Create my meal – the game

[sartoric]

I often find myself standing in the supermarket amidst the myriad choices, list in hand, thinking, what am I going to make for dinner tonight ? I end up buying a variety of stuff, then spend hours poring over books and the Internet for inspiration.

So, let's play a game.....I'll go first.

 

1. I provide a list of what's on hand.
2. You have 24 hours to make a suggestion.
3. I cook the suggestion I'm most intrigued by and report the result.

 

The person whose suggestion gets cooked goes next, ie. provides a list, seeks suggestions, cooks the meal, reports the outcome. Rinse, repeat, and the game continues. We could get some wild and crazy meals out of this.

Assume basic pantry items, eggs, sauces, pasta, rice, herbs, cheese etc are available.

No more than 10 items on the list, obviously you don't have to use them all.

 

Here's my list..
Red snapper fillets
Leg of lamb 
Pork & fennel sausages
Chicken drumsticks 
Brussels sprouts 
Baby spinach
Button mushrooms 
Tomatoes 

Create my meal !

[gfweb]

Pork and fennel sausages grilled.

Brussels sprout slaw (cooked) with a little sriracha and a little orange marmalade.

Mashed potatoes.

[Lisa Shock]

red snapper, sauteed in butter, deglazed with a little red wine, add a little minced garlic (1 small clove) and diced tomatoes (concasse if you are up to it) -with a pinch of red pepper flakes -serve over/with fettucine

spinach salad with raw mushrooms and maybe croutons made from old bread, with a crumbled warm pork & fennel sausage (just a little, like ¼ of a sausage) vinaigrette dressing (like bacon vinaigrette)

[Smithy]

I think both of the suggestions above sound wonderful! I'm eager to see which you pick.  This looks like a good way to get multiple ideas for ingredient usage. I've been thinking about that leg of lamb: cut into chunks, marinated in oil, vinegar, parsley and thyme, then skewered with mushrooms and (if you have them) onions.  Grill the skewers, grill the tomatoes separately; serve all on a bed of rice. 

 

@Lisa Shock, I love the idea of the sausage in the vinaigrette.

 

@gfweb, please expand a bit on the brussels sprout slaw?  I need new ideas for that vegetable.

[Okanagancook]

Roulade of lamb stuffed with pork & fennel sausages/spinach/button mushroom mixture; orzo with tomatoes and a green salad.

[sartoric]

24 hours have flown by, thanks to all for your suggestions.

 

@Smithy and @Okanagancook very much food for thought, perhaps as a weekend endeavour when my kitchen hand is around.

@gfweb this is seriously my style and likely to be cooked later in the week. Can you expand on the sprouts slaw please.....

@Lisa Shock please get your list ready to add within 24 hours and stand by for my snapper dinner  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Okanagancook]

45 minutes ago, sartoric said:

24 hours have flown by, thanks to all for your suggestions.

 

@Smithy and @Okanagancook very much food for thought, perhaps as a weekend endeavour when my kitchen hand is around.

@gfweb this is seriously my style and likely to be cooked later in the week. Can you expand on the sprouts slaw please.....

@Lisa Shock please get your list ready to add within 24 hours and stand by for my snapper dinner  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have to admit, the roulade would be bit of work. 

[Lisa Shock]

Tuesday is vegetarian night!

Here's my list, I do have a ton of condiments (including wasabi covered sesame seeds), as well as stock in my freezer, etc.

 

In the fridge:

 

1 leek
1 cucumber
½ head cabbage
6 nectarines
4 white onions
6oz swiss cheese, sliced
a parmesan rind the size of a finger
1lb sealed pack extra firm tofu
carrots
6oz white mushrooms
42 eggs
8 pink grapefruit
8 limes
6lbs mozzarella
34lbs of assorted chocolate: baking bars, chips in 3 colors, callettes, etc. plus nibs
5lbs raw peanuts, 10lbs raw pecans, 1lb raw walnuts

 

In the cupboard:

 

dry beans: pinto, pink, red kidney, yellow split peas, brown lentils, red lentils
lots of different dried pasta including Italian types plus: dry bean thread, ready-to-eat fat rice noodles, and dry Chinese egg noodles
rice: 1lb brown jasmine, 1lb basmati, 3lbs Bomba, and 5lbs Calrose
I do have semolina flour, cake flour, bread flour, whole wheat flour, and AP flour.
corn meal and corn flour

sweeteners: sugar, cane syrup, blackstrap molasses, powdered molasses, 4 kinds of honey, corn syrup, crystallized fructose, jaggery
olives: black, green cocktail, and pitted kalamata
canned: diced tomatoes, garbanzos, black beans, bamboo shoots, baby corn cobs, water chestnuts, chipotles in adobo, coconut milk
8 lbs of glaceed cherries
4 lbs chopped fruitcake mixed fruit
many condiments, oils, butter, spices, black limes, misos, etc.
cocktail stuff

(no potatoes right now, they are hard to keep in the summer, go bad before I can eat them, the house is kinda warm)

 

Bon Chance!

