Secret Ingredient: Leftovers

To circumvent typical New Years Eve costs and stressors, Morgan and I had friends over to our place for cocktail/dinner party. I spent much enjoyable time scouring Epicurious recipes, and this was the final menu:

Crackers with fig jam and Manchego cheese
Cornbread muffins with maple butter
Sweet potatoes, apples and braising greens
Garlic smashed potatoes
Butternut squash lasagna
Chicken with cracked black pepper maple sauce

As consistent with my tendency to overbuy groceries (for the fear of underfeeding guests), I had quite the pile of leftover raw ingredients in addition to the regular cooked leftovers. To avoid waste, I enlisted Steve to help me use them up in our amended version of Iron Chef. Rules totally diverged from the show, as we were allowed to know the ingredients ahead of time, consult recipes, and work without a time limit.

The not-so-secret ingredients: Butternut squash, spinach, heirloom carrots, and potatoes (small ones... purple and gold yukon).

The heirloom carrots were not actually a part of my New Years menu, but were instead a free gift from one of the produce booths at my farmer's market. After buying $12 worth of potatoes, he said, "Here, take a bag and fill it up with carrots.. these ones are sweeter and good for cooking. Take as many as you want."

Steve made a miso-glazed salmon on a bed of soy spinach, with buttermilk mashed potatoes and carrot-date cookies. (No pictures, unfortunately, as his dinner was prior to the food-blog-inspiration).

I made tangerine-balsamic glazed swordfish with a carrot-butternut squash puree and tangerine-honey sauteed spinach, with a side of garlic-parmesan roasted potatoes. Everything created was original recipe (although most likely influenced by recipes skimmed in the menu-creating process):

The carrots and butternut squash were first chopped and roasted with olive oil, salt, pepper, cinnamon and a dash of paprika.

After roasting, I pureed them with olive oil and a splash of buttermilk, adding a bit more of the seasonings listed above, to taste. Yet the vegetables were so flavorful, they didn't need much spice at all.

My first foray into purees as the base of a dish, and it turned out much thicker than anticipated. Next time I would definitely add in some water, as I didn't want to be too heavy-handed with the oil.

The swordfish was simply seasoned with salt and pepper and marinated in a mixture of aged balsamic vinegar and freshly-squeezed tangerine juice. I also added in a splash of the white wine I was drinking because someone told me that meats are more apt to absorb and retain a marinade with alcohol than without... I must investigate to see if this is true.

After marinating, I cooked the swordfish in a grill pan on top of the stove- about 5 minutes on each side. While grilling, I poured the remaining marinate into a small sauce pan and heated on medium-high to reduce the liquid into a thicker sauce, which was brushed over the cooked fish as a glaze.

As the menu indicates, I sauteed the spinach with some onions in the leftover tangerine juice. Added salt and pepper, to taste, and about 2 teaspoons of honey for an extra hint of sweetness. (It will become apparent, in time, that I tend to like my foods on the sweeter end of the spectrum).

And while all of the above was going on, my potatoes were roasting happily in the oven with some olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. About 10 minutes before removing from the oven, I covered them with a generous portion of freshly-grated Parmesan cheese.

The results all turned out rather tasty, even if my plating and appearance could have used some work (as you can see, the fish is almost hidden beneath its sides):

Of course, to round off every good Iron Chef competition there must be a dessert. Mine was an attempt at carrot-ginger cookie sandwiches with cream cheese filling. Let's just say that the filling was a disaster (something for which I definitely should have consulted a recipe), but the cookies turned out almost decent, albeit quite heavy on the ginger.

VERY approximate ingredients were:

-2 cups flour

-1/2 cup sugar

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-1/2 cup oats

-1 cup grated carrots

-1 large egg

-1/3 cup oil

-2 tablespoons butter

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-1 teaspoon Cinnamon

-1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Next time I would make them entirely with brown sugar, substitute more oats for flour, substitute butter for oil, and reduce the ginger.

We have no verdict on a winner yet... I suppose the jury's still out.