I’m always astonished when people say they don’t like leftovers. Leftovers are the gift that keeps on giving. The whole idea with Sunday Cooking is: Cook once, eat twice. Or thrice. Or more.
A lot of us are firing up the grill this weekend, so while we’re happily downing a beer or a margarita or two, and enjoying the party, we can also be cooking next week’s meals. Talk about easy multi-tasking! As a bonus if you’ve got one of those men lying around who’s sufficiently in touch with his inner Visigoth, you can hand over the job of grilling to him, while you fling things toward the grill so he can stock up next week’s larder. (Men love a challenge).
Grilled meats of all kinds can do double and triple duty later in the week as fabulous sandwich or salad ingredients, in quesadillas, with pasta or in casseroles, in tostadas, souvlakis with cucumber yogurt sauce, with chimichuri… there are endless possibilities. Grilled vegetables –carrots, corn, eggplant, zucchini, asparagus, onion, peppers — can go into a raft of things, from a layered vegetable lasagna to grilled eggplant sandwiches on garlic bread with melted mozzarella, sliced tomato and a slathering of pesto to grilled veg salad with lemon-herb dressing to an antipasto platter with a glass of red wine. Or you can just cook pasta or buy a loaf of bread, and keep eating those yummy leftovers all week with a little cheese on the side.
One of the keys to being able to reconfigure what’s come off the grill is to not coat everything with barbeque sauce while it’s on. Maybe a few ribs or some chicken thighs sloshed with sauce, but beyond that think of it as a minimalist canvas. An herb marinade here, a dab or two of olive oil, salt and pepper and garlic there, some Worcestershire on the steaks with a little rub for good measure. You don’t want to dress it up so much you can’t dress it down with different flavors later.
Vegetables are easy. Slice eggplant, zucchini, and carrots lengthwise about a half inch thick. Throw in the asparagus and some garlic scapes if you’ve got ‘em. Thick-slice the onions as though for burgers or quarter them and separate some of the leaves. Leave the corn on the cob. (The smoky taste adds wonderfully to corn and black bean salad.). Marinate them all very briefly (like while you’re making margaritas) in a little olive oil, salt and pepper. You can add a splash of balsamic or red wine or cider vinegar – or not. We like it with, but not everyone does. The vegetables take about a half a beer –- ten minutes. When they’re cooked you can put them back into the marinating bowl unless there’s a surplus of marinade that will drown them in which case, stick most of them on a platter. (Be sure to hold a bunch aside for next week or your guests will scarf the lot.).
One of my favorite Memorial Day leftovers (aside from potato salad, which I view with as much fondness as dessert) is a bit of cold steak slathered with a simple horseradish sauce with cold grilled veggies on the side. Red wine and a grateful toast in honor of all those souls who have given their last full measure for our country.
Grilled Eggplant Sandwich
For each sandwich:
2 slices of the garlic bread, baguette or Italian loaf
1-2 thick slabs of grilled eggplant
enough grilled onions to lightly cover the eggplant
1 fresh ripe tomato, sliced, or several drained and chopped dried tomatoes in oil
several slices of mozzarella cheese
about a teaspoon of pesto
fresh basil leaves
Stack the ingredients on the sandwich
Cut the slab of grilled eggplant to the side of the bread, layer all other ingredients into the sandwich. If you decide to do this as an open-faced sandwich, you can run it under the broiler, but low enough from the flame that the whole sandwich gets warmed as the cheese melts. Or you can add the second slice of bread and toast it on both sides in a non-stick pan in a little olive oil. Or, you can eat it cold. It travels well in a lunch box since it only slightly soaks the bread with all those good flavors.
Potato Salad Two Ways
You can cut up and roast the potatoes drizzled with a little oil in the oven for about 325-30 minutes at 350F. When fork tender take them out and let cool. Add plenty of chopped vegetables (celery, radish, cuke, onion or scallion) chopped parsley or lemon basil. Dress with a French mustard vinaigrette.
Or steam the cubed potatoes until barely fork-tender. Drain them immediately.
While still warm, splash in white wine vinegar, salt and pepper and stir so the seasoning gets to every piece. Stir a couple of times as the potatoes are cooling to make sure the vinegar doesn’t sink to the bottom. When cool, add an amount of chopped vegetables – cucumber, celery, onion or scallion, and radish – equal to the potatoes so the salad is half potato, half crisp vegetable. Dress with Hellman’s mayo.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/george-stella/easy-philly-steak-salad-recipe/index.html
https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Summer-Lamb-Kabobs/Detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Scott-Hibbs-Amazing-Whisky-Grilled-Baby-Back-Ribs/Detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grilled-Jalapeno-Poppers/Detail.aspx
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