# MAY 2020 Challenge - Out of the freezer



## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

With @teamfat's encouragement, "Let's not let this concept fade into the sunset just yet, May of 2020 should be better, a rebirth, springing forth new life into our existence, and hopefully broadening the culinary horizons for all of us."... it seems appropriate to continue with a theme relating to life in these "unprecedented times"... stay-at-home, work-from-home, quarantine at home, shortages and/or hoarding of all sorts of goods and supplies... or whatever you want to call it.

Knowing that many of us are eating out of our freezers more than we generally may, the challenge this month is transforming something *frozen* into a sumptuous delight. Savory or sweet; doesn't matter to me. Only thing needed to qualify is that something *frozen or previously frozen* is included. I expect lots of interesting and yummy entries.

Heck... I'm even so open-minded that if it is something associated with a relatively recent Disney (tm) classic movie I'll consider it a valid contender. 

So using a few of the inimitable words of my predecessor... Cook something from your freezer. And do your best with whatever is left on the shelves at the market or in your freezer to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.

As usual, here are the traditional rules:

The challenge begins on the 1st of every month. The last entry must be made by the last day of the month.
You may post multiple entries.
All entries must be cooked during the month of the challenge.
If you use a documented recipe, please cite your source.
Entries should include the name of your dish and a picture of the final product. Sharing personal recipes and pictures of the process are not mandatory but extremely helpful.
The winner is chosen by the person who posted the challenge, and is announced after the last day of submissions. The decision is final and falls entirely at the discretion of the challenger.
Submitting an entry makes you eligible to win. If you do not wish to be considered for the win you may still participate in the challenge, but make your wishes known to the challenger.
The winner's bounty includes praise, virtual high-fives, and the responsibility of posting the next month's challenge. That entails choosing a theme, posting a Challenge thread that includes the guidelines, checking in on the submissions regularly during the month, and promptly choosing a winner at the end of the challenge.
As a side-note, though... if samples of tasty treats are provided there is the possibility of "extra credit points"... a trick I learned from my kids "virtual education experience".

So make the most of the situation, and get cookin'


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

I am definitely in this one! My freezer is insane. Great concept.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

I’m counting on you Chris!


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

... and just a bit of sharing; forgive my trespasses if this is TMI... my freezer as of right now. I'm sure there will be more added by my blushing bride soon!


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

brianshaw said:


> ... and just a bit of sharing; forgive my trespasses if this is TMI... my freezer as of right now. I'm sure there will be more added by my blushing bride soon!
> 
> View attachment 67639
> View attachment 67640


That is your freezer? Blimey - compared to mine it looks virtually empty. I seriously need to declutter mine (in fact I have 2 freezers), so I'm very much in favour of this challenge.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

In my case, like yours, it's my blushing bride. She starts ordering groceries and next thing I know there are strange boxes in the freezer....


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Great idea, I just have to say this is a "really cool" theme. And here's mine.



















And there's more out in the garage. Like I think a bag of frozen goat meat. May be time for an Ethiopian wat type stew. And don't worry, I won't add any of the batteries to it.

Too funny - look at the on screen ad that just popped up while I am typing this:










I hope this goes well. Statistically speaking, the April challenge saw a 75% increase in entries over March. Hope the trend continues.

mjb.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

I could easily cook out of that freezer! But maybe not using the batteries.


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

Got a freezer on my campsite 
So, I'll try. Just looking for a volunteer that I can email or whatsapp a picture to, to be posted in this challenge.
I think I have a serious case of Android-cheftalk-photo- challengitis!


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Well it looks like the freezer in the ancient garage fridge needs some attention.










But memory served me correctly, I do still have that bag of goat meat. Within the week I imagine you'll all be seeing it again.

mjb.


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## mike9 (Jul 13, 2012)

Nice here today so I defrosted 40oz. of venison, 14oz of pork loin trim and finished up an open package of bacon. I sliced, chilled and ground it for burgers on the grill. I ended up with 11 5oz. patties and we cooked six and boys and girls were they good!!! Served with cheese, pickle, lettuce on a toasted potato roll. I five left for another go 'round.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Sounds great, Mike!


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

I had just sat to start eating when I realized the meal qualified for the challenge. See, my old secondary fridge had started its compressor death rattle. And being 18 years old I decided it would be allowed to pass on. So I ordered a replacement and unpacked the old one. I tossed a package of breakfast sausage links in earliest stages of freezer burn into my main fridge to thaw.

