La Platicona Habla: Tastes, Passions and Pursuits

Despite the fact that everyone eats everyday, not everyone knows how to cook for themselves, much less how to grocery shop in order to make a meal. I hope this post will allay many of your grocery shopping fears, dispel supermarket myths, and give you good advice on how to approach what may seem an arduous or daunting task.
First, it is important that you have a kitchen stocked with your basic needs. Every year when I went back to school, my mom would send me away with a list of “kitchen basics” I’d need for cooking everyday. Mom, if you are reading this, perhaps you can post this special list. I cannot attempt to recreate that list here, but among the most essential cooking items, one should always have the following pantry items in stock:
Flour – use white unbleached, a small pack is fine
Olive oil – get a large bottle, I like dark green varieties
Vegetable oil – you need this to guisar your beans, fry your taco shells, etc.
Vinegar – this is a summer item, I prefer red wine vinegar
Salt – Kosher salt is the best for cooking and dining, large flakes make everything yummy
Sugar – again, as a bulk item, you can buy as little or as much as you like.
Beans – yes, if you don’t have these in stock, you must be living la vida loca. I like beans of all shapes, sizes, and colors – I don’t discriminate. Staple and yummy varieties include the pinto bean, black bean, and red bean.
Lentejas – lentils to you non-Spanish speaking folks. Lentils in green are my favorite and make a great soup or substitute for rice when eating fish.
Canned Tomatoes – you can never have enough of yummy canned whole tomatoes.
Pasta – whatever your fancy, you know at the end of the month, you will be eating this – don’t forget sauce if you like the red stuff, or at least olive oil
Rice – another fabulous and versatile staple. If you burn your rice or undercook it, or don’t have a ½ hour to spend babysitting it on the stove, get instant, or partially cooked rice varieties. I use a par-cooked wild rice and long grain white and brown rice often.
Garlic – buy it dry or buy it fresh – I think fresh is always best. Susan says: “Make sure to look on the bottom of the garlic clove to ensure that no black dust is present around the center – this is yucky mold.”
Spices – these are up to you, but I cannot live without pepper, chile piquin (the small whole red chilis used on pizza), cumin, fresh ginger, coriander, basil, oregano. I often buy or use fresh herbs when available.
Papas – papas (potatoes) are like pasta – plenty of carbs, really really cheap, and delicious by themselves or part of another dish. I like russets for baking and mashing, reds for roasting, small fingerlings for tossing in olive oil.
Bullion – bullion is usually a compact cube of some variety of stock and you should have some in your cabinet. I prefer vegetable stock in the juice form out of a box or can. Chicken is always a good thing. Tomato and fish bullion is also available in the Maggie or the Knorr brands (although with a lot of MSG).
Wine – not only to drink, mainly to use for cooking everything. I buy three bottles and go through them all in one – one and a half months. I buy the 3 for 10 dollar bottles of white wine. This is clearly not on my mother’s list!
Well mom, if I forgot something, please add it to this list.

After you got your basics, grocery shopping becomes a lot easier – you are shopping for things that go well with your basics. I organize my list around a vague idea of what I want to cook. Each item you buy should be versatile and be able to go in more than one dish. My veggie list looks like this:
Spinach or Swiss Chard – good for spinach pie, lasagna, chard and garbanzos, or pasta
Mushrooms – need I list all of their uses?
Onions – white are the tastiest
Garlic – again, fresh
Squash – of any variety
Green Lettuces – I like butter lettuce especially for salads
Cucumbers – in salad or by themselves
Carrots – a food basic for soups and such
Celery – don’t need a full head, but it goes in so many things
Bell peppers – in all colors if I can
Tofu – yuck to some and mmmm to me, I prefer extra soft for soups
Green Beans – by themselves or with rice, oh so luxury
Broccoli – again, alone or with pasta it is fantastic
Italian parsley - flat leafed and always cheap, this runs about 99 cents a bunch

Fruit:
Bananas and apples (honey suckles are in season)

Canned:
Tomatoes, garbanzo beans, other beans when lazy, corn, tomato paste.

Frozen:
Stop buying pizza. I love frozen peas. I also like to buy frozen pasta raviolis, rice or udon noodles for soup, pie crusts (Marie Calendar crusts are great).

Dairy:
1 pint of whipping cream, block of parmesan cheese, 4 sticks of unsalted butter (not the fake stuff).

Okay, this extensive list will help you cook many of the things already on my blog. I promise to note special ingredients for weird dishes which usually consist of curries and miso based soups (in lieu of beef or chicken stock). Also of note is that I don't buy a lot of dairy like cheese and milk - this is because I am lactose intolerant and prefer not to torture others with my bad smells.

Labels: shopping