Setting Up Your Southeast Asian Pantry

If you have everything listed below, you can cook a majority of the recipes in this book. Most have a long shelf life (more than six months). Of course, you will need to buy the meat, fish, and produce as needed. Having these staples on hand will enable you to create Asian flavors on the fly. Then, as you try other items, you can bolster the pantry with specialized ingredients like fenugreek seeds, which are used to make curry powders, and other esoteric things.