We’re giving away a free copy of Sally Schneider’s award-winning cookbook The Improvisational Cook
“Schneider gives cooks the know-how to embellish, adapt, change, alter, modify and experiment in their cooking with plenty of encouragement and helpful information. Here are the tools and insights everyone needs to find his or own voice in the kitchen…”
You can “look inside” on Amazon
To enter, all you have to do to enter is write a Comment (in the form at the end of this post) telling us of a kitchen improvisation you’ve attempted. Tell us about a dish you’ve made, a unique flavor combo you discovered or even a piece of equipment you’ve rigged. If you’ve been flat-out afraid to improvise, you can enter as well, just tell us the gist. Success or “failure” doesn’t matter, though we’d love to know a few juicy details, what motivated it, what it consisted of, and how it turned out...The winner will be chosen by random.org.
Please make sure that you’ve signed in to the comments section with a valid email address, so that we can contact you if you win. (If you’ve already registered for ‘the improvised life’, you don’t need to worry about it.)
Deadline for entry is Thursday, April 14th. We’ll post the winner on Friday, April 15th.
I was living in Latin America and my boyfriend was visiting for a week. I had decided to cook him baked salmon for dinner, but discovered I’d forgotten to replenish my lemon supply. So foraging ahead with the marinade, I threw together olive oil, garlic, onion, rosemary, salt & pepper….and the only acidic fruit juice I had: passionfruit breakfast juice. I was skeptical, but it turned out well, and my boyfriend loved it.
I wanted to make my dad a quiche when I was roughly 13 yrears old, so I made it and during the mixing process realized I didn’t have Evaporated Milk, so I thought I would improvise and use the Sweetened Condensed milk.
Worst quiche anyone has ever made in the history of food, haha!
I improvise all the time! I love finding new ways to use chorizo, a little bit goes a long ways. My favorite with cheese, salad, fried bits on fish or stuffed into pork chops. Yum!
Improvisation = freedom! I love perusing recipes and blog posts as idea-starters, and once the assorted inspirations have mingled and marinated in my mind, I end up in the kitchen, whipping out odds and ends, mixing and matching and crossing my fingers.
Yogurt in my pancake batter, leftover jams in my glazes, and reincarnated cooked-yesterday steel cut oats as plumping agents in my fruit cobblers….
Liberty and ingredients for all!
My latest improvisations have been in the area of homemade salad dressing. I recently tried to make an asian dressing and used WAAAAY too much fresh ginger. I don’t think there’s such a thing as too much soy sauce or too much garlic, but there is definitely such a thing as too much ginger!
I once tried to make a mushroom based bruschetta. I put garlic in, and some parmesan cheese and then what was probably too much balsalmic vinegar. I ended up with something which was essentially balsalmic marinated mushroom pieces, which no one actually ate. I still feel like there is some way to make a mushroomy topping for toasts, but I found that improvising olive tapenade was easier, and haven’t tried again.
I believe in putting poached eggs on anything that isn’t quite delicious on it’s own. My adventures with last year’s CSA got me to try turnips just about every way u can think of. Turns out, I love turnips. I want to be a more intuitive and inspired cook.
Sally,
This week I harvested the green pods of my nasturtium plants (the part that will turn into a seed if left to do so) as caper-like elements. I put them in a vinegar/salt solution and have been sprinkling them into salads. They are peppery and delicious. I want to try them as a pizza topping too. Free to me and easy. A few hours in the sun harvesting. What a life!
I made spaghetti and meatballs. We didn’t have any Parmesan so I decided to just use a shredded cheese mix.
Well, apparently it was cheese with jalapenos in it. I didn’t notice until it was already melting on the spaghetti. So, Enchilada spaghetti for dinner. Woops.
I improvise almost everything: cooking seasonally & locally makes it necessary most of the time. Usually my improvisations turn out quite well, like the forsythia syrup I made, lamenting my lack of access to lilac blooms:
http://localkitchenblog.com/2010/04/13/forsythia-syrup/
Sometimes my improvisations are nothing short of disastrous, like the Evil Green Ketchup I made last summer:
http://localkitchenblog.com/2010/09/08/spicy-green-ketchup-psa/
Either way, it’s always fun.
I tried to make vanilla infused vodka,…..but…..apparently too much of a good thing…..I left it too long and it turned ou tasting like medicine. I culdn’t bear throwing out “perfectly good” vodka , not to mention the lovely vanilla bean. So I added cinnamon sticks and let the mixture marry awhile longer. Turned out the cinnamon mellowed out the vanilla and it was perfectly delicious….in a holday kinda way.
the most recent dish i made up was inspired by another recipe using sliced brussels sprouts. it’s like magic these things, frilly and light and cabbage-y. i wanted to do something else with them. i had some farro on hand, already cooked. so i browned some pancetta, added a shallot, some mushrooms, thyme, and then added the farro til warmed. and then tossed the shredded brussels sprouts on top with a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and some salt and pepper. it’s MAGIC is swear. i eat it at least twice a week.
