Fron-Shu’s Cookery Challenge!

Last night Francis and I invented a new game!  It’s called Fron-Shu’s Cookery Challenge, after a character in one of Francis’s bedtime stories.  (Fron-Shu is a young frog who wants more than anything to become a chef. He probably looks a lot like this little guy.)

We made a long list of ingredients (about 65), wrote each on a folded piece of paper, and mingled them in a large mason jar. To accept the Fron-Shu challenge, the contestant must choose six pieces of paper and make a two-course meal using those ingredients.

A few rules:

1. If there are any duplicates, you must re-draw. (There are three wild cards, and there are two each of most protein-rich ingredients.)
2. If you get two proteins, you can exchange one in a re-draw, if you wish.
3. Re-draw anything that is out of season.
4. You have to use all the ingredients you draw, but:
5. To make things a bit easier, you may discard one of your six.
6. To supplement your ingredients, you may use spices (but not herbs), onions, garlic, oil/fat, stock, alcohol, condiments, and flour. If it’s not one of these and you don’t have it on a piece of paper, you can’t use it.

It’s really simple but fun, and I think it’ll be very useful when we’re trying to come up with new things to cook, or if we’re just stumped for ideas. We haven’t done it for real yet, but we amused ourselves last night by making a draw and figuring out what to make.

Example of a draw I got:
- eggs
- peanut butter
- pork
- cilantro
- truffles
- red bell peppers

I decided I’d make an egg dish with truffles (soufflé? simply fry the eggs and shave the truffles on top?) for a side dish and a Mexican-inspired dish of stewed pork with cumin, cayenne, cilantro and peppers. The peanut butter I discarded. An odd combination, I know, but sure would make for an interesting meal.

Anyway, you get the point. I’ll keep you posted on what we draw and what we cook.