Something To Do With Leftovers: Crispy Pot Roast Hash

Here's a quickie, I had a chunk of pot roast in my freezer that I was wondering what to do with. Then I realized that the answer was pretty painfully obvious, fry it up with potatoes and call it breakfast.

 Look at that steam coming off of there, makes you want to mow down the whole thing, doesn't it? Heh. I know it's not as smooth as hash typically is, but "fried pot roast and potatoes" doesn't really have the same ring to it in my opinion.

 I fried the potatoes separate from the beef and onions since the wouldn't have browned well in the medium sized skillet I used, but the up side of this was the potatoes browned in the beef fat. This is a good time. I've found that doing the potatoes on medium/low give a better texture than on a higher heat, but your mileage my vary. The only seasonings I used was a little salt and a lot of pepper, but some garlic, basil, rosemary and/or oregano would be delightful.

 This was, quite possibly, the best thing I've ever had with leftover pot roast. Crispy, rich and all around tremendous, the next time you make one definitely save a chunk for breakfast. You won't regret it.

Fried Tamales

Yeah, you heard me. Want to make tamales even better? Brown them up in a skillet. With a non stick one you only need a little oil and the crispy, corny, browned masa mixture is awesome. This is, of course, done with already made tamales. In my case straight from the freezer, which is always convenient.I don't think frying instead of steaming would really work well as the initial cooking. But it is a great way to thaw/reheat them, it adds great flavor. As it turned out, I was making some beans that were in a very Mexican style when I was taking these pics so I poured some of the liquid from them over the tamales after the first flip. Then I poured some more on after I plated them. Because really, why the hell not? The ... dough? Casing? Enrobement? What is the outer layer of a tamale called, anyway? Whatever it is, it soaked up the sauce like a sponge and made something that's already awesome even better. So, in closing, fry your tamales. You'll be glad you did.

Mexican Pizza #1: Shredded Beef, Beans and Sour Cream

Yep, that's right, sour cream on a pizza. Or were you perhaps more concerned about the beans? Well I assure you, both were wicked good. Unfortunately this was done on a whim and with various leftovers so I don't have anything approaching a recipe for it, but I can tell you basically what I did.

I had made the beef and beans some time ago and had a little bit leftover that I had frozen. What it was was a couple pieces of seared steak tips that was leftover from something else (heh, this is like a third generation pizza) which I cut up into smaller chunks, then I tossed a can of beans (pinto, I believe and rinsed of course) a bit of chicken broth and some Mexican seasonings (cumin, cayenne, cilantro, oregano, garlic, onion, etc) in a pot and let it simmer for several hours, until the beef was shreddable. Then I shredded it and at the time we just scooped it up with tortillas.

Like I said, I froze the bit that was leftover and one day decided to make a pizza out of it. To add a bit of something different I decided to dollop some sour cream on there and it worked out really well. The little bursts of tangy sour cream went perfectly, although not surprisingly, with the spicy beans and beef and the whole thing just came together really well. While I can't give you a specific recipe (yet, that is) I strongly recommend trying out the concept, it was a lot of fun and wicked good.

Steak House Doggy Bag Sandwich

I love old school steak houses. They don't screw around too much, you can always get a big ass steak, a potato and teeny tiny salad. What more could you want? My girlfriend and I live near one and go there every couple of months, it's a good time. But she never finishes everything, since her eyes are significantly bigger than her stomach. Which is fine by me because I usually get the leftovers. Heh. After our most recent visit there I decided to make a sandwich with what she couldn't eat and since it came out really well I thought I'd share.

What I did was I cut up the steak and sliced some peppers and onions (I should have sliced them more thinly, they would have cooked more. Live and learn). I wrapped it all up in foil and tossed it in a hot oven to heat up. At the same time I cut a couple leftover zucchini sticks (the real reason my girlfriend always wants to go to this one particular place) and tossed them in the oven to crisp up too. Rocket science, this is not. I toasted up a roll, piled everything on top and thought to myself:
"Self, this needs something more."

