Bunch of random ingredients: what to make?

pog it

I'm back with another what-to-cook dilemma. Left it too late to get to shops again
If anyone has any suggestions for what I can make out of following ingredients please let me know!

kidney beans
honey
garlic
rice
grapefruit, lemon
paprika, oregano,
chicken stock
cheese

It's a mixed bag, sorry

The Hill Billy

Try www.supercook.com, it is great for these kind of situations.

Lovely Bloke

no onion?

what kind of cheese.

My initial thought here is some kind of bean goulash.

If you've an onion, slice it and fry til soft, add the chopped garlic and cook for another minute.

add a tablespoon of paprika and a sprinkling of oregano and cook for another couple of minutes

make up about a half pint of stock, add it to the pan, boil then bring back to a simmer

drain the kidney beans, then add these to the pan, and reduce the sauce down.

happywithlife

Would you cook the rice in the chicken stock and add the kidney beans? Grate some cheese over it?
HAve you any rolls or crusty bread in? Even if they're half stale. Mash the garlic into some butter spread on the bread wrap in foil and bake in oven for 10-15 mins - viola garlic bread
Oh and have the grapefruit for starter/dessert

pog it

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Try www.supercook.com, it is great for these kind of situations.

I did try it but found it confusing and really hard to pinpoint a decent recipe with the ingredients I had. Have you any tips for how to get the most out of that site?

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

no onion?

what kind of cheese.

My initial thought here is some kind of bean goulash.

If you've an onion, slice it and fry til soft, add the chopped garlic and cook for another minute.

add a tablespoon of paprika and a sprinkling of oregano and cook for another couple of minutes

make up about a half pint of stock, add it to the pan, boil then bring back to a simmer

drain the kidney beans, then add these to the pan, and reduce the sauce down.

This sounds brilliant! But, no onions
The cheese is a mild but salty cheddar and a gruyère.

happywithlife wrote: »

Would you cook the rice in the chicken stock and add the kidney beans? Grate some cheese over it?
HAve you any rolls or crusty bread in? Even if they're half stale. Mash the garlic into some butter spread on the bread wrap in foil and bake in oven for 10-15 mins - viola garlic bread
Oh and have the grapefruit for starter/dessert

Sounds yum!

happywithlife

Well what did u do?

pog it

I made the bean dish with rice in the end.
I added chicken stock to the garlic and herbs - sadly I added way too much stock. I hadn't used the stock pots before and I thought they were less intense in flavour than the cubes after reading something online and so I plopped two of them in..
Had to add more water and reduce it down for ages and added lemon juice ..

It ended up quite nice, just a bit too salty from the 'extra' stock

vibe666

you don't actually have to add water to the stock pots, you can just throw them into your pan and they melt into the food, although you might want to add a little water to the pan so they don't stick if there isn't much in it, depending on what you're putting them into.

pog it

vibe666 wrote: »

you don't actually have to add water to the stock pots, you can just throw them into your pan and they melt into the food, although you might want to add a little water to the pan so they don't stick if there isn't much in it, depending on what you're putting them into.

Cool. With the garlic and paprika and oregano being all that I had for the pan I had to add water to the stock to get some juice for the sauce to go with the beans as I didnt want then to dry out. Even though it was obvious that the stock pot wasnt the usual crumble-in consistency I am used to! I'm also not advanced enough to be able to use flour to make up a sauce.. tricky for beginner 'cook'

The Hill Billy

pog it wrote: »

I did try it but found it confusing and really hard to pinpoint a decent recipe with the ingredients I had. Have you any tips for how to get the most out of that site?

To be honest, I would generally have more 'core' ingredients, ie, meat or veg, to play with than you had listed above. I think even a chef on Ready, Steady, Cook! would have had difficulty with your ingredients.

vibe666

the stockpots and gravy pots are great in a pinch to add a good bit of flavour to pretty much anything with the minimum of fuss, although with the gravy pots we tend to use less water than the recipe says, i.e. approx. 3 pots for 2 pots worth of water.

the regular beef pots seem a bit pointless when they have the rich beef ones though, i've never seems a reason to use the regular instead of the rich, so we just get the rich ones now and they are great for adding a beefy punch to food.