This is a great way to use up seemingly disjointed leftovers: Iron chef them!
After a raucous party at my parent's house, Dan and I were awash in bizarre leftovers just in time for our weekly installment of Iron Chef: New Brunswick. I advised him to pick one leftover for me to include, and that I would try to use as many leftovers as possible in my dishes. It was a difficult choice, given the possible list of a bag of pretzels, mustard, two jugs of wine, various crudites, fruit salad, sour cream, about two pounds of pickles and olives, lasagna, and cake, among others, but his pick was sensible: A bag of cucumber slices. I set to work.
First, I mysteriously filled a jar with white wine, cucumber cubes, green pepper cubes, and a sliver of scotch bonnet pepper. Into the fridge it went, confounding my announcers (Dan).
After a raucous party at my parent's house, Dan and I were awash in bizarre leftovers just in time for our weekly installment of Iron Chef: New Brunswick. I advised him to pick one leftover for me to include, and that I would try to use as many leftovers as possible in my dishes. It was a difficult choice, given the possible list of a bag of pretzels, mustard, two jugs of wine, various crudites, fruit salad, sour cream, about two pounds of pickles and olives, lasagna, and cake, among others, but his pick was sensible: A bag of cucumber slices. I set to work.
First, I mysteriously filled a jar with white wine, cucumber cubes, green pepper cubes, and a sliver of scotch bonnet pepper. Into the fridge it went, confounding my announcers (Dan).
I needed desperately to get rid of those olives and pickles, not to mention the sour cream, so I quickly whipped up a traditional polish dish, mizeria, which consists of thinned sour cream with chopped cucumbers, pickles, and olives. I served it as a dip for all the cut up vegetables that i had acquired, as well as some from my own stock that weren't going to last much longer. Not bad, and Dan approved despite his avowed hatred of sour cream.
A third dish took advantage of a nub of wan purple cabbage and a single anorexic scallion that have been in my fridge for two weeks: cucumber-laden spring rolls. They contain some staples that I always have on hand as well: bean threads, ginger, fish sauce, and lime. Not the prettiest spring rolls I've made, but certainly delicious.
The sleeper hit of the night turned out to be my mysterious jar of wine and vegetables. After an hour in the fridge, It got a squeeze of lime juice and a dash of salt, and was poured into glasses with a little lime seltzer. Delicious! The cucumbers and green peppers are really refreshing, and the hot peppers added an occasional bite as well as a background spiciness for the whole drink. We decided that it would be a great signature drink for an upcoming dinner party, but what to call it? After a brainstorm session, starting out with the unappetizing 'gazpacho spritzer' and the slightly better 'veggie sangria,' we decided upon 'sangria blanca.' Pretty, no?
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