Kale & Leek Leftover Soup

The more I cook, the more I am into making leftovers into soup.

See: Kitchen Sink Chili Soup

I didn't have the soffritto trifecta of celery, carrot & onion on hand with which to start this soup, but it still turned out nicely.

This time I had half a roast pork tenderloin leftover as the hubs was 3,000 miles away with his family, and I had already made 2 meals out of the first half.

So, soup it is!

I started by sautéing half a leftover leek in some bacon fat and olive oil (also leftovers from making the Linguine w/ Clams, Leeks & Bacon) with the stems of the kale with a pinch of salt.

Halfway thru the wilting process I added 2 cloves of garlic, minced.

Chop the kale leaves into manageable pieces and add to the pan with a splash of white wine.

Add the lid to wilt.

While the kale is wilting I purée one can of white beans with some chicken stock. If you prefer, keep your beans whole. I like how puréeing them thickens the whole soup.

Add the beans and season with salt and an optional tsp of ground rosemary.

(My pork tenderloin had been cooked with rosemary and sage, so I did not add extra to the soup, fearing it would overwhelm the final product.)

Cover everything with chicken stock, add a hearty handful of grated parmigiano reggiano, and bring to a simmer.

I dice up the leftover pork (note it is nice and pink in the middle) and keep it wrapped in the fridge to add a little bit per portion once the soup has already been reheated. That way the pork does not get overcooked or tough. Instead the heat from the soup warms each bite thru while maintaining its tender texture.

The bacon from the beginning adds a background of smokiness, the leeks add sweetness, the beans protein and body, the kale is a superfood, and the tender bites of pork are always a treat.

I love making Leftover Soup!

Quick Veal Stew

Leftover roast veal, leftover cioppino base, a few veggies and some pantry items came together recently to make an unfairly delicious stew.

Unfair to the Hubs as I made it when he was out of town.

So it was all mine.

It appears that Mother Nature was checking her watch very closely this year, and the instant Labor Day was over she sent a serious bout of rain and chilly Autumn weather to douse NYC.

Frankly I'm FINE with that because I'd rather wear fuzzy sweaters and socks over sweating in spaghetti-strap sundresses any day. (Could a throw a few more S's in there?) 

Even more so, it made a great excuse to make warm and savory food!

For this stew I used 2 peeled and sliced carrots, 1 minced shallot, 2 cloves of garlic, about 1/2 cup of chopped reconstituted porcini mushrooms, 1 tsp dried rosemary, leftover cioppino for the tomato aspect, and some concentrated veal glacé.

Add hot water to your dried porcinis before you start peeling and chopping so they have 20 minutes or so to get plump again.

There was also the glorious roast veal. It was super flavorful and tender, leftover from a huge meal at Betto in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

This baby cow did not die in vain.

Start with the obvious, sautéing the shallot, garlic, and carrot in some olive oil with a pinch of salt.

When that begins to soften add the porcini mushrooms (squeezed dry) and cook another 2-3 minutes.

Next I added the strained water that I rehydrated the porcinis in, as it was now mushroom stock, as well as the glacé and dried rosemary.

I was really happy that the leftover cioppino base worked in this. Not that I'm surprised as it's really just tomato, fennel, white wine and chicken stock, (I use chicken instead of fish stock so the Hubs will eat it.) but I was worried for a moment that the fennel flavor would throw off the final product of the stew.

It did not.

The real element that brought this stew together tho was removing the skin and a section of fat from the roast veal and letting it simmer in the stew for almost an hour. I left it whole so I could remove it before serving, but it imparted a huge amount of flavor. Without it this would have been edible, but nothing special.

For a base I had some polenta squares in my freezer from a while back, and since polenta freezes beautifully, it came back to life with a few minutes on the counter and only a little help from the microwave.

As I do with leftover pork tenderloin in my soups, I added the chopped veal to the bowl first and then ladled the hot stew over top to heat it thru. I wanted the veal to retain its original flavor rather than just absorb the flavors of the stew.

I encourage anyone to get creative with the bits and pieces in their fridge.

You just might end up with something wonderful.

Milanese Into Meatballs

I do suggest cooking your meatballs... and I did. 

I just forgot to take an "after" photo.

I don't know about you, but whenever I'm breading anything I tend to have a ton of leftover flour and breadcrumbs in my assembly line.

I came up with a solution the other day when I was making Pork Milanese: meatballs!

I got the hubs to pick up a pound of pork and a pound of beef on his way home, and once I was done cooking our dinner, I mixed up a batch of meatballs with the leftover breadcrumbs (complete with grated pecorino), beaten egg, and used the leftover flour to dust the outsides before cooking.

