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