Leftover Magic

Like many people, I often find myself without the time or energy to food shop.  Almost with bi-weekly precision, the rations of fresh ingredients and sundries begin to dry up in the house.  Sometimes all you are left with are the basics; items by themselves which, upon first glance, appear to offer little in the way of a satisfying meal.  This meal is a testament to the belief that you can almost always throw together something satisfying, if not amazing, with the basics.  This of course all depends on what your ‘basics’ are.

On this very night I found myself without any “real” food in the house.  As the hour hand spun towards ungodly times for dinner preparation and my stomach pangs grew audible I was forced to think fast.  I rooted around to see what the cabinets and fridge had to offer.  I first found a bag of arugula from one of the gardens I run that was not truly suitable for a salad.  I had gleaned it from a bed of greens that was going to seed; in this bag of arugula were many flowering buds and woody stems.  Still unsure of how it would fit into something I washed it anyway and continued my search.

Next I stumbled upon some walnuts in the cupboard, one of the items I always try to keep a ration of.  As I looked in the nearly empty fruit bowl I saw that I had a sorry looking lemon.  I quickly realized that I had the basic ingredients for an arugula pesto.  

In to the Cuisinart went the above ingredients with a couple healthy glugs of olive oil, a little grated parmeasan, pepper, and a little salt.  I left that sucker run for a couple of minutes while I scoured the kithchen for what would go with it.

I found some dried nests of linguine.  I always buy these at the store.  They keep really well and are a great substitute for fresh pasta.  While some may scoff at the extra couple of bucks it costs to buy them I say “who cares”.  Real pasta is made with flour and eggs.  Pasta that you buy in a box is full of crap that is just empty starch.  Buying good pasta prepared with eggs insures that you get a good dose of protein from your pasta.  I find the nests to be perfectly portioned and much more filling that the boxed stuff.  

While I set the nests in heavily salted water to boil I looked in the fridge once again.  I discovered, tucked away in the dark corner of a drawer, two soft and flimsy summer squash.  I quickly diced them up with some onions and started browning them in a pan in olive oil and butter.

Another thing I aim to never let my fridge be without is cheap white wine.  Cheap wine, like ketchup, should be on hand at all times.  When frying or making a saute, wine is a great tool for enhancing flavor and making basic sauces from de-glazing.  

Another great part of the pasta nests is that the cooking time is half of normal dried pasta.  By the time the veggies were finished the pasta was too. I placed the dripping pasta straight into the pan sans colander and stirred the whole mess together with a little more butter and wine.  I quickly plated the pasta, placed a huge dollop of pesto in the center, grated some more cheese on top, and sprinkled some parsley on top.  Voila !!! Dinner is served!

David

Chicken quesadillas: Parce que c’est so easy!

OK, so this here’s another story about eating on the cheap using what’s already in the fridge. Last week, I discovered a frozen chicken breast hiding in my freezer amongst the packages of brats and jars of pork fat (suggestions on what to do with frozen bacon fat welcome). The chicken was yet another glorious leftover from last month’s big party. Trying to think of something creative to do with my prize, someone suggested chicken quesadillas. Great idea, but I had never made them before. And I didn’t really want to go out and buy a ton of ingredients. Lucky for me, I had almost everything I needed. Somehow, a tupperware full of already-chopped onions was still fresh after four weeks in the fridge. I had tortillas (which also don’t seem to ever go bad, strangely enough), a tomato, garlic, and salsa. It turns out that all I really needed was a couple of jalapenos, cilantro and a green bell pepper.

Truly, one of the greatest things about living in Sonora is the Grocery Outlet. This is not a joke. Grocery Outlet (affectionately called “Gross-Out” by the locals) is a supermarket for folks on a budget. As an example of the type of savings you might expect, here’s the breakdown of my quesadilla purchases: one perfect green pepper, 50¢; one bunch of cilantro (about to wilt but still good), 33¢; eight perfectly good jalapenos, 99¢. Total cost for all of these vegetables = $1.82! If I were to buy the exact same stuff at Safeway, I would expect to pay about eight bucks. Fair warning: most items on the shelves at the Gross-Out will expire at any moment. Be sure to check the “best by” dates when shopping here!

