Some time ago I wrote about the fridge slut, a dish concocted from the odds and ends in the fridge. It’s a dish that, I reckon, has a 50/50 chance of going well. There is always the very real possibility that your speculative marriage of maple syrup and spring onions is going to end in tears. But then it’s just as possible that your fridge sluttery will end in triumph.
Yesterday, buried under an avalanche of deadlines, I couldn’t face going to the shops. I boiled a potato. I fried some bacon and onion with a little thyme. I made an eye-watering dressing with English mustard and cider vinegar, then put my face in the fridge. Chives! Radishes! Salad leaves! All the above made a happy union on my plate.
But something was missing. I fried an egg. I bunged it on top then ate the whole slutty mess in one go. While watching Made In Chelsea. Ha!
*****
Today’s lunch was more civilised. Fat English asparagus boiled for a couple of minutes, tossed in melted butter and served on garlicky toast with hot smoked trout and horseradish. Somehow the slut was better.
If you were to make a fridge slut now, what would it consist of?
Beef dripping and a leek. Equivalent of pants round the ankles in the gutter.
Sounds alarming.
I’d have used a poached egg, personally!
But today’s would have been a leftover mixed bean salad, some brie and toasted bread. Hardly inspiring fare… 🙂
Couldn’t be arsed 😉
James,
I have such a dish I call “The Kitchen Sink.” For this dish I always have on hand rice and a can of beans. Usually it’s pigeon peas (gandules). This is the base. Then leftovers get tossed in–onion, tomatoes, chopped peppers, mushrooms, any kind of meat and chicken broth or water. Spice it up, of course. You get the idea, Actually it’s pretty good and, best of all, you are so proud of yourself for having cleaned up the fridge.
That sounds delicious! J
love your work… I too have a soup called ‘fridge soup’, which is all the left overs blended!
It ususally works, doesn’t it? J
Oh my lunches are regularly quite slutty. I’ve found you can put just about ANYTHING into and on top of a frittata. Great way to clear out the veg drawer!
Haha, love it, J
I made an amazing bottom-of-the-fridge pasta a few weeks ago, reminded me of my student days which is apt since I am a student again!
There’s almost nothing in my fridge right now – some olives, and a bunch of bok choi that’s probably gone floppy. And some leftover risotto from days ago that needs chucking out. I haven’t been home much lately…
Arancini?
Tonight’s was prawns, the scrag end of a chorizo, garlic, red wine and tomatoes shoved in the oven and then demolished with bread that was only just salvageable by toasting it a bit. We really need to go food shopping.
that sounds ideal to me. Prawn and chorizo always very happy together.
Hmmm – eggs, parsley, goats cheese, peas. That says frittata to me.
Yum. Double yum, in fact. J
james. just discovered your blog, what a treat. love the balance of your quirky, stream of consciousness style with your lovely ingredient led recipes. Im on holiday in the med with 8 chums, tonight is our last night at the villa so it is not only a fridge slut moment but a clearing. tonight i am the fridge madame.
Lovely to have discovered your blog in return – gorgeous recipes and photographs. How did the sluttery go?
You’ll often find me stirring a pan of ‘Mystery Soup’ – all the odds and ends from our fridge and store cupboard or whatever vegetables were going cheap at the supermarket.
Our fridge presented me with mushrooms, onions, creme fraiche and little else yesterday. Ended up combining this with the dog end of a bottle of (terrible) red wine and making a sort-of-stroganoff. Actually really tasty! I would be blogging about it if bloody Blogger wasn’t down.
Fridge buffet is the purest form of this art. Cooking or changing of the form of the ingredients is absolutely forbidden.
Of course chopping, peeling and stoning are allowed but not encouraged. It is a solitary pursuit best practiced in silence, very late at night. Items from the larder are sometimes allowed.
The art is really in the deciding which of the order the constituents of the buffet should be eaten. Often the memory of the experience is justifiably hazy.
Right now? Half a jar of pesto, some butter, some forogotten chocolate truffles going a bit squidgy, some limp flat-leaf parsley, half a chilli and a cos lettuce. Any ideas?!
Scrambled eggs with green olives (or any antipasti) and toast and any leftover salad, mushrooms and onions – really hits the slutty spot.
Naughty! x