Tastiest. Decluttering mission. Ever.

January 17, 2020 10:08 AM

I've had a habit of stocking my pantry with funky random ingredients on a whim - I'll be browsing in a little mom-and-pop Italian-foods store and pick up a weird flavored pasta, or I'l feel like I need to be stocked up with marzipan for some reason. And then I end up not using it because I can't think what to do with it. One of my resolutions is to finally eat some of the damn stuff - and in some cases I need suggestions for how. Ingredients giving me a hard time inside.

* I have a package of dried mushroom pasta - I need ideas for a sauce for that pasta. Have tried Googling this but they keep on suggesting mushroom-flavored sauces to go on plain pasta, and I'm looking for a good accompaniment for a pasta that is itself mushroom-flavored.

* Mochi flour. Anything else I can do with it aside from mochi?

* Irmik, a Turkish semolina grain that I can only find dessert recipes for. Any other ideas?

* Then there are all the things that I have that I know how to use, but I have a whole lot and may want to branch out - ramen noodles, rice noodles, bulgur, buckwheat flour. Conceivably there is a point at which I may get sick of ramen, pho, taboulleh or crepes.

Assume comfort in a kitchen in my case, and access to exotic ingredients (which is itself the source of my problem, let's be honest) but not a whole looooooot of money right now. Thanks!

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Food & Drink (37 answers total)

Best answer: I would just eat the irmik as hot cereal, probably a savory type with some salt and nuts, oil (e.g. sesame), maybe topped with an egg or an egg mixed in.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:11 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

For the dried mushroom pasta - you can't go wrong with Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce with onion and butter recipe, aka the best, simplest tomato sauce ever.
posted by maddieD at 10:14 AM on January 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I can hear your mushroom pasta all the way from my house and it is screaming for butter and sage and cream. Something like this. I wouldn't make a tomato sauce, whose flavor will drown out all the subtlety of the mushroom .
posted by fingersandtoes at 10:16 AM on January 17, 2020 [35 favorites]

Best answer: I think mushroom pasta would shine tossed with olive-oil roasted shallots, garlic, and rosemary. Liberally douse with additional olive oil and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar.

A tasty option for the bulgur: curried bulgur pilaf with lamb and beets from Lorna Sass
posted by carrioncomfort at 10:17 AM on January 17, 2020 [4 favorites]

Dried mushroom pasta - I actually bought some of this at the farmers market last year. It goes really well with a cream sauce like alfredo.
posted by joan_holloway at 10:18 AM on January 17, 2020 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Now, just because I love this question, I have opened Page & Dornenburg's "Flavor Bible". Here are some of the affinities they want to remind you of:

mushrooms + garlic + lemon + olive oil
mushrooms + garlic + parsley
mushrooms + garlic + shallots

seriously you can't go wrong with a cream sauce with any of these players.
posted by fingersandtoes at 10:19 AM on January 17, 2020 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Better buttermilk pancakes with mochi flour
posted by unstrungharp at 10:20 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Another bulgar option, similar to tabbouleh but less chopping: kisir.
posted by Concordia at 10:20 AM on January 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

For mushroom flavored (or, really, most flavored) pasta, butter and scallions or butter and garlic isn't a bad choice. (Add some white wine when heating and some creme fraiche after heating if you want to be fancy.)

I've enjoyed stir-frying both ramen and thin rice noodles (think Mongolian barbecue), though I suspect most people would say that's kind of weird.
posted by eotvos at 10:21 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Mochi brownies, if you like a chewy brownie
posted by unstrungharp at 10:21 AM on January 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Oh man, you can do anything with mochiko flour! Here's a Food & Wine article about how to use it as a substitute for regular flour. I use it to coat fried foods , especially tofu. Also, butter mochi (which despite the name is more of a cake/bar).
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:22 AM on January 17, 2020 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: On the Kisir: holy crap I have pomegranate molasses as well, that's PERFECT.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:23 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Oh, and:

I've enjoyed stir-frying both ramen and thin rice noodles (think Mongolian barbecue), though I suspect most people would say that's kind of weird.

