I love snow day cooking. I love the way the oven heats up our chilly house and the complete lack of guilt I feel over putterring in the kitchen on a weekday afternoon during which I would normally be in the office or at the gym. After all, if there’s a freaking foot of snow on the ground, I refuse to bow to society’s expectations of either my productivity or my ass size.
During a February snow storm that paralyzed most of Providence, I rummaged through the cabinets and fridge in search of inspiration. I found an embarrassing number of opened bottles of hot sauce, some of which I probably cracked a quarter decade ago. I ended up using a good bit of them to make sweet & spicy popcorn, slathering popped kernels with a hot sauce caramel and baking in the oven until crisp. On first bite, it presented as sweet, but then the heat hit on the finish. It was darn tasty with a Negroni (me) and a martini (The Unit), but I think it would really sing with some bubbles: maybe a Crémant d’Alsace or a Prosecco.
Sweet & spicy popcorn.
Coincidentally, a day or so later, Jenni and Monika presented me with a bag of cheese orphans from their fridge: adorable packages of bleu, havarti, and a citrus-ginger fontina that J & M feared would go bad. I knew with a little foster-cooking, these cheesy foundlings could make someone happy. As I cooked, I had the idea that we all have odd, unused things in our fridges and pantries. Why not try to put them to good use?
And thus the Orphan Food Challenge was born.
The Facebook post that started it all.
Once the call went out, Monika and Jenni again responded with a wee, unopened jar of chili paste. The inspiration for the paste’s makeover hit me while grocery shopping: I saw tiny bags of flavored, roasted chickpeas for $6 a piece. That’s highway robbery! My red chili roasted chickpeas came in at just $1 for twice the amount of chickpeas, not including the jar of chili paste (and there’s still 2/3 jar left, so: still a bargain).
Thank you, Monika and Jenni for playing along!
Red Chili roasted chickpeas.
Maddy, another early adopter of the challenge, presented me with a tin of spicy squid and a can of hearts of palm. These proved a little more difficult than the chili paste because cans can do horrible things to food, most notably making the food taste like cans. The squid was particularly aromatic, so I braised it in white wine and garlic before adding it to a stew with confit-ed pork belly, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and herbs. I even threw a few homemade sourdough croutons on top.
We have Maddy to thank for these ingredients!
Squid & pork belly stew.
The hearts of palm went into an agrodolce salad with roasted red peppers, pine nuts, golden raisins, picked shallots, capers, and a healthy dose of sherry vinegar. I love how the hearts of palm almost look like squid rings.
Hearts of palm salad.
I’m looking for the next challenge, so scour your pantry and hit me up and I’ll try to make you something delicious!
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And, speaking of delicious, please check out the new album from The Old 97’s, perhaps my favorite Texas band ever. The video for the lead single “Good with God,” is hilarious, featuring Jenna Fischer and Fred Armisen, and the gloriously gorgeous vocals of Brandi Carlisle.