You recall that moment where you yank open your fridge and pantry, drinking in the vista of what you’ve got lying around, waiting for the spark of inspiration to strike? It’s a common enough scene, especially at the end of the shopping cycle. Every now and then, though, you’re reduced to making do, working with a few ingredients and building something quite delicious, much as the frittata was built from almost bare kitchen floor here.
This style of improvisational cooking is about embracing the joy of having a stash of handy, do-everything ingredients and perhaps more so, preserving them from going bad and making them easily accessible. Single residents in particular are victimized by food waste, as it is often hard to work through the larger quantities before they go bad. This is why smart storage choices are all the more essential, maintaining the ingredients that you do have in good condition so that you can cobble something together whenever the mood strikes you.
Onions
Onions are such a flavor ingredient in so many recipes. In my situation, when the pantry and fridge emergency made improvisation necessary, onions were among the contents of the fridge. This small observation matters because while onions are typically thought to be a pantry staple, keeping them in the cold can be intelligent depending on how you plan to use them and how quickly you use them.
The frittata recipe here actually requires only one small onion, which was chopped very finely and cooked in broken garlic. This is one of the advantages of having an onion saved in the refrigerator to chop and cook. Sautéing the chopped onion is one part of the initial process of constructing the foundation of the dish’s flavor, and that is how important this ingredient is and how convenient it is to keep it on hand.
Potatoes
Potatoes are another extremely versatile and filling food that were very much part of our spontaneous meal. The frittata recipe itself did call for one medium-sized potato, which was peeled and chopped in the process of preparing it. They were part of the ingredients that were waiting in the fridge to be utilized.
The method used for the frittata is to boil diced potatoes in salt water until they are set, and drain and set aside. These are the potatoes that can be added later with the tuna and other components in the pan dish. This step-by-step process shows how potatoes, starting from where they are kept in the refrigerator, are utilized in constructing a full course meal, demonstrating their use as a base ingredient when you have to construct a dish utilizing whatever is available.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes introduce a dash of coolness and acidity to anything, and were among the primary ingredients in our instance of a frittata. The three small tomatoes were among the ingredients that could be fetched from the fridge and contributed to the meal. What this implies is that even the underlying produce materials like tomatoes were part of the cool storage content in this real cooking scenario.
The frittata method requires the chef to add the chopped tomatoes into the pan after the onion is browned so they will simmer for 10 minutes prior to adding spices. This tenderizes the tomatoes ever so slightly and gives them a depth of flavor, all of which is a crucial part of the overall flavor in the finished dish. Having these tomatoes readily available from the refrigerator made this crucial step to layering the sauce and flavor possible to achieve well as part of the improvisational process.
Garlic
Garlic is so much more than an herb, truly a flavor dynamo which must build a flavorful base for so many of our meals. In that fridge frittata made up with what was available, chopped garlic was even noted to be in the fridge. That handy package of garlic, to be added to something, was included in the impromptu meal.
Frittata calls for the entire two tablespoons of minced garlic and instructs adding it to the pan to sauté with chopped onion. It is so crucial that that sweet aromatic flavor and fragrance are introduced at once. Since minced garlic was readily available and pulled from the refrigerator made all that crucial flavoring so simple, it shows the simplicity of using prepped or within-grasp ingredients kept in a cool environment.
Whole Grain Bread and Tortillas
And here’s a strange one that arises in the context of stocking a Whole-Food, Plant-Based (WFPB) kitchen guide. Under the ‘Refrigerator’ category, it actually includes “Whole grain bread and tortillas, corn tortillas.” You might be amazed if you’re used to just tossing your loaf or wraps onto the counter bread bin or in the cupboard. But the suggestion to store them cold suggests a utilitarian purpose, most likely having to do with maintaining their freshness and integrity for a longer duration of time, which is a wonderful advantage to anyone that’s trying to be a responsible shopper with their groceries, especially if they won’t be getting through a whole package in real quick time.
Think about it – bread, especially the whole food, additive-free variety that you might find yourself inevitably drawn to in a WFPB diet (or just because they’re delicious!) might be more prone to mold earlier than super-processed foods. Keeping them in the fridge slows down that process significantly. To one homeowner, or even a single family unit, it might mean the difference between being able to enjoy that last piece of whole grain bread for a sandwich or toast, and, alas, having to throw it away because fuzzy green spots have arrived. It’s a simple change that enhances the purpose of not wasting anything and having ingredients ready to use when required without worrying about a timer being up.
Milk (Plant Milk)
Milk is a fairly ordinary item for the fridge, isn’t it? Vegetable or dairy, we simply understand that it will have to be refrigerated. In our frittata application, “milk” was included on our list of foods to be found in the fridge, and was used in the recipe, beaten with the eggs prior to being poured over the fish and vegetable combination. It goes to acknowledge its everyday application in moistening and enriching the meal, the regular application for milk in egg dishes such as quiches or frittatas, or just plain consumption.
Apart from this, the WFPW stocking guide itself does include “Unsweetened, unflavored plant milk, like almond, soy, cashew, or oat” under its ‘Refrigerator’ section. This reinforces the necessity to refrigerate opened plant milk alternatives in efforts to keep them fresh and prevent spoilage, just like dairy milk. The manual even states that the fewer ingredients there are in the plant milk, the better, which is many times followed by a requirement for refrigeration and a low shelf life after opening. It underscores that no matter how often you use dairy or plant milk, the fridge is its rightful and mandatory abode for safety and quality.
Eggs
Eggs is yet another off-the-shelf product whose storage is at times a point of debate depending on your location and the packaging type. In our instance, however, when the writer was making a list of what they had on hand in the pantry, “eggs” was the very item to be in the fridge. And not just there, but front and center! The author says that placing the eggs in the fridge right away made them want to make a quiche or a frittata, showing how the presence of this convenient ingredient refrigerated and ready to go in the fridge in its instant usability inspired the meal-saving day. Eggs are such an easy item to keep on hand.
They are an excellent source of protein and can be made into a meal in ways that number in the hundreds, from scrambled or fried up to serving as the basis of a hearty frittata like the one in our photograph. Refrigerating eggs maintains them fresher longer than allowing them to sit at room temperature. The cold temperature slows down the process of decay, keeping your eggs fresh for weeks. This is convenient for someone who can use only two at a time.
Feta Cheese
And finally, but by no means least, completing the set of fridge essentials utilized in our scenario’s off-the-top meal, we have “feta cheese.” This flavor-filled cheese was among the contents of the fridge and was used as a garnish, sprinkled atop the frittata prior to oven-baking. Feta, as with most cheeses, is a dairy item, and dairy absolutely must be refrigerated if it is to remain safe and palatable.
Refrigeration prevents feta from spoiling because at room temperature it can have bacteria development. Feta, especially crumbled or in brine, needs to be kept cold to save its texture, taste, and integrity. For a resident who might be making it through just a little bit of cheese, maybe even at a time, correct chilling is necessary to enable that piece or container to store until it expires completely, instead of going through the inconvenience of having to waste expensive ingredients due to spoilage.
