Ep 37: The Magnificent Seven: Your Mediterranean Pantry Heroes

Written By Christine Van Bloem

In this episode, we're diving into the essentials of creating a Mediterranean-inspired pantry designed for ease and convenience. Say hello to 'The Magnificent Seven', categories of pantry items that can help you easily prepare meals. You'll find tips on sourcing and storing these items properly, recommended brands and specific types, and delicious meal ideas. Perfect for those looking to simplify their cooking routine while adding a touch of Mediterranean flair.

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  • Well, oh, happy day. I am here today and we are talking about the Mediterranean pantry and I know you're like, oh, that's so exciting, Christine. No, it really, really is because listen, I know that in Europe and all of these great places, they make a habit of going to the market every day or every other day, but I am tired and I do not want to make my trip to Wegmans and more than once a week. And if I'm being honest, maybe every week and a half, even two weeks, because it's a lot. It's really overwhelming to go to these big grocery stores. So what I like to do is make sure that I have got stuff. on hand so that I can pull something together without having to think about it. Now I definitely do the menopause meal plan, you know I love that, and that gives me three dinners that I don't have to think about, right? Good stuff. But! The other nights, I want to make sure I can pull something together really easily using what I've got. So let me tell you about, ta ta da, the Magnificent Seven, or your Mediterranean Pantry Heroes, right? These are the seven, let's call them categories, of things that I recommend having in your pantry so that you can pull something together pretty quickly. Right? So let's start it off right. You know it. You love it. It's your favorite. Number one, you got to make sure you've got some extra virgin olive oil hanging around. Now, olive oil comes in different grades and different prices and from different countries. You've got to buy what works for you, but now that you're not feeding, you know, all the kids and 10, 000 people and the cross country team and all of that, you deserve to splurge on something that's maybe a little yummier. And when I think extra virgin olive oil, because it has a low smoke point, that means it burns a little more easily, I always think of it as the oil that isn't going to get heated, right? I try not to cook with extra virgin olive oil because there's so many great nuances in these oils. It's just like wine, right? There's so many nuances and depending on the country that it comes from, the region, depending on the type of olives, they have all sorts of different characteristics. Sometimes I like a really rich, mellow kind of olive oil, and sometimes I want one that's a little more peppery. Maybe it has a little bit of a. almost, you can find all of these different flavors, even in your own grocery store. I promise. But since we're empty nesters now and we're working through the thing, what say you splurge a little? Give yourself a little treatsy and maybe go to one of those fancy olive oil stores here in my wonderful little town. We actually have two and both of them are fantastic. I love to get something special from there. And when I'm talking extra virgin olive oil, I'm not talking about a flavored oil, which those are also great. And I won't yuck your yum if that's what you're into, grab one. But I love just a really easy one. Great. Classic extra virgin olive oil. Now, if you're looking for one on a budget, Goya actually has a really decent grocery store extra virgin olive oil that is very highly rated. Comes off really well, super affordable, bottle isn't huge. I say, if you're into it, pick up a bottle and give it a try. And always think of these as like finishing oils, or oils for dressings, or oils for drizzling. If you want to saute with olive oil, instead you're going to look for a pure olive oil. Now this has a slightly higher smoke point so no you cannot do high heat cooking with it but you can cook with it without hurting or burning the oil. I know hurting the oil that sounds so cheffy oh my gosh but you can totally make that work for you if you're gonna do that so I'll keep a bottle of pure olive oil mostly for sauteing right now I'm using a lot of avocado oil and all this you could go But get yourself something that you like. Get yourself something that maybe you can taste beforehand. And keep that stocked, of course, in a cool, dark place. Not your fridge. It's a fat. We don't want to chill it. But keep it not next to your stove. We don't want high heat that will damage it. I remember I was at my friend Stacy's and she had this gorgeous little set up with the oil and all the things and it was far enough away from her stove. But in the afternoon, the sun just beat