oday@hplabsc.UUCP (Vicki O'Day) (01/09/86)
I am looking for recipes using leftover meat that are not too time- consuming to prepare (or that can be prepared ahead). I'm trying to spend less time cooking on weeknights, without recycling exactly the same thing every night and without spending lots of money on expensive cuts of meat (lamb chops, chicken breasts). One way to do this seems to be to cook something big and pretty plain on the weekend, such as pot roast, pork loin or turkey, then figure out interesting things to do with this (cooked) raw material later. So far I have tried meat pies, enchiladas, tacos, hash, rice casseroles and curry, but I would welcome more suggestions and good recipes, including any in the categories I just mentioned. Thanks... Vicki O'Day hplabs!oday
billw@Navajo.ARPA (01/10/86)
> I am looking for recipes using leftover meat that are not too time- > consuming to prepare (or that can be prepared ahead). Many oriental dishes can be made with precooked meat. Usually the meat gets stir-fried, and then vegis are added, and finally some sort of sauce is added. Just start by cooking the vegis, then add the meat just before adding the sauce. It may have a funny look and not quite the correct texture, but it should taste OK. Anything with a relatively strongly flavored sauce (that the meat doesn't need to soak in for a long time) should be OK with cooked meat. I can suggest stroganof (mushrooms, white wine, sour cream), diane (mushrooms, onions, red wine, mustard, wochester), terriyaki (soy and pinapple), mole sauces (? chilies, tomato, chocolate?). And there are always cold meat salads (meat, mayo, onion). BillW
trewitt@cascade.ARPA (01/10/86)
One thing that I have done on several occasions is to use leftover chicken
curry as the basic "extras" for fried rice. If you also have leftover cooked
rice, you really win and can get a yummy meal for very little effort.
To keep the rice from ending up gooey, I usually romove most of the liquid
from the curry. Dice up the curry/chicken and throw it into the frying rice.
(This assumes that there aren't any bones in your curry.) I usually toss in
some peas, soy sauce, tumeric (unless the curry already has it) and whatever
I feel like.
I did this just last night. Turned out pretty good.
--
Glenn Trewitt, Center for Integrated Systems, Stanford University
{ucbvax,decvax}!decwrl!glacier!trewitt, trewitt@su-amadeus.ARPAbrian@sdcsvax.UUCP (Brian Kantor) (01/11/86)
In article <31@hplabsc.UUCP> oday@hplabsc.UUCP (Vicki O'Day) writes: > >I am looking for recipes using leftover meat that are not too time- >consuming to prepare (or that can be prepared ahead). two quick non-gourmet ways to use leftover chunky meat (not so good for things like ground beef). Great for lamb, roast beef, pieces of steak, chicken, turkey, etc: 1. Make a bunch of mashed potatoes. Put enough of them into a casserole dish to fill it to about 1 - 2 " deep, then push the chunks of meat (as 1/2 to 1" cubes) into them and bury them (smooth over the hole where you pushed the meat in). To avoid overcooking, try to keep the meat from touching the bottom of the casserole dish. A deep glass piepan works well here. Its not a bad idea to spray it with PAM or something first to keep the potatoes from sticking - makes cleanup easier. Sprinkle with paprika, dot with butter, and bake it until the peaks on the potatoes brown. Serve. Good with gravy. My mother used to call this a shepherd's pie. It takes about 1/2 hour from start to finish if you use the instant potatoes. Its better if you have real mashed potatoes left over from some previous meal. 2. Make some curry: Cook some chopped onion (one or two medium onions) in some oil or butter until they are golden colored. Add a can of chicken broth. Add a couple of tablespoons of curry powder and other spices you like (I add cayenne and white pepper and garlic). Turn the heat down to a slow simmer and go watch the news. Stir it during the commercials (well, maybe not that often). When its good and thick, add the chunks of meat and stir until they're warm. Serve it. If you have leftover rice, or if you made some, put that on the plate, and spoon some of the meat goo into a hollow in the middle of it. Top with salted peanuts or cashews if you have some. A few green peas and/or raisins in the rice are a nice touch (just throw them into the pan when you start to steam/boil the rice). Brian Kantor UC San Diego decvax\ brian@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu ihnp4 >--- sdcsvax --- brian ucbvax/ Kantor@Nosc
ken@turtlevax.UUCP (Ken Turkowski) (01/13/86)
Enchiladas!
