A common problem in every household or restaurant kitchen, especially those offering buffets, are leftovers. In our homes, these leftovers tend to crowd our refrigerators. We reheat them over and over again until the meat is too dry and tough, or the sauce has dried and the dish is almost tasteless. I know, it’s not appetizing anymore. The reason why we tend to keep leftovers in our fridge is, no, it’s not sentimental value, but it’s because of monetary value. We often think that throwing food away is throwing away money. That’s why we got into the habit of recycling leftovers. And now, we ask, how often should we recycle our leftovers?

It’s actually not the number of times we reuse them that matters. You can use leftovers for a new dish, provided they were prepared and stored hygienically. Bacteria in food breeds faster during the preparation and storage of food. Do you know that the number of bacteria doubles every 20 minutes? Improper handling of ingredients during production and improper storage can shorten the lifespan of food. Bottom line is if the food is not yet spoiled and still good to be used again, you actually can. But I suggest, you only do that once. For example, you can use your leftover roast chicken for pansit guisado. But that’s it. No more second or third recycling.

Handling and storing of food is very important in reusing or recycling ingredients for another dish. Well, it’s not really that bad to recycle cooked items, just make sure it’s still safe to eat and still flavorful.

In the art of cooking and preparing food, they always say that the sauce either makes or breaks a dish, and the way a chef or cook plates the sauce is his/her signature. What makes the sauce a very important component of a dish is that it adds flavor, and sometimes, it can compensate for a protein’s lack of seasoning. Yes, it may act as a cover up if you forgot to season your meat with salt and pepper, but remember that having a great tasting sauce is no excuse to an unseasoned meat.

In gastronomy, there are the five basic mother sauces. They are considered to be the base sauces of all the sauces we have now. They are the Brown Sauce, Bechamel, Veloute, Hollandaise and Tomato. Brown Sauce is made from brown stock, which is basically roasted beef/veal/chicken bones. Bechamel is made from milk thickened with roux, which is a mixture of butter and flour. Veloute is basically any stock (beef, fish, chicken, veal, vegetable) thickened with roux. Hollandaise is a butter-base sauce made with a white wine and white wine vinegar reduction and clarified butter. This requires constant stirring over a hot water bath. Tomato sauce is made from fresh tomatoes.

These mother sauces are already part of culinary history. They’re classic. It’s up to us how we upgrade them and make other sauces out of them. For example, by adding brandy and porcini mushrooms to your Brown Sauce can result to a Brandy Porcini Sauce, which you can serve with your steak. Add some tarragon leaves and substitute tarragon vinegar for white wine vinegar, and your Hollandaise can result to Sauce Bearnaise. You can serve it with fish and other seafood. You can make your very own derivation of a sauce from these mother sauces just by adding or substituting ingredients.

These five base sauces are very versatile, but I think the most flexible of them all is the Bechamel. Add parmesan cheese to it and you can have Sauce Mornay. If you add mushrooms to it, you can have mushroom sauce. Bechamel and its derivations can be served with meat, poultry, croquettes and pasta dishes. Here at Josiah’s, we add pesto to Bechamel, and voila! We have a pasta sauce. How about you trying to make a Mornay Sauce and top it over poach eggs. How does that sound? Sounds yummy, right?

Each of us has our own good food criteria. What might be good food for me may not be the same for you. I may find pan seared foie gras tasty and you may not. Native Filipinos may find the meat of a bayawak flavorful, but foreigners may not. For you, good food might mean something delicious, comforting, traditional and hearty. For me, I came up with my own good food criteria:

• GOOD FOOD MUST TASTE GOOD. It’s self explanatory. You wouldn’t eat something that does not taste right. Taste does not only pertain to what our taste buds are used to. It may also refer to seasoning. When I eat, I always consider whether the food is seasoned properly or not. Is it too salty? Is it too spicy? Does it taste too sweet? It is a sin for every chef or home cook not to season their food properly.
• GOOD FOOD MUST LOOK GOOD. We eat first with our eyes. Before we can even taste it, we can already guess whether a food is worth tasting or not. There may be dishes that taste good but don’t seem appealing, and there are others that look too good to eat but lack flavor. Why not come up with a dish that is appealing to both the eyes and taste buds?
• GOOD FOOD MUST BE WELL-PREPARED. And by well-prepared, I mean hygienically and properly prepared. Pay attention to your food. Treat each ingredient with respect. After all, they’re going into YOUR food. Spend some quality time preparing your ingredients. Peel what you need to peel. Devein what you need to devein. Trim your meat. Do whatever is needed to make your dish perfect. Your final dish will reflect the way you handled your food.

