the pantry

My pantry has become increasingly cluttered over the last few years. The new year was a good time to reorganize and figure out just what is in there. Steven and I are anticipating relocating about a year and a half and I figured we'd better start using some of this stuff up. We've accumulated so much, especially after signing up for a Costco membership, that it will most likely take us the full 18 months to clear out the shelves.

the pantry


shelf one: teas, cookies, crackers, and snacks
shelf two: pastas, noodles, rice, and grains
shelf three: dry baking (flour, graham crackers, oatmeal)
shelf four: wet baking (sugars, extracts, syrups, chocolate)
shelf five: dried goods (variety of fungus including two types of wood ear, nori, bean curd skin)
shelf six: sauces, wines, canned (coconut milk, tomatoes, bamboo)

I discovered 4 packs of nori. I had no idea I had so much nori.

We bought an 8 pack of Spam from Costco because we love musubi. Surprisingly, we only have 2 cans left. That means we ate 6 cans of Spam, which is slightly revolting.

A few months ago, Costco was selling an 8-pack of Chaokoh milk for a great price, so I bought a pack. The 8 pack is still unopened. Looks like we'll be eating lots of curry over the next year and a half.

I also organized my sauce cabinet and spice drawer.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

A few weeks ago I was asked by Gaea if I'd be interested in reviewing some of their products. I am by no means an olive oil expert but I thought, heck why not, tasting products is always fun. Gaea specializes in extra virgin olive oil but they also make Greek food products like cooking sauces and tapenades. They sent me a free 17oz. bottle of their extra virgin olive oil and a bottle of their Myconos (tuna and kalamata olives) sauce.

By now, I’m sure everyone has heard that olive oil is good for you so I won't bore you with those details. An "extra virgin" olive oil is the highest quality and means that it has not been chemically treated or heated in the process of extracting the oil from olives. This is the kind you want to look for because it has the highest vitamins and antioxidant content and the most health benefits. "Cold pressed", olive oil obtained without the use of heat, is ideal but the term is unregulated and is used mainly as a marketing tool. "First press" is an obsolete misnomer also used for marketing because there is no second press nowadays. If it says something like pomace-olive oil it means that chemical solvents were used to extract the last bit of oil left in the olive paste (pomace) after extracting the oil mechanically. In Europe, the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) regulates quality and authenticity of olive oils. However,the US is not part of the IOOC and the USDA has its own murky guidelines but we do have the nonprofit California Olive Oil Council. Their seal guarantees extra virgin olive oils that are mechanically extracted without chemicals or excess heat, less than 0.5% acidity aka free oleic acids (which is a measure of how much the oil has degraded, higher number = bad).

Unfortunately, none of the olive oils I list below are on the list of COOC certified olive oils. I bet the certified olive oils are expensive and possibly harder to find than bigger name brands. Olive oils can get pretty darn pricey. The price per ounce of extra virgin olive oils range from 20 cents up to well over a dollar an ounce.

After some online research, 3 brands came out on top in many reviews (prices are rough estimates):
Colavita: $9 for 16.9-oz. bottle, 53 cents an ounce
Columela: $16 for 17-oz. bottle 94cents an ounce
Whole Foods 365: $5 for 17.9-oz. bottle 28 cents an ounce
Kirkland Signature by Costco (don’t have the size or price but I imagine this is the cheapest)

I compared the Gaea extra virgin olive oil with the oil I currently have in my pantry, Trader Joe's Kalamata extra virgin, a decent oil in my opinion. First, I tasted the oils on its own and then with a small piece of bread. I wasn't hardcore enough to take a sip of oil by itself. The color of an olive oil doesn't correlate with the taste but just for kicks I compared the two side by side and the Gaea oil was slightly greener. The Kalamata oil smelled peppery, whereas the Gaea oil smelled very grassy. The flavor of the Kalamata oil was upfront, one note, and peppery just like it smelled. On the other hand the Gaea oil was milder, took longer to develop in the mouth, and much grassier, and slightly peppery. Of the two, Steven and I both preferred the Gaea but this tasting is far from thorough so take it with a grain of salt. I haven’t compared it with any of the recommended oils listed above, because frankly I don't have the time or money to spend on getting 4 different olive oils. I may switch to the Kirkland signature brand or Whole Foods 365 in the near future and compare with those.

