A Completely Random Cooking Challenge: July Edition!
In April, I embarked on what I called “A Completely Random Cooking Challenge”, where I used a random number generator to assign me recipes to cook from my collection. The month started off strong with many winners, but then fizzled out with a whole bunch of duds. I spent May and June cooking some trusty favorites and feel ready for a random challenge again. Overall, it was a whole lot of fun and challenged me to get out of my comfort zone in the kitchen! I tried recipes I never would have and found some new family favorites. Also, posting my reports in this sub was highly motivating. I loved discussing shared hits and misses. Per tradition, I “rotated” the books on display on my dining room shelf on the first of the month. I have the rest of my collection in piles under my bed, so these are the books that fit our family’s mood this month and are a different selection than I used in April.
To recap the rules, I have assigned each cookbook on my shelf (pictured) a number from 1-40, then use a random number generator to spit out a number. I take the corresponding book off the shelf, count the number of recipes, and use the random number generator again to assign me a recipe to cook from the book. This month, in addition to the assigned recipe, I will select an additional “choice” recipe from the same book that I have never cooked before. For example, this could be a recipe I have always wanted to try, or one that uses up an ingredient about to go bad in my refrigerator.
Other rules are:
- I must stay as true to the recipe as possible.
- I can skip the recipe entirely if I have cooked it before, if it has a hyper-seasonal ingredient (for example, wild ramps or a whole pumpkin), or prominently features a meat my family does not eat (for example, duck confit).
Here is my first report!
Random numbers: 5, 57 corresponding to Pass the Plate “Cheesy Scalloped Tomatoes”
I was excited to get this book, because I had just two weeks ago tried my first recipe from it, and it was a massive hit for the whole family, an exceedingly rare phenomenon (coconut chicken bites)! I ignored the Cheesy Scalloped Tomatoes, which presents as a sort of layered bread, tomato, and cheese casserole, on my first pass through the book, however, because it contains gluten and cheese, which my husband does not eat. To be honest, I was having a hard time visualizing what this dish should taste like, but I was delighted that I already had all of the ingredients and could easily tack it on as a side dish to the meatballs we were already planning to have for dinner.
I did not have the correct size baking dish, so I opted for a slightly smaller one. I could immediately tell not all of the ingredients would fit, so I ended up using half of the tomatoes and cheese but otherwise followed the recipe as written. This was the right call; I am not convinced the recipe would work with the full amount of tomatoes, as it would get quite watery. Otherwise the recipe was simple. I only had to chop part of a loaf of stale bread, a shallot, and some garlic. The rest of the work is layering the ingredients in the baking vessel.
The finished product is best described as “pizza stuffing”. It was flavorful and comforting and paired beautifully with meatballs and an Italian salad. Unfortunately my kids were not thrilled with it, so I’ll be eating the leftovers solo for lunches this week. There are worse leftovers to have, but I do not think I would make this again unless I had a bigger crowd to feed.
Choice recipe from Pass the Plate: Gruyère-Stuffed Dates with Salted Sesame Honey
I had just flagged this recipe last week, and I served it for dessert with our meatball dinner. These are a very simple, one-bite sweet snack. A square of cheese is inserted into a halved date, then covered with a honey and sesame seed mixture and sprinkled with salt. I did not get salt flavor beyond the cheese, so next time I would use a flakier salt like Maldon rather than fleur de sel. Otherwise, I liked these. I felt fancy making and serving them.
Thanks to anyone who read this far! My next random number is 40 - Bravetart!!