Help! Where is My Pantry?

After Christmas, I was taking stock of the house. And I can’t seem to find the pantry, as it is overfilled with stuffs. Lots of stuffs. We got a bunch of gifts from the wedding which has been temporarily stashed away in there (if they are not out in the garage yet). Then there are all those condiments and pantry stock I piled up from oversea travel. On top of all these, I have bottles of wine from the wine tasting events. And this does not include the pile of alcohol at the Beach House kitchen counter (leftover from the reception). Needless to say, it is beginning to look really really scary!!!

So here comes a very logical New Year resolution: Reduce the pantry stash to ease our upcoming moving (whenever that may be) & no more addition until after we move!!!

This isn’t going to be easy for me, as I love to find special seasonings and condiments to try whenever I visit a non local place. It doesn’t have to be foreign, just ingredients I haven’t come across or easily accessible from the local stores. Example, the Cajun seasonings & crab broil mix Fran sent me, the Caribbean jerk marinade, the Australian port and wine jelly, the Singapore Laksa/Sambal mix, the various Indian curry, etc.

My first target of the “stash reduction project” is Sharwood’s Tikka Masala Curry Sauce.

I sautéed some onions to soft, then added the prawns and cooked it to almost done (but not completely), removed from the pan. I browned some mushroom, added the jar of sauce, let it simmer for about 10 minutes. I like my food temperature hot. Now, I taste tested the sauce, no, a bit sour for my taste, needed something else. I added couple table spoonful of honey and cream (which I happened to have in the fridge during this time of the year for holiday cooking). Let it simmer a bit longer. When it is all good, I added the prawns back into the sauce and let it simmer another 5 minutes. I made this at the beach house, no rice cooker or white rice in sight, so using couscous instead…

It is very yummy. I should have bought some naan bread to go with this. Of course, Tom ate the entire plate. There was still some sauce left in the pan, he was sneaking some more sauce off the pan when he returned the dirty dish to the sink…

Wonder what is next target of the “stash reduction project”?