Last night I made mushroom risotto (a chicken carcass needed brothing) with shiitakes and dried porcini. Today I rolled it in nori, and the chick pea curry (warmed) in tortillas with pickled serranos. Pickled beets on the side. Yum. The pickled things are really doing it for me right now, and I love dispatching leftovers efficiently.
Category: The Circle of Leftovers
The chicken carcass became broth, and I made “meatballs” with the leftover lentil salad, a dab of pâté, an egg, and some flour, then poached them in the broth. Soba and braised pan di zucchero finished the bowl. The meatballs were OK, but needed more zing- ginger, garlic, and chile, maybe, and some matzo meal to improve the texture. This dish also underscored the urgency of making the big crock of kimchi I’ve been planning…
This isn’t the best picture I’ve ever taken, but it tasted pretty great; Christine was out shopping for Milo’s birthday party and I figured she’d come home tired, stressed, and hungry. One of the keys to my marriage is anticipating such contingencies and dispatching them with appropriate culinary remedies. Thus lamb chops (shoulder, which I prefer to loin for both price and character) along with mash, a ragout of zucchini, leek, artichoke, carrot, celery, fennel,…
The happy coexistence of leftover ratatouille and homemade pizza dough in the fridge led me inexorably (and lazily, but that’s what leftovers are for) to a calzone. To accompany, fabulous salad from the newly exploding bed of fall lettuces, a side of chicken-of-the-woods sautéed quickly with guanciale, garlic, and parsley, and a sauce made from the few plum tomatoes that remained from canning. Good food for a rainy evening- hearty, but it is still summer…
Inspired jointly by many quality leftovers, the exploding garden, and a glorious cool day, I took best advantage of all three and made a salmon and smoked chicken pot pie. Unused salmon from the other night, plus frozen smoked chicken broth (and meat) plus fresh green beans and the last of the peas from the garden all combined with a roux I had made from the drippings last time we roasted a chicken to make…
Many leftovers and not much time led to this variety of small treats; there’s nothing like having nori, and other wrappers around to turn random scraps into elegant bites. The goes-without-saying summer rolls, wontons made with a filling of leftover curried chick peas puréed with the last of the sweet potato salad fromm John’s birthday, and maki made from some brown rice remnants and filled with the purée, a bit of barramundi Milo had the…
The lemon tarts were so well reviewed, especially by Christine, that I was pleased to have saved the unused pie dough in the fridge. We had some of the sweet potato salad left, and a few of the blue potatoes, and tofu that I didn’t throw in lunch’s fridge soup because I wanted to make more summer rolls. So I made a tart in the small pan, just the same as last night, and summer…
Somewhat presciently, last night after dinner I thought to make fridge soup for tonight since I suspected I’d be working late. This one was a continuation of last week’s, via another iteration we made in Vermont containing the leftover sausage and garden greens (yes, I brought the soup with us to Vermont.) This time around I browned 3 strips of chopped bacon with half an onion, deglazed with wine, and dumped in the earlier soup,…
The rib bones from yesterday, still with a bit of meat on them- and lots of flavor left to give- went in a pot with onion, carrot and herbs to brown a bit. Then a bowl of soaked cannelini beans, water, and a bit of salt, and it all bubbled for two hours. I pulled all the good meat off, chucked the rest, and stirred in a handful of chopped oregano from the herb garden.…
The many-flavored sauce entered the home stretch with this one, as it became a curry with cauliflower and fingerling potatoes added, plus the requisite spices (and a couple of ramps; they just arrived, and we’re eating half of them and planting the other half.) It keeps getting richer and deeper, and may be the first recorded instance of sopressata ending up in a curry.) I also made little rolls with wonton skins, filled with shiitake,…