Minxeats' Most Popular Post

This post is the top google search result for "leftover french fry hash browns," and Minxeats' most popular post since it was published in 2012. Who knew so many people had leftover fries that needed to be repurposed? Especially since I see so many of them left uneaten.

We still take ours home, every time, and still enjoy these crispy potatoes with our eggs on the weekend. These days, I don't bother with the onion, and have replaced the regular paprika with smoked paprika. But the charnushka is non-negotiable. 

 

Fast-casual burger joints like Five Guys tend to give customers a plethora of fries, far too many for the two of us to consume at one sitting. Rather than waste food, I save the excess potatoes for a weekend morning and use them for a hash brown-type preparation.

I like my breakfast potatoes crispy, so I'm often disappointed when I order hash browns and receive a big pile of steamed potato with the barest hint of a crust on the top. Leftover french fries always have some extra grease clinging to them, so they fry up crispy without even trying. And then I season the heck out of them with whatever spices strike my fancy on that particular day. My favorite combination of flavors usually includes charnushka, also known as black caraway, nigella, or kalonji, which adds a nice onion-y flavor.

Leftover French Fry Hash Browns

chopped onion (a couple of tablespoons, depending on how many fries you have)
olive oil
salt
leftover french fries
seasonings

Over medium heat, sauté chopped onion in a dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt until translucent. Chop fries into small pieces and add to skillet. Toss well and cover pan. Cook, stirring frequently, until potatoes start to crisp up. Season to taste - I like to use a mixture of regular paprika, onion powder, cayenne, charnushka, and black sesame seeds. And of course salt and pepper to taste.

Continue to cook until most of the potatoes are crispy. Serve with eggs.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Restaurant Leftovers

Don't look too closely at the hands in this AI-generated image that was edited in Photoshop.

The Food & Wine site has a piece on the annoyance some servers feel when customers want to take their uneaten food--which they paid for--home. The whole concept annoyed me enough to write about it. Go read the article and then come back here for my rant.

https://www.foodandwine.com/taking-home-restaurant-leftovers-6404995

My opinion: Suck it up, Buttercup! I just paid good money for this food that I can't possibly finish because: 1) I ordered and consumed an app; 2) your portion sizes are too large; 3) I have a dog who enjoys fancy food; 4) I shouldn't have to give you a reason because I PAID FOR THIS FOOD. ALSO, reason #5 which should really be reason #1: food waste is despicable. People who leave food behind in restaurants are entitled brats. No, I'm not going to mention the "starving children in China" or whatever bullshit our parents attempted to guilt us with when we wouldn't finish our boiled brussels sprouts. I am, however, going to guilt you with the amount of labor and natural resources it took to produce the food you're too good to take home with you. Farmers, laborers, butchers, bakers, food inspectors, distributors, cooks, waitstaff, restaurant inspectors, water, electricity, gasoline, and cooking fuel are used to create even the most basic fast food cheeseburger. Years ago, when I was considered an "influencer" (Instagram's algorithm has reconsidered since then), I was invited to a restaurant opening and had the misfortune to share a booth with a couple other "influencers" I didn't know very well. One of them ordered the most outlandish item on the menu--a deep-fried burger--took a bite for photographs, and left the rest on the plate, uneaten. He didn't take the leftovers. This was years ago and I am still pissed when I think about it. 

(There are a few exceptions to my rule. The first is staying in a hotel room that isn't equipped with a fridge. If it's winter, there's snow on the ground, and the room has a balcony...maybe. Otherwise, it's not safe to keep most leftovers un-refrigerated. Bread, muffins, croissants, and non-dairy-filled pastries are ok. Everything else could eventually fall victim to bacterial growth. I don't need that. Second, if I'm attending some sort of long event immediately after the meal, say going to the theatre or a concert, especially if I'm traveling from restaurant to venue on foot. Finally, if the food was truly bad, or under- or overcooked. In that case, I would have brought it to the attention of my server and the situation should have been remedied by the kitchen. But sometimes that doesn't happen.)

Also, I realize that some people are so inept at cooking that they can't fathom repurposing a leftover cheeseburger. Which is beyond sad. Take the filling out of the bun, pop it in the microwave for 45 seconds, re-bun it, and eat. There are plenty other ways to use leftovers, but that's another post for another day.)

For the servers who whine about having to send out a busboy to pack my leftovers: I am perfectly capable of doing so myself. In fact, I prefer to do it myself. Just give me a small container and I will happily scrape my own plate. And yes, I am going to take any (good) bread that is left because otherwise it will be thrown away. If a restaurant is not throwing it away, and repurposing something that was touched and possibly coughed on by the customer, I'd like to know because I will never set foot in that establishment. (It's good to avoid bread pudding for that very reason.)

I guess now I need to create some posts about reusing leftover restaurant food, huh? For now, please to enjoy the most popular post on Minxeats regarding making hash browns out of french fries.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Dinner: An Improvisation

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on July 1, 2011.

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It's fairly unusual that I don't cook something from scratch on the weekend, but every once in a rare while, I take a break. One recent Saturday, Mr Minx whipped up some spaghetti and meatballs, and on the following day I heated up some leftovers. And when I say "heated up some leftovers," I really mean "created a whole new dish with some pre-cooked items." I like to play with my food, and rather than eating leftover baby back ribs as is, I thought I'd gussy them up a bit.

