The Essential Kitchen

The Essential Kitchen
November 2009

While pottering in my lovely kitchen looking out over the garden and bird feeder in one direction and over the interior of the house in the other, I got to thinking what the essential ingredients are that many people never take heed of.

I do not mean a good gas stove top, fabulous blender, necessary utensils, a good garlic press, and the run of the mill veggies and ingredients but other more obscure wonderment's so vital to cooking.

The first item would have to be excellent white wine, no question about that. How can one possibly cook without the odd slurp? I simply could not survive without cumin powder, cumin seeds, a range of fresh chillies, a good blend of masala, fresh nutmeg, a range of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, both varieties of parsley, mint, fresh dhanya, (cilantro) and rosemary, a large selection of yummy dew drop fresh edible flowers from the garden, and of course fresh lemons, limes and varieties of good olives are an obvious requirement.

Many years ago we went on a 2 week safari, basic, bare essential, sleep on the ground style, with a pal who operated a safari company in Botswana. It was just the three of us. He was fed up with clients and wanted to take off into the quiet of remote areas of Botswana and Zimbabwe and commune with elephants and lions around the camp site each night. Therein lie many other stories.

His idea of essential nourishment was a large quantity of gin, I mean at least a case of it, and a large load of tonic and fresh limes. Obviously a big Coleman coolbox packed solid with ice (for the G&Ts). Then came a huge coolbox of fillet steak. I might add here that the beasts were slaughtered on the roadside in Maun, or behind the butcher shop and the meat, still warm and quivering was tossed onto a stainless steel table in the shop, rapidly to be covered with a black cloud of flies. Things in Africa are not very hygienic. It was a scene from a horror movie.
Then came quantities of bully-beef in nasty little tins, canned mangoes, many bottles of Colemans mustard, masses of fresh chillies and when we came across the odd tribal village would buy a few tomatoes, maybe a cabbage and at one stage in the Okavango Delta managed to get a few bags of kumquats to be eaten whole, skin and all. Not a diet to tempt French chefs with. However we always had the luxury of a blue check table cloth to eat off and evening meals were taken while sitting next to our tents, big fire burning before us, perfectly placed at a remote waterhole watching elephant and all the beasts of Africa coming down to drink, while we quaffed G&Ts. Idyllic really. But those days have gone and things have changed so much in those beautiful wild places.

When we traveled into the game reserves alone I always took nice table cloths and crystal wine glasses. Drinking out of plastic is ever so common. We used to dine like Royalty having been diligent enough to pack fabulous frozen casseroles which we heated up on the fire in a cast iron pot. Our frozen stuff was packed in large Coleman coolers with dry ice that lasted about a week. Candles were put into empty tin cans filled with sand so the table always looked quite grand. Sometimes hyenas came to watch us feast. They curled up not too far away, akin to domestic dogs waiting for scraps.

And so, pondering upon culinary essentials for the home kitchen or for a camping trip, what is truly essential?