Meatballs and Quick Sauce (Leftovers from 4th of July cookout)

As new parents, we took the 4th of July easy. We had family over and fed them hamburgers, hotdogs, cole slaw, and beans. Of course, they (the family, not the hotdogs) were very relieved when we announced this unexciting menu over the phone. They claim to love all food, but there's a catch: They do not consider the vast majority of things that are edible to be "food." To qualify as food, an item must be served at a diner or a pizzeria. Everything else is a dangerous and unnecessary innovation.

In any case there's nothing wrong with hamburgers and hotdogs, particularly if there's plenty of Heinz ketchup to go around. The leftovers don't need to be repetitive. In one photo, you can see how baked beans and tomatoes can turn into a yummy English breakfast (beans and fried tomatoes, mmn) . Turning preformed hamburgers and leftover buns into a quick spaghetti and meatball dinner is only slightly more of a trick.

Meatballs and Quick Sauce (Leftovers from 4th of July cookout)

3-4 leftover hamburgers (uncooked)
1 hamburger roll
2/3 head garlic, chopped fine.
¼ cup parsley chopped fine
Milk
1 egg (optional)
1 large can tomatoes
Wine or sweet vermouth
Salt
Olive Oil
Pasta

1. Pull the hamburgers apart (this is a bit more of a pain than you might think).
2. Tear the roll in small pieces and place it in a bowl and drizzle milk over it.
3. Mix meat, ½ the garlic, parsley.
4. Squeeze out the roll.
5. Toss through the meat. Add breadcrumbs if the mixture is too wet; add an egg if you prefer tighter meatballs.
6. Add salt. Heat a frying pan and fry a small amount of mixture to test. Adjust seasoning.
7. Roll out a dozen or so small meatballs.
8. Heat a frying pan, add a small amount of oil, and fry meatballs until brown on all sides. Remove, pour off fat, deglaze with a little wine or sweet vermouth.
9. Heat a saucepan, add olive oil. Place the rest of the garlic in; allow to cook for 30 seconds or so.
10. Add tomatoes, salt, and the deglazed drippings from the meatball pan. Bring to a simmer.
11. Add the meatballs.
12. Allow to cook for about 30-40 minutes until tomatoes are soft and everything is tasty.
13. Serve with pasta. (No we're not going to tell you how to cook pasta.)

Leftover Pot Roast- Cruets

A reader asked a question about our favorite leftover pot roast recipe. We're not in pot-roast land right now--not sure why, but big hunks of meat haven't been calling us. In any case, pot roast is an easily traveled dish, and there's no reason to heat it up again as is.

That said, there is one leftover preparation that we prefer more than any other. One of our mothers used to make it. She called it "cruets" which has to be wrong, but the taste is right, so we'll hand it to her. No pix, because we haven't made it recently.

Cruets

4 hoagie rolls, the best you can find. The shape is what's important here: they should be about six inches long.
1-2 cups leftover pot roast, shredded
leftover gravy
1 cup cooked potatoes (best if boiled and diced)
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup onions, diced
1 cup celery, diced and peeled
(obviously proportions will vary based on the size of your rolls and amount of meat you have left over)
olive oil
butter

1. Heat an oven to 275.
2. Cut the top 1/4-1/3 off of each roll, and hollow out to make a boat.
3. Place boats and lids in oven and cook for about 30 minutes or until very hard.
4. Put 2 tbsp oil in hot pan, add a sliver of btter and the potatoes.
5. Don't move the pan until one side is browned, then flip, brown another side, then remove.
6. Add more oil and butter, the onions, carrots and celery to pan and cook over medium low heat until al-dente.
7. Add the leftover meat and potatoes back in and toss. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.
8. Warm the gravy.
9. Remove the rolls from the oven.
10. Place rolls on plates, putthe hash mixture inside, pour in some gravy, and top with a lid.
11. Serve immediately with butter, yesterday if possible.

Pasta and Spanish-Flavored Meatballs

We think there's no greater testimony to the commitment of a vegetarian than the meatball. We could with regret forgo lamb chops and pork roasts, but giving up meatballs is like giving up French fries, sex, or peanut butter. It takes character.

Whenever ground beef goes on sale, we usually grab a bunch of it, some of which inevitably ends its days as flavored meatballs. Normally, we make at least two kinds at once. This involves getting a couple of bowls, divvying up the flesh, and adding different seasonings and thickeners. Then we fry them and freeze them.

Many of them, of course, disappear in the process. There is something about a freshly fried meatball, a hunk of crusty bread, and a dab of mayonnaise that could tempt a devout Hindu, we're sure. But the surviving meatballs make an interesting ingredient for those times when you just don't have time to cook something special.

Pasta and Spanish-Flavored Meatballs

Meatballs

1-2 pounds ground beef
½ head garlic, minced
1/3 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp Spanish paprika
½ tsp sumac (optional)
½ tsp cayenne (optional)
1 egg
Salt
Pepper

1. Mix, form into small balls, and fry in olive oil over medium heat until cooked through. (it's a good idea to check your seasoning by frying a small patty first, before forming the lot into balls)
2. Freeze on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper
3. Place in a zipper bag and store for future use.


