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

[holyschist]

I've never had oysters, but I agree that oyster sauce is quite mild and not really fishy-tasting or anything. It's a really common ingredient in a lot of sauces, though, and I've found it's often the "missing ingredient" to replicating a particular dish (e.g. mu pad king). (Then again, so is fish sauce!)