Biscuits and gravy with some canned veggies was a quick easy dinner tonight. Sausage was a bit dry but otherwise fine.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Let's have a tweaked version of that photo.








Biscuit wasnt that yellow, but it's a better version overall.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Looked great the first time... and even better when color corrected.... great entry!


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

We’re off to a good start. Keep it coming. I know there must be a lot of frozen food being used. Don’t be embarrassed... we’re all in a similar boat. No judgement here. Oh... except on the 31st.


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## happyhound (May 19, 2014)

Ok. I get it. No Pic no proof. I did thaw out some house made pizza dough 2 days ago. Some hamburger and 2 fresh bell peppers. 1 red. 1 yellow. I always have P sauce...
Anyway, I made the closest version to a 1979 elementary school pizza you could ever imagine.
No proud. Just is.


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## happyhound (May 19, 2014)

5 AM 1/2 lb slice with a beer for breakfast. The world is shiny again...


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

happyhound said:


> Ok. I get it. No Pic no proof. I did thaw out some house made pizza dough 2 days ago. Some hamburger and 2 fresh bell peppers. 1 red. 1 yellow. I always have P sauce...
> Anyway, I made the closest version to a 1979 elementary school pizza you could ever imagine.
> No proud. Just is.


Sounds great. Draw a picture!


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

First off, @phatch - is that really all the gravy you put on those biscuits??

Next, I have been doing some archaeological excavating in the garage freezer you saw in an earlier picture.










Couldn't make out the date on this package, not sure if it's safe to use.

I should have an entry here in a few hours, though.

mjb.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

So when I got home from work I pulled a couple things out of the freezer. Not exactly fish & chips, but tasty.

*The Players*

Surprisingly simple,










The only thing not in the picture that ended up on the plate was the garlic salt I used to season the fries once they were done.

*The Procedure*

First off, the fries went back in the freezer. The little slab of catfish was put into a pan of cold water to defrost. The cook went down to his office, poured himself a beer and did email, Facebook, that kind of stuff.

About half an hour later the catfish was mostly thawed. I slapped a cast iron grill pan on the biggest burner I have, high heat. About two tablespoons of butter went into a little metal cup, set that on the heating grill to melt. Opened the catfish, dried it off. Took the melted butter and thoroughly doused the fillet. Then a pretty good coat of the blackening seasoning mix.










Gotta work on my snapshot skills, like focusing!

Meanwhile preheated my air fryer. Got the fries out of the freezer, put a good handful in the basket, got those going.










Okay, that slab of iron is SMOKING HOT, on goes the catfish.










Like I said, smokin' hot! It only took a couple of minutes on each side.

*The Product*

Sure, cajun fish and chips, I guess.










VERY tasty, the fish was so tender and creamy and SPICY. I do think I would have been better off cutting it into two pieces, the thicker parts was done just right, the thin bit on the end a bit overcooked. But that didn't stop me from slicking up every morsel on the plate!

mjb.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

So the other day I toyed with a video of cooking an omelet. I need practice. And I wish I had practiced with frying that blackened catfish.

When I put that butter drenched slab of fish on that insanely hot slab of iron it actually burst into flames. Nothing serious, I quickly just blew them out, but it might have made for a good video.

And I need a better infrared thermometer. The one I have maxes out at like 525F. Child's play when it comes to serious cooking.

mjb.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

It's light. Its portion size control for limiting sodium intake. One biscuit split in three sections and lightly sauced.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Bravo, teamfat... looks like fish-n-chips to me!


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

At the moment, I am playing freezer roulette.
Take out something premade and guess what it is.
The first thing out that I thought was a previously cooked meal, had something like "rooms" written on it. I figured that must have said "mushrooms" at some point in time. It went back in the freezer.
Second bag said "ayam", meaning chicken. But what type?
Defrosted and it turned out to be pulled chicken, Indonesian spiced. Heated it up, added sweetcorn (frozen) and fried with rice noodles.
Left over (before the rice noodle fry up) got tomato added and got finished the next morning


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Speaking of freezer roulette, here's a mis-labeled yogurt container...







