The Wildcard Challenge: Blindfolded Ingredient Selection!

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The clock starts counting down! I decided to go in an Asian fusion direction. So, I put some grated garlic, ginger, and Brussels sprouts in a pan with canola and toasted sesame oil.

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I decided to scrape the cheese, pepperoni, and sauce off the frozen pizza.

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This went in the pan along with soy sauce, Chianking vinegar, more mozzarella, and diced mushrooms.

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Eighteen minutes to go, and I suddenly remembered the Ramen noodles. Since I had water already boiling, I threw the Ramen noodles in there. Then, as I went to stir the things in the pan, I picked up the spatula, which was a little bit close to the heating element. This is a plastic spatula, and I happened to pick it up on the part that was slightly melted! So, I had to scrape molten plastic off my fingers and quickly get some ice.

Fortunately, I’d done most of my cutting at that point, so burning my right hand – while painful – didn’t slow me down too much. I just had ice cubes in my right hand the rest of the time.

I wanted to make eggrolls, but I didn’t have any wrappers. But, I did have three tortillas.

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With eight minutes ago, there’s plenty of time to fry these. Because I was concerned that they might break open, I used a toothpick on each one. I used to think that toothpicks would burn in the fryer, but I learned a while ago that they don’t.

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I already had the idea of using the cream cheese as sort of a sauce, so I used some of the Ramen noodle flavor packet, mixed with a little bit of sesame oil, lime juice, and soy sauce. It was thick, but surprisingly tasty.

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With three minutes ago, I took the burritos out of the fryer and let them drip dry, then patted them dry with paper towels.

I wanted to use some of the Ramen noodles, fried in a pan with oil, to add a crispy topping. But, I burned them, so those were left off.

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With a minute to go, I told my daughter, “this is usually the time of the show where somebody runs back into the pantry to put something else on top of their dish.” So, I chopped up some green onion and put that on top, along with the cream cheese sauce.

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My daughter, my daughter’s friend, and my wife acted as judges. The final verdict? They loved it!

The only thing I think that would’ve hurt me if I were actually on the show was that all I served was a burrito. If I thought about it a little bit more, I would’ve thought to make rice or something else to go with it. But, that’s the challenge of only having one minute to think about your recipe.

Except for burning myself, this was a lot of fun.
 
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The Late Night Gourmet said:
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The clock starts counting down! I decided to go in an Asian fusion direction. So, I put some grated garlic, ginger, and Brussels sprouts in a pan with canola and toasted sesame oil.

View attachment 14330

I decided to scrape the cheese, pepperoni, and sauce off the frozen pizza.

View attachment 14331

This went in the pan along with soy sauce, Chianking vinegar, more mozzarella, and diced mushrooms.

View attachment 14332

Eighteen minutes to go, and I suddenly remembered the Ramen noodles. Since I had water already boiling, I threw the Ramen noodles in there. Then, as I went to stir the things in the pan, I picked up the spatula, which was a little bit close to the heating element. This is a plastic spatula, and I happened to pick it up on the part that was slightly melted! So, I had to scrape molten plastic off my fingers and quickly get some ice.

Fortunately, I’d done most of my cutting at that point, so burning my right hand – while painful – didn’t slow me down too much. I just had ice cubes in my right hand the rest of the time.

I wanted to make eggrolls, but I didn’t have any wrappers. But, I did have three tortillas.

View attachment 14333 View attachment 14334

With eight minutes ago, there’s plenty of time to fry these. Because I was concerned that they might break open, I used a toothpick on each one. I used to think that toothpicks would burn in the fryer, but I learned a while ago that they don’t.

View attachment 14335

I already had the idea of using the cream cheese as sort of a sauce, so I used some of the Ramen noodle flavor packet, mixed with a little bit of sesame oil, lime juice, and soy sauce. It was thick, but surprisingly tasty.

View attachment 14336

With three minutes ago, I took the burritos out of the fryer and let them drip dry, then patted them dry with paper towels.

I wanted to use some of the Ramen noodles, fried in a pan with oil, to add a crispy topping. But, I burned them, so those were left off.

View attachment 14337

With a minute to go, I told my daughter, “this is usually the time of the show where somebody runs back into the pantry to put something else on top of their dish.” So, I chopped up some green onion and put that on top, along with the cream cheese sauce.

View attachment 14338

My daughter, my daughter’s friend, and my wife acted as judges. The final verdict? They loved it!