What I really wanted to make was a banh mi sandwich, but I was too lazy and it was too hot to take a stroll to the grocery store for a baguette. Once I had that stuck in my head though, it was hard to shake. In addition to the pork, I had a bulb of fennel in the fridge, which I thought might make an adequate stand-in for the pickled daikon or radishes I would ordinarily put in a banh mi. Particularly if I used some of the plethora of licorice-y tasting Thai basil that was currently growing on our back porch as garnish. It was starting to sound like a plan.

There was just that bread issue to tackle.

In lieu of bread, I decided to make rice flour crepes. I should have just gone with the flour tortillas we had and called the dish "tacos," because the crepes were a disaster. It took about half the batter before a small crepe was successfully produced, and by that time, I was thoroughly discouraged.

Our dinner was supposed to look like this:

Instead, it looked like this:

I ended up slicing all of the crepes into ribbons and stir frying them with the pork, adding fish sauce, sugar, garlic, lemongrass, Sriracha, and ginger to the pan. The "noodles" were then topped with a handful of pickled fennel, some pickled carrots, plus cilantro, mint, and Thai basil. It was good, but not what I wanted.

If you want to try making rice crepes - or rice crepe noodles, here's a recipe:

1 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Scoop out 1/4 cup at a time onto a hot, greased non-stick skillet over high heat, swirling the pan so the batter forms about a 6" circle. Cook about 30 seconds, then loosen the crepe with the edge of a spatula, flip, and cook the other side for 30 seconds longer. That's easier than it sounds! Warning: make sure not to slip the spatula under the crepe more than half an inch or so, because when you remove the spatula, the crepe will tear. Just ease it around the outermost edge until the crepe is loosened, then work the spatula under the whole thing and flip it.

Stack crepes on a plate as you make them. Cursing optional. Roll around fillings, or if broken, use like noodles. Serves 4.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Pesto Mac

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on July 20, 2012.
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I had leftover roast chicken. I had pesto. I wanted to make something interesting, inspirational. Fabulous at the very least. Something worth blogging about. But my brain just wasn't cooperating. I almost made a risotto, only I didn't have any short-grain rice. I did have a box of cavatappi, that fun spiral pasta that's like a conga line of elbow macaroni, and realized there was plenty of cheese in the fridge, so my lazy brain went there.

Mac and cheese. But with pesto and chicken. Not exactly a life-changing dinner, but it was very good, and rather easy. I used Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac recipe as a guideline, switched up some quantities, and added sauteed onions for more flavor. You could skip the onions to make an even quicker version.

Macaroni with Pesto and Chicken (adapted from Alton Brown's Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese)

1 cup onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound cavatappi
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
2 5-oz cans evaporated milk
6 ounces milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
16 ounces shredded cheese (we like a combination of sharp cheddar, Swiss, and pepper Jack)
3/4 cup pesto (home-made or store-bought)
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn

Cook onion in olive oil over medium heat until very soft and starting to brown around the edges, about 8 minutes. Set aside.

Cook the pasta to al dente, according to package directions. Drain water, return pasta to pot, and add butter.

Whisk together the eggs, milks, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese, the onions, and the pesto. Cook over medium heat until cheese melts and pasta is well coated. Stir in chicken and fresh basil and taste for seasoning, adding additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Dinner: An Improvisation

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on July 1, 2011.

It's fairly unusual that I don't cook something from scratch on the weekend, but every once in a rare while, I take a break. One recent Saturday, Mr Minx whipped up some spaghetti and meatballs, and on the following day I heated up some leftovers. And when I say "heated up some leftovers," I really mean "created a whole new dish with some pre-cooked items." I like to play with my food, and rather than eating leftover baby back ribs as is, I thought I'd gussy them up a bit.

What I really wanted to make was a banh mi sandwich, but I was too lazy and it was too hot to take a stroll to the grocery store for a baguette. Once I had that stuck in my head though, it was hard to shake. In addition to the pork, I had a bulb of fennel in the fridge, which I thought might make an adequate stand-in for the pickled daikon or radishes I would ordinarily put in a banh mi. Particularly if I used some of the plethora of licorice-y tasting Thai basil that was currently growing on our back porch as garnish. It was starting to sound like a plan.

There was just that bread issue to tackle.

In lieu of bread, I decided to make rice flour crepes. I should have just gone with the flour tortillas we had and called the dish "tacos," because the crepes were a disaster. It took about half the batter before a small crepe was successfully produced, and by that time, I was thoroughly discouraged.

Our dinner was supposed to look like this:

Instead, it looked like this:

I ended up slicing all of the crepes into ribbons and stir frying them with the pork, adding fish sauce, sugar, garlic, lemongrass, Sriracha, and ginger to the pan. The "noodles" were then topped with a handful of pickled fennel, some pickled carrots, plus cilantro, mint, and Thai basil. It was good, but not what I wanted.

If you want to try making rice crepes - or rice crepe noodles, here's a recipe:

1 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Scoop out 1/4 cup at a time onto a hot, greased non-stick skillet over high heat, swirling the pan so the batter forms about a 6" circle. Cook about 30 seconds, then loosen the crepe with the edge of a spatula, flip, and cook the other side for 30 seconds longer. That's easier than it sounds! Warning: make sure not to slip the spatula under the crepe more than half an inch or so, because when you remove the spatula, the crepe will tear. Just ease it around the outermost edge until the crepe is loosened, then work the spatula under the whole thing and flip it.

Stack crepes on a plate as you make them. Cursing optional. Roll around fillings, or if broken, use like noodles. Serves 4.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Recycled Pot Roast

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on January 16, 2013.

It was our intention this most recent holiday season to make a Christmas dinner that took the least amount of prep work and little or no attention while cooking. We wanted everything to be easy, yet delicious, so we made a pot roast.

