Category: Leftovers

Chicken Pot Pie Passover Croquettes


Growing up, my mom would often prepare chremslach on Passover whenever there were leftover mashed potatoes. Some people refer to chremslach as matza fritters, but in our house, mashed potatoes were the ingredient of choice. They were held together with some egg, dipped in potato starch and fried. Nothing fancy, just another use for potatoes and a simple side for yet another meal.

I decided to spruce up my mom’s basic recipe with some leftover chicken, carrots and onions, for a take on chicken pot pie. If you eat kitniyot, peas would be the perfect addition! The patties are dredged in ground nuts for a crunchy Passover coating. Serve with a side of homemade ketchup, marinara or garlic aioli.

1 year ago: homemade raspberry sorbet
2 years ago: roasted beet & orange salad

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Chocolate Bread Pudding

I’m a total sucker for bread pudding. And not just because it’s an excuse to use up leftover bread (which would normally be a good enough reason!). It’s because it’s got that rich comfort food quality that warms you up inside with each and every bite. Spoon after spoon, flavor after flavor, bread pudding is simply, delicious.

Usually, I whip up a batch of chocolate cinnamon bread pudding with chocolate chips. It’s really good, I have to admit. But when I made a variation of this recipe in culinary school last week, I was just wowed by the melted chocolately goodness. Instead of just throwing in chocolate chips, the custard is heated and poured over the chocolate, creating a rich chocolate sauce. The sauce is then poured over the bread so that every morsel is soaked in chocolate batter. Every bite is pure chocolate bliss.

Oh, and there’s rum too. Do I even need to elaborate?

With Pesach a mere 2 weeks away, it’s time to pull all that leftover challah out from the back of your freezer and bake up this awesome treat. You’ll love it so much, you’ll be stashing challah just so that you can make again!

Happy Cleaning!

1 year ago: Bubby’s challah kugel
2 years ago: perfect pareve french toast

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Easy Pineapple Fried Rice

Have you heard about the custom for Jewish people to eat Chinese food on Christmas? It all started back in the day when there weren’t so many kosher restaurants to eat at, and the only places open on Xmas were Chinese joints. And the only people frequenting their restaurants were the Jews, since they do not celebrate the gentile holiday. To clarify things: it is not, in fact, a Jewish custom to eat Chinese food on Christmas, but some people enjoy doing so just for kicks. This year, my family decided to follow suit, and we ordered takeout from our favorite Chinese spot, EstiHana.

Have you seen this picture that’s been circulating around the web?  Cute, isn’t it?

You know what the best part about ordering Chinese food? All that fresh hot rice they send you, which turns into day-old rice the next day. Leftover rice is the perfect starter for dishes like pineapple fried rice. And contrary to popular belief, most fried rice dishes are not fried at all (we are dispelling lots of myths here today!).  So the next time you have leftover rice, think twice before throwing it away.

Other ways to use up leftover rice:

Rice pudding or breakfast cereal (use in place of oatmeal)
Tomato rice soup like this one
Stuffed peppers
Rice stuffing for chicken
Cheesy Mexican rice
Arancini
Chicken and rice soup

Do you have any good ideas for using up leftover rice? Share them in the comments below!


1 year ago: black grape and plum compote
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Kosher by Design Cooking Coach Review & Giveaway!

When it comes to kosher cookbooks, Susie Fishbein is in a league all her own. Her talent and professionalism shine through in each new edition of Kosher by Design, especially her latest, Cooking Coach. Like all of the cookbooks in the Kosher by Design series, Susie carries through on her theme in an immaculate way. In Kosher by Design Cooking Coach, Fishbein shares recipes, tips and techniques to make anyone a better cook. Each section is prefaced by a Game Plan in which Susie teaches the fundamental principles of cooking. She shares techniques, advice and amazing tips to help guide you in the kitchen. From kitchen equipment and essentials, to an in-depth guide to preparing fish, poultry and meat – there’s something to learn for everyone. As a blogger who is familiar with a lot of cooking techniques, there was still so much for me to take away from this book.

Besides for the delectable recipes and beautiful pictures, something else I loved about KBD Cooking Coach is the Playbook. In it, Susie gives you ideas for revamping leftovers of some of her dishes. Or as she likes to call it, reincarnating food. Each recipe and idea in the playbook is as good as it’s original. My only issue with this section (and with the whole book, really) is that I wish the reincarnated recipes were printed beneath their originals, instead of in their own section. It makes it a tad bit confusing.

Not surprisingly, Fishbein does not dissapoint with the well-composed recipes in this book. Some of the dishes I look forward to trying include tomato tarte tatin, Jerusalem artichoke soup, strawberry-goat cheese salad, blueberry and fig glazed duck breasts, cornish hen in port & chocolate sauce, pretzel-crusted lamb chops, fall harvest silver tip roast, sole with peach-basil reduction, butternut squash broken lasagna, silan-roasted sweet potatoes & leeks, gooey walnut brownie pie, and almond thumbprint cookies.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of KBD Cooking Coach at Pomegranate Supermarket back in October. Susie conducted a cooking demo in which she prepared the following turkey taco eggrolls. She also shared her great ideas for reincarnating extra turkey filling into stuffed portobello mushroom caps or into marinara sauce for pasta. We were all served a sample of each dish and they were so incredibly delicious, I knew I had to share them with you!

In the spirit of Chanukah, Busy In Brooklyn is giving away a copy of Kosher by Design Cooking Coach! To enter the giveaway, help your favorite blog win the FriendsEat 2012 Best Food Blogger contest by voting. Simply visit the BIB page on FriendsEat, login with your facebook account and click the “love” button. Then, leave a comment below letting me know you’ve voted. For a bonus entry, ask your friends to vote too by posting it on your facebook status. Winner will be chosen at random at 9:00 AM Tuesday, December 18th.

1 year ago: sea bass en papillote
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Cherries in Red Wine Syrup

Sometimes I feel like a grandma. And not just because I’m always tired from running after the kids or because I like to sit on the glider in my babies room and crochet. It’s because I have that old lady habit of not wanting to throw food away. And let me tell you people. I did not grow up that way. If a tomato so much as had a dimple, my mom would consider it rotten. Me? I go through my fridge and brainstorm about how I can use each and every fruit and vegetable to the last drop. If my fruits are getting too soft, I’ll make a compote. If my tomatoes are mushy, I’ll make a tomato soup. I just can’t stomach throwing food away. Lucky for my family, I don’t serve up Shabbos leftovers passed Monday, but I’ve been know to turn my leftover chicken soup into chicken pot pie. Lets hope I don’t become like one of those Bubby’s who is still serving up their leftover gefilte fish on Thursday!

Turning leftovers into do-overs recipes:

curry chicken salad
turkey pot pie
salmon pasta salad
chicken pot pie
black grape and plum compote
Bubby’s cabbage soup with flanken

Last week, I had some cherries that were on their way out. I thought about making cherry clafoutis, but I wasn’t really in the mood of baking (am I ever?). So I googled “leftover cherries” and I found my way to David Lebovitz’s cherries in red wine syrup. I’m a sucker for anything in red wine, so I knew I just had to make it. I’ve poached pears, figs, and prunes, but never cherries. My only issue with David’s recipe is that he uses cornstarch to thicken the sauce. I did not see a need for that at all. If you let the wine reduce enough, it will thicken into a lovely syrup. I served it over vanilla bean ice cream and pound cake, but I could eat it plain, straight out of a bowl.

More red wine recipes:

poached pears
mulled wine
Rosh Hashana roast
london broil with red wine reduction

 

1 year ago: fried fish sandwich

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