One of my joys on Sunday night is to listen to Lynne Rossetto Kasper's The Splendid Table on the radio. She always has very interesting topics related to food. But I most enjoy her Stump the Cook segment.
The idea behind the segment is that a caller provides her with a limited list of five ingredients in the caller's refrigerator. Lynne must then fashion a palatable recipe out of the ingredients.
I had my own stump the cook moment this weekend. There was plenty of food in the refrigerator, but the ingredients just did not seem to match up. I had a bit of pork roast, two stale tortillas, and an assortment of peppers. If the tortillas had been fresh, I would have whipped up a pork-vegetable filling. Instead, I decided to take a different tack.
I started with the colors of the Mexican flag: a white onion, a red bell pepper, and three jalapeño peppers. I chopped them up and briefly stir fried them. I added the shredded pork only enough to warm it, and then added six tablespoons of my favorite salsa. The last step was to sprinkle in strips of the stale tortilla -- being careful to prevent the strips from clumping together. When the tortillas were softened, I had my dinner.
It was delicious -- and was enough for three separate meals. What I really liked was that the dish retained the basic colors of the Mexican flag.
I just realized that it would have been great with some of my mango soup.
Maybe next time.
The idea behind the segment is that a caller provides her with a limited list of five ingredients in the caller's refrigerator. Lynne must then fashion a palatable recipe out of the ingredients.
I had my own stump the cook moment this weekend. There was plenty of food in the refrigerator, but the ingredients just did not seem to match up. I had a bit of pork roast, two stale tortillas, and an assortment of peppers. If the tortillas had been fresh, I would have whipped up a pork-vegetable filling. Instead, I decided to take a different tack.
I started with the colors of the Mexican flag: a white onion, a red bell pepper, and three jalapeño peppers. I chopped them up and briefly stir fried them. I added the shredded pork only enough to warm it, and then added six tablespoons of my favorite salsa. The last step was to sprinkle in strips of the stale tortilla -- being careful to prevent the strips from clumping together. When the tortillas were softened, I had my dinner.
It was delicious -- and was enough for three separate meals. What I really liked was that the dish retained the basic colors of the Mexican flag.
I just realized that it would have been great with some of my mango soup.
Maybe next time.
