#leftovers friendly

[sgiandubh]

On popular demand: my foolproof TCND (um nope, not really, just Flemish) ham, beer and mustard savory cake

Because @sop123456778 asked me today if I had, after all, another recipe to share, and before I'll get home to my real kitchen and my real crockery and my scrumptious Torta Caprese I do bake every single Christmas, here goes another domestic gem. This time, I thought a savory recipe will do nicely. And a seasonal one, much loved and immediately devoured in my home.

Variations are endless with this one and even rotisserie chicken can be nicely recycled this way. I chose the Flemish one, because you know, TCND, huh?

You will need: 3 eggs (at room temperature - always!), 3/4 cup (150 grams) flour, 1 sachet (2 ¼ teaspoons) dry yeast, 1/4 cup (50 ml) EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), 1/2 cup (100 ml) full fat milk, 1/4 cup (50 ml) blonde beer (I'd suggest Bud Light, not Miller), 1 cup (100 grams) grated Scottish Cheddar (the stronger, the better, if you want), 1 cup (150 grams) diced smoked ham/jambon/jamón cocido (not Iberico, Serrano, lomo, etc!). Finally, 1 Tablespoon wholegrain mustard -and on this point, I insist: not Colman's and certainly not the yellow American horror. This, if you can, would be perfect:

Preheat the oven at 350 Fahrenheit (180 Celsius).

In a big bowl, whisk the eggs together with the flour and the yeast. Il will cling to your whisk, but don't despair. Add the EVOO, pouring slowly and mixing non stop, then the milk (same way), then the beer (same). You should get a sort of thin, crepe dough consistency, which is perfect. Throw in the grated cheddar, then the ham, then the mustard, mixing well after each batch. Dust with a pinch of salt.

Pour into a rectangular loaf tin (three drops olive oil and then dusted with a bit of flour or a sling of parchment paper would make sure your cake won't stick). Add more grated cheddar on top and be brave and liberal with it. Cheese is life.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown and the proverbial toothpick in the center comes out completely clean. Transfer immediately on a wire, let cool completely, cut and eat and be merry.

It should look like this, more or less:

[lonelyheartscookingclub]

Macaroni or Goulash

When I was a kid we simply called this dish "macaroni", but I think other people know it as goulash (American Goulash). My mom's version was pretty simple and didn't use a lot of spices, and definitely did not have green pepper or tomato. I think my dad would like my version, minus the red pepper flakes.

I made this tonight with a pasta called cavatappi instead of macaroni, because I was feeling fancy. I used ground chicken for the meat. I didn't have any cheese except gruyere, and I only grated some on half the casserole because it's all the cheese I have left in the fridge (except for some parmesan, like I said, I'm fancy!)

Ingredients 2 cups of macaroni 1 pkg of ground meat beef or chicken or ground veggie "meat" 1 tbsp of olive oil 1 medium onion 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 large tomato 1 small green pepper or half a large one 2 cans of Heinz condensed tomato soup (I prefer Heinz) red pepper flakes salt and pepper 1-2 cups of grated cheese like cheddar or mozzarella

Method

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Meanwhile, dice the onion, green pepper, and tomato. Heat up a pan to medium, add the olive oil, and once it's fully heated, add in the onion. Sauté the onion until soft. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes at this point so they can hit the heat. Then add your ground meat or meat alternative on top of the onions and also add the minced garlic. Stir everything up so the meat browns, and add in some salt and pepper. Let the meat cook for a few minutes, then add the green pepper and tomato, stir. Once the meat and veggies are cooked through, taste, adjust seasoning if necessary. Remove the pan from heat.

In a large baking dish or casserole dish, pour in the cooked pasta, the meat mixture, and the two cans of tomato soup. Mix to combine thoroughly and then spread everything out evenly. Add the grated cheese on top. Place the dish into a 350F degree oven and bake until the cheese starts to bubble. 

I love making this; it's the perfect comfort food. Plus it's so easy to make. If all you have is some pasta and a can of tomato soup, you could easily whip up a version of this. 

[lonelyheartscookingclub]

I made some chicken stock the other week and it's still in the fridge. I should have frozen it right away but I didn't. It's in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, and there is a layer of fat on top so it might still be ok. I will need to smell it though. Anyway, assuming it's still ok, I'm wondering what I can do to use it up that isn't soup. I was thinking I could make batches of rice, and then freeze the rice. I've also always wanted to make quinoa to use in salads or in place of rice in burrito bowls. 

Any other ideas? 

[lonelyheartscookingclub]

Low-Fodmap Friendly Lasagna

I'm just starting on the low-fodmap voyage, slowly easing myself into it. I wanted to make something I could freeze and eat for my lunch. I think this turned out pretty well to be honest. Good for a first try to create something low-fodmap friendly. I feel like there were a lot of steps because I was trying to infuse flavour without garlic or onions. If you're not following a low-fodmap diet, then you can make this lasagna as you normally would with a jar of your favourite sauce sauce. 

I would recommend making the sauce one day and assembling the lasagna on another day. Just because I kind of winged it and made a big mess, dirtying a lot of pots and pans. I'm not good at planning but I am a great cook. I think so anyway. :)

Low-Fodmap Friendly Lasagna (makes 8 servings)

1 box of gluten free lasagna noodles (I used Rizopia brand) 1 tbsp of salt 2 tbsp of garlic infused olive oil* 1 pkg of ground turkey 1 pkg of gluten free sausage (I used Cavicchis' Meats 'Regular' sausage) 1 pkg of frozen spinach, with liquid squeezed out 3 green onions, diced (only the green part) 5 roma tomatoes, sliced into strips or diced 2 cans of tomato sauce (I used President's Choice Tomatoes First Original Tomato Sauce, 680ml each) 1 bay leaf oregano nutmeg 1 pinch of asafoetida powder salt and pepper to taste big pkg of mozzarella some cheddar and parmesan

Start by cooking your lasagna noodles in a pot of salted, boiling water. I followed the directions on the box, but they kind of fell apart a bit. I've never been able to get the hang of rice flour pasta. Hopefully yours turn out better than mine. Set those aside once cooked. I got everything else ready while the noodles were cooking. You can preheat the oven to 350F at this point if you want.

