Tidbits--the mushroom tart, bacon in salsa, stuffed baby peppers

Short post this morning: the mushroom tart was exceptional, quite rich---the word "meaty" comes to mind. Basically just sauteed mushrooms and onions with some dry white wine (I think I used Retsina because it was open) and some Marsala, a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste, and fresh herbs. Cook this mixture on fairly high heat until the moisture is almost completely evaporated; the mushrooms were sort of glazed. Pour the mushrooms into a pre-baked crust (homemade or store-bought), and then top with a custard of 2 beaten eggs and about 1/2 cup of milk, half and half, or cream. Bake for 30 minutes or so, until golden and the custard is set. This was good hot and at room temperature. (Note: I probably had well over a pound of mushrooms, both brown and white.)

Thanks to a host's husband, Larry, I tasted the best salsa this weekend. Here is his recipe: one large can of peeled, whole tomatoes, 2 serrano peppers, including seeds, 2 tablespoons garlic powder, salt to taste, and 1/2 pound cooked bacon, including the drippings. Throw the whole mess in a blender and pulverize. Probably not the healthiest salsa in the world with all that bacon, but oh my! Who would have thought?

Finally, if you are tempted by the beautiful baby bell peppers (they are sweet) that Costco carries but then find you don't know what to do with them, here is a thought--roast them in a hot oven until they are soft. Let them cool, then split and seed them. Combine chevre (goat cheese), with some cream cheese if the goat cheese is too strong for your taste, and all the fresh herbs you can find, finely chopped, plus salt and pepper to taste. I used parsley, basil, marjoram, and thyme. Stuff the pepper halves with the cheese and then bake for 15 minutes or so at 350, until the cheese is bubbly.

Lots of mushrooms...

I have about 2 pounds of mushrooms, half standard grocery store white button mushrooms and half baby "bellas." If I don't do something with them today, they are probably going to find their way into the compost bin.

I have a recipe for a mushroom tart that actually calls for dried porcini mushrooms that I'm going to give a try. Along with a whole wheat crust to make it a little healthier, it should be a perfect lunch for this rainy first day of fall.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Mexican "Lasagne"

This didn't exactly start out with anything leftover, but I threw it together yesterday, when at about 6:30 I realized everyone was probably hungry. I have a very similar Pampered Chef recipe, but I changed or substituted virtually every major element of the original recipe.

Here's what you need to make this dish:

A deep microwave-safe covered baker

8-12 corn tortillas OR some tortilla chips

1 large can of enchilada sauce OR tomato sauce, canned green chilis, and cumin

cheese

Sausage OR any kind of leftover meat

1 small chopped onion

Ricotta cheese OR cream cheese

Egg

Fresh cilantro if you have it

First, I didn't have any enchilada sauce, so I just combined tomato sauce with a can of diced green chilis, undrained, and a teaspoon or so of cumin.

Next, I thawed out 5 frozen sausage patties in the microwave and browned them in a non-stick skillet, along with the chopped onion, crumbling the sausage as it cooked.

Then I combined 15 ounces of ricotta cheese with 1 egg and about 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro.

To assemble, I dipped 4 corn tortillas in my mock enchilada sauce and put them in the bottom of my baker. I topped this with about half the ricotta mixture, then half the sausage, and sprinkled with a layer of colby-jack cheese. I repeated the tortilla, ricotta, and sausage layers. I had sauce left, but no more corn tortillas, so I took about 2 cups of crushed tortilla chips and mixed those in with the sauce and made that the next layer. I topped it all off with about 3/4 cup shredded colby-jack cheese.

I covered the baker and microwaved on high for about 14 minutes and then let it sit for 10 or so to firm up.

Not exactly diet food, but with some leftover Texas Panhandle Salad and corn, dinner was ready in under 40 minutes.

Master Stir-Frying

Here's something to do when you have an odd assortment of vegetables in small amounts--not enough of any one thing to make a side dish. The Stir-Fry. If you have a small piece of meat or chicken or some shrimp, they can be part of the mix too.

Stir-Fried dishes are incredibly quick to make and there are just a few things to remember:

1. Dice all your vegetables ahead of time.

2. If you are using meat that isn't yet cooked, dice or slice it, and if the flavors you are going for are Asian, marinate the meat in a little soy sauce, some garlic, and maybe some ginger. Play around--try a little sesame oil as well. (Caution--a little goes a long way!)

3. Before you start to cook, assemble all your ingredients, including broth, corn starch, and any other liquids you are using like sherry or vinegar.

Now for the pan--does it have to be a wok? No, any pan large enough to hold the food without it being crowded will work just fine. I use a 12-inch non-stick stir-fry skillet that is rounded. If you're using a saute pan, that's fine. Sloping sides are better than a straight-sided skillet because you want the steam to go up and away rather than condense back down into your food as steam. But in a pinch, it'll work too.

So here we go: Add oil to your pan and let it get nice and hot. Now add aromatics first: onion, then ginger and/or garlic. Keep the food moving around. Each vegetable only takes a minute or two to cook. Now start adding your vegetables starting with what takes the longest to cook. For example, I might add, in order: carrots, celery, bell pepper, zucchini, and finally pea pods. If I'm cooking meat, I would probably add beef somewhere between the bell pepper and the zucchini because I think it tastes best on the rare side. Chicken would probably get added around the same time as the celery because I want to make sure it is thoroughly cooked.

