Fun Food

I have discovered a new fun food.

Fun foods, are those meals which you create from whatever is available in the fridge and store cupboards, so they are always a little different. It is also a good way to use up any small items of food that will only be chucked out otherwise.

My original fun food was pizza and many a killer one I made with my brother. We made up a base, spooned on some tomato puree, then anything else we found. Usually this consisted of onion, bacon, pepper, herbs, mushrooms, tomatoes, any pepperoni and loads of grated cheese. The result usually burnt the top of your mouth off.

Later, when I decided pizza was perhaps a little unhealthy, I switched to stir-frys. This uses some of the same ingredients as pizza as most vegetables can be chopped up small and fried. You can just eat it as vegetables, but we usually have some meat ready prepared for stir-fry in the freezer. It doesn't take long to heat up the wok, stir the ingredients for a while, then add the sauce. We often have two or three jars in the fridge, or you can have fun making your own. In the past, I have used various combinations of soy sauce, sherry, lemon juice, honey, peanut butter, with some chinese spices thrown in if I want more taste.

Last night though, I had some gravy in the fridge to use up. I have never made risotto, but have seen it on TV. Searching through the cupboards, I discovered some risotto rice that had been bought at some time in the past, and a rummage in the fridge brought up some spring onions, mushrooms and pepper. I defrosted some chicken and peas and diluted the gravy to make it more like stock.

All the recipes I had looked at said to fry the onion first, then add the rice. After that everything else went in and when the chicken looked cooked, I added the gravy. After twenty minutes, as the rice packet had said, the liquid had been absorbed. It was a substantial meal, but maybe a little lacking in taste. Next time I may add some herbs or spices to jazz it up a bit.