Staples

[sibyllevance]

I'm very much a beginner in all things kitchen so I tend to stick to recipes for the most part but obviously I can't work on recipes every day. I've just realized today while cooking 'by myself' (i.e. without a recipe) that I had some habits I frankly never realized I even had.
I almost always start by melting onions in a good chunk of salted butter, especially when I have no idea what I'm going to do. It seems like the right thing to do somehow (one of my housemates melts his onion exclusively in oil but I think I won him over just with the smell of mine).

So, what are your staples? Can be an ingredient or a 'foundation' for a recipe (frying onions for me)

Comments

[marahmarie]

I always start my sautes with crushed garlic in olive oil. Once in a while oil does not agree with my mood, so I switch to butter. Sometimes, for the purported health benefits, I melt a 50/50 blend of olive oil and butter, on the "I'm in a butter mood" nights. Garlic is a must-have for my sautes. In my twenties, it was onion and garlic, but for some reason onion doesn't agree with my taste buds so much anymore except raw in salad, or roasted with meats.

Using the garlic and oil or butter I make my own shrimp scampi, clam sauce, red sauces, bean sauces (kidney beans of any color are divine this way) and toss said sauces over almost any kind of pasta I have on hand. My favorite pasta is linguine - it's flat, thin, has perfect bite and holds the silky sauces well.

That's my two cents. :)