If you haven't yet seen the Prepper Cook-Off Challenge, this is my unofficial entry.
The goal of the challenge is to prepare us preppers to get creative with our stored food and expand the possibilities of what can be done with limited amounts of storable food. That and the random dice rolls are a bit comical and a lot of fun.
After throwing some dice you receive two common canned or dried food items to try and make a meal with by adding one additional storable food item of your choice plus spices and seasonings. See the Challenge post for the full contest details. There is still over a week left which is plenty of time for you to join in the challenge. Deadline is May 3 at 11:59pm UST -7.
I used the two dice bot and ended up rolling a can of fruit cocktail and a can of mushrooms. Yuck! What could I make with those two items? It was difficult, I even slept on it, but finally I decided for my third choose your own item to use coconut milk. Can you guess what I made?
My Entry
These two canned items clashed so much I decided to make two dishes instead of one. The rules simply said to create a meal, so with so few ingredients you would expect a single dish, there is no prohibition against multiple dishes.
Dish One: Cream of Mushroom Soup
Feeds: 2
Ingredients:
- 3/4 can of coconut milk (preferably AROY-D)
- 1 can of mushrooms
- 1 can fruit cocktail (Juice only. Save the fruit for another dish.)
- 1 shot glass red wine
- 1 Tbsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 bullion cube
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Directions:
Start by putting the can of coconut milk in the fridge for a couple of hours. Once it is cold remove the can, making sure to not shake or flip it upside down. The thicker cream will rise to the top. Open the can and skim off the thicker cream (because it is cool it is easier to skim) and set to the side in a bowl for dish #2.
Open the mushrooms and fruit cocktail and drain the juice into a pot. Add the bullion cube and stir on low heat until it is dissolved. While you are doing this put the coconut milk and half the mushrooms in a blender. Blend until smooth. Then add the other half of the mushrooms and blend until there are small chunks.
Add this to the pot with the dry spices and red wine and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 10 minutes to get the flavor out of the spices and serve.
Dish Two: Fruit Cocktail with Whipped Topping
Feeds: 2
Ingredients:
- 1/4 can coconut milk (preferably AROY-D)
- 1 can of fruit cocktail (fruit only)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch cinnamon
- pinch nutmeg
Directions:
As mentioned above you should have skimmed the heavy cream from the coconut milk already into a bowl off to the side. Stir in the 1/4 tsp vanilla extract and put back in the freezer for a few minutes until it is just starting to freeze. This isn't actually a whipped topping but it has a similar look and mouth feel to whipped cream.
While the topping is in the freezer empty the fruit cocktail into bowls. Remove the half frozen topping from freezer and spoon onto the fruit. Sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg on top of the topping and serve.
Tasting Notes
To be honest both of the dishes were surprisingly good considering the awkward food combinations and other restrictions.
I would give the soup a 6/10. It was very creamy and the red wine added a nice body. The onion, garlic and pepper seemed well balanced and provided a rich flavor. The one drawback from a flavor profile was the fruit juice aftertaste which was a bit off-putting. This dish is still pretty palatable overall though.
If I was to make this type of soup again I would probably not bother with the fruit juice. I only used it so it wouldn't go to waste and to increase the volume of fluid. I would also add more wine. The wine flavor was nice but it definitely could have been stronger. The contest has a restriction on the amount of wine/vinegar you can use in your recipes.
I also suspect that this amount of coconut milk would give most people the shits. When you consume too much fat in one sitting, especially when it is in a fluid that dilutes your stomach acid and bile, it tends to have this effect. I anticipated this and took an ox bile pill with this meal and had no ill effects. Because of the richness of the coconut milk I think you could add a second can of mushrooms and more water to dilute everything and make four servings out of it. This would also alleviate the potential for upsetting stomachs if it was shared by more people or split up into several meals rather than eating the coconut milk all at once.
Who knows maybe I will perfect the recipe and make a post about it.
The fruit cocktail I would give a 7/10 and wouldn't really try to change it. I think it was about as good as canned fruit cocktail gets. If you have never tried coconut cream this way it is pretty good. The key is to use a can of coconut milk that is very rich which AROY-D is (it also doesn't have any preservatives or thickeners added). I would have no problem eating this dish again as it was made.
