Leftovers have a variety of purposes, which may include:
* ensuring everyone is as full as they want to be prior to leaving the table
* providing snacks later
* lunches the next day
* some can be frozen
* some are ideal as ingredients for subsequent dishes.
For a while, we had a housemate who adored leftovers. He would stick his head and shoulders in the fridge to root around for things, while wriggling his butt and making happy-puppy-noises. If there were no leftovers, that made him sad and kind of antsy. I don't think he ever went without, he just had a big appetite and a lot of energy.
My partner Doug primarily uses leftovers as lunches, or if they're too small for that, snacks. If we make a family-size dish, usually that's what happens to the 1-3 leftover portions.
When I make a large meat dish, I often use a bigger piece of meat than we will eat in one sitting. The leftover meat is chopped up and frozen to be used as precooked meat in other dishes.
So if I make a corned beef brisket, we eat that as a main dish with vegetable sides. The next day, we mix the chopped leftover brisket with diced potatoes for corned beef hash.
Leftover diced ham can go into a pot of noodles or a quiche. Leftover shredded pork or beef often gets done up as quesadillas.
We also do some freezer meals with things like sloppy joe filling. One day's work prepping and cooking will yield a whole stack of cartons to freeze, which then become convenience meals.
In a few cases, dishes with complex spice blends may come out better after sitting overnight. Just be aware that occasionally one will get hotter. We have a potato curry recipe that I love fresh, but after a few hours it's at the edge of my heat tolerance, and the next day is past most people's tolerance.
So while there are very few things I like as reheated same leftovers, there are lots of things that my partner likes to reheat, and there are plenty of things I will reuse in another dish that I enjoy.
To make use of leftovers, you need to think about the people in that household, the type of original dish, and what if anything you wish to do with the leftovers.
It helps to have a number of flexible recipes that will absorb a variety of leftovers, especially algorithms. Frex, shepherd's pie (lamb) and cottage pie (beef) can be made almost entirely with leftovers -- it's how they started out. Stews, stir-fries, skillet meals, casseroles, omelettes, etc. are also helpful. Almost every culture has their own version of "shut up and eat it" like Spanish paella or Cajun jambalaya, most of which amount to "leftover stuff in rice" or some other starchy base to which things can be added.
Cas cooks for a gang, which means feeding a lot of people who have superpowers and/or moderate to heavy labor as part of their job. That means being able to put edible food in someone's hands almost immediately, at any time. He hasn't quite gotten far enough to establish an "always ready" item beyond leftovers, snacks, or the fresh bread that's available until someone eats the last of it. If you look at Blues Moon, there's something going in the kitchen almost all the time, even if it's just beans'n'rice, and they keep a jar of emergency honey for teleporters. Ricasso's gang has a hunk of gyro meat on the spit. The details vary, but intelligent super gangs make an effort to accommodate big appetites.
Contrast that with crappy bundles of thugs like what Shakedown or Boss Batir had going, without a decent place to sleep, wash, or eat. :/ I try to represent the whole range.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2021-07-20 10:02 pm (UTC)* ensuring everyone is as full as they want to be prior to leaving the table
* providing snacks later
* lunches the next day
* some can be frozen
* some are ideal as ingredients for subsequent dishes.
For a while, we had a housemate who adored leftovers. He would stick his head and shoulders in the fridge to root around for things, while wriggling his butt and making happy-puppy-noises. If there were no leftovers, that made him sad and kind of antsy. I don't think he ever went without, he just had a big appetite and a lot of energy.
My partner Doug primarily uses leftovers as lunches, or if they're too small for that, snacks. If we make a family-size dish, usually that's what happens to the 1-3 leftover portions.
When I make a large meat dish, I often use a bigger piece of meat than we will eat in one sitting. The leftover meat is chopped up and frozen to be used as precooked meat in other dishes.
So if I make a corned beef brisket, we eat that as a main dish with vegetable sides. The next day, we mix the chopped leftover brisket with diced potatoes for corned beef hash.
Leftover diced ham can go into a pot of noodles or a quiche. Leftover shredded pork or beef often gets done up as quesadillas.
We also do some freezer meals with things like sloppy joe filling. One day's work prepping and cooking will yield a whole stack of cartons to freeze, which then become convenience meals.
In a few cases, dishes with complex spice blends may come out better after sitting overnight. Just be aware that occasionally one will get hotter. We have a potato curry recipe that I love fresh, but after a few hours it's at the edge of my heat tolerance, and the next day is past most people's tolerance.
So while there are very few things I like as reheated same leftovers, there are lots of things that my partner likes to reheat, and there are plenty of things I will reuse in another dish that I enjoy.
To make use of leftovers, you need to think about the people in that household, the type of original dish, and what if anything you wish to do with the leftovers.
It helps to have a number of flexible recipes that will absorb a variety of leftovers, especially algorithms. Frex, shepherd's pie (lamb) and cottage pie (beef) can be made almost entirely with leftovers -- it's how they started out. Stews, stir-fries, skillet meals, casseroles, omelettes, etc. are also helpful. Almost every culture has their own version of "shut up and eat it" like Spanish paella or Cajun jambalaya, most of which amount to "leftover stuff in rice" or some other starchy base to which things can be added.
Cas cooks for a gang, which means feeding a lot of people who have superpowers and/or moderate to heavy labor as part of their job. That means being able to put edible food in someone's hands almost immediately, at any time. He hasn't quite gotten far enough to establish an "always ready" item beyond leftovers, snacks, or the fresh bread that's available until someone eats the last of it. If you look at Blues Moon, there's something going in the kitchen almost all the time, even if it's just beans'n'rice, and they keep a jar of emergency honey for teleporters. Ricasso's gang has a hunk of gyro meat on the spit. The details vary, but intelligent super gangs make an effort to accommodate big appetites.
Contrast that with crappy bundles of thugs like what Shakedown or Boss Batir had going, without a decent place to sleep, wash, or eat. :/ I try to represent the whole range.