Now to create the sauce: for classic Chinese food taste, add to the pan about 1/4 cup of sherry and cook for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol. Now add 1/2 to a cup of broth (I would use beef or chicken, according to the meat I'm using). Cook that a few minutes. Now make a slurry of about a tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in a 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce and add that to the pan. Stir continuously until the sauce has thickened and become translucent. It only takes a few minutes. Check that the meat and vegetables are cooked to your liking. If it needs a few more minutes, just let it simmer. We usually serve this over rice, but it's delicious on noodles, or all by itself. You can even jazz it up with a handful of cashews scattered over the top and some chopped green onion. If you'd like some heat--add diced jalapenos when you start out with the onion and garlic.

Leftover Fajita meat?

Here's my favorite thing to do with leftover fajita meat:

Dice the meat, as well as any onions and peppers that may be leftover. Add a can of drained, rinsed black beans and some salsa. Put the meat and bean mixture into a baking dish large enough to hold twice the amount. Sprinkle this mixture with some grated cheese (cheddar, Jack, etc). Mix up a batch of cornbread and pour the batter over the mixture. Sprinkle with a little more cheese if you'd like. You can do add-ins with your cornbread too--try diced green chilis.

Bake in a 400 degree oven until the cornbread is golden brown on top and a pick inserted in the center of the cornbread comes out clean. I think of this as a Mexican "shepherd's pie."

Addendum to last post--how the pork turned out

(Please read previous post first!)

My experiment with two slices of leftover pork tenderloin is a keeper! Maybe even worthy of a "planned-over" (cook an extra tenderloin to start, just so you can make this leftover meal.)

Here's what I did:

Put a very tiny amount of butter in a non-stick saute pan and sauteed half a small onion, diced. You need a little fat to carry the wonderful onion flavor.

Once the onion was translucent, I added about 3/4 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms (but ordinary white mushrooms would be fine here). Mushrooms were exactly the extra ingredient needed; they added depth and meatiness.

I turned up the heat to medium high so that the mushrooms would take on a golden color before they released too much moisture and just began to steam.

As soon as the mushrooms were browned a bit, I added a small, diced tomato. I didn't worry about removing the skin or seeds, knowing this wasn't going to cook for long. I turned the heat back down to medium, and cooked this mixture for a few minutes, just until the tomatoes began to break down a bit.

Next I added that bit of leftover sauce from the tenderloin--there was less than 1/4 cup. This immediately thinned out a bit and took on a stunning reddish-brown color. I let this simmer for about 2 minutes and then added the two slices of leftover pork which I had diced into 4-5 pieces each. I heated this just enough to warm the pork--not to cook it any more.

I had half of this dish over a piece of toast. Although it isn't yet noon, the dish was good enough to warrant a small glass of red wine.

All told, my lunch was ready in about 10 minutes (with half left for tomorrow--so it would have served two). It would have been equally delicious served over pasta or rice.

If I'm smart, whatever I make for dinner tonight will include either pasta or rice, for my lunch tomorrow, in case I don't want to have it over toast again.

Try this next time you have a piece of leftover pork or beef and let me know how it turns out!

What to do with two small pieces of leftover pork tenderloin and some sauce?

I'm thinking I'll tuck it into an omelette for lunch. The pork is very flavorful--it was simply roasted in a hot (425) oven for about 30 minutes, after being "marinated" in the refrigerator for about 5 hours using a dry rub from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Her rub (she calls it a dry marinade) is hands-down my favorite way to treat pork. The beauty of this rub is that as little as 30 minutes is enough to flavor and tenderize the meat.

I might also thinly slice it and put it on top of some greens for a main dish salad. It's delicious cold or hot. But that doesn't do anything with the sauce...hmm.

The sauce consists of Marsala wine to deglaze the roasting pan and some cream, reduced down to coat a spoon. On the rich side, but a little goes a long way.

But there isn't enough for a meal and I certainly don't want to throw it out.

I've got it--I'm going to put it on top of a piece of toast and make it an open-faced hot sandwich. That will make good use of the sauce. Since it's so rich, I think I'll add some diced tomato to the sauce to cut the richness (and add volume) and warm it just enough to lightly cook the tomatoes. Then I'll add the meat back in to the pan to warm it--it's already perfectly cooked and I don't want to overcook it.

Wait, first I'll saute a little onion, then add the tomato, and finally, add the sauce and at the last, the meat, and put that on the toast. Or a small baked potato.....

Wait again! If I dig around for a little more meat of any kind, I may be able to stretch this little bit of pork and sauce into enough to put over pasta and have for dinner......

See how this works? The art of using your leftovers is taking what you want to use, and playing around with it in your mind, adding this and that. Just remember, you'll probably never reproduce the exact same thing again. And that's half the fun.

Note on the dry marinade: per pound of pork, simply mix up a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of mace, some generous grindings of pepper, and about a half teaspoon of sage. Rub into the meat and refrigerate for as little as 30 minutes or as long as overnight for larger cuts. If you want to rinse the rub off after marinating, just make sure the meat is dry before you cook it. I generally rinse it so it isn't too salty.