Ethnic Cooking Pantry Fav's

[Soror]

My grocery budget has been nothing but bare bones for the last few months and finally I'm going to have a little extra next month. My poor pregnant body is dying for some ethnic food. Usually I do everything from scratch but I'd like to stock back up on a few items that are hard to replicate homemade or impractical so I can expand my recipe base without spending all my time in the kitchen. Right now I have a good variety of spices and a few basics like fish sauce and coconut aminos (soy sauce substitute).

 

I am gluten/soy/HCFS free and prefer not to have dyes or preservatives. I prefer things that are more traditional/paleo but I don't have to have perfection here and can deal with some sugar in my condiments and a few less than ideal ingredients.

 

Right now on my list:

Ingredients for homemade Worcestershire Sauce- I need tamarind paste and arbrol peppers

 

ingredients for hoison sauce- I need sesame oil and rice vinegar

 

sweet chili sauce

 

chili paste

 

oyster sauce

 

 

Anything else to add to my list we love Indian and all varieties of Asian (very general I know- we like Thai, Chinese, etc).

 

By the way I happened upon this blog and just loved it, not all 100% authentic but some very yummy basic recipes.

 

http://norecipes.com/recipe/

[Soror]

bump- give me some more ideas ladies!

[Mrs Mungo]

Do you have a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods? You would probably have good luck finding substitutes there. They both have pretty big gluten-free lines.

[Soror]

No, unfortunatley TJs and WF are 2 hrs or so away. I'm going to check locally (Kroger and Wal-Mart this week to see if they have gotten anything good in lately) but otherwise I'll likely be looking at Amazon.

[stripe]

Have you seen http://rasamalaysia.com/ ?

[Wendi]

I love to cook Asian (mostly Japanese and Chinese) foods. Here are some of the products I use most:

 

Goma shio (mix of sesame seeds and salt, great sprinkled on rice)

furikake (also for sprinkling on rice, comes in lots of varieties)

sake

mirin

Chinese black vinegar (might be labeled Chinkiang vinegar)(Here's a great recipe for Chinese broccoli beef.)

Chinese rice wine

hondashi (instant dashi granules)

miso paste

dried noodles (udon, soba)

sesame oil

chili paste

ginger (chop into chunks, peel, and freeze -- or buy a jar of it; keeps for awhile in fridge)

garlic (I recently tried minced freeze-dried garlic, and it's very convenient)

 

With these ingredients, a good rice, and a variety of meats and veggies, I find I can make a lot of dishes.

 

Here are my two favorite websites for recipes:

 

http://www.steamykitchen.com

http://www.rasamalaysia.com

 

Wendi

[eternalknot]

I know shoyu has wheat in it, so that's out. I'm not familiar with your specific dietary requirements, so I'm going to just list some (other) pantry ingredients and you can discern if they'll fit within your parameters :)

 

Sesame oil

Sesame seeds

Fish sauce

Dashi

Shrimp paste

Mirin

Rice Vinegar

Sake

Coconut Milk

Chili oil (or maybe sambal)

Hot mustard or wasabi

Peanut oil

Nori

Five-Spice powder

Curries

Rice! and/or rice noodles

Arrowroot powder

 

... that's off of the top of my head, non-fresh ingredients. Other obvious things would be garlic, ginger, mushrooms, bok choy or similar green, daikon, water chestnuts, jicama, bamboo shoots, baby corn, maybe tropical fruits if you're doing Pacific Island foods.

 

HTH?

[Spy Car]

Shrimp paste. A pinch of Indonesian shrimp paste adds a bit of that nice stink one gets with fish sauce and Worcestershire sauce, but different.

 

Maldive Fish Sambol. A Sri Lankan condiment made with reconstituted dried fish, chilies, spices, and well-cooked onions. Comes either prepared in a jar or as dried-fish and spices in a contained that does not need to be refrigerated that you add to grilled onions and cook with a little water to prepare. Really good!

 

Asafoetida, aka Hing, aka Devil's Dung. Resinous lumps of strong-smelling (sulfuric-oniony taste) Indian spice. A little goes along way, but it give many Indian dishes the right taste.