down on it and That's gonna hurt the oil. Okay, so it's gonna heat it up. It's gonna take some of those nuances away So you don't want to have it stored in the sunlight and you don't want to store it too close to the stove I actually store mine in a cabinet across the kitchen. It's just what works in my kitchen. So number one extra virgin olive oil number two One of my favorite things right now whole grains Now, if you can find quick cooking versions of whole grains, like barley or farro, those are amazing. Trader Joe's has a 10 minute farro that I love. And these grains have what I would call a little more stick to it ness for your ribs, right? It's going to fill you up. They're hearty. They have more going on than if you were doing a white pasta and I have to tell you, it's just a matter of personal taste. I do not love the whole wheat pastas or I just don't love them. I think it's 50 some years of eating white pasta and I just haven't been able to lean into those. So instead I go with these whole grains. Faro salads, amazing. I'm even going to make one tonight for dinner. Because there's a diner here in the area called the Silver Diner. And part of their shtick is that they're really doing healthy food. So of course you can go and get a cheeseburger and all that, but they have all these really great healthy options. So it really tastes good. My friend Sarah and I go for shakshuka breakfast sometimes, but they have a farro salad that is out of this world, or maybe it's a farro bowl where it's got the cooked farro. And whenever you're cooking with these whole grains, Do yourself a favor and instead of just cooking them in water, cook them in broth. Chicken broth, vegetable broth, it just gets a little flavor into the grain and ups it. So I'll do that tonight when I'm making this dish that I replicate from the Silver Diner. But I'm going to do the farro and then I'm going to stir in a bunch of arugula. I love arugula because it's so peppery and crisp. Oh, so good. I'm going to, I'm debating whether I'm going to grill or maybe even air fry some shrimp to go with it. I'm going to make a vinaigrette out of some roasted tomatoes. I don't know if y'all have ever had the roasted tomatoes. I think they kick the choo choo chay of any sun dried tomato. They're so good. The flavor is out of this world, and I will use the oil from the tomatoes to help make a vinaigrette for the dressing. Then I love pistachios, so I'm definitely throwing some pistachios in. And of course I'm gonna take a ball of burrata and put that in as well. It is so darn good. And if you are making these whole grains, You can easily double it up, triple it up, and have some in the fridge. Heck, you can make them and have them in the freezer. Just make sure when you freeze them that you're putting them into a Ziploc bag or a resealable bag. Make it flat, squeeze all that air out. When you make it flat, it thaws so much more quickly. And air is the enemy. of all things frozen. Got to know that. So you can totally make these, freeze them, have them ready to go, have them in the fridge to throw into salads, to throw into soup, to use as a green bowl. Fabulous options.

    Speaker 2:9:41

    And that brings us to number three. Capers and olives. Now, I know some of you just went, oh, and let me tell you for as much as I love olive oil, I am not a fan of olives. But if you like olives, they bring that brininess to a dish that can really enhance it and capers. Do the same thing, right? So capers are a berry on a bush. You can get really big ones. You can get little ones. We're used to the little ones. Chicken piccata. Some people say, Oh, my gosh, don't love them because they're salty, right? For sure. They're little salt bombs, but they can really bring another dimension into some of your foods. It's really terrific. And let me tell you, my Favorite use for capers. This totally I fry them in just a little bit of vegetable oil. I if I fry very rarely, I put just a teeny bit of vegetable oil in just enough so that the capers will be submerged. I heat it up, put that you've got to dry those capers, right? Because any liquid, like water and oil, so you pat the capers dry and then you put them in the oil and they fry in, I don't know, 30 seconds, 45 seconds. And they kind of open up like a little flower and they get so crispy. I remember making deviled eggs. I found a recipe once for deviled eggs that had fried capers and lemon zest and parsley. And let me tell you, I make these. all the time. I make them all the time. When I'm having a party or something, people go crazy. And I watched my brother in law just going, oh my gosh, fried capers? What? Because they are so darn tasty. So give that a try. But again, if you're frying anything, make sure it's dry. No moisture, right? Because safety first. So. If you go back to the beginning days of this incredible podcast, you will find that I have