Thursday, May 11, 2006

Orphan Ingredients



One of the troubles with being a 'hobby cook' is that I'll find a recipe that looks good, buy an unusual ingredient for it...and lose the recipe. So there sits anchovy paste, of all things, in my pantry. I checked it and there is no expiration date, so at least I can still use it.

The trick is to go to a recipe site and 'search by ingredient.' I found a recipe for "Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Asian-Style Sweet and Sour Pan Sauce" over at the Cook's Illustrated web site. Next time chicken cutlets go on sale, I'll make this for dinner. I have all the ingredients except the meat. Although I could make it with the pork tenderloin I have in the freezer. I have also found a yummy-looking recipe for chicken Caesar salad over at the Food Network site. Both use only a minimum of the anchovy paste. I'm assuming it's going to be somewhat rich and salty, not fishy. I hope. PS--the picture of an anchovy paste box isn't very exciting, but I thought my site was getting a little boring with no pictures.

2 comments:

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate said...

My dad told me once that he had read that the thing that gives a lot of italian dishes their "flavor" where you can't tell what it is, is anchovy paste.

I found this link that confirms it.
http://www.lifeinitaly.com/food/anchovies.asp

So maybe you can use it up in some italian stuff.

Mom2fur said...

Jenn, what a great idea! We're Italian (well, I'm Italian by injection...I'm really German/Irish/French) and we eat a LOT of Italian food. Next time I make sauce...I'm gonna sneak in a little and see what happens.