As a side note, I wonder if companies who want food bloggers to review their products should provide some competing products along with their own.

When I buy an olive oil, I look for one that not only tastes good but is also budget friendly, which is why I bought the Trader Joe's kalamata oil. The 17 oz. bottle of the regular, nonorganic, Gaea runs for $10 (59 cents an ounce) and the D.O.P (Protected Designation of Origin) and organic Gaea oils will cost you around $15 (88 cents an ounce). At this point in my life (mired in student loans), I can’t justify spending that much on olive oil. While it’s great that Gaea is a carbon neutral company, it's too bad their olive oils are not the most budget friendly.

If anyone has tried the Gaea oil and would like to weigh in on that oil or offer their opinions about olive oils in general, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear what you think. What's your favorite extra virgin olive oil?


I added a chopped roasted red bell pepper and minced parsley

As for the cooking sauce, the tuna and kalamata sauce over pasta tasted like a puttanesca sans capers. It's made with real ingredients (tuna, olives, basil) without any funky flavorings, preservatives, or colorings. But the jar is pretty small so you will probably get one meal for 4 out of it.

Grapefruit Vinaigrette
1/4 C ruby red grapefruit juice (preferably fresh with no sugar added)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 C olive oil
salt and pepper

If you can't get a grapefruit for freshly squeezed juice, use something like Simply Grapefruit with no added sugar. Sweetened grapefruit juice is too sweet in a dressing.

Blend or whisk the juice with the mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle the olive oil and blend until emulsified.

This dressing is great in a salad with fresh dill, grapefruit segments, and toasted almonds.

Citron/Yuzu Spread

Whenever I go to Trader Joe's, I rarely walk out of there without buying at least half a dozen things that weren't on my shopping list. This citron spread was one of those products that caught my eye.

I've been using citron and yuzu to refer to the same fruit but after doing some research, I was surprised to discover that yuzu and citron are actually two different types of citrus. Yuzu (Citrus ichangensis x Citrus reticulata var. austera) is a cold hardy Asian citrus fruit that originated in China and then introduced to Japan and Korea. Citron (Citrus medica) on the other hand, is a different species that most likely also originated in Asia, but was subsequently spread throughout the Mediterranean. I was searching for the difference in flavor between the two fruits but it was difficult to find a comparison because many people, like myself, and resources use the names interchangeably. Even my jar says "Citron (Yuzu) spread", so now I'm not sure whether it's made with citron or yuzu. My guess is that the flavors are comparable. Yuzu has been a part of Japanese and Korean cuisine for quite some time but recently it has come to the attention of the Western food world and is now all the rage.

Yuzu is rarely eaten as a fruit but both the juice and zest are prized in cooking. The fruit bears very little juice, so it's very precious. The tart lemon-like juice with hints of lime, grapefruit, and pine forms the base of the Japanese dipping sauce, ponzu. The powerfully aromatic zest is used as a garnish on soup. It is also working its way into many sweet applications like cakes and sorbets. A spoonful of yuzu marmalade, similar to the spread I bought, is swirled into hot water to make a Korean drink called yuja cha, used as a remedy for the common cold.

Fresh yuzu are about the size of a small orange and are in season from November to May and can be found at at Japanese or Asian markets but they will be rather pricey ($3 - $4 each). The bottled juice can also be found at Asian markets.

So far I've used it as a glaze on scallops and as a filling in Asian rugelach. As Wandering Chopsticks suggested, it would be great on fish as well. And to satisfy your sweet tooth, Tartelette has wonderful yuzu recipes like this cheesecake or berry salad.

The Chinese Pantry Part I: What You Need to Cook Your Food

Before we get into the recipes, let’s do an introduction to the Chinese pantry. What is a well stocked Chinese pantry? At first, all the ingredients sound so foreign and unusual so let's break it up into two parts: "what you need to cook your food" (flavorings, condiments, and sauces) and "what to cook". The challenging part is all the stuff under the what to cook category, since many of those ingredients (tree ear anyone?) are pretty darn weird. We'll start with something a little more manageable, what you need to cook Chinese food.

