A week or so ago, our friend Jan gave Cathy and I some
beautiful mild banana peppers from her garden.
I thought to myself, “What should I do with these? I could put them in some type of sauce…or I
could stuff them!”
Why not? People stuff
bell peppers all the time. Why not
banana peppers. But stuff them with
what?
Well, we had some Rao’s Fra Diavolo sauce in the fridge…why
not try something Italian?
My stuffing consisted of ground turkey, some diced onion, and
two cloves of garlic, some of the Fra Diavolo sauce, salt and pepper and some
gluten free Italian breadcrumbs. I
simply cut the banana peppers in two and stuffed them.
I cooked them at 350 degrees for ½ an hour but when I
inserted a thermometer into the mixture, it only registered at 151, so I let
them cook for another 10 minutes. The
thermometer registered 170, so I knew it was done.
When I went to the store, I thought the asparagus looked
pretty good, so I blanched some for about three minutes and put some of the
sauce on them as well. I also tried to
fancy up the plating…not very successful…perhaps I was a tad overconfident.
As for the taste, it wasn’t bad. You had some heat from the sauce, and the
Italian seasoning from the breadcrumbs, which perked up what could have been a
bland dish. I think, if I were to make
this again, I would add some more salt and some more Italian seasoning to make
the flavors come out even more. In
addition, the fat content was quite low.
But to me, the real victory was no recipe use. I saw an ingredient, decided on some flavors
that I thought might be good with it, and went for it. And the result, while not the best thing I
ever cooked, certainly wasn’t bad. In
fact, I’d say it was pretty good.
You are right--the real victory is that you didn't use an established recipe! Congratulations on thinking like a Chef here. I would like you to be more confident in your cooking....there is no harm in admitting that this was good. Look at your last two paragraphs here...you are being very apologetic (not sure why): "it wasn't bad", "not the best thing", "certainly wasn't bad", "pretty good"..
ReplyDeleteYou have real reason to be proud!
As for the plating...here is an idea: Google the words "food plating techniques" and you will find a bunch of stuff to use for reference. Remember: plating is also thinking like a Chef!
Keep on giving yourself credit, and Keep on cooking!