HOW TO PREPARE FOR A LOCKDOWN
Expert cooks offer tips on how to stock your pantry in case you need to be quarantined
THE THREAT of the coronavirus could mean that we stock up on food and limit trips to the grocery store, stop going to restaurants and spurn delivery drivers.
No one knows where the virus might bloom – or how long restrictions might last. What is clear is that this will be different from the usual “stock up on bread and milk” emergencies.
How do you plan to potentially cook three meals a day for weeks at a time with limited access to the outside world? And is it possible to keep it interesting? We asked some of the America’s best-known cooks for tips and inspiration.
PADMA LAKSHMI
AUTHOR, HOST OF BRAVO’S TOP CHEF
“The first thing I would do, right now, before there is a panic, is start cooking,” Lakshmi said.
“Pick a Saturday or Sunday and involve the whole family in making huge batches of different dishes: turkey chilli or green chilli with white beans, things that are stew-y and freeze well. Then pack them in quart containers so you can take out just what you need.”
This plan lessens anxiety and allows you to cook with what’s fresh.
Since fresh foods go off, Lakshmi recommends stocking up on frozen vegetables, which “have no less nutrition than fresh ones do”, and plenty of root vegetables that also store well. “Turnips are delicious cooked in broth with a little bit of soy sauce, a dash of hoisin sauce and Chinese five spice.”
Bulk up your condiment supply with shelf-stable sauces and concentrates that can create variety. One of Lakshmi’s go-to pantry meals is what she calls “paste pasta”, noodles tossed in a mix of sundried tomato paste, anchovy paste and green-olive paste, olive oil and crushed red pepper.
Another is kitchari, a traditional
Indian rice and lentil porridge she makes for her family that can be filled with vegetables.
HUGO ORTEGA
CHEF-OWNER OF BACKSTREET CAFÉ AND FOUR OTHER HOUSTON RESTAURANTS
Ortega grew up in the mountains of Oaxaca, so among his go-tos are sopecitos, little corn cups that can be filled with stewed vegetables, meat, cheese, anything really. You start with masa harina (ground, nixtamalised corn flour) and mix it with water, then form it into little balls and stretch it in the palm of your hands. Cook it lightly in a cast iron pan.
“Masa is my equivalent of pasta,” Ortega said. “You can put almost anything on it and it will give you plenty of energy for the day.”
Ortega likes blue-corn masa, which is often of higher quality. And as long as you’re stocking up, Ortega recommends canned cherry tomatoes, “which have a lot more flavour” than the usual plum variety.
Ortega hopes the scare will encourage people to cultivate some fresh food themselves: “Put rosemary in a pot in the window or a tomato plant out the back door.”
After all, Americans have done it before. During World War II, there were 18 million so-called Victory Gardens.
MELISSA HAMILTON AND CHRISTOPHER HIRSHEIMER
AUTHORS, OWNERS OF CANAL HOUSE STATION RESTAURANT IN MILFORD, NEW JERSEY
Hamilton and Hirsheimer are goddesses of simple food, the kind of people who just happen to have a pie coming out the oven when you stop by without notice. No surprise they cook from a well-stocked pantry.
Never are they without lots of good olive oil and canned tuna, which can be made into a satisfying pasta sauce with the addition of parsley and lemon – or eggs because, says Hirsheimer, “omelets are fantastic and can be made with whatever you have kicking around in the fridge”.
Like Lakshmi, Hamilton and Hirsheimer are advocates of frozen vegetables, especially peas. “You can make a great soup with canned or boxed chicken broth and a few bags of frozen peas,” Hirsheimer says.
NINA COMPTON
CHEF-OWNER OF COMPÈRE LAPIN AND BYWATER AMERICAN BISTRO, NEW ORLEANS
“The busier I get, the simpler I keep it at home,” Compton said. That means a lot of snacks, including pickles, nuts, charcuterie and cheese – plus a few frozen pizzas. The one meal she cooks regularly out of her pantry: pasta “cacio e pepe” (cheese and black pepper).
“The key is adding the right amount of pasta water because the starchy water makes the sauce really creamy.” Compton makes the pasta from scratch once a month, and then pulls it out of the freezer, but any dried pasta will do.
Chilli and risottos are also go-tos. For risotto, she uses dried mushrooms, which can live in the pantry indefinitely and are reconstituted to make the stock the rice cooks in. (Frozen peas, plus plenty of cheese and butter, complete the dish.)
Her chilli, usually vegetarian, features dried beans and spices, including smoked paprika, and she servers it with Cool Ranch Doritos.
EDWARD LEE
AUTHOR, CHEF-OWNER OF 610 MAGNOLIA AND TWO OTHER RESTAURANTS IN LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, AND SUCCOTASH IN WASHINGTON, DC
In less than 15 minutes, Lee coaxed a tantalising bowl of noodles from a packet of instant ramen, some frozen green beans, a dash of curry powder and a slice of processed American cheese.
“The cheese adds a little creaminess and tang,” he said.
And a dash of nostalgia. During and after the Korean War, Lee says, Koreans learnt about many nonperishable American foods such as Spam, hot dogs and processed cheese through US military pantries and adopted them as a part of their staple diet. “Melted cheese on ramen is the best. It’s comfort food.”
And isn’t that what we really need?