Evolution of Leftovers

[Jim Dixon]

Last night I ate a great bowl of pasta...penne with celery root in apple juice, hard cider, parmigiano, and cream. But it was the evolved end product of two weeks’ worth of leftovers.

For New Year’s Eve I braised a pork shoulder in caramelized onions with apple juice and French hard cider (low alcohol and fizzy). When the pork was finally knocked off a few days later, I still had a few cups of the braising liquid, the apple juice and cider fortified with a bit of olive oil (from cooking the onions) and pork fat.

Late last week I turned this into a soup by cutting a celery root into small cubes and simmering them in the braising liquid. I used a potato masher to coarsely smash the cubes, added a bit of creme fraiche, and ate the soup with some crusty bread. Very nice, although maybe a bit sweet, but the celery root went well with the apple flavor.

I was down to about a cup of the soup, by now thickened from a couple of heatings. I heated it again with a handful of leftover cooked penne, a good grinding of sea salt, about a quarter cup of cream, and maybe half cup of fresh grated parm. Let that come to a boil and cook for a few minutes.

The added cream and parm cut the sweetness, and it was one of the nicest bowls of creamy pasta I’ve eaten for awhile. The problem, of course, is making it again.

Jim

Edited January 15, 2003 by Jim Dixon (log)

[Margaret Pilgrim]

ROTFL!! You have just told the story of my 44 year marriage! How do you explain to a man who doesn't cook that the fabulous creation at dinner last night was the serendipidous combination of half a cup of braise gravy, some flavor concentrated (read: aged ) mushrooms, a long-in-the-tooth parsnip, several scraps of unidentifiable cheese, etc., etc.. He, an engineer, begs for me to keep "lab notes" so I can repeat these masterpieces, and I smile, shake my head and wish that "Men are from Mars...." had come out decades ago!

[Dave the Cook]

Processing ROTFL...

[maggiethecat]

ROTFPWMP!

Jim, I am very experienced in the phenom you describe. Ah well, chalk it up to culinary serindipity, a dinnertime Shangri-La, and wait for the next time.

It sounds really good.

[Dave the Cook]

Processing ROTFPWMP...

Edited January 15, 2003 by Dave the Cook (log)

[col klink]

Nice work Jim, you have given me inspiration. Last week I came close to work when we had leftover spaghetti squash with spinach, feta something else or the other. Quite tasty, but when I reheated it on the stove with a couple pieces of bacon, then the dish was complete. But I hardly think this counts as evolution, it's just taking a nice vegetarian dish and adding pork. What dish isn't better when bacon is added?

[Dave the Cook]

What dish isn't better when bacon is added?

Chudge.

Edited January 15, 2003 by Dave the Cook (log)

[col klink]

I stand corrected. Thank you Dave.

[Suzanne F]

Jim, I thought everybody cooked that way. Then again, maybe not if the Dinner thread is to be believed. What a shame restaurants can't do that (Mrs. Blaskovic of the NYC Health Department said one re-heat and then it's garrrrbage).

All I know is, I can't make beef braciole if I haven't first made meatloaf to mash up for the filling. And to make the meatloaf, I need to have made stuffed veal breast, to have excess mushroom stuffing. And for the veal, I needed to make ... well, you get the idea. Margaret P, you are SO right!

[steverino]

Dave -

guessing:

ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing?

ROTFPWMP - Rolling On The Floor Practically Wetting My Pants?!?!?!?!

Margaret?

Maggie?

Help?

[Dave the Cook]

Thanks, Steverino. I had parsed the O and T correctly, but went down the wrong path on the F, thinking it a gerund, rather than a noun. Things just fell apart after that.

And now I realize that I've seen ROTFL before. But that Maggie, she's a clever babe, and not above a little teasing, I think.

[Marlene]

Dave -

guessing:

ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing?

ROTFPWMP - Rolling On The Floor Practically Wetting My Pants?!?!?!?!

Margaret?

Maggie?

Help?

or ROTFLMAOF

[maggiethecat]

Dave -

guessing:

ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing?

ROTFPWMP - Rolling On The Floor Practically Wetting My Pants?!?!?!?!

Margaret?

Maggie?

Help?

Steverino....Ba ding! Right on.

Dave: Me? Tease? Moi?

[Suzanne F]

or ROTFLMAOF

Marlene -- I forget what the final F stands for, but I just realized that's a great way to slim down. Sure beats using the NordicTrak!

[JAZ]

Maybe instead of (or in addition to) the market basket challenge, we should have a leftover challenge...

[Dave the Cook]

Dave:  Me? Tease?  Moi?

Vous. Episcopalian vixen.

[snowangel]

Maybe instead of (or in addition to) the market basket challenge, we should have a leftover challenge...

As we drive back from our cabin in the summer on Sunday afternoons, we tune into KAXE (a fabulous PBS station based out of Grand Rapids, MN), and listen to The Splendid Table. For quite a while, the host and I believe Al Schierman did a thing with a call-in based on this idea. There was an assumption that the caller had some basics (garlic, onions, EVOO, etc.), plus a few odd things in the fridge. They would concoct a meal out of said off things. We (especially Diana) loved this segment. Sadly, they no longer have this segment, so we tune into the blues station from Univ. Mn Duluth (equally outstanding).

[Suzanne F]

Maybe instead of (or in addition to) the market basket challenge, we should have a leftover challenge...

What a great suggestion! But would it have to be a practical, or could we keep it theoritical? 'Cause otherwise we'd all need to cook the same dish to start out. Not that that's undoable, but how long would we have to wrangle about what it should be?

Maybe start with a menu picked at random from the dinner thread, and spin off new menus from there?