What's in the Fridge?

What do you get when you cross a fridge full of leftover ingredients and a good imagination? Read on.

Taste and See: Today's entry has no restaurants, no street stalls, not even a finished product to photograph. Instead, inspired by an upcoming dinner I'm hosting, today I take on the challenge of whipping up something tasty from the contents of my fridge. No grocery trip, no asking the neighbors for a cup of sugar. Just me, my imagination, and a fridge full of half-used, unrelated food.

I specialize in what I like to call faux gourmet: making something you could get somewhere fancy in even the tiniest NY kitchen when the budget and time constraints of . . . well, we know who we are. I have never been one to follow directions [images immediately flash to mind: dad screeching 'cut with the knife away from you!', smoke filling the kitchen I set on fire when I left the rice cooking too long, etc.]. I prefer to cook creatively, which gives me plenty of room to discover shortcuts. Which I need, not merely because of aforementioned constraints, but also because I don't really do ramen and frozen peas. Maybe I have a refined palette, or maybe I'm a food snob, but I'm a food snob who pulls herself up by her apron straps and, alla Project Runway, makes it happen.

Tonight presents a special challenge. I'm not content to spread my faux gourmet gospel if it means writing up a massive shopping list and tromping out in the cold at the last minute. It's not [only] that this girl is a bit keeks, [my personal shortcut for Thai word keykeyet, meaning, a little too lazy to be bothered right now], but I must confess I take an inordinate pleasure in using things up, and making something beautiful while so doing. And my tiny fridge didn't have room for any more food anyway.

So, what are the raw ingredients? In no particular order, I had [small portions of, and edging towards expiration] the following:

-approx 1/2 cup cream cheese
-2 eggs
-approx 1 cup brown rice
-1/2 can tomato puree
-4 slices provolone & 4 oz chevre cheeses
-6 green onions
-8 button mushrooms
-a hunk of ginger
-lemon juice
-1 orange pepper
-3 chicken breasts
-an onion
-vegetable broth base
-1/2 can pumpkin puree
-1/2 jar applesauce
-1.5 cups 2% milk
-approx 1 cup sour cream
-butter
-about 12 big sage leaves
-garlic*

*I didn't chop all the garlic in the recipes below. Trader Joes sells pre-chopped garlic in jars. You'll never again have to question whether time spent chopping up garlic is worth it; throw it in!

Now, I'll confess upfront I didn't limit myself strictly to the fridge; any self-respecting faux-gourmet needs to have on hand basics like olive oil and Spanish paprika. You don't have Spanish paprika? What are you doing reading a food blog? OK, that was a joke. But seriously, shell out a little for some good spices and olive oil next time you go shopping, and when you finding yourself stuck with spaghetti and tomato sauce, you'll be shocked at what a dash of some Spanish paprika can do.

So, back to the task at hand: Cooking dinner. What would you make? I came up with

Curried Pumpkin Soup
Moroccan Style Chicken Breasts
Brown Rice Tart with Cheese Tomato Filling

***

do it yourself:

Now that you've had some time to think about I'll share my recipes, and Tuesday when we dig in I'll let you know if they're any good. :)

1. Curried Pumpkin Soup
[thanks to Seth Ryan Winery from Columbia Valley, Washington, for the original]

Melt about 2 tbsp butter and some chopped garlic in a big saucepan
Saute some 1 chopped onion til your house smells real good
Season with 2 tsp curry powder
Stir in a about 2 cups vegetable broth, 1/2 large can pumpkin puree, 1/2 cup applesauce, pinch salt, pepper & nutmeg, & 1/2 cup Gewürztraminer wine [Yes, I did have it on hand . . . no cheating here! You can use any white, but G-miner is nice because it is a bit spicy . . . dangerous, if you will. Goes well with curry.]
Cook about 10 minutes
Add 1 cup milk and cook 5 minutes more.
Adjust amounts of liquid & cooking time to make thicker/thinner. Blend in food processor, optional. Serve with sour cream.

Checklist: pumpkin, onion, veg broth, garlic, applesauce, sour cream

2. Moroccan-Style Chicken Breasts
[thanks to Cooking Light, October 2000 for the original]

Part 1: Chicken
Mix 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp red pepper, 1/4 tsp black pepper
Rub chicken chunks with spice mixtures and store in ziplock bag for quick cooking day of dinner

Part 2: Sauce
Saute garlic, chopped up ginger & olive oil with chopped up pepper
Add chopped up button mushrooms when pepper is soft
Stir in about 1 cup tomato sauce & 1 tbsp lemon juice + a dash of all spices used above; stir till mushrooms are soft

Part 3: Day of
Cook chicken in a dash of olive oil
Reheat sauce over stove, adding 1/2 cup vegetable broth
Serve together

NB: I substantially revised this dish from the CL version; theirs called for making the sauce in the same pan as the chicken was cooking and serving it as a single dish. I have vegetarians coming so I separated the two. I also completely obliterated the contents of the [chickpea & zucchini based] sauce CL described, so if it doesn't taste good you can always hunt out the original recipe.

Checklist: orange pepper, mushrooms, chicken breasts, tomato sauce, veg broth, lemon juice, garlic, ginger

3. Brown Rice Tart with Cheesy Tomato Filling
[Even though I altered this recipe more than the CL one, I will still credit "The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook" for giving me a method of getting rid of old brown rice in a tasty fashion.]

Part 1: Crust
Mix 1 cup brown rice, 2 eggs, and 2 chopped up slices of provolone cheese
Stuff into bottom of small pan [I used springform cheesecake pan, all I have]
Cook at about 400 for 15 minutes

Part 2: Filling
Mix 1 can diced tomatoes, 4 oz chevre cheese, a dash olive oil & lemon juice, 1 tsp chopped up garlic, 6 chopped up green onions, and 12 chopped up sage leaves
Spread over rice crust
Pour over filling 1/2 cup cream cheese + 1/2 cup milk, blended with a dash . . . Spanish Paprika
Bake 1 hour at 350.

Checklist: Rice, eggs, provolone cheese, chevre sage, garlic, lemon juice, green onions, cream cheese, milk

Voila!