Cooking with Leftovers

Everyone ends up with leftovers at one time or another; whether they’re something you cooked yourself or something you bring home from a dinner out. The simple answer to leftovers of course is to just warm them up again the next day. The problem is that then you’re eating the same thing, likely somewhat the worse for wear. Not exactly culinary excellence, no matter how good the food was the first time around. Plus it’s a quick path to boredom. Instead, I thought I would give some examples of ways you can use the leftovers as building blocks for something new.

Last Tuesday I decided I wanted something simple, and didn’t want either of us to have to cook. So I decided to use a jar of homemade canned turkey breast (canning will be discussed in a future article, don’t worry), and make up some tacos. At the end of the night we had leftovers, including shredded Mexican cheese, chopped lettuce, seasoned taco meat, and a roma tomato. A couple of days later, I was looking for something to do with these leftovers, and a story about a restaurant in Cleveland inspired me to make up grilled cheese. I gave it a try, and just LOVED the results. So here’s how I went about it.

Butter two pieces of bread, and put them on a skillet on medium-low heat. While this is browning, thinly slice tomato, enough slices to cover the sandwich. Warm up the leftover taco meat in microwave or in pan, depending on how much is left. After one side of bread is done, butter other side and flip. Spread shredded cheese on each piece of bread, and cover the pan (this allows the cheese to melt fast enough that the bread doesn’t burn). Once the cheese is melted and other side of bread is cooked, remove from heat. Put one piece of bread on plate as a foundation. Put a single layer of tomatoes, then a layer of the reheated taco meat. Follow these with a layer of chopped lettuce, and then put the last piece of bread, with cheese, on top. Enjoy this immediately. The alternating hot and cool layers, and the combination of flavors, are great, and still very indicative of a taco.

Another night last week, dinner was a beautiful medium-rare London broil, rice cooked in homemade lamb stock, and sweet corn. Clearly, a lot fancier dinner (also, clearly not something I’m responsible for, though was I thrilled to eat it). The next night I was cooking for myself and saw these leftovers, so I stuck with something simple, and decided to make burritos. First I opened a jar of seasoned burrito beans. Then I warmed up the beans, steak, corn and rice in microwave. I thinly sliced the steak, and then put all of these in a large flour tortilla. To this, I added some of the chopped lettuce and cheese leftover from the previous meal. Burrito was folded up (though they did come out somewhat square), and put in non-stick pan, just long enough on each side to brown them up a bit and add a little crispiness. Maybe ten minutes all told, and I had a great, filling dinner.

I suspect this is a subject that I will revisit more than once. I hope that even if you don’t ever try these particular recipes, that the ideas here helped kick you out of a rut, and remind you that leftovers don’t have to just be used as-is, but instead can be building blocks for something completely new.

Do you measure up?

While the kids in our family (actually all adults) were preparing Mother’s day dinner, one of my sisters asked me whether or not I felt that it was important to measure ingredients when cooking. She and her boyfriend disagreed on this, and she wanted me to weigh in on the subject. As I have rather strong opinions on this question, I figured I would discuss it here.

To answer the question, it depends on whether we’re talking about cooking or baking. When I’m baking, particularly breads, I am VERY careful with my measuring. For me, I look at baking as a science and cooking as an art. In baking I have a set goal, and I purchase and measure the ingredients to match the formula to make that product. If I’m not careful measuring properly, breads end up too dense, cakes don’t end up right, etc.

Cooking on the other hand is much more flexible. When cooking, I’m more likely to start with an ingredient, and then create a recipe from it. The recipe often changes every time I make it, depending on what I have around the kitchen. Take my rabbit stew. The basic ingredients are rabbit, bacon, red wine, rosemary, stock, garlic and onions. How much red wine? Enough to cover the meat, or until the bottle is empty if I’m using a bottle of wine that was previously opened. How much rabbit? Rabbit isn’t something I can just go out to grocery store and say I’d like three pounds of rabbit breast. So the amount ends up being however much meat is on the rabbit I was able to find. Rosemary? I chop and add until the stew tastes and smells right.

This makes my cooking more vital, and lets my personality shine through, which I enjoy. I love how dishes are almost alive, and will taste different every time I make them. A small change, like using 2/3 cup of wine instead of ¾ cup, or a large change, like substituting chicken for rabbit, it all just adds to the adventure that is food.