Ingredients:
meat, cheese, corn tortillas, tomato sauce, hot salsa, garlic, olives,
salt & pepper
To make an easy enchilada sauce, add one teaspoon salsa (slightly less
than HOT) and one squeezed clove of garlic to each can (small) of
tomato sauce (salt and pepper to taste). [Two cans of sauce, one
chicken, and 12 tortillas seem to be the proper proportions.] Simmer
for 10 or 15 minutes while you do the next step.
Partially fry the tortillas in hot oil. Do not make them crispy! If
the oil is hot enough, they will not get soggy either.
Scoop some of the sauce into a baking dish, covering the bottom and
wetting the sides.
Dip the fried tortillas into the enchilada sauce. Lay each tortilla on
a flat surface, spoon in some chopped meat (~ 3-4 Tbsp.), sprinkle in
some grated cheese (~ 2-3 Tbsp.), roll up the tortilla, and place in
baking dish.
Pour remaining sauce on top of rolled enchiladas (there never seems to
be enough), sprinkle more grated cheese on top, add an olive slice or
two, and bake at 350F until cheese bubbles.
Serve with sour cream, guacamole, salsa (serving suggestions).
--
Ken Turkowski @ CIMLINC, Menlo Park, CA
UUCP: {amd,decwrl,hplabs,seismo,spar}!turtlevax!ken
ARPA: turtlevax!ken@DECWRL.DEC.COMwiebe@ut-ngp.UUCP (Anne Hill Wiebe) (01/14/86)
Another way to use meat leftovers: add them to tostadas or tacos. Leftover pork is especially delicious; layer it on a tostada shell with taco sauce, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sliced tomato, sliced avocado or guacamole, sliced black olives, and sour cream -- and you've duplicated the specialty of many Tex-Mex restaurants. Or is it Cal-Mex? Anyway, very good; you could also do this with leftover chicken. Also for leftover chicken: put several small bits in a small frying pan, along with a few small pieces of cheese (about 1 oz. of each); put a (soft) flour tortilla on top and cover; turn on flame for about 30-45 seconds and uncover; roll up and munch! Quick and easy for one person. You could add tomato, etc.; lime or lemon juice is good, too.
wildbill@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (William J. Laubenheimer) (01/21/86)
A couple of good ideas derived from Chinese cooking are fried rice and
chow mein (fried noodles). You don't have to feel bound to the ingredient
lists you might find in a Chinese cookbook; feel free to invent your own
variations. The essential facts of the recipes are that you are going to
stir-fry any new raw ingredients, heat up any previously cooked stuff you
are going to add, season the resulting conglomeration, then fry the
cooked starch ingredient and put the whole mess together. Just remember,
the name of the game is experimentation. Throw together whatever you have
that looks like it might work well, jazz it up however you think it might
work out, and see if it tastes good. OK, now for as general a set of rules
for Leftover Pseudo Chow Mein and Leftover Pseudo Fried Rice as I can
come up with. (Note: I call these "Pseudo" because they are not authentic
Chinese recipes, but simply derivatives of same created by an American
with no discernible Chinese background. But they're still good for getting
stuff out of the fridge before it gets all slimy and moldy.)
One final note: This recipe is not going to be too easy to follow unless
you have a little bit of familiarity with Chinese cooking, or at least
have tried a few recipes so you have an idea of the basic principles of
stir-frying and what size a particular ingredient should be. If you
need a guide, look in your Chinese cookbook and try to find a stir-fry
recipe using the ingredient, cut it into the specified-sized pieces, and
cook it for the specified time. Everything is going to wind up bite-sized
or smaller. Also, there is generally no reason why you can't do much
of the cutting on the weekend. If it won't go soft, get moldy, or otherwise
make a mess, it can be cut up in advance. Stuff like the meat, anything cooked,
carrots, celery, onions, peppers (but not too long unless frozen), are
prime candidates for this treatment. And now to work:
Divide your chosen ingredients into the following categories:
RAW STUFF: Any main ingredient you haven't cooked yet.
COOKED STUFF: Any main ingredient you have.
CHUNKY SEASONINGS: Fresh garlic or ginger, scallions, etc. Anything not powder.