There you go. Those are my three good food criteria. Consider these three points and I’m pretty sure you’ll come up with the best cooking results.

Look inside your pantry and in your fridge. What do you see? Eggs? Fish? Chicken? A variety of fruits and vegetables? Flour? Pasta noodles? Do you have everything you need in the confines of your very own kitchen? Now, take a second look. Do you really need all those stuff? Believe it or not, aside from your proteins (meat, fish and seafood) and your vegetables, you only really need a few things in your pantry. You need not crowd your pantry with all the unnecessary stuff. Here are 5 pantry must-haves (except for salt and pepper, of course) that every home cook must have in his/her kitchen.

1. SET OF HERBS AND SPICES. Herbs are the leaves, while spices are made from other parts of plants. Having these in your kitchen means having almost all flavor combinations that you need in your very own pantry.
2. A GOOD QUALITY OLIVE OIL. What makes it different from regular vegetable or canola oil is the flavor it contains. You can also infuse your olive oil with herbs and spices to come up with your very own flavored oil. Olive oil can be used in pasta, sauces, dressings, marinades and a lot more.
3. WHOLE BLACK PEPPERCORNS. Your regular ground black pepper is made from these spices. Whole black peppercorns contain deeper and richer flavor and heat than the ground ones. Use it in your adobo or in your Hollandaise reduction.
4. EGG. As I mentioned in a previous post, egg is a very versatile ingredient. You can do a lot with it. You can use it either in cooking or baking. Use it as a binder, thickener, glaze or even as a garnish.
5. VARIETY OF CONDIMENTS. What are these? Condiments are mixtures of liquids, spices, herbs and other flavorings. This means your soy sauce, vinegar, fish sauce, catsup, mustard and a lot more. And since they are already a mixture of different flavorings, they’ll surely add flavor to your dish.

As long as I have these 5 pantry must-haves, I think I can cook almost every dish I have in mind. Now, you might want to check your pantry if you have all of the above.

Of all the wooden spoons, knives, chopping boards, pots and pans crowding my kitchen, I can say that my ultimate favorite tool is the non-stick pan. True, it is way more expensive than stainless steel or aluminum pans, but the price is nothing compared to the efficiency it gives when I am cooking, and I think most of you will agree.

So, why do I love my non-stick pan? It’s simple. It’s NON-STICK. That means, no more eggs, fish or meat will stick to our pans. You can cook practically anything in it without food sticking on the pan. No more fish skin sticking to your pan. Flipping pancakes and over easy eggs will now be simple.

It also does wonders a stainless steel can’t do. If you are health-conscious and don’t like your sunny side up egg to be oily, then a non-stick pan should be a mainstay in your kitchen. With it, you can make the perfect sunny side up egg without the need of oil, or even with just a dab of it.

However, there is one thing you cannot do with a non-stick pan. If you need pan drippings to make a sauce, then a non-stick pan cannot be used. Since it is coated with Teflon, which acts as the non-stick agent of your pan, no pan drippings will be left from frying or searing food. So, for this purpose alone, I still recommend using a trusty stainless steel pan.

Here are some tips on how to care properly for your non-stick pans:

• Never use a steel wool to clean your pan. Instead, use a soft sponge.
• Don’t use metal spatulas, whisks or tongs in it. There are also Teflon-coated spatulas, whisks or tongs especially made for non-stick pans.
• When storing your non-stick pans, never allow metal pans to sit on top of it, as they may cause scratches on your pan.
• After cooking with a non-stick pan, allow it to cool first before immersing it in cold water, otherwise, heat will not be evenly distributed in your pan.
• You do not know what happens inside your dishwasher, so I suggest you hand wash your pan (just to make sure).
• Do not store food in your pan for a long time. After cooking, remove the food from the pan, transfer it to a container, let your pan cool, clean it, then store properly.