We had purchased a slab of chuck at Wegman's a few months earlier from which came a delicious pot roast, so we went there once again to purchase our meat. We found a 3+ pound roast for about $23 and thought we could do better with the "family pack" bulk roasts down the aisle. Indeed we did - there a two-pack that weighed about 5.5 pounds cost only $21 and change. Curious. Two pounds more meat for two fewer dollars.

After roasting our bargain meat with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and onions, it turned out we didn't need nearly that amount of beef to feed the family. A whole roast went into the fridge, with part of it ending up as cold pot roast sandwiches topped with enough horseradish sauce to make our sinuses hurt. The rest of it - about a pound and a half - went into a luscious, meaty tomato sauce. There was also a bunch of leftover onion gravy (a puree of the meat juices and about 2 cups of the quartered onion that had cooked along with the meat, seasoned with a bit of Worcestershire and herbs) so about a cup of that got added to the sauce pot as well. If you don't have any mild onion gravy leftover from your roast, or your gravy is too strongly "gravy"-flavored, you can omit it and still end up with something that's pretty delicious.

Pot Roast Pasta Sauce

2 cups diced onion
1/2 cup diced carrot
olive oil
salt
1 tablespoon garlic, finely minced
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup vodka
2 32-oz cans crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
1 - 1.5 lbs leftover pot roast, cut into approx 1" x 3" slabs
1 cup leftover pot roast gravy (optional)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
salt and pepper to taste
sugar (optional)

In a large dutch oven over medium heat, cook the onion and carrot in 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil and a big pinch of salt until softened but not browned, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. After a minute or so, pour in the vodka. Turn up the heat a little and cook until the vodka has mostly evaporated, about 5 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes. Add the pot roast, gravy, and oregano. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low. Simmer sauce for 2-4 hours, until pot roast has pretty much disintegrated and the sauce is thick.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the sauce seems a bit acidy and needs balance, add a teaspoon or two of sugar. Serve over your favorite pasta, with a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Makes about 2.5 quarts.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Saffron Rice and Beans

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on December 4, 2012.

Here's another quick weekday recipe from Mr. Minx.

Probably half of the dinners I cook during the week are pieced together from leftovers. One of the things I always hated as a kid was when my mother would serve reheated leftovers in the same form as they were served originally. Nine times out of ten, the meal was a pale imitation of the original, so I always prefer to reinvent the leftovers into some other type of dish. Besides, there's almost never enough food left over to serve exactly the same way. Case in point, a meal I put together the other day.

When I opened the fridge, our leftover inventory consisted of a container of steamed rice, some tomato sauce, and four thin slices of pot roast that Minx had ordered at our favorite diner a few nights earlier. My usual plan when I'm confronted with rice is to do a Chinese-style fried rice dish, but we had eaten Chinese food the night before, so I thought about other cuisines that use rice. That's when paella popped into my head.

Of course, paella is way too complicated, and I didn't have all the ingredients for it anyway, but I thought by adding saffron to the rice, I could build on the paella inspiration. Digging through the pantry, I found a can of black beans and, in the freezer, our usual stash of frozen peas. Rice and beans are a classic, and saffron rice tastes great, so this could actually work. Cooked all together with onions and garlic, the dish was homey and comforting, while having a touch of the exotic thanks to the saffron. I sprinkled the chopped pot roast into the dish for meaty goodness, but the recipe below excludes the pot roast because a) not everyone will have leftover pot roast in the fridge; and b) the recipe works great as a vegetarian dish.

Saffron Rice and Beans

2 cups cooked rice
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of butter
A few strands of saffron bloomed in 1/2 cup of warm water
1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
15 oz. can black beans
4 oz. tomato puree or tomato sauce
1/2 cup frozen petite peas
salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro and scallion for garnish

Place a few strands of saffron in 1/2 cup of water to "bloom," or turn the water into a nice yellow color. While that's going on, open a can of black beans, dump them in a colander, and rinse the starch off under running water. With that prep work done, chop a medium onion and saute it in a pan with olive oil and melted butter. Once the onions are translucent, dump in the cooked rice and mix together. Add your garlic and the saffron water. Mix everything together well so that the rice takes on a yellow color. Add the tomato puree, and then add the black beans and the petite peas. Once everything is incorporated and heated through, season with salt, pepper, and the fresh oregano. Once on the plate, sprinkle some cilantro and chopped scallion on top for garnish.

Making it Work

I have experienced quite a bit of disappointment recently. Our latest book, Maryland's Chesapeake, which took nearly a year to research and write, hasn't yet found an audience. The recent election has me facing the five stages of grief; I fear I will be stuck in the fourth stage - depression - for most of the next few years. Friends and family have let me down. Christmas is right around the corner, and as a childless adult, I wonder why I bother celebrating it at all.

Despite all the shit, life goes on. It must. I cannot allow myself to wallow. After all, there is cheesecake to eat!

The cheesecake in question is itself the result of another recent disappointment. I had tried to recreate Starbucks' Cranberry Bliss Bars at home. They seemed like underbaked blondies with cream cheese frosting and dried cranberries - how difficult could they be? As with many things in life, more difficult than anticipated.

I did consult some other "copycat" recipes on the Internet before proceeding. While some were merely cut-and-paste copies of the same recipe offered without credit to the original author, others had little differences, like adding ginger to the frosting. I decided to go ahead with my own relatively plain concoction, adding dried, juice-sweetened, organic cranberries (which are not the bright red of Starbucks' berries) and white chocolate chips to a straightforward blondie batter (essentially Toll House cookies, without the semi-sweet chips). After 20 minutes in the oven, I realized that underbaked blondies will just be gooey blobs of dough. Baked for the proper amount of time, they'll be too chewy, and crusty on the edges to boot. In any case, I pressed on, making a cream cheese frosting while the bars were baking. It's a simple enough process - just beat a couple cups of powdered sugar into cream cheese and butter and add a touch of vanilla. Voila! - frosting.

