First challenge!

I just remembered that I have invited my lovely sister and her BF over for dinner on Saturday night. So what you may ask? Well, dinner parties are usually my excuse to buy expensive and exotic ingredients and come over all decadent, very against my new plan! Many an ingredient currently sits, neglected, in our store cupboards, barely used because someone was coming for dinner and well...I couldn't resist trying something new!

So, this morning, as I made soup from a pumpkin from said sister and BF's allotment, I peered into the fridge and cupboards to seek inspiration. here's what I found;

a punnet of fresh blueberries
some parsnips and carrots
potatoes
yorkshire butter
organic cider vinegar
french mustard
gelatine
rose syrup
packet of fresh lemon thyme

and obviously about a squillion other things but the fresh stuff will still be OK by Saturday night as it's in the fridge* and the other things just started to give a shape and form to what I might be planning...

I mulled it over for a while as I finished the soup (pumpkin is very bland so chilli, lemongrass, ginger and sri lankan curry powder were needed!) and as I did the breakfast and soup making dishes. I wanted something seasonal, comforting but with a touch of glamour and that needed a modicum of skill...

And here is what I decided on.

Starter - warm salad of roasted root vegetables with a mustard and cider vinegar dressing
main course - smoked haddock fishcakes with wilted spinach and lemon thyme butter sauce
yoghurt pannacotta with a blueberry compote

ta dah!

I reckon all I will need to buy for a 3 course meal for 4 is; some salad leaves, a bunch of spinach, some smoked haddock and a tub of plain yoghurt. Everything else is happily sat in our fridge or store cupboard, just waiting to be transformed. I am also happy that it's fairly seasonal (apols for the blueberries, i am sure I should be punished for buying them) and much of the produce is British.

I will of course photograph and report back once the meal has been devoured and enjoyed! Can't wait to see you Helen and Mark!

*Keeping fruit and vegetables you would normally store in baskest and racks in the frisge (bananas, pears, carrots, cauliflower etc) will prolong its life and stop it from being spilt/ going to waste.

Comments

[annies abode]

Yum - how resourceful you are. I am as you were, so to speak, and run out and buy new ingrediants and let others go to waste in the fridge.
Ax

[Sarah]

join me annie! I am having as much fun with the leftover and cheaper ingredients, you have to be more creative!

[vanessa]

I love the idea of being able to create a delicious sounding meal from what you have in your fridge.
Hugo does all the cooking in our house, and he does like to try new things, that leads to quite a lot of wastage............ I'm the cleaner-outer of mouldy foods from the fridge, that's my contribution to the cooking! Oh, and I'm the washer-upperer after he's been orchestrating all his culinary delights.