I’m sure some of you are wondering why I include measurements in my recipes if they’re not important. This is just so you have a starting point. In all my cooking, measuring or not, I had some starting point to give me an idea. Whether this was a recipe, past experience, or even just adding an ingredient until the flavor is what I want. You might feel that you don’t have the necessary experience to cook this way, but that’s something you can only build with time. Don’t be afraid of failures. I’ve had more than my share, and they make fun stories to tell later.

As to adding an ingredient until it tastes right, this idea might intimidate some of you even more. But if you think about it, this is the same thing you’ve done all your life when you were adding salt or pepper to your dinner. All I’m suggesting here is that you try it with other ingredients too.

To measure or not has no single answer. You have to discover what style of cooking works for you and follow that route. But don’t let fear keep you from experimenting with your measures, or rather, without them. The worst thing that will happen is that you might have to remake a dish. On the other hand, you might improve the dish and fall in love with the new results. Either way, I can guarantee that you’ll feel a lot more ownership of a plate of food where you made your own decisions, rather than blindly following a recipe to the letter. So put that fear aside, and the measuring cups along with it.

Two for Tuesday

Yes, that’s a tired old slogan, and I don’t know that I’ll make it a habit, but I figured that I’d share two recipes with you guys today.

We’ll start with a side dish, and an easy one at that, Red Wine New Potatoes. This particular recipe I started using about a month ago because I had new potatoes in kitchen and I wanted to use the grill. Some random browsing of the internet gave me ideas to work with, and I took my first stab at cooking in a foil packet. It worked well, so I adopted it as one of my regular ways of making potatoes. Normally I make this recipe with Italian style seasonings (basil, oregano, etc), but my girlfriend suggested I try some fresh rosemary. So I picked up rosemary at the store, paired it with tarragon I already had, and the results were amazing. That’s the version of the recipe I’ve decided to share here.

For our second recipe, I figured I’d go back to one of things I’ve become known for, and that’s my cookies. As with all of my cooking, I’m rarely satisfied with simply getting a recipe and just making it as directed, so I spend a lot of time browsing books and the Internet for interesting or unique recipes. When this doesn’t work, I just let my mind wander, and try to come up with something original. This recipe was one of the second instances. I wanted to cook something new and was looking at the contents of my pantry when I saw a bag of cinnamon chips. After a few of the strange connections my mind always makes, I settled on the idea of Cinnamon Raisin oatmeal cookies. Realizing I didn’t have a recipe for oatmeal cookies in my repertoire, I asked my mom for one she uses, tweaked it a bit, and ended up with this recipe.

Red Wine New Potatoes

6 new potatoes, cubed
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 ½ tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
¾ tsp dry tarragon
2 ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cup dry red wine (NOT cooking wine)
Salt and pepper to taste
Aluminum foil

Put all the ingredients in a foil packet. Double the foil over if it’s not heavy duty. Put packet on a medium-hot grill for 20-30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Open up packet (be careful not to burn yourself on the foil) and serve. Delicious side that is dead simple to make.

Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
3 cups quick oats, uncooked
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup raisins
1 cup cinnamon chips

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Beat butter, shortening, sugar, egg, milk and vanilla at medium until well blended.
3. Combine oats, flour, salt, baking soda, cloves and allspice. Beat into butter/shortening mix until smooth. Stir in raisins and cinnamon chips.
4. Cook for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Let cookies remain on cookie sheet for five minutes, then remove to wiring rack to complete cooling.
5. Enjoy!

Now you have a dessert and a great side. Pair these with something like a good steak and some asparagus, or grilled chicken and broccoli (which is what I did this past Saturday), and you should have a simple, tasty meal that you can be proud of.

Some questions, or answers, about me

A lot of people have asked me over the years how I learned to cook. That’s an easy one. I learned how to cook from my mom. She had a very specific list of things that she wanted all of us kids to know how to do before we left the house for college. The basics of cooking, laundry, how to drive a stick shift, etc. Just basic things that every adult should know (and based on what I saw in college, most kids didn’t). So before I moved out, she taught me to cook, and I still learn something new from her at least once or twice a year during holidays, and will call her up to ask questions about cooking something or discuss my ideas on a recipe. Since that time I have put a lot of effort into learning more on my own, whether from books, the Internet, or other friends, but I wouldn’t be able to do that nearly as well without being able to build on what my mom taught me first. So thanks Mom! Mom’s teaching their kids how to cook is something of a lost art in our country, and I’m definitely lucky to have a mother who still thinks it is important.