If I asked you to pick one vinegar or one wine to cook with, what would you pick? For my parents, that would be an easy question. My parents didn't keep cider, red wine, white wine, or balsamic vinegars in their pantry, only Zhejiang black vinegar. Nor did they didn't keep any Merlot, Chardonnay, sherry, or Marsala because all they used was Shao Hsing rice wine. There was no need for a spice rack if you only have star anise. My parents kept a fairly minimal sauce/condiment cupboard but that's because you just need the basic ingredients to make delicious Chinese food. Of course, as you expand your ingredients, you'll expand your culinary repertoire and vary the taste of your dishes.

Some of these items are absolute necessary like soy sauce and rice wine for authentic Chinese cooking. Although many sources say you can substitute sherry for the rice wine, I do not recommend it. Rice wine and soy sauce make up the pillars of my Chinese cooking so I think Shao Hsing rice wine is essential. However, with ingredients that may be harder to find or ones that you may not use as frequently, it's okay to make substitutions like using a different vinegar for black vinegar or granulated sugar for rock sugar, but your dishes won't be truly authentic. Not many spices or aromatics are used in Chinese cooking but the few that are used like ginger, green onion, star anise, and white pepper, are used very often and should be kept in your pantry. Some essential ingredients differ between regions since there's huge regional variation in Chinese cuisine. For example, Sichuan peppercorns are used heavily in Sichuan cuisine but almost never in Cantonese cuisine.

So without much further ado, here's a peek into my pantry.

The Sauce Cupboard


The sauce cupboard, usually the cupboard next to the stove, is the place where you keep the ingredients you use most so it's within arms reach whenever you need it. These are the ingredients that I keep in my sauce cupboard since they are the ingredients that I use most often and do not require refrigeration.

Soy Sauce
Soy sauce is a good example of something I have strong opinions about. Soy sauce should always be naturally brewed and never artificially flavored. The only ingredients should be soy beans, wheat, and salt; preservatives are acceptable but artificial flavor and color (like weird vegetable protein, corn syrup, and caramel) should never be in there. There are two types of soy sauce- light and dark. Light soy sauce is not only lighter in color, but it's also lighter in soy flavor. It's thinner and saltier than its dark counter part. It's used for all purpose cooking, marinating, and dipping. My preferred brand is Pearl River Bridge Superior Light because this is the brand my parents always bought and now this is the only brand I use (oh and lots of Chinese cookbooks recommend this brand too). I have used Kikkoman in the past but found it way too salty and the flavor too one-dimensional. When Cook's Illustrated held their soy sauce taste test, some testers described Pearl River Bridge as beefy, salty, and smoky while others found it lacking depth and complexity. Usually I go with whatever Cook's Illustrated recommends but not for soy sauce. This time, I completely disregarded their recommendations. In fact, I was irritated that my favorite soy sauce didn't place in the top (how can random taste testers know more about soy sauce than my parents right?). Even though the bottle says to refrigerate after opening, I’ve never refrigerated soy sauce.

Dark Soy Sauce
Dark soy is thicker, a little less salty, a little sweeter, and has a more robust soy flavor and aroma. Because of the stronger flavor, I use this very sparingly, rarely for all purpose cooking (occasionally a little bit in a meaty stir fry) and never for dipping. It's primarily used for braises like red cooking or tea eggs. I'm not as adamant about dark soy as I am with light soy but I would still stick with Pearl River Bridge.

Shao Hsing/Xing Rice Wine
This is China's most famous rice wine, named after the city that produces it. There's the good stuff that's made for drinking and the cooking variety that's commonly available at the Asian grocery store. This is one case when you can actually cook with the "cooking" wine (though I bet food will taste even better if you cook with the high quality drinking stuff). It's used for general all purpose cooking like marinating meats before stir frying, braising, and adding to fish before steaming to help get rid of any fishy odor. It is also the main ingredient for drunken dishes, where meats are soaked in a mixture of wine and soy sauce.

Rice Vinegar
This is a relative newcomer to my pantry. I purchased this after I learned how to make liang ban (Chinese salads) from Steven's mom. Clear rice vinegar is used when you don't want the black vinegar to darken your vegetables. It can also be mixed with soy sauce for a dipping sauce for potstickers. Make sure to get pure rice vinegar and not sushi rice vinegar which has added salt and sugar.

