The invention test - how would you cope?

[Ken Natton]

So I have to confess, at one level I’m just trying to think up a thread here, but I do think this might be the basis of an interesting discussion. Well, let’s see.

Masterchef is back (here in the UK) and it set me thinking about this whole deal of the invention test. So the question is, how do think you would cope? I mean, take away the issue of time limits, of Messrs Wallace and Torode breathing down your neck and of the risk of embarrassment on national TV; suppose you are in your own kitchen with a bunch of random ingredients in front of you and you have to come up with something. Now I suppose, in that situation, the first thing I would probably do, is go looking on the internet for ideas. So let’s say the internet is down and, I dunno, space aliens have abducted all the recipe books or something. Hey listen, it doesn’t have to be credible, that’s the beauty of this game. The point is, the only resource you have is your own brain and your experience. And I suppose, depending on what was there, pretty much anyone could come up with a meat and two veg type thing. The question is, could you think up something that would stand up as an actual dish?

And finally, I suppose, it is going to depend an awful lot on exactly what ingredients are in front of you. On Masterchef, there are a selection of things that might work together and some deliberate red herrings, not literally of course. Or the mistake some contestants make is not to choose a few things that will work but to try to include too much and finish up with something that is not a coherent whole. So firstly, I suppose I am just wondering what people feel about how they would be likely to cope in that situation. I confess, the reality is, I would probably be pretty rubbish at it. But then, one way this might work is if someone suggests a bunch of ingredients in that manner, and others try to think what they would do with those.

Just seems to me that some interesting things might come of it, that’s all…

 

[creative]

Interesting idea for a thread. I suppose, on some level, we all regularly concoct dishes from what is available at home and maybe shop for missing ingredients to make a meal.

When I watch Masterchef I do, fleetingly, wonder what I could make from the invention test - spoilt for choice! The difference there, of course, is not just making a dish but an EXCEPTIONAL dish and that's where I think I would show up the limitations of my current cookery status!

I am just wondering if it might be an idea to turn this thread into an invention test, i.e. if you listed certain ingredients and then we all come up with what we might make with them e.g. perhaps a scaled down version taken from the programme.

 

[Morning Glory]

Interesting idea for a thread. I suppose, on some level, we all regularly concoct dishes from what is available at home and maybe shop for missing ingredients to make a meal.

When I watch Masterchef I do, fleetingly, wonder what I could make from the invention test - spoilt for choice! The difference there, of course, is not just making a dish but an EXCEPTIONAL dish and that's where I think I would show up the limitations of my current cookery status!

I am just wondering if it might be an idea to turn this thread into an invention test, i.e. if you listed certain ingredients and then we all come up with what we might make with them e.g. perhaps a scaled down version taken from the programme.

I think I would enjoy it and possibly be quite good at it but for the fact I'd hate to be filmed and have judges looking over me! I do it quite a lot at home but often use books or the internet for ideas, as you say. On the other hand, I reckon I have enough knowledge now of what works together to do it without any aids - and I sometimes do. The cauliflower recipe I made for the challenge here, was made without reference to books or the internet.

 

[Ken Natton]

... The difference there, of course, is not just making a dish but an EXCEPTIONAL dish ...

I am just wondering if it might be an idea to turn this thread into an invention test, i.e. if you listed certain ingredients and then we all come up with what we might make with them e.g. perhaps a scaled down version taken from the programme.

Right, that is exactly the idea. And it doesn’t have to be one list of ingredients, anyone can propose a list and – hoping it doesn’t become too confusing – different lists can be discussed at the same time. But I was not thinking that it necessarily had to be Masterchef levels of exceptionality – I’m certainly not thinking of cubes of jelly of some intensified flavour, or sphericalised whatnames or foamed hu-jack-a-pivy. I’m thinking about things that most of us could realistically do. But the thing is, if we were given a piece of beef or some chicken, most of us could come up with something, but it probably would be heavily based on something we knew, rather than a genuine piece of invention. But what if it was venison or guinea fowl? Would that lead toward particular ingredients you wanted to accompany it? Or of course, often in the invention tests on Masterchef it is not actually the main ingredient that leads in a particular direction, it is one of the accompanying ingredients like cous-cous or polenta or some such. In any case, I’m happy to knock the idea around a little more to see if it can develop into something that people feel stimulated to engage with. And I am not trying to compete with the recipe challenge, personally, I’m not looking for closely defined recipes here just the fundamental ideas of what you would do and why.

