The Temp Apartment Challenge: 2 Pots + a Cookie Sheet

The view from our temporary perch in sunny San Francisco is lovely: blue sky, green hills, clean streets and a Whole Foods 30 seconds away.

We are happy! But alas, the state of my cooking is not. While we look for our permanent home, our temporary one is equipped with two pots and a cookie sheet and not a whole lot else. How to gourmet dinner-ize????

It could be a new chef-challenge show on Food Network! Here's what we made last night with just two pots and a cookie sheet:

Pot 1: Battuta di pollo. A thinly pounded (utilizing pot 2, pre-salad) chicken breast sautéed in butter--LOTS of butter to prevent sticking.

Pot 2: Insalata di arugula, tomato, cannellini and shallot with the coup de grace... bergamot vinaigrette! We found this little delicacy at the incredible Bi-Rite market, where I hope to eventually live immediately across from, and we squeezed it all into our little salad "bowl" (aka pot 2) along with olive oil, salt and pepper. We also took the excess bergamot juice and added it to the little crispy chicken bits and butter left in pot 1 to make a tangy reduction. Delicious. Me smart.

Cookie sheet: Roasted potatoes with olive oil and **foraged** rosemary--it's growing out in the little tree-box thing in the middle of the sidewalk next door!! Shh. Don't tell I snatched some. I felt sooo hippie-like and cool with my foraging effort.

Bonus points for this being A) super-affordable and B) well-paired with the neat little lighter-bodied, fresh and rosy 2008 Julien Sunier Fleurie we picked up.

Galician Roulette

Last week, the Crush team played; this week, I felt a bit masochistic and so played by myself, alongside nearly unbearable green curry leftovers. The padróns were no problem... the curry, yes.

To double your money on take-out Thai curry, simply don't drink the extra cup of wildly spicy green curry sauce that comes with your order. Eat your veggies, and your chicken if you like, but leave a good amount of sauce--only crazy, agita-adoring people don't have loads of this leftover from a standard order.

Buy an avocado squash at the greenmarket, along with a small Japanese eggplant, some purple Thai basil, and a few multi-colored carrots.

Quickly wok-fry the vegetables with leftover white meat from last week's fried chicken, then plunge into green curry sauce and pour over white rice.

Two carrots, one squash and one eggplant also yielded enough for lunch tomorrow--and there's still plenty of curry sauce to go. Triple your money, then! And I still have seven padróns left... thrilling.

Crepe Monster

What do you do with leftover chicken, onion, mushrooms and Gruyere? Make a fat crepe! Alton says to let the batter sit, but who has time for that? I don't. But I do have buckwheat on hand. So I used that, too.

Then I made a maple-and-blackberry confit to stuff inside the leftover batter, which I sweetened up with sugar for my dessert. Haaaavava.

Fabulous Farro

3/2/10

The Creation:

Risotto-Style Spinach and Chicken Farro

What's in the fridge:

sauteed spinach

shredded chicken

lamb stock

rabbit stock

old red wine

1/2 lime

Key ingredients consumed:

sauteed spinach

shredded chicken

lamb stock

old red wine

Ingredients purchased:

None!

The Creative Process:

Farro is my favorite grain. EVER. I like to use it in place of Arborio rice to make risotto--you'll hear people say that you can't achieve risotto's signature, coveted creamy consistency using farro... but those people just aren't using enough cheese. Duh. Plus farro is brown, which makes me feel healthier when I'm eating it.

Just like risotto, heat up a good amount of stock. In a separate pan, throw some olive oil and what looks like a good amount of farro over medium-high heat. Stir it around until it browns a touch, then jot in a splash of wine. After it's reduced/cooked out a bit, add your other ingredients--pretty much anything you have on hand that would taste good together! I had spinach and shredded chicken, so there you go. Then, add stock--say a cup at a time--letting the stock all soak in/cook out before adding more. When your farro is tender but still quite chewy, and there's a little stock yet to be evaporated, you're almost done. 

Finally, grate a lot of hard cheese (I had asiago!) into the pan and mix it all around--ooh, look how creamy!!

The verdict:

Insanely delicious. I had to tie my hands behind my back to keep from finishing the entire pan--half of which is reserved for my lunch tomorrow. I've made this farr-isotto with mushrooms and duck; fennel and shallots; butternut squash and bacon... never gone wrong. It just may be the perfect leftover solution.