Leftovers

   Leftovers. Clean out the fridge day.  I have heard it referred to as "cream of the 3rd shelf" when talking to restaurant cooks about their plans for Sunday brunch.  "What's for dinner?"  The children ask, then roll their eyes and implore.  "Can't we just order pizza?" All because of those dreaded words "leftovers."

  I have witnessed the same confused and disappointed look on a Sunday brunch patron as they gaze into the chaffer that is labeled Shrimp Tetrazzini or Seafood Newburg.  As they are questioning the validity of the claim, and searching for the seafood, they are thinking, this looks a lot like the Coquille St. Jacques last week when I couldn't find the scallops, and they are right! 

   In a restaurant, the most successful managers develop a plan, a way to utilize the ingredients, by finding numerous places for them on the menus, and in daily and weekly features. Leftover baked potatoes become potato skins, leftover mash might become a potato, cheddar soup, and so on and so on.  This process really should be planned before you open a restaurant with carefully researched instead of a copycat menu.  Sometimes a new chef or k.m.(kitchen manager) may have little control of an already-established menu so they will look for places to offset expenses and help with food cost, as well as exercise their creative tendencies.  I have told my wife many times you can tell a lot about a restaurant by the soups they serve. 

  I think you can take the same approach at home  Come up with a plan. When you're done cooking a whole chicken, make chicken soup.  Pot roast can be turned into pot pie or even fajitas.  Doesn't have to be expensive or fancy to be good, and simple can be made to look fancy and expensive. Some of the best places to dine are "holes in the wall."  I still dream about a late night burger in a pita, I used to get from a dive bar back in the early '90s.  I have had $50 steaks that were over-cooked and tough as hell. 

    I've yet to master the ability to cook for only four people.  Hence, our fridge is always full and in danger of spilling over.  The wife has no problem with heating up soup and looks forward to enjoying eggplant on a second day  The girls are happy to make the occasional p,b&j when my services are not available, but that's about where the graciousness ends. Yes, the leftover routine can get old. In the hands of the less experienced and creative cooks, even mundane or downright awful.  I mean microwaving day, old pizza should be a sin but we have all done it.

  I actually look forward to cleaning out the fridge, just like I did the walk-in.  It's the same feeling you get from finally cleaning out your car and getting rid of all those coffee cups and wrappers, that the kids shove in the seats.  It feels new again plus you often find a couple of bucks and a handful of quarters, which means a bonus coffee or chicken biscuit for the week. 

   I suggest taking a long look in your fridge before you have decided there is nothing to eat. Pull out the leftovers like Tuesday's pasta and New Year's black eye peas.  Examine the cast-off celery sticks and half a pepper and onion.  Grab the on its way out wilted spinach, and last two slices of bacon in the meat drawer.  Then take these items and turn them into a twist on pasta fagioli by adding a little garlic, some and Italian seasoning.  That's something to be proud of. You can brag about your skills when it comes out great or laughs about that horrible black-eyed pea fagioli next Thanksgiving.  Either way, you've learned something and are a step closer to making good use of those leftovers.  It's where I have done some of my best work.  

  Recipes and cookbooks to me are mostly inspirational.  That is unless I am baking.  The ingredients are notable. The amounts, glance worthy at best.  The instructions and method, if I don't know those by now, I should retire.  Recipes, methods, and portions are most important for new cooks and are needed for consistency, especially in a restaurant. Still, you might be surprised by how many restaurants don't have them.  That's why your burger or fish and chips tastes different this week than last at your local pub.  The food may even vary daily, lunch to dinner depending on whose running the line or prepping that day
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   I remember a long time ago, members were outraged over the change in the chicken salad at a golf club. " It used to be so good and now tasted dry and completely different, " they said.  Well, it turned out that the cook who had made it for 20 years just retired.  He had decided long ago that deli roasted turkey breast tasted better in the recipe, but never told anyone or and wrote it down. It was his secret recipe, and it finally made sense on why they went through so much turkey with only one sandwich on the menu.  People who have worked in the biz realize this kind of thing happens all the time in restaurants. While recipes and methods are crucial to running a good business they have little to do with Thursday's leftovers.  

   I hate throwing anything out, wasting a thing. It's true the best ingredients are the freshest.  That doesn't mean you can't cut out the bad spots on an over-ripe avocado, turn soft tomatoes into a marinara, or serve milk after the expiration date.  I employ the smell and taste test on all things before I take an expiration date at face value.  If I can't get cell service in all points of my house, how do they know the exact date my milk goes sour?  It's the best guess based on time, temperature and handling which is all random and mostly uncontrollable once products leave the plant.  So making leftovers is more an art than science and sometimes a leap of faith.

  The all so popular fusion cooking going on today can be done from most any one's fridge using that leftover fried chicken, a little soy, some random veggies and a piece of fruit.  You just have to break the recipe down, get to what gives it flavor.  Realize a dish like kimchi (one of my favorites) is basically old cabbage.  It's been fermented, salted and spiced and given a little time to achieve those flavors, but that doesn't mean you can't use what is left of the cabbage to make a kimchi-inspired dish.  Chutneys, sambals, and many other exotic sounding sauces are nothing more than a balance of vinegar, sugar, and spice.  That sugar could be in its natural form, or as honey, or it can come from fruit, a red pepper, even a carrot.  The acid could be any type of vinegar from plain white, to balsamic, to rice or red wine.  It can be a lemon, lime or orange.  The spice could be hot sauce, curry, garlic, pepper or a blend.  A pico de gallo (rough cut salsa) can be made from the last tomato, with a little onion and lime juice, fresh squeezed or bottle, with or without the cilantro.

    Don't be scared.  Take a minute and go through your fridge.  Pull out that limp zucchini, last potato, tomato and onion out then google a curry recipe. You will be surprised what you can make with what you have.  It will make you a better cook, plus it may expose you and your family to a world of new flavors.

   My last recommendation is herbs and spices.   My wife likes a dessert that is nothing more than sliced bananas and chopped walnuts, sprinkled with cinnamon and drizzled with honey.  Cinnamon is the key.  Heated or unheated, it's simple and delicious. Make sure your pantry is stocked with a variety of spices.  Do check every so often and throw out that nutmeg you bought two years ago to make pumpkin pie.  Or, better yet, make a curry or rub that incorporates it before it loses its flavor.  I have seen nutmeg used in dishes from moussaka to classic whipped potatoes.  Also, fresh herbs are great, and we grow a lot of our own but dried also serve a purpose.  I usually incorporate the dried at the beginning of dish or while cooking and the fresh at the end, right, before serving. Herbs and spices are the keys to better cooking and a better life. 

  Remember when working with new ingredients you can only be defeated by your lack of imagination and unwillingness to try. What's your best dish, recipe or specialty?  I've been asked many times over the years by a friend or customer.  I might throw them a bone by highlighting some classic, but more often than not, I believe it's the last thing I've cooked, when I had to improvise, using what I had in front of me.  Necessity is where invention is born.  I am sure to get the eye roll and the sigh this morning when the girls ask me what's for dinner, but it's my favorite night of the week, we're having leftovers.