So I opened up the fridge and saw a jar of Alfredo sauce. Perfect.
Yeah.

So here's the hint for today: Mayo not enough? Would you rather saw off your own hand than use boring old mustard again? Try a cheese and cream based sauce on your sandwich! You'll be glad you did.

Steak and Rice Enchiladas

I'm on a real Mexican kick, apparently. I've had the tamales, the Mexicanized shakshuka, that burrito wrap thing and the green chili enchiladas all within the past couple weeks. And that's just the stuff I've posted, I've made a couple things that I didn't get pictures of. Hope you're all not sick of it, we've got one more to go.

Enchiladas have an awesome stew-like kind of vibe in that you can use them to finish off all kinds of leftovers. When I made these I had a chunk of steak leftover from fajitas, two tortillas and some leftover rice pilaf so I figured I'd just whip something up with those. So I took those, some chunks of cheese, diced red onion, green chilies, some Mexican seasonings and mixed them up. Noodles was curious about what I was doing when I brought the bowl of filling over to the window for better light, but none of it was for her. Heh. I made a quick enchilada sauce with an eight ounce can of tomato sauce (I love those things), garlic, onion and some adobo seasoning and spread a bit on the bottom of a little casserole dish I have. Then I filled the tortillas up with lots of filling (no point in screwing around), rolled them up and dropped them in. The rest of the sauce on top, a goodly amount of cheese, some time in the oven and that's that. It came out pretty good, but the sauce needs a little work so I don't feel too bad about not having a recipe. I actually have been looking for a good red enchilada sauce, anyone have one they especially like and want to share?

Sort of Shakshuka

Have you heard of shakshuka? I hadn't until I read this post over at Smitten Kitchen, after which I went and read a bit about it over at Wikipedia. Seriously though, what did we do before that endless font of dubious information? It's priceless, if somewhat unreliable.

Anyway, shakshuka is like the Italian eggs in purgatory, eggs poached in tomato sauce (Michele at My Italian Grandmother has a recipe for that that looks wicked good), but spicy and with a more Mid-East/Northern Africa kind of thing to it.

I didn't have all the stuff that Deb had, like fresh anaheims or jalapenos, but I did have some of those jarred roasted green chilies that I've been enjoying so much lately. So I decided to Mexicanize it. I didn't take a single measurement I'm afraid, but if anyone wants I can try to figure it out. It's really a to taste thing anyway. Yeah, that's what we'll go with this time.

Anyway, I started by sauteing up some chopped onion. I had thought I had fresh garlic, but I didn't and wasn't about to run out to get some. This caused me some angst, but then I got over it and just used garlic powder. It was fine, but fresh would clearly be better. You would add it after the onions were lightly browned and saute it for around thirty seconds. Then I added the green chilies and the spices. That's garlic powder, chili powder, dried cilantro, cayenne, cumin and black pepper. It was wicked spicy. Anyway then I just tossed in one of those little cans of tomato sauce, since this was a single serving, and let it simmer over very low heat for about fifteen minutes or so.

While that was going I realized I needed something to eat this with. And since I've just gotta be me, I crisped up some leftover steak fries in the oven and plated them up. Then I cracked an egg in in sauce and forgot to take a picture. Sorry about that. Anyway, since I was being true to myself already I put some cheese on there to melt after the egg was mostly done. And that's it kids, other than plating. Mexicanized shakshuka. It was wicked good. I was a little leery of eggs and red sauce, but the creamy richness of the eggs balanced out the spicy and fairly acidic sauce really well. And the steak fries were perfect as the bottom layer, they soaked up juices but stayed crispy around the edges. I will definitely be making this again.

Oh and I had some of the cheesy sauce leftover the next day. So I heated it up and dipped some store-bought taquitos in it for lunch. Also wicked good.

