Island Pantry
Varied stock supply helps prepare for unexpected meals

I call it "desperation cooking." You’ve overbooked your day, you can’t face take-out and now that you’re home, you really don’t want to cook. Or, possibly, the nice people you asked over for drinks after work just think you’re too much fun and don’t seem to want to go home. You’ve made no plans to serve dinner, and you’ve got to do something fast.

Stocking up on certain foods can help you whip up a meal when you’re least expecting to do so. Dried pasta and pasta sauce, canned goods, dried ramen and vegetables are good items to keep on hand. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Time for the freezer and the pantry. If you have shopped well and wisely in the first place, no sweat.

So the next time you’re food shopping, start preparing for those desperation days. We’ll assume that everyone has a rice cooker and two generous bags of rice, white and brown. The other things I try to have on hand are coffee beans (which I keep in the freezer until I’m ready to use them), an assortment of green, black and herbal or decaffeinated teas, and bottled water. I always have a bottle of champagne and a bottle of white wine in the refrigerator.

Stored in baskets are an onion and some potatoes, a hand of ginger and knob of garlic. In the refrigerator: a lemon or lime, good for drinks or to squeeze on fish or a salad.

If your tastes run to local-style food, keep dried ramen, canned corned beef, Spam and Vienna sausages in the cupboard. I try to always have low-sodium chicken broth, canned coconut milk (for curries and sauces), nonfat evaporated milk, tomato sauce, a prepared red pasta sauce such as Prego, dried pasta, microwavable popcorn and mixed nuts.

I throw a package of low-fat, shredded cheese into the freezer for emergencies and usually have a hard wedge of Parmesan refrigerated. Other good things to keep in the freezer are boboli pizza crusts, a frozen lasagna, bacon and butter (because we don’t use too much of either), vanilla ice cream, packages of frozen peas and green beans (for when you have nothing fresh and green), and garlic bread.

A good quality sausage — such as those chicken sausages seasoned with apple and sun-dried tomatoes — can be kept on hand in the freezer, then you can always thaw them in the microwave and grill or fry them for pupu or as a main course.

You could make a boiled vegetable dinner by cooking potatoes, carrots and onions together and seasoning them with whatever looks good to you. Serve it all up with a little mustard.

A friend of mine used to make a great ‘ahi pasta as a regular dinner entree. Then she discovered that all she had to do was prepare some spaghetti, and, in a frying pan, saute a container of ‘ahi poke then toss it with a little olive oil and chicken broth to make a quickie version.

You can make just about anything into a great meal by adding a crusty bread and a green salad. If you always keep eggs, an omelet made with leftovers, or simply bottled herbs and that grated cheese, served with the salad and bread fits the bill.

Brands such as Healthy Choice and Weight Watchers make frozen dishes such as broccoli gratin and creamed chipped beef that can be served piping hot inside a microwaved baked potato for an instant, delicious meal.

Boboli crusts make creative pizzas with whatever you have on hand (such as the grated cheese in the freezer and the bottled pasta sauce).

Dessert is simple if you keep a pound cake such as Sara Lee’s, Cool Whip and frozen berries on hand. Fruit sauces can be made by pureeing the berries and adding some sugar or a liqueur such as cassis, chambord or amaretto; heat and pour over pound cake. Jams, jellies and preserves make great dessert sauces over ice cream if you warm them up and thin them out with a liqueur or even a tiny bit of water.

One of my favorite "curling up with nothing in the house" drinks is a kind of fake cappuccino. I keep decaffeinated coffee crystals in the freezer for times like this.

First, I heat a cup of skim milk on the stove or in the microwave. Then I add a heaping (make it strong) teaspoon of coffee crystals and a teaspoon of honey. You could top it with whipped cream, but I don’t. The same could be done with chai, the spiced Indian tea mix.

Here are a couple of my own desperation recipes.

Baby Greens With Mandarin Oranges, Walnuts & Blue Cheese

3 to 4 cups mixed Nalo greens or spring mix
2/3 cup mandarin oranges
1/3 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup or less crumbled blue, gorgonzola, roquefort or stilton cheese

Dressing:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Place the greens in a salad bowl. Add the mandarin oranges, toasted walnuts (simple to make in a toaster oven) and blue cheese. All of these amounts can be adjusted to your personal taste. Place the dressing ingredients in a glass bottle and shake. Dress the salad and serve. Serves 2.

‘Ahi Pasta

6 ounces prepared ‘ahi poke*

2 teaspoons capers
1/2 cup chopped plum tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh basil, or 1 tablespoon dried
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, or a pinch dried
3 tablespoons olive oil

Pepper to taste

8 ounces linguine or spaghetti, cooked to package directions

In a saute pan, cook the ‘ahi poke over high heat until seared, but not cooked through. Add the capers, tomatoes, spices and olive oil. Drain hot linguine, reserving a little of the hot liquid, and toss with ‘ahi mixture in warmed bowl. Add the reserved liquid if the pasta seems too dry. Season to taste.

*If you don’t buy ready-made poke, use 6 ounces of fresh, chunked ‘ahi with 1/2 cup chopped Maui onion, l clove chopped garlic and an anchovy fillet chopped. Serves 2.

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