Once the bars were cooked and cooled, I topped them with some of the frosting and a sprinkle of cranberries. And then I did a taste test.

They were diabetes in bar form.

The cookies were too sweet, the white chocolate chips were completely unnecessary, and the frosting make them even sweeter. They were a disaster. Disgusted, I scraped the frosting off the bars and into a container with the extra frosting (there was quite a bit left over) and put it in the fridge. The scraped bars were still too sweet, but we managed to finish them off. But lesson learned: never again will I put white chocolate chips into an already sugar-laden bar cookie (unless I am making these).

I wasn't in the mood/didn't have time to make a cake for the cream cheese frosting, which languished in the fridge for an entire week, unloved and getting in the way. However, I did realize that it was just a couple ingredients away from a cheesecake batter. So the following weekend I pulled it out of the fridge, whisked in eggs, more vanilla, a bit of lemon, and some milk. We had blueberries, so I tossed in a handful of those as well. While it was in the oven, I made a little blueberry sauce for the top.

Damn if they weren't just fine. More custardy than cheesy, which is the way I prefer my cheesecake, they were surprisingly not too sweet, considering the source material.

I guess you want a recipe. It's kinda hard to give one, but cheesecake is one of those baked goods that isn't an absolute science, so just make it work, like I did.

Blueberry Cheesecake
I used three 4-inch springform pans and the maximum amount of crust materials. If you want thinner cheesecakes, or just like round numbers, use four pans.

1 to 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
4 to 6 tablespoons salted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups homemade cream cheese frosting
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Pinch salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk
Blueberries
Sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine the crumbs and butter in a bowl until crumbs are well-coated. Press firmly into three or four 4-inch mini springform pans so they cover the bottom and go up the sides a bit. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack.

Put the frosting in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs, vanilla, lemon, a pinch of salt, and enough milk to make a pancake-batter consistency. Toss in a handful of blueberries, if you're so inclined, but they're not absolutely necessary. Spoon batter into pre-baked crusts and bake until puffed and set (they may jiggle a wee bit in the centers, but shouldn't be wet), 30-35 minutes.

Cool cheesecakes on a rack. After about 15 minutes, use a sharp knife to loosen them from the sides of the pan, then gently remove the pan sides.

While cheesecakes are cooling, make the topping. Add a couple handfuls of blueberries to a saucepan with about 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. Add a pinch of salt and some lemon and/or cinnamon, if desired. Cook over medium heat until thickened, 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool before spooning over cooled cheesecakes.

Serves 6.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Fried Rice a la Leftovers

Don't let a little bit of this and a little bit of that ever go to waste - give dregs purpose with a dish like fried rice.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on July 14, 2010.
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Fried Rice a la Leftovers

Looking in the fridge for dinner inspiration, I found a lone bulb of fennel and a ton of carrots and celery. In the freezer, we had about a third pound of shrimp and tiny amounts of peas and green beans. Additionally, there was a whole pack of Chinese sausages, which gave me the idea to make fried rice. There were also a couple of packets of soy sauce and duck sauce from the last time we ordered Chinese food. I combined them with the dregs of a jar of XO sauce and a lot of garlic to make a sauce for the rice. The only thing I needed was the rice itself, so I whipped up a batch in the rice cooker and set it in the fridge to cool for several hours.

Leftovers Fried Rice

Sauce
About 2 tablespoons soy sauce
About 1 tablespoon duck sauce
1 tablespoon XO sauce or Chinese hot bean paste, or to taste
2 cloves garlic, crushed

Rice
3 lap cheong (Chinese sausage), one chopped into small pieces, two halved lengthwise and then cut into 3/4" chunks
1 small onion, diced
salt
2 ribs of celery, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced on the bias
The celery-like parts from a bulb of fennel, peeled, sliced in half, and chopped
3 whole scallions, thinly sliced, both white and green
Approx 1 cup leftover vegetables (cooked or frozen peas, green beans, corn, broccoli, etc.)
Leftover meat (shrimp, cooked chicken, roast beef, etc.)
4 cups cold cooked rice, grains separated
salt and pepper

Mix the sauce ingredients together and set aside.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over high heat. When hot, add the sausage and onions and a nice pinch of salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions begin to brown and the smaller pieces of sausage start to crisp up. (The sausage should provide enough fat to cook the onions. If it seems dry, add a teaspoon or so of vegetable oil to the pan.) Add most of the scallions, the carrots, celery, and fennel, and stir-fry until the carrots start to lose some of their crispness.

Add the leftover vegetables and meats and stir to combine. Turn the heat up to high and add the rice to the pan, making sure to break up any clumps. Pour the sauce over and mix well until most of the rice is coated. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in bowls, garnished with the remaining scallion and cilantro, if you have it. Serves 4 as a main dish and 6-8 as a side.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Loaded Baked Potatoes

Your idea of a loaded baked potato might be entirely different than mine. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee it. Bacon and cheese, while tasty, is just so done, you know?

