Frozen assets

Shame-facedly I admit that this is my freezer. Quite how it became so congested, I'm not really sure. Things disappear and things just materialize from thin air. I am led to believe that this is much better for the environment than a sparse space. All that wasted energy. What about all that wasted food? My mission is to not buy any protein based products until I have reduced this by half. I know for a fact that there are some beef short ribs and some Ikea meat balls lurking somewhere in there. I think there are enough chicken carcasses to make stock and then soup. I remember recently seeing a bag of giant raw prawns nestling against some prawn shells, (kept to make a stock or bisque - we'll see if that ever sees the light of day), and I'm hoping there's some pork to make a slow cooked braise.

We began the clear out on Thursday, defrosting and cooking some Thai curry and rice recently brought home from a trip to the best Thai restaurant in Vancouver; Maenam.

Lamb curry with Jasmine rice. Big, earthy flavours with lamb shanks, whole baby onions, potatoes and peanuts in a sweet, spicy, sour sauce.

Neil recently had the foresight to make himself a large Shepherd's pie, quarter it, wrap the quarters in foil and freeze for future use. It's been a life saver for him as he is quite a good cook but doesn't really enjoy it. He used smoked black peppercorns that had inadvertently managed to get into the pepper shaker and almost ruined the whole thing. I think the smokiness is fairly subtle, however, or maybe he's just got used to it.

One quarter of pie waiting to be defrosted and heated in the microwave.

My fridge. Another vast abyss with a mind of its own. I'm sure a lot of people have the same dilemma. A fridge full of exotic jars containing things like saffron and hibiscus jelly or scotch bonnet chili sauce. Why am I so reluctant to throw these things away? It's because I know, deep down that one day I will use them and if I throw them away I will forever regret it when I want to make that recipe I once saw. (Sound familiar)? 

Anyway, the next few meals I make will be using ingredients from the freezer with no cheating.