[sartoric]

Ha @Lisa Shock I think you missed the bit about no more than 10 items on the list.

Poetic license prevails though, so I will put my thinking cap on  ! 

[Okanagancook]

Some kinda lasagna with the tofu, cheese, leek and mushrooms.salad with carrots.

[gfweb]

B. Sprouts slaw...Sliced on a mandoline...blanched in salted boiling water...sauteed quickly in a little butter so a few slices blacken...finally tossed in about 1/8 cup water with a tsp (or two) of O marmalade and a few cc sriracha. You can undershoot on the marmalade and add more as needed. Shouldn't be watery.

 

Kind of a kim chi/sauerkraut equivalent

 

Edited July 19, 2016 by gfweb (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Pizza with mushrooms, caramelized onions and mozzarella. Served with quick pickled cucumbers and white onion.

 

Or omelet filled with sauteed mushrooms, leeks and swiss cheese. Served with a broiled nectarine and popovers or muffins.

 

Or pinto beans cooked up with white onion, carrot, and cabbage, if you want. Maybe cumin or whatever spices you like. Cornbread and butter to accompany.

[gfweb]

29 minutes ago, Lisa Shock said:

Tuesday is vegetarian night!

Here's my list, I do have a ton of condiments (including wasabi covered sesame seeds), as well as stock in my freezer, etc.

 

In the fridge:

 

1 leek
1 cucumber
½ head cabbage
6 nectarines
4 white onions
6oz swiss cheese, sliced
a parmesan rind the size of a finger
1lb sealed pack extra firm tofu
carrots
6oz white mushrooms
42 eggs
8 pink grapefruit
8 limes
6lbs mozzarella
34lbs of assorted chocolate: baking bars, chips in 3 colors, callettes, etc. plus nibs
5lbs raw peanuts, 10lbs raw pecans, 1lb raw walnuts

 

In the cupboard:

 

dry beans: pinto, pink, red kidney, yellow split peas, brown lentils, red lentils
lots of different dried pasta including Italian types plus: dry bean thread, ready-to-eat fat rice noodles, and dry Chinese egg noodles
rice: 1lb brown jasmine, 1lb basmati, 3lbs Bomba, and 5lbs Calrose
I do have semolina flour, cake flour, bread flour, whole wheat flour, and AP flour.
corn meal and corn flour

sweeteners: sugar, cane syrup, blackstrap molasses, powdered molasses, 4 kinds of honey, corn syrup, crystallized fructose, jaggery
olives: black, green cocktail, and pitted kalamata
canned: diced tomatoes, garbanzos, black beans, bamboo shoots, baby corn cobs, water chestnuts, chipotles in adobo, coconut milk
8 lbs of glaceed cherries
4 lbs chopped fruitcake mixed fruit
many condiments, oils, butter, spices, black limes, misos, etc.
cocktail stuff

(no potatoes right now, they are hard to keep in the summer, go bad before I can eat them, the house is kinda warm)

 

Bon Chance!

 

 

Tough one.

I think I'd pickle the mushrooms gently with some liquid smoke and put t hem in a quiche/fritata with the swiss cheese, garlic and sauteed onions.

[sartoric]

Chinese egg noodles in stock, (ramen style) with soft boiled eggs, cubed fried tofu and sautéed sliced mushrooms. A million seasoning options, wasabi sesame seeds perhaps..  

Shredded well washed leek green to garnish.

[FauxPas]

@Lisa Shock, your pantry is calling out for summer minestrone. That bit of parm. You have the dried beans and the pasta. Onion, leek, carrot, cabbage, etc. Some tomatoes, though I know you have canned. Green beans? 

 

Also, grapefruit, cucumber and lime with cabbage for a salad? 

 

 

[FauxPas]

And @sartoric, I would consider Snapper Veracruz. Or cook  those sausages with the brussel sprouts. And use the spinach, mushrooms and tomato in a salad.

 

Or do the chicken with tomato and mushrooms and pasta. 