A potato is a blank canvas that can accept pretty much any combination of toppings. And it's a great way to use up dribs and drabs of things that are leftover from other meals. Like those random sausage links, half dozen shrimp, and that wee bit of corn (or peas) that are cluttering up the freezer. Make room for another half gallon (actually 3.5 quarts) of ice cream by getting rid of those plastic bags of tidbits and putting them to use in a tasty and filling dinner. You still want to add bacon and shredded cheese on top? Fine. Anything goes, really, except maybe leftover mac and cheese or risotto, unless, of course, you really really like carbs.

Loaded Baked Potatoes a la Minx

2 Russet potatoes
Oil
1/2 medium onion, sliced
(2) 3-4 ounce links of your favorite raw pork sausage (Italian, chorizo), removed from casings
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Honey, to taste
1/2 cup corn kernels
6 medium shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped
Salt, pepper, and hot sauce, to taste
3 tablespoons sour cream
Adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Scrub the potatoes and rub them with a little vegetable oil. Place them directly on the oven grates and bake for one hour, until tender.

While the potatoes are baking, add a little oil to a skillet and cook the onion and sausage over medium heat. Break up the sausage into small chunks as you're cooking it. When the sausage pieces are well-browned, stir in the garlic and cook for an additional minute or two. Then add the vinegar and honey. Stir in the corn and the shrimp and cook until the shrimp are opaque. Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. The mixture is going over a bland baked potato, so it should be strongly flavored.

Stir a little adobo sauce into the sour cream to give it a little flavor, if you wish.

When potatoes are done, cut an X into the tops of each and smush the potato a bit by holding the outside edges in both hands and pushing toward the center. (This breaks up the potato flesh.) Top with some of the sausage filling and a dollop of sour cream.

Eat with knife and fork. You may have extra filling, which will be tasty on a salad for lunch the next day.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Mushroom Bolognese

I feel like we ate really poorly during the holidays and well into 2016. Far too much meat and pastry, not nearly enough vegetables and whole grains. So I succumbed to the lure of a box of produce from Washington's Green Grocer, which was delivered on the same day that we happened to go grocery shopping. We ended up with a pound and a half of crimini mushrooms as a result (a bunch of other stuff, too).

Mushroom soup was almost an option, but I felt Mr Minx would be more satisfied by a pasta dish. Why not mince the mushrooms and use them as a meat substitute? So I put together a pretty delicious (if I do say so myself) vegetarian bolognese, using up a pound of the mushrooms in the process. I wanted to really up the umami factor, so we wouldn't miss the meat. Adding soy sauce and black garlic helped with that, and a bit of leftover ricotta (from our Christmas day lasagna) added a bit more richness to the sauce. One could leave out the ricotta and the Parm garnish and have a really nice vegan sauce, but I liked the cheesy additions.

Mushroom Bolognese

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, finely chopped
Salt
1 lb crimini mushrooms, washed, wiped, and finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 cloves black garlic, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 can tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1 32-oz can whole peeled tomatoes
1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese
Pinch dried thyme
Pinch dried oregano
Pinch dried rosemary
Pinch red pepper flakes
Pinch smoked paprika
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
Parm for serving

Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes over medium high heat, until softened. Add the mushrooms, carrots, and celery. Cover the pan and sweat the mushrooms until they release all their liquid. After about 5 minutes, uncover the pan and turn the heat up to high to burn off any additional liquid.

Reduce the temperature to medium. Add the other tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and stir the vegetables well to coat. Fry for about 2 minutes, then add the garlics and fry an additional minute. Stir in the soy and the tomato paste. Continue to cook the tomato paste veg mixture until the paste darkens, about 2 minutes. Add the wine and stir well. Cook until the liquid is mostly evaporated, stirring regularly; it should take only a minute or so.

Chop the tomatoes into smaller pieces by running a knife through them while still in the can. Dump the tomatoes and their juice into the frying pan and stir well. Turn heat down to low and simmer sauce for 1 hour. Check periodically to see if there's enough liquid in the pan; if not, add a bit of water. The sauce should be thick, but not dry.

Stir in the ricotta cheese. Season with the herbs. I don't like a particularly herby sauce, unless it's fresh basil, and our garden is pretty dead right now. Add more than a pinch of the herbs, if you'd like. The smoked paprika just makes it taste a little more meaty, and the parsley adds a bit of brightness.

Serve with pasta of your choice, sprinkled with Parm to finish.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pasta Frittata with Roasted Vegetables

Sometimes simple is best.

There are times that I beat myself up over what to make for dinner on the weekends. Should I make something interesting or fancy? Something I've never made before? Something blog-worthy? Needless to say, everything we concoct in our kitchen is not blog-worthy, but we do try. And while I'm usually tinkering with a new recipe at some point during the week, there are plenty of times when I just do not want to think about it. I want to open the fridge and have something jump out at me, screaming, "I AM DINNER!" That never happens, of course, and damn good thing--screaming food would be pretty scary.

See? Scary.

But there was that bag of leftover spaghetti. Definitely not enough for two servings, and not quite enough for one serving (well, one serving for me, ok, but not one serving for Mr Minx). We also had a nearly-full carton of eggs. Didn't I just read something on Facebook about pasta frittatas? Why yes, yes I did. A giant omelette- or quiche-type thing with pasta in it...why the hell not?

I found a recipe by Gabrielle Corcos, hubby of actress Debi Mazar, and her co-star on the show Extra Virgin. It was easy peasy, and included only 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Other recipes I found called for half a cup...holy moly, that's a lot of money cheese! I decided to use Corcos' recipe as a base, and would add some veggies to it, onions and garlic, maybe green beans, corn, and tomatoes, since those were left from the CSA box. I roasted the green beans and tomatoes with a bit of oil and salt (balsamic vinegar and brown sugar on the tomatoes, too), then changed my mind. The corn went in though, as did onions, garlic, and freshly snipped chives and basil from the garden.