Another question I often get is whether I went to culinary school or worked in a restaurant/bakery/whatever. The answer to both of these is no, unless you count a couple of months working the register at a fast food restaurant back in high school. I’ve thought about culinary school more than once, but I’ve been working in the Information Technology field since I was in high school, and I’m not sure I could afford to make a career change now. More importantly though, I’m not sure I’d want to. I worry that if I went to culinary school or started working in a restaurant, I’d change food from a hobby, or even passion, into just a job. Cooking, and sharing the results with friends and family, is rewarding for me. If it devolved into just a job, or worse, a job I hated, I think that’d be a big loss in my life.

So that all being said, some of you are probably wondering what exactly qualifies me to write a food blog in the first place. I think that’s a reasonable question, and the answer that keeps coming to me is that I’m not. Rather, I’m not someone you should look up to as some kind of food expert, who has all the knowledge you’d ever need in a kitchen. I’ll leave that to Alton. What I do have, and offer to my readers, is a real love of food. Where it comes from, how to cook it, and how to make it your own. Along with the love of food, I have a passion for sharing my food, and what I learn about it along the way, with everyone out there. So am I a food expert? Not at all. I’m just someone who loves food and wants to share that love with everyone else. I hope that’s enough of a resume to convince you to keep exploring food with me here.

Mom's Taco Salad

Most of us had some particular meal we loved growing up, and it likely still brings a smile to your face when you have it even now. Whether it is tied to a specific event, like the blueberry muffins my mom used to make for my birthday every year, or just a general feeling of comfort and a simpler time, we all have these dishes that will always be inexorably tied with part of our past.
One of these dishes for me is my mom’s taco salad. I’ve always loved this dish growing up, and I still do. It is also very easy to make, so I often give it to people who don’t cook much, but want good recipe. Another great part about this recipe is that it is very versatile, and you can easily make it your own. Prefer chicken tacos to beef? Grill some chicken breast and cut it into bite-size pieces, then use in place of the ground beef. Want the recipe a bit spicier? Add some cayenne pepper to the meat with the taco seasoning, or slice a jalapeno into the salad. Like guacamole? Make the recipe as directed, then when you serve it, put a dollop of guacamole on top of each plate. The only limits here are your own creativity.

Mom's Taco Salad

1 lb ground beef
1/2 to 1/4 head of lettuce - chopped
1 large, or 2 small tomatoes , chopped
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can sliced black olives, drained
8 oz grated cheddar cheese
1/2 regular sized taco chips, broken up
French dressing to taste
optional: chopped red onion, amount to taste

Brown one lb. of lean ground beef or turkey. Put it into a colander and rinse with very hot water to get rid of the fat. Put it back in the pan and cook it with one package of taco seasoning mix, following the directions on the package.
Combine the meat mixture with the remaining ingredients

Frozen Peanut Butter Banana Pie

This recipe is one that I came up with earlier this week, and is actually a good example of two different concepts in making up your own recipes. A friend posted a recipe for Peanut Butter Pie on a site we both frequent. As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew two things: I wanted to eat it, and I was going to have to try some variations. Now don’t get me wrong, the original recipe sounded great. That’s why I wanted to try it. But just something in way my brain works is that I always like to see if I can come up with ways to change or improve things. So, I came up with three different variations within about 5 minutes, and decided I needed to go to grocery store and see what ingredients I could find (specifically, different types of crusts), and decide which variation to make based on this. This is how I ended up with the Peanut butter banana variation.

Now, when I made this recipe the first time, I made a mistake. I did not boil the filling long enough, so it did not set properly in the fridge, as it is supposed to. It was still too soft even after cooling overnight. I decided to put it in the freezer, just so I could get the filling to harden and get a better picture for this blog. To my surprise, once I pulled it out and ate a piece of it frozen, I realized it tasted even better this way. The change in the texture from the freezing actually improved the pie. So even when a recipe doesn’t come out as you expect, don’t get upset, you may be happy with the results.

Enough introduction, now on to the recipe:

Frozen Peanut Butter Banana Pie

8" premade graham cracker pie crust
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
dash salt
2 cups milk
1 stick butter (8 tbsp)
2 heaping tbsp creamy peanut butter
1 banana

Cut the banana into thin slices, approximately 1/8" thick, and lay a single layer in crust. Put back in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Melt butter; add sugar and cornstarch and salt, then stir in peanut butter. Stir in milk, slowly; bring to boil, boil approximately 50 seconds, stirring constantly. Pour into prebaked pie shell; freeze

As you can see, this recipe doesn't require much more skill than boiling water. So get out there, make the pie, and enjoy!

The Process of Creation

People often ask me where I come up with my recipes. There’s no one, simple answer to this question, as every recipe tells a story, and every story is unique. I can give some general categories of where creative inspiration has come from in the past though, and will do that here.

