Posts tagged Leftover Sundays

Panini Con Polpette (Meatball Sandwich with Chipotle Mayo)

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Juicy meatballs, simmered in a red sauce, are laid on fluffy french bread rolls with melted cheese and chipotle mayo

A basic red sauce is so versatile. Just tweaking aromatics and spices can turn it into a sauce from almost any culture. And it’s not only a culinary chameleon, it’s also freezer friendly!

So when I had a tub of red sauce defrosting in my fridge, I just knew that I had to do something different with it – I had already made lasagne and spaghetti bolognese, so what about meatballs?

Given that we had been eating a lot of pasta, I knew that I didn’t want to have meatballs over more pasta. So, inspired by the smells coming from the local bakery, we decided that meatball subs were in order!

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Test Kitchen: Shaved Brussels Sprouts With Walnuts, Lemon and Parmesan

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Y’all know that I absolutely LOVE testing and posting up recipes on the blog, but I’m sure it’s not as obvious that each recipe that I put up goes through hours of research, testing, a myriad of different versions, and agonising decisions regarding how it should look.

I usually start with either a craving or ingredients that I have in my kitchen, and then do tons of research to try and find interesting things to create with it. Sometimes I try out a pre-written recipe to start off with, or sometimes I start throwing things together and go from there.

Well, once in a while, a recipe just doesn’t go quite right, or just plum doesn’t work out the way you want it to!

Recently, I had bought a whole bunch of brussels sprouts on special at the green grocers, but had some left over after using them as part of a roast. So what now?

I found this nice looking idea on Gourmet Traveller – a simple salad of shaved brussels sprouts, with toasted walnuts to add depth, parmesan to add flavour, and just lemon juice to dress it. Some versions of this recipe online also had olive oil to add moisture.

So of I went, to shred those tiny cabbage-looking sprouts. I do love a good slaw, in many variations, so I was similarly excited about this particular salad. After all, in my research, there were many who described it as a more delicate cabbage-y flavour.

Well, no matter what I did, this salad was dry, and had a somewhat astringent after-quality to it. Even adding olive oil didn’t do much in terms of lubrication. The brussels sprouts themselves had a light, peppery quality to it, similar to rocket, and that went quite well with the toasted walnuts and parmesan. But I couldn’t quite get around the texture issue. Adding more lemon juice made it super sour and seemed to accentuate the dry texture, and adding more parmesan just made it worse.

In all, it was a promising recipe, but didn’t quite work out.

How about you? Have you had any disappointing recipes that you couldn’t quite figure out?

What I ate: Crab Salad Roll

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You know that time of the week where you have spare cooked crab meat in your fridge? No? You don’t? You ate it all?

Well I usually do too, but I was convinced for long enough that I should try something new with the crab (rather than simply give my usual answer, “EAT IT”) that I came up with this speedy and crab salad roll recipe!

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What I ate: 2 Ingredient Mango Froyo

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This simple two ingredient recipe makes a thick and creamy frozen yoghurt, in no time at all. Here it's served in an ice cream bowl, with fresh mango on the side.

Summer, the season of sweet ripe fruits and plenty of inspiration! So what do you do when you buy mangoes in bulk and they’re ripening at a faster pace than you can eat them? Make delicious desserts of course!

There is definitely a place for elaborate ice creams and cold, icy sweet treats when the mercury is rising and sweat is beading on your forehead, but I find that it’s so easy to fall into the trap of depending on a large amount of frozen treats to cool off.

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What I ate: Fish en papillote

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I’ve been interning at some food jobs lately – chase that dream! – and I’ve been taking home HEAPS of leftovers. Some of these leftovers are in the form of raw ingredients, and you know how I love repurposing ingredients. On this particular day, I scored a box of vegetables, and with spring upon us, I thought it would be a great idea to showcase the freshness of these vegetables – let’s STEAM THE SUCKAS!

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What I Ate: Twice Cooked Pork Belly Braise

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Tender, slow roasted pork belly is braised in a soy based sauce, and served on rice, garnished with coriander.

Here’s the thing with two-person households. You read a recipe that you like, often written for four or six, and then you make it, only to find that even though the both of you are stuffed, there’s still plenty of leftover to go around. Sure, you can halve the recipe, but sometimes that really affects cooking times, and I find it easier just to try and do something interesting with the leftovers!

So if you’ve tried my Slow Roasted Pork Belly recipe and you have leftovers – like I did – here’s something that you can try with them!

