What do you need in your pantry to cook from scratch?

Flour - good, old plain flour can be always, ALWAYS found in my kitchen. It is the basic ingredient in pancakes, crepes, dumplings of all shapes and sizes, pizzas, bread, cakes, cookies, pastries sweet or savoury, batters, thick sauces... I could probably write a whole new article about uses of flour in cooking. I usually have some fancier kinds of flour handy as well - wholemeat, gluten-free, potato or corn starch - they help in making your homemade meals even more interesting. But only plain flour is a must.

Some sort of dinner grain - rice, buckwheat groats, cous cous or barley kasha, all of them are useful when you're tired of good old potato mash.

Sugar - for desserts, jams and morning coffee.

Dried beans or dried peas - they can be stored pretty much forever and I know at least twenty dishes (each!) that can be cooked with beans or peas as base. Other options include lentils and chickpeas.

Pasta - a constant presence in my pantry, useful when I don't really feel like cooking or need a warm meal fast.

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There are only two kinds of vegetable that are always, always present in my kitchen:

Potatoes - for mash, chips, roasting, baking, frying, dumplings (like gnocchi - learn more here), salads etc. etc. Possibilities are endless.

Onions - somehow, at least some onion is included in pretty much everything I cook.

That's basics covered, but to get your five-a-day you need some more. I serve a salad with each dinner with almost religious dedication, but the type of veg used changes accordingly to my fancy (and seasonal availability). Apart from a few types of fresh stuff, a bag of green peas in the freezer is a good idea. A can of sweetcorn in the pantry. Pickled gherkins are extremely useful when you don't have the time to run to the greengrocer's. Oh, and cabbage, so many things you can cook from cabbage!

I often go for whatever is cheapest in a season and build my dinner around it.

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Milk - even if you're not making crepes, muffins, creamy mash or bechamel sauce (mandatory for pastitsio or lasagne), it's still useful to have, even if to have something to put into your coffee or tea.

Butter - I don't do butter spreads (a personal preference of mine - but I'm 100% dedicated), so I only use real butter for sandwiches. A definite staple in my household.

Margarine - much cheaper than butter, acceptable as substitute in most recipes (especially in baking). I usually have both.

Vegetable oil - sunflower is a good all-round cooking oil, but feel free to go for olive oil or something fancier if you wish. Anything that stays liquid in room tempetature.

Cheese - I'm a cheese maniac so I usually have more than one type in my fridge (currently: edam, cheddar, mozarella, ricotta and, until yesterday, mascarpone. Oh, and some fruit-flavoured fromage cheese, too. I'm bad, aren't I?). There are so many things you can do with cheese...

Eggs - if you have nothing but eggs in your fridge, you still can cook a meal. That settles it as far as I'm concerned.

Yoghurt and or cream - I don't use too much of either, but I always have some.  Too many recipes call for a spoonful of either.

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Apart from sugar, flour and baking fat (already mentioned), I always have:

Baking powder and baking soda

Baking yeast

Cocoa powder

Chocolate bars - plain, milk and white

Vanilla extract or some sort of flavouring

Some booze - I usually steal a few tablespoons from my partner's whisky and keep it in a small jar solely for baking

Spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamum, cloves, vanilla, aniseed, ginger.

Raisins and some nuts (almonds or walnuts, usually)

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Seasoning can really make or break your dinner, but even so it's amazing how many dishes require no more than salt and pepper.

My spice box is pretty impressive, but I took a long time to build it up. If I were to pick ten most useful seasonings, I would say:

- chili peppers
- garlic
- basil
- marjoram
- oregano
- thyme
- rosemary
- tarragon
- smoked paprika
- bay leaf and allspice

You can add stock cubes (or stock powder) to this list. I know it's cheating, but it makes life so much easier...

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I usually have a few cans of chopped tomatoes - with supermarket tomatoes being entirely innocent of flavour, they can be a surprisingly effective substitute. Tomato paste is handy if you're making pizza sauce. Breadcrumbs (the dry kind, for coating meat or sprinkling on baking pan so that the cake wouldn't stick). A jar of pesto (just mix with cooked pasta and voila, your dinner is ready). Vinegar - white and/or balsamic. Rolled oats. Jam (recently - homemade). Ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard. Dried porcini mushrooms (lucky me, my Dad hunts for them tirelessly so I have inexhaustible supply).

That's pretty much it (although I'm sure I've forgotten a thing or two - I'll fix this gap when I can remember what it is that I have forgotten :). Add a piece of meat or two, some bread (I make my own these days, since I was given a breadmaker. Pretty smart piece of equipment, none of my earlier attempts yielded anything remotely as good), cold meats for sandwiches and some fresh veg and you're pretty much sorted for the week: you can cook all your meals from scratch, dessert included.

Obviously, you can adjust my list according to your dietary requirements and preferences.

Happy cooking!

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