The pantry: what a Turkish home kitchen keeps

Open the cupboard in most Turkish homes and you will find the same short list. With these few things, and a few vegetables from the market, you can cook almost everything on this site.

Grains

• Bulgur in two or three sizes. Fine bulgur (köftelik) for kısır, köfte and çiğ köfte; coarse bulgur (pilavlık) for pilafs; and if you can find it, the very coarse whole-kernel kind for hearty winter pilafs. Our guide to coarse bulgur explains the sizes, and how to cook bulgur gives every ratio.
• Medium-grain rice for butter rice pilaf, dolma and sütlaç.
• Fine vermicelli (şehriye), toasted in butter before the rice or bulgur goes in.

Pulses

• Split red lentils for red lentil soup, ezogelin and lentil köfte.
• Green or brown lentils for stews and salads.
• Dried chickpeas and white beans. Cook a big batch and freeze it in portions; here is how.

Pastes, syrups and spices

• Red pepper paste (biber salçası), hot or sweet. It colours and seasons pilafs, soups and stews. Read our notes on pepper paste.
• Pomegranate molasses (nar ekşisi) for kısır and salads.
• Pul biber, sumac, dried mint and cumin. Keep them in small jars away from the stove and buy little and often. The Turkish pantry covers what each one does.

Storing it all

Keep grains and pulses in closed jars in a cool, dark cupboard and use them within a year; old pulses take far longer to soften. Open pepper paste keeps for months in the fridge under a thin layer of oil. Ground spices lose their scent within months, so taste before you trust an old jar.

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