What's your best invention?

[Mudpuppie]

The thread on Recipe Etiquette made me wonder about your favorite (or least favorite) proprietary recipe. Have you invented an especially great dish? An especially bad one? Did people love/hate it? Has making it become a tradition for you?

(My proudest moment of culinary creativity: Pea shoot ravioli with a green tomato cream sauce.)

[tryska]

my broccoli casserole.

[AzRaeL]

i invented Sliced Bread.

my personal best invented dish?

Ice Wine & Mussels.

Take some Chicken Broth and many cups of Ice Wine (hey i got it really really cheap and was SICK of drinking it cuz it was just too SWEET).

Throw in lots of herbs, Oops...sweat some sliced onions first. yeah and then add the wine & broth.

Throw in some minced garlic, pepper and parsley, basil, oregano, thyme (basically anything you can find around the house that needs getting rid of). Carrots and Leeks can go in as well if you have them around the house.

Add in the fresh cleaned or frozen Mussels. Throw in clams if you have some too. If you've got shrimp throw it in too.

Let it simmer for Oh say... Hmmm....till you feel it's a good enough time (there's a reason i dont write recipe books)

It is a Heavenly tasting dish if you have a sweet tooth. It is indescribably SWEEEET and delicious. The soup is like a savoury candy and the shellfiish just absorb the flavors if the ice wine. The mussel absorbs the flavors and just bursts like chewy savoury candy *LOL*

Ok, so Ice Wine is ridiculously expensive. My folks had a case of it that they bottled themselves and we got just so sick of the stuff.

[suzilightning]

black forest mousse pie

keebler chocolate pie shell

chocolate pot du creme - made lactose free with chocolate chips, eggs, and strong coffee

comstock light cherry pie filling with most of the cherries plucked out of the red goo

developed it from stuff johnnybird already liked as self defense from the mil bringing one of her purchased desserts - usually loaded with cream and milk

[jsolomon]

A dish a moved-on SO called tomato alfredo This is made best in one pan.

1/4 pound spicy italian sausage

1 box frozen spinach, or good amount of fresh

1 small can tomato paste

4 cloves garlic

1/2 cup good cream

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup + some good parmesan cheese

Good amount of fresh black pepper

Salt to taste

Crumble sausage. Mince garlic. Grate cheese. Cook/brown/sear sausage. Save some of the drippings. Put tomato paste in the drippings and give it some color over medium-high heat. Set those aside. Put cream in pan and deglaze. Place garlic, salt, and pepper in cream and simmer momentarily. Put in butter and parm. Whisk until smooth. Place spinach and tomato-sausage mixture in pot. Heat through. Serve over good pasta. Would probably work well on pizza, too.

My SO at the time didn't eat very much at all. This is the ONLY thing I have ever made that she went back for seconds and subsequent thirds.

[chefreit]

I r-a-r-e-l-y follow a so called "recipe". I'll see a concept, spin-it, tweak, or just plain steal it. The trick is not in following a recipe; it's having good technique that produces a delicious final product. Anyway here are a few.........

>Lemon grass ravioli stuffed w/ pan seared scallop & ocean herbal butter

I add a spoon of ginger broth made with a touch of Galliano liq. to the bottom of the warm plate so they don’t stick; it also gives a wonderful aroma. I use the exploding concept from Chef Grant Achatz of Trio.

Sorry that all I have time for now............

[fifi]

The two recipes that I developed that get repeated requests are Green Beans (Southern Style) and Coconut Glazed Chicken. If I don't show up with the green beans, there are certain family functions that I will not be admitted to.

[Mudpuppie]

comstock light cherry pie filling with most of the cherries plucked out of the red goo

Didn't this result in... red goo?

[Schneier]

i invented Sliced Bread.

Which is the best thing since...what?

[AzRaeL]

i invented Sliced Bread.

Which is the best thing since...what?

erm...leavened bread?

[tanabutler]

I dreamed up (literally...in a dream) jalapeño pesto in 1991 (before anything like it ever appeared in the pages of Gourmet or Bon Appetit magazines)...cilantro instead of basil, no cheese, and jalapeños added in. The very next day, I got my first catering gig.

Several years later, looking into what appeared to be an empty refrigerator, I improvised a dish with that pesto, smoked chicken, red onions, pine nuts, and orzo. It is probably my husband's single favorite dish that I make.