That's a Japanese curry based on a recipe used by a ship in the Japanese navy (there's this whole thing where each ship has its own curry, and they publish a bunch of the recipes, and so forth). It's mis-labeled because it should say 4/2/20, meaning I made it a month ago, and instead it looks like I made it about a week ago or so. Whatever.

We had an order from Costco about a month ago also, and instead of a family pack of pork chops they sent us an 8.5-pound pork loin. I cut it various ways and froze the bits for later use. A bunch of little baggies got 4 thin slices, and I defrosted one:








Heated the curry, made rice, and breaded and fried the pork. Quick assembly for one of Japan's most beloved comfort foods, Katsu Karei Rice:


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

Next door neighbor's freezer died so I inherited a package which was labeled country style pork ribs. In my freezer had some extra Moroccan tomato sauce from a previously made shakshuka. I stuck that in the blender with BBQ sauce. Blended the two sauces, brushed the pork with it and let marinate before grilling. Served with a slaw of cabbage, carrots, radishes, and cilantro with a yogurt ras el hanout dressing. Also a dish of freekeh, black eyed peas, and radish greens which I drizzled with a tarka of cumin seed, asafoetida, chiles, and onion, right before serving.


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

teamfat said:


> I just have to say this is a "really cool" theme


:lol:


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

The players:



















Well it just had to be curry!



















Full recipe here if anyone is interested.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

That looks like a seriously hot chili pepper!

mjb.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

Not familiar with methi leaves, fenugreek seeds yes, the leaves no. Didn't even know they were a thing. After things open back up I am going to become familiar though. Probably going to have to go down to the city, but I will track some down. Can't wait to play. That is why I am still in love with cooking, always something new to learn. _How cool!! _Thanks morning glory. :~)


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

I've got some dried methi. Only way I've seen it. They sprinkle dried methi on a few of the different pizzas out at Curry Pizza.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

I make my own methi. Learned how from Baking Bad.


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## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

I've been meaning to get done things out of the freezer so I decided to pull out this gluten free puff pastry and fill it with whatever was in the fridge. So I made hand pies. One is filled with ham and the last bits of cheese, mozzarella and american, and the other is leftover taco meat with cheddar and scallion. It was my first time working with this rough and it came out a bit thick and unattractive but overall a tasty meal.


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

chrislehrer said:


> I make my own methi. Learned how from Baking Bad.


? The only way to make your own is grow it from seed. Or am I missing a little joke? I probably am knowing me!


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

teamfat said:


> That looks like a seriously hot chili pepper!
> 
> mjb.


Yep! That's why I add it whole and pierce it. That way, it can be removed but imparts a fantastic flavour. Me being a total chilli-head, I do eat it. But most folk wouldn't.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

More treasures rescued from my neighbor's freezer that was dying. A ziplock of boneless cooked chicken breasts and a ziplock of sliced okra. Because the chicken was already cooked my mind went to the Brazilian dish Bobo. Most people think of shrimp bobo, but chicken bobo is also frequently made. The reason I thought of bobo is because most of the care and cooking is primarily focused on the sauce. Then at the end, the chicken is sautéed on the side and then added to the sauce; so I figure it would be perfect for previously cooked chicken. Okra is not usually part of the dish, but when have I ever paid attention to convention and/or rules. Because of that I also decide to be even more of a heretic and include corn and black beans.

Made a stock out of a leftover roasted chicken carcass, onion and garlic and ginger skins, corn cobs and husks, jalapeno seeds and membranes and stems. Chopped up ginger, garlic, and jalapenos. Put it in a blender with lemon juice and annatto and blended to a paste. Chopped 3 onions and softened over moderate high heat in coconut oil. Added paste from blender and cooked until turning darker in color. Added chopped plum tomatoes, coconut milk, finely chopped roasted peanuts, shredded coconut, and cilantro. Cooked for about 5 until slightly thickened and then blended and drizzled in stock until smooth. Returned to heat, added stock, chopped plum tomatoes, sliced okra, corn, black beans, cilantro, and shredded coconut. Cooked and continually stirred for about 20 until thickened. Added the chicken which I large diced, turned heat off and let sit for 5. Served over brown rice and garnished with cilantro and coconut. Picture is lousy but dish wasn't; ate too much! :~)