Ingredients
A lot of my recipe creations are prompted by a specific ingredient. For instance, I might see some random ingredient on a website or in a store, such as the cappuccino chips in the previous recipe. I bought these on a whim, and then had to come up with a recipe to use them. I looked around on various sites, but I couldn’t find anything that was quite right. Some were close though, so I took ideas from a couple recipes, put them all together, and came up with Chocolate Coffee overdose.

Flavor Combinations
Sometimes I want to create a new recipe to take advantage of flavor combinations that I know work. Certain flavors just go well together, and we see them combined time and time again. Rosemary and thyme, chocolate and raspberry, turkey and cranberry, onion and garlic, just to name a few. One of my particular favorites is orange and cinnamon. I used to get orange cinnamon rolls, and just loved them. So a couple months ago, I decided to come up with a cookie recipe based on this flavor profile. Having cinnamon chips and orange extract in my pantry, I modified a recipe I found online, and created my orange cinnamon cookies, which are one of my favorite cookies ever.

Special Needs
Sometimes I create or find a recipe based on specific needs. For instance, one relative is lactose intolerant, so I try to consider this when I’m making up recipes. Two people I cook for regularly are pescatarians, meaning they don’t eat meat, except fish. Special requirements like these can cause me to alter a recipe to make sure that the people eating my food are happy.

Whatever the particular reason is that I created a recipe, there’s one binding thread through it all. I enjoy the process of the creation itself. Being able to serve a dish that was a product of my own mind, and having friends and loved ones enjoy the food, that’s always the driving force behind creating new recipes. Because that’s what food is about to me. Sustenance is almost just a side effect. Feeding the soul, giving pleasure, that’s what cooking is about.

First Recipe!

I figured that the first recipe I post here should be something of my own. So I went with the recipe that has gotten the most positive feedback. This is definitely not one for diets though. Or kids. :) Too much sugar and caffeine in this one.

Chocolate Coffee Overdose
2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons instant coffee
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup cappucino chips(available from King Arthur Flour )
10 ounces dark chocolate covered espresso beans
7-8 oz dark chocolate (I used one special dark bar and one dark chocolate bar with espresso)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Assemble dry ingredients: In a medium bowl whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, coffee powder and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Assemble the wet ingredients: In a big bowl or with an electric mixer beat the butter until it is fluffy and lightens a bit in color. Now beat in the sugar - it should have a thick frosting-like consistency. Mix in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first egg gets incorporated before adding the next. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice as well. Add the vanilla and mix until it is incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients: Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix in about four waves. Stir a bit between each addition until the flour is just incorporated. You could add all the flour at once, but it tends to explode up and out of the mixing bowl and all over me every time I do that. At this point you should have a moist, brown dough that is uniform in color. Stir in the espresso beans and chocolate chips by hand and mix only until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Drop the cookies onto baking sheets: I like to make these cookies medium in size (they are rich!) - and use roughly one heaping tablespoons of dough for each one. I leave the dough balls rough and raggy looking - I never roll them into perfect balls or anything like that - this way each cookie will have a bit of unique personality.

Place the cookies in the oven: Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes on the middle rack. You don't want to over bake these cookies at all or they will really dry out. If anything, under bake them just a bit. When they are done, pull them out to cool.

After cookies cool: melt the chocolate on low heat, and then drizzle/smear it over the cooled cookies. With this, if you put chocolate in saucepan on stove while cookies are cooking, will often start melting from heat coming off the oven. Just gets things going a little faster, while saving on energy costs.

Welcome!

So, certain people have been telling me for a while that I should write a blog, whether it be for my recipes, my general comments on food, whatever. I've been struggling for a hook to hang it on though. I don't cook all my meals for one person (though I do sometimes), I don't stick to a particular region, I don't specialize in any particular dietary requirements, nothing. Then I decided that there were two unifying elements that I was missing, both painfully simple. First of them, is me. My writing involves MY experiences. Whether I'm cooking, eating, canning, whatever. The second unifying element is, of course, the food itself. Hence, Joel's Food is born. This blog is here to try to share my experiences in restaurants, grocery stores, farmer's markets, and the obvious place, my kitchen. I hope that at one time or another, I can introduce everyone who happens onto this page to a new recipe, a new regional cuisine, a new ingredient or a new restaurant.

Be warned though, while I cook a lot of healthy food, this blog can definitely be damaging to your diet. Particularly with my interest in baking and creating new cookie recipes.