Last week I was trying to clean out assorted leftovers from the refrigerator. I removed all the assorted containers and plastic-wrapped items and looked at what I had to work with. It struck me that I was in my own episode of Chopped but without other contestants and the judges. (Also without the $10,000 prize money.)
The Chopped Basket
I had a few more ingredients as well. In my Chopped basket were:
- A piece of cooked steak (medium-rare)
- One hamburger (medium)
- A quarter of a cabbage
- Half a sweet onion
- A container of baked beans
- A container of mashed potatoes
- Two limp carrots
I pulled out the grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer and set it up. Then I trimmed fat off the steak and ground up the meat along with the burger. I diced the onion and threw it in with the meat. Finally I mixed in the mashed potatoes along with salt, pepper and a dash of Worcestershire Sauce. Now I had a bowl of roast beef hash.
While hash patties browned in the skillet, I shredded the cabbage and the carrots into another bowl. I mixed a dollop of mayonnaise with a squirt of coarse-grained mustard and tipped in some sweet pickle juice. Whisked together, it made a quick-and-easy coleslaw sauce.
The leftover beans went into a pan to heat up and dinner was ready: roast beef hash with beans and coleslaw.
No Points for Presentation
It wasn’t pretty—I took no pictures. You’ll have to make do with these photos I took from the Internet. Also, it made so much hash that I didn’t top it with an egg, which would have been good.
This was a real diner meal and the presentation wouldn’t have won me any points on Chopped. But dinner tasted great and it eliminated a slew of leftovers that were crowding the fridge. I think I would have won the main course round.
I did miscalculate one thing, though. I now have some leftover coleslaw.