Blogs : Test Kitchen Notes
Test Kitchen Notes A behind-the-scenes look into the CHOW test kitchen, from CHOW's food team Aida Mollenkamp, Kate Ramos, and Amy Wisniewski. They'll talk about recipe development and testing, photo shoots, and menu planning.
Walk-In Lunch
Usually, the issue in the test kitchen is not what to eat for lunch but how much. Granted, it may be a strange assortment of foods (braised artichokes, chopped liver, and derby pie, anyone?), but victuals always abound. That is, every day except Monday, when we have yet to shop and cook for the week. With paltry pantry pickings, whoever gets hungry first plays the role of Iron Chef and whips up something on the fly. We affectionately call it our “walk-in lunch” as we make the meal from whatever’s in the fridge (“walk-in” being a term borrowed from restaurants where all perishables are stored in walk-in fridges).
Despite the scary potential flavor combos and meals that come from throwing together leftover bits of this and that, we usually come up with tasty treats. The key seems to be using a good dose of interesting spice. This week: a comforting parsnip-potato soup topped with leftover toasted pumpkin seeds from last week’s cotija-cilantro salad (recipe due out in May). For the soup, we simply sautéed some garlic, onions, celery, and carrot until browned, added parsnips, potatoes, thyme, and broth, and cooked until the vegetables were knife tender. After a few whirls in the blender with some nutmeg and some toasted pumpkin seed oil, lunch was served. Just a reminder that you should be inspired not defeated by the leftovers in your fridge, as you never know what walk-in genius may arise.
Posted by
| Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 3:44pm
| 2 comments
Tagged with: test kitchen notes, food and cooking, leftovers, recipes, test_kitchen_notes
« Previous Post: Where Are Recipes Born? Next Post: Cue the Circus Music » |
This is honestly something I really enjoy, and am pretty decent with. If you let your imagination run wild you can come up with some really cool concoctions.
Some weeks are better than others for reanimated cuisine. This was a good week with some tasty remixes. However, I know in the back of the fridge there are a couple of containers that have been around long enough to achieve self-awareness. I hope they know enough to throw themselves out.