 

[Morning Glory]

Of course we wouldn't know if people were cheating and using books/internet.

 

[Cinisajoy]

For venison, it cooks like beef. For fowl, well that would be a chicken.

First challenge, cooked pork chops, yellow squash, cabbage and anything else in my pantry and frig.

 

[creative]

In Waitrose today, I saw (for the first time) sime venison mince! (It was reduced too so I was quite tempted but not sure what I could make with it). I wonder what members here would do with it.

Since venison can be quite dry (very lean), I might fry off some pancetta and finely chopped onions first before adding it. Then, add some stock but not sure which flavour would go well. Would it suit a variation of spag bols or shepherd's pie? Would redcurrant jelly go well with it or port?

 

[Cinisajoy]

In Waitrose today, I saw (for the first time) sime venison mince! (It was reduced too so I was quite tempted but not sure what I could make with it). I wonder what members here would do with it.

Since venison can be quite dry (very lean), I might fry off some pancetta and finely chopped onions first before adding it. Then, add some stock but not sure which flavour would go well. Would it suit a variation of spag bols or shepherd's pie? Would redcurrant jelly go well with it or port?

Beef stock.

 

[buckytom]

I would make a Juicy Lucy with venison mince.

That is a cheese stuffed burger.

You form a very fat patty with the venison, almost more of a ball, then press a good pinch or two of shredded cheese into the center and close it off, flatenning it a bit into a patty, then grill until the cheese inside melts.

Or maybe a Turkish style kofte/kebab. Mix parsley, minced onion, minced garlic, paprika, cayenne powder, ground allspice, cumin, nutmeg, and cinnamon into the mince, form it along a stick, and grill until cooked through. Serve with my tzatziki sauce and a hot sauce on the side

 

[creative]

OK I have another one for you all! I have just bought some quite thin-looking duck steaks, i.e. without the skin. I am not eating them tonight. What would you do with them?

I thought the obvious one would be to slice them and stir fry into a pan that has some buttered, cooked onions and ginger. Then decanting them and stir frying some sliced mangetout and red peper, adding back the meat and onions to heat through. Maybe a sweet chilli sauce. Served with chinese egg noodles.

A more offbeat idea I might try co-stars the gram (chick pea flour) which makes a great batter. I thought of maybe dipping the steaks into that and frying them off but how to tell when they were done! (Pinkish)? I like the idea of a spicy plum sauce to serve with it.

 

[Morning Glory]

In Waitrose today, I saw (for the first time) sime venison mince! (It was reduced too so I was quite tempted but not sure what I could make with it). I wonder what members here would do with it.

Since venison can be quite dry (very lean), I might fry off some pancetta and finely chopped onions first before adding it. Then, add some stock but not sure which flavour would go well. Would it suit a variation of spag bols or shepherd's pie? Would redcurrant jelly go well with it or port?

It would work with pasta very well. Yes pancetta a onions but I would add red wine rather than stock and cook it down. Redcurrant jelly would work as an accompanying sauce, if you made it into burgers but I'm not sure I'd put it in the bolognese. Perhaps a splash of port on the bolognese would work.

 

[Morning Glory]

I would make a Juicy Lucy with venison mince.

That is a cheese stuffed burger.

You form a very fat patty with the venison, almost more of a ball, then press a good pinch or two of shredded cheese into the center and close it off, flatenning it a bit into a patty, then grill until the cheese inside melts.

Or maybe a Turkish style kofte/kebab. Mix parsley, minced onion, minced garlic, paprika, cayenne powder, ground allspice, cumin, nutmeg, and cinnamon into the mince, form it along a stick, and grill until cooked through. Serve with my tzatziki sauce and a hot sauce on the side

Excellent suggestions!

 

[Elawin]

I would make a Juicy Lucy with venison mince. That is a cheese stuffed burger.