I love fruit and vegetables, but as a college student, they aren’t too easy on my budget. I’ve found that carrots and onions are about the cheapest vegetables I can get no matter which grocery store I go to, so they seem to make their way into just about everything I make. Most recently, carrot and onion pizza. The carrots get sweet when you bake them with the pasta sauce….delicious!
They say “nothing good ever happens after midnight” yet I have to disagree. My favorite dish to whip up is whatever type of bacon, pancetta, turkey bacon, etc that happens to be in my refrigerator. Sauteed in a little olive oil with shallots, garlic and red pepper flakes. After cooking al dente whatever pasta I have on hand and tossing everything together with a slightly beaten egg, some fresh herbs and lots of freshly grated parmesean cheese! Yum, this does the trick, and it doesn’t matter what time you serve it.
Salad dressings made with any citrus, salt, olive oil – perfect!
We were living in San Miguel for a year. We had zero money and I shopped almost daily because there was little storage space and I rationalized that I loved buying “fresh”. We had an unnexpected houseguest arrive out of the blue one evening who expected to be fed a meal. Too late to hit the markets so I put on a pot of rice and literally walked around the kitchen collecting any canned or fresh food items that caught my eye. The dish I placed before our guest was a beautiful bowl of perfectly flavored rice, fresh corn, diced tomatoes, chopped cilantro, sliced avocado, and black beans. Perhaps she was on the edge of starvation, but she still talks about that meal-in a good way!
I improvise around beans and greens constantly. Garlic and onion being the usual base, pinch of red pepper flakes, maybe smoked paprika and /or some sort of smoky sausage.
Then cannellini or chick peas, navy beans, whatever is around. Sometimes some tomato, sometimes mixed with pasta, or over rice (especially collards) or next to a small piece of meat. Sometimes the next day with chicken stock for a soup, or even in an omelette.
Simple, healthy, endlessly changeable……
I love the nutmeg with everything comment!!
Last night I had some ground lamb and had to use it before its expire by date. I feel guilty if I let meat go bad.
I cooked it up with some pimenton and salt and threw it over a bed of raw spinach from the farmer’s market, some shaved red onion, a little chopped celery, mint and made a quick tahini dressing with tahini, lemon zest, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. It was heaven!
I feel so proud and resourceful when I improvise successfully.
One Yukon Gold potato, organic white beech mushrooms (found in cut-rate bin – 4 packages for $1.00), two small, fresh, perfectly ripe (from local hydroponic grower) coarsely chopped tomatoes,1/4 sliced red onion, chopped chipotle pepper in odobo sauce, saute over medium heat in butter/olive oil until tomatoes start to carmelize. Crack two (preferable organic or at best free-range) eggs over top. Once the eggs have set up, grate whatever cheese available over all, pour wine and enjoy!! A feast for one.
I am a ceramic artist and I use all types of tools – many kitchen tools work well with clay (carrot peeler, meat tenderizer, graters, to name a few). However there’s one ceramic tool that I can’t be without in the kitchen and that’s the small, metal flexible rib. It’s the best for scraping roasting and baking pans for clean up. Its thin metal blade can get anywhere. It’s also the best for scraping off candle wax drips.
I’ve played a couple of times with making fresh cheese like ricotta and paneer. The first time that I tried to make cream cheese, I goofed and warmed the milk to a temperature that was too high according to the recipe. I decided to proceed. My end product was too runny, but seemed interesting. I used a jelly bag and let the excess moisture drip out. I ended up with the most glorious cream cheese. The flavor was so much more complex and than the usual stuff.
I already own your cookbook. I bought it the first year that I was married. It almost became a Valentine’s day gift for my hubby, but I decided to be totally honest with myself instead. I bought it for me, because I really, really wanted it. The hubby and I both enjoy cooking and I think we are pretty competent. I find that I improve a lot more with my cooking and feel much more confident.
If I won your drawing, I’d give this cookbook to a dear friend.
For many years I have juiced carrots, beets and other vegetables in an effort to contribute to my health and diet. Carrots and beets combine to make a beautiful, sweet drink. So recently, I used both, grated, in my mom’s recipe for carrot cake, and it is similarily beautiful and so tasty!