Ready to go.

Start by mixing all your breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs, and optional egg together before adding the meat, so you do not overwork the meat and make it tough.

These meatballs were made entirely off the cuff, so I have no measurements.

Luckily, it all worked out and they were quite tasty.

I chose to bake these in the oven since I made so many (and then they could bake while I was digesting my dinner instead of having to cook them in sauce on a stove and then clean even more pots and pans.)

I think it was about 20 minutes or so at 400º and they were nicely cooked through without being dried out.

Hint: roll the meatballs in flour and shake off excess before pan-frying. If you do that before baking in the oven, you will just have white crusty crud on the outside. Either douse with olive oil before baking, or skip the roll in the flour completely.

No matter how you cook them or how you season them, meatballs are a great solution to excess breading station leftovers!

(Just make sure to make them all the same day.)

Quinoa Satay

No, this is not a post with quinoa somehow impaled on a skewer. Rather it is the use of leftover beef satay, served over quinoa with red spring onion and broccoli*.

I love Thai satay of all kinds: chicken, shrimp, beef - all are tasty, and all would work in this dish. (Just use the chicken stock if you make it with chicken or shrimp, rather than the beef stock I use here.) When I order-in, I frequently get extra orders just so I can have leftovers. And while meat on a stick is very tasty and can make a quick protein snack, this is a way to make a more rounded out meal out of your leftover satay.

*Yes, I make a lot of dishes with broccoli. I happen to really like broccoli, it's very healthy, and I can usually get 2 bunches for about $2-3, so it's a fairly cheap vegetable for how many servings it yields as well. Subsitute whatever you like. Snow peas, sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, bok choy, or bamboo shoots would all go very well in this dish as well.

I start by steaming a bit of broccoli for 2-3 minutes in a few TBSP of water with a pinch of salt. When I remove the lid, most of the water has already boiled/evaporated away, so I add a generous splash of olive oil, reduce the heat to medium, and this time threw in some chopped red spring onion. 

Sadly, that is not a ramp, just a spring onion I chose for it's lovely color, and to add a bit more flavor to the dish. It has more kick than a scallion, but is milder than an onion, like a shallot.

Cook with some of the white/red bulb base, finely sliced, and finely chop some of the green scallion-like tops for garnish.

Since I was just cooking for myself, I only used one satay skewer (even tho I show 2 here.) Removing the beef from the stick, I then slice each piece into more manageable bites.

Toss your meat of choice in with the broccoli and onion (which has cooked down a bit) and add just enough of the matching stock (in this case beef) to cover the bottom of the pan.

Turn the heat back up to medium-high to reduce.

The point of the stock is that it will rehydrate and heat through the slightly tired leftover beef, and also allow the wonderful seasonings on the outside of the meat to flavor the vegetables as well, and create a very small amount of sauce.

By now my quinoa has finished cooking. As always, rinse it very well in a fine mesh strainer before cooking it, and I season (this was 1/2 cup dry) with about a tablespoon or so of standard cooking olive oil (you don't want a super fruity flavor competing here) and salt to taste. The salt I add to the water at the start of cooking, and the olive oil I add when there is barely any liquid still covering the cooking quinoa.

I use the quinoa as a base and then pour the rest of the dish and minimal sauce over the top.

Start to finish this is another healthy 15 minute meal.

If you make it for a group it might take a bit longer, only because you would be using more liquid in the last stage of cooking and so it would take a bit longer to reduce down, but even then it probably only takes 20 minutes.

If you know the secrets to the seasonings on a Thai satay dish, by all means add a bit when you add your meat of choice. I can only guess one or two, so I just let the ample flavor that is already there dilute a bit into the sauce, and it still comes out very tasty.

Enjoy.

Leftovers: Roast Chicken & Pesto

I may well have posted this before, but I don't think it was because I had leftover chicken.

I think it was just a Summer-y pasta dish.

This time, I had the never-ending roast chicken leftovers, and a little mozzarella cheese, so I went back to this warm weather staple pasta dish.

While your pasta is cooking in its salted boiling water, combine in a large bowl all your shredded chicken, remaining mozzarella (I had about 1/4 of a bundle left) and roughly 1/3 of a cup of (preferably homemade) pesto.

I went with traditional Genovese basil & pine nut pesto, but I'm sure this would be lovely with whatever your favorite version is, even if that includes walnuts and mint.

Unless you were serving it to me.

In which case you should know better.

(I really hate walnuts.)

My pesto was rather tight, so I drizzled the mixture with some good olive oil before mixing it all together.

