The International Pantry

The focus of this book is on the straightforward dishes that comprise the repertoire of the world’s home cooks. Many of these dishes are simple, basic, and easily accomplished using a variety of on-hand ingredients along with one or two things brought home from the market. With this approach, anyone can cook almost anything.

It’s all a lot easier if you maintain a well-stocked pantry-—and this means more than a couple of cans of tuna fish, a jar of mayo, a bag of chips, and a bottle of salsa. A couple dozen ingredients belong in every kitchen all the time, and a few dozen more will allow you to expand your horizons to the ends of the earth. Fortunately, most of these ingredients keep nearly indefinitely. Even better, taken together, these ingredients can take you a long way toward preparing literally hundreds of different dishes in thirty minutes or less. The basic list is far from arcane: