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Reheat, Reuse, Recycle
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November 14, 2005
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« Inspiration Optional? | Main | Deevine Holiday »
You can't help but sympathize with all their talk about pervasive materialism and the scalability of modern lifestyles. Nevertheless, there's something about the frugality subculture that gives me the willies. I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is. Is it the sometimes thinly veiled crackpot ideologies? The tedious aphorisms? Or perhaps it's just the terrible, terrible food? All I know is that I read their literature and I think that my idea of hell would be being trapped forever at a party with people like these and food like this.
(As an aside, since it's the holiday season and all, I would like to take this opportunity to warn the many thousands of you who are no doubt racking your brains to determine what kind of gift you're going to get me this year that, no matter how frugal you are, I absolutely do not want any of these. Although, if it's a choice between that and having you write me a poem from the heart...well, bring on the hot pads stuffed with rice.)
Alright, I'm done being snarky. I must admit that there's something to be said for frugality. When I throw a big dinner party, it makes me feel better about the cost and trouble of the event when I leverage the leftovers and unused ingredients in the following week's meals. Last Monday, after the dinner party the previous weekend, Rebecca and I made quesedillas using (in part) cheese we'd purchased for the party. And as I was making the salsa, I had a great idea -- why not add half of the pesto that I made for the party? Since I only wound up using it for the salad dressing, there was plenty left over. So I did, and a curious feeling came over me. It was like I'd gotten away with something. Like I'd gotten something for free. Like I'd stolen it from someone who didn't deserve it. This is what those frugal types must feel every day as they rinse out their I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter containers and haggle at yard sales.
Wednesday night I decided to make fish burgers, just to clean out the fridge. Besides a few salmon steaks, I used all the leftover vegetables and herbs from the dinner party -- parsley, shiitake mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, a red bell pepper, ginger, garlic -- along with the rest of the bacon and tilapia that I'd purchased for the party.
But using up ingredients isn't nearly as satisfying as reusing leftover prepared foods in ways that completely transform them. Into the mix went a bit of the salsa and the rest of the pesto. But the biggest coup was the two-day-old ciabatta that lay upon the coffee table. (Or, er, speaking of reuse, upon the trunk that we use as a coffee table.) I sliced it down the middle and then into thirds, toasted the heck out of it in the broiler, and then unleashed the fury of the Cuisinart. In less than 10 minutes I had exactly as much breadcrumb as I needed to bind the fish burgers, with no need to sacrifice my precious, precious panko.
And you know what? They were good! It's no real loss that I didn't write down the recipe, as it was mostly odds and ends. But I did find this Chicken Burger recipe that's been sitting in my to-post bin for awhile now. And I am all about reusing it.
Chicken Sausage Burgers
Ingredients:
1 1/4 lb boneless chicken thighs (or 1 2/3 lb with bones)
3/4 lb spicy italian sausage
1/4 cup pesto
1/4 cup cranberries
1 cup panko + more panko (you frugal types may substitute homemade bread crumbs)
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp asian chili-garlic sauce
salt/pepper
tangy goat cheese
Procedure:
Salt and pepper the chicken thighs and sear them very quickly on the highest heat. (You're not trying to cook them through.) Put them in a food processor and pulse until well (but coarsely) ground. Remand to a large stainless steel bowl. Remove the sausage casings and put the sausage in the bowl. Mix the sausage and chicken by hand. Add the pesto, cranberries, garlic, chili sauce, egg yolk, panko, and another tablespoon of salt. Mix. Continue to add panko in 1/4 cup increments until the mixture coheres and you can work it with your hands without it sticking to them too badly.
Form mixture into patties. Cook the patties on a skillet on medium heat until the internal temperature of the burger reaches 165 degrees (about 10 minutes, depending on the size of your patty). Serve on a toasted bun with goat cheese and a slice of tomato.
November 14, 2005 in lunch, main_dishes, recipes | Permalink
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