Note: this dish would also work with ricotta cheese, so if you have the last quarter of your container in your fridge with no clue what to do with so little, feel free to substitute it here.

Add hot pasta.

Toss to coat and combine.

Use a splash of pasta water if you want a little more of a "sauce" feel.

Grate a little pecorino over the top, and call it dinner delicious.

Kitchen Sink Chili Soup

My friend was trying to help me come up with a name for this soup, and as she thought it had some good Italian leanings we were trying to look up how to say "kitchen sink" in Italian.
We failed.
That, or "Acquiao Chili Soup" sounded even more unclear to us.

The "kitchen sink" aspect of this soup comes from the fact that when I first made it, I was simply using up items in my fridge, which often leads to tasty cooking discoveries. This time I had some almost-wilting kale, the usual celery and carrots, and some leftover rosemary pork tenderloin from dinner that wasn't enough for a meal by itself. So, I diced it up and put it in the bottom of my bowl when I ladled the soup on top... and it was DELICIOUS!

Other guests to this party (read: soup) include shallot, garlic, chicken stock, white wine, white beans (always in the pantry for adding body, protein, and fiber), cumin, oregano, & chili powder.

You may recognize the seasonings from my favorite Chicken & White Bean Chili. Well, that's why this soup was named Kitchen Sink Chili Soup. Also, if you have swiss chard or some other hearty winter green, by all means use that. I just buy (and thereby cook with) kale the most because it is so heavily packed with vitamins and other good things, and it really does stand up to sitting in a pot full of hot soup, unlike spinach and arugula.
(Wusses...)

Step one: soffritto. Dice 1 medium shallot, 2 medium carrots, and one long stick of celery and sauté in olive oil on medium heat until tender with a pinch of salt.

More fun with macro

I separate the stems of the kale and dice them to a similar size as the soffritto and throw them in the pot to soften at the same time.

While these four ingredients are softening, chop up the greens of the kale and set aside. Take 2-3 cloves of garlic and finely chop them as well, and measure out 1 tsp of cumin, 3/4 tsp oregano, and 3/4 tsp of chili powder.

When the veggies have softened (less than 10 minutes if you've done a fine dice) add the garlic and spices and allow them to cook out another minute.

Note: It is possible at the end that you might want to add a bit more seasoning. I find that the beans can absorb a lot of salt and other seasonings, and sometimes I need to adjust before serving.

See that? That's how much white wine I used.

Less than or up to 1/4 cup. Just enough for a little background depth of flavor, and something for the garlic to simmer in for another minute or two.

Next add your chopped kale leaves and about a cup of chicken stock.

Stir, add the lid, and allow the kale to wilt down a bit.

While that's happening...

Notice how the circumference of the can is slightly wider than the circumference of my immersion blender? I love this trick.

I remove the white beans from the can and rinse them in cool water in a mesh strainer. Then I put half the beans back in and add just enough chicken broth to cover them, and then I use the immersion blender inside the can to purée the beans. Two rounds of that and a little extra stock to rinse out the can and I have saved myself a lot of cleanup.

You, however, do not need to purée your beans in your soup.

I'm just weird about white beans and like them to be invisible.

Add your beans to the pot and fill with however much stock makes you happy for your soup. If I'm in the mood for broth-y soup I probably use around 3 cups. If I want it thicker, less than 3 cups, OR I add another half can of puréed white beans to the mix.

Salt your soup again, as the beans will absorb.

Bring up to a simmer and check for any other seasoning adjustments.

Now comes the time for the leftover rosemary pork tenderloin. Dice it into bite-sized pieces and portion it out into the bottom of your serving bowls and ladle the hot soup on top.

I garnish with a little grated pecorino cheese and call it tasty.

Yes, this soup is still good without the leftover pork, but I HIGHLY recommend not skipping that step. It adds a wonderful depth of flavor. And do not throw it into the actual pot of soup, because then it will cook through all the way and lose all of that velvety tenderness that you got buy cooking it to a perfect light pink the night before. Just put a diced portion in the bottom of each bowl of soup and allow it to warm through that way, and they will be little gems of surprise deliciousness.

You won't regret it.

Unless you're kosher...

Revamped Experiment

So, really, no takers on the Aztec Soup?
Damn.
It's quite tasty.

Stolen from my own post, mentioned below

Another very tasty dinner I made tonight is essentially this fabulous meal of roasted acorn squash, which is then mixed into quick-cooking polenta (along with elements that make polenta tasty such as half & half, butter, salt, and ground dried sage), which acts as a base for leftover roast chicken which I toss into some marsala and porcini mushroom gravy, and on top of it all, a dollop of mascarpone cheese and a scattering of pistachios.

