On my own this weekend, so when I think about cooking in those circumstances, I tend to make something I crave that I know no one else in the family likes—most often fish. But sometimes also I think about trying to responsibly use up some of what’s in the fridge, perhaps left from the previous week’s Philly Foodworks order or something that’s from my own garden. Or both.
As I did my fridge inventory this morning I realized that it’s got to be option #2 today. Plus I don’t really want to go get fish: it’s raining, I’m lazy, I’m prepping for Monday’s classes.
Here’s the most important outcomes of my food survey:
Plus a small pork loin roast.
So the question is: what do I do with all that?
There are still more peppers in the fridge beyond these plus a huge bushel of Thai bird peppers in the garden. I can’t use them all; I’m saving some for my third batch of fermented chili sauce that I’ll make in a week or two.
I have a few cucumbers also and a lot of carrots, so one possibility is a big summer salad of peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, string beans and corn. Downside to that is that I can only eat so much of a salad of that kind and then I still have the same problem: it’s got to be eaten relatively soon.
There’s pickles but that just extends the problem of “things I like that no one else does”: when I pickle things, except for cucumbers, I pretty much am the only one hereabouts who will eat them.
So what I like more is the idea of a sauce that can go on the pork but also be frozen. But of what kind? Broadly speaking I think there are three options here that work with a peppers-and-tomato base that might also include corn or peaches: something kind of Thai, something kind of South Asian, and something like a mole sauce. Generally I’m going to go with the latter: it’s what I know best and what I like best and I think everything I have works best. So a mole it is.
What that means is that I’ll start a sofrito later today with onions, garlic, and carrots. Then some blackened peppers, then tomatoes. Then some dried chili peppers, some peanuts, some old bread (for thickening). Some chicken broth. Peaches, cilantro and lime near the end. Cumin, cinnamon and coriander for seasoning along with salt. Put some of the first batch of fermented chile sauce already in the fridge if it needs more heat. Run it through a food mill maybe at the end.
The pork I’ll just do in the oven with some garlic, parsley and a bit of ancho pepper.
That leaves the corn, the potatoes and the string beans all alone. I could toss some corn in the mole but it’s already feeling a bit too complicated as is. I’m thinking maybe I roast a few potatoes and blanch a few string beans but otherwise punt on those for a day or two and make a roast potato, string bean, and corn salad with olives and feta when I’m rejoined at the table this week.