Not weird at all, a variant of that is one of my go-to's when I get baby bok choi from the CSA.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:29 AM on January 17, 2020

Kibbeh for the Bulgar. You can do a fancy more traditional version if you like or a simpler oven version that's a bit like a meatloaf, if I'm in a hurry I'll just do the filling stage. Lovely served with salad, pita & hummus. If pine nuts are crazy expensive where you are I've done it with sliced toasted almonds in too.
posted by wwax at 10:31 AM on January 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

For the pasta, roast butternut squash (small chunks) until caramelized and then toss in pasta with a splash of the cooking water; it will half fall apart and become sauce. Sprinkle with gorgonzola, or goat cheese bits or feta. If you have any kind of sausages (the original recipe I got years ago used bratwurst, but I usually use a sliced Italian sausage), even better.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:31 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Mushroom pasta: squash, sage, brown butter.
Bulgar wheat: risotto it with lots of orange and fennel and finish with fresh herbs, serve hot or cold.
posted by Grandysaur at 10:50 AM on January 17, 2020

Best answer: Mochiko chicken for the mochi flour. My own beloved recipe was lost a few years ago, but there are tons around. I'm guessing that the Foodland one is entirely fine, since I doubt a bad recipe would have survived the ire of their Hawaiian customers.

We love the mochi waffles at our local vietnamese drink shop, here's a promising recipe from The Great Australian Bake Off

Some shops here also sell delicious chewy mochi donuts, but I don't see an obviously good recipe online.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 10:51 AM on January 17, 2020 [4 favorites]

My boyfriend and I used rice noodles to make this recipe at least twice a month last summer* because it was soooooo tasty and easy.

*mostly summer because the dish, like revenge, is best served cold. I definitely ate it fresh off the stove a few times, though. Still tasty.
posted by helloimjennsco at 11:05 AM on January 17, 2020

Best answer: For the mochi flour, you can't go wrong with palitaw. Favorite childhood snack right there.
posted by Marinara at 11:25 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I also immediately thought cream sauce with the mushroom pasta, but a similar tack that I think would be very tasty is a ricotta sauce: tempered with pasta water, ricotta melts very nicely and adheres to the pasta really well. Definitely still include shallots, garlic and lemon juice. I'd probably also go for near cacio e pepe levels of black pepper in such a preparation, but that's just me.
posted by invitapriore at 11:33 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

Chicken Marsala over the mushroom pasta. Can attest, amazing.

Mochi donuts. Also using mochi in a savory way, such as a filled dumpling or dumplings in soup.
posted by inevitability at 11:41 AM on January 17, 2020

Bulgar wheat goes well in a rice/wild rice/mushroom blend. If you have any of that tough wood mushroom (usually called 'black fungus' at the asian grocery) mince it fine and throw it in too.
posted by sexyrobot at 11:45 AM on January 17, 2020

Response by poster: My boyfriend and I used rice noodles to make this recipe at least twice a month last summer* because it was soooooo tasty and easy.

Adding an important note to the crowd - I don't have access to the New York Times recipe site, so this recipe is hidden behind a paywall for me. When possible, can folks link me to a source that is NOT the New York Times? Thanks.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:47 AM on January 17, 2020

Here's a bunch of recipes with mochi flour. I personally would try this roti! Maybe search for "mochiko" to get more results.
posted by plant or animal at 11:52 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

I like quick-cooking noodles divided into portions because I freeze small portions of stock, and they allow me to make chicken noodle soup easily.

Also because of my favourite semi-instant pasta meal: cook the noodles in a small amount of water (you keep the excess water instead of straining), and when they're just about done add some gravy or stock powder plus whatever herbs and spices you like, a few spoonfuls of plain yoghurt, optionally some leftover meat and/or vegetables, stir vigorously in the pot until you have noodles coated in a uniform creamy sauce, and you're done. Meat and vegetables from stock are a good thing to use up in this, because they're already cooked.

The irmik sounds couscous-like, so you could try using it like couscous. I usually end up using it for quick meals as well -- I microwave it with water to cook it, and then microwave it again with something added (I liked doing this with cubes of halloumi).

The bulgur you could substitute in other grain recipes. The buckwheat flour you could try in various gluten-free cake recipes, or use in a mix of flours to dilute it.

I totally have your ingredient-hoarding problem. I compulsively collect spices. I have also self-imposed a moratorium on new starch purchases until I have used up the fifteen different kinds of rice, noodles and grains in my cupboard.

