Something that really helps me is planning for leftovers from the major meals that I cook. When you've got leftovers, it really limits the scope of deciding what's for dinner, rephrasing the question as "How can I recycle these leftovers into a new meal?" For me, it's much easier to come up with ideas when I have constraints, such as using up leftovers, versus trying to come with a plan given a blank slate.
Cannellini-Piquillo Ersatz "Rouille"
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| Cannellini-Piquillo Ersatz "Rouille" |
Here's an example from last week, shot over a four-day period. It starts with a lower-fat and lower-calorie ersatz rouille, a type of aïoli from Provence made with red peppers. Rouille is the classic garnish to bouillabaise. We're watching what we eat, now about three months into quarantine with rampant boredom and scant exercise. We don't want to give up flavor, but we do want to give up fat and calories where possible.
Enter this rouille. Rather than start from a base of egg yolk and olive oil, I substituted white beans. I put two pounds (1 kg) of cannellini and half a pound (250g) of piquillo peppers into the food processor along with 8 cloves of minced red hard neck garlic. When all was smoothed out, I drizzled in 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of extra virgin olive oil and then seasoned to taste. Not rouille, but not bad either, especially with that spicy red skin garlic!
While the sauce was destined to be eaten with a massive head of roasted cauliflower for dinner, I made 2-1/2 pounds, a processor bowl full, because I wanted to have the sauce on hand to use in other ways. After dinner, the remaining sauce went into the fridge to be incorporated into other dishes during the course of the week.
Arroz con Pollo Italiano
Likewise, when I make chicken or basically any other protein, I make enough for at least two meals. Having leftover meat in the refrigerator guarantees at least one follow-on quick taco meal. Last week, I was in the mood for something similar to chicken cacciatore, but I wanted to incorporate rice. It struck me that I could make arroz con pollo with Italian flavors to satisfy my craving.
Arroz con pollo was a frequent and favorite staff meal at the restaurant. We'd prep a hotel pan in the afternoon and leave it in the walk-in until about an hour before close, about 90 minutes before we would sit down to eat. Then it would go into the slow oven and would be ready, piping hot, once customers left the building.
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| Arroz con Pollo Ready for the Oven |
Outside, I heated a cast-iron frying pan in my grill and browned six chicken thighs in olive oil until they were crisply brown on both sides, about 20 minutes. In decent weather, I do it outside to avoid setting off the f*cking smoke detector in the kitchen. It keeps the kitchen cooler as well.
Meanwhile, I prepped the vegetables: onion, carrot, celery, and lots of garlic. I then assembled spices (red pepper flakes, saffron, salt, and pepper) and a bouquet garni of oregano, sage, and lots of rosemary. Out of the refrigerator came about a cup of olives and a half a cup of pickled capers. I drained a 28-ounce can of chopped tomatoes into a large measure and added chicken stock to the tomato juice up to the one quart line. Finally, I measured out 2 cups of long grain rice.
When the chicken was browned, I removed it to a plate and sautéed the vegetables in the cast iron pan on the grill, adding the spices and the bouquet towards the end. When the vegetables were translucent, I mixed them with the tomatoes, olives, capers, and rice and added the mix to the bottom of the roasting pan with the chicken on top. I poured the broth over, covered the roasting pan with foil, and put it in a slow oven (350F) for 90 minutes.
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| Out of the Oven, Ready to Eat |
This recipe scales fairly nicely: just make sure that you use about two cups of broth to every one cup of rice.
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| Arroz con Pollo Italiano |
Poached Eggs over Rice
One of the dishes that Ann liked the best for brunch on our Sundays together back in the restaurant days was a poached egg over a loose risotto-like pile of Israeli couscous, inflected with piquillo peppers and topped with a pimentón (smoked paprika) aïoli.
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| Poached Eggs over Rice |
I aimed to recreate the feel of that dish using some of the leftover rice and the cannellini-piquillo "rouille." In the span of ten minutes, I rewarmed the rice with a bit of chicken stock, mixed some of the "rouille" half and half with mayo and a little water to thin it, and poached some eggs. I added mayo and water to the white bean-red pepper sauce because I wanted the texture to approximate a true aïoli more closely.
Brunch just doesn't get any easier than that.
Tacos de Pollo
As I mentioned above, I like to have leftover proteins in the refrigerator to facilitate putting a taco dinner on the table in next to no time.
I first made a quick salsa fresca from tomatoes, onions, cilantro, chile peppers, lime juice, and salt. Then I took the leftover 50-50 rouille-aïoli from the day before and mashed it with a super ripe avocado and lime juice for some quick guacamole.
I picked the chicken off a couple of thighs leftover from the arroz con pollo and seared it quickly in a pan. After that, I gave a little more of the leftover rice a quick sauté to crisp it slightly.
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| Taco Fixings: Guacamole, Salsa Fresca, Rice, Pulled Chicken, Cotija |
This is about a simple as dinner gets. The most strenuous thing was picking the meat off a couple of chicken thighs, mere child's play.
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| Tacos de Pollo |
Recycling
In the course of a single week, I made a fake "rouille" from white beans and piquillo peppers and a big pan of arroz con pollo, both in quantities guaranteeing leftovers. From the remains of these two dishes, we had a very easy egg dish for brunch and a simple taco dish for dinner. Recycling leftovers is a great way to minimize the effort of putting food on the table and a great way to help answer the age-old question, "What's for dinner?"
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