Author Topic: Cooking on the fly: Random dinners with what you have in the fridge.  (Read 4219 times)

trailrated

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Last night I was hungry and grabbed a few random ingredients and started cooking without knowing what I was going to end up with. By the time I was done I had homemade garlic bread, with sauteed spinach, melted cheese, a fried egg, and some sriracha on top. It was fucking delicious and I think I am going to make it again tonight.

What random concoctions do you end up with?

OddOne

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That looks great!

markbike528CBX

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Garlic Ginger Chicken Green bean stir fry:

This started out as a random dinner when I was a bachelor (note the frozen stuff), but has gotten to be a staple.

Hot iron skillet, sesame/olive oil
Throw 16 oz frozen french cut (regular cut will be awful) green beans in skillet. 
Oil will pop, so throw the whole contents on so the beans shield you from the spatter.

Chop fresh ginger and garlic (I typically use 3/4 of a bulb, 7cloves).

Frozen chicken, thaw in microwave to cuttable, not rock hard.
Dice semi-frozen chicken with an ulu (Inuit round knife).
Add Tabasco or your equivalent generously to chicken.

As beans cook to toastyness, add portions of ginger/garlic.

Push beans to side, add chicken to skillet, cover chicken with beans.
Repeat on other side if you've covered the skillet bottom with chicken.

Wait 3 minutes, then start stirring.

add last portion of garlic/ginger right as you turn the heat off.

Salt/pepper to taste.




Davids

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I do that with my slow cooker a lot. Throw meat, veggies, seasoning, sauces in there, turn on low and cone back later to see what happened.

ketchup

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The other day I stumbled upon "Spicy Indian Cauliflower Ground Pork." 

Intend to steam a head of cauliflower for 5-8 minutes.  Forget about it and let it go at least 12 until it's all mushy.

Pan fry some ground pork and throw on lots of spices, focusing on curry powder, cumin, and the like.

Mix it together in a bowl and eat up!

Last week I made "Spicy Indian Ground Beef Stir Fry" (sense a trend?).  2 pounds of ground beef, vegetables that were lying around waiting to be eaten (onions, garlic, green peppers, bok choy, scallions, frozen broccoli), all cooked together in some beef tallow and seasoned to hell with curry powder, cumin, crushed red pepper, coriander, black pepper, salt, turmeric, and probably some other things.

So I guess my standby is "Throw meat and vegetables that happen to be around in a pan, and cook them with a bunch of spices and call it Indian food."

otter

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I had some leftover Belgian endive last week. I seared it on highish heat in olive oil, then turned the heat down and added toasted walnuts, olives, feta and mint to finish it. Aleppo pepper on top. Terrific!

bogart

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Can't think of any current examples, but I've been known to plug seemingly random items into e.g. allrecipes.com and see what pops up -- I'm not the only one (it often turns out) to need to combine various options together, even if I'm the one to realize it only after discovering I have those items rather than planning ahead ... 

Gerard

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I'm always surprised when people are surprised that I can find some way to combine whatever's in the fridge into something edible. I guess it comes from reading all those cookbooks and somehow being able to dredge up some memory when I need it.

Also, realizing that in a pinch almost anything can be turned into a frittata, curry, or soup. :-)

nikki

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I don't think I have much intuition in the kitchen yet, so I often rely on supercook.com to help me come up with ideas. Otherwise I end up with a lot of egg + rice/bread dishes. Nothing wrong with those, though!

Ursa

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At the end of every week I usually throw together fried rice with all the left over vegetables from the week and just add salt and pepper.  It helps me reduce waste and it's also fairly healthy so it's a win-win for me.

piethief

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My wife makes "new" recipes frequently based on what we have open.  It also is a great way to use up those killer sale stock up items you get now and then.

She likes this website, www.allrecipes.com, you can search for recipes based on ingredients you have on hand.  Got some extra leaf spinach and eggs sitting in the fridge?  Type those in and it spits out a bunch of possible recipes.  Often she has all the ingredients or just needs to buy one minor thing to make a completely new meal.