{"id":4035,"date":"2012-11-15T00:30:23","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T06:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=4035"},"modified":"2012-11-15T00:30:23","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T06:30:23","slug":"gch-whats-on-your-plate-the-international-pantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2012\/11\/15\/gch-whats-on-your-plate-the-international-pantry\/","title":{"rendered":"GCH: What’s on Your Plate? The International Pantry"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Most of the recipes on GCH: What’s on Your Plate are for delicious dishes that may not even require a trip to the store to make tonight. \u00a0That might not be the case with my contributions! \u00a0If you’ve always wanted to try a Mexican, Korean, or Indian recipe but didn’t know where to start, I’m here with a primer for some basic things to stock in your pantry and refrigerator.<\/p>\n

The Korean Kitchen<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am biased: \u00a0I love Korean food! \u00a0There aren’t any complicated techniques to master (I’m looking at you, French bistro cuisine!) and it relies mostly on fresh vegetables and a few simple condiments. \u00a0I highly encourage you to find an Asian or Korean grocery store and try some recipes out. \u00a0Here’s what to buy to get you started.<\/p>\n

Sesame Oil<\/strong>: \u00a0This dark, nutty oil is a base flavor in most Korean recipes. \u00a0Any brand is fine, and your neighborhood Safeway or Kroeger may stock it in the Asian aisle.<\/p>\n

Soy Sauce<\/strong>: \u00a0You probably already have this. \u00a0Kikkoman is definitely in your grocery store right now!<\/p>\n

Rice Vinegar<\/strong>: A delightfully sweet-tart vinegar that is fresh-tasting and light. \u00a0I use it often in salad dressings.<\/p>\n

Garlic<\/strong>: \u00a0In James Clavell’s classic samurai novel Shogun,\u00a0<\/em>the Japanese guards refer to Koreans as “the garlic-eaters”. \u00a0They meant it as an insult, which is incomprehensible to me! \u00a0Garlic is very healthy for you, and is found in many cuisines around the world. \u00a0I mean, imagine Italian food without garlic! \u00a0I buy it whole because it’s cheaper that way, but if you don’t want the trouble of mincing it to order, feel free to buy a jar of minced garlic to live in your fridge.<\/p>\n

Green Onions<\/strong>: \u00a0You know, just your basic green onions. \u00a0And unless you’re making dessert, you can almost guarantee a Korean recipe will call for minced green onions. \u00a0Thankfully, if you buy them in an Asian grocery, they are going to be shockingly cheap to purchase. \u00a0In fact, every Asian grocery store I have been in has fresher vegetables at better prices than the American grocery store.<\/p>\n

Ginger<\/strong>: \u00a0A common flavor agent in Korean food. \u00a0Buy a whole “hand” of ginger, or buy minced ginger to go in your fridge. \u00a0Be sure to buy regular minced ginger, and not the pickled kind they serve with sushi.<\/p>\n

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Doenjang<\/strong>: \u00a0Pronounced “den jong”, this is fermented bean paste. \u00a0It’s basically a stronger, chunkier version of Japanese miso paste. \u00a0This flavors many soups and stews, and lends a meaty, salty savor. \u00a0It can live happily in your refrigerator for a good year – after all, it’s already fermented! \u00a0When you buy it, read the ingredients – make sure there are no added flavors, like anchovies, and that you’re getting just plain doenjang. \u00a0Most brands feature helpful illustrations to help us non-Koreans out!<\/p>\n

Gochujang<\/strong>: Pronounced just how it looks, “go chu jong”, this red paste looks scarier than it is. \u00a0If you like Sriracha hot sauce, you’ll love gochujang. \u00a0It is hot, fruity, sweet, and complex. \u00a0Koreans love this fiery paste and will sometimes serve a side dish of whole green onions to dip in gochujang. \u00a0That’s a little hardcore for me, but in smaller amounts, it is a tasty and welcome splash of spice. \u00a0And to make it easier, doenjang is always sold in a little tan tub, and gochujang is always sold right next to it, in a little red tub. \u00a0Don’t worry, you can’t confuse them.<\/p>\n

Kimchi<\/strong>: \u00a0The iconic dish is the Korean version of sauerkraut – pickled cabbage that will cure any cold! \u00a0There are also radish and cucumber versions. \u00a0Pick up a jar and see if you like it. \u00a0I love it, and I love the huge dose of Vitamin C it gives me. \u00a0Koreans eat kimchi and rice with every meal.<\/p>\n

