When Pantry Cooking Can Be Great
When Pantry Cooking Can Be Great
The results may surprise you
Much as I love fresh ingredients, this winter I have become even more comfortable cooking from the pantry and the freezer than ever before. Much as I’m looking forward to non-greenhouse, non-root, non-frozen vegetables, I have been cooking with joy.
The other night, I pulled ten tomatoes from the freezer. I cooked them over low heat for four hours with a stick of butter, stirring only when I walked through the kitchen. And I served that – if you want to be fancy – tomato confit, over brown rice. That’s not August, by any means, but it was intense and delicious. Then I took the leftover rice and cooked it with a lot more water, coconut, cinnamon, soy sauce, and raw peanuts; finished with a poached egg, that made me SO happy. (It also made me regretful about all those eggs I’ve eaten in my life with white bread.)
Anyway. Here are some recipes for March, recipes that take advantage of the root vegetables, of whole grains, of pantry items you probably don’t have to shop for. — Mark
Each Monday, we send Bittman Project members a handful of easy, flavorful dinner options. Read on for four pantry-friendly favorites:
Charred Onion Soup Over Torn Bread
Chickpeas Provencal
Orange-Glazed Black Beans
Stir-fried Tofu with Spring Onions
Charred Onion Soup Over Torn Bread
MAKES: 4 servings | TIME: About an hour, largely unattended
Ingredients
1/3 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
4 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons celery seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, allspice, or cloves
Salt
One 6-ounce piece parmesan cheese, with the rind
4 onions, halved and sliced (about 6 cups)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Pepper
1 cup white wine
1 baguette or other crusty bread, torn into bite-sized pieces
Instructions
1. Turn on the broiler and position the rack 4 inches below the heat source. Put the ketchup, mustard, bay leaves, celery seeds, paprika, ginger, and nutmeg in a large pot with 8 cups water and a large pinch of salt. Bring to a boil. Grate 1/4 cup parmesan for garnish and put the remaining piece — rind and all — into the pot with the spices. Adjust the heat so the stock bubbles steadily. Let it simmer while you cook the onions, stirring occasionally to keep the cheese from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
2. Put the onions on a rimmed baking sheet with the soy sauce and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Broil, stirring once, until the onions are just soft and charred in places, 12 to 15 minutes. Add the onions to the pot with the stock. Pour the wine onto the hot baking sheet and scrape up any browned bits; add to the pot. Cook, stirring once in a while, until the stock darkens and the onions become silky, about 30 minutes (or up to 45 minutes if you have the time).
3. Discard the bay leaves. Remove the cheese and chop it up, including as much of the rind as you’d like, and return it to the pot; run a potato masher through the pot to break up the onions and thicken the broth. Taste and adjust the seasoning. To serve, put some bread in the bottom of each bowl, ladel the soup, and garnish with the grated cheese.
— Recipe from Dinner for Everyone
Chickpeas Provencal
MAKES: 4 servings | TIME: 1 to 2 hours
Chickpea-cooking liquid is so delicious you need bread to soak it up.