Did I mention that this was my first-ever frittata? Look how pretty it was! Even if the spaghetti does kinda resemble worms....

We also ate those roasted beans and tomatoes, after tossing them together and letting them come to room temperature. Definitely a filling vegetarian meal that didn't miss the meat.

Pasta Frittata, adapted from a recipe by Gabriele Corcos and Debi Mazar

3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Kernels from 1 ear of corn
Small handful of basil, julienned
1 tablespoon minced chives
2 cups leftover cooked spaghetti, roughly chopped
5 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your broiler.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 10-inch nonstick saute pan over medium heat. Cook the onion until lightly browned, add the garlic, corn, and pasta and stir until warmed through, 2 to 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs with the milk in a large bowl. Add the Parmesan and season with salt and pepper.

Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pan of veg and pasta. Pour the egg mixture over. Cover pan and cook until the edges of the frittata start to brown and the center is only slightly runny, about 12 minutes. Transfer pan to the broiler and cook until the center is set and top is nicely browned.

To serve, slide the frittata onto a cutting board and slice into wedges.

Serves 4.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Avgolemono Soup

When I made that Greek-ish pasta dish the other day, I ended up with far too much for two people. That means leftovers, and while we do appreciate not having to cook on some random weeknight, I I am not particularly fond of eating rewarmed pasta that already has a sauce on it. After a few hours in the fridge, the pasta has sucked up whatever moisture there might have been in the dish to begin with, and if there's no extra sauce in a separate container, it's just too dry for me. But since this particular pasta dish had some lemon in it, and certainly a lot of other flavors that work harmoniously with lemon, I thought dumping the leftovers into some avgolemono soup might provide the necessary moisture.

Avgolemono (Greek for egg-lemon) can be a soup or a sauce, usually made with eggs and lemon juice, heated with stock until thick. It's pretty easy stuff, one just has to watch not to add too much hot broth to the eggs all at once so as not to curdle them. At that point though, it's egg drop soup and not necessarily a bad thing. There's usually some rice or orzo in a classic avgolemono soup, so if you don't have leftover pasta, then add about 1/3 cup of raw rice or orzo to the chicken stock and boil it for about 10-12 minutes, until the grain is done but not mushy, before adding the egg and lemon.

Avgolemono Soup

6 cups chicken stock
2 cups leftover Greek-ish pasta
4 eggs
1/3 cup lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer. While stock is simmering, warm the leftover pasta.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Whisk in the lemon juice.

Slowly pour 2 cups of hot chicken stock into the eggs, whisking constantly. When combined, slowly add the egg mixture to the pot of simmering stock.

Immediately remove stock from heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Portion the warmed pasta into large serving bowls and ladle soup over top.



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Recycled Pot Roast

It was our intention this most recent holiday season to make a Christmas dinner that took the least amount of prep work and little or no attention while cooking. We wanted everything to be easy, yet delicious, so we made a pot roast.

We had purchased a slab of chuck at Wegman's a few months earlier from which came a delicious pot roast, so we went there once again to purchase our meat. We found a 3+ pound roast for about $23 and thought we could do better with the "family pack" bulk roasts down the aisle. Indeed we did - there a two-pack that weighed about 5.5 pounds cost only $21 and change. Curious. Two pounds more meat for two fewer dollars.

After roasting our bargain meat with potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and onions, it turned out we didn't need nearly that amount of beef to feed the family. A whole roast went into the fridge, with part of it ending up as cold pot roast sandwiches topped with enough horseradish sauce to make our sinuses hurt. The rest of it - about a pound and a half - went into a luscious, meaty tomato sauce. There was also a bunch of leftover onion gravy (a puree of the meat juices and about 2 cups of the quartered onion that had cooked along with the meat, seasoned with a bit of Worcestershire and herbs) so about a cup of that got added to the sauce pot as well. If you don't have any mild onion gravy leftover from your roast, or your gravy is too strongly "gravy"-flavored, you can omit it and still end up with something that's pretty delicious.

Pot Roast Pasta Sauce

2 cups diced onion
1/2 cup diced carrot
olive oil
salt
1 tablespoon garlic, finely minced
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup vodka
2 32-oz cans crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
1 - 1.5 lbs leftover pot roast, cut into approx 1" x 3" slabs
1 cup leftover pot roast gravy (optional)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
salt and pepper to taste
sugar (optional)

In a large dutch oven over medium heat, cook the onion and carrot in 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil and a big pinch of salt until softened but not browned, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. After a minute or so, pour in the vodka. Turn up the heat a little and cook until the vodka has mostly evaporated, about 5 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes. Add the pot roast, gravy, and oregano. Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low. Simmer sauce for 2-4 hours, until pot roast has pretty much disintegrated and the sauce is thick.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. If the sauce seems a bit acidy and needs balance, add a teaspoon or two of sugar. Serve over your favorite pasta, with a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Makes about 2.5 quarts.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Safffron Rice and Beans

Here's another quick weekday recipe from Mr. Minx.

Probably half of the dinners I cook during the week are pieced together from leftovers. One of the things I always hated as a kid was when my mother would serve reheated leftovers in the same form as they were served originally. Nine times out of ten, the meal was a pale imitation of the original, so I always prefer to reinvent the leftovers into some other type of dish. Besides, there's almost never enough food left over to serve exactly the same way. Case in point, a meal I put together the other day.

