (Mixed spice, nutmeg, cinnamon)
Vanilla essence, extract

Cereals:
Granola (G)
Museli (G)
Fruit & Fibre (G)
Porridge (G)
Porridge oats (G)

Cooking:
*What I can do is use chicken or pork, peppers, aubergines, courgettes, red & white onions with light/dark soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce (cant live without this) and have all with rice and some veg mixed with some other spices/garlic, root ginger at times
*What I cant do is make a good curry ( I would like to get away from curry powders)
*What I cant do is make a good stew
*What I cant do is make a good winter soup (tomato would be great)
*What I can do is make a good home made pizza, although havent made it in a while
*What I dont eat is lentils (my mum can make a great stew with lentils)
*What I dont buy is made up jars of sauces whether curry, tikka masla
*Fish is very restrictive in my diet, salmon put into the oven, have it with potatoes

Baking:
*What I can do is make good carrot cake
*What I can do is make choc chip cookies
*What I can do is make a brown bread (hit and miss at times)
*What I cant do is, to keep it short, bake alot more, I dont have a mixer (my mum has an old kenwood from the 60s, still going strong)

Pantry:
In order to put together a decent pantry I am siding towards 2 litre jars for the majority of the dry ingredients marked (G) instead of tubberware. I would also like to progress with some suitable must have kitchen equipment (I dont have much apart from a electric blender for beating eggs/cream). I would like to put everything in an order, some of you guys seem to have a good separation of cooking and baking ingredients etc

TheKBizzle

This is mine. Apocalypse ready

tickingclock

TheKBizzle wrote: »

This is mine. Apocalypse ready

Im very jealous. No rooting for a something behind something else!

justfillmein

James 007 wrote: »

Pantry:
In order to put together a decent pantry I am siding towards 2 litre jars for the majority of the dry ingredients marked (G) instead of tubberware. I would also like to progress with some suitable must have kitchen equipment (I dont have much apart from a electric blender for beating eggs/cream).

i got some Killner jars from Heatons's & Woodies i think. a few from eurogiants too, & a lot from ikea. i have a few meal prep type glass containers from ikea, in either square or round with lids that are good for stacking rather than jars.

pricey, but i got the Vitamix E350 in brown thomas and the Cuisinart food proccesser E200 in powercity. delighted with both of them, and i will have them for years. i'd love a kitcheaid too but to be honest i'm not much of a baker, i'm hoping to eventually get there one day and not buy any prepacked munch. so for now i'll hold off on that one.

the beer revolu

Rubadub, regarding the freshness of spices, I think it very much depends on the spice. The more fragrant spices like fennel seed, cardamom, star anise really do fade pretty quickly, as do dried herbs.
Things like chillies and chilli powder seem to keep quite well.
Paprika looses its colour as does wasabi and turmeric.

Lady Haywire

TheKBizzle wrote: »

This is mine. Apocalypse ready

You're not looking to .....I dunno....adopt a full grown daughter, by any chance? :pac::D

James 007

TheKBizzle wrote: »

This is mine. Apocalypse ready

Very good its like a shop front. Only 3 concerns;
*The balsamic vinegar holding up the book shelve midway up
*The marmalade jar sitting on the jam jar holding up the top shelve, mid way across
*The great selection of wines & beers

James 007

Good rates for glass jars here, I must review what I really need and its an Irish address too, has anyone used it:

https://www.alpack.ie/glass-bottles-jam-jars-labels/c-8.html

Dizzyblonde

James 007 wrote: »

Good rates for glass jars here, I must review what I really need and its an Irish address too, has anyone used it:

https://www.alpack.ie/glass-bottles-jam-jars-labels/c-8.html

I'm pretty sure you have to buy your lids separately from them, so it works out more expensive. I get mine from epackaging.ie. They'll only deliver to a business address though, so I usually go over myself, they're on the Long Mile Road and they have a great selection.

James 007

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I'm pretty sure you have to buy your lids separately from them, so it works out more expensive. I get mine from epackaging.ie. They'll only deliver to a business address though, so I usually go over myself, they're on the Long Mile Road and they have a great selection.

I would be very surprised if the clip top storage lid on the glass jars on the site we had seen would not be included. The jars have to come with the lids. I havent seen similar type 2.5l jars in this website, are they there.

Dizzyblonde

James 007 wrote: »

I would be very surprised if the clip top storage lid on the glass jars on the site we had seen would not be included. The jars have to come with the lids. I havent seen similar type 2.5l jars in this website, are they there.

Yes of course the kilner type jars will have the lids on. I buy jars for jams, chutneys etc with screw on lids and alpack sell them separately in huge amounts which is annoying and works out more expensive.

Loire

TheKBizzle wrote: »

This is mine. Apocalypse ready

Where are all the prices?

igCorcaigh

An unorganised shambles. I like my Asian condiments. My partner's section is on the bottom left; a man of simpler tastes.