It has been almost a week since I posted my pantry inventory, and since then I have prepared five different dishes for three different meals using (or using up) items! That doesn’t even include the cheddar omelette and vegetarian carbonara I made with fresh things I already had around.

However, today, I also backfilled with two additional items. Even in the midst of the cataloguing process I knew I was out of oyster sauce. I only replenished it because I planned on using it on the same day, which I did. The other addition, Morgan told me about: an award winning Berlin-made habanero sauce, Crazy Bastard Sauce – Habanero & Tomatillo, that you can buy at Pfefferhaus (both in person or online). The hot sauce was sort of a gift for Fronx.

I doubt I’ll keep this up, but here the rundown so far of the dishes I made using the items in my pantry.

Dish #1: Thai Green Curry, with gloriously big shrimp

I actually made this dish just after taking all the photos of the inventory. Earlier in the day, as I was buying cilantro, Thai basil, snow peans, tiny eggplants, and bean sprouts, I impulse bought some winged beans. Formulating a plan, I slipped into Galeria Kaufhof to buy four big shrimp and six little scallops. The plan turned out very tasty.

Dish #2: Homemade linguine with yellow arrabbiata

I pulled out the pasta machine to hand crank out some fresh egg pasta. Other than eggs, I used things I had around: all purpose flour, olive oil, chili flakes, garlic, pecorino, and the yellow canned tomatoes. The linguine tasted great, but looked sort of dull.

Dish #3: Spicy cold celery salad

New favourite! Dead easy to make, and if you have all the other stuff (pictured above, plus white sugar), then all it costs you is the price of a bunch of celery. (Hey, ever notice that “a bunch of celery” sounds funny?) If you want to know the proportions, then do yourself a favour and buy the Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipes.

Dish #4: Dry-fried green beans

Another winner from the Lucky Peach book. I just love this preparation of green beans, and I knew I wanted to cook Sichuan for dinner, so when I spotted some long flat green beans, I snapped them up. Since I also had ginger, garlic, and even scallions at home, I just needed the beans to prepare them. Fun fact: I used a large pot to stir fry, which worked great. Less spattering! I also smoked up half the apartment though. Worth it.

Dish #5: “Szechuan Eggplant”

Last night, I was playing with @AubergineBot, made by Mariko Kosaka AKA @kosamari. If you tweet a 🍆 at the bot, it responds with an eggplant recipe. Fantastic! For me, @AubergineBot suggested a “Szechuan Eggplant Recipe” with Chinese long eggplants – AKA the best eggplants – with minced pork. Great! So I made it.

Finding Chinese long eggplants was trickier than I expected. I was sure that the Asian shops in Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte that I usually go to have them, but in the end, I found them at Go Asia at the Turmstraße U9 stop. Of course. Moabit ist beste. Also, U Turmstraße is only four stops away (with a transfer) from our place. Noted.

Friends for dinner

I already had plans to hang out with Michele today, so I combined my eggplant plans with having her and Annabel over for a little feast with me and Fronx. I served the spicy cold celery as a starter, and then timed the eggplant and beans to be ready at the same time, along with a big bowl of that delicious Taiwanese rice. Michele brought along some ginger beer which paired nicely with the light spiciness.

Tally

Items used up: three
Items added: two
Items partly used: eight + one of the new items
Items used from the “Just use already” category: none