The kitchen is my "office". I can't work in a kitchen with no essential items. Let me just share with you what I have in my kitchen...I think anyone can cook almost anything in my "office" with the loads of things I have. List of essential items I store in my kitchen:
1. Rice, cooking oil
2. Coarse salt, fine salt, turmeric powder, sugar
3. Curry powder - meat & fish, kurma powder, chilli powder, soup powder
4. Oyster sauce, chilli sauce, ketchup, soya sauce
5. Spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, clove, whole black pepper, coarse black pepper, coriander powder, tom yam powder
Those are the ones I MUST HAVE, and I'm listing down according to what I will see in my wet kitchen section.
Auxiliary items:
1. Cukup rasa, ajinomoto, Knorr cubes which I use ONLY when called for.
2. Paprika powder, my lasagna herbs which I make my own mix, ginger powder, sesame oil
Items in my fridge:
1. Onion, fresh ginger, turmeric, garlic, asam jawa, belacan, red chilli, red cili padi, butter (super must!), margarine, plain yoghurt, celery, coriander leaves, carrots, bell pepper, eggs, Sapphire sauce (my own mix)
Freezer:
1. The frozen curry puffs, frozen chicken pies (all made by me), chicken meat, mixed vege, instant roti canai, my cili boh (home made)
My dry items in the cabinet:
1. Canned items - sweet condensed milk, evaporated milk, tuna in a can, sardine, mushroom, tomato paste, canned tomatoes, all sorts of sauces - cili padi sauce, kicap bercili.
2. Nescafe Gold, Coffee, tea of all sorts, creamer, Milo, Horlicks, pre-mix coffee in sachets, brown sugar (I don't use white sugar anymore), Nestum, instant oats, cream crackers
My drawer:
1. Cutlery, my knives (yes, plural, I have many knives and they're very sharp, Ayah will sharpen my knives when he comes over), ladles - soup, senduk lauk, aih... macam2, however, the number is rather limited for the ladles and cutlery
My crockery
Yang ni kurang sikit sebab dapur I tak besar so I can't have too many crockery, but I can cater for at least 20 people at one serving.
My baking items:
1. I have 2 boxes of baking utensils, you name it, they're all there, malas nak tulis.... banyak sangat.
2. Tepung je dah bermacam2 jenis - all purpose, high-protein, corn flour
Electrical items:
1. Fridge, electric jug, rice cooker (although jarang guna), convection oven, microwave oven (my brother can't live without this one), blender, mixer
....and most importantly, the gas stove and the tong gas. I may have omitted those I forgot to list out.
Now, you tell me if you can't make one simple dish in my kitchen with all the things I have in store in my office. Most people who have visited My Elysium would say, anyone can live for at least 2-3 months without going out at all. I LOVE MY KITCHEN and that is why I don't usually eat-out and that is also why I love to cook in my own kitchen because I have ALL the things I need to open my own restaurant here, at My Elysium :-)