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

@hank has nicely offered to help me with the pictures, but sice I had to do some finances I decided to turn on the genny, rig my phone as a hotspot and try to post something on cheftalk.
So now a couple of dishes in one go:
First up:
Sambal taotjo from the freezer (google is your friend  ), and frozen sweetcorn:

Taotjo (OK, I'll help a bit: they are salted little black beans)








Sweetcorn with tomato, garlic and ****** lime leaves (they were also frozen








And everything together


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

Next::
Potjie with chicken (frozen), red wine (open bottle, needed to do something with it), garlic (can't cook without it), chili (ditto), little soy, tomato and some rape (fresh)


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

And we got more:
This one I already mentioned in a previous post (ayam, sweetcorn, noodles etc), so just the pics here without further comments:







(okay, 1 comment, I like this little blue enamelled cast iron pot)


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

butzy said:


> google is your friend


It is a good thing google is my friend. Not only is google my friend, but my friend also translates, which is a good thing because I needed help in both areas. :~) Learned a lot (such as potjie, taotjo, etc.) and knowledge is power. Can't wait for my next shopping trip in the city. Thanks! I am sitting here sipping my morning coffee and tasting the dishes with my mental palate. Woot!


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Okay, so here's an entry: *lambalaya

The Players*







The end of a previously-frozen leg of lamb that I roasted for Mother's Day. That only sort-of counts for "out of the freezer," but...

























Frozen diced celery, colored bell peppers, green bell peppers (not sure why my wife bought this package, but whatever), and in the stock are three frozen andouille sausages, thawing.

*The Process*













Saute the heck out of the veggies...













Add andouille and spice mix (homemade)...
Saute the heck out of that, add chopped-up lamb and garlic and fresh ginger, stir in rice, add stock, cover and simmer 25 minutes, let sit 10 minutes, and...

*The Results*







Plating is nothing to write home about, but the family polished off every morsel! I would have preferred it a lot hotter, but my kids won't tolerate that, so I had to make do with some Frank's on top.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Nice dish... and “previously frozen”, too!


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Frozen chicken breast. Then sous vide. Then grill mark.




















Perspective on the meal image hides the size of the grilled veggies and rice salad underneath. Sauce is a little more of the salad vinaigrette based in lemon, tahini and zaatar.


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

I gotta say: one thing this challenge has dome is making me realise rhat I need to improve my marking. Been eating a lot of surprises!


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Frozen ground turkey. Not fully thawed, but that's all right, I don't need all of it for this.








Season it up with white pepper, sugar, cornstarch, garlic, ginger and fish sauce.








Heat a non-stick pan. I'm really tempted to try a higher heat, high oil cast iron version to get more crispness next time. Haven't tried a crispy one yet. Anyway, in with some of the seasoned turkey.








Break it up. Swirl in some batter--rice flour, turmeric, curry powder, salt, coconut milk, water, green onions. Cover and let it cook.








Add bean sprouts, cover and cook some more.








Flip the empty side over the bean sprouts. Toast more to your liking.

Break up some into a lettuce leaf. Add thai basil, cilantro, nuoc cham, roll and eat.








You've now enjoyed Frozen Turkey Banh Xeo.

Silly History. This plate is from my mother-in-law. It is Boontonware, a plastic from the 1940s. I have this one, an off pink dessert one, a brown and a yellow salad sized one. I don't pamper them. When they die, they die. She'd be glad they're getting used.


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

I love banh xeo!
You are making me hungry


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Tried cast iron. Yes it's crispier, but it sticks like mad. Takes quite a bit more oil. Multiple fragments in the fold and more breaking getting it out of the pan.








The first one was more like a coarse scramble when it came out. Not nearly enough oil .


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

phatch said:


> You've now enjoyed Frozen Turkey Banh Xeo.


 Very cool phatch!!! That dish is a new to me but I am definitely going to be trying it out on a first hand basis in the near future. Also enjoyed the silly history, made me think of some of my cooking/dining items that have a history. I have some cast iron pans my dad made when he was studying industrial engineering in college.They came out great except when he made the mold he neglected to reverse the initials so instead of WM, he got MW. He said the prof was all over that oversight, too funny!


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

I extricated the bag of frozen goat meat out of the garage fridge, it is currently defrosting in the house fridge. With luck I'll feel like making some sort of stew with it before the end of the month, get one more dish added to the list for May.

mjb.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Let’s get thawing and cooking folks... only a few days left before the next challenge!