Zhejiang/Chinkiang Black Rice Vinegar
The best black vinegar comes from the Zhejiang/Chinkiang area. It is used in hot and sour soup, tang cu (sweet and sour) dishes, and used for dipping Shanghai's famous xiao long bao (little soup buns).

(Toasted) Sesame Oil
Ever since I was little, I’ve loved drizzling this on my food. Just smell this stuff! It smells so good! It's used for finishing dishes, mixing into noodles, drizzling on soups, adding to dumpling/wonton fillings, adding to Chinese salad. Never use this to cook because it scorches too easily and will taste bitter and burnt. Kadoya is the brand I grew up and like my Pearl River soy sauce, I never buy anything else. The color of the oil should be a rich brown, not a pale yellow like the sesame oil pressed from untoasted seeds. Store it away from light and heat. I keep mine in the sauce cupboard and have not had any problems.

Rock Sugar
For the most authentic braises like red cooking, use this type of sugar. For all purpose cooking and marinating meat I use granulated sugar (chicken and seafood) and sometimes brown sugar (beef sometimes pork). It comes in pretty big chunks so you'll need to use a hammer or meat mallet to break it up into smaller usable pieces.

Cornstarch (not pictured)
Another essential ingredient is cornstarch/corn flour. It's used to thicken sauces but don't abuse it like many bad Chinese take out places or you'll end up with booger-like sauces. It is also added to meats before stir frying to protect them from drying out in the wok.

Peanut Oil (not pictured)
For truly authentic Chinese dishes, you need to use peanut oil. This oil is excellent for deep frying and stir frying because it has a high smoke point so it can stand up to the heat of the wok. But peanut oil can be expensive and since I don't deep fry at home, I just use vegetable oil for my stir fries.

The Fridge


Oyster Sauce
Oyster sauce is a relatively newcomer to Chinese cuisine (created in 1888 rather than thousands of years ago). Originating in the province of Guangdong, it's very popular in Cantonese cuisine. It was created by Lee Kam Sheung and his company Lee Kum Kee still makes oyster sauce and a variety of other sauces to this day. Oyster sauce can be used in stir fries to add the xian (umami) flavor to your dishes. It is a popular sauce for cooking jie lan/gai lan (Chinese broccoli). I like to use it for fried rice and fried noodles.

Hoisin Sauce (Hai Xian Jiang)
Hoisin sauce is mainly used as a dipping sauce, not cooking. It is traditionally served with Peking duck. It can also be used in the marinade for cha shao rou (Chinese BBQ pork).

Optional
Chili peanut sauce/oil (jar on the left)
My favorite brand for spicy products is Lao Gan Ma (both the chili peanut oil and soybean oil are this brand). This is good for mixing into your food, whether it's when you're cooking and you don't have chili pepprs or at the table if you want something a little spicy. It's also good mixed into dipping sauces for potstickers. Steven likes to mix this into his fried noodles.

Chili bean paste (picture needs updating)
This is made from fermented broad beans or soy beans, chilies, and oil so it's great for making mapo tofu.

The Aromatics


There aren't very many spices used in Chinese cuisine but there are a few commonly used aromatics and spices.

White pepper
White pepper is used in stir fries, dumpling fillings, sprinkled on soups.

Ginger
Ginger is commonly used in stir fries, braises, dumpling fillings, soups, almost everything. Most of the time, ginger is cut into slices, which can be added to hot oil to flavor the oil before stir fry, or added to soups as it simmer. It can be cut into strips or slices to put in a fish cavity as it steams to help get rid of any fishy odor along with the rice wine. Or it can be minced and added to dumpling fillings.

Green Onion
Green onions are indispensable in Chinese cooking. They are added to stir fries, steamed dishes, braises, soups, savory pastries, again almost everything. When it’s added to hot oil, the heat blooms and mellows the flavor of the green onion and turns it into something amazingly fragrant. This oil can be used for stir fries or as a finishing oil and poured onto dishes like steamed fish.

Star Anise
This spice is primarily used for braises and simmering meats like red cooking or tea eggs.