WET STUFF: Soy sauce, any other prepared sauces you might want. Broth if
you want more sauce, as in Chow Mein.
DRY SEASONINGS: Garlic powder, powdered ginger, any other powdered spice.
Mix in with the WET STUFF.
STARCH: Cooked noodles for Chow Mein or cooked rice for Fried Rice. In
any event, it should be already cooked and cooled to room temperature.
Leftover is preferable. Best noodles are vermicelli or Chinese
noodles. DO NOT use those pre-fried ones in a can.
EGGS: for fried rice, if you like them and have them on hand.
GARNISHES: scallion tops, nuts, toasted sesame seeds, etc.
The proportions of these things are quite flexible, but in general you
want about as much Raw and Cooked Stuff as Starch, about 1 Tbsp. of Wet
Stuff per cup of rice, or about 1/4 cup of Wet Stuff per cup of noodles,
and 1/2 to 1 egg per person. Seasonings to taste. Have some vegetable oil
on hand.
For Fried Rice: Start by scrambling the EGGS in about 1 tsp. oil per egg.
Take them out and set aside. You want little pieces of egg, so cut them up,
either while you are cooking them or afterwards. Put about 1 Tbsp. oil per
cup of Raw Stuff in the wok or skillet. Heat to stir-fry temperature, add
the CHUNKY SEASONINGS, and stir-fry briefly. Add the RAW STUFF and stir-fry
until done. Add the COOKED STUFF and stir-fry until heated through. Take
this out and dump with the eggs. Put about 1 Tbsp. oil per cup of rice
in the wok or skillet. Heat and stir-fry the RICE for about 5 minutes or
so. Mix together and add the WET STUFF and the DRY SEASONINGS; stir-fry
for a minute or so. Add the stuff you took out earlier and mix it up until
all the ingredients are blended. Just before serving, sprinkle the
GARNISHES over the top. Short-cut: if you don't have any RAW STUFF, skip
the first cooking part and simply throw all the cold COOKED STUFF in
after you've done the rice.
For Chow Mein: Blend about 1 tsp. of cornstarch per 1/4 cup of sauce into
the WET STUFF and DRY SEASONINGS. Put about 1 Tbsp. oil per cup of noodles
in the wok or skillet. Heat and stir-fry the NOODLES for about 6 minutes or
so over medium-high heat. (This is the part I don't do very well. I can't
get them to brown nicely; they either burn or never get very crispy.)
Take them out and set them aside. Put about 1 Tbsp. oil per cup of Raw Stuff
in the wok or skillet. Heat to stir-fry temperature, add the CHUNKY
SEASONINGS, and stir-fry briefly. Add the RAW STUFF and stir-fry until done.
Add the COOKED STUFF and stir-fry until heated through. Add the WET STUFF,
etc., and stir until the sauce thickens. Put the cooked NOODLES back in
and stir until covered in sauce. Just before serving, sprinkle the
GARNISHES over the top. Short-cut: if you don't have any RAW STUFF, just
cook the CHUNKY SEASONINGS in 1 tsp. of oil, heat up the COOKED STUFF, and
proceed from there.
-----
OK. Hope I didn't confuse everybody. Don't worry if it doesn't come out the
same way twice, if you think you can make it taste better by doing
something else, go ahead. If you can make an analogy between cooking and
music, this comes out as sort of a free-form cool jazz piece with
everybody doing their own thing. Trying to write down this recipe is much
like trying to write down the score for a piece like that. It's up to
you to make it swing. Good luck and good eating.
Bill Laubenheimer
----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science
...Killjoy went that-a-way---> ucbvax!wildbillmr-b@lll-crg.UUCP (01/23/86)
[Really rally Mr Net.Policeman, I did read thru net.cooks before responding!]
While everyone else is recommending taking your old meat and doing
up some chinese food, I'll go another path: burritos! (oes?)
Take a tortilla (flour or corn), put some meat in it with some
cheese, garlic, pecante sauce, lettuce, guacamole, some diced
scallions, more garlic, and more cheese. Fold it up, pour some taco
sauce on the top, put it in the microwave and nuke it for a few
minutes and viola! Dinner time!
--
"If your or your bits are discovered, the Department of Energy will
disavow any knowlege of your actions."
andy beals - bandy@lll-crg.arpa - {seismo,ihnp4,qantel}!lll-crg!bandy