What's In Your Fridge?

Corn on the Cobb Salad Wrap with Grilled Onion Bleu Cheese Dressing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:38:00 +0000

Q: Hi Polly and welcome to Askablogr! I love the way you're using Askablogr to play "empty pantry iron chef". Here's one: we just got back from a trip and had only flour tortillas, prosciutto and 3 egg.

Posted by Chris DeVore

A: Hi Chris! And thanks for being my "real" first guinea pig on my whatsinyourrefrig blog. I have to admit after a long night of simmering beef for a pot pie I'm making, I was a bit perplexed when I got your question. But I did find a recipe that would use all your ingredients. It also calls for many more ingredients, however, its the type of dish you can pick and choose. So here it goes:

Corn on the Cobb Salad Wrap with Grilled Onion Bleu Cheese Dressing

Ingredients:

2 whole skinless boneless chicken breasts (approx. 1 1/2 lbs total)

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

6 slices prosciutto

2 ripe avocados

1/2 head romaine, rinsed, spun dry, and finely chopped (approx. 4 cups)

1 cup cooked corn (fresh or frozen)

1 bunch watercress

2 tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped

3 large hard-boiled eggs, separated and chopped

4 large flour tortillas

1 1/2 cups Grilled Onion Bleu Cheese Dressing (recipe follows) or your own store bought dressing

Directions:

Preheat grill or grill pan

Season chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Grill for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Set aside to rest for 2 minutes then cut into bite-sized pieces.

In a skillet, cook the prosciutto over moderate heat until it is crisp; transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain. Break into bite-size pieces.

Halve, pit, peel and cut the avocado into 1/2 inch pieces

In a large salad bowl, toss together the romaine, corn, and watercress. Add the chicken, prosciutto, tomatoes, egg yolks and whites, and avocado.

Pour Grilled Onion Bleu Cheese Dressing over salad and toss well. Divide over tortillas and fold or roll up to make a sandwich wrap.

Grilled Onion Bleu Cheese Dressing:

Ingredients:

1 sweet white onion

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 cups mayonnaise

1 cup sour cream

1 cup buttermilk

2 tsp hot sauce (Tabasco)

1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

12 oz bleu cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Preheat grill or grill pan.

Remove outer skin of onion. Cut into 1/2-inch thick circles. Place in bowl and season with olive oil, salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer onion to grill and cook over medium-high heat until translucent and caramelized, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool, cut into medium dice.

In mixing bowl, combine mayo, sour cream, buttermilk, hot sauce, and Worcestershire until well blended. Add bleu cheese and mix well to incorporate throughout dressing. Fold in diced grilled onions. Adjust seasoning. Refrigerate until ready to use.

This recipe is from Michael Chiarello of Napa Style fame. I love his stuff, so I'm sure this will be another of his keeper recipes. Hope you enjoy and I will post this recipe for everyone on whatsinyourrefrig.blogspot.com. Thanks, Chris!

Tilapia with Lemon Butter Sauce and Angel Hair Fresca

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:46:00 +0000

Last night I received an email with the following ingredients: tilapia filets, whole-wheat spaghetti, and sun-dried tomatoes. Come on! You're making this too easy! So, I sent the emailer my suggestions and wanted to share them with you all. So here are the recipes for Tilapia with Lemon Butter Sauce and Angel Hair Fresca.

Tilapia With Lemon Butter Sauce

Ingredients
4 teaspoons flour, divided
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
large zip-top bag
5–6 sprigs fresh Italian parsley
juice of 1 lemon1
1/2 pounds tilapia fillets
3 tablespoons butter, divided
1/4 cup white wine

Directions
1. Place 3 teaspoons flour and seasoned salt in zip-top bag; shake to mix and set aside. Chop (rinsed) parsley coarsely, leaves only, and measure (2 tablespoons). Slice (rinsed) lemon in half. Set both aside.
2. Preheat large sauté pan on medium-high 2–3 minutes. Check fish for bones by pressing on fillet with finger tips and remove. Add fish to zip-top bag; seal tightly and shake to coat. Wash hands.
3. Place 1 tablespoon butter in pan and swirl to coat. Add fish (wash hands) and cook 3 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon butter to center of pan. Turn fillets, using spatula, distributing butter under each fillet. Cook 3 more minutes until fish is golden and flakes easily. Place fish on serving plates.
4. Place remaining 1 tablespoon butter and 1 teaspoon flour, wine and juice from lemon in sauté pan. Heat 1–2 minutes until thickened, stirring occasionally. Stir parsley into butter sauce and serve over fish.

Angel Hair Fresca

Ingredients
8 ounces angel hair pasta (1/2 box) (or your wheat pasta*)
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1 tablespoon butter (you can substitute up to 1 cup of the reserved pasta water instead of the butter, just make sure to add it after you add the pasta and pesto back into the hot sauce pan)1/2 cup sun-dried tomato pesto (See recipe below)

Directions
1. Fill large saucepan 1/2 full of water. Cover and bring to a boil on high heat for pasta.
2. Stir pasta into boiling, liberally salted water and boil 1 minute. Stir in broccoli and boil 4 more minutes, stirring occasionally, until broccoli is crisp tender and pasta is al dente.
3. Drain. Add butter to saucepan, using residual heat to melt butter. Stir in tomato pesto and pasta mixture; toss to mix and serve.

*If using wheat spaghetti, you will need to adjust the initial boiling time from 1 minute to 5 minutes

Sundried Tomato Pesto

Ingredients
1 (8.5-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
2 garlic cloves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions
Blend the sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, garlic, salt and pepper, to taste, and basil in a food processor and blend until the tomatoes are finely chopped. Transfer the tomato mixture to a large bowl. Stir in the Parmesan

How It Works

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:45:00 +0000

Okay, this is the inaugural post for "What's in Your Fridge?" Being a busy and frugal stay-at-home mom, I've discovered the importance of using what you've got in order to save a penny. So, I decided that I would combine my love of cooking with my penchant for being thrifty, and try to help all of you out there do the same.

We all have leftover ingredients in our refrigerators and pantries, right? So let me help you find a recipe to use it up, therefore saving you a little at the store, helping you keep your grocery items fresh, and keeping your food-storage areas from becoming time-capsules!

Send me a list of three ingredients you have on hand by clicking on the Askablogr icon to the right. Do not include staples such as salt, flour, butter, etc. I'm assuming if you are interested in cooking your own meals and have found this blog in the first place, then you already have these items. For example, let's say you just happen to have some hot italian sausage leftover from last night's risotto, some frozen peas, and some bowtie pasta. Here's a great recipe incorporating all of those ingredients:

1lb uncooked bowtie pasta
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp crushed, red pepper flakes
1 lb italian sausage, casings removed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup reserved pasta water
1 tsp chopped Italian parsley
salt and pepper

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions. Remember to add a liberal amount of salt to the pasta water. In the meantime, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat. Sautee the onions and garlic until tender. Add the sausage and pepper flakes and cook, breaking it up into bite-size pieces, until it is golden-brown. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the water. Add pasta to sausage mixture. Stir to coat. Add parmesan cheese and enough of the pasta water to form a thin sauce. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Top with chopped parsley.

And there you have it, dinner tonight! For each comment, I will post a recipe. Some recipes may require a trip to the store (such as for the parsley, onions or garlic in the recipe above.) So it may not be in your best interest to post a comment 15 minutes before you plan to start cooking!

Looking forward to hearing from all of you out there!