Cooking Club Cooking Challenge #1

Faith

This week, we'll be proving you with a list of 5 ingredients. You must use those at least 3 of these 5 ingredients to make a dish. In addition to the list, you can use basic pantry items. These should be things that most people have in their homes e.g. seasonings, herbs and spices, basic staples like rice or pasta, milk etc. This is to see how creative you can get with limited ingredients. If this reminds you of a well-known TV show, you'd be on the right path . You could add basic vegetables, for instance, but you must not purchase anything for this challenge outside of the 5 listed ingredients!

How to join in:

***You don't have to have made this dish before! You could just suggest what you would do with these ingredient.***

Post your recipe below, with pictures if you like. The pictures must be your own, though! Ideally, put your pictures after the complete ingredients list and method, for readability.

To maintain the spirit of the forum, please try someone else's recipe and give them feedback.

If you don't have a recipe to post, that's cool too! Feel free to try whichever recipes grab your fancy and don't forget to post with your feedback.

We will leave each "Challenge" run until for a week. After the week has ended, new recipe submissions for that dish will be stopped, but you can continue to comment on previous submissions as much as you like.

Ingredients:

1. Chili peppers (your choice)
2. Spinach
3. Orange
4. Chicken
5. Peanuts

FYI, I used a random ingredient generator for that list

Whispered

Oh I love this idea!

Away all weekend but early next week I know what I'm gonna make

EDIT: Reread and I see I can suggest in advance. Peanut chicken bites with orange and avocado salsa (I have the avocado in the house already, is it too much of an addition?), served with baby spinach.

Faith

In terms of "additions", we're not going to be too rigid . It's more to get people out of their comfort zones and get the creative juices flowing. Obviously, if you turned it into something with a million ingredients, it might be a bit much but small things are totally fine.

.red.

Chinese Yuk Sung
This is one of my favourite starters when im in a Chinese, ive even gotten the "meat sung for 2" starter as a main a few times. Ive also done it at home a few times and its simple, healthy(ish) and really nice.
It would make a lovely lunch or a starter and would serve 2/3 so add more or less to suit the number of people
It has a few extra ingredients from the 5 above but most would be in peoples fridges/cupboards anyway.
From the list
1. Chicken, about 180/200g of minced breast meat or put two breasts into a blender, one at a time.
2. Chilli, id go for a mild one but im not very brave. A half or whole, which ever youd prefer but cut it finely.
3. Peanut. A small handfull would be enough, either roughly crushed or blended. If their crushed they give a nice crunch.(ive never actually done it with peanut, always cashew but it should work ok)

Not from the list,
1. A small stick of celery very finely chopped.
2. A small onion very finely chopped.
3. A splash of oyster sauce.
4. A splash of low salt soy sauce.
5. A head of iceberg lettuce.

Pick the larger leaves off the lettuce and wash and set aside to dry off.
Boil up the minced chicken till cooked and drain it off in a sive when cooked and pat dry on kitchen paper. This can be fried if you prefer but i like to boil it instead. It can also be done well in advance to save time.
Add a tiny drop of oil to a hot pan and fry up the celery, chilli and onion.
When this has cooked add in the pre cooked mince and add in a spoon of oyster sauce and a bit of soy and throw in the crushed peanut. I like a good bit of soy but most prefer less so judge it yourself.
Cook it over a medium heat till most of the sauce has soaked in.
Pour the meat mix into a serving dish and use the lettuce leaves as wraps.

I would have gladly done this up with a few pics over the weekend but im laid up with a bad back at the minute and wouldnt be able.
It really is easy to and very very tasty.
If making it for a larger group you would need extra heads of lettuce as it really only the larger outer leaves you would use.

catho_monster

Faith wrote: »

Ingredients:

1. Chili peppers (your choice)
2. Spinach
3. Orange
4. Chicken
5. Peanuts

This is totally my jam. I never get to choose what food is on the fridge (we're in a CSA) and always have to magic something up regardless, AND attempt to make the food go far without buying too much extra.

My suggestions:

Dinner one
1. Roast chicken stuffed with halved oranges (if theres random roastable veg in the house, stick it underneath)
2. Spinach salad, orange segments, peanuts for crunch, well seasoned, simple dressing.