When I opened the fridge, our leftover inventory consisted of a container of steamed rice, some tomato sauce, and four thin slices of pot roast that Minx had ordered at our favorite diner a few nights earlier. My usual plan when I'm confronted with rice is to do a Chinese-style fried rice dish, but we had eaten Chinese food the night before, so I thought about other cuisines that use rice. That's when paella popped into my head.

Of course, paella is way too complicated, and I didn't have all the ingredients for it anyway, but I thought by adding saffron to the rice, I could build on the paella inspiration. Digging through the pantry, I found a can of black beans and, in the freezer, our usual stash of frozen peas. Rice and beans are a classic, and saffron rice tastes great, so this could actually work. Cooked all together with onions and garlic, the dish was homey and comforting, while having a touch of the exotic thanks to the saffron. I sprinkled the chopped pot roast into the dish for meaty goodness, but the recipe below excludes the pot roast because a) not everyone will have leftover pot roast in the fridge; and b) the recipe works great as a vegetarian dish.

Saffron Rice and Beans

2 cups cooked rice
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of butter
a few strands of saffron bloomed in 1/2 cup of warm water
1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped
15 oz. can black beans
4 oz. tomato puree or tomato sauce
1/2 cup frozen petite peas
salt and pepper to taste
cilantro and scallion for garnish

Place a few strands of saffron in 1/2 cup of water to "bloom," or turn the water into a nice yellow color. While that's going on, open a can of black beans, dump them in a colander, and rinse the starch off under running water. With that prep work done, chop a medium onion and saute it in a pan with olive oil and melted butter. Once the onions are translucent, dump in the cooked rice and mix together. Add your garlic and the saffron water. Mix everything together well so that the rice takes on a yellow color. Add the tomato puree, and then add the black beans and the petite peas. Once everything is incorporated and heated through, season with salt, pepper, and the fresh oregano. Once on the plate, sprinkle some cilantro and chopped scallion on top for garnish.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pulled Chicken with Cranberry BBQ Sauce

Sometimes I look in the fridge and think, "what am I going to do with all of this random stuff?" While it seemed pretty empty around the holidays, during some point in January, the fridge suffered from a glut of various half-full jars and plastic containers. Add to that a bunch of fresh vegetables because I was starting to feel guilty about eating so poorly in the weeks between Thanksgiving and mid-January. Among other things, we purchased a celery root so I could make one of my new favorite salads, celeri remoulade. I'm not a big fan of celery, but I loooove celeriac. Love it. But woman (and certainly not the man in this house) can't live on celery root alone, so I had to think of something more substantial to eat it with. Luckily, one of the myriad containers held about half of a rotisserie chicken. Another container held about half a cup of cranberry sauce left over from the fruitcake I made for my dad. Yes, I realize that I made that cake a month prior, but the sauce was still fine (acidy things tend to keep well under refrigeration). That became the starting point for a barbecue sauce.

Where am I going with all of this? Why, it's a riff on a classic pulled pork sandwich with cole slaw. Only it's pulled chicken with celeri remoulade. And it was quite delicious, if I do say so myself.

If you don't like celeriac, feel free to substitute your favorite cole slaw.

Pulled Chicken with Cranberry BBQ Sauce

1/2 cup onion, chopped
olive oil
salt
1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1/2 cup, packed, brown sugar
1 teaspoon Sriracha (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
3 cups cooked chicken, roughly chopped
salt and pepper

In a saucepan, cook onion in a dribble of olive oil and a pinch of salt until soft and translucent. Add next 10 ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cook 5 minutes. Add chicken and stir well to coat with sauce. Cook for 15-20 minutes until warmed through. Serve on potato rolls with celeri remoulade.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Potato Soup

I seldom follow recipes as I cook. Most of the time I see what I have in the fridge and pantry and throw something together. This could involve home-made leftovers, canned goods, frozen food, or the doggie bag from Saturday's dinner out. If I'm lucky, the resulting dish turns out well and I can call it dinner.

Once recent evening I did my usual fridge inventory and discovered a container of mashed potatoes. I've never been a huge fan of leftover potatoes - I think they taste funny. Stale. So if I have to eat them, I like to disguise them with lots of flavors. I poked around some more and found three cans of hominy in the cupboard. Three. I suppose I had forgotten that we had some and bought more. And more still. So I had hominy and potatoes. Because my mind works in mysterious ways, I immediately thought of soup. Because it was 62 degrees outside and it's always fun to eat hot soup when it's warm outside. Like I said - mysterious.

We had fresh tarragon and thyme in the house. Despite my not particularly liking thyme, I had bought a live plant to use in a recipe I was testing with my new Sous Vide Supreme (more on that eventually) and it's been growing nicely in the dining room window. The tarragon was a back-up herb, in case the thyme died before I had a chance to use it.

Once I tasted my soup creation - if you're following, that would be potatoes, hominy, tarragon, and thyme so far - I dumped in some smoked paprika, too. Why the hell not? And to add protein (cuz Mr Minx needs his protein), I utilized one of the several packages of chicken sausage that occupied the freezer.

Sounds really weird, the resulting dish was also really good. Even if it was too warm to eat soup.

Mashed Potato and Other Stuff Soup

1 onion, thinly sliced
olive oil
pinch salt
2 cups mashed potatoes
1 can yellow hominy
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 tablespoons flour
1 quart chicken stock
1 pack chicken sausage in your favorite flavor (we like spinach and feta), cut into chunks
salt and pepper

In a soup pot or dutch oven, cook onion in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a pinch of salt over medium heat until translucent. Stir in potatoes, hominy, and seasonings. Sprinkle on flour and stir into potato mixture. Pour in stock, turn up the heat, and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

While soup is cooking, sauté sausage chunks in a bit of olive oil until browned on all sides.

