Pantry Improv: Huevos Rancheros

My huevos rancheros recipe is not really an improvisation, rather my interpretation of a classic, soul-soothing breakfast dish. My guess is that someone originally improvised this from food on hand in the pantry.

From the pantry:
vegetable oil
corn torilla
canned refried beans
salsa (or you can make fresh if you like)

From the fridge:
eggs
queso fresco or some other soft white cheese

Completely cover the bottom of a large skillet with the vegetable oil. Heat the oil until it starts to shimmer. Lay a corn tortilla in the oil for about two minutes or until it starts to get crispy. Carefully flip the tortilla and crisp the other side. Remove from the oil and drain on a paper towel. Fry one tortilla for every serving.

Spread a couple of tablespoons of refried beans on the tortilla.

In another skillet, fry an egg in a bit of oil, either sunnyside up or over easy. Scrambling doesn't work so well because you want a runny yolk in the finished dish. Place the fried egg on top of the beans and tortilla.

Spoon a bit of salsa and sprinkle a little cheese on top of all.

This breakfast dish is wonderful for lunch and dinner as well.

Click HERE to read about my personal pantry improv project.

ljgloyd (c) 2012

The Pantry Improv Project

This week I had to say goodbye to a good friend who is moving far away. As she packed up her household, she gave me the majority of the contents of her dry food pantry. This cache of food items, coupled with my own pantry, means that I do not need to do much grocery shopping for several months at least. Not only is this going to save me a lot of money, but it has also presented an opportunity for some highly creative kitchen fun.

I am going to try to use up all the items currently on the shelves and limit grocery shopping to only those essential pantry items used up and fresh food (produce, meat, dairy, etc.) In doing so, I want to see how many improvised dishes I can create. I will not go out and buy something new until I have used up the majority of items in the pantry. For example, I have nine cans of beans of several varieties. I will buy no more beans until these are used up. Similarly, if a recipe calls for an item not in the pantry, let's say water chestnuts, I will either adjust the recipe or make something else; I will not go out and buy a can of water chestnuts.

The successful pantry improvisations I'll share here.

For example, last night I pulled from the dry pantry whole wheat penne pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken broth, white wine, Italian herb seasoning, garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper, and olive oil.

From the refrigerator, I selected kale, onions, poached chicken breast and parmesan cheese.

While cooking the penne pasta, in another pan, I quickly stir-fried in the olive oil the chopped kale, onion, and dried tomatoes until tender. Then I added a splash of chicken broth and white wine, the tomato paste, pinches of black pepper, herbs, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes and the diced chicken. When all of this was heated through, I added the cooked penne and topped it with parmesan cheese. I did not measure amounts. I eyeballed everything and resulted in about two fair-sized servings.

We'll see how far I get with this project. Hopefully, I'll end up saving money as well as developing a collection of recipes that I can use again.

In the meantime, can anyone tell me what I can do with a jar of powdered buttermilk and a can of sardines?