The Hizzle of T-Fizzle

Recently someone commented on ’s blog that Rachael Ray’s recipes flirt with expensive and/or hard-to-find ingredients. I was somewhat surprised to read this since my wife and I and my parents have all commented that her recipes can usually be made using fairly easy-to-find ingredients. I think the catch is that Ray seems to assume a baseline kitchen stock. If you have the right stale items in your kitchen, you should rarely be more than 4 ingredients away from what you need.

Here is what you should always have in your kitchen:   
• Vegetables:  
  • The ingredients for mirepoix which presents itself in whole or in part with many recipes:  
    • Yellow onions
    • Celery
    • Carrots

  Plus:

  • Potatoes
  • Fresh Garlic
• Dairy:  
  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Butter
  • Grated Parmesan Cheese
• Oils:  
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Canola or Vegetable Oil
• Herbs/Spices:  
  • Cumin
  • Cilantro
  • Coriander
  • Crushed Red Pepper
  • Ground Cayenne
  • Sweet Basil
  • Parsley
  • Oregano
  • Thyme Leaves (not ground thyme)
  • Dried Rosemary
  • Bay Leaves
  • Whole Nutmeg
  • Cinnamon
  • Garlic Powder
• Other Items:  
  • Coarse kosher or sea salt
  • Fine kosher or sea salt (or get a grinder and grind the coarse stuff)
  • Black Pepper
  • Montral Steak Seasoning
  • Poultry Seasoning
  • Adobo…OK I’ve never seen Rachael Ray use adobo but its good to have around. Goya’s adobo doesn’t have MSG.
  • Chicken Stock
  • Flour
  • Sugar
  • Bread Crumbs

I did some spot checking of RR recipes on FoodTV.com and I’d say if you’ve got all this stuff, you should be able to most things with just a few additional ingredients, usually ingredients that are perishable and hard to keep in the house.

A few other notes: Ray always uses fresh herbs. You don’t have to. Personally, I cannot use fresh herbs quickly enough and end up throwing a lot away. Obviously buying all of these herbs in dried form all at once will be expensive, but once you get them, they last awhile, so just acquire them as you go.

Substitution - Ray DOES use somewhat obscure items sometimes, but you can always substitute. Remember, the recipe is just a guideline. Use a little onion if you can’t find shallots. No andouille at your market? Kielbasa can work instead. Rachael Ray’s goons will not come after you if you tweak the recipe.

Once you have your kitchen well-stocked, not only will you be able to cook most of Rachael Ray’s stuff with a fairly short shopping list, you should be able to make a lot of other recipes. If you don’t make it to the store, you may even have enough stuff laying around to cobble together a decent meal anyway!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Cooking, Mobile Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.