Usually, my problems with ingredients are either one of two things: either I run out of it or I rarely carry something because its never used in my kitchen. I've already covered the first, so let's get into the second and it's main problem: leftovers. For example, my latest problem is heavy whipping cream. I got it for a from scratch pumpkin pie (I had an adorable little pumpkin sitting out on my table for a few weeks) but now it's March. March and this container of heavy whipping cream is hanging out in my fridge and still not spoiled. Another one is from a more recent attempt at making Chinese dumplings for the Chinese New Year. Seems we overfilled them or something because we had a good amount of dough leftover. In either case, the question is simply “now what”?
The solution to this problem of avoiding wasting food really comes down to asking two questions of yourself: “Can you think of what would work with that ingredient?” or “Can you find out what would work with it?”. The first question came from a person I met who had also experimented with Chinese dumplings with his Chinese girlfriend. I brought up the fact to both of them and another friend that we had a lot of leftover dough and while everyone assured me “that happens a lot”, the boyfriend gave me his solution to the problem: peanut butter. He had taken the dough that was normally filled with meat and veggies and put peanut butter in it and fried it. A fried peanut butter dumpling. It sounds strange, certainly it did to me along with sounding like the most American food idea in existence, but it makes sense. Peanut oil is often used in frying, so it would be complimenting the filling. Not to mention the sweet and savory nature of peanut butter would do well to the texture of the dumpling dough. I have yet to try this brainstorm of a food idea but the girlfriend reassured me it was good and that even her mother back home loved it. That's as good of a reason as any to try it.
The second question is answered by the heavy whipping cream debate. Chris and I were both stumped as to what to do with this container, so I started searching the internet and holy smokes there was a LOT to do with heavy whipping cream. Besides whipped cream you can make anything from chocolate mousse, to turning tomato soup into tomato bisque, sour cream, and a million and a half more desserts and dishes that require a large amount of cream. As we started finding more things, we were making jokes about how we'd have to buy even more heavy whipping cream to get through them all! What started out as a problem turned into the exact opposite of a problem.
As I write this, it is the night I intend to try making homemade chocolate mousse for the first time with our container, and here's to hoping it's good. If you have any ingredients that you're trying to figure out what to do with or just want to share your culinary surprises and discoveries, make a comment below.