Making the quesadillas turned out to be the simplest thing in the world. I was a little bit nervous about making them right, since all of recipes online differed from each other so greatly. Luckily, there were a few common threads that I was able to pick up on, and for the rest of it I relied on instinct. First, you have to sautee the chicken breast. To do this, follow the directions in Joy of Cooking precisely and you will end up with the most perfect, juiciest chicken imaginable. OK, mine came out a little pink in the middle, but it was okay. I had to shred the chicken for the quesadilla anyways, so I just shredded it and fried it up a little in my cast-iron pan until none of it was pink anymore. Remove the chicken to a bowl, then pour a little bit of olive oil in the pan and fry the chopped onions, garlic and peppers (two jalaps and green bell) all together. Fry ‘em up until the garlic is toasty brown, then throw the whole mess into the bowl with the chicken.

Next, I had to make an adjustment to the tortilla. I only had “burrito-sized” torts, which are 10″, and my cast-iron skillet is maybe 9″. No problem, just tear to fit:

Throw a half tablespoon or so of butter on the skillet and spread it around. Toss the modified tortilla onto the frying pan and let it sizzle for a while. Don’t get it too crispy just yet. Flip it over and spread some Mexican cheese (nothing fancy, just the shredded stuff in the bag, I had some left over from the party…) evenly onto the surface. While the cheese is melting, add an appropriate amount of quesadilla filling from the bowl. You will have plenty of filling for leftovers if you’re doing this right. At this point, the cheese is pretty melty, and you can easily fold the tortilla shell in half while still in the skillet without making a mess. Now you just want to fry it up and flip it until both sides are nice and crispy brown. Add tomatoes, cilantro, and salsa, and you’re done. Sour cream and guacamole would have been nice, but not necessary. Use some leftover pickled green beans from the party as a ready-made side dish and you have one easy and mighty delicious dinner for yourself. Not only that, but enough quesadilla fill’uns for the next three days!

What am I going to do when I run out of leftovers?

-Sav

Leftover brats? Ce ne pas problem!

For those who neglected to click the “About Savastio” link above, let it be known that I have a habit of being lazy about food. Also, I can be a real cheapskate. So when I had all of these leftover brats from a party I threw two weeks ago, I suddenly found myself in a very accomodating situation. Brats are a godsend for a guy like me. They freeze well, they are easy to cook, and they are delicious. Combine brats with two exceedingly simple side dishes, and you have classic Savastio fare. Over the course of eight days, I have made the following meal four times.

Beer brats, steamed asparagus and mac & cheese

First, the brats. I have found that there is only one acceptable way to cook a brat absent an outdoor grill, and that is to broil it. Put the broiler on high, place the top rack two notches down from the top, and place the brat squarely in the middle, towards the front. Fashion a tray out of aluminum foil to collect the drippings. This tray can be used several times before it becomes kind of gross.

Keep an eye on the brat as it cooks. Poke a few holes in either side of the brat to facilitate the release of juices. Don’t burn it! You only have 15 brats left in the freezer if you screw up! Once it’s cooked, put that sucker on a hot dog bun (plenty of those left over from the party, too) and dress with mustard and sauerkraut. Yum!

Asparagus: This is my standard vegetable. Once I discovered how easy it is to make, I haven’t strayed too far from it. Just rinse, cut the hard, woody nubbins off the ends, and throw them in the steamer tray. Steam for four minutes or so. Done! Asparagus is kind of expensive at about three dollars per bunch, but a bunch usually gets you three meals worth at 6-8 stalks per meal. You can usually find a good deal on asparagus at Grocery Outlet (more on that at a later date).

Mac and cheese: This has been a favorite of mine as long as I can remember. One thing you need to realize about mac and cheese is that it is possible to spend way too much for a box. Annie’s brand is delicious and great, but it costs about two dollars a box! I can get six boxes of my stuff for the same price.

I guarantee to you that this brand tastes nearly as good as Annie’s, and when you eat as much mac and cheese as I do, the savings add up. The only thing that wierds me out about the cheap stuff is that the cheaper it is, the more chemicals they add to it. Why do they have to add five different artificial colors to make orange??? I challenge the geniuses at the Artificial Color Institute to invent one chemical that reflects an orange wavelength of visible light. We’ll call it Orange 40 Lake.

Voilà! Approximate cooking time: 10-15 minutes. Cost: less than $2. Effort: practically zero!

-Sav