You have roasted barley, an orange bell pepper and a well-stocked pantry. What are you making?
This is a hard mode challenge.
You have roasted barley, an orange bell pepper and a well-stocked pantry. What are you making?
This is a hard mode challenge.
I was considering saying this in the last one, but I think it might be good, or at least make for a fun discussion thread, to get into what makes a well stocked pantry.
I’d change from ‘well stocked’ to what is in your pantry.
Easy mode : What is in your dream pantry.
Normal Mode : What is in your pantry after a typical trip grocery shopping.
Hard Mode : What is in your pantry right now (pics or it didn’t happen).
Nightmare : Only items in your pantry you haven’t used in the last 2 weeks.
lol, you should see my pantry. I cook foods that have originated from all over the world. I have way too many “basic” ingredients stocked at all times.
Just a couple of days ago, I started to make a Thai curry, and then I was shocked to find that we were out of coconut milk. How can we be out of coconut milk?! We always have coconut milk!
So, I made a Japanese curry instead.
Also, having survived a natural disaster has left me with a tendency to hoard food. All of my cabinets are jam packed at all times. My house is the place to be if the next Big One hits and they are no groceries available.
Yeah. A well stocked pantry could be anything from oil, salt and spices to like condensed milk, noodles, other vegetables or even prepped sauces.
I have thought about doing posts on that. There is a problem of regionalness. My pantry in Lesser Carolina is very different from my pantry in San Diego. But there are strategies of stocking a pantry. That are universal that people can find useful.
One thing I had to adjust is potatoes. In San Diego I could buy a 10 pound bag of potatoes and it could last two months. Here in the humidity of The South a 5 pound bag will start sprouting in two weeks.
I never had pantry moths in San Diego. But here everything that can be moth food has to be put into moth proof containers.
Sample pantry shelf picture for tax.
My proposal below for different rulesets depending on how much of a challenge you want.
Hard mode: Only the very basics
Water, table salt, neutral cooking oil, white sugar, white vinegar
Normal mode: Non-perishables only
Dried stuff (beans, white rice, pasta, mushrooms, flour, starches), honey, spirits
Includes the very basics.
Normal mode: Staples only (perishable or non-perishable)
There may be certain items that you would purchase with most grocery trips to ensure you always have some on hand. Only consider sets of items that are very cheap where you’re located (or at least, somewhere on earth). As an example, I might include milk, eggs, garlic, and onion. List the ingredients that you consider to be staples.
Includes the very basics
Easy mode
Just come up with something tasty that includes the required ingredients.
The problem is that not everybody would agree with what you consider to be basic. To me, you would absolutely have to include soy sauce, for example. And I mostly use white vinegar for cleaning. Replace that with rice wine vinegar, however…
Succession: Just call the first two Nightmare Mode and Hard Mode. That way you don’t have two Normal Modes.
Nightmare and hard imply a difficulty ordering. I used normal twice because I don’t think either are strictly easier or harder than the other. They’re just different.