Round 1, week 4: Quaker old-fashion oats, cod fillets, dried currants and portobello mushrooms provided by Waterleaf restaurant
Lynn Fors
As I peered in my bag, and what did I see?
Portobello mushrooms and oats looking at me,
Currants and cod were the next two,
And with all four, I had to create winning recipes for you!
As the stress was increasing, and the thoughts kept flowing,
I had to decide the direction I’d be going,
At first I thought cod cakes, then Italian — but it would change every day.
Then brilliance — I’d create enchiladas and tacos with cod, like in México. Olé!
The currants were tough, I had not a thought,
So a lot of ingredients at Whole Foods I bought.
A cake with dark chocolate, a bar with zucchini, currants with curry,
For a few days, I cooked with such fury!
Too dry, too salty, too difficult, too plain,
Should I create a side dish, a salad, a dessert or a main?
I took a few of my favorite recipes and ingredients to make them all mine,
Such as cilantro, avocado, lemon and lime.
After many days, my tiny kitchen is a mess,
But it’s worth it all if you enjoy them, and put them to the test.
Buen provecho!
Lori Motyka
What a delightfully diverse group of ingredients. I don’t know that I would have ever come up with the combination myself but after a lot of note taking, list making and potential ingredient shopping, they came together quite nicely in a couple of very different recipes.
We eat a lot of fish in our house but I haven’t had a lot of experience cooking with cod. It is a very mild, yet meaty fish and as such a great carrier of flavor. We love mushrooms of any kind, except for our 11-year-old daughter who says they squeak like a pig when you chew them. While oatmeal is usually considered a breakfast food, I’ve been using it lately in some homemade bread recipes which gave me inspiration here and last but not least, currants always add a delightful bit of sweet and tart to desserts or savory dishes.
So, after whipping up taste tests for my family over the weekend, (holy messy kitchen!), we finally chose the Caponata recipe below. We hope you’ll like it, too.