Leftovers

One of the perks of being in culinary school is that we get to take home what we cook. So, for example, today me fridge consists of the following: butter, old goat cheese, mustard, a bag of shrimp-stuffed sea bream wrapped in lettuce wraps, and puree of Jerusalem artichoke.

Just an average Tuesday's refrigerator.

While getting all of this free "included in your tuition" food is great, the thing is that most of it just doesn't taste great reheated. In fact, it can be kind of gross.

So, it has become an artform of mine to figure out at the end of class which leftovers to take home and more importantly, how to package them to get them home. This packaging includes leak prevention as well as maximum leftover taste capacity. Because let me tell you, fish that has leaked into your bag not only creates funny looks on the metro, but also creates a lingering smell that multiple washes and soaks and fabreeze will just not remove.

For example, yesterday, our dish was the aforementioned lettuce-wrapped sea bream. One of the girls in our kitchen unfortunately has the flu and halfway through our practical had to leave. So, the chef made an announcement that someone needed to use/take her uncooked fish and sauce. Since no one responded and the chef was looking at me, I volunteered. But, the fact of the matter is that I knew that the shrimp-stuffed fish was not going to be one of my favorites to take home and work with as a reheated leftover creation.

This is partly because forcemeat stuffings are just one of those things that taste great except when you've made them and passed them through a drum sieve yourself. Especially the gummy raw shrimp. I'll leave it at that.

So, I decided that the best mode of action would be to use the extra sauce by adding it to my own sauce (I didn't have enough of my own in the end, but no one did) and with the fish, I decided to just quickly bake it with some coarse salt while I was presenting my plate.

I ate some of that fish on a baguette with dijon mustard for lunch.

But tonight, I decided to just go down the route of my usual leftover creations: some sort of pasta, rice, or stir-fry.

Tonight it was rice. I ended up making a risotto with the sea bream (separating it from the shrimp stuffing), the J-lem artichoke purree (which is about 50% cream like mashed potatoes), and spinach (I keep frozen spinach in the freezer at all times because it's cheap, never goes bad, and I love spinach). Add some spices and a little hot sauce and you're good to go!

Like all of my leftover creations, it wasn't that creative, but it was cheap, tasted good, and wasn't wasteful!