1. When all the other food bloggers are focusing on providing simple recipes, what made you provide resources on delicious cooking recipes by ingredients?

When I decided to start a food blog, I began by reading lots and lots of food blogs, and what they all had in common was a focus on recipes. I wanted to find a different way in to the food blog world. In addition to food writing, I teach cooking classes, and I always start a new class by talking about the pantry, and how pantry makes it possible for everyone to be a good cook, whether they find recipes in books or blogs, or develop their own. I give each student a master list of what I think should be in a well-stocked pantry. I realized that would be a great premise for a blog - how to build a pantry that suits your own style of cooking, how to use common ingredients in new ways, and how to use new ingredients in familiar ways. I think that approach, focusing on ingredients and recipes that use those ingredients, is what sets my blog apart in an increasingly crowded food blog field.

2. How important do you think correct manipulation of common cooking ingredients is to coming up with tasty recipes?

I don't like to use the term "correct," because it implies that there's one right way to cook. Yes, there are flavor combinations that work better than others (peanut butter and ketchup isn't everyone's favorite), but there's no right and wrong. I'm a big fan of experimentation, and I think that the more you cook, the better the outcome of your experiments. The recipes on The Perfect Pantry - some of which are my originals and some are adapted from other sources - are meant to give readers ideas for how to use what they have in their pantries, but like all recipes, they're just a starting point for your own imagination.

3. What tips can you give our readers on the correct use of ingredients to come up with delicious chicken dishes?

Chicken is one of the easiest and most economical things to cook, and also one of the most adaptable to a variety of flavors. With a well-stocked pantry, you can make a very quick Indian curry (coconut milk, red curry paste, vegetables, chicken breast); Mexican quesadillas (cooked chicken breast, tortillas, grated cheese); Italian risotto (rice, chicken stock, onions, chicken breast); or Chinese stir-fry (chicken, tofu, vegetables, onion). All of those dishes use chicken plus a couple of basic pantry items.

4. What tips can you offer our readers on cooking with a few ingredients?

I'm a real fan of simplicity; when I read a recipe that has 25 ingredients, even if the method of cooking is easy, I get completely intimidated! Sometimes I rely on good quality store-bought "convenience" products - curry paste and curry powder are two examples - that in themselves contain many ingredients, but in a recipe act as one ingredient. The most important thing about cooking with just a few ingredients, though, is to buy the very best quality of each ingredient that you can afford. If you're making risotto, which is basically just rice and cheese, buy a small bit of real Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. It will make a huge difference in the final dish.

5. What’s your secret ingredient?

Salt! For many years I was afraid of salt, thanks to all that was written about hypertension, but nothing makes food sing like a pinch of salt. I use kosher salt as my everyday seasoning, and I keep several varieties of sea salt on my spice rack for finishing a dish. Salt brings out the flavor in foods; it even makes sweet things taste better, like the salted caramels that are so popular right now. Learning how to use salt (and its sidekick, pepper) properly is one of the most important skills for a cook.

6. Can you give our readers some tips on how to correctly use ingredients when cooking ethnic dishes?

Here's what I recommend when you meet a new-to-you ingredient. First, taste the ingredient on its own, so you can distinguish that taste from others. Sometimes this might be a bit weird (fish sauce), but you have to do it. The best way to learn how to use an unfamiliar ingredient is to follow a recipe the first time you cook with it. Then, try that ingredient in something familiar. When I first tried vadouvan, which is a French-inspired curry powder that's a bit different from Indian curry powder, I substituted it in my favorite butternut squash soup recipe. I already knew what my soup would taste like with Indian curry powder, so it was easy to taste the difference with the vadouvan. Again, to me there is no correct way to use ingredients. Just because something is labeled "Thai" doesn't mean you can't use it in a dish from Brazil.

7.  Which ingredients do you think are the least used by most parents when they cook?

I think there are several ingredients we tend not to use because we think kids won't eat them, like chilli peppers, mushrooms and beans (all fundamentals in my pantry). And there are ingredients that are just too expensive to use every day, like saffron. A well-rounded pantry (including herbs and spices, dry goods, freezer, and refrigerator), combined with fresh fruits, vegetables and meats/fish, can expand horizons and make everyday meals into an adventure in world cuisine.