Something Else to Do With Leftover French Fries

Just a quickie today kids. Ever find yourself with just a handful of fries leftover, either just a couple left in the bag of frozen ones or a few left after a meal? Well, keep them, there's tons of stuff you can do with them. You could mix them up with some egg and make a fry patty. They're also good in omelets (or scrambles). Or you could do this.

Crisp them up a bit in the oven, unless you like soggy fries. Don't scoff, I know people who do. Make a couple small piles, depending on how many you have. Top them with some stuff. This is some chunks of chicken that were braised in Mexican spices, leftover from the green chili chicken and bean enchiladas I made a while ago, some red onion, some more of those roasted green chilies and some cheese. But really, anything would work. Sloppy joe meat, jalapenos and cheese or chunks of sausage, peppers and onions. And cheese. Chunks of hamburger, tomato, onion, bacon and bbq sauce. And cheese. Whatever you can think of and fit on top. Although I do suggest cheese, it kind of holds everything together.

Toss it in a hot oven until the cheese is melted and it's all heated through (having the fries already hot speeds this up).
Hopefully you have a big spatula like this. If not, you can just use two or cut the pile in half. Then just roll it up in a tortilla and eat it. There you go, two different chunks of leftovers gone, the fridge a little cleaner and an awesome meal made, all in less than a half an hour. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Heh.

So, what would you put in one of these?

Lamb Souvlaki Pizza

Yep, that's what it is.

There is a story behind this slightly odd bite of pizza. See, as I've mentioned before, my brother makes some kick ass souvlaki. But, he doesn't have anything as convenient as a recipe. So when I called him the other day looking for one the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hey, I want to make souvlaki, what's your recipe?"

Him: "Oh, I don't know. Something like equal parts lemon juice and olive oil, some oregano, garlic, soy sauce... you know, souvlaki."

Me: "Hm. Ok. So..."

Him: "Nope. No recipe. I just whip it up."

Me: "Fine. Of course you know this won't spoil my plans."

Him: "Ah, but I have the last piece of the device! Your scheme won't come to fruition without it!"

Me: "But I have the artifact from R'lyeh!"

Him: "Ha! A forgery!"

Me: "You bastard!"

...

Ok, that never happened. Well, part of it did. I'll leave it to you to figure out which.

So, the lack of a recipe meant I needed to experiment (cue lightning and maniacal laughter). Which I did (cue lightning again). And I came up with something pretty good based on my brothers vague instructions. It does however need some tweaking, so I'm not posting it just yet.

As you see though, I did make a pizza with the leftovers. It's another white one, since I love white pizza. The original plan had been to make a tiny batch of the marinade to spread under the cheese, but I got lazy. So I just used some olive oil, garlic and oregano. I added some peppers and onions, since they go so well with souvlaki. All in all a great use of leftovers.

But.Next time what I'm going to do is essentially the same thing, but squirt some lemon juice on it after it comes out of the oven. I think that would lend a really nice, fresh flavor to it. I'm also going to use at least some kasseri (that's a Greek/Turkish sheep cheese, melts well) instead of mozzarella, probably half and half. And that would be awesome, I think. Also, instead of using leftover lamb I'm going to marinate it, chop it up small and put it on top raw before the pizza goes into the oven. That way the lamb will be closer to the proper level of done. But even slightly well done like it was this time was wicked good.

Something to Do With Leftover Pork Tenderloin

My girlfriend and I went over to a friends' house for dinner the other night. They made pork tenderloins and sent us home with some of the leftovers. I love that.

The pork had been marinated in barbecue sauce, then roasted and was wicked good. So I could have just sliced it thin, heated it up and eaten it, but I wanted a sandwich. So I cut it into two bite chunks and put it in a foil pouch with some red onion, peppers and hot sauce. Then I cooked it at 350 for about 20 minutes, but before I opened it I shook it around a bit to make sure everything was coated in the juices/sauce. I put it on a toasted sub roll with some sharp cheddar cheese (there's more than it looks, but it's on the bottom). Man, I love sandwiches. And this one was awesome.