Serve soup in large bowls with a handful of sausage stirred in.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday 10.14.2011

This post is from August 21st, 2008

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Doggie Bags

After reading Elizabeth Large's blog post about doggie bags today, I thought I'd make my own post on the subject.

I don't understand why some people are embarrassed to take their leftovers home. Why? They are paid for and would otherwise be thrown away. I think that's very wasteful.

Now, if all you leave behind is three french fries and some discarded iceberg lettuce from your burger, ok. But if you have a pile of fries left - take them home! They make great home fries. I chop them up and put them in a sauté pan with some chopped onion. The fries are greasy, so there's really no need to add additional oil. I add spices (cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, nigella seeds) and sometimes sesame seeds, and cook on low heat until everything gets dark and crispy. Much better than the usually-lousy hash browns one gets in a restaurant (or "hash whites" as my Dad referred to them after a recent Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's).

There's always extra Chinese food to be brought home, particularly when we order enough to feed an army. We've even brought home extra dim sum dumplings. After a couple of days in the fridge, everything gets plopped into the same pan to create a new dish - General Tso's Hunan lamb, perhaps - and our rice cooker is employed for the starch.

A trip to the diner offers lots of leftover possibilities. After one eats the salad or soup and two veg, how is there room for that strip steak and the stuffed shrimp? There isn't, so the protein often ends up in a styrofoam box, to be turned into a salad topping or pasta sauce ingredient later in the week.

I think the biggest leftover haul I was ever responsible for happened in Orlando, after dinner at Emeril's. I wanted to try *everything* on that menu - appetizer, soup, salad, entree, AND dessert. (Once upon a time, I was a HUGE Emeril fan, but that's a whole other story.) So my friend LaRaine and I did. This was 9 years ago now, but I do remember us ordering the calamari with olive salad and one other appetizer, the three nut-crusted goat cheese salad with Andouille sausage dressing, the tomato stacked salad, a bowl each of turtle soup and gumbo, the "study of duck" that had foie gras, duck breast, and confit, and half a roast chicken with southern cooked greens. We ate the salads and soups and a couple of bites of the appetizers and entrees and took the rest to our condo. One day we warmed up some food for lunch, and another day had the leftovers for dinner. I put the confit in the freezer to take to my then-fiancé, Mr Minx, who I know loved duck and had never tasted confit. We packed it in a cooler full of ice for the two-day drive home, and I'm happy to say it survived the trip and another few days in our home freezer before I could get it to my sweetie.

So what do you do with your leftover restaurant food?

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Leftover Flank Steak

Marinated and broiled flank steak is a versatile leftover. Rarely will I rewarm it and serve it in its original form; more likely, it will end up in pasta sauce, on pizza, or in tacos. We had a small piece of steak left over from last week's Korean-esque sandwiches and I decided to use it in sandwiches once again, this time changing up the bread and other fillings.

Lightly toasted flatbread formed the base, with sautéed mushrooms supporting the small bit of meat. A chopped pineapple relish, herb salad, and spicy mayonnaise added sweet and savory elements.

Leftover Flank Steak Sandwiches

Pineapple Relish
1 cup diced pineapple
1 tablespoon finely minced scallion
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper flakes, or ancho chile powder
1 teaspoon agave syrup or honey
pinch each salt and pepper

Spicy Mayo
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha
2 Peppadew peppers, finely chopped

Mushrooms
olive oil
about 2 cups sliced mushrooms
3 scallions, cut in about 1" pieces
pinch salt

Assorted chopped herbs - basil, cilantro, mint
1/2 - 3/4 lb leftover flank steak, sliced thinly
2 flatbreads

To make Pineapple relish: mix all ingredients in a bowl, set aside
To make spicy mayo: ditto
To make mushrooms: heat a bit of olive oil in a saute pan and cook mushrooms and scallions until mushrooms release their juices and begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Salt to taste and set aside.
To assemble sandwich: lightly toast flatbreads. Cut in half. Spread insides with mayo. Top with mushrooms, steak, relish, and herbs. Cover with other half of bread and eat like a sandwich. Alternately, you can put toppings on both halves and eat open-faced.

Serves 2.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Porky Pasta

I love David Lieberman's recipe for beer-braised pork butt - it produces a large amount of juicy, flavorful pork with very little effort. Not only that, but also about a quart of extremely rich pork stock that is definitely worth skimming and saving.

Leftover pork + stock makes for a decadent pasta sauce. We threw some together with various bits of leftover vegetables to serve with the Pacheri Pasta Filei I purchased at Eataly a few weeks ago. The pasta - about the thickness of a drinking straw and as long as my pinky - was thick and delightfully chewy, as hearty as the sauce that topped it.

Quick Pork Ragu

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
pinch salt
3 cups rich pork stock
1/3 cup flour
2 cups shredded pork shoulder
2 roasted red bell peppers, chopped
1/2 cup roughly chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped basil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar
salt and pepper to taste

In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until they soften and start to become translucent. Add stock and bring to a boil.

Make a slurry of the flour and enough of the hot stock to the consistency of heavy cream. Stir the flour mixture into the boiling stock, a couple tablespoons at a time, until a light gravy consistency is reached. Discard remaining slurry.

Add pork, peppers, parsley, and basil to sauce. Turn heat down to medium and simmer sauce for about 10 minutes until everything is warmed through. Season to taste with vinegar and honey, salt and pepper.

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Serve sauce over pasta, top with Parmesan or Asiago cheese, as desired. Serves 4.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.