We hardly ever use recipes in our home. This one isn’t too exciting, but I often improvise muffins. No recipe required. Just throw in a bunch of ingredients and it usually turns out tasty. One of my favorites is dairy free & egg free. Buckwheat flour, beets (shredded), bananas, maple syrup, coconut oil, almond milk, baking soda & powder, cinnamon, mace, salt. Cranberries or raisins if they’re around. Delicious & nutritious!
Whole foods has a deal on rotisserie chickens every Sunday. I like smoked chicken. Last week I combined the two. I broke the chicken into pieces placed it in the smoker (next to the rack of ribs) and let the grill warm up the chicken for 30 minutes. It turned out great. Nice smoky flavor without having to cook it for two hours in the smoker.
I improvise with bread and crackers, using whole grain flours and extra gluten so it will rise. It is often dense but usually is tasty
My daughter wrote this poem for me on my 60th birthday which deftly summarizes my approach to kitchen improvisation:
Listen my friends and listen well
To this tale that I shall tell
About a man whose name was George
His breakfast could not just be porridge
In the morn to the kichen he crept
To see what goods the pantry kept
In the back and in each nook
He’s rummage around for something to cook
The house would awake to a ghastly smell
But what it was, no one could tell.
His family would beg down on their knees
But it’s perfectly good on a bagel with cheese.
Grisly pieces from meats gone by
Even from these he did not shy
Greasy globs of green and yellow
Are just the thing for this fine fellow.
To make the taste more bold
All you need is just a spot of mold.
Old sausage and last week’s pot roast
Just perfect on a bagel to toast.
Smelly fillets of foul fish
Make a splendid breakfast dish
Rubbery blubbery burger bits
Are no morning misfits
When placed on a bagel and fried brown
These tasty niblets are gobbled right down.
Slippery slimy slabs of steak
A tasty treat these morsels make.
Old bacon and raw rancid meat
Are much better than Cream of Wheat.
Crunchy pieces of chicken bone
To start the day on the right tone.
What to do with unknown food
That puts you in a foul mood
You may do with it as you please
But it could find a home on a bagel with cheese.
i recently adapted a whole wheat oatmeal + chocolate chip cookie recipe into a delicious kitchen sink cookie by doubling the vanilla extract and adding dried cherries, coconut, chopped pecans, almonds and dates.
I do a pork shoulder, in a dutch oven, with carrots, half cut potatos, as many different types of peppers (and liots of them) that I have around, garlic, cilantro, chopped toms. ,and olive oil…YUM!!!!
I needed to juice some Key limes for a marinade, but we were camping on the Smith River in Montana and I didn’t have the right tool. I went down to the river and found the perfect rock, pointed at the top with a sharp blade along the edge. It did the job and I still keep it in my kitchen drawer, ready for a juicing emergency and a reminder of that summer.
My improvisation is usually motivated by my lack of money or motivation to go to the grocery store. Lately, I’ve been working through a striking variety of proteins in our freezer. Just a few days ago I discovered frozen goat shanks. I’ve never cooked goat meat, so I just improvised a braising method that works with lamb shanks. I browned the shanks, and then sauteed some carrots, onion, parsnip, and garlic. Then I braised the shanks in a mixture of white wine and chicken broth for several hours with some fresh thyme and hoped for the best. Though the goat was much more delicate than lamb, they turned out excellent.
I never cooked as a child because my mother was such a great cook. So when I had my own family, I read cookbooks and improvised with some dishes I remembered from childhood. My mother never cooked Italian, so I decided that was what I could focus on, and it has turned out well. One of the most successful dishes I make is lasagna. I add sandwish pepperoni to every other layer. It leaches throughout the dish & gives it a little extra spice.
I love improvising– goat cheese, walnuts, hazelnuts are my standards for last-minute dinners. I also have a pantry and freezer full of cherries, roasted tomatoes, homemade saurkraut, etc.
Was making those lovely crab cakes that use pureed shrimp, eggs and cream as the binder for lump crabmeat one evening for a party and realized that I didn’t have anywhere near enough molds to make it in. So I grabbed a narrow loaf pan, buttered it, plopped in the crabcake mixture, put it in a water bath in the oven, and held my breath! It unmolded perfectly into a beautiful crab terrine…instead of a gazillion fussy little crab cakes.
My family calls my cooking “landfill cooking”. I never throw any food away, always use left-overs in creative ways in my recipes. I alter every recipe and use what I have around. I haven’t looked at “The Improvisational Cook” but hope that it takes a similar approach to cooking. Only if we teach people to be more daring and learn to improvise in the kitchen, can we avoid wasting so much food. I believe that we need to teach people how to cook to solve the obesity issues in this country. Recipes empower! Be Daring!
Gabriele, We so appreciate your comment. I’m sorry that The Improvisational Cook giveaway ended. But we hope to run another in the next few months.