Sichuan/Szechuan Peppercorns
This is actually a berry, not a true peppercorn. It is used heavily in the region's cuisine to impart a ma la, a numbing spicy sensation to dishes like mapo tofu or kung pao shrimp.

More spices and aromatics (not pictured)
Cilantro also called Chinese Parsley or Coriander
This is a popular garnish on noodle soups. However, Steven can't stand it (he's one of those people with that weird genetic trait thing makes cilantro taste soapy) so I rarely have it in the fridge.

Garlic
Garlic is sometimes added when stir frying vegetables. It can also be used to flavor oil, like ginger, by cooking slices of garlic briefly in hot oil until the pieces are golden. Sometimes the fried garlic pieces are used as a topping on dishes like crab or deep fried foods.

Five spice
Is a spice blend of star anise, cassia (Chinese cinnamon), fennel, clove, sichuan pepper. It is not used very often and not commonly found in the home kitchen. It can be used to flavor roast ducks and Chinese BBQ pork.

Cinnamon/Cassia
The bark of cassia or Chinese cinnamon is sometimes added to braises.

Stay Tuned:
The Chinese Pantry Part 2: What to cook

Dried Shrimp

In Chinese, dried shrimp are called xia mi, which literally means shrimp rice, because small shrimp are sun dried resulting in even tinier pieces of dried shrimp. While they are bigger than grains of rice, most dried shrimp are relatively small. There is some variation in size and the bigger the shrimp, the higher the price. The shells are left on because the shrimp are small enough that they don't pose a problem after drying. The shrimp on the left is a bag that I purchased from my local Asian market. The shrimp in the container on the right is my special, super duper, extra large dried shrimp meat that I get from Steven's mom. She gets them imported from Malaysia because you can't find such large dried shrimp here.

Dried shrimp can smell quite fishy but they pack an amazing umami flavor, xian wei. In Chinese cooking, they're used in stir fries, braises, soups, stuffing, and dumpling fillings.

You can find dried shrimp in most Asian markets. Ideally they should be kept refrigerated even if they're unopened. Often times, I find that the storage policies in some markets are a little lax so they can be found in either a refrigerated aisle or at room temperature. Store them in the fridge when you get home just to be safe (but don't worry my parents and grandparents keep it at room temp, I mean it is dried after all, I'm just paranoid). Since the flavor is so concentrated, a little goes a long way. I only use a spoonful or two at a time. Before cooking, soak the shrimp in some hot water. Many people save this water to add back into soups, but I discard it because I think of it as washing the shrimp. Do not leave the shrimp soaking for too long, otherwise all the delicious umami flavor will leech out.

Recipes:
Recently I used these little dried shrimp in Pim's Pad Thai recipe.

I also use them in green bean stir fry and Chinese daikon cake.

Almond Extract

Almond extract is made with the oil of bitter almonds. Bitter almonds, unlike their more common sweet almond counterparts, are very bitter but also poisonous due to the presence of cyanide (eating 20 of these almonds raw is lethal for adults). The poison is broken down when the almonds are processed and also when they are heated from cooking. The sale of bitter almonds is illegal in the United States but in Europe small amounts are added to marzipan, amaretto, and amaretti cookies to heighten the flavor (usually 1 bitter almond for every 100 sweet almonds). “Pure” almond extract is made by combining the oil from bitter almonds with alcohol and sometimes water, whereas "natural” extract has the same major flavor compound, benzaldehyde, but derived from other plant sources. “Imitation” extract is made with food-grade, lab created benzaldehyde. Chemically speaking, all three extracts are the same but taste wise, many people prefer pure or natural extracts over the synthetic imitation.

Almond extract is very potent so a little bit goes a long way (but I certainly don’t mind a little bit more). The flavoring enhances the taste of peaches, apricots, and cherries because the stone fruits are in the same family as almonds. It also pairs well with vanilla, chocolate, apples, coconut, and berries. Interestingly, almonds are also distantly related to berries and roses. Plant family trees are so fascinating don't you think?

So what are your favorite food scents? Perhaps the buttery, nutty fragrance of caramel, the piney smell of rosemary, or maybe the hearty aroma lightly charred Italian sausages with a hint of fennel seed?