Pour the cans of tomato sauce into a pot and let it simmer on low on the back burner. Put in some oregano, bay leaf, pepper, and if you can find it locally or online, asafoetida powder (note that asafoetida isn't always gluten free). Taste the sauce and adjust the spices as necessary. You can add any low-fodmap friendly spices that you have on hand if you like. Once the sauce is heated through and you like how it tastes, scoop a bit of the sauce out with a measuring cup and set it aside.

In a pan over medium heat, add the garlic infused olive oil*. I used sausage patties, but if you're using links, take the sausage out of the casings and crumble it into a frying pan. If you're frying pan is big, you can add the turkey too and brown it at the same time. My pan is small so I browed the sausage, spooned the sausage onto a plate, then browned the turkey, and added the green onions. I added some frozen spinach to the pan once the meats were browed. Make sure to squeeze the liquid out of the spinach before adding it to the pan, otherwise you'll have to cook off all that extra water. 

Once the meats and spinach are well combined, add some pepper. I didn't end up adding any extra salt because the sausage was salty enough, but you can add salt if you feel it needs it (the tomato sauce had salt in it too). At this point the noodles were cooked, so I took the big pot that I used to cook the noodles and added the meat and the sauce. I put the pot back on low heat and let it simmer, tasting it and adjusting the seasoning. I added the sliced tomatoes. Don't forget to fish the bay leaf out of the sauce. It's a good idea to do that before you combine it with the meat. 

Now you're ready to assemble your lasagna. In a large lasagna pan or baking dish (13" X 9"), take that bit of sauce you had set aside and spread it on the bottom of the dish. Layer noodles, then the meat sauce, cheese. Next, layer more noodles, sauce, cheese. Repeat until you can't cram any more sauce or noodles into the pan. The final layer should be sauce, then cheese. Lots of cheese. I ran out of mozzarella so I used a bit of cheddar and grated some fresh parmesan on too. 

Place the baking dish on a cookie sheet before placing it into the oven, to catch any boil over. I cooked it for 10 minutes or so, with foil over it. Then I took the foil off and let the cheese on top melt some more. Sometimes I like to turn on the broiler and let the cheese get crispy. I was impatient though so I didn't do that this time. 

Very carefully take the pan out of the oven, and let it cool for a few minutes before cutting into it. 

*Garlic Infused Olive Oil I did this in a separate pot, but you could just do this in the pan you plan to cook your meat in. In a small pot, add two tbsp of olive olive, and two smashed cloves of garlic. Saute on low until the garlic starts to turn brown. Pick out the garlic and then use the oil in the pan you plan to cook the meat in. I strained it into a glass bowl, and then added it to the pan. This will infuse the oil with garlic flavour but it's still ok to consume for a low-fodmap diet. 

[lonelyheartscookingclub]

17 Meals That Make Great Leftovers — Recipes from The Kitchn

I would eat most of these. 

[lonelyheartscookingclub]

Here is another recipe from Simply Ming on PBS. This recipe uses leftover Shanghai noodles.

[lonelyheartscookingclub]

I was watching Simple Ming today on PBS. His guest today was Marcus Samuelsson and they were making brunch from leftovers. This was a skillet dish using leftover brisket, ham, potatoes, and other ingredients. It looked really tasty!

[lonelyheartscookingclub]

A cassoulet inspired recipe

I had once seen a chef make cassoulet on a tv show and wanted to make it, but it seemed like a lot of meat and other ingredients, which can be off putting when you don't have a lot of money. So I set out to make something with sausage and beans, and decided I'd try making cassoulet some other time. 

This is a good recipe to make that will be filling and can freeze well. I have never been good about writing down specific amounts when cooking, so if you can cook intuitively, great. If not, then I'll do my best to write a recipe and maybe next time I make it I'll take better notes!

Sausage and Bean Stew Recipe

2 cups of white beans (soak over night) 1 pkg of hot Italian sausage (use as much or as little as you want) 1 medium carrot, diced 1 medium onion, diced 1 stalk of celery, diced 3 gloves of garlic, minced finely 1 can of whole tomatoes (crush by hand) 2 tbsp tomato paste enough cooking water to cover beans 1 tsp red pepper flakes salt and pepper to taste

The great thing about this recipe is that you can really use whatever amounts you have. You can add more onion, carrot or celery. If you have fresh tomatoes, use those. If all you have is crushed tomatoes, use those. But you can easily buy whole canned tomatoes and crush them by hand before putting them in the pot (put them in a bowl and crush with clean hands, or insert kitchen shears right into the can and chop them up). I used some local sausage that came in pre-made patties. You could use links, take the casing off, and crumble that up. 

Method

Soak two cups of white beans overnight, drain, rinse, and set aside. In a big pot over medium heat, brown the sausage with diced onion. Cook until the onions are soft, then add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Add in the carrot and celery, stir and let cook for a few minutes. Add in the beans, tomatoes, tomato paste, and enough water or stock to cover the beans. Simmer on medium-low until beans are soft. I also added some other herbs, green things like oregano and thyme. Add some salt and pepper to taste at the end. 

This turned out really good and would be great with the addition of diced kale. If you don't like spicy things, you could buy mild sausage or use whatever kind of sausage you like. Ground chicken or turkey would be another great substitution, and then you can adjust the spiciness of it according to your taste.