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

If'll have some more dishes if the generator isnt busy tomorrow, and I can find signal


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

I found some really old chicken thighs in the freezer and I'm trying doing them as a heavily seasoned confit, after which I'll quickly fry them. Possibly a sauce, not sure -- something along the lines of a Louisiana etouffee, is what I'm thinking, but it's all rather uncertain at the moment. If it comes out at all, and I don't forget to take pictures, I'll post it.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Okay, well, it sort of worked. Not bad at all, actually. I don't have a photo of the chicken thighs themselves, but take it from me, they'd been in the freezer at least a year, possibly longer. I cured them overnight, then made confit in the water-bath. So after that it was all about the sauce.













Frozen scraps and ends became stock in a pressure cooker, and frozen celery and bell pepper joined non-frozen onion to create the Trinity.













Flour and oil for a roux, moving from pale blond to red (it was redder-browner than the picture suggests).













Cook the veg in the roux, whisk into the stock, and cook very well with garlic and a LOT of seasonings (heavy on the black pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, salt, and thyme). Eventually I sauteed some green onions in butter and beat that in, then seared the chicken and heated it through in the sauce. With basic white rice, this produces....







Chicken étouffée.


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

Frozen crabmeat:










I added:

Emmental grated, Aleppo pepper, Lime zest, Chives, Kefir yoghurt , Breadcrumbs, Parmesan and made delightfully retro Crab au Gratin in scallop shells.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Well here we are, folks... last day of the month. There have been a lot of ingenious submissions. Any more? Picking a winner is not a task to which I look forward, but it must be done, and will be done tonight. Stay tuned, stay well, and stay happy!


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Got the frozen goat in the pot:






Hopefully I can stay awake long enough to get an official entry in. Man, you would love the aroma coming out of the kitchen at the moment!

mjb.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

Gonna be working on a chicken gumbo for this evening's dinner. The gumbo will be utilizing three ingredients from the freezer and other items I just got from the store. Not really worried about the deadline, more interested in contributing and *eating!!!*


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Okay, here we go. Last night was a long one, more driving than usual, about an hour over the end of my shift before I could go home. But I did spend some time in the kitchen.

*The Players*

Well to make a goat stew you need goat. I've already posted the picture of the bag of it getting surrounded by ice out in the vintage garage fridge. I'm really thinking I need to get a new fridge for the kitchen, and take the current kitchen fridge out to the garage and send the ancient, 60, 70 year old unit currently in the garage out to pasture.

Anyway, 2 pounds of bone in goat meat chunks:










I guess goat meat is like goat cheese - you don't get goat cheddar, goat brie, etc. just like you don't get goat sirloin, or goat chuck, you get goat meat. Anyway, I bought it back in July of 2019 according to the tag, so it isn't that old.

And onions are important in Ethiopian cooking when making a wat or a tibs or whatever.










And berbere spice, of course, and why not a bit of fresh serrano?

*The process*

First off the goat was browned in ghee. A lot of Ethiopian recipes call for niter kibbeh which is a spiced clarified butter. Maybe next time I do something like this I'll make the real thing. But the plain old ghee seems to have done a nice job.










Once the goat is browned off, the heat gets reduced to low, another blob of ghee goes in along with the thinly sliced onions and a good dusting of kosher salt.










Covered the pot, let the onions sweat and steam for about 20 minutes, stirring a couple times, letting them get soft but not getting color on them yet. Then off with the cover, up a bit with the heat and another 15 minutes or so. Onions started to pick up some color, getting a bit of caramelisation as the liquid from the sweating/steaming stage is driven off. To be honest I'm not sure if the two step process really produces a better onion in the end. I do know it is really tasty.

So after the onions get some good color on them, about 2 tablespoons each of minced garlic and ginger go in. Stir thet in for a bit, once the ginger and garlic fragrance hits you add in the 1/4 cup, a generous 1/4 cup I might add,goes in and gets stirred around a bit.










Man, the kitchen smells SO GOOD at this point! Some whiz kid somewhere has GOT to develop an aroma digitizer!

So the goat is returned to the pot, beef stock poured in the cover, set to a gentle simmer.