[Lisa Shock]

I do have some frozen green beans. I also forgot that I have a head of celery.

[Lisa Shock]

5 hours ago, sartoric said:

Ha @Lisa Shock I think you missed the bit about no more than 10 items on the list.

Poetic license prevails though, so I will put my thinking cap on  ! 

 

Sorry, totally forgot that. Many items (while really and truly in my kitchen) were just added to distract people. And, to add dessert.

[gfweb]

Bavette steak, chicken breast, chicken stock, duck stock, yukon golds, arugula, cucumbers (from our neighbor :-) oranges, apples, lemon

[kayb]

@Lisa Shock -- A big bowl of slaw with cabbage, cucumber, sauteed leek, grapefruit sections, nectarines, with toasted peanuts and pecans and either canned (drained) garbanzos or some of your dry beans, cooked, for protein; with a dressing of honey and lime juice with a neutral oil, spiced with whatever strikes your fancy. If you have some bread, baked, toasties with that swiss cheese would be excellent; Or even a quiche, as someone suggested, with the swiss and onion.

[sartoric]

Here's the meal...

Snapper fillets with a white wine, tomato and garlic sauce. Served with pan fried crispy garlic potatoes with crumbled pork & fennel sausage, plus a baby spinach, mushroom and bread salad with sausage vinaigrette. 

Poetic license is entirely at the discretion of anyone posting to this thread, so I've made a few alterations to @Lisa Shockmeal suggestion. I had no fettuccine, so I used a potato substitute, and seeing I had a partial sausage......and the white wine was already open. 

The snapper got very lightly coated in seasoned flour then pan fried in a butter/olive oil mix and removed. I deglazed the pan with white wine, concasse tomato (lol, had to look that up), my homegrown chilli flakes and crushed garlic.

The potatoes were cut into 1 cm bits and sautéed in lard with garlic & half a crumbled pork and fennel sausage (strike me down now my arteries). 

I made a vinaigrette with sautéed crumbled quarter of same sausage, red wine vinegar and EVOO. Some garlic sourdough was cubed and toasted in olive oil. I combine baby spinach, sliced button mushrooms (marinated in lemon juice, olive oil and pepper for an hour or so), the bread and the dressing. 

Plate, eat, swoon.

[Smithy]

Beautiful!

 

@Lisa Shock, nobody has suggested a dessert for your diabolically intricate list of pantry materials yet. It looks to me like you easily have the fixings for fekkas, Moroccan biscotti. I first heard about them from this post by Franci.   They're on my list of things to try, but since I haven't tried them I can't suggest a recipe.  As for the other suggestions above - I'm glad I don't have to pick!  I was thinking along the lines of a frittata or quiche, until the minestrone suggestion came along.  

[Lisa Shock]

I just realized that you guys probably aren't aware that tomatoes are not in season here. -Obviously, I could buy some at the store -they'd probably be from California, or maybe a more temperate part of Mexico. We've had daily high temps well over 100° for more than two months, including several weeks of temps over 115°. Tomatoes, depending on the variety, won't ripen once it hits about 94°. Years ago, I had a bunch of tomato plants in the garden I planted in springtime. They held on to green tomatoes, which neither grew in size nor changed color, from may until the last week of September. They then all ripened at once. Anyway, no tomatoes at the farmers' market, no tomatoes in the organic garden exchange. On the up-side, we can grow them very well during the rest of the year. So, we do enjoy them October-April.

[Lisa Shock]

It's dinner time! @FauxPas is the winner, with @Smithy getting an honorable mention and convincing me to turn the oven on even though it was 114° outside!

 

I made:

1) a cabbage slaw with boiled dressing made with lime juice

2) minestrone with stock of Parmesan, leek and celery, plus: ¼can tomatoes, a couple handfuls of tricolor rotini for texture, and, a handful each of pinto beans, yellow split peas, lentils, and mung beans (I am an avid sprouter, but I also like adding mung beans to soup for green color.) (also, normally I use barley as the starch in minestrone, but I am out, which explains why we haven't had minestrone in a while)

 

But, I also made:

3) fekkas! they are in the oven right now, and will make a lovely nibble for later, with an added bonus of being breakfast food!

 

Pics and recipe details later tonight. It's time for @FauxPas to start making a list! (IMO, Smithy should be called up as backup in case we anyone drops the ball!)

[sartoric]

Fekkas hmm, with a northern English accent that would be quite rude, ha ha.

OMG soup when it's 45 C, you're a braver man than me. 

 

I look forward to the photos.