People always come over to eat. It doesn’t matter if it’s 9am or midnight, there’s people dropping by. For a meal. For a drink.
Here are some staples that I think every kitchen needs for the owner and for guests. Most of the stuff can be stored. No reason not to have it.
DRINKS: I don’t have anything but water and wine, but hey, nice sodas in glass jars, San Pellegrino Limonatas, San Pellegrino. Or just lemons and sugar and tell them to make lemonade. lol
EGGS: speed to taste to health ratio…scrambled eggs wins. nice runny fried egg on ANYTHING. yeah.
CHEESE: Lots of it. Different kinds. Burrata.
COFFEE: good stuff.
GOOD BREAD: Good crackers. Grissini. Not the nasty stuff.
PICKLES: Pickles last indefinitely. Mustard. Sun-dried tomatoes.
DUMPLINGS: another thing that can be prepared on a lazy sunday in front of the TV, frozen, and tastes good reheated. Raviolis, too.
COLD MEATS: (could be chinese braised shin meat cooled, or pork jowls, or smoked duck. It could be mortadella. Smoked salmon.
RICE OR NOODLES: Now, I don’t own a microwave, and I usually make everything fresh, but having rice or noodles on hand is convenient and anyway, cold noodles can be fried so you have chow mein, or rice + eggs + bbq pork. you just made a meal out of leftovers.
BRAISE: some sort of tasty braise you made on sunday and eat for days as it gets better throughout the week.
DUCK CONFIT. It takes about a day and half to make a proper duck confit (only part of that time is actual active time), and it lasts for 6 months. Make it. I have a recipe on the site.
MEAT: I always got grassfed steak, filet mignon, prime ribeye, porterhouse, pork chops…yeahhh. in the fridge. Keep some Foie gras in there while you’re at it.
TRUFFLES: Now, it’s hard to have FRESH truffles ALL year round, but actually Truffle Brothers has some nice ones in a jar. You’d think it’s blasphemy, but they do a good job preserving it, and the aroma is good. It beats that truffle salt everyone seems to be using these days silly.
WINE: Bottles. Cases. Jugs. BARRELS!!!!! Stuff to break open on a Monday afternoon and good stuff for when guests from out of town arrive.
HARD LIQUOR: for when you run out of wine. Nice Whiskeys.
COOKIES: I’m not a cookie person, but people love them, especially when they come in square boxes. I do love me some Duck Shing Ho egg rolls though.
I purposely omitted vegetables and fruits. I don’t think people come over to my house for these. What did I miss ? What’s in your Must-have list-for-good-hospitality?