What's in Your Fridge?

This is actually a picture of Julia Child's refrigerator which now stands in the Smithsonian.

Many years back, Oprah had a show where Julia Child opened up her fridge to the world. One might have expected a stock full fridge full of amazing items. But no, the fridge was quite bare, there was a baguette, eggs, peanut butter, water and beer. It happens to all of us. When we open up the fridge and realize that there really is nothing to prepare for dinner. I have to say, that some of my finer moments have risen from this quandary. I love the challenge. I love to see if I can not only prepare a meal, but one my family will eat. I love the show "Chopped" on the Food Network. The show features four chefs who prepare a starter, entree, and dessert. But the catch is that they have to use the items provided in a little black basket. Usually the majority of the items have some taste relation, but there is always a wild card item...one item that just doesn't go with the rest. After each of the three categories one chef is "chopped". So, I found myself in a similar situation, because truly, I didn't have much more in my kitchen than the following items.
So the mystery ingredients were:
2 pounds frozen halibut, potato flakes*, milk, leftover Alfredo sauce (recipe below), blueberry yogurt, key limes, Dijon, coconut milk, plum jam, broccoli, and pasta.
*Potato flakes-yes I had potato flakes...I know, very unlike me. One of my dear friends told me that there was this certain brand that she swore by and gave me some to try. they were awful just as I expected...I thought I would never find a purpose for poatato flakes (except as fake snow) until this recipe.

Speedy Alfredo
8 Tablespoons butter
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup cream
1 cup Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon salt

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and saute until tender. Add heavy cream and bring to a boil. Cook until sauce has reduced slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

So I took the halibut and cut it into strips and soaked it in milk, seasoned it with salt and pepper, then rolled it in the potato flakes.

Next I grilled them on the stove top on a griddle I lightly coated with vegetable oil.

I then mixed yogurt, coconut milk, Dijon, curry powder, turmeric, and a few squeezes of key lime together. Don't do this...It tasted awful!

so back to the drawing board. I had a bottle of homemade plum jam so I put it in the saucepan with a bit of Dijon and a splash of vinegar and cooked it for a few minutes.

In the meantime, I cooked up the pasta (al dente) and added a few handfuls of steamed broccoli. I mixed in the Alfredo sauce and called it good. I finished off the fish with a sqeeze of key lime juice and topped it with the plum sauce.


So, this is what it looked like. It tasted pretty good, the plum sauce was a fantastic sauce for the typically bland halibut. And the family did enjoy it. But don't worry I did go to the store the next day, so I have plenty of great recipes to come.