At some point substitution becomes creation. This past week, I was craving a creamy, spicy pasta. Now I originally wanted shrimp pasta but I didn’t have any shrimp and I didn’t think that I would find some in the grocery store. I will be honest, I didn’t really want to visit the grocery store. So I had to find a way to switch out shrimp for some sort of seafood. Now the only seafood I have in the house is canned tuna and canned salmon. I have other plans for the tuna so that left the salmon. So I decided to make spicy, creamy pasta with salmon instead of shrimp. Now this is where substitution becomes creation.
I sauteed peppers and onions in a lot of butter (this is to compensate for the non-fat dry milk that I cook with). Then I added the tablespoons of flour and then eventually the milk. A side note about the dry milk, I buy this at the store on a regular basis instead of the usual milk people buy. I get it because I don’t drink milk enough to be able to get through a gallon by myself without it going bad. It is infinitely easier to make a cup of milk from water and dry milk when I want to make a cream sauce then to have regular milk on hand. Also, I tend not to drink dry milk, it has an aftertaste that I believe to be the result of making the dry milk. Now back to the pasta. So I made a cream sauce with the peppers and onions.
At some point, I added garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika, and some cayenne pepper. I can’t remember adding any other spices. Anyway, to the cream sauce, I added a drained can of tomatoes and a drained can of salmon. I also added a tiny bit of cheese. This cream sauce went onto a half box of angel hair pasta that I had on hand. This turned out to be a very tasty meal considering that I had no idea how this would turn out. I hadn’t used salmon for anything other than salmon loaf. I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor to the point that this is probably going to become a regular meal when I crave creamy spicy pasta. This is where substitution becomes creation. My substitution of salmon for shrimp became a creation of a new dish in my repertoire of cooking. So while I met a craving and added a food to my mental recipe list. Have you ever taken a substitution and made it a creation? What kind of substitutions have you made that have turned out better than you thought they would? Is the current situation forcing you to be more creative with your cooking? Please answer below with your comments and thanks for reading.
unknownclimate 