an episode on tinned fish. And let me tell you, it's number four. And I know you're going, no. Not gonna do it. I hate anchovies. I hate, okay, that's totally cool. But let me tell you, and you can go back and listen to the episode, I'll put it in the show notes, but let me tell you that Tinned Fish today is Lux, baby. It is Lux. It is Nothing like, I swear, it is nothing like when my dad cracked open a can of sardines and I think I actually gagged, right? This is not the same thing. Portugal has a store in Times Square dedicated to, solely to Portuguese sardines. I kid you not the whole store. It's colorful. It's bright. I have this wonderful person I work with. His name's Jason. Oh my God. He's amazing. He brought back. six tins of Portuguese sardines and I have been Rationing them because they are so fancy and one of the things you can do is Make a sea cootery board and I did this at New Year's. I think I might have mentioned it But I took a bunch of different tin fishes. I had an octopus. I had trout. Oh gosh, a really great smoked trout. I had a salmon of some sort. I think it had preserved lemon. I don't know. I think I pulled out some white anchovies. My husband loves anchovies. Pulled those all out and I did little bowls with like capers and lemon wedges, like little tiny lemon wedges, and dill and creme fraiche, get spring for the creme fraiche baby, spring for it, it's so good, and crackers and crusty bread, and let me tell you, that is a meal. And if you get folks to try it, I remember one of my friends who's a really adventurous eater said, I just don't know. I just don't know, Chris. I don't know. And really, she is awesome. She is an adventurous eater. And I said, No, no, let me just put one together for you. I took a little piece of smoked trout. That was from Fish Wife, which is a company that does tons of Luxe tinned fish. I put the smoked trout on a cracker with a little, just a little shmear, like the tiniest shmear of creme fraiche and a little tiny sprinkle of dill and a little bloop, a little spritz with a little tiny lemon wedge and gave it to her and I watched her eyes get big and she was like, that was delicious. I'm like, yeah, it was. So, Tin Fish, you are on the upward. trajectory here. All of your friends will think you're super cool. I promise. Guaranteed. Not really, but it's a really fun thing to put out. It's unusual. You're not finding it everywhere lately. And let me tell you, It's great for kind of, if you want to do we call them carpet picnics. When, some people will say girl dinner, right? When you're just pulling things that don't match and stuff out of the cupboards. We love it. My husband and I love it. Every once in a while we're like, okay, let's just do carpet picnic. And this is the time to pull out those tin fishes and pull out some crackers. And you can have a dinner. Like that. I promise. It's so good. It's so good. So, number four, quality. Quality is important. Quality tinned fish. And, let me just say, if you're going for anchovies, look for white anchovies. Because they are the fancy ones. And they taste really different from the anchovies that you're typically going to put into Caesar dressing or something like that. Alright. On to number five. We're talking about our dried herbs. Now, this is not the time, we are not in the phase of our life where we are going to Costco to get our big containers of dried herbs. When I owned the kitchen studio, I would do that all the time because we went through them, right? We used them. But now, We're cooking for smaller quantity, right? And my friend Caroline always said herbs don't die. They just fade away because that's what happens. They just lose their potency. Now, McCormick's will tell you that You should be replacing your herbs every six months because McCormick's owns a spice company. So of course they're saying that, but once your herbs lose that kind of fresh smell, it's, it's not like you can't use them. You totally can, but you'll need more to get. the same amount of pop out of it. So instead, I like to buy smaller quantities. And I know you're thinking, well, it's so expensive when you go and you buy, you go to the spice aisle or the baking aisle and you pick up that little container of time. You're totally right. This is when we're going for the bulk store, right? We're going for the bulk section in the store. And I kid you not, everybody's got it. I was shopping at Wegmans. They have them there. You don't, you have to peek around a little to find them and it's not typically where you're going to find any bulk grains or anything like that, but it's near the produce section. And if you want to buy, you know a teaspoon of something, you totally can. I recommend buying a little more than that. But you can buy just a little more than what you need and it's really economical and I'm putting it out in my newsletter next week. I have all these