Leftover ideas post #2 July 13, 2020: the skillet method
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| So much leftover food but these can be all repackaged in the skillet! photo courtesy of Markus Winkler |
Hello World! What do you do with leftover food in your fridge? Are leftover dishes becoming a source of stress for you because your children don’t want to eat leftover food? I’ve been facing the same issue for years and have been thinking about how best use them. I have been writing a post every Monday in July about how to repackage leftover food. Last week I talked about how to use leftover food in a salad and posted 3 delicious salad dressing recipes. Please click the link to find more about them! :)
In this post
I would like to show you how to repackage leftover food in a skillet. This simple stove top method will work very
well with any leftover food items whether they be meat (chicken, pork, beef),
veggies, tofu or even eggs. The key to
reheat or re-cook leftover food in a skillet is to adjust the moisture content
of the already cooked food. The goal
would be to preserve the original texture and flavors of the leftovers. This would be especially true of protein
ingredients as they will turn very dry and rubbery when they are over
cooked.
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Rotisserie chicken will be best re-cooked uncovered in the skillet on a bed of sauteed onions. |
My secret to preserve and even enhance the texture and flavor of leftover meat or veggies would be to sauté onions first and then add leftover food items. I love to caramelize onions in extra virgin olive oil and combine cooked meat with them. Caramelized onions will infuse extra flavors to the meat and the smooth silky texture will add moisture to the meat. You can also use other veggies such as peppers, cabbages, and carrots as a foundation for the repackaging of leftover food items.
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| sauteed onions build an excellent foundation for repackaging leftover meat. |
To further enhance the flavor, I like to add some teriyaki style sauce at the end of the cooking with a few drops of sesame oil! Alternatively, you can also reserve some liquid portion of a stew type of dish and use it as an additional flavoring agent for the newly created version of the leftover food.
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| In this dish, leftover meatballs and Italian sausages were added to the skillet after red cabbage was sauteed and finished with teriyaki sauce and garnished with green onion, gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes) and sesame seeds |
When we reheat leftover food, should we cover or uncover the lid? If the food needs to be juicy and tender, you want to put the lid on when cooking. If the food needs to be crispy such as fried chicken you always want to cook without the lid to keep it nice and crispy! :) To further crisp up a fried dish, you can put it in the oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 5 to 10 min.
Hope you find today's post helpful and please leave your thoughts in the comments if you have any other great ideas to share with the rest of the world!! 😉
Thanks for visiting my blog. Please check back for more great cooking tips with a global Asian favor ! 💗😊