The Pasta

½ pound pasta
8 small Spanish-flavored meatballs
1 medium onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic
Pinch saffron
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Olive oil
Salt
Cheese for garnish

1. Cook pasta until al dente, reserving ½ cup pasta water.
2. Sliver one clove garlic and fry in 1 tbsp oil until lightly browned. Remove and set aside.
3. Fry onion in medium hot oil until yellow.
4. Add garlic, paprika and saffron. Wait until your kitchen starts smelling great, then:
5. Add meatballs and heat through.
6. Add cooked pasta and enough water to create a thick sauce. Add salt, if necessary.
7. Add parsley and remove from heat.
8. Garnish with garlic chips and cheese.

Lomo Saltado (not really)

Lomo Saltado is Peru's most enthusiastic contribution to culinary performance art. To make it, a chef flambées four different ingredients four separate times over a 40,000 BTU burner. Beef, tomatoes, onions and aji amarillo peppers go into a pan one by one, where they receive a shot of Pisco and then explode in a burst of fire. The taste is smoky, but except in the hands of a very experienced chef, the results are disappointing.

Enter us. Minus the 40,000 BTUs, the aji amarillo peppers, the necessary experience, and the Pisco. We also have low ceilings. On the plus side, we did find a rather nice piece of steak and some grape tomatoes—the only ripe tomatoes at this time of year in the Northeast. The rest of it we knew how to do. In the end, you don't end up with Lomo Saltado, but you do get something rather nice.

Lomo Saltado (not really)

½ pound beef, cubed in ½ inch pieces
1 medium onion
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
2/3 cup grape tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 medium red potatoes (or any potatoes)
Cooked white rice (leftover)
Soy sauce
Cider vinegar
Worchestershire sauce
Sriracha sauce (optional)
Toasted sesame oil
Scallions

To make the fries (easy way)

Cut your potatoes into 1 cm slices or sticks. Cover in cold neutral oil in a pan. Turn the heat on high. After five minutes, turn the potatoes gently to avoid sticking. In roughly 15-20 minutes, potatoes will turn golden brown and crispy. Remove from heat and drain. Do not salt until serving.

Meanwhile…

1. Mix ½ cup soy sauce, 1 tbsp vinegar, ½ tbsp Worchestershire sauce, 1 tsp toasted sesame oil in a bowl, and Sriracha sauce. Taste and adjust, adding water or sugar as necessary.
2. Heat a frying pan or wok. Add oil and put down meat. Allow to brown on one side, turn, allow to brown on a second side. Then toss until no longer pink. Set aside in a bowl.
3. In the same pan, add the onions. Stir fry for 2 minutes until brown at edges.
4. Add peppers and garlic. Stir fry an additional minute or so.
5. Add tomatoes and pinch of salt. Fry, tossing occasionally until skins start to slip from tomatoes.
6. Add liquids, turn down heat. Add beef, and heat through. Remove from heat to a bowl.
7. Serve with rice, fries, and a garnish of scallions.

Leftover Meatloaf and Garlic Bread Panzanella

The stars really must align perfectly for us to have panzanella. To make it, we must have old crusty bread, leftover tomato or meat sauce, and some sort of vegetables lying around. But it is a wonderful treat whenever we do make it. This panzanella made from our leftover meatloaf and garlic bread seemed to be in the stars for us that day.

Leftover Meatloaf and Garlic Bread Panzanella

one cup chilled tomato sauce

(Combine in a saucepan 5-6 cloves of sliced garlic with one 28-ounce can of whole plum tomatoes, ¼ cup sweet vermouth, 2 tsp dried oregano, 1 tbsp olive oil, and a pinch of kosher salt. Simmer for 45 minutes.)

½ cup crumbled meatloaf
Half a loaf leftover garlic bread, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 packed cups baby spinach
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, mashed in a garlic press

1. Gently toast garlic bread pieces in a 250 degree oven until they are dry and very hard.
2. Whisk vinegar into olive oil to make a vinaigrette. Season with mashed garlic, kosher salt, and black pepper.
3. Dress spinach with vinaigrette, and season the salad with kosher salt and black pepper to taste.
4. Combine cold tomato sauce and meatloaf. Add garlic bread croutons and toss to cover them with the sauce.
5. To serve, first lay down a bed of spinach leaves on the plate, pour on the vinagrette, then top with some of the sauce-covered croutons.

Coming attractions: leftover meatloaf and garlic bread

(with recipe for Simple Asian Meatloaf Glaze)

A fire sale on ground beef sold in a cylinder has given us a very tasty meatloaf. This and the leftover garlic bread will certainly be appearing in whatever we cobble together over the next few days….stay tuned!

By the way, we really liked this simple glaze on our meatloaf:

Simple Asian Meatloaf Glaze

½ cup chili sauce
½ cup Chinese marinade (we used the Lee Kum Kee brand)
2 heaping tablespoons brown sugar

1. Mix two sauces and sugar together.
2. When there's ten minutes of cooking left, take the meatloaf out and smooth over the surface with a pastry brush.
3. Return it to the oven to finish cooking.