Let me start off by saying we had neither flooding, nor power loss, nor roof collapsing during Sandy’s reign in the area, for those who did pop over to the Red Cross and give a little who those who really need it.
Due to the mildness of the storm in our area I was able to cook up a frenzy to sustain us, with all leftovers being used to their full advantage.
Sunday night started with a veggie stew, as I tried to recreate the veggie option from our wedding which was this amazing stewish thing with hunks of gouda melting in it. My version took two small eggplants, cubed and salted (similar to the way I salted the zucchini in a recent post), a regular zucchini cubed as well and hunks of red pepper. I caramelized some onion and garlic then added the veggies (eggplant, then zucchini, then red peppers) adding a bit more olive oil with each new veggie. Then I tossed in two small cans of crushed tomatoes, some wine (I never measure wine, I just pour), and let the whole thing simmer for a few hours. Upon serving I added tiny pieces of fresh mozzarella and crusty bread on the side. Amazing.
That brings us to our first storm leftover. Monday as the wind picked up and the lights started flickering I thought it might be a good idea to toss something together that would a)use up leftovers should the power go and b) be delicious. So a pound of moose shaped pasta a la IKEA (boiled for about 4 minutes, the leftover veggie stew (right out of the fridge), the remaining fresh mozzarella (chopped a bit), and some remaining shredded mozzarella got mixed together and popped into a 350 oven till the layer of cheese on top melted and the sided bubbled. I highly recommend tossing a bit of parm on top, just because the more cheese the better!
Moving on to our second meal/leftover combo of Sandy is a roasted lamb leg I saw Ina Garten do on Food Network on my flight to Boston a few weeks back (thank you Jet Blue for your free Direct TV!). To be completely honest before I begin, I was lazy and got the pre-marinated Rosemary Lamb leg from Trader Joe’s and used it rather then my own spice and oil massaged leg of lamb. I did however use her instructions for the oil mixture to toss the potatoes in, I used purple potatoes which are incredibly pretty (also what Mr. Brad Goreski is calling the color of the season) and so incredibly tender when roasted. From there the potatoes in their tasty marinade went into the roasting pay, topped by the lamb, and some more of the wine from the veggie stew recipe, and into the over then went, following the TJ’s roasting instructions. HOWEVER, I do recommend you use a meat thermometer to determine when its done (163 degrees) rather then trusting my oven, as I tend to under cook lamb and while I prefer my cow meat about as rare as you can get it, lamb needs to be cooked a bit more.
It was such an extravagant lunch for a Monday afternoon, I felt quite like Nigella Lawson carving it up and serving it.
Now for the leftover lamb I decided to get crafty and turn it into a spicy Moroccan style lamb stew courtesy of Epicurious. The only downside to this recipe is that it needs things that I thought I had but didn’t. Luckily thanks to Chef Google I was able to substitute things I did have and it was all ok (I know you were worried). After letting it simmer for a few hours it was tossed on top of some couscous and a tasty dinner was had!