Supper Swap: Part III

I enjoy cooking for Supper Swap. It's an opportunity to make a glorious mess and cook the kind of food that doesn't make sense for two people on a weeknight. While I scrub pans, I look forward with great anticipation to having the rest of the week off!

I've also been enjoying the modestly communal aspect, meeting other cooks and trying other peoples' recipes. It's easy to get caught up in going to work, coming home, and not seeing much of people outside of those settings. The neighborly vibe of Swap is very welcome.

It was difficult to decide what to cook this month. The weather has been all over the place, which has a big influence on what I want to eat. I thought of Indian food--in this case, Tandoori Chicken--because I tend to like eating it regardless of the weather (it's good cold), and Sunday was cool enough that having the oven on was pleasant.

I thought the recipe would scale up well. I was actually rather wrong about that: Tandoori Chicken isn't the best thing to make for 10 people. The twice-dipping step that seems negligible with 6-8 pieces of chicken is more difficult to manage with 20. Also, the two-part cooking process becomes a bit of a saga. It was definitely a live and learn experience. If you enjoyed it, make sure to get the recipe from me because it's quite reasonable as a weekend dish for four people (and you'll like it even better if you have a working broiler). If you didn't enjoy it, rest assured you probably won't be seeing it again at Swap.

Then there was the question of what to make with it. If I were making it for just us, I would probably have served the chicken on a bed of fresh spinach (healthy, fast, better than rice for the waistline), but I didn't think the spinach would last well for Swap. I decided to make a rice dish using brown rice (jasmine, TJs)  instead of white, which I actually really liked. Also, part of the fun of cooking for Swap is making things that I like but that I should not keep in large quantities around the house. Since most of the rice was destined to go out the front door within hours of my making it, it seemed a safe way to try out a new recipe.

When I finished the rice dish, I was feeling really good about it. This was the first time since college that I made rice without using a rice maker, and I was pretty impressed with myself for not scorching it (it's the little things...). When I tasted it, I really liked the delicate floral and herbal notes. Two days later, eating the leftovers, I was underwhelmed. The floral/herbal notes had largely evaporated out, and it was frankly a bit boring. Moral of the story: I should not talk up my dish at Swap. I will jinx it and look immodest at the same time. Sorry Swappers, I didn't know!

Fortunately, everyone else's food turned out really well this week. Mine wasn't awful, it just wasn't great. In the parlance of X-Play, I give it a 3 out of 5.

Coming into the week as a two-time veteran of Swap, I've discovered some helpful pointers on how to make a good thing even better for us:

1) Pick at least one dish that sounds appealing and practical as a lunch item. It's a pleasure to start the work week with tasty lunches.

2) Pick at least one dish that is likely to freeze well (two, if not planning on a lunch item). Five nights in the fridge is too much to ask, even of a "good keeper."

3) Taste everything before serving. Adjust seasoning to taste.

It simply isn't possible for a cook to season most dishes so that they are ideal both for Day 1 and Day 5, especially when some will be going into the freezer and some won't. Some flavors get stronger over the week while others peter out a bit (like bass notes vs. top notes in perfume). Also since some people in our Swap like heat and others are violently opposed, I think we're all going mild and relying on the other cooks to add cayenne or red pepper flakes at the last minute for the salamanders amongst us.

We chose the turkey chili as our Designated Freezer Item. I spent the extra time it took to reheat preparing the cornbread, which happened to get done before the chili did (appetizer, bonus!). Husband's comment, "I would never have put carrots in chili, but I like it."

The lasagna would also have worked well as the Designated Freezer Meal, as its label gently suggested, but we par-froze it instead by putting it in the section of our fridge that absolutely destroys any fresh vegetable that inadvertently finds its way there. It's how to make a bad fridge situation better. The lasagna baked up beautifully and husband ate it for lunch before I could get a second dinner out of it.

Pork and mashed potatoes was delightfully warm and homey mid-week, after an absurdly long day. Husband ate the leftover mashed potatoes for lunch.

The shrimp stir-fry was the Designed Lunch Item for me. I really like it when there's an item that has a starch but isn't starch-dependent. The stir-fry was tasty, healthy, and low-carb. The morsels of coconut rice I was permitted complemented it well, adding to the flavor of the dish rather than merely stretching it.

Next month: macaroni and cheese!