Tag: leftovers

Kitchen Sink Soup

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Toward the end of the month, and with $0.02 left in the food budget, we have to get creative.   Hence, Kitchen Sink Soup!

In the freezer, I found a cut-up chicken. I put it in a stew pot, added water, celery, onion, tomato slices, bay leaves, peppercorns, a carrot, and some herbs. I brought it to a boil, turned it down to a low simmer, covered, and cooked the chicken. I pulled out the chicken, and set it aside for a pot pie or something else for tomorrow (after all the soup is gone). I ran the broth through a sieve, set it aside, discarded the cooked veggies (put them into your compost if you have it), and washed out the kettle. From there, I did this:

Kitchen Sink Soup

2-3 T. olive oil
1 andouille or other sausage or leftover meat (or none), chopped
4-6 cloves grated garlic
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced,
1 zucchini, diced
1 28-oz can plum tomatoes (I used Cento’s San Marzano Plum Tomatoes)
1 15-oz can Great Northern Beans
1/2 c. pasta (I used orecchiette)
broth from the chicken I just stewed (you can use regular broth, about 6-8 cups)
salt, pepper, etc.
Romano or Parmesan cheese, grated

Heat stew pot, add olive oil. Place chopped onion in pan, saute over low heat until clear and golden. Add meat (if using) and saute a bit. Stir in grated garlic. Add remaining diced vegetables, saute until cooked. Once the vegetables are at the desired degree of being done, pour in the can of tomatoes. Mash up the tomatoes (I used my potato masher), and cook a bit more. Put in the chicken broth or whatever stock you are using. Bring to a boil, add pasta and beans. Drop to a simmer and cover pot. Watch to make sure the pot does not boil over from the cooking pasta. Check pasta for al dente. Ready to serve!

Ladle into bowls, sprinkle grated cheese on top, and eat with good bread. (We used our homemade sourdough.)

Enjoy!

Kitchen Sink Cooking

Cooking and baking can be “gotta follow the recipe to get it right” or “just throw it all together and hope for the best” in approach.  Every culture and country has its national dish for leftovers all thrown together.  When I was growing up, it was called “mish-mash” and usually had egg noodles, onions, sour cream, and whatever else was lying around.  The Japanese have, I think (if I understood a friend correctly) “okazu,” which is mostly rice, with leftovers.  Hash is another variant.  Anyway, you get the idea:  use it up if you got it!

For some things, you don’t really need a recipe, just ingredients.  Granola is perfect for this.  Tonight, I did need some cooking / baking skills for chicken pie.  The mish-mash side was chicken and vegetables.  Leftover roast chicken, potatoes, corn cut from the cob, red pepper, onion, celery, and carrots.  Sauteed the chopped up stuff in a bit of oil and butter.  Boiled up new potatoes (diced), about 3, and then saved some liquid.  Into this, I threw some sour cream (natch!) and homemade chicken broth.  After sauteeing the other stuff in the pan (which would then go into the oven), I sprinkled the mix with some flour, stirred it up a bit, and then poured the potato water / sour cream / chicken stock over it.  Season with herbs and spices.  I like rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic, pepper, and bay leaves.  Sometimes a lot of celery seed is also good.

Next step:  biscuit dough.  1 stick butter, about 3 c. flour, a T. of powder, and a bit of salt.  Add pepper if you like, or sage or parsley.  Use your hands and fingers to rub the flour and butter together until crumbly.  Add about 1 1/4 c. milk or cream (I had neither, so mixed up the rest of the sour cream and some water), dump it in, stir it up briefly, knead out on a floured board, shape into a lump, and roll out, adding flour as needed.  Roll from center out, making a circle about the diameter of the pan you will be putting into the oven.  Fold into quarters, transfer to pan, unfold, slice into it for venting, pop into the oven.  Oven is preheated to 400; bake about 1 hour.   Prep time – about 1 hour, so about 2 hours total.  

Virtuous little housewife, ain’t I?