A bag of expired parmesan cheese, a bottle of Tabasco from the year 2000 and half a lemon on the verge of mold; if this description sounds like two drops of water to the current state of your refrigerator, it’s high time to make a trip to the supermarket.
An abandoned refrigerator is like a closet with no clothes. To dress every day, the latter must contain basic and essential pieces, which will ensure the back of any look. In the kitchen, it’s the same! How can you start cooking if you have to go through the grocery box every time you have a recipe idea in mind?
To get started in the kitchen, but also to reduce expenses and trips to the supermarket, it is essential to keep in stock a selection of basic foods and chameleons, which allow the realization of a multitude of recipes, to slip into your refrigerator or to store in their cupboards.
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Essential foods
With their many cooking methods and variations, eggs top the rankings. They are indeed the magic food to absolutely have in your fridge but especially your cupboard since ironically, eggs do not need to be kept cool and can be kept at room temperature. Eggs can be cooked in many ways: for example, they can be used to prepare cakes, slip into the heart of sandwiches, serve as a base for carbonara sauce with grated parmesan and bacon bits, or can be eaten on their own.
The ready-made pasta, available in supermarkets, such as pizza dough, shortcrust pastry, puff pastry, filo or pastry sheets, allow an infinite number of 100% customizable recipes. Preparations that always impress, yet very easy to make. By keeping this ready-made pasta on hand, seasonal fruit and vegetable pies, homemade pizza or personalized samosas will no longer hold any secrets for you. If you have a little more time, nothing prevents you from making your famous magic pasta yourself, using flour and yeast, ingredients that we include on our list of essentials. In addition to pasta of all kinds, flour makes it possible to obtain crispy, very tender fried chicken. It is also to this ingredient in large part that we owe the iconic pancake batter, as well as most recipes for cakes, cakes and brioches.
Side dairy products, yogurt offers many possibilities in the kitchen. In both sweet and savory versions, it can be eaten as a dessert, or as a dip, alongside fresh appetizers. Yogurt also makes an excellent marinade to soften chicken pieces before cooking. Of course, a fridge is never full without a good dose of cheese. An ingredient that everyone loves, which can be enjoyed in a thousand and one ways. Savory pies, pasta with sauce, amuse-bouche, or even cheesecake, cheeses are ravaging from starter to desert. This is why, there is no doubt: you always have to have it on hand!
To stock up on vitamins and nutrients, opt for a selection of seasonal fruits and vegetables which allow a multitude of associations. In this summer period, cucumber slips into all kinds of salads, appetizers, or homemade poke bowls, and brings freshness to each of our bites. The melon, on the other hand, delights us from starter to dessert, with its sweet taste and attractive look. The tomato, of course, remains an essential part of summer tables, which can be endlessly declined: sauce, gazpacho, salad, stuffed tomatoes…
Supplements for seasoning
Once we have our basics, like accessories in the field of fashion, it is the seasonings that make all the difference in the culinary field. Spices, aromatic herbs, sauces and condiments, they enhance and transform each recipe into a preparation worthy of the greatest chefs. Garlic, onions, shallots, all are very popular in the kitchen and can be used to enhance almost all savory recipes that exist. On the spice side, in addition to the classic salt and pepper, many others are quickly necessary. It may be useful to try and taste in order to establish which ones will be essential for you (if this is still a little unclear), or for example, to observe the type of cuisine you like the most. For example, Indian cuisine offers many recipes based on curry or cardamom. Moroccan cuisine, for its part, puts cumin in the spotlight. In Mexico, peppers of all kinds or even paprika prevail.
Easy to store, sauces and products in jars are always useful and save time. Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, tahini, wasabi all add flavor to dishes.
Finally, nothing is more essential in the kitchen than a block of butter and a bottle ofolive oil. Two foods used as fat for frying, but which also enhance the taste of many savory dishes. Butter is necessary for making pie dough, or bechamel sauce that slips into gratins, lasagna and croque-monsieur.
Well-stocked cupboards
A stock of starches is always welcome and allows the preparation of satisfying dishes without the fuss. Pasta, rice, potatoes or cereals, these foods have proven themselves, and fully deserve their place in your cupboards whatever the season.
When we go shopping, we don’t forget to keep in mind the cans of canned tuna, the chickpeas which allow the realization of minute hummus, and the different legumes, which can save us the day.
On the pastry side, it is the flour, the sugar, the pastry chocolate, or the almond powder, which you will have to slip into your basket to ward off any gourmet desire.
Pleasure above all
As with everything in life, the most important thing is obviously to have fun. Otherwise what good is it? So do not hesitate to buy this specific food, the slightest bite of which warms your heart, and to incorporate it whenever you want at the heart of your preparations. Enjoy your lunch !
