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.

Camera Cleanup #6

I don't know about you guys, but I often wind up taking pictures here and there or taking half a set of ones for something I'm cooking, forgetting to finish and then just leaving them on the memory card in my camera. Taking up space. Driving me nuts with waiting when I want to get anything else off of it.

That's what it's like now, so, that means it's camera cleanup time. I may not have any recipes or even know exactly what it is I made, but here are some pictures of stuff that was taking up precious, precious space.

Ok, I actually know exactly what this is. It's a failed pizza dough pita. It didn't poof, probably because I rolled it too thin and it crinkled up on the stone. But it was still wicked good and I wrapped some chicken and corn in it. I remember that the filling was spicy... but that's really it. Hm.

Anyway, this was chili I made with some ribs that I screwed up. Oh man was I pissed when I pulled those out of the oven and half were perfect and the other half were ... not. The problem was one side was much thinner than the other so it cooked a lot faster. But we ate the ones that were done and I made chili with the rest. I just cut between each bone and cooked them in broth and seasoning for a couple hours, then added beans, corn, I think there's some potato in there too. It was wicked good, the bbq sauce on the ribs added a nice sweetness and the bones really enriched the broth.

So, yeah. Camera cleanup. This is going to be an ongoing series since I have a whole mess of pics that I either don't know exactly what they are or don't have a full post worth of. Plus I haven't been doing much cooking lately for one reason or another. Heh, so I suppose it's a good thing that I have all these pictures on my memory card.

Double Garlic, Blue Potato and Egg Pizza

-herbed pizza dough
-1/4 cup olive oil
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-baby blue potato, sliced thin
-red onion, sliced thin
-shredded mozzarella and Dubliner (or whatever you like)
-eggs

Heat the oil and garlic on low in a small sauce pan for 10-15 minutes. You don't want the garlic to brown. Roll out the dough and dock it. Brush it with just the infused oil, then top it with the cheese, potatoes, onions and bits of garlic from the oil. Bake in a very hot, preheated oven for 10 minutes then pull it out, crack the eggs onto it and get it back in the oven. Let it cook until the eggs are as done as you want, 5-10 minutes.

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You heard right, double garlic. There's some onion on there too, so I don't suggest making this for a date. Unless of course you're both into garlic breath, then hey, have at it. Heh.

This was quite possibly the strangest looking pizza I've ever made, but I guess that's not too surprising considering there are blue potatoes on it. The potatoes in question came in a "baby potato medley" and I didn't feel right mashing them up like I was doing with all the others. So I decided, completely out of character, to make a pizza with them. I had some herbed dough and figured I'd make a white one, since the crust would have so much flavor already.

I don't have a mandolin or particularly awesome knife skills, so I figured I'd slice the potato on the large slice side of my box grater. Worked alright, even if the slices aren't particularly pretty. Then I rolled out my dough and docked it. For those who don't know, docking is when you stab the dough with a fork or something of the sort to help keep air bubbles from forming. I find I get many less mutant pizzas when I do this. While the oven was preheating I had left a metal measuring cup with a quarter cup of olive oil and two cloves of minced garlic on the stove top.

See, my oven is wicked inefficient, lots of heat escapes while it's going. Over the course of the half hour or so that I preheated the oven the oil got nicely infused. You could also just do this over the stove on a low heat, if you have a quality oven. Anyway, then I brushed on some of the garlic oil (not the chunks, just the oil). That's garlic number one. Then just a whisper of cheese.Heh. I know, I know, it looks like an awful lot. And it is. That's just how I get down sometimes. It's a mix of mozzarella and Dubliner, the latter of which I've been enjoying a lot lately. Goes great with tuna salad.

Then I put on the potatoes, which had soaked for a while in salted water. I'm told that removes starch and a little moisture, letting them brown better. I wanted some onion on there so I sliced some red onion into thin slices. Thin enough to see though slices, even. And that was by hand, kids. Although they weren't all that thin. Heh. Then I took some of the oily garlic chunks and dolloped them around. That would be double garlic.

Then I stuck it in the oven for ten minutes or so, pulled it out and cracked a couple eggs on top. None of that got photographed though, I wanted to do it as quickly as possible.

But these are the eggs, they're really small and really fresh. I got them from the same source as last time I got fresh eggs and they were just as awesome. I left it in for another five or ten minutes, I don't remember exactly I'm afraid, I pulled it out when the whites were set.

And this shows you how bad my oven is. See the egg on the right? The yolk is cooked solid. See the egg on the left? Yeah. Slightly less so.

This is why I don't bake a lot of cakes in this apartment.

But solid or runny, it was awesome. The garlic crisped up and mellowed out really well, the potatoes didn't brown much, but they softened nicely and added a good earthy flavor. I did prefer the runny egg, I love runny yolks, but both added an excellent richness. That I suppose it didn't really need, what with all the cheese. But hey, it was most of what I was eating that day. Heh.

So who else has had eggs on pizza? What do you think of them?

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?

A Sandwich of Substance

It's serious business. Want to know what's in it? Ha! Did you think it would be that easy? That I'd just tell you? Well, I'll do better than that, I'll show you.

It starts with two boiled baby red potatoes. If you look closely, you'll be able to tell from that picture that I'm an idiot. I completely forgot about my little potatoes boiling in my little pot and they ran out of water. Heh. Fortunately crash hot potatoes are very forgiving and that is what we're making with these. See I had just those two 'tatoes left and I couldn't think of a better use for them. Next you fry some ham. You could use deli ham, but this is leftover Easter ham so it's nice and thick and smokey. Good times. Then you toast a nice, big, soft roll in the same pan. So far so good. Now we fry an egg and saute some onions. At some point the potatoes are going to be almost ready, so you need to pull them out and put some cheese on there. Whatever kind you like, I used cheddar because that's what I had. Pop them back in the oven to melt it and we're ready to assemble. First, a little mustard, because mustard is good with all this stuff. Then, the ham. Now the cheesy potatoes. Then the onion. Next the egg, with the yolk broken and swished around. That's an important step. And now some lettuce. See, not only does lettuce add great texture, but it has such a low calorie content that you actually burn more calories eating it than you get from it. Or so I've been told. Which means when you add lettuce to things you're actually taking calories away. I'm sure there's a study somewhere verifying this, but I'm a busy man and don't have time to look it up.

So there you have it, a big ol' sandwich. The only problem I had was I have no idea what to call it.