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What I ate: Berry and yoghurt parfait

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The lazy, rainy weekend is over, and Monday morning rolls around. I begrudgingly get out of bed and make all the appropriate noises and mumbles about wanting to get back in. Then my tummy rumbles and tells me that I might as well get up because it’s hungry. And when it’s hungry, it’s turns me into the hulk.

So what to do for breakfast?

Well I made ricotta pancakes over the weekend, and as always, I made more compote than I needed. Well together with just a few more ingredients from my fridge and pantry. I’ve got a light breakfast that gets me through the morning and quells my hungry tummy.

I used:

  • Greek yoghurt
  • Blueberry compote
  • Honey nut crunch

I love how a sweet cereal, but I know that it’s full of sugar. So I try to use it just as a topping, to keep my sweet tooth satisfied, while keeping

What I ate: Shredded lamb pasta

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So I had a satisfying roasted lamb over the weekend, but seeing as how I roasted a whole 2+kg lamb shoulder, I was bound to have leftovers. Well, waste not want not, and I think this is a fantastic way to use up those bits of lamb left in your fridge.

For space, I shredded the lamb after the roast had cooled and store it away in an airtight container in the fridge. So for a quick lunch (or weeknight dinner) I just took that pasta and added it to:

  • Cooked pasta (just boil it to just under al dente)
  • Sliced black olives
  • Semi dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • Feta
  • Lemon juice

It was just a matter of warming the lamb in a pat of butter, adding the hot, freshly cooked pasta over the top, then throwing in the tomatoes and olives to warm through, and then top with feta. A squeeze of lemon juice over the top, and off you go.

Feel free to add any other bits and pieces you have in your fridge – I just needed some acidity to cut through the lamb, so I think that other types of antipasto will do: roasted capsicum, charred eggplant, marinated feta…the list goes on.

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What are your favourite ways to use up meat leftover from a roast?

What I ate: Squid ink pasta and crabmeat aglio e olio

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Sometimes, you just want a light lunch. Sometimes it’s nice to pretend that it’s still spring and immerse yourself in punchy fresh flavours that make you forget that you had to drag yourself out of the warm cocoon that is your bed to face the day.

As much as I love long stews and slow cooking during the cold dreary days of winter, sometimes I feel like it doesn’t even feel like winter yet. Not that I’m complaining, but sometimes I feel a little weirded out when I see the sun out, and can walk to the shops in my t-shirt and shorts. But the upside is that the sun just calls for light meals and a cold glass of crisp white wine.

And that’s where this recipe came in. I had some squid ink pasta that had to get used, and my pantry is always stocked with chilli and garlic. In this case, I used tinned alaskan crab meat, but crab meat is available in tubs at the supermarket, or feel free to use bacon or pancetta if you’d like. I know it’s not an Aglio e olio in the strictest sense, but it’s time to clear out my cupboards and it’s extremely tasty and so simple.

Here’s what I used:

Squid ink pasta
Garlic (1 clove per entree size portion, and I love my garlic.)
Bird’s eye chilli (1 chilli per clove of garlic, but feel free to use more)
Extra virgin olive oil (a nice fruity one)
Fish stock
1 tin alaskan crab meat
Coriander
Yuzu juice

I par boiled the pasta first in salted boiling water, then finished it in a little bit of fish stock.

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TENTACLES OF THE SEA!!!!

I find that finishing the last 2 minutes or so in fish stock gives it just a little bit more flavour, but you can just finish boiling the pasta in salted boiling water. Just remember that because you’re cooking it a bit further with the garlic and chilli, haven the pasta slightly underdone, so that by the time the garlic is cooked, your pasta is perfectly al dente.

While the pasta is boiling, I smashed the garlic and chilli through a mortar and pestle with some cracked black pepper and salt.

I moved the pasta from the pot into my sauté pan with a splash of fish stock, and simmered it till the stock is completely absorbed. Half a cup was all I had to use for 2 entree sized portions, but add a splash more if it isn’t enough. Then simply add the garlic paste and olive oil to the pasta, gently sauté it till the garlic loses the acrid burn, then stir through the crab meat, yuzu juice and a smidgen more oil. Scatter with some coriander to finish,

Curiously addictive and easy, this makes for a light lunch, or a simple weeknight dinner. Don’t like crab? Well it works with all sorts of meats, herbs (use parsley if you don’t like coriander), and because it’s so basic, it’s open to your wildest imaginations.