A Clean Slate
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009Last week marked the end of my kitchen clearinghouse challenge. I cooked two last meals that almost wiped out the contents, then I headed out of town. If you recall, my kitchen’s random contents consisted of: penne noodles, risotto rice, long grain white rice, red lentils, steel cut oats, black beans, tomato sauce, kale, one carrot, asparagus, cilantro, radishes, two eggs, cheese, half & half, milk and chicken broth.
To use these ingredients, I first made an Indian curry dish. Searching on Epicurious I found a recipe for Curried Red-Lentil Stew with Vegetables. A few substitutions turned out a dish that used up my lentils, kale, carrot, cilantro and asparagus – overall a pretty tasty dish that I served with rice and black beans as sides. Searching for radish recipes, I stumbled upon a recipe for radish parathas (Indian flatbreads) that use grated radishes in their dough. I made a decent first attempt at these and they were pretty good dipped in the lentil curry sauce.
The second dish I made were some crustless mini quiches. Asparagus, swiss cheese, egg and half & half made up these quiches that I baked in muffin tins with a little bit of breadcrumbs. I prefer a quiche with crust, but these were really quick to whip up and made for an easy breakfast.
After all that and my refrigerator stood (almost) empty. I left some tomato sauce and penne for Kyle to make while I was out of town…but he opted to hit appetizers at happy hour instead. So I just ended up with a little wasted tomato sauce, milk (always a problem for us), and a little leftover curry.
My fridge is stocked up again (although it still looks a bit bare) and started my April Bon Appetit challenge – more updates to come.