cool storage options coming. You can get the cutest little glass containers. I have these really neat glass containers that I keep. all of my herbs and spices in, right? So consider buying in the bulk section. And of course, we're looking at oregano, thyme, and bay leaves as Mediterranean superstars. And if you've got it, try to grow some oregano and thyme this year. But I'll tell you, keeping those in the pantry really great and keeping just what you need. All right, coming up number six. This kind of goes with number one, but. Get a good vinegar. I know that you can buy red wine vinegar really inexpensively at the grocery store. I know that you can. But maybe splurge when you're buying that good olive oil, maybe splurge and buy really nice red wine vinegar. And while you're at it, get a real balsamic vinegar too, because sometimes what you're getting at the grocery store is maybe a wine vinegar that has a balsamic flavoring added to it. I know, I know, I know, but it's totally true. Sometimes that's what you're getting. The important thing is that you've got something that you enjoy. That's the most important part. All right, but that's what we're going for. A good red wine vinegar and a good aged balsamic. That's all you need, really. Now, I do love to add a white wine vinegar in there as well. I don't know, sometimes I don't want the color and I want a little different flavor, but I think these are all you really need. And then, again, if you're feeling fancy, where I don't really go for flavored olives, olive oils, I do go for the flavored vinegars. This store by me has this this. Stupid garden herb vinegar that I cannot get enough of. I'm going to use that tonight with the oil from those roasted tomatoes and a little olive oil to make my dressing for that farro bowl. It is So darn good. And if you go to one of the fancy shops, you'll be able to taste everything to see what you like. And did you know there's a drink called a shrub and it has vinegar in it? It's it's really refreshing. It's great for the summer. If you're feeling fancy, ask them because I promise you any store that's selling really good vinegar, they will tell you all about a shrub. But let's keep a couple of good vinegars in the pantry. And then finally, this is my, this is seriously one of my favorite things. Nuts, baby nuts, because pistachios, pine nuts, walnuts, so good almonds, not necessarily too Mediterranean, but I love them, right? And pistachios. Oh, they're so good. Chop them up. I put them on top of salmon. I put them on top of bowls. They're so yummy. But what you want to be sure of is that you are storing all of the nuts that you're using in the freezer. Because nuts we know are naturally higher in fat. And what happens is, if they're sitting in your cupboard for too long, the fat will go rancid in the nuts, and your nuts turn, and they're just not, they're just not good. They just taste bad. By keeping them in the freezer, you're really slowing that process down. And, when you toast nuts, and I think you should toast pretty much all of them, because that brings out another level of flavor. That brings out a whole nother level of flavor to the nut. And I never put them in oil or anything like that when I'm toasting because they have enough fat in them just as they are. So I will dry toast them in a skillet on top of the stove. I don't put them in the oven because I forget about them. It's a personal thing. I've burned so many. That I do it now on the top of the stove and when you start to smell them, you know that they're done. I just shake a pan, I, I'm paying attention as I'm doing it. Because they can go from to really, really quickly. So, let's go over the list one more time. At number one for our Magnificent Seven, we've got Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Number two, we've got a variety of whole grains. Three, we've got capers and olives coming in with our quality tin fish at number four and those dried herbs at number five, finishing it out with good vinegars and of course, some really Good nuts that you're gonna keep in the freezer because remember it brings that added crunch It brings a lot of dimension and when we're putting a dish together from our pantry We want to think about dimension and we're hitting all of those flavors in that list You can do so much with these couple of things. It's gonna be amazing So listen, if you are not signed up for the email list, I would love to have you sign up. You can visit emptinesskitchen. com and I am sending out tidbits about all of this like good information for your emptiness kitchen just about every week. So. As always, thank you so much for listening. I've got a great guest coming on next week. You are going to love her. So thank you so much. I'll see you next week. And as always, I'll see you in the kitchen.

Christine Van Bloem
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