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So after we had pretty terrible alu chaat at Indus Express, with bland, almost raw potatoes, I took home the leftovers and tried to think of a way to “fix” it. Inspiration struck after our delivery meal from Pearls, where we got some mediocre curry chicken with almost raw onion slices. Why not combine the two and cook it together, so that the almost raw ingredients are cooked through and each adds an extra layer of flavor to the other?
And so that’s exactly what I did. I cut the curry chicken down into smaller chunks and heated it in a pan, letting the onions cook through more fully. I didn’t want to lose the freshness of the ingredients in the alu chaat, like the cucumber and mango pieces, so I waited until the chicken was heated through first before tossing in the chaat. I mixed everything together, so that the spices from both dishes mingled, and cooked it just enough for the potatoes to soften a bit.
To finish, I spooned everything over leftover white rice from Pearls that I had reheated, and mixed it all together. The result was an interesting and complex-tasting dish that leaned more toward the Indian side than the Chinese side, but the curry chicken and the alu chaat complemented each other perfectly, and any issues they had as individual dishes were resolved in the mash-up. The potatoes and onions were no longer almost raw, and the spices from each dish eliminated the previous blandness and lack of seasoning.
Overall I was thrilled with the results, and pleased that I didn’t have to waste any food. The dish I wound up with was interesting, tasty, and flavorful – exactly what I was looking for!
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Since the corn was super fresh, we didn’t want to take away from the flavor of the corn. We simply boiled a little water in the bottom of our pasta pot and placed the shucked corn into the pasta basket insert, then let it cook for about 10-15 minutes until the kernels were tender but still crisp.
A little pat of butter, a sprinkling of kosher salt; that was all this corn needed. I don’t usually like corn, but even I couldn’t resist the super sweet kernels just bursting with corn flavor.
We also had some bland sesame noodles left over from our Lucky Sunday takeout that I revamped. I hate wasting food so whenever we order something that doesn’t have much flavor, I’ll try to figure out a way to “fix” it rather than throw it away.
In keeping with an Asian theme, I tossed the noodles into a pan with a dash of soy sauce and a spoonful of garlic chili sauce. I let that warm through, and then I tossed some chopped up kimchi on top. I took the pan off the stove and mixed everything together, so that the heat from the noodles warmed up the kimchi but didn’t make it limp or soggy. Between the kimchi and the garlic chili sauce, the noodles packed a lot of heat and it definitely did not wimp out on flavor. I thought it was a great improvement to the bland noodles, and I was happy to not waste any leftovers!
From this:
To this:
]]>I must admit, it didn’t look so great, and I was a bit nervous about mixing the maple syrup with the Sriracha, but it turned out awesome!! I could taste each layer individually, and the combinations really worked harmoniously. The spice of Sriracha was tempered by the ketchup and syrup, the crunch of the waffle contrasted well with the softness of the salmon, and the whole thing was bound together by the runny egg yolk mixing in with everything. This is definitely something that I will make again.
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