I hate to say it but I'm a terrible cook. I enjoy food science and turning something of low value into something better. Flour to bread...sure. Sugar to alcohol...sure. Cabbage to kimchi...sure. Soy beans to soy milk and okara...cool. However, actually making dinner is something I'm very bad at.
My wife is a much better cook but she works a lot. Also she loves to buy things when they are on sale. Doesn't matter if we will use it or not if its a sale it comes home. That makes it challenging as there are a number of items in the freezer, fridge and cupboard that I have no idea how to cook with or how to prepare.
That means : Things get crowded and food goes bad before it gets eaten! It annoys my wife and myself. So today I'm going to try something a little different: ChatGPT Stew.
Using AI to clear out aging food
Today I went through the freezer, fridge and cupboard and pulled out things that have been sitting for a long time.
I started with a bunch of sauces that were hanging out in the fridge and cupboard.
There were a bunch of different types but in the end ChatGPT chose to use the Korma sauce. I've never even heard of it but well...if I can clear it out of the house then great.
Then some vegetables that were in the freezer and cupboard
After that there was some meat hanging out in the freezer.
I asked ChatGPT nicely what I should cook with the spices I had in the cupboard and the items I had and it came up with this recipe.
Then I asked about spices
Then I thought about not using the Sage and trying Curry powder instead and I got this response
I have no idea what I'm cooking but I figure the AI isn't going to give me something truly inedible so I give it a go.
Getting it all ready
Now there would be two ways to do this. The easy way is just to throw everything in the crock pot and wait 8 hours. The slightly harder way is to brown everything first to add some flavour and then add everything to the crock pot.
I decide to go with the brown everything first method.
Chop up the Onion
Dice the Potato
and I put the cut potato in water so it doesn't turn brown.
Thaw the frozen meat
The chicken drumsticks are frozen solid into an ugly brick. I put them in cold water to thaw out without getting to room temperature.
Brown the sausage
As for the sausage. It doesn't need to thaw as much so I just brown it frozen on the stove.
Medium heat with a bit of oil and sear until the sausages are brown.
Then into the crock pot they go.
Frozen beans
They get diced up and put into a bowl
and then add on some frozen vegetables onto the pile
Break apart the chicken legs
They are still totally frozen but at least 30 minutes in cold water gets them to the point where I can actually break them apart. Horray!
Then Medium heat with some oil until they brown
Once they look like this they go into the crock pot.
Brown the onions and add to the pot
Start like this and heat until translucent
Brown the potatoes
Adding Garlic when they are nearly done
Add it all to the meat in the crock pot
Throw on the frozen vegetables
Place the Korma sauce on top
Puree the frozen (somewhat thawed) tomatoes
Add a little bit of spice
Then its time to clean up the counter :)
And wait for 8 hours while the crock pot is on low.
Come back to this
Remove the bones from the 6 chicken legs
Give it a nice stir
And serve over rice.
Final Thoughts
It probably would have been a lot easier just to throw everything into the crock pot and wait. Overall browning the ingredients turned out well. It wasn't nearly as spicy as I thought it would be and if I did it again I probably would have added more seasoning to it.
However, it make a perfectly acceptable meal and my wife, homestay student and I ate happily.
Plus I got rid of some aging vegetables, aging frozen meat, and sauce I'd never heard of before.
I'm glad I have an AI assistant to give me a little help in clearing out the fridge.
Thanks for dropping by :)
As always feel free to share a comment or two.