I recently made creamy jelly out of the large supply of jelly which I bought when I remembered that jelly existed and then promptly forgot about for six months, and coconut milk and cream with a 2017 expiration date. I'm still alive, so I guess those were guidelines. The jelly was delicious.
posted by confluency at 11:59 AM on January 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

How about some pad thai with those rice noodles?
posted by the_blizz at 12:49 PM on January 17, 2020

Best answer: This is for your branching out on known ingredients question because it does not have any of your example exotic ingredients, unfortunately. Supercook lets you enter your ingredients and tells you what recipes you can make. You can start with just one, like ramen noodles and set it as "required" then it will show you a bunch of suggestions like "Do you have an egg?" or "Do you have butter?". You answer them and then it will show you recipes that you can make with your ingredients and list any you are missing. You don't have to put everything you have in right away, but it will usually remember you even if you don't sign in so you can just start where you left off the next time you go there.
posted by soelo at 1:42 PM on January 17, 2020 [3 favorites]

Mochiko or Mochi cake is the best ever. Plant or animal points to the recipes. Oatmeal with a Fork has a good recipe for Rice Flour and Oatmeal cookies.
posted by blob at 4:05 PM on January 17, 2020

EC if you have a library card you can access the nyt online from there
posted by brujita at 6:17 PM on January 17, 2020

Oddly enough I was first properly introduced to bulgur as a way to evoke the texture of ground meat in vegan versions of foods like chili and stuffed peppers. Basically what you do is dry toast some bulgur first, and then add all your other ingredients, and it retains that typical bulgur chewiness that gives such a nice mouthfeel. After no longer living with my vegan roommate I still cook vegan chili all the time, starting with toasted bulgur and adding lots of spices to toast briefly as well (a great way to use spices you may have lying around!) and then chucking in all my peppers, beans, and tomato. But I also use bulgur in combination with ground meat, too. I've done fun experimental lamb and bulgur mini meatloafs with lemony tomato sauce that was a bit like kibi. I've done stuffed eggplant with mushrooms beef and bulgur in place of breadcrumbs for a twist on the typical Italian homestyle dish and it was really satisfying. If you toast the bulgur it gives it that toasty nutty flavor that's missing in marinated applications like tabbouleh and then you can use it to stretch out ground meats in dishes that call for a lot of it, which is great for budget and diet.
posted by Mizu at 6:22 PM on January 17, 2020 [2 favorites]

Our ramen noodle default is to make peanut sauce and serve with that and some stir fry. If you’re looking for a non-soupy alternative, that would work. The reason peanut sauce is such a default for us is that the important bits are pantry staples and the recipe is so flexible: peanut butter, sesame oil, some salty, sour, sweet, and spicy flavors to fill it in, and a little of the noodle cooking water to thin it to a saucy texture.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:38 AM on January 18, 2020

Best answer: I make buckwheat pancakes by mixing the flour and water to pancake batter consistency and letting it ferment overnight, and adding baking powder, salt, cinnamon, some sugar and an egg to it in the morning to finish the batter before cooking. Very delicious, especially with fruit preserves or jam!
posted by ananci at 9:02 AM on January 19, 2020

Response by poster: Have been getting TONS of great ideas in here so far, thanks already!

I have one additional new discovery - I have something in the fridge that was supposed to be a single-serve solid jello-mold style dessert thing, with cranberry juice and port, but it didn't set quite as solidly as I'd hoped it would. It's tasty, just not solid-jelly enough.

I've been trying to figure out what to do with it to use it up. Maybe whipping it and folding into sour cream or yogurt or whipped cream to turn into a mousse type of thing?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:54 PM on January 22, 2020

Best answer: You can make trifle with it - which traditionally HAS PORT IN IT so that's brilliant - in lieu of American-jelly or UK-jelly.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:33 PM on January 22, 2020

Could you reduce it along with a bit of shallot and stock and use it as a sauce for sliced turkey or pork or duck?
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:05 PM on January 22, 2020

Response by poster: Can you reduce a jelly that's already-set? Genuine question. (I do have a couple duck breasts in the freezer that I purchased when I was a bit more flush....)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:27 AM on January 23, 2020

Yeah, it should be easy. I don't know if you added gelatin or if your jelly is set just with the pectin in the cranberries; but either way they should melt when heated (the gelatin for sure; pectin might need to be heated up a bit more) and you'd be adding some reduced stock anyway. I think it'll be delicious.

Of course it'd be easy to experiment with a couple tsp in a pan first to make sure you like how it melts.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:53 AM on January 23, 2020