It is KILLER people.
And it's going to become a slightly more common dish in this house, what with the almost weekly roasting of chickens that happens around here. Forget side dish. This is now a meal that is good-to-go.
It ain't low-cal, but it is absolutely delicious.

Get on it.
(And enjoy your weekend!)

Leftover Gnocchi

You might ask, "Who ever has leftover gnocchi?????"

Well if you have company coming but you're not sure quite when they'll arrive, or how hungry they will be, and your hubby gets overly excited when you send him to the store for gnocchi... sometimes you can cook off too much.

In which case, this is a great way to use the leftovers as a quick side dish.

What you see above is about a teaspoon of duck fat.

The heat in the pan is NOT on.

It's just gloriously melting at room temperature.

However, you should put your heat at about medium high to melt the duck fat and heat the pan.

If you do not have any saved duck fat, say, from a recipe like this one, you could use a combination of butter and oil (so the butter doesn't burn).

You're going to finish this dish with butter as well, so don't use too much oil.

Mmm... bland.

Get your leftover cooked gnocchi well coated in the duck fat, season with salt, and toss every few minutes until browning.

Once your gnocchi is beginning to color, add 1 TBSP of butter to the pan and whatever fresh herb you prefer. 

In this case I used sage because this was the side dish for my porchetta-inspired tenderloin.

When the butter is just starting to brown, turn off the heat and serve immediately.

Garnish with a few fried sage leaves if you feel like showing off, and enjoy your revamped gnocchi.

Note: I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday Season and New Year.

I expect to be too busy between now and New Year's to post anything new, so enjoy yourselves, eat well, hold your loved ones close, party hearty, and please check back come 2011!

Leftover Lamb Lusciousness

So I apologize in advance because I forgot to take final pictures of this dish! My in-laws arrived safe at last from the airport and we all just sat down so fast that I never even thought of my camera once I'd dropped the pasta.
You'll just have to imagine the luscious end result.

So with all that leftover sauce/stew from the braised lamb shanks, I decided I could turn it into another lovely meal if I just gave it a bit of a face-lift. It's kind of  a cross between stretching leftover stew and a pasta sauce.

I started by peeling and slicing 4 carrots, and setting them in a medium sauce pan with 2 TBS olive oil, 1 tsp of agave nectar, a pinch of salt, and 1/4 cup of water.

Place the lid on and cook for about 5-7 minutes, until the liquids are bubbling & the carrots are softened. Normally at this point I would say, "Cook an additional few minutes until all the water in the pot has boiled off and the carrots are left with a sweet glaze on them."

But this time around I added 2 whole tomatoes, seeded and chopped into chunks, as well as 1 chopped clove of garlic, and once that had become aromatic, a few splashes of beef stock.

I wasn't kidding when I said there wasn't much meat left...

But what there was I finely minced and threw into the pot with the bubbling carrots, tomato and stock.

To that I added enough of the leftover lamb sauce/liquids to serve 4 people, and had salted water at the boil and ready to drop some gnocchi as soon as the fam arrived.

Once the gnocchi float to the top, they're done, so I portioned them out, topped with with the revamped stew mixture, and finished it with a tablespoon of mascarpone cheese to melt into everything and make it brilliant and decadent.

And it was.

Potato Wedges: Even Better Day Two

I'm back from San Francisco!!! And it only took ten hours between getting on the Powell BART stop and walking in my UWS front door.  

Just 10 short hours!!! Ugh.

While I sift through all the photos I took and check my food notes from the trip and eventually get around to posting about it all, possibly in multiple posts, I shall give you a quickie post that should in fact come in handy on occasion. 

I have told you before a simple way to rejuvenate soggy french fries. Today I am taking it a step further.

Last night A while back the hubs ordered a burger that came with the kind of enormous french fries that I never see in New York anymore. They are actual potato wedges, rather than skinny little sticks. As such, there were just too many to eat last night, and I decided to create some crispy potatoes as a side dish to a dinner of lamb chops. 

(A moment to drool over the tastiness that is the lamb chop... mmmmmmm... ok.)

Once the lamb chops were flipped and finishing off in the oven, I took the giant potato wedges and sliced them into bite-size pieces.

When the lamb was done I moved it from the hot pan to their respective plates to rest, and added the potatoes to the combination of olive oil and rendered lamb fat, and cooked them over medium high heat.

I carefully flipped them so they would all have 2 crispy sides.

To finish them, I sprinkled them with Lavender Rosemary Sea Salt, so they would reflect the rosemary that I cooked the lamb chops with.

Can you say deliciousness???

I think so.

Repurpose your leftovers into awesomeness.

Go for it.