Everyday Essentials

The six things that go into almost everything: tomato, potato, onion, garlic and ginger. If you cook South Asian, Levantine or Gulf food, this page is most of your standing order.

Two onions are listed because they are not interchangeable. The Indian onion is sharper, denser and holds up better in a long-cooked base; the local one is milder and sweeter and is the better raw onion for a salad or a sandwich.

This is also where buying the box makes the most difference, because everything here keeps. A kilo of onions lasts a week; a box lasts a month somewhere dark and dry, at a lower rate per kilo.