 

Sprats. Wood-smoked sardine-like tinned fish from Latvia. While "Baltic" in origin, broiled sprats can be taken in many ethnic directions, are are yummy.

 

Vietnamese Rice Wrappers. The dried round sheets made from rice flour. When reconstituted with a little water they make a pliable wrapper. While "tasteless" themselves they can be stuffed with shrimp, veggies, and other delicious fillings.

 

Kim. The seasoned sheets of laver so loved by Koreans. Similar to Japanese nori, but seasoned with a little sesame oil and salt.

 

Soba noodles. Good topped with finely cut Kim.

 

Boil-in-bag Indian. Our name for the aseptic foil packed prepared Indian dishes that don't need refrigeration. There are many brands (even Trader Joes has theirs) and they are quite authentic and fast.

 

These are a couple ideas.

 

Bill (not a lady :D)

[eternalknot]

Bill (not a lady :D)

 

Should I clarify that despite my female anatomy, neither am I?

 

:tongue_smilie:

[Spy Car]

Should I clarify that despite my female anatomy, neither am I?

 

:tongue_smilie:

 

Certainly (k)not :D

 

At least we both came up with shrimp paste :tongue_smilie:

 

Bill

[Soror]

Oh, I see some good ideas here. Some things I've never heard of and other things that aren't safe but that's ok. You ladies (and gentlemen :) ) are lucky to have such variety around. No ethnic markets here or any such thing. Although with avoiding gluten and soy it makes it harder, especially for Chinese dishes, Indian dishes are generally not to heavy on either of those though. I'm adding some things to my list :) I need to check that budget again and see how much I can carve out for my cravings(while making an allowance for my need for dark chocolate) :)

 

LOVE the recipe sites as well!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!

[kitten18]

I love this Thai Red Curry Paste. I can get it for about half this price locally but even at the Amazon price, it's still a pretty good deal. I will get 10-14 curries out of one jar. It's much cheaper (and MUCH better than those little jars they have in the grocery store).

http://www.amazon.com/Mae-Ploy-Thai-Curry-Paste/dp/B000EI2LLO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1334528063&sr=8-2

 

ETA - my DD is GF and DH and I eat low-carb. I use fish sauce in place of soy sauce and I put broccoli in the curry instead of eating it over rice.

Edited April 15, 2012 by kitten18

[Sneezyone]

You could add garam masala for heat.:confused:

[StephanieZ]

Rice noodles are yummy.

Napa cabbage.

Bok Choy.

Thai soy sauce (gluten free, has sugar, but no HFCS)

Rice vinegar

 

Other asian veggies depending on what's available locally. (Our local asian market has these things at GREAT prices!)

[Soror]

Dh and I scoured the local stores of the things I had listed we found sweet chili sauce, anchovies, rice vinegar and rice wine(I don't how different that is than Mirin but we don't have that locally and it was too expensive on line). I have ordered chili paste, red curry paste, tamarind paste, sesame oil,peanut oil, chickpea and potato "flour", and white rice noodles.

 

I do have:

chinese 5 spice

garam masala(make myself)

various other spices to make curry and curry paste

ginger

garlic

coconut milk

sesame seeds

Coconut aminos (soy sauce sub)

fish sauce

 

Will make:

chili oil

Hoison sauce

Worcestershire sauce

 

Not safe, or cannot find or afford safe varieties:

udon, soba, miso, oyster sauce

 

I think I do have wasabi locally but forgot to check. Bok choy is about the extent of local asian vegetables but we'll make do- mostly I want some heat. I'd love to try lots of other things on the lists you guys gave but I've got to keep it fairly basic as my budget is not huge. I was so hoping to find some spring roll sheets as well but no luck :( shipping costs are crazy for them as well considering how cheap they are. I'll have to check back if I get some extra grocery funds again. (And I wonder if I get kicked off WTM for financing pregnancy cravings by selling books :) )

Edited April 17, 2012 by soror

[Soror]

Oh, I am so super excited and cannot figure out what to make first. I'm thinking some Red Curry Peanut Noodles and some Orange Sesame Chicken. Although some Tikka Masala and Mango Lassi sound heavenly as well- (and about 100 other things)

Edited April 17, 2012 by soror