Restocking My New Kitchen

One of the perks of being a person of a certain age was the well stocked panty in my old house. It took a few years to build my collection, but I have to admit there were plenty of ingredients that were only used a few times. Now I’m starting all over and re-stocking my flexitarian pantry with the basics. Here’s a peek at what I’ve purchased so far.

Just a few blocks away from our apartment there’s a huge open air market for fruits and vegetables as well as an indoor market where we can find a wide selection of meat, seafood, poultry and dairy. I love the variety of fresh food available but it’s still necessary to stock a basic pantry. There are five different grocery stores within walking distance and I’ve visited every single one of them in an effort to find everything I want and need. I’ve also ventured further abroad to the local equivalent of the big box store.

For someone used to walking into the local grocery or super mart and usually finding whatever I want, the lack of homogeneity is actually charming to me. It’s a matter of learning what’s available in each individual store. You see, just because the same name is on the outside, there’s no guarantee you’ll find the same goods inside.

Add in the difficulties of dealing with a new language and it can be a challenge to navigate the store aisles to find everything one might need. Fortunately, I have plenty of time and a translation app on my phone!

Spice Cabinet

So far I’ve been able to purchase:

Orange Caps (left to right): dried cayenne pods (crush them for red pepper flakes), curry powder and ground cumin

Green Caps: dill, thyme, parsley and rosemary (we brought basil and bay leaves with us…not sure why lol)

Red Caps: ground cinnamon, garlic powder and ground cayenne

I’m still looking for cardamom, onion powder and celery seed. I plan to grow fresh herbs on our little balcony eventually.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Tabasco, Worcestershire and Soy sauces. Naturally, I made sure to pick up smoky paprika and saffron. We’ve passed an Asian grocery store so I’m confident we’ll be able to stock up on sriracha and other flavorings unique to Asian cuisine.

Staples

As you can imagine, there’s no trouble finding any kind of olive oil or most kinds of vinegar. I had a time finding baking powder and baking soda. Part of the problem was my eye was looking for different logos and a round can. There’s no hammer on the baking soda box and the baking powder comes in packets instead of a red tin.

There are beans available everywhere in bulk. We bought a couple bags of beans and lentils to have on hand. They’re sold by the kilogram so we had to curb our normal instinct to empty the entire bag! (Not to mention I have no way to store that many cooked beans!)

Pasta is easy to find as well, although the shapes are a little bit different. I haven’t come across lasagna noodles yet, but I imagine it’s a matter of looking for them. This is Spain, so of course rice is easy to find. They favor a shorter grain rice but basmati and jasmine rice are available, too.

I was absolutely gratified to find quinoa in an organic food store. I went in to see if I could find some coconut oil, which I bought. Coconut oil is really expensive here so unless I find a cheaper source, I’ll most likely reserve its use for my skin rather than eating.

The type of flour available depends on the store, but I’ve seen wheat, rice and garbanzo flour. I’ve also seen corn flour but not maseca. For now, I purchased a small bag of all purpose flour. I need to purchase more storage containers before expanding the baking section of the pantry.

Sugar and honey are easy to find. You can choose between cane and beet sugar. The cane sugar we bought looks more like light brown sugar and actually changed the color of a little cake I made. I bought a kilogram of white sugar to use for baking.

Dried fruits, seeds and nuts are also available everywhere, in packages and in bulk which makes me really happy.

Refrigerator

As you can see in the photo our fridge is pretty small. We kind of like it that way actually as it will force us to eat fresh and seasonally and compel us to deal with leftovers on a timely basis.

I’ve had no difficulty finding the standard refrigerator staples…mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard. There are pickles everywhere, but finding sweet pickles or relish was very difficult. I plan to make my own relish as soon as things settle down. My preferred relish is made with zucchini, but cucumbers are easy enough to find.

Dairy products are readily available, but the selection will vary within a store. For example, I had to go to four stores to find feta cheese to make Eggplant with Honey and Feta.

We’re getting along pretty well with the items I’ve purchased so far. What ingredients do you consider indispensable in your kitchen?

Come back next week and I’ll tell you about the equipment I’ll be using. Check out this post about the equipment I’m using. What do you suppose I’ve had the most difficulty finding?