Leftover "Boggle"

[Rachel Perlow]

This thread is inspired by an idea on the onion soup thread. Tell us about a dinner where there was too much food, then tell us what you made of the leftovers. Conversely, if you need some help, tell us what leftovers you have in the fridge and hopefully you'll get some eGullety ideas for their resurrection.

I'll start: A few days ago I made a roast pork tenderloin with a crust of heavily seasoned flour. I actually made two as they come two to a pack, and made sure to not overcook the pork. For another meal, I sauteed lots of sliced mushrooms with some garlic. I also have my concentrated chicken stock in the freezer (thanks Fat Guy).

For the first pork dinner, we partook of the smaller of the two tenderloins, realizing the larger one would be slightly less cooked (since the less cooked one would stand up better to reheating). After the first meal there were several sandwiches of sliced pork -- we even used it for Cubanos. Last night I sliced up the rest of the pork (about half a tenderloin), which was slightly pink and reheated it in a veloute. The sauce was further thickened and seasoned by the crust on the pork, good thing I had reserved some stock to thin it out at the end.

This was served with a risotto. It came out so delicious as it was made with the homemade stock. The leftover mushrooms were stirred in towards the end, but the flavor was really enhanced by some crumbled dried porcini mushrooms I keep in the pantry (soaked in the stock and added about half-way through the stirring).

[Marlene]

This is a great idea Rachel. I struggle with the whole leftover thing, since my family is not keen on them. Maybe I'll get some wonderful ideas here and my family won't even notice they are leftovers

We had a beef fondue on Sunday using beef tenderloin, peppers and onions There was quite a bit of beef left over, so I sliced it up on Monday, and stir fried it with some sesame oil, bean sprouts, garlic and peppers. I made garlic and onion rice to go with it.

[JPW]

Just cooking for Mrs JPW and myself usually means leftovers. She's tiny and just does not eat a lot. And now I'm on some medication that seems to have reduced my appetite as a side effect.

Two typical ones are:

Roast pork tenderloin with rice and steamed veggies and a mustard sauce.

Night two = pork quesadillas with a side salad, salsa, and mustard sauce sour cream

Night three = pork "garbage" soup. Garbage means throwing in whatever veggies are leftover from night 1 and whatever else is left in the veggie bin.

Chicken Breasts done any one of a million ways. Usually par-cook all but one breast so they don't get overcooked on the following nights.

Night 2 = quesadillas, baked chicken hoagies, linguini with chix.

Night 3 = chicken "garbage" curry. Same as above with the day old bread for dipping if night 2 was hoagies.

[Kim WB]

My poor kids. They are going to grow up with a distorted view of Chinese cuisine. Because I take any protein leftover, steam some snow peas and carrots, add it all to a hot wok with some aromatics, then thicken with soy and cornstarch/chicken broth slurry, a package of success rice...Mom's special stir fry!

I never actually realized how much leftovers I have until my mastiff died this past summer...she had been making a dent in the extra food! It's still hard to throw out the fat trimmed from a sirloin...I think of her every time.

Great thread, Rachel..I suspect there is going to be some very interesting and inspiring replies..though I must admit I don't know waht a boggle is.

Edited January 28, 2004 by Kim WB (log)

[KateW]

When I made a roast chicken for the two of us on new year's eve I took the leftovers the next night and made chicken chili. It lasted a couple days.

One-pot meals are my favorite thing to make so I love buying a roast or a lot of beef and making a soup or stew.

[Rachel Perlow]

I must admit I don't know what a boggle is.

Boggle is a word game. There are these dice with letters on them that get shaken up and land in a grid. You look for words to make out of the letters (the letters have to be next to each other) and make as many words as you can during the time limit.

Get your Boggle set today!

[sparrowgrass]

get yourself a 20 year old son, and the question on leftover (no matter how huge a roast you made) becomes moot.

[phaelon56]

I live alone and on the occasions when I have someone to cook for, prefer to have a meal made from scratch for the specific occasion. My leftovers tend to get ziploc'd, frozen and taken to work as is for a quick zap - i'ts generally a better lunch than I ever get from the take-out places. That said.... I have a nice chunk ofham int he freezer that my mom gave me to take home after the last dinner I had with my folks. It's time for some scalloped potatoes and ham. I'm not usually big on casseroles but for leftover ham dictates a casserole and leftover turkey means that turkey noodle casserole is sure to appear that week.

If you like Boggle... check out Perquacky

It has a tiem element involved and we've always enjoyed it in my family but I dont' recall ever seeing it at anyone else's house. I also enjoy "vertical scrabble" (aka RSVP) but think it may be "out of print".

[Ladybug]

I love to cook a huge chuck roast or pork sirloin roast in a crock pot and then make two or three dinners from the results. With the pork, I use part of the meat to make shredded pork sandwiches with a vinegar-based BBQ sauce and coleslaw. With beef, I may use part of the meat to make stew. For leftovers, I almost always use a truckload of garlic, a healthy dose of salt and then saute it to make fried rice, a stir fry, or I use it as a filling for tortillas, etc. Last week I made soup with leftover chuck roast - I sauteed it with the garlic and salt, plus ginger, some onions, red peppers and mushrooms, then added beef stock and bok choy. It was amazing. There are so many variations! I've been meaning to try filling an empanada with this crispy, garlicky meat and maybe an olive or two, but I haven't tried it yet.

