“In the Fridge” Post: What to do with sour cream?

My house seems to always have a constant supply of sour cream, despite my family not eating much of it at all. Actually, I should be saying that my fridge always carries half-used sour cream that sits in stale apprehension, waiting to be used but alas, never is. Then it curdles and it's off to the bin wit' ye!

What happens is that my grandmother buys the smallest pack of sour cream (roughly 300ml) and uses about 1/4 to 1/3 of it on pumpkin soup. Once the pumpkin soup is demolished - and it always is - it leaves most of the sour cream behind to go to waste.

As an Asian, we don't use sour cream on a normal basis and it is always a struggle to find ways to use the remaining 200ml.

So here is a list of things you can do with leftover sour cream:

• Potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce.

Easy wedges either from the freezer or homemade with your own spices (paprika, garlic powder, salt and whatever you want to put on it). Pop in the oven and you've got yourself a side dish or snack with a big dollop of sour cream. That should take care of most of that.

• Make pie.

If you happen to have A LOT of apples or strawberries that are about to go bad, this is the perfect time to bake a pie. Maggie Beer's sour cream pastry is absolutely fool-proof, even a horrible baker myself could make a beautiful, flaky pastry.

No kidding, this is a recipe I've butchered, pounded and bashed and it still turned out flaky. I refrigerated it for almost 2 days, let it thaw in room temperature twice, blitzed it with a blender instead of a food processor because I didn't have one, rolled it out *coughbashedcough* with my hands and not a rolling pin which made the lumpy butter melt and dough stick all over the place...every mistake you know, you can count on me making it on this pastry.

Yet the pastry was just lovely (not the pie though, I still had to throw it out due to the horrible filling).

So find your favourite pie filling recipe and make a pie.

• Sour cream and vegetable frittata.

The best thing about making a frittata is that you can pretty much put anything, I mean ANYTHING, in it. Grab all the vegetables you want to use out of the fridge, dice it all up, mix with some eggs and some sour cream and fry it in a pan.

Voila, breakfast, lunch or dinner served.

• Sour cream and herb dressing.

Replace mayonnaise with sour cream to make dressing. Olive oil, lemon juice and wholegrain mustard forms the "master" base for nearly all of the salad dressings I make.

Add something sweet. I tend to use mirin (sweet Japanese rice vinegar), tomato chutney, sweet chili sauce, honey, sugar syrup or just plain sugar. Anything sweet and syrupy will work.

Optional. Add something savoury/salty. If you're not using a salty cheese like feta or olives, you might consider French mustard or thick chili sauce. This is not necessary since you already have a savoury, creamy texture with the sour cream.

Add herbs. Fresh herbs are beautiful in salads, not to mention nutritionally beneficial*. Mint, basil and sage are nice leafy herbs that give great flavour. For those who don't have an extensive herb garden et moi, dried herbs in the dressing will do fine in terms of flavour, perhaps less so nutritionally.

• As a coconut cream substitute.

If you're anything like me, you'll be halfway through making a delicious curry with a bazillion ingredients then realise you don't have any coconut cream left. Sour cream is not only for Western cuisine, it can make an ok substitute for coconut cream. You will still get a creamy curry, but without the coconut taste (which is rather important, but what can you do?).

You can pretty much put sour cream in most thick, red meat stews or vegetable soups. Potatoes, eggs...or fried rice!!

Yes! Sour cream with leftover fried rice! Might seem strange, but if you mix fried rice with sour cream, chives, lemon juice and some soy sauce it would make a very, erm, interesting side dish or dip.


* Resourced from nutritionist Monica Reinagel @ Nutrition Diva.