*The Product*

I'm going to cheat here, forgive me. The goat needs a bit more simmering, but I need to get some sleep before heading off to work in too few hours. And you've seen the bubbling cauldron [ Can a 2.5 quart pot be called a cauldron? ] already. And one thing I did that normally I would not do is turn off the heat and add the slices of serrano.










Normally I would have diced it up and added it way back with the ginger and garlic, but one of the many recipes I perused in researching this dish added a chili at the very end, thought I'd give that approach a try.

So no final presentation, but I will say I've been tasting as I go along, and wow, this will slap you around for sure! Maybe I should have used a scant 1/4 cup of the berbere. Spice, goat, onion - the samples I've pulled out were really tasty, just needs another hour or so of simmering to get that goat a bit more tender. And some traditional injera to sop up the sauce. There's an Ethiopian market fairly close, I may stop in and get some of their injera bread if they have it, This is certainly one tasty pot of stew!

mjb.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Well here we are... the last day of the month, in the month of May. Time to bring this edition of the ChefTalk Monthly Challenge to a close. Sincere thanks to all who participated. 

And for many of us, we close the month of May with a clean freezer!

For the past month, I, like most of you, have been hunkered down, laying low, staying out of sight... thanks to a worldwide pandemic. And for the past 2 days I’ve been glued to the TV watching my city, Los Angeles, self-destruct. It’s sad... very sad, but has given me an opportunity to reflect on how good life can be when one has good friends and loving family.

I’ve found myself reflecting on how lucky we are to have ChefTalk, which is a very special place on the internet!

Good food is essential, too, and the good people in this fine site clearly demonstrate culinary talent and good taste. I can honestly say that each submission made my mouth water. Some taught me about cuisines that I’m not very familiar.

I’m finding this to be a difficult decision. But a decision must be made and here it is. One submission impressed me with its simplicity and beauty... and I can only image how good it tasted.

Congratulations MORNING GLORY. I select you as the winner of the May 2020 Challenge and look forward to your theme for June!


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Congrats and good job to all.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

Congrats morning glory! Great job as always.

Finished the chicken gumbo. From the freezer came more of the cooked chicken breast rescued from the neighbors dying freezer, okra, and chicken stock. Started by making a dark roux and that was chocolate colored. Threw in the holy trinity of onions, celery, and peppers (used pasilla instead of bell) and garlic. Continued cooking and scraping the browned goodies from the bottom for about 20 minutes. Added the stock and seasonings and simmered about 45 minutes. Added the okra and collard greens. Cooked about 5 minutes and added corn and black eyed peas. Cooked about 5 minutes and added the chicken. Stirred and turned off heat. Let sit 5 minutes and served over brown rice. topped with chopped celery leaves.


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

Congratulations Morning Glory!


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Great job, @morning glory !

I just got home from work. What should I cook for the first dinner in June?

mjb.


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

brianshaw said:


> I'm finding this to be a difficult decision. But a decision must be made and here it is. One submission impressed me with its simplicity and beauty... and I can only image how good it tasted.
> 
> Congratulations MORNING GLORY. I select you as the winner of the May 2020 Challenge and look forward to your theme for June!


I was seriously not expecting this. There were some really fantastic submissions this time round. Blimey - I will have to think.


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

I also want to know what to cook 
And it is almost evening here!


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

New challenge here.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Well deserved! A beautiful dish.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

chrislehrer said:


> Well deserved! A beautiful dish.


I think @morning glory could take some pictures of a dirty sock in an empty tuna can and make it look like a delicious gourmet meal.

mjb.


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## morning glory (May 28, 2015)

teamfat said:


> I think @morning glory could take some pictures of a dirty sock in an empty tuna can and make it look like a delicious gourmet meal.
> 
> mjb.


Don't tempt me.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Do it! You know you want to....


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

morning glory said:


> Don't tempt me.


Perhaps I can help you out... I have a pair of yellow socks that looks similar to ears of corn... and a can of tuna waiting to be emptied!


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

brianshaw said:


> Perhaps I can help you out... I have a pair of yellow socks that looks similar to ears of corn... and a can of tuna waiting to be emptied!


Oh man, I already have a picture worked out in my mind... but I don't have near the plating and photography skills of morning glory, so no pic for now... but then I have been known to do stupider things, so who knows? :~)


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## mike9 (Jul 13, 2012)

How come this is still a sticky and the June Challenge is not?


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