[adoxograph]

Anyone else have a favorite "leftover" recipe that you'll deliberately cook extra food to make the next day? Quiches and Frittatas are my favorite leftover cooked veggie dishes. Since dressing is done on an indvidual basis (The only way to balance my spartan salad with he-who-must-be-overdressed) end of dinner spinach salad remnants become tomorrow's spinach quiche lunch - I'm having a spinach, mushroom and blue cheese quiche today. Veggie stir fry can become fillings for egg rolls, or frittata fixings, or wraps, or occasionally successfully doctored into burritos.

When my SO suddenly becomes ravenously carnivore, that opens up worlds of leftover possibilities. Meat, I have to say, is much more fun for leftovers - maybe because I don't cook it all the time.

What about dessert leftovers?

[FistFullaRoux]

Then there's always the perennial favorite, hash. I do a slightly different version, though...

First I had the break myself of the habit of just putting the pot in the fridge. I bag up all of the leftovers in Ziplocks and date them. Then, if they aren't used by the next day, it goes into the freezer. Much less waste this way and they last longer. I don't bother saving pasta, though.

When you have a few serving of meat (sausage, pork, beef - not really good with chicken or turkey) in a brown or wine sauce (avoid tomatoes or high acidity), saute onions in a saucepan, add meat servings with sauces, add potatoes and stock/broth/water to cover. Bring to boil and simmer until potatoes are done. Taste and reseason if neccesary - remember you have sauces mingling in there already.

[Lisa1349]

Not so extraordinary but when I make Chipotle Beef Chili with lime crema I always indulge in a chili dog.

Calzones are great for dumping leftovers into. The restaurant secret is ravioli. Just about any meat or if there isn't enough meat, add cheese and stuff it in dough. Charge $23 for that on the menu!! When I have leftover pork (seems like we all do!) I make lo mein. The noodles are less expensive than pasta! I get some cabbage, mushrooms and always have a collection of Asian sauces around. Roasted chicken is turned into a salad or pot pie and leftover fish (rarely any of that) becomes quick fish cakes. I make killer pot pie after Thanksgiving.

Leftover cheese is the all purpose 'duct tape' of the kitchen. Put it in an omelette, make fondue, stuff it inside a pork loin, make cheese crisps by cooking it along in a pan till it's slighlty brown. Put it on potatoes, on a burger, bread and fry it. Cook it down with wine, add puff paste and make gougeres. Add it to soup.

[fifi]

The usual pattern is to cook some piece of meat on the weekend. (I was more organized about this a few years ago when my son was living with me.) Then for the rest of the week it was improvisation time.

All of the following could be done with leftover pieces of pork, big honkin' baked chicken, roast beef, BBQ. When I do a brisket, I always throw on some chicken thighs and breasts. When you have smoked chicken in your freezer you are sitting on pantry gold.

Make a really creative dinner salad with meat and a have fun concocting a dressing.

Roll stuff up in a tortilla. You have the meat, then add onions marinated in lime, sour cream, cheese, avocado, salsa, whatever.

Having Thai curry paste and cans of coconut milk on hand makes for a great "clean out the fridge" curry over rice.

Fritatas are also a good repository for leftover meats and cheeses.

Add made up sauces for pasta.

Stir fry is a popular way to get more veggies in with that left over meat.

Then there are the sandwiches that happen. And I will include quesadillas in that category.

All of this is really fun in that you look at what you have staring you in the face and you get the creative juices flowing by asking yourself... "What can I do with that?"

Sort of like Iron Chef at home.

[Toliver]

This thread reminds me of Anne Byrn's "The Dinner Doctor". You start out with one dish, then the next meal you add a little something else and you get a different dish...or add something else and get a third option. She does tend to use canned soups or bagged lettuce but it's more for time saving than it is out of laziness or lack of taste (see Sandra Lee).

[tejon]

My favorite planned leftover is a big roast chicken. I shred the leftover meat, then make up chimichangas or chicken with two sauces or tacos. Other than that, leftovers end up as lunch for me or frozen as future lunches for my husband (he's not a lefover fan).

[JPW]

This thread reminds me of Anne Byrn's "The Dinner Doctor". You start out with one dish, then the next meal you add a little something else and you get a different dish...or add something else and get a third option. She does tend to use canned soups or bagged lettuce but it's more for time saving than it is out of laziness or lack of taste (see Sandra Lee).

I don't know about everyone else, but I pretty much picked up the habit of recycling leftovers from working in local neighborhood restaurants in HS.

Home fries left over from Sunday brunch? Throw them in Monday's stew.

Make a pot of marinara everyday? Hell no. Make one a week and use it for everything from pasta to eggplant parmagiana sandwiches.

As I worked in other places, I picked up more hints about how to recycle leftovers and keep the oh so important food costs down.