The only thing I think that would’ve hurt me if I were actually on the show was that all I served was a burrito. If I thought about it a little bit more, I would’ve thought to make rice or something else to go with it. But, that’s the challenge of only having one minute to think about your recipe.

Except for burning myself, this was a lot of fun.
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Wonderful! The image of you trying to cook whilst clutching ice-cubes in one hand is hysterical (sorry, I know it hurt). I have to hand it to you for inventiveness - I'd never have thought of scraping off the pizza topping! The finished dish really does look good. Bravo!
 
I've yet to make my recipe from the ingredients chosen at home - I'm away from home so haven't had the chance but I will when I get back.

Meanwhile I have blind picked items from my friend's fridge and cupboards. It has to be said that most of the ingredients were put there by me in the first place as I'm the one who does most cooking here - but I didn't have a good memory of where things were.

I got:
Quail's eggs (from fridge)
Soy sauce (so far so good)
Yeast (OK we'll make something doughy to go with the eggs)
Custard powder. (Oh dear....:eek:)

I'm completely stuck...
 
Spicy Italian Sausage and Grilled Chicken Alfredo pasta

Ingredients:

1.5 grilled Chicken Breasts chunked up
2.5 grilled Hot Italian Sausages
Half a jar of Alfredo sauce
Half a red bell pepper cut into slices
Black Peppercorn to taste
a touch of smoky paprika (because why not).

I boiled the pasta, drained, and put back in the pan. I then added the above ingredients, heated, and served

pictures are here https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/leftovers.12307/
 
OK - here is what I did with:

Quail's eggs
Soy sauce
Yeast
Custard powder

The custard powder is unsweetened so I figured I could use it along with the yeast to make some blinis with a vanilla flavour. So I made a batter of rye flour, white flour, custard powder, eggs, yeast and milk. Then I left it to ferment overnight.

I soft boiled the quail's eggs and pickled them overnight in a half and half mix of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce.

Made the blinis, and perched the halved Quail's eggs on a little mayo on each blini with asparagus on top to make canapés. The verdict - I fed them to my friend who said they were delicious. The slight vanilla taste works really well with the soy sauce!

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@morning glory: There are so many cool things going on here. I've found out from an earlier Spice Challenge that vanilla can work in savory applications if it's not sweetened, so that's a very nice application of the custard powder. When I see soy sauce, I automatically think of Asian food, but that's not what you did here. Instead, the saltiness of the soy sauce (mixed with the more complex Worcestershire sauce) adds a punch to what might have been a creamy-but-bland bite. Adding the asparagus brings a freshness that breaks up the richness. Superb!
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
@morning glory: There are so many cool things going on here. I've found out from an earlier Spice Challenge that vanilla can work in savory applications if it's not sweetened, so that's a very nice application of the custard powder. When I see soy sauce, I automatically think of Asian food, but that's not what you did here. Instead, the saltiness of the soy sauce (mixed with the more complex Worcestershire sauce) adds a punch to what might have been a creamy-but-bland bite. Adding the asparagus brings a freshness that breaks up the richness. Superb!
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Thank you! I really want to explore using vanilla more often in savoury. This wild card challenge is brilliant for encouraging out of the box thinking!

Not sure my next one is very innovative though...
 
These were the ingredients:

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Here is what I made - this was too easy! Ideally I'd have served a fried egg on top and sprinkled the mushroom dust over so that the dust would be more visible, but I was cooking it for vegan son, so eggs were out.

So this is tofu marinated in tamarind paste and soy sauce and fried crispy with kidney beans, green chillies, snow peas and mushrooms over Singapore noodles. I cooked the mushrooms separately as they were rather 'meaty' and I didn't want them to lose shape mixed in with everything else. The mushroom dust is sprinkled over the top.

This was a very easy 'box' as it was all savoury and all the ingredients work together. I may have to have another go at choosing more blindfold ingredients...

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Another very tasty-looking plate! I know my daughter had fun picking ingredients for me last time, so I think I'll be doing this again, too. Last time, she asked if the ingredients would be used for a particular course, as on the show (they have an appetizer course, an entree course, and a dessert). She was rather hoping that the pizza, soy sauce, and ramen noodles would have to be used in a dessert. Next time, I'm going to ask her to pick the ingredients and the course: if she picks dessert, I'm going to remind her before she picks that she has to eat it. :laugh:
 
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