Cupboard Weirdos

[DinoLil]

I took delivery of fancy tomatoes yesterday. Really nice ones and a lot of them. The website I got them from has some very interesting recipes that I'm going to try out.

Anyway, it's got me thinking. I've had to buy some odd ingredients to make said recipes and I'm now the proud owner of about 10kg of fancy tomatoes and a bottle of pomegranate molasses. Pomegranate molasses! I know what a pomegranate is, but a bottle of pomegrante molasses?

I can see that my £4.50 bottle will probably be used for one tablespoon and live in my cupboard until I rediscover it when it's 15yrs out of date.

What weird things have you got in your kitchen cupboards? Or your fridge? I know I've got a jar of marmalade that I made about 5yrs ago lurking with an elderly cucumber in my fridge.

I have a bottle of Fig Balsamic Dressing, I can’t even remember why I bought it, 🫣 It does appear to be open though ( and a bit dusty) I do love all of you that make great salad dressings with said weird items, they sound lovely,I just use salad cream so now heading back in the cave with flint & fire 😂 btw if anyone wants the fig balsamic dressing, you can have it 😉

Tahini - make your own humus - tin of chickpeas blend with a spoon or two of tahini and some garlic and a slash of oil , loosen with water and add your favourite flavors ( lemon , cumin, chilli, raisins, paprika whatever )

Biscoff spread, kids dumped it in the trolley and begged for it on a day when I was too tired to think that I should say no.. sneaky buggers. And then had one taste and hated it. Its been in the cupboard for a year now.

I'll bring Ras-el-hanout, which appears to be so obscure that the supermarket that I bought it from doesn't even sell it anymore. I bought it once to make lamb tagine that tasted better the following day.

@JustGoClickLikeALightSwitch Are you sure that your mysterious white powder is a legal substance? We do not want to attract the attention of any passing police while getting rowdy on pomegranate molasses fizz and passing out on deckchairs...

😁

Ajvar anyone? It's a Balkan red pepper spread. You often get it in Lidl, delicious 👍

We have a glut, I've been doing an oven bake sliced courgette and tomatoes (glut of them too) in a oiled casserole sprinkled with salt pepper and garlic powder (could add a bit of chilli or other spices), herbs whatever you like, sprinkle with cheese if you're being fancy a spray of oil over the top and bake,

Pomegranate molasses, plus balsamic vinegar, plus Greek yoghurt (or any other kind of plain yogurt) is fabulous with salad

Pickled lemons anyone?

I have a baggie of Szechuan peppercorns and some Cream of Tartar, neither of which I remember buying or know how to use.
And a home-made coffee liqueur from DAuntIL which is taking up space in the fridge. I suppose she meant it for “Irish” Coffee or over ice cream…

And I add.... a blender! I was going through a make soup phase when my ancient Kenwood blew up. I rushed out to buy a new one. I have yet to take it out of the box. shamed

I blame Ottonlenghi for all these random ingredients, his recipes are always full of them!

I've just come back from the allotment with four courgettes, each roughly the size of Greater Manchester so this thread is very useful thank you.

I love pickled walnuts. The liquid they're in is fabulous in beef stew/casserole, just a bit. And if they're really soft you can spread them on your bread in a cheese sandwich.

I have a jar of poppy seed paste… I’m sure it must be delicious but I can’t find out what to do with it

You can make Muhammara with Pomegranate molasses! And it goes very nicely in a tagline, also with lamb. It’s a very useful thing to have.

Not really weird, but I have a long out of date jar of ground white pepper in my cupboard that I can’t bear to part with. When I was pregnant with DC8 my craving was ready-made supermarket mash with loads of the pepper. I would have a whole tub of it on its own for lunch at work and hope nobody would suspect why I was eating something so odd.

The jar reminds me of the excitement of expecting DC and I can’t throw it away!

Is it Polish? My grandma used to make cookies filled with it, and there’s a sweet enriched bread where you spread it on the dough and roll it up.

This is my sort of thread. I've got unopened pomegranate molasses, some sumac, a George Foreman grill and some random lichen moss thing I bought for a Rick Stein recipe which I got before I read the bit where he said you could use a cinnamon stick instead. Can I add in an unused three tier electric steamer which I bought in a sale because it was bound to be useful? I have of course never even plugged it in.

I've never tried that before but I'll give it a go the next time I have some strawberries.

It doesn't sound like pomegranate molasses is to your taste so don't waste your strawberries.

I made the NYT most popular recipe of the year, hundreds of rave reviews. It’s a Persian beef recipe, was dead easy and you’re meant to finish it with yogurt and pomegranate molasses. I didn’t want to buy an ingredient I wasn’t sure I’d use again so I opted to use a substitute (balsamic maybe?) and it was not nice, just bland and grey, so it seems like maybe the pomegranate molasses has superpowers?
(No shade to Persians or Persian cookery, I’m normally a good cook but I may have taken too many shortcuts with the recipe.)

This chickpea salad is a good use for sumac.

ozlemsturkishtable.com/2020/08/chickpea-salad-with-sumac-onions-peppers-spinach-and-tomatoes-2/

Is that sumac, onions and vinegar or are there other ingredients?

https://www.recipetineats.com/pomegranate-molasses-dressing/#recipe

Oh, I have an ice cream maker, used once and never again.
I have a thing that cuts tomatoes and radishes into fancy shapes.
I have a mandolin thing that I used once, realised it's a farce, and never touched again.

Can I bring these please.

Sumac and hummus have both been mentioned on this thread - sumac sprinkled on hummus is delicious!

Your heads would explode if you saw my kitchen cupboards and fridge. I am the queen of random ingredients and condiments. Just a few examples of the weird and wonderful things I have: the aforementioned sumac; dried epazote; chipotles in adobo; jar of Peruvian spice rub; dried wakame; dried ber (Indian jujubes); furikake seasoning; guajillo chilli paste; truffle pesto; Maggi liquid seasoning; Dutch speculaas spice mix; liquid smoke; citric acid; pandan leaf extract; and an entire cupboard dedicated to Indian spices and ingredients, half of which I don't know the English names for. And yes, a bottle of pomegranate molasses that I probably bought around 2018! 😁