[Al_Dente]

Seared halibut with "candied" shallots and kumquats over wilted spinach.

[Mudpuppie]

Now that's inventive. Was it a one-time thing, or did you like it enough to make again?

[tchocolatl]

Egg Nog hot chocolate.

Warm up some Egg Nog with a little milk and melt in some chocolate.

Lindt or Valrhona or something of good quality.

Makes me wonder why I would ever buy hot chocolate powder again.

Maybe add a little rum...

[fifi]

tchocolatl... That sounds wonderful. Why didn't I ever think of that? I will definitely be trying that. Maybe with Christmas breakfast.

[fifi]

BTW thcocolatl... Welcome to eGullet. I hope you find this a fun place like I do. I sure learn a lot. Does your user name and your post on the use of chocolate have a connection?

[therdogg]

Pumpkin chili with anchos, chicken and navy beans. At least I _thought_ I had invented pumpkin chili, naive girl that I was. Since then I have seen other chilis that also contain pumpkin, as well as risottos and soups etc etc ad nauseum. This also came to me in a dream, but I guess my dreams aren't as creative as I'd like.

The other non-invention was that years ago I thought that I should patent an industrial process to season cast-iron skillets so that customers could buy them pre-seasoned. Well, wouldn't you know dh comes home last weekend from shopping and says that he saw a Lodge skillet that was advertised as pre-seasoned with a tag on it saying "We should have thought of this 100 years ago!" I felt as if my one shot at millions was washed away! *sigh*

[Zingano]

These are the ones I've written down afterwards...

Tomato tarte tatin with gruyère ice cream, as a starter.

Roast pork with peppered udon and confit of pears with mirin.

Ravioli stuffed with black pudding mousseline, served with langoustines.

Fluffy pannacotta.

Middle Eastern Goat's Cheesecake, with Rose Jelly.

[tanabutler]

Zingano, those sound fabu-lust.

[Pitter]

After finding some affordable fresh porcini at a farmer's market, I sauteed these with shallots, fresh thyme, peeled chestnuts and creme fraiche. Served over lobster raviolli. The best thing I ever ate.

[Marlene]

Butter tart squares. I played with several recipes and combined the best from three of them.

[GG Mora]

I probably didn't invent this, but in trying to find ways to use all the dulce de leche I made, it occured to me to mix a couple tablespoons of it into a mug of hot milk. Holy shit, it's good. Of course, DDL is best licked off a bare finger.

For Christmas dinner, I had to improvise with what I had on hand, since I was flat dead broke (though redeemed by Friday morning...God the Comic). I pulled a small boneless pork loin roast out of the freezer, along with a lump of pancetta, a handful of pinenuts and a few globs of veal demi-glace. Some dried figs leftover from fruitcake-making were poached in a little white wine leftover from a previous dinner's risotto. I toasted the pinenuts, rendered the pancetta, and sautéed some garlic and shallots in the fat, then added the poached figs, the pinenuts and the rendered pancetta. Stuffed the pork loin with this and roasted it. For sauce, reduced the fig-poaching liquid and added the demi-glace, finished with butter. Made a quick gratin of two russet potatoes and a dribbling of heavy cream. Blanched & then sautéed some brussels sprouts. Washed it down with a bottle of Heitz Cab we'd been gifted with on Christmas Eve. Damned excellent for a dinner not pre-meditated.

Maybe this belongs in another thread: Inventing A Holiday Dinner From What You Have On Hand.

[FistFullaRoux]

I've had good luck with my Philly Style Andouille Pop Boys.

Sautee sliced bell peppers and onions in olive oil. Season w S&P

Add juilenned sausage (remove casing if it is tough - you can use any good smoked sausage, venison is excellent) and sautee until heated through

You can add cheese (I like provolone) first so the sausage melts it, or add on top, then broil for a minute or so until the cheese gets bubbly.

Quick and easy, and darned impressive every time. Perfect football food.

[Varmint]

Butter tart squares. I played with several recipes and combined the best from three of them.

And damn, they ARE good!!!!

[Marlene]

Butter tart squares.  I played with several recipes and combined the best from three of them.

And damn, they ARE good!!!!

Just a little bit of Canada for y'all

Butter Tart Squares

Edited January 1, 2004 by Marlene (log)