Fried grit cakes are the star of the plate here. Take some cold grits cooked the day before. Put them in a mixing bowl with a couple of eggs. Mix it into a gloopy substance. Add in spices of choice. For me, it’s salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and a bit of cayenne.
Heat up an iron skillet with neutral oil. Take a large spoon and plop the grit/egg mixture in like pancakes or hushpuppies. If the oil is hot they’ll start to cook quickly and stay in little patty formation. Beware the popping! I use a screen over top of the skillet but you’ll still get popped with hot exploding grits when checking or flipping them.
Fry to golden brown. Serve and enjoy.
We also had a bit of maple sausage patty, home fries with sauteed onion and cheese, and scrambled egg. But honestly, you could toss those and just give me the grit cakes.
I put leftover bits of smoked chuck roast on the leftover grit cakes, topped with sauteed onions, cheese, avocado, cilantro, lime, and crema. So I guess it’s a makeshift tostada of sorts. Pretty good actually!
Thanks! It was pretty good. Nothing amazing. But I’m trying to be smarter about using up leftovers in creative ways.
Our freezer is overflowing with all sorts of leftover ingredients (like the smoked chuck roast). It’s kind of a fun challenge to improvise dishes and clear some space in there for the inevitable new leftovers, haha.
I mean, I don’t even have space in there for ice cream! That just makes me sad.
We have gotten smart the last couple years and have a “freezer document” printed out and attached on front of the fridge with a magnet. Each line has item, notes, quantity, date. We update and print out a fresh copy every few months.
But I still routinely find stuff in there we forgot to write on the document. Just this week, for example - “Holy shit, we still have gumbo in here?”, “Whoa, I just found some lamb chops! Fire up the grill!”
Now I’m curious if any fellow food nerds have a system for keeping leftovers (or even just frozen raw meat and fish) circulating regularly. We tend to just grab fresh at the grocery store. Any ideas would be appreciated. I hate food waste. Big pet peeve.
I guess the obvious answer is better meal planning.
Speaking of leftover disposal, it reminds me of a family tradition. We’d go to the beach every summer and somehow squeeze in all the cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparent, spouses, kids, etc. into one small beach house.
On checkout morning we’d take everything leftover in the fridge and combine it into a giant omelette. Various seafood, meats, cheeses, all sorts of veg, rice, potatoes, whatever. We’d stuff ourselves. Sometimes we got lucky and the omelette was really good - grilled shrimp, cheese, onions, peppers.
And we’d watch our uncle consume vast quantities of milk and ice cream alongside his share of the omelette. And this was before The Gallon Challenge was a thing. I don’t know how he made the drive home without puking.
I guess I was indoctrinated as a child to avoid food waste at all cost.
Make some croquettes/kroket out of your leftovers, an omelet or a burrito too. Friend family was famous for their macaroni croquettes made initially from leftovers from pasta dishes. Get a thick béchamel going on and tada.
Try to eat about half of the main dish, so that there will enough for another full meal. This takes some planning in prep, and it helps if the protein comes in large discrete units (like a duck leg).
Have a smaller amount of leftover as a side dish. It helps if you’re not particular about what goes with what.
Have a meal that consists entirely of bits of leftovers. Now you really can’t be particular. This is maybe easier at lunch, but we do it for dinner as well.
Don’t be too parsimonious. If there is just a couple of bites left and everyone is full, toss it.
It probably helps that there are only two of us, neither fussy.
Late to the party, but finally, inspired by the recent discussion here, I got myself a Dutch Oven. Found it super cheap in a second hand store. It’s from La Cousances, which was bought by Le Creuset in the fifties. So probably 40-50 years old. Was busy cleaning it the last days. Today I did some Pulled Pork as a first try. Absolutely love it - especially the sauce from it
Cooked some chicken legs and potatoes last night and threw it on a very easy sauce called Sauce Jean Vignard. It’s dijon mustard, tomato paste and white wine reduced and then mounted with a little butter and heavy cream. Bright and rich at the same time.
Good on ya for resurrecting that Dutch oven! I find it really cool that people can use these things for decades, for generations even. Our Dutch ovens are fairly new but my wife has a couple of iron skillets from her grandmothers. Pretty interesting to imagine all the meals prepared in these things over the years.
I recommend the book “Sauces” by James Patterson if you’re looking for a decent cookbook.
It’s the fuckin bible.
Loaded with fundamentals and classic technique, though you won’t find a lot of modern shit involving nitrous oxide canisters and foams and whatnot.
Which is not a bad thing, per se…
Building blocks! What it’s all about.