Dinner two
1. Leftover roast chicken
2. Satay sauce on the side (i always have peanut butter and coconut milk in the house) without the tobasco + with added chilli (this one works for me http://goodfood.uktv.co.uk/recipe/flash-chicken-satay/)

Lunch potential:
If theres enough spinach: spinach and orange soup. Can't remember my recipe but I figure fry onion in butter, toss spinach so it wilts in the fatty goodness, add just enough stock, 5 minutes simmer, orange segments at the last minute (not too many), blitz.

Mrs Fox

This recipe was adapted from a couple of other recipes, with some tweaking here and there. Thanks to this week's challenge, I have now learned how to make homemade peanut butter
Edit: I made another attempt on this the following day, and the result was much, much better. Way less oily. Original post has been edited.

STICKY CHICKEN

4-6 chicken thighs, skin-on, boneless (I could only fit in 4 in my pan nicely, without cramming)

Marinade:
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp hot paprika
a bit of salt & black pepper

Sticky glaze:
1 cup peanuts
1/4 cup soy sauce (half dark & half light)
1 orange, juiced
1/3 cup honey
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 red chillies
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp corn flour



Mix the chicken thighs with the marinade and leave it aside.

On to making the peanut butter - I only had the salted kind so I soaked them in water, rinsed a few times just to get most of the salt out. Then strain, and put them into a frying pan on medium just to dry the excess water out. Once dried (pan stopped sizzling), transfer them onto a plate to cool a little bit.

When cooled, blitz them in a food processor for 30 seconds at a time, for a total of about 5 minutes, to get a smooth peanut butter. Easy, eh? I only needed about 1/4 cup of it, the rest I stored in the fridge.
In a blender, put the peanut butter and the rest of the ingredients in and gave a good blitzzzzz. Sticky glaze ready.

Heat up an oven-proof non-stick skillet on medium high, no oil needed. Once hot, place the chicken skin side down, rendering the fat out and fry the skin until golden brown. Flip and repeat the other side. Then, remove the chicken pieces onto a plate. Discard all rendered fat. Pan back on heat, pour the glaze over and give a quick stir before adding the chicken back in, ensuring they're well coated. Transfer the pan into a hot oven 200c for 12 minutes.
Chicken should be perfectly cooked, juicy and succulent. Ideal with rice, but I opted for some greens instead.

Mrs Fox

You know those bones that I removed from the chicken thighs for the above dish? Well I boiled them down with spices, aromatics and vegetables to make stock.
Along with the leftover peanut butter, also from above, a small sweet potato that's shriveling up at the bottom of the veg bowl, and a handful of baby spinach, I turned them into a bowl of African creamy peanut soup.

AFRICAN PEANUT SOUP

2 shallots, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp cumin
1 green chilli, chopped
1 tsp tomato puree
1 very small sweet potato, peeled and cubed
2 cups of fresh chicken stock, plus extra if you want to thin the soup a bit
2 tbsp peanut butter
a handful of fresh baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste


Sautee shallots, ginger and chilli for a couple of minutes in a bit of oil on medium heat. Then add garlic and cumin.
Add sweet potato, tomato puree, and stir for a bit until puree is dissolved, before pouring the stock and let it simmer until the sweet potato is beginning to soften.
Put the peanut butter in a bowl, ladle in a bit of the simmering liquid and give a good mix, then pour the whole thing into the pot with the rest. Let it simmer on low for a few minutes, add spinach, give it a good stir and season with salt and pepper. It's quite thick, so if you feel like you want a thinner soup just add a bit more stock to loosen. Done.

convert

I was actually really pleased when I saw these ingredients, as i use them pretty frequently when making launches I can bring to work. I usually rely on stir fries, pasta or rice, and a few store ingredients. In this case I'd use the following:

All items from the list except the orange
Pasta (or rice)
Onion
Honey
Olive oil
Salt/pepper
Any veg you may have to add to stir fry/salad.

Firstly, cook the pasta or rice as per packet instructions.
Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces
Heat a pan and add olive oil
Season chicken with salt and pepper (and paprika, if desired) and add to pan. Fry until almost cooked.
Remove from heat and set aside.

Chop veg and stir fry until cooked to your liking (or keep raw, if you prefer). Add honey and chicken for the last 30 seconds of cooking (or add later if keeping veg raw).

Put pasta/ rice in a bowl or lunchbox, and add spinach, veg and chicken. Season to taste.