Rice<\/strong>: \u00a0This is not the Uncle Ben’s variety. \u00a0You’ll need short-grain, Japanese-style rice. \u00a0Two popular brands are Calrose and Shirakiku. \u00a0And yes, it’s supposed to be sticky!<\/p>\n

Everything else for your Korean recipes will be vegetables or some meat. \u00a0Common vegetables used are zucchini, spinach, carrots, mushrooms, eggplant, cabbage, onion, and bean sprouts. \u00a0These should all be purchased fresh, of course, and for the most part, once you have the basic condiments, you can go to the regular grocery store for the other things you need.<\/p>\n

Indian Ingredients<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indian food is a delightful way to explore different flavors, textures, and techniques. \u00a0It’s also a wonderful choice for vegetarians, or people looking to cut down on meat, since recipes using beans and vegetables abound. \u00a0Here are some basics to get you going.<\/p>\n

Curry<\/strong>: \u00a0As I mentioned last week, curry comes in powder, paste, and sauce form – but I would avoid the sauces, since they are diluted, and you can’t control the salt, heat, or viscosity of the finished product. \u00a0Instead, go to your regular grocery store, and look in the spice aisle. \u00a0Last time I was there, I counted six different curry powders! \u00a0They are all similar, in that they probably contain turmeric, mustard, coriander, and cumin. \u00a0But they diverge there, and each has other spices – ginger, cayenne, cinnamon, allspice – in a different balance of flavors. \u00a0I recommend that you buy two different brands. \u00a0Open them, smell them, and see which you like better. \u00a0I have three right now – one is sweeter, one is more bitter, and one is hotter. \u00a0I use them in combination, or pick which one goes better with the recipe – the sweeter one for squash or carrots, \u00a0the hotter one for meat. \u00a0As for pastes, these are more specific and uniform – one brand’s Madras curry paste will be very similar to another brand’s. \u00a0I like Madras, as it’s a very balanced mix of sweet, bitter, spicy and hot. \u00a0It’s another condiment that doesn’t take up a lot of space in the fridge, lasts forever, and adds a unique kick to everything it mixes with.<\/p>\n

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Whole spices<\/strong>: \u00a0I can’t recommend whole spices highly enough! \u00a0Now just to be clear, I’m not a zealot: \u00a0please buy ground cinnamon and not sweat and curse over trying to grind down a cinnamon stick for your next batch of snicker doodles! \u00a0But if you did a taste-test of prepackaged ground cumin versus whole cumin \u00a0toasted and ground at home, you’d go kick that name-brand jar right out of your spice cabinet! \u00a0I always have whole cumin, mustard, and coriander seeds on hand. \u00a0Believe it or not, Mexican and Indian cuisines share a lot of flavors: \u00a0garlic, cumin, onion, peppers, and cilantro, just to name a few. \u00a0The cumin will certainly not go to waste if you do any kind of “international” cooking.<\/p>\n

Rice<\/strong>: \u00a0Sorry, you can’t use Japanese \/ Korean \/ Chinese rice in Indian cooking! \u00a0But Indian, Thai, and other south Asian cuisines use the same rice: either basmati or Jasmine rice, and you can find both in white and brown varieties.<\/p>\n

Everything else in Indian food should be purchased fresh. \u00a0Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, spinach,lentils, chickpeas, and green beans are all common ingredients. \u00a0Indians also make great use of chicken, so if you cut out red meat from your diet, check the multitude of chicken presentations.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Sorry this was so long. \u00a0I just got excited sharing the little bit of knowledge I have of what some people may consider non-traditional cooking. \u00a0Now get out there, and be a culinary adventurer!<\/div>\n
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Explore, experiment, and enjoy!<\/strong> — Dana<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
For more, visit me at Frugal Girlmet<\/a>!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the recipes on GCH: What’s on Your Plate are for delicious dishes that may not even require a trip to the store to make tonight. \u00a0That might not be the case with my contributions! \u00a0If you’ve always wanted to try a Mexican, Korean, or Indian recipe but didn’t know where to start, I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":4036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[276,279,355,413,425,528,531,592,683,738,959,991],"class_list":["post-4035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-at-home-with-gch","tag-curry","tag-dana-kim","tag-ethnic-cuisine","tag-gch-whats-on-your-plate","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-indian","tag-international","tag-korean","tag-mexican","tag-pantry","tag-shopping-list","tag-spices","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/korean-pantry.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-135","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}