‘Clean out your fridge’ day cornmeal veggie bites

It has been a while since I’ve had a “clean out your fridge” day — mostly because I’ve been away from my kitchen for the past few months. It has become an occasion for me ever since the days of my eatery. It happened more frequently then. We’d give our kitchen a thorough Marie Kondo, think of ways to cook up and preserve what we found in the fridge, and have a feast.

The eatery had a great relationship with Abalimi Bezekhaya , an NGO addressing food waste by allocating food surplus from small scale farmers to producers in the supply chain. Sometimes we’d get that surprising bit of extra in our delivery — local ingredients such as Cape Dunespinach, or a couple of amadumbes. Kitchen playtimes are always great times. 

Addressing food surplus and waste at home can be effortless and fun if you apply your creativity to it. There are numerous ways to make a great meal from limited ingredients. It’s a mindset switch -from reliance on recipes to self-reliant. You no longer need to pop out to the shops for that one missing spice or sauce in the recipe you found on Pinterest. You experiment and learn that some ingredients are interchangeable — most of the time. Some ingredients are of course uncompromisable.

We had a “clean out your fridge” day here in Yunnan, in my aunt’s kitchen — a vegetarian household. My mind has been blown by the ways auntie turns vegetables into all sorts of delicious things. Fried mushroom “nuggets”, various veggie broths and multigrain congee.

On this day, when I had decided to clean out the fridge, auntie suggested that I use up everything that we find and create lunch. I made these steamed veggie bites, thinly coated with cornmeal, steamed for a few minutes before serving. They are like small corn pastry dim sums packed with a veggie punch, loaded with spinach and mushrooms, spiced and salted, served with some chilli sauce or as it is. Everybody in my family loved it, including my three-year-old, who did not know how much spinach she was actually consuming! 

Disclaimer: I did not invent the concept of this dish; it originated somewhere in the multiverse of the internet. I’ve made a few tweaks as the most recipes suggest mixing cornmeal into the veggie bites but I prefer to coat it. I’d also add bits of bacon, spam, or chorizo if available.

Ingredients:

• 250g spinach,
• 50g dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in lukewarm water for at least 25 minutes if they’re small.
• 1 medium carrot
• 50g wood ear mushrooms (optional), rehydrated in lukewarm water for at least 15 minutes
• 3 eggs
• ½ TPS Salt
• 1 TBS Soy sauce
• 1 TBS Oyster sauce
• ½ TBS five spice
• 1 cup cornmeal (grounded dried corn kernels — easy to make your own if you own a small grinder)

Method:

1. Add water to a medium pot, bring to boil, add spinach. Switch off immediately when water is at boiling point again. Roughly chop spinach, set aside
2. Finely chop shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and wood ear mushrooms, set aside
3. Whisk eggs, scramble and set aside
4. Mix ingredients thoroughly, and start pinching them into balls as you would when making meatballs TIP: pinch as tightly as you can to ensure they do not fall apart later
5. In a plate, lay out your cornmeal, take each veggie bite and roll it gently to make sure it is coated evenly but not too thickly, because you want to get that slight translucent appearance with bits of green and orange popping through
6. Add water to your steaming device, bring to boil, and steam on high heat for eight minutes. Be sure to set your alarm and avoid overcooking
7. Serve with savoury and sweet chilli condiments. Enjoy!