I've had bought venison burgers many times, but every time I decide to make my own I can never get any, anywhere, in any form I even pre-ordered some venison for Christmas a couple of years ago, only to check on the last date I could add to that order to find it was "not available". I will get some one day

 

[Elawin]

Masterchef is back (here in the UK) and it set me thinking about this whole deal of the invention test. So the question is, how do think you would cope? I mean, take away the issue of time limits, of Messrs Wallace and Torode breathing down your neck and of the risk of embarrassment on national TV; suppose you are in your own kitchen with a bunch of random ingredients in front of you and you have to come up with something. Now I suppose, in that situation, the first thing I would probably do, is go looking on the internet for ideas. So let’s say the internet is down and, I dunno, space aliens have abducted all the recipe books or something. Hey listen, it doesn’t have to be credible, that’s the beauty of this game. The point is, the only resource you have is your own brain and your experience. And I suppose, depending on what was there, pretty much anyone could come up with a meat and two veg type thing. The question is, could you think up something that would stand up as an actual dish?

And finally, I suppose, it is going to depend an awful lot on exactly what ingredients are in front of you. On Masterchef, there are a selection of things that might work together and some deliberate red herrings, not literally of course. Or the mistake some contestants make is not to choose a few things that will work but to try to include too much and finish up with something that is not a coherent whole. So firstly, I suppose I am just wondering what people feel about how they would be likely to cope in that situation. I confess, the reality is, I would probably be pretty rubbish at it. But then, one way this might work is if someone suggests a bunch of ingredients in that manner, and others try to think what they would do with those.

Just seems to me that some interesting things might come of it, that’s all…

James Martin used to do an amateur version of this (in the afternoons) called The Box, which I often used to watch. The contestants were literally given boxes of mixed ingredients and challenged to come up with a meal. It always used to amaze me how very few "disasters" there were.

Any inventiveness I use is usually confined to fathoming out how to use up all the odds and ends I have left in the fridge before my next veggie box comes. I can't even cook a chicken without looking up the times, oven temperature etc. I've got a memory like a sieve.

 

[Ken Natton]

Of course we wouldn't know if people were cheating and using books/internet.

No, but they would be missing the point, I think. The purpose wasn’t really to be a competitive challenge – who is best at it as such. I mean, I suppose I was kind of interested in what people felt about the prospect, whether, like me, most feel that they would find it difficult to just invent something on the hoof given a random set of ingredients or whether there was a broad confidence that something reasonably identifiable as a definite dish and reasonably appetising could be improvised out of most reasonable sets of ingredients. But the real point was just to try to stimulate ideas and stimulate conversation that might generate further ideas.

Or maybe a Turkish style kofte/kebab. Mix parsley, minced onion, minced garlic, paprika, cayenne powder, ground allspice, cumin, nutmeg, and cinnamon into the mince, form it along a stick, and grill until cooked through. Serve with my tzatziki sauce and a hot sauce on the side

It’s certainly an interesting point about venison mince. I’m not sure they have ever been given mince in any form for an invention test on Masterchef – but if they were, I suppose it would be clear that some kind of burger, or meatballs or kofta would be what they were being led towards, rather than just mince and onions, I mean! And I find @buckytom's post particularly interesting in this regard. I make lamb koftas with tzatziki sauce, and I recognise @buckytom's list of herbs and spices as largely the ones I would use – but would you use exactly the same herbs and spices for vension, or would you be led to certain alternatives by the particular character of vension? Actually, I think vension koftas sounds like a great idea and I might even try it sometime. But where can I get minced vension? Wait where?...

First challenge, cooked pork chops, yellow squash, cabbage and anything else in my pantry and frig.

And I see @Cinisajoy got her ideas for what to do with her pork chops on another thread, but that is also another interesting point. Again, I’m not sure they have ever been given already cooked meat for an invention test on Masterchef. But if they were…? Well, my first thoughts on reading @Cinisajoy's post was that all I could think to do with cooked pork chops would be to slice the meat and do it in a salad – maybe with an acidic dressing. The only other thing I would do with already cooked meat – not necessarily pork – is put it in a sauce – perhaps use it as a pie filling.

And here’s another case in point for me to throw into the ring. Rabbit. I’ll be straight upfront and say, I have never cooked rabbit. I have eaten it and enjoyed it in a restaurant, but I’ve never attempted to make a dish with it. The obvious thing – or at least the most common thing I think – to do with rabbit is to make a stew. Again, rabbit pie, but that is essentially just the stew with a pastry lid. But if the other ingredients you had with the rabbit didn’t lead towards a stew, what else could you do? Again, I have a vague memory of a Masterchef competitor doing some kind of rabbit ballantine – I don’t think that was in an invention test though.