Day 5: waste not, want not

I have a thing where I am very uncomfortable about wasting food.  While that is good for economy of food prep, sometimes that result in dishes I prepare that are pretty ugly.  In my opinion working with leftover and scraps can make for some pretty compelling options, but I think I'll need to work on it a little more before I try to make my case in earnest.

Menu:

• Dinner: sauteed shrimp on bak choy, toasted sweet potato chips, chicken carcass soup
• Time spent: ~1.5 hour prep, 15 mins clean up
• Estimated cost of inventory used: $5.28

Key lessons of the day:

• I tend to cheat with spicy flavours: when in doubt, I tend to add peppers and chillis.  This results in flavour profiles that fit my preferences and tastes really well, but is still a cheat, and I need to diversify out a little more.
• That chicken carcass soup was surprisingly filling.  Two bowls of it, with scraps of chicken, celery, carrots, and onions made for a whole meal - the shrimp and chips actually kind of put me over the top.
• The chicken stock I made was 1) too watery and 2) too vegetable-y.  Needs more work and iteration for next week
• You know what would have made the soup better?  An egg.  Always remember the egg.

Open questions

• Why did my sweet potato chips cook differently on each side?  
• One side looked pale and dried out, while the other side developed a nice crisp while staying nice and golden.
• My hypothesis is that side that was initially put into the oven, which turned pale, lost its moisture while it was cooking, leaving a dry layer that crisped.
• If my hypothesis is correct, the solution to the problem is to cover the chips with another layer of foil, to cook both sides, before adding a char to it.

Meal breakdown

The result: the shrimp worked well, but could have been tended to better because some of the smaller bits ended up marginally tougher, and may have been over done.  I think the woodear worked here for this dish, because of the texture it adds, but it's probably not necessary.  The bak choy also ended slightly more rubbery than I would have wanted - I think it calls for even less time on the stove.

I'm going to skip on the prep description and notes, because it's late and I am very exhausted.  Suffice it to say, nothing really notable here, just rehashing stuff I've done before in the last few days.

Cheers,

Hanchen