Making My Pantry a Well-Oiled Machine
August 18, 2024 9:57 AM   Subscribe

In search of simple things I can marinate and keep on hand in my fridge for quick-and-easy inclusion in appetizers or meals. Help me marinate all the things!

Today is slated for some kitchen projects, including some advance prep for simple appetizers and dinners. One idea was to do up a small iar of marinated mushrooms, and that was indeed as simple as advertised. And then I remembered I had a similarly easy-sounding recipe for preserving sliced sausage in oil, and I've got those two small jars started. And that's just made me realize that hey, there's that log of goat cheese lingering in the fridge I can also give the same treatment too.

This has used up my olive oil and so I'm already going to need to get more, but I'm also now thinking I want to marinate other stuff and have it ready in the fridge to toss into salads, or onto a pizza or into pasta dishes. I just need ideas!

I'm already considering a small batch of olives; I'm not a big fan of artichokes, so please no marinated artichoke heart recipes. And I'd prefer things that keep a couple weeks; please nothing that I'm going to need to eat up in only two days. (Some of the sausage, mushrooms and olives are already going to be used on a pizza tonight.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos to Food & Drink (9 answers total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Roasted red peppers? I can't vouch for the recipe as I've never tried this.
posted by kathrynm at 10:02 AM on August 18


Best answer: Cubes of cheese?
Tomato / sundried tomatoes?
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:10 AM on August 18


Pickled red onions are so pretty and so tasty. I make them all the time. And friday, I improvised a little salad/tapa of gem lettuce, sliced radishes and pickled red onions. I only wish I had taken a picture, but that just means I have to do it again. And it was so tasty, I'd serve it to anyone.

Do You Know Your Tsukemono? Thinking of radishes, I feel I should be making more of these, they are my favorite pickles, and they are quite expensive in the shops.

Later in this month, I'll be taking a day off for preserving a lot of mirabelle plums. Usually, I just make jellies that I flavor with different spices for different purposes. I like chili for savory dishes like duck or goose or pork, and cinnamon for sweet uses as in a layered cake. But I've tried with vanilla, cardamon, mint, and probably more that I have forgotten.
This year, I also want to make chutneys. I don't really have a sweet tooth, so the above-mentioned sweet jellies don't see a lot of use, and I have some that are five years old (and will be going to compost). I think chutney is right for me. I'm still looking for recipes, so can't recommend anyone in particular.

Sometimes I make slow-roasted cherry tomatoes.
posted by mumimor at 10:52 AM on August 18 [3 favorites]


Preserved lemons!
posted by dr. boludo at 10:58 AM on August 18 [2 favorites]


And I'd prefer things that keep a couple weeks; please nothing that I'm going to need to eat up in only two days.

Don't want to be a downer--I loooooove marinated goat cheese--but please do be mindful of the food safety note here!
posted by praemunire at 10:59 AM on August 18 [1 favorite]


You can reuse sweet or dill pickle juice to quick-pickle onions, shredded carrots, cauliflower, etc. Quick-pickled red onions are perfect on a roast beef sandwich, and great on lots of stuff. Quick-pickled foods do not keep as well as carefully pickled foods, so eat 'em up, a couple weeks is fine.

Artichokes. Buy them canned, marinate to suit your tastes. Mushroooms, too.

I do not like gin martinis. I love olives marinated in gin, so sometimes I just marinate olives in gin.
posted by theora55 at 3:11 PM on August 18 [2 favorites]


garlic confit!
posted by Lawn Beaver at 5:11 PM on August 18 [1 favorite]


This is obviously too late, but for next time: Pasta Grammar makes "Capuliato Siciliano" and it looks really delicious.
posted by mumimor at 1:11 PM on August 19


Response by poster: This is obviously too late

I am a stereotypically bougie Brooklyn foodie hipster. It is